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Oleg

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This article is about the Slavic masculine given name. For other uses, see Oleg (disambiguation).
Oleg
Oleg of Novgorod by Viktor Vasnetsov
GenderMale
Origin
Word/nameOld Norse
MeaningHoly
Region of originEastern Europe
Other names
Related namesOlga, Helge

Oleg (Russian: Олег), Oleh (Ukrainian: Олег), or Aleh (Belarusian: Алег) is an East Slavic given name. The name is very common in Russia, Ukraine and Belаrus. It derives from the Old Norse Helgi (Helge), meaning "holy", "sacred", or "blessed". The feminine equivalent is Olga. While Germanic in origin, "Oleg" is not very common outside Eastern European countries, while "Helge" and "Helga" are common names in Scandinavia.

Russian pronunciation

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Олег (Oleg) is pronounced [ɐˈlʲek] in Russian. The English pronunciation of Oleg is based on the transliteration of the Cyrillic alphabet, and overlooks four key features of the Russian pronunciation:

  1. The stress is on the second syllable. In spoken Russian, the initial short unstressed 'O' is reduced to [ɐ], similar to the 'a' as in 'about'.
  2. The 'л' (l) becomes palatalized to [lʲ] ─ that is, it gains a 'y'-like quality, and but is still most closely approximated by a plain English 'l'.
  3. The Russian letter 'e' is pronounced 'ye' as in 'yellow'.
  4. The final 'г' (g) is devoiced to [k].

Thus although English speakers tend to pronounce the name as 'Óh-legg', in Russian it sounds more like 'Al-yék', the equivalent of Alec.

Ukrainian pronunciation

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The Ukrainian pronunciation of the name 'Олег' is different from Russian, though the same Cyrillic letters are used in writing. Ukrainian 'Олег' is pronounced [oˈlɛɦ] and becomes 'Oleh' in English according to the transliteration rules.[1]

Belarusian spelling and pronunciation

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In Belarusian, the name is spelled and pronounced as "Алег" [aˈlʲeɣ] so that the first letter changes to "A" according to the Belarusian feature of akannye. The last letter is also pronounced differently, which renders the Latin transliteration 'Aleh'.

People named Oleg

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Rulers and nobles

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Others

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and co-founder of the Soviet resistance group, the Young Guard

1970), Russian singer songwriter

1942), Russian scientist and inventor

Fictional characters

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Television series

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Movies

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Video games

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References

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  1. ^ ТАБЛИЦЯ транслітерації українського алфавіту латиницею. kmu.gov.ua (in Ukrainian)
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