Russian Slang Research Articles

On the history of Russian argotism “chuvikha”

The study addresses the problem of incompleteness of data on the origin of Russian slang expression chuvikha ‘woman, girl’. It has long been associated with thieves’ cant, in which, according to A. P. Barannikov, the lexeme was gypsyism. Then the gypsy etymology began to be rejected. The purpose of the study is to fill in the gaps in the history of the word chuvikha using the methods of corpus and lexicographic analysis on the material of the Russian National Corpus, the collection of digitized books google.books, the diary service Prozhito.org, dictionaries of secret languages, slang dictionaries, etc. The following conclusions are made. Chuvikha, chuvak and a number of other slang expressions moved into the jargon of so-called stylyags (youth, passionate about Western culture) no later than the early 1950s from the jargon of restaurant musicians, so-called labukhs. Thus, the source of the argotisms of the stylyags was the slang of musicians, not thieves. Further, jargons of restaurant musicians of the 20th century are related with the secret language of orchestral musicians of the 19th century, having common roots with the slang expressions of labukhs, are given in the book. They are also related with other secret languages of the 19th century. The words chuvikha and chuvak are possibly related to the lexem chovy ‘good’, which was used in the secret languages of the 19th century (with a variant of the root chuv-) and in the aforementioned musical jargon of the 1920s as a substantive — the nomination of a person.

Funkcional'naya semantika abbreviatur v russkom zhargone

The article is devoted to the functional semantics of Russian slang abbreviations. Currently, the uncodified subsystem of the Russian language attracts more attention of researchers for its specificity of sound complexes, structure and richness of semantic content. The purpose of the article is to identify specific ways of forming jargon abbreviations and to establish their functional varieties. The results of our research can be widely used in the field of linguodidactics in order to better familiarize students with the national characteristics of the language and the mentality of slang-carriers.

Функциональное назначение сленга (на материале русских и американских сленгизмов)

The purpose of this article was to identify the specific functions of slang from the standpoint of demonstrativeness, corporatism, and individual creative self-expression. The methods of comparative and cultural analysis were used. As a result, the following specific functions of slang were singled out: demonstrative, corporate, and the function of creative self-expression. Personal identification and social relationships determine the demonstrative function of slang, which is more pronounced in the speech of young people. Slangisms are distinguished by their vividness and imagery, which is caused by the desire of the individual to attract people’s attention and stand out from the crowd. At the same time, the opposition of slang to the established order can have a negative effect, when used ostentatiously. The corporate function of slang is fulfilled by indicating one’s belonging to a certain professional community and asserting one’s right to be considered as “one of us”. Ignorance of special slang hinders a person from fully functioning within a certain “corporation”. The abundance of slang synonyms, as well as the presence of whole sentences and phraseological units in slang, testifies to the creative potential of their inventors. This article provides examples of American and Russian slang units used in various semantic fields, as well as examples of slang homonymy. Comparison of stylistic synonyms confirms the fact that slangisms differ from their neutral and bookish equivalents due to their metaphorical as well as emotional and evaluative nature. The results of the study allow us to conclude that slang has much in common with folk art, in which the changing value orientations of modern society are manifested. We also found that slang holds a dominant position in the framework of non-standard lexicon. Due to the continuous evolution, slang is a rather volatile phenomenon that allows new words and expressions to quickly enter the vocabulary.

Morphological Peculiarities of Lexical Units of English Origin in Contemporary Russian Slang: Dictionary and Corpus Analyses

