Posted by Eugene Volokh: Chekov's Russian Accent in *Star Trek*: http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_05_10-2009_05_16.shtml#1242082715
My wife and I saw the new Star Trek -- which both of us though was good fun, though no great shakes -- and it reminded me of one glitch that I had long noticed. Chekhov, the ostentatiously Russian character, speaks with what's supposed to be an ostentatiously Russian accent, but its most prominent aspect is that he pronounces "v"s as "w"s, as if Russians have a hard time pronouncing "v"s. But it's really the other way around: Russians tend to pronounce "w"s as "v"s (the capital of the U.S., for instance, is rendered "Vah-shing-ton'" and they have no trouble at all with "v"s. Given that I'm Yevgeniy Vladimirovich Volokh, with four "v"s in my full name, I can vouch (not wouch) for that. And Chekov himself -- the Star Trek Chekov, not his less famous near-namesake -- is Pavel Andreievich Chekov; I don't recall his pronouncing it Pawel Andreiewich Chekow (though maybe I missed something). Now if you want to come up with a defense for the show, perhaps the answer would be that the Russian accent had changed in the centuries between now and the events depicted in Star Trek. But that kind of defeats the purpose, I take it, of having what seems like an ostentatiously Russian accent. By the way, for purposes of evaluating whether my and your wife's reaction to the movie (setting aside the v/w matter) might help you decide whether to watch the movie yourself: My wife and I aren't Star Trek fans; I once was, in my early teens, but later came to dislike the series; I haven't watched any of the later series; I watched three or four of the movies, but didn't much like any except for Wrath of Khan (The plane! The plane!); my wife didn't watch either the series or the other movies; and we both like science fiction movies, though only I like science fiction novels. _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
