Anybody know the English translation of the Russian line that Chekov speaks in surprise to Scotty upon learning that someone (McCoy) has broken into Mr. Spock’s quarters in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock"?
Even with my set on closed-captioning, it only says <Speaks in Russian> or something like that.
Sir
Apparently it’s not good…
In the books, Chekov often says “Bozhe moi!” (My God!) Is that it? How about a phonetic attempt, so the Russophones have a chance? And if you do, can one of them tell me what “Vas yashmudya(?)” means?
Hijack:
You know, this reminds me-WHY oh WHY does Chekov pronounce any word with a V in it with a W. Like Wessels, and Wiolations! D’uh! There is no W in the Cyrillic alphabet. Wouldn’t he instead pronounce his V’s correctly but always say a word with a W in it like a v. Like, Vat are you doing? Vhere are ve?
Not a very good accent, but at least it would be closer.
What the HELL is up with Wessels? NO Russian would say that!
Ya ne gavaryu pa-Russki.
Guinastasia,
I’ve wondered the same thing, but I’m not so sure no Russian would say that. For example, I’ve heard Finnish people pronounce a “v” as a “w”, but they do have a “v” sound in their own language (I don’t know if they have a “w” sound). I know Finnish ain’t Russian, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some Russian speakers speak English that way, too.
I can understand why Japanese may have trouble with "l"s, or Germans may have trouble with "w"s, but why would anyone have trouble with a “v” sound when it’s in their own language to begin with?
Exactly. I mean, the V is very present in the Russian language. My favorite professor is from Russia and his accent is NOTHING like Chekov’s. Hell, Boris and Natasha have better accents than Chekov! (And considering the man has the same name as the famous playright…shaking head)
For the member who asked me to try a phonetic rendering of the line, oh, god, I don’t actually own the movie, but if memory serves, Chekov says something like: “Blah, blah, Yummy vuuch, blah, blah.” Scotty looks at him in puzzlement, Chekov gestures angrily at the readout and says something like “Nouveau!!”
If had to guess what he says, it would be something like: “How did anyone get in there? I sealed the damn quarters myself.” Scotty stares, Chekov says “There.” Just a guess of context.
Sir
He says (forgive the spelling) something to this effect:
“Yahni suma seechie… nouvort.”
I have separated it into what I think are word units, but suma and seechie may be one word. Hard to tell.
If anyone speaks Russian out there, I’m still hoping to solve this.
Thanks,
Sir
FWIW, I’ve met a number of Russians who pronounce “V” as “W”. I admit, I find it puzzling too.
-Ben