The paper deals with lexical units of English origin that have penetrated into contemporary Russian slang with the emphasis on their morphological features. The spread of these words in the Russian language provides a scientist with a linguistically challenging material since the English and Russian languages represent typologically diverse language systems. To begin with, the research focuses on the ratio of individual word classes within the studied material together with the representation of individual grammatical genders throughout. As nouns represent the most numerous group of the adapted lexemes, the main emphasis is put on their morphological adaptation into the Russian language, and at the same time, their most common morphological features are listed. The following traits belong to the marginal ones from the point of view of word classes: an Anglicism may be a component of several word classes and the here-studied Anglicisms only exceptionally do not keep their original categorial meanings. Additionally, they display differences in onomasiological categories across the studied field. Morphological features of Anglicisms in Russian slang are the combination of Russian and English morphological aspects of individual word classes. Furthermore, words borrowed from English acquire grammatical categories typical of their corresponding counterparts in the Russian language. As a final point, most Anglicisms in the Russian slang undergo conjugation and declination processes (98,5% of instances). The possible utilization of the research is noticeable in the areas of comparative and corpus linguistics and translatology when searching for equivalents of words in typologically different languages. What is more, its results are applicable in the methodology of teaching foreign languages. The whole linguistic material is investigated in the framework of the online dictionary of slang and the text corpus Russian Web 2011 (ruTenTen11) with the help of the search tool Sketch Engine. To reveal the complex sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic functioning of the Anglicisms in contemporary Russian slang, further research needs to be conducted.

СЛОВООБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНАЯ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКА АНГЛИЦИЗМОВ В РУССКОМ СЛЕНГЕ

The article deals with the characteristics of Anglicisms functioning in modern Russian slang, with an emphasis on their word-forming features. The penetration of these lexical units into the Russian language provides a researcher with a linguistically interesting material as the English and Russian languages represent typologically different language systems. To begin with, the research focuses on the origin of the individual word bases and affixes from which the Anglicism instances are formed. At the same time word-formation means, methods and procedures for the formation of Anglicisms in the Russian slang are taken into account.

How Recently Borrowed Verbs in Russian Form Perfective Aspect — an Experimental Approach

This article examines how Russian aspectual pairs from borrowed and colloquial verbs are formed. This question is relevant since the most common source languages of Russian loan verbs do not express the aspectual distinction (imperfective-perfective) morphologically. Seventeen new verbs, most of which belong to the technological sphere, were examined in an online experiment (N=120), in which native Russian speakers were asked to form perfective counterparts for a number of new verbs, such as гуглить ‘to google’ and эсэмэсить ‘to text, to SMS’. The results show that there is variation in the formation of these new verbs, but also that one form was chosen by most participants who formed a valid perfective. The most common perfectivizers in this experiment were the suffix -ну-, followed by the prefixes за-, про-, от- and с-. The suffix -ну- is especially productive in verbs denoting actions that can be carried out or finished in a short time but is also found in verbs denoting longer processes. This use of -ну- is characteristic for verbs in Russian slang.

Adaptacja fonetyczna i graficzna anglicyzmów w rosyjskim slangu młodzieżowym

The article analyses phonetic and graphic variations of majority of English borrowings in Russian youth slang, caused by the coexistence of two different methods of recording English borrowings with the letters of Russian alphabet. The findings of the analysis prove that the dominant way of transferring English borrowings into Russian slang corresponds with the slang’s tendency to show the russified version of English pronunciation in a written form.

Word-Formation Characteristics of Anglicisms in the Russian Slang

The paper deals with characteristics of Anglicisms that operate in the contemporary Russian slang with the emphasis on their word-formation features. The penetration of these lexical units into the Russian language provides a researcher with a linguistically interesting material as the English and Russian languages represent typologically different language systems. To begin with, the research focuses on the origin of the individual word bases and affixes from which the Anglicism instances analysed by us are formed. Moreover, we treat the representation of non-motivated and word-motivated lexemes. At the same time, word-formation means, methods and procedures for the formation of Anglicisms in the Russian slang are taken into account. The above-mentioned lexical units find their word-formation realization within these processes: derivation, composition, compounding, clipping, acronyms, blending, conversion, calques, fusion, univerbization and phonetic mimicry. Additionally, they display differences in onomasiological categories across the studied field. With respect to this, we cover the word-formation features of the processes: word-formation strings, paradigms and nests; word-formation types, onomasiological categories and types of onomasiological categories. The practical utilization of the research is possible in the areas of comparative and applied linguistics and translatology when searching for equivalents of lexical units in typologically different languages. Furthermore, the results of the research are applicable in the methodology of teaching foreign languages.

