A. J. Lohwater's Russian-English Dictionary of the Mathematical Sciences

The grammar section has been rewritten by Alana I. Thorpe of the Brown University Slavic Department. We have added some notes on Russian mathematical notation. An appendix contains complete paradigms of a large number of selected words, to facilitate the identification of irregular inflected forms. The grammar is intended only for reference. Users who need instruction in Russian grammar should consult publications that are devoted to that topic. S. H. Gould's A Manual for Translators of  Mathematical Russian, published by the American Mathematical Society, contains many useful suggestions that are beyond the scope of the Dictionary.

We have assumed that users will know enough Russian to be able to recognize inflected forms of words. We have followed the common practice of listing nouns in the nominative singular, adjectives in the masculine nominative singular, and verbs in the imperfective infinitive, with the perfective (if there is one) in parentheses.

Theoretically, the Russian spelling of foreign names is supposed to represent the pronunciation used in the original language. Thus, Эйлер = Euler, Надь = Nagy, Гатó = Gâteaux. Nevertheless, it is often difficult to determine the correct spelling of the original name, especially when it is French or Hungarian. We have included a selection of Russian versions of mathematicians' names.

Adjectives formed from proper names are not capitalized in Russian. If a word seems strange, it very well may be such an adjective.

Some entries may seem unnecessary, because they mean just what they look like. There are, however, enough Russian words that resemble English words, but mean something entirely different, that we preferred to include too many rather than too few.

We thank the hundreds of mathematicians, from many countries, who have made the revision of the Dictionary possible by contributing suggestions for corrections and additions.

The Society intends to update the Dictionary from time to time. Consequently, users are encouraged to submit additions and corrections to Russian-English Dictionary, c/o American Mathematical Society, P.O.Box 6248, Providence, RI 02940-6248.

R. P. Boas Northwestern University

Abbreviations Used in the Dictionary

abbrev. abbreviation

acc. accusative case

adj. adjective

adv. adverb

cf. compare

colloq. colloquial

compar. comparative

conj

. conjunction

dat. dative case

f. feminine

gen. genitive case

imperf. imperfective

instr. instrumental case

loc. locative case

m. masculine

n. neuter

nom. nominative case

num. numeral

ord. num. ordinal numeral

part. participle

perf. perfective

pl. plural

p.n. proper name, personal name

pred. predicate

prep. preposition

pron. pronoun

sing

. singular

v. verb

  A Short Grammar of the Russian Language  

Introduction and Alphabet

Like any inflected Indo-European language, the Russian language is studied by means of an analysis of the declension of nouns and adjectives and the conjugation of verbs, together with their use in conjunction with prepositions, connectives, etc. The first obstacle which the beginner encounters, however, is the problem of the alphabet. Once the alphabet has been learned, the study of Russian becomes relatively simple, certainly no more difficult than the study of German. The Russian, or Cyrillic, alphabet is an interesting combination of Roman, Greek, and Hebrew characters; following the Bolshevik Revolution, the orthography was revised and modernized, and, in the alphabet given in the following table, the older characters are listed for the convenience of those readers who must make occasional references to the pre-Revolution literature. Since the italicized alphabet is used in places of such critical interest as the statements of theorems, etc., many phrases and sentences are duplicated in italics in the grammatical sketch so that the reader will become accustomed to reading italicized printing.

No universal agreement has been reached on the transliteration of the Russian alphabet, and the most commonly used systems of transliteration are given in the following table. System I is that used by the Library of Congress and is the most commonly used system for nontechnical literature in the United States. System II is the system used in Mathematical Reviews from 1980 onward. System III was used in Mathematical Reviews from 1962 to 1979. System IV is a German system which is frequently encountered in mathematical literature.

The Alphabet