AS/JM: It’s a deep linguistic point: deeper than just saying ruka means both ‘arm’ and ‘hand.’
It’s the puzzling way in which different languages can apply different taxonomies when ‘naming parts.’
Colours and body-parts, in particular, often have lexemes that map into distinct conceptual areas.
For Russian colour-names, see http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_articles.cgi?bookid=Z%20137&artid=21110788
For Kewa (Papuan) speakers’ body-parts see http://www.jstor.org/pss/3628922
Linguistically, one must accept that ruka actually means the arm+hand body-part!
In the other direction: ‘blue’ actually means ‘[Dark Blue] синий + [Light Blue] голубой’ !
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 02/08/2011 16:19, "Jansy" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
A. Sklyarenko: "...ruka (rhymes with reka, "river") means both "arm" and "hand"... During d'Onsky's sword duel with Demon (who I think is also a horse) the shirtsleeves of both seconds, charming Monsieur de Pastrouil and Colonel St. Alin, a scoundrel, are blood-bespattered (1.2). Note that Stalin (whose arms were по локоть в крови, "blood-stained up to the elbows") had a withered arm. A.S. also notes that "On the other hand, Ruka was the nickname of VN's maternal uncle Vasiliy Ivanovich Rukavishnikov: "French and Italian friends, being unable to pronounce his long Russian surname, had boiled it down to 'Ruka' (with the accent on the last syllable), and this suited him far better than did his Christian name." (Speak, Memory, Chapter Three, 3)."
JM: It's almost a conjuror's trick when one-armed men think about contraries saying "on the other hand" and blindmen "see their point"
Perhaps it would be interesting to distinguish those that are one-armed(handed) by illness, from those who've lost their arms(hands) by accident.
I think that the one-armed d'Onskys are of interest for VN when they, somehow, suggest Stalin, not soldiers or factory-workers.
The connection of "ruka" and the other "Ruka" must be considered but, again, ranged in another category as the others (closer to rivers and noisy brooks?) .