Gwiazdy zachodniej muzyki rozrywkowej w rosyjskim slangu młodzieżowym

The article is devoted to the names of music stars in Russian youth slang. The number of English borrowings, which appear in the Russian youth’s language, is growing rapidly. Russian youngsters are open for western music. The paper presents the processes of implementation of English names into Russian slang. The studied material shows how English words are transformed to adjust to Russian phonetics. The author of this paper proves that young people do not copy foreign words and phrases, but treat them as a basis for further modifications. They play with foreign words in order to adjust them to Russian phonetics and add humour which is a characteristic feature of youth slang.

Киноуроки как многоаспектная форма изучения русского языка и культуры в летней школе для польских студентов

В статье обобщен опыт проведения киноуроков для польских студентов, изучающих русский язык. На киноуроках по фильму «Ландыш серебристый» студенты продвинутого уровня осваивали лексические парадигмы, русский жаргон, эмоциональные разговорные конструкции, обсуждали развитие характеров главных героев. На киноуроках по экранизациям поэмы Н. В. Гоголя «Мертвые души» происходил многоаспектный исторический комментарий, а также обсуждалась проблема воплощения поэмы Гоголя в кино. На уроках для студентов базового уровня анализировались сюжеты из детского юмористического журнала «Ералаш» и рассматривалась проблема природы комического. Киноуроки показали себя как многоаспектная форма языковых занятий, позволяющая затронуть как собственно языковые вопросы, так и проблемы других гуманитарных наук.

Misunderstanding Abai and the legacy of the canon: “Neponyatnii” and “Neponyatii” Abai in contemporary Kazakhstan

The Soviet canonisation of Abai, the nineteenth-century Kazakh poet and enlightener became a problematic theme for local intellectuals in the 2010s after the Occupy Abai movement in Moscow raised concerns over the heritage of Abai as a Sovietised canon and as an independent non-Soviet thinker. In 2012 oppositional leaders in Russia occupied Abai monument in Moscow and the leader of the opposition Alexey Navalny, called for his supporters to gather around the monument to unknown strange Kazakh guy using the Russian slang word – neponyatnii Kazakh. Local audience in Kazakhstan at first responded with offensive comments and questions to the Russian opposition movement – how come Abai, the Kazakh version of Russian poet and a visionary Alexander Pushkin, the symbol and canon of Soviet Kazakh literature and the symbol of post-Soviet Kazakhness and its culture could be unknown and strange? From the celebrated writer of the Soviet dekadas and Leninist prizes for Mukhtar Auezov's novel The Path of Abai ( Abai Zholy) Abai turned into neponyatnii – incomprehensible, strange (in words of Russian Alexey Navalny) and neponyatii – misunderstood poet. These discussions on popular online Russophone as well as Kazakhophone platforms and blogs opened up a debate on the legacy and problematic canonisation of Abai. Is Abai misunderstood in contemporary Kazakhstani society? From short essays when famous writer Gerold Belger speaks to Abai's monument in central Almaty to mobile phone applications featuring Abai's Qara Sozder, to the famous anonymous Abai graffiti in central Almaty and Occupy Abai movement responses in Kazakh internet sphere, I trace the mutations of Abai's canon. These discussions reveal the conflicting trends of young Kazakhs and Kazakhstanis who take their cultural criticisms online but continue using the “national” frameworks in their globalized discussions.

Internet Communication Education of Inofon-Students (Based on English Adoptions)

The article is devoted to developing modern methods of teaching based on actual communication needs among inofon-students at advanced level. The proposed methodology focuses on the process of Russian colloquial vocabulary development by studying the latest internationalisms of Anglo-American origin that are actively functioning in student online discourse and media. The results of psycholinguistic experiments revealed the obstacles of Russian slang lexicon development among foreign students as well as the use of the newest Anglicism prospects in the development of methodological approach aimed at the formation of social and cultural competences of inofon-students.

