Translation of “Irkoe” and “Manjoeka”

Asked by David on October 18, 2019

Question

I'm translating a Dutch non-fiction book set in Lithuania around 1940, and two names of Russian girls are mentioned. Dutch has a different transliteration system from English, so the spellings used are 'Irkoe' and 'Manjoeka'. Often the only differences in English are that 'oe' becomes 'u' and 'j' becomes 'y', so 'Irku' and 'Manyuka' could be the correct English transliterations. But there may be other differences. Does anyone recognize these names and know what the correct spelling should be in English, or in Cyrillic? Thanks!

Answer

Hi David,

The Russian names probably are Ирка (the short diminutive name for "Irina") and Манюха (the short diminutive name for "Maria").

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