Declension of America

Question

"From America" translates to из Америки and I know that из will take the genitive case. Америка is a feminine noun (because it ends in а and is a place).

To form the genitive case of a singular feminine noun, you replace а with ы. Америка would become Америкы.

Why is this not the correct declension?

Generally, it is very unusual to see ы after к. The only example which is not a loan word that I can think of is кыш! — Dima, Jan 20 '15 at 23:15

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 20 '15 at 07:35

7

For nouns which end by -кa, -а is replaced by -и:

маска - из маски
каска - из каски
рука - из руки
Америка - из Америки

answered Jan 20 '15 at 07:35

user31264

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Cheers. Would this be correct then? Он приезжает из Америки. – Chris G. Jan 20 '15 at 08:14
@Chris G. - yes, its correct. – user31264 Jan 20 '15 at 08:18
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The same rule applies (и rather than ы in spelling) after other consonants too: г, ж, х, ч, ш, and щ. Look up declension tables for книга, кожа, муха, задача, крыша, and пища. – KCd Jan 20 '15 at 09:53
Where does russian.SE go for declension tables? The places I've looked always seem to miss something... – Chris G. Jan 20 '15 at 23:13
@ChrisG. First, you can look the word up in Wiktionary. Second, you can find tables here: http://www.public.asu.edu/~deliving/russgram/ and at http://www.alphadictionary.com/rusgrammar/case.html – Shady_arc Jan 22 '15 at 02:58
Just remember than no table will cover the irregularities. And, really, these tables for regular cases are the most useful ones because they are short and cover the majority of nouns. – Shady_arc Jan 22 '15 at 02:59

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 20 '15 at 23:34

The sound shifts кы > ки, гы > ги and хы > хи date back to the 12th or 13th century and were unconditional, making кы, гы and хы prohibited sequences in Russian phonotactics. They only occur in a handful of mostly Turkic loanwords, such as хычин and акын, some toponyms, and гы, a slang onomatopoeia for crass laughter. This is a different phenomenon from the purely conventional spelling preference for жи and ши despite the vowel being technically [ы].

Thus an older genitive form of рука was indeed рукы rather than the modern руки, but the form *Америкы never existed because the sound shift predates Columbus.

Declension of America

2 Answers2