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13:36
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A: What's the reason for the change from "-аго" to "-oго"?

shabuncThe 1918 orthography reform was not something that came into existence all of a sudden after the Bolsheviks came into power. In fact, this question was quite a hot topic from the early 20th century. Russian academics had quite heated discussions on what had to be changed in Russian spelling. The ...

Elements In Space
Elements In Space
@CocoPop The expression is "came to power". "Came into power" is passive, and completely inappropriate for this event.
CocoPop
CocoPop
@ElementsinSpace There's nothing passive about that phrase in that context: idioms.thefreedictionary.com/come+into+power
@ElementsinSpace From the Chicago Tribune, first sentence: chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-07-23-8902190922-story.h‌​tml
Elements In Space
Elements In Space
@CocoPop Even the Chicago Tribune prefers "came to power" (2520 results) to "came into power" (103 results).
CocoPop
CocoPop
@ElementsinSpace And I happen to like the sound of into in this context. My problem isn't with either one of those prepositions — I personally would've said they seized power. What I don't like is your assertion about into being passive and especially "inappropriate," neither of which it is.
Elements In Space
Elements In Space
@CocoPop I'd like to apologise somewhat. Upon reflection, no matter how old fashioned the expression "came into power" is, it's not necessarily passive, and is perfectly valid phrasing. I think it just sounds wrong to my ear because it reminds me of the expression "came into an inheritance".
CocoPop
CocoPop
13:36
@ElementsInSpace No harm done! I could tell right away that that was your confusion, but didn't want to promote an argument. When you've been an editor for as long as I have, you learn to stand by your decisions when they're correct and not выёжиываться 😉 At the end of the day, we're all here to learn!
@ElementsInSpace Also, I'd like to point out that the phrase come into power isn't rendered old-fashioned by that Ngram. The thing is that came to power there doesn't necessarily only refer to our phrase; in includes instances like "Bowen was much more frank when it came to power stations" and "When it came to Power Rangers, Higgins wrote the big epic lore-busting series while Ryan Parrott handled the character-driven series." all of which I was able to find in books. Unfortunately, you can't isolate this phrase in the context we're discussing. But it's very much still valid today.
Elements In Space
Elements In Space
@CocoPop I got a similar result with "Bolsheviks came to power" vs "Bolsheviks came into power".
CocoPop
CocoPop
@ElementsInSpace That's interesting. I guess to is indeed more popular in this context. Perhaps into is more prevalent in speech, and perhaps the speech of Americans. No idea.
@ElementsInSpace By the way, are you a native English speaker? I always assumed you were Russian.
Elements In Space
Elements In Space
@CocoPop I'm Australian. English is the only language I know (aside from a few handfuls of words from several European languages). For a challenge, I learn to touch type in Russian (йцукен layout) earlier this year. Since then, I've only watched half a dozen or so video lectures on Russian for absolute beginners.
CocoPop
CocoPop
@ElementsInSpace Heavens, if I'd known I was talking to an English speaker, I wouldn't have been so "teachy" about the whole thing. Good to know!
Elements In Space
Elements In Space
What made you think I knew Russian?
Do you remember my first (and only) question on this site?

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