Hi! ft> This is a part of history that I'm pretty fuzzy on, but the royal courts of ft> France and Russia were quite closely connected, were they not? Did they not ft> actually speak French in the Russian court in the 18th and/or 19th ft> centuries?
ft> IIRC there was a connection by marriage (not unlike many European royals). ft> That's likely the reason for the French words "borrowed" by Russian. I ft> think, anyway. You're quite correct. But it still is most amazing. I can pick a word almost at random and with little thinking find either English or French or German or other language influence. Take for a example a very simple word - 'Nyanya' (pronounced like n-ya-n-ya (were ya is last vowel of Tanya's name)). Now the translation (to English) - 'Nanny'! Well, enough of OT talk, isn't it? <g>... Boris
