I have a healthy 8-month-old daughter and, as is the way, I was looking into
something to entertain her that would be more entertaining for me than Miss
Rachel and the usual current distractions, and Flanders and Swann came to
mind. Their ‘Hippopotamus’ was one of the comic songs I belly-laughed at when
younger, and Youtube has it, uploaded by Parlophone UK, here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8izmXTf3958

‘Mud, mud, glorious mud / Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood’ is the
chorus, possibly more familiar to people than the name of the song

One of the choruses in this recording is in Russian (I had known that Swann
was from the longstanding English community in Russia that disappeared with
the Revolution, not a shock), and I was interested in the actual words of
this.

Nikolay Ershov came to the rescue, on russian.stackexchange.com, with a great
answer here:
https://russian.stackexchange.com/questions/14403/hippopotamus-song-flanders-swann-russian-chorus-translationhttps://russian.stackexchange.com/questions/14403/hippopotamus-song-flanders-swann-russian-chorus-translation

I include it here for everyone’s edification:

«Грязь, грязь, чудная грязь,
лучшее средство как кожная мазь.
так возьми свою даму
и поведи её в яму,
и там мы окунемся в чудную грязь.»

Fairly close to the English chorus earlier.

['grʲæsʲ 'grʲæsʲ 'tɕudnəjə 'grʲæsʲ] // mud mud wonderful mud

The singer isn't de-voicing that final /zʲ/ enough. Maybe not the first time
when the two words are repeated back to back and a voiced consonant follows,
but for the rest, it should just become [sʲ], no middle ground there.

['lutʂəjə 'srʲetstvə kɐk 'koʐnəjə 'masʲ] // best remedy as skin ointment

The grammar's a bit awkward here, but could just be strained to fit the
metre. The "tch" cluster in the middle of the first word is a bit too soft,
but it could be how some Russians actually said it half a century ago (but
then again your audience might not know that, and it will come across as
foreign). That final /zʲ/ isn't de-voiced e [tək vɐzʲ'mʲi svɐ'ju 'damu] //
so take your lady

[i pəvʲɪ'dʲi jɪ'jo 'vjamu] // and take/lead her to pit/hollow

[i 'tam mɨ ɐ'kunʲəmsʲə 'ftɕudnuju 'grʲæsʲ] // and there we will_dip into wonderful mud

The very non-dental [t] at the beginning is probably the most foreign sound
in this otherwise fairly good rendition. Make that [t] as "French" or
"Spanish" as you can instead. A weird stress pattern in окунемся (ought to
be окунёмся); archaic? plain incorrect? greater poetic licence than what
would fly these days?

--
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)

