Nay, I don't think the name Foma Kiniaev (given that its Russian writing is correct - Фома Киняев) would raise any flags by authorities. Yes, it's a rare one that is out of fashion, but nothing unheard of.
It was Ѳѡмa in Old Church Slavonic and Ѳ was [f] in Northern dialects at least since XIII-XIV century. Southern dialects on the other hand didn't have [f] and replaced it with [t] or [h], so Ѳѡмa became Foma (as Ѳ was replaced by Ф) in the North and Khoma in the South.
In names where Greeks wrote θ you'll have T or Th in Western European languages and F in Russian.
Another fun fact - the word Библиотека (biblioteka, library) was adopted directly from Latin (possibly through Polish) in this form, but in XVII-XVIII centuries a parallel pronunciation existed coming from the word's Greek roots - Вивлиофика (Vivliofika).
how did they even come up with the cyrillic version? it seems like they just pressed random letters on a keyboard but at the same time the "a" corresponds to "ф" in both names for some reason, so there must have been some thought that was put into it
They just switched to a Russian keyboard layout and typed in English. In this way, Russian ф corresponds to English a and English "a" corresponds to Russian "f".
There even used to be an app called PuntoSwitcher which would detect if you were trying to type in Russian with the English keyboard layout turned on (or vice versa) and automatically switch to the correct layout.
That's the only thing that makes sense to explain that shitshow, especially the last name. You couldn't even pronounce it. Evidently the producers of that film couldn't be assed to hire someone who knew at least the Cyrillic alphabet, much less Russian.
I dunno it's not even hard to look up. Even back then you could just grab a dictionary from a library or smth, no need to hire an actual russian speaker.
There are different variants of Cyrillic layouts and the mainstream Russian/Cyrillic would give you exactly Ащьф Лштшфум (I just did it - typed Foma Kiviaev in Russian/Cyrillic).
Interesting. All non-phonetic layouts for Russian that I know follow this pattern and differ only in location of the letter Ё and different punctuation marks.
Here is mine
The punctuation marks are located differently as well as ъ and ё. Things are just shaped a bit differently on mine so must line up with different Latin keys as your keyboard.
Is it a virtual keyboard of a mobile device? Then I understand - standard QWERTY and Russian one have different number of keys on a virtual keyboard, so your interpretation was exactly one key away from mine (except А and У).
The languages of the descriptors are (actual) Russian and English.
However, it says "consul de Russie" (Russian consul) in the stamp at the bottom. Meaning he somehow was issued a passport in a French speaking country.
Presumably he lived there. Or he had to renew his passport on an emergency basis after having lost his original.
But that brings up so many new questions.. why would a secret agent want to stand out like that?
And still, his place of birth is the only field in French, rather than faux Cyrillic and English.
The whole passport is a mess. The passport book Foma has been in use since around 2001, if the passport is issued in 1998 as the date of issue suggests, it should have been a 1991 version USSR passport book (it was used by independent Russia till 2000-2001).
The 1991 version was issued entirely in Russian and French, along with French name spelling (ш = ch instead of ch, silent e at the end, etc). 2001 version switched to English, along with name transliteration
It kills me how lazy and insensitive stuff like this is. It also takes you out of the story if you know even the basic sounds for these letters.
All they needed to do was map sounds between the Latin and Cyrillic to get it somewhat right if not all the way. Compared to the inconsistencies and chaos of English spelling, languages that use Cyrillic have more sound to letter predictability even.
it always sends me that he's called FOMA
Yeah no one told them that those are not even remotely real names, not even the latenised ones
Foma is a slavic variant of the name Thomas
russian, not slavic. in southern slavic it's Toma, in western it's Tomash, in belarussian it's Fama, in ukrainian Homa
In ukrainian both Foma and Khoma exist. If I'm not mistaken Foma originally appeared in the old church slavonic language
Huh did not know that
Very Christian, and as such pretty out of fashion during Soviet times (when the fake identity would be born).
So a stupid choice for a spy then^
Nay, I don't think the name Foma Kiniaev (given that its Russian writing is correct - Фома Киняев) would raise any flags by authorities. Yes, it's a rare one that is out of fashion, but nothing unheard of.
Which makes it memorable so not a good choice for a spy nonetheless.
The name itself is not outlandish or ridiculous (which happens in American movies) but just doesn’t match stereotypical cool hero type of character
Даздраперма лучше))
There is also the more archaic variant "Khoma", since F is not a native slavic letter
It was Ѳѡмa in Old Church Slavonic and Ѳ was [f] in Northern dialects at least since XIII-XIV century. Southern dialects on the other hand didn't have [f] and replaced it with [t] or [h], so Ѳѡмa became Foma (as Ѳ was replaced by Ф) in the North and Khoma in the South.
Is that also how Theodore became Fodor?
Yes.
Theodore - Фёдор (Fjodor)
Esther - Эсфирь (Esfir')
Agatha - Агафья (Agaf'ja)
In names where Greeks wrote θ you'll have T or Th in Western European languages and F in Russian.
