Declination of surnames in the Russian language: difficult cases

Russian is considered one of the most difficult in the world to learn from scratch. Of course, there are almost no irregular verbs and hieroglyphs in it, but a lot of synonyms with subtle shades, layering of the cultural context and modified borrowings - all this fascinates beginners. And also the names are inclined …

With the endings of simple surnames like Ivanov, Petrov, Smirnov, usually there are no problems. Certain difficulties can be encountered only by those who are not well versed in childbirth and cases: the surname can be either female in the nominative case (citizen Solovyova) or male in the genitive ("We do not have Solovyov"). However, native speakers rarely deal with such cases. It is much more difficult if the surnames do not look like an adjective (that is, they cannot be substituted as an answer to the questions “what?” And “whose?” And declined according to the relevant rules) or belong to foreigners.

According to the rules and without

Most surnames, regardless of origin, can be persuaded and used in the plural - the flexibility of the Russian language allows this to be done without any damage: call Kshesinsky, dream about Douglas, admire Brin. It depends on the ending: surnames-polonisms (-sky, -sky, -sky, -sky) and masculine surnames -in, -ov, as well as female surnames -in, -ova always inclined. For complex cases, there is the possibility of twofold declination at the request of its owner: Elena Dyuzhina can also maintain relative unwaveringness ("a letter to Elena Dyuzhina", the surname is considered a noun), and so can be Elena Dyuzhina (from the adjective).

Custom and non-format

Old Russian surnames-nouns in the masculine gender, such as House, Plowman, Gonchar, etc. loitering only among men: Viktor Dom, Leonid Pakhar, about Alexei Gonchar, and among women remain unchanged: Anastasia Martyr, Veronika Lesnik. Feminine nouns (Beard, Aspen) most often obey the same rule if there is no categorical rejection by their owner, but this can only be due to a family tradition that does not cancel the general rule for those unfamiliar with it. There are no exceptions for middle-name surnames (Onishchenko, Sieve, Velichko) - they are not inclined in any gender and number. Surnames formed from nicknames or personal names of ancestors in the genitive case: Zhivago, Ilyins, and Krucheny remain themselves. The general rule of male and female surnames ending in the vowels -e, -i, -o, -y, -y - do not persuade.

It’s easy with Georgians

A few years ago, the press began to encounter a rejection of the decline of famous names - the Soviet political figure Lavrenty Beria and director Georgy Danelia. Journalists justified this spelling by the fact that the name of the first Georgian president Zviad Gamsakhurdia is unchanged, as well as the unnecessary declension of other Georgian names with the endings in -shvili and -dze. Liberal-minded public figures who did not want to “distort” the surnames, “offending the sovereignty of their carriers” (a similar politically correct curtsey of someone else’s grammar — spelling “in Ukraine”, although the Russian literary norm is unchanged: in Ukraine) also contributed to illiteracy. It is impossible to call such an approach to the native language anything other than stupidity. Actually, the rules did not change, and the Georgian surnames -shvili and -dze did not bow, they did not bow, and the first two cases depend on the spelling endings, -th or -a: "Gamsakhurdia" will bow, but Danelia will not. (The well-known exception is Okudzhava, bowing.)

With the Caucasus and Asia - even easier

Male Armenian and Russified Azerbaijani, Chechen, Ingush, Dagestan and all Asian surnames are inclined: Akopyan, about Zurabyan, with Kurginyan, with Abishev, with Aivazov, about Aslamov, for Kul-Mohammed; female ones are not inclined. If after the surname there is a language ending "-ogly" ("-uly"), male surnames: Ali-oglu, Arman-uly cease to be inclined.