On 4/13/2024 1:42 PM, Aidan Kehoe wrote:
>
> I have a healthy 8-month-old daughter and, as is the way, I was looking into
> something to entertain her that would be more entertaining for me than Miss
> Rachel and the usual current distractions, and Flanders and Swann came to
> mind. Their ‘Hippopotamus’ was one of the comic songs I belly-laughed at when
> younger, and Youtube has it, uploaded by Parlophone UK, here:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8izmXTf3958
>
> ‘Mud, mud, glorious mud / Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood’ is the
> chorus, possibly more familiar to people than the name of the song
>
> One of the choruses in this recording is in Russian (I had known that Swann
> was from the longstanding English community in Russia that disappeared with
> the Revolution, not a shock), and I was interested in the actual words of
> this.
>
> Nikolay Ershov came to the rescue, on russian.stackexchange.com, with a great
> answer here:
> https://russian.stackexchange.com/questions/14403/hippopotamus-song-flanders-swann-russian-chorus-translationhttps://russian.stackexchange.com/questions/14403/hippopotamus-song-flanders-swann-russian-chorus-translation
The URL above is "doubled". The second (last) one can be cut and pasted
to your browser and will reach the page.
> I include it here for everyone’s edification:
>
> «Грязь, грязь, чудная грязь,
> лучшее средство как кожная мазь.
> так возьми свою даму
> и поведи её в яму,
> и там мы окунемся в чудную грязь.»
>
> Fairly close to the English chorus earlier.
>
> ['grʲæsʲ 'grʲæsʲ 'tɕudnəjə 'grʲæsʲ] // mud mud wonderful mud
>
> The singer isn't de-voicing that final /zʲ/ enough. Maybe not the first time
> when the two words are repeated back to back and a voiced consonant follows,
> but for the rest, it should just become [sʲ], no middle ground there.
>
> ['lutʂəjə 'srʲetstvə kɐk 'koʐnəjə 'masʲ] // best remedy as skin ointment
>
> The grammar's a bit awkward here, but could just be strained to fit the
> metre. The "tch" cluster in the middle of the first word is a bit too soft,
> but it could be how some Russians actually said it half a century ago (but
> then again your audience might not know that, and it will come across as
> foreign). That final /zʲ/ isn't de-voiced e [tək vɐzʲ'mʲi svɐ'ju 'damu] //
> so take your lady
>
> [i pəvʲɪ'dʲi jɪ'jo 'vjamu] // and take/lead her to pit/hollow
>
> [i 'tam mɨ ɐ'kunʲəmsʲə 'ftɕudnuju 'grʲæsʲ] // and there we will_dip into wonderful mud
>
> The very non-dental [t] at the beginning is probably the most foreign sound
> in this otherwise fairly good rendition. Make that [t] as "French" or
> "Spanish" as you can instead. A weird stress pattern in окунемся (ought to
> be окунёмся); archaic? plain incorrect? greater poetic licence than what
> would fly these days?
While a docent at the Albuquerque Zoo, I was informed that
"hippopotamus" came from the Greek and meant "river horse". Any truth to
that? My last Greek speaking resource was a girl friend I haven't talked
to for about 60 years so the translation is unverified. I do hope it's
correct as I passed it on to thousands of Zoo visitors.
--
Jeff Barnett

Jeff Barnett <jbb@notatt.com> wrote:
> While a docent at the Albuquerque Zoo, I was informed that
> "hippopotamus" came from the Greek and meant "river horse". Any truth to
> that?

Well, yes, hippo- is horse and potamo- is river.
There must be something to it, because in the (portuguese-based) guinean
creole it is pis-kabalu, plainly 'horse fish' (by now you'll know english
is in the minority in placing qualifiers before nouns).

Ar an triú lá déag de mí Aibreán, scríobh Jeff Barnett:

> [...] The URL above is "doubled". The second (last) one can be cut and
> pasted to your browser and will reach the page.

Thanks for the correction! The correct URL, undoubled:

https://russian.stackexchange.com/questions/14403/hippopotamus-song-flanders-swann-russian-chorus-translation

> While a docent at the Albuquerque Zoo, I was informed that "hippopotamus"
> came from the Greek and meant "river horse". Any truth to that? My last
> Greek speaking resource was a girl friend I haven't talked to for about 60
> years so the translation is unverified. I do hope it's correct as I passed
> it on to thousands of Zoo visitors.

That was always my understanding too. The OED is very reliable and confirms
this. The German Wikipedia, often a bit more aimed-at-grown-ups than the
English, comments:

‚Bei der Bezeichnung Hippopotamus für das Flusspferd handelt es sich um eine
Lehnübersetzung und latinisierte Form des griechischen Wortes ἱπποπόταμος
(hippopótamos), welche sich aus den Teilen ἵππος (hippos) für „Pferd“ und
ποταμός (potamos) für „Fluss“ zusammensetzt. Verwendet wurde sie bereits seit
der Antike. So findet sie sich unter anderem bei Herodot im 5. Jahrhundert v.
Chr., der damals allerdings noch ἵππος ποτάμιος (hippos potamios) angab, was
so viel wie „Pferd aus dem Fluss“ bedeutet. Des Weiteren nutzten sie
Nikandros aus Kolophon im 2. Jahrhundert v. Chr. und Strabon um die
Zeitenwende.‘

This confirms the etymology, documents that the word has been used since
antiquity, and cites specific classical authors.

--
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)