Another fun fact - the word Библиотека (biblioteka, library) was adopted directly from Latin (possibly through Polish) in this form, but in XVII-XVIII centuries a parallel pronunciation existed coming from the word's Greek roots - Вивлиофика (Vivliofika).
Interesting, thank you
But I bet it’s rather this: Flag Officer Commanding Maharashtra Naval Area (FOMA), a senior appointment of the Indian Navy. /s
It is a real name tho.
It's a real name, just the one nobody has used in the last hundred years
Foma dese nuts gottem
I was going to comment something funny but why the hell can't I comment pictures
how did they even come up with the cyrillic version? it seems like they just pressed random letters on a keyboard but at the same time the "a" corresponds to "ф" in both names for some reason, so there must have been some thought that was put into it
They just switched to a Russian keyboard layout and typed in English. In this way, Russian ф corresponds to English a and English "a" corresponds to Russian "f".
There even used to be an app called PuntoSwitcher which would detect if you were trying to type in Russian with the English keyboard layout turned on (or vice versa) and automatically switch to the correct layout.
PuntoSwitcher is still around and maintained btw
In the Terminal for the passport of Tom Hank's passport the Cyrllic is just "Tom Hanks" typed on a QWERTY keyboard switched to Russian output.
They switched the keyboard to Russian/Cyrillic and typed the name again by pressing the same buttons
That's the only thing that makes sense to explain that shitshow, especially the last name. You couldn't even pronounce it. Evidently the producers of that film couldn't be assed to hire someone who knew at least the Cyrillic alphabet, much less Russian.
I dunno it's not even hard to look up. Even back then you could just grab a dictionary from a library or smth, no need to hire an actual russian speaker.
Finally a use case for a silly layout along these lines which would work correctly for this: https://winrus.com/student.gif
No, if they just switched to Cyrillic and pressed the sane buttons Foma would be Пзбф and Kiniaev would be дщьщфуи.
There are different variants of Cyrillic layouts and the mainstream Russian/Cyrillic would give you exactly Ащьф Лштшфум (I just did it - typed Foma Kiviaev in Russian/Cyrillic).
I used my regular Russian Cyrillic keyboard as well! How is yours so different to mine?
https://i.redd.it/yqiu7ezq0r4g1.gif
I don't know how you get Пзбф Дщьщфуи on this one.
Reddit isn't letting me attach an image at the moment, but mine is similar, yet different.
Interesting. All non-phonetic layouts for Russian that I know follow this pattern and differ only in location of the letter Ё and different punctuation marks.
Here is mine The punctuation marks are located differently as well as ъ and ё. Things are just shaped a bit differently on mine so must line up with different Latin keys as your keyboard.
Is it a virtual keyboard of a mobile device? Then I understand - standard QWERTY and Russian one have different number of keys on a virtual keyboard, so your interpretation was exactly one key away from mine (except А and У).
But u/Zombie-Redshirt was speaking about a hardware keyboard.
On a Mac it's different, for example ё is next to э
The boys in Langley did it on Friday afternoon in a haste.
Moscou
Everyone knows that Russians love speaking French at every occasion.
The last French speaking Russians didn’t end too well, did they?
Well, "consul de Russie" is French too.
Was there a canonical reason for him not to get his passport at home? Especially if he was some secret agent not looking to draw attention?
In 1990s passports were still issued in French, but also used USSR passport books
The languages of the descriptors are (actual) Russian and English.
However, it says "consul de Russie" (Russian consul) in the stamp at the bottom. Meaning he somehow was issued a passport in a French speaking country.
Presumably he lived there. Or he had to renew his passport on an emergency basis after having lost his original.
But that brings up so many new questions.. why would a secret agent want to stand out like that?
And still, his place of birth is the only field in French, rather than faux Cyrillic and English.
The whole passport is a mess. The passport book Foma has been in use since around 2001, if the passport is issued in 1998 as the date of issue suggests, it should have been a 1991 version USSR passport book (it was used by independent Russia till 2000-2001).
The 1991 version was issued entirely in Russian and French, along with French name spelling (ш = ch instead of ch, silent e at the end, etc). 2001 version switched to English, along with name transliteration
was the prop department too lazy to just type Москва. like really. this feels like it would take more effort than just doing itright
Hey hey hey, getting a fake passport isn't as cheap as its made out to be.
Ashchf Lshtshfum is a beautiful name for a baby girl.
It kills me how lazy and insensitive stuff like this is. It also takes you out of the story if you know even the basic sounds for these letters.
All they needed to do was map sounds between the Latin and Cyrillic to get it somewhat right if not all the way. Compared to the inconsistencies and chaos of English spelling, languages that use Cyrillic have more sound to letter predictability even.
The layout of the Russian and English letters on the keyboard is like this. Whoever filled it out forgot to switch the layout.
My name is Ashf Lshtshfum, nice to meet you.
I'm getting some Jorji Costava vibes.
Is pre-approved!
They could use the mistake in the movie somehow, that would be cool asf.
The guard could ask: "mister Asschief Lightfumes?” and then don’t let him trough the border and imprison him.