Language and Letters

Стевен Магиннис.

That's my name as it's spelled in the Cyrillic alphabet.  I was inspired to convert it to Cyrillic after seeing the names of Olympic snowboarders presented at the competition in Sochi.   The opening ceremony of the 2014 Olympics, of course, explained the Cyrillic alphabet and the sounds they represent in the first part of the show.  I must admit, it looked like a crazy quilt in the parade of nations when they marched into the stadium  in Cyrillic alphabetical order, as opposed to the Latin alphabetical order.  It looked completely out of order to anyone unfamiliar with the Russian language (i.e., most of us).

I found a Cyrillic converter online that's fun.  It's no good for non-Russian words - why take an English-language or Spanish-language word and convert it into an alphabet no one would spell them in? - but it's good for names.  Like this one: 

Барацк Обама

That's the President of the United States.  And here's the name of the President many credit for bringing down the Soviet Union:

Роналд Реаган

Although, the onetime actor didn't bring down the U.S.S.R., as the credit for that should really go to the following pope:

Иван Павел II

It's a double name followed by a Roman numeral two, so I think you can figure it out.

And here's the name of my favorite actress:

Екатерина Денеуве

(Catherine Deneuve.)

And the name of one of my all-time favorite rock and rollers:

Боб Дылан

(Bob Dylan.)

Or how about the name of a famous musical parody artist?

Странные Ал Янковиц

(Weird Al Yankovic: the first word is the Cyrillic spelling of the Russian word for "weird." :-D )

And, of course, my inspiration for Olympic commentary:

Янис Кипурс 

(Janis Kipurs, and that's how his name would have appeared in the days when Latvia was under control of the Soviet Union, for whom Janis Kipurs competed in the 1980s.)   

And so on.  You may have seen three words displayed in Russian at Sochi - it's also displayed in English - that has attempted to make Russia look Western and hip.  It's the 2014 Winter Olympics' ofifical slogan: "Hot.  Cool.  Yours."

"Hot.  Cool.  Yours?"  That's not an Olympic slogan, that's a tagline for Dunkin' Donuts!  Or . . .

Дункинь Пончики.

Ha ha, I can't wait to see how Olympic hoopla looks in Korean when the 2018 Winter Games open in Pyeongchang! :-)   

It's only words . . ..