Hi, Roy!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
    RW>>   Russian cosmonaunt: They're just looking for the last   
    RW>>   drop in their Vodka bottle.   
      
    ak>>>  What a love for astronomy!" Russian cosmonaunt: "They   
    ak>>>  just drink straight from the bottles."   
      
      
    AH>    Hmm.  I wonder who else can find the spelling error   
    AH>    which Roy copied from Alexander's joke... probably   
    AH>    without retyping... and which I didn't notice until   
    AH>    just now?   
      
                                  [...]   
      
   RW>  A perfect example of assuming that the msger knows how   
   RW>  to translate and spell a native term.   
      
      
             Ah, well... you know what some folks say about a$$uming!    
   Translation is as much an art as it is a science....  ;-)   
      
             AFAIC Alexander posts these jokes as exercises in translation, on   
   the understanding that there may be a few rough spots, and invites suggestions   
   from other readers as to possible improvements.  It's a long-standing   
   tradition here in ENGLISH_TUTOR for the regulars to post their own   
   translations & ask directly or indirectly for help.  I a$$ume when Alexander   
   posts such items that he would like us to proofread his work, even if he   
   neglected to say "F2EP"... [chuckle].   
      
      
      
   RW>  I should have used the English term of 'astronaut' instead.   
      
      
             As native speakers of English you & I would probably say   
   "astronaut". Although some sources define "cosmonaut" simply as "astronaut",   
   the majority of my usual references define it as "a Russian astronaut".   
      
      
   _ _ _ O / _ _ C_U_T_ H_E_R_E_ _ _ _   
         O \   
      
                * There's a wonderful example of the power & beauty of the   
   English language, IMHO.  While we cheerfully adopt new words from all over the   
   place we don't abandon the old ones.  Either way "-naut", meaning "sailor"...   
   which came to us & to Alexander via the ancient Greeks... has the same   
   spelling.  When one has made the connection derivatives like "nautical" are   
   fairly straightforward.   
      
   _ _ _ O / _ _ C_U_T_ H_E_R_E_ _ _ _   
         O \   
      
      
             "Astronaut" is certainly in more common use where I come from.  It   
   is less specific than "cosmonaut", and thus we may have to qualify it   
   sometimes... but I wouldn't go so far as to say "cosmonaut" is incorrect.  I   
   guess Alexander is more familiar with the Russian word.  Okay.  When a Russian   
   author is poking fun at his own countrymen he may not make the same stylistic   
   decisions you or I would.  It's important to identify the narrator as Russian   
   so everyone else can relax & enjoy the story without looking for hidden razor   
   blades and/or worrying about who might say "Egad, Sir!  You've besmirched the   
   hono(u)r of my country!" as we've seen people do in other echoes... [wry grin].   
      
             The advantage of using "astronaut" is that there is no confusion   
   over what the author meant; the disadvantage is that we may need to use at   
   least one more word to indicate the country.  OTOH, the advantage of using   
   "cosmonaut" is its economy; the disadvantage is that it may mean different   
   things to different people.  If a cosmonaut = a Russian astronaut, "Russian   
   cosmonaut" is a serious redundancy which I'd (basically) treat as an error.    
   Until there's more general agreement as to the definition of "cosmonaut",   
   however, I'll let it pass.  :-))   
      
      
   BTW...   
      
             I enjoyed this discussion & I hope other folks did too.  Thankyou   
   for bringing the matter to my attention, at any rate....  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)