The Detroit times., 1917-01-11

la Russia, wh,,c hc had been represent
ing business mousse. having been sent
oyer just after has graduation from AM
herat want to say to you that the Rus
sian language IS a plppn-
went right TO work studying it as
soon as reached there And say, I've
had some acquaintance ia school with
Greek and Latin. ALSO bit OF French and
German used "a think they were hard.
Pshaw' they're basket picnic compar-
ed to Russian. Whoever invented that
spc, 81 must have sat up nights thinking
lup ways TO make talking hatd.
In the first place there's the looks Of it.
And whilc it's bad enough in print, when
you come TO write it with pen it's re-
bus. sit first YOU see lot orletters that
look like ENGLISH There's where you're
fooled The more tue, resemble our let
ter tbs dderenter they are.
That thing Tor instance. that looks like
Ian I'm IS really IT, also IN" is "e,"
and "a j, b, and -" is ''r." and &c
IS and "b' j, ~. and SO ON.
They have several "e's" pronounced
a'l sorts Of ways and one ol them is like
mo sound you ever heard
The accent IS lovely There's no rule
for X And it may be on one syllable in
the singular and On another in the plural.
You haye 90 learn each word 10y itself.
Tae word, ol most European languages
have some sott OF fmnt resemblance at
leas, % ours ats good is gut in Ger
man, and aimcr in French Is sort Of
cousin % our amiable and Greek and
Latin have a Iot OF friends Of ours dis
lsed n treir Ingo, but Russian Why
"no" fer instance. IS "nyet, man is
tchelogyek, and Il slept" is VA spal'
and = want 'ya hochu" don't sound
hhe anything AZ an do they?
Thor nouns lave az the cases Of Latin
and two more So boot and there are two
Tor three way 81 declining nouns in each
BIZ the three ganders.
The adlectvcs art declined as much as
the nouns. hu different and twice as
fierce. q. they have two distinct forms.
according TO whether they arc used in the
predicate oruot
Besides bis there arc q bushel Of ex-
'tceptions 90 the regular ways
PronounS, a to declension. see the
nouns and adjectiycs and raise them.
When Z Russian decline a pronoun. he
iu "a; himself So He doesn't seem to
are bov be- talk Pronouns are used
-onc uay On Tuesdays and another on Fri
das. il il doesn't rain.
Every verb has two forms one TO use
if TIE action Is done just once and the
gthar 81 YOU do { regularly ldu" is
ITO &c. foi example poidt is to keep
on going, aad "xodt Is to keep on still
more
They don say anything like our is
am on brave" tut IL they want to
say q am sick" they just say Il sick
or Tor y have nose they say TO RE
nose
The verbs have on5 present and past
lenses: 10 indicate the others they Jug
lie these around
But it's when YOU come 10 tho prcposi-
Iiion that yoa give mp.
or course propositions are tough in
lanv Language. but in Russian they have
III The language. of earth beat -four ways.
There are some rules for them, bat
they're only good in certain seasons Of the
'1raf. you just ir,tye te pick each one Of
era up nd learn em one at time. and
each different To different combinations.
Even thcn YOU may hitit and may not,
ana the odds arc with the house
aly teacher told me I'D Russian nouns
are dec lined except three. coffee, depot
and overcoat once tho czmina was visit
ling chool and asked a little girl to de-
cline pal to (overcoaD The child to
lthe horror oil the teacher. actually put it
through al the case forms it ought to
havc but doesn't When the cluina laid
to the child that pal to- could not be
Fdeciucd. ihe little one answered: Not
1ordinarily, but when your imperial great
mess commanded nee 60 decline it, had
10. That hid was taking no chances ON
siberia.