Russian Slang, circa 1995

Russian Slang, circa 1995 Vladimir Shlyakhov (bio) and Eve Adler (bio) АНАЛОГИЧНЫЙ СЛУЧАЙ был [ANALOGICHNYI SLUCHAI byl] idiom, joc. The opening of an expression of mocking disbelief (lit., “something similar happened”). “Have you heard? We had flying saucers here over Moscow last week. – Oh, yeah? Something similar happened in Africa with my cow.” БЕЗ БУМAЖКИ ТЫ КАКАШКА [BEZ BUMAZHKI TY KAKASHKA], idiom. “Without documents you’re shit.” “I haven’t got all the papers necessary for getting a passport. – Well, without documents, you’re shit.” «БЫВАЮТ В ЖИЗНИ ЗЛЫЕ ШУТКИ» – сказал петух, слезая с утки [“BYVAYUT V ZHIZNI ZLYE SHUTKI” – skazal petukh, slezaya s utki] idiom, rude. Lit. ‘“There are wicked tricks in this life,’ said the rooster, dismounting from the duck.” Used in sardonic dismissal of other people’s complaints or troubles. ВОДКА – НАШ ВРАГ, И МЫ ЕË УНИЧТОЖАЕМ [VODKA – NASH VRAG, I MY YEYO UNICHTOZHAEM] idiom, joc. “Vodka is our enemy, so we’ll utterly consume it.” (This expression is a play on the well-known saying of the Stalin years regarding enemies of the people, “If the enemy won’t surrender, we’ll utterly consume him.”) “Why do you drink? It’s bad for your health. – Vodka is our enemy, so we’ll utterly consume it!” ВОЗЬМИ С ПОЛКИ ПИРОЖОК [VOZMI S POLKI PIROZHOK] idiom, joc. A sarcastic response to someone’s boasts about his achievements (lit., “Take a cookie from the pantry,” i.e., as a reward.) “Do you know how many girls I’m going out with? – What a hero! Take yourself a cookie from the pantry.” ВРУНОК, врунка [VRUNOK, vrunka] m., joc. A radio set, radio receiver (a Sovietism from vrun, “a liar,” alluding to the assumption that official radio news is all lies). “Turn on the lie-machine; it’s time for the news.” ДОКАЖИ, ЧТО ТЫ НЕ ВЕРБЛЮД [DOKAZHI, CHTO TY NE VERBLYUD] idiom. It’s hard to prove one’s innocence (lit., “prove that you’re not a camel”). This is the punch line of the following joke: A rabbit was running for its life through the desert. When asked by a fox what it was running from, the rabbit explained that a lion had threatened to eat any camel in its path. “But you’re a rabbit,” objected the other. “Yes, but just try to prove that you’re not [End Page 257] a camel!” “Of course everyone knows I didn’t do it, but just try to prove that you’re not a camel!” КУДА ТЫ ДЕНЕШЬСЯ, КОГДА РАЗДЕНЕШЬСЯ [KUDA TY DENYESHSYA, KOGDA RAZDENYESHSYA] idiom, joc. “There’s no use getting dressed when you’ve already taken your clothes off.” Used of a situation in which expectations established by previous compliance make it hard to extricate oneself later on. “I’m not going to type any more of these papers for the boss. – No use getting dressed when you’ve already taken off your clothes.” ЛУЧШЕ ЧЕСТНО ПËРДНУТЬ, ЧЕМ ПО-ШПИОНСКИ БЗДНУТЬ [LUCHSHE CHESTNO PYORDNUT, CHEM PO-SHPIONSKI BZDNUT] idiom, rude. “Better to fart honestly than secretly like a spy.” “Don’t hide it from us, we’ll find out anyway. It’s better to fart honestly than secretly like a spy.” НЕ ПЬËТ ТОЛЬКО СОВА: она днëм спит, а ночью магазины закрыты [NE PYOT TOLKO SOVA: ona dnyom spit, a nochyu magaziny zakryty] idiom, joc. A proverbial expression used to assert, in response to the question whether someone drinks, that, of course, everyone drinks (lit., “The owl is the only creature that doesn’t drink, because in the daytime she’s asleep, and at night the stores are closed”). “Will you have a drink with us? – Of course! After all, the only creature that doesn’t drink is the owl.” НОЖКИ: Ножки Буша [NOZHKI: Nozhki Busha] idiom, joc. Chicken legs imported from the United States (lit., Bush’s legs; so called because their import began under the Bush administration, partly subsidized at first as humanitarian aid; prior to that time separate chicken parts were unknown in Russian markets). “The price of Bush’s legs rose steeply in October.” ПОЛШЕСТОГО: У кого-л. на полшестого [POLSHESTOVO: U kogo-l. na polshestovo] idiom, joc. Someone doesn’t have an erection (lit., “with him it’s 5:30,” referring to the hands of a clock). “So, is he pretty good in bed?” – “Are you kidding? Always half-past five!” ПУШКИН, -a [PUSHKIN, -a] m., joc. Someone or other; I don’t know who. И кто испортил ковëр? – Пу́шкин. [I kto isportil kovyor? – Pushkin] “Who made this stain on the carpet?” – “Pushkin.” СКОММУНИЗДИТЬ [SKOMMUNIZDIT] perf. only, joc. To steal, “communize.” By rhyme play on спиздить [spizdit...

