Re: Russian legacy to chess
Posted: Thu May 24, 2012 1:28 pm
Okay - so бюллетень is of French origin. I'm not convinced that it originally entered the Russian language as a chess term.John McKenna wrote:Bulletin is French in origin and may have passed directly into Russian since the Russian 'intelligentsia' (itself a Russian import into English) were Francophiles/phones until Napoleon's invasion in the 19th.
фланг exists in Russian dictionaries as a non-chess - often military - related term. Perhaps you are correct to say that its current usage in chess is an import, though. I suppose that there are other Russian words that could be used to indicate side rather centre. Is flanc used in French chess literature?John McKenna wrote:'Flank' & 'match' are English. The other expressions could be from the French but it's unclear (neyasnaya).
матч could be. Could be. What word do Russians use in connection with football? Even then, Russians probably spoke about chess before they spoke about football. You might have one there.
Not sure. They could have used турнир кандидатов for instance. You might be right, though. I suppose "candidatov" would have had the potential to cause confusion with qualification for the title of candidate master or qualification as a candidate master to the master title itself. The word "pretendent" is probably an import, although in a political/historical context.John McKenna wrote:'tourney of pretenders' is undoubtedly from the English as a 'Candidates' tournament' is modern - (though English itself is, of course, full of words of French origin, e.g. tournament).
It's a difficult subject. Easy to dismiss some words, but hard to prove others.