Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!concertina!fiddler
From: fiddler%concertina@Sun.COM (Steve Hix)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Name for new Shuttle: Buran !
Message-ID: <75838@sun.uucp>
Date: 2 Nov 88 19:12:01 GMT
References: <1131@cfa237.cfa250.harvard.edu> <899@etive.ed.ac.uk> <75836@sun.uucp>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Lines: 19

In article <75836@sun.uucp>, fiddler%concertina@Sun.COM (Steve Hix) writes:
> In article <899@etive.ed.ac.uk>, bob@etive.ed.ac.uk (Bob Gray) writes:
> > 
> > The BBC also reported that the second soviet shuttle,
> > currently still under construction, is called Ptichka.
> > They gave the translation as Birdie.
> 
> Maybe just "bird"?
> 
> (Serbo-Croat and Russian aren't too far apart..."ptitsa" being
> bird and "mali ptitsa" being "little bird ~= birdie" in S-C.
> The initial p is not silent, btw.)
> 
> Maybe the application doesn't fit, my serbian being as rusty as
> it is. :}
> 

On second though, the "chka" ending is pretty common for diminutives
in Russian.  Forget the whole thing, "Birdie" it is.