An easy question for Russian or Ukrainian speakers

[Standing Wolf]

What's the name of the Cyrillic alphabetic character for shch? How do I pronounce the letter's name? How do I write it in English?

A character in the novel I'm working on is named "Dobreshchesko." He's a fourth generation American of Ukrainian descent. A Russian-fluent character encourages another to pronounce his name correctly. I can pronounce the name, but don't know the name of the letter of the Cyrillic alphabet.

Thanks, eh?

[MicroBalrog]

Shcha.

You mean this letter, yes? щ

[Standing Wolf]

Thank you! That's exactly what I needed.

[White Horseradish]

The name itself doesn't sound right, though. "sko" is not a proper ending for a Slavic name, it sounds more Romanian than Ukrainian. Ukrainian names end in "enko" and "onko".  Just fixing that would still leave it sounding a little odd to my ear, but much better.

[El Tejon]

sko???  Ruthenian perhaps?

[White Horseradish]

sko???  Ruthenian perhaps?

I don't know enough about Ruthenian/Rusyn names to have a firm opinion. As a strictly Ukrainian name, it sounds odd to me as a Russian speaker. I would also expect a Ukrainian name ending in "enko" to be derived from a name or something that could be a nickname. Petrenko, Moskalenko, Chernenko would be good examples. "Dobresch" isn't something I would recognize as a name or a word.

This sort of thing is why it's always real easy to tell if an English speaker named the character.

[Standing Wolf]

This sort of thing is why it's always real easy to tell if an English speaker named the character.

Um.

Thank you. Things are getting complicateder and complicateder. Back to the proverbial "old drawing board."

Thanks, eh?

[White Horseradish]

Um.

Thank you. Things are getting complicateder and complicateder. Back to the proverbial "old drawing board."

Thanks, eh?

:)

[El Tejon]

"[Russia] is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma."

Winston Churchill

 

It is funny reading books set in Russia by Americans who have never studied it.  It's like counting the gun errors in a movie like Saving Private Ryan.  You can drive yourself nuts.

[White Horseradish]

It is funny reading books set in Russia by Americans who have never studied it.  It's like counting the gun errors in a movie like Saving Private Ryan.  You can drive yourself nuts.

If you read Robert Ludlum, you can get both types of fun.  I really love how his Russians smoke Sobranie Black Russian cigarettes (made in London since 1879) and carry  "Burya",which is an ICBM. I wanna know where they get the holsters for them.

There are two major giveaways that show the writer doesn't speak the language. Names are one and expletives are the other. A Russian will never say "*expletive deleted*it" after stubbing a toe. There are several words for it, but that's not how it's used.

[El Tejon]

Did I tell you the only time I used profanity around a native-born Russian woman?

It was my last time.   (And it was the Big One).

[White Horseradish]

You didn't, it sounds like a good story. 

[El Tejon]

It was a dinner party with mostly grad students.  As an undergrad student I was "assigned" clean up.

I looked into a pot that needed cleaning and for some reason exclaimed "Ya ebu" upon seeing how dirty the pot was.  The offended party was passing through the kitchen, set her wine glass down and went to find my professor.

It did not go well from there.

[Standing Wolf]

I've decided to rename the character "Charles Chen." The tale already has plenty of Russians and Ukrainians and Czechs, as well as the smallest nation in South America, the world's fastest production military jets, tip-toeing about computer networks, and all manner of other strange and wonderful stuff.

That wonderful "shch" sound was a bunny trail. The tale already has plenty of bunny trails.

Thanks, all!