Editor’s Note

Editor’s Note Stephen Donadio This Is My Last Issue as Editor of NER, And Some Readers May Be wondering how it came to be a large double issue containing a special section entitled “The Russian Presence.” There are many reasons for this, including the arrival of Rosamund Bartlett’s fine translations of an intriguing duet of Chekhov stories, but at some point I found myself remembering that for my first issue (Vol. 17, No. 3)—just about twenty years ago—I had asked my late, beloved colleague Eve Adler, who was spending a year in Russia, if she could provide us with a “Letter from Moscow.” A brilliant scholar of Classics, over the course of her career she had also learned Arabic, Hebrew, and German, as well as a full range of Romance languages, and because she had heard that the best translations of the Greek epics were in Old Church Slavonic, she taught herself that language, too. This soon prompted her to teach herself Russian, and fascinated by the language and the culture, she began spending as much time as she could in that country, which was how she came to be there in 1994–95. When she asked me what sorts of things to include in her account of daily life, I suggested that she try to give our readers a sampling of the kinds of jokes that she was hearing; so she concluded her letter with a series of the “Armenian Radio” jokes that were then circulating in the Russian capital. The last joke in the series was this one: Armenian Radio has been asked: Is there life on Mars? Armenian Radio answers: No, not there either. Her remarkably observant letter also noted that at that time people in Moscow were worried “about the Chechnya war” and confirmed that “the reports from Chechnya are indeed alarming.” As evidence, she provided a particularly vivid account of the situation, then went on to point out that the report she had quoted was actually “from Tolstoy’s story ‘Hajii Murat,’ first published in 1912, and referring to the events of 1851. My Russian friends [she continued] complain that their government’s wrongheadedness in Chechnya is the result of poor literary education. Haven’t those jerks read Tolstoy?” In light of her spirited participation in such free-wheeling conversations, it hardly seems surprising that within a year she would be the co-author of a dictionary of Russian slang, from which a few representative entries have been taken for this issue. Over the next seven or eight years, before her untimely death, Eve Adler also supplied us with her translations of the highly original and insistently [End Page 8] uncategorizable writings of the Russian political philosopher Mikhail Epstein, and she told me that I should be sure to get to know Michael Katz, who was leaving the University of Texas at Austin to join the Middlebury College faculty and direct the Language Schools and Schools Abroad. During one of the first talks I had with him, I mentioned that I was interested in publishing a new translation of Chekhov’s wonderful comic monologue entitled “On the Harmfulness of Tobacco” and asked him if he might be willing to undertake that job. Funny thing, he said—as a matter of fact, he was just at that moment working on a translation of that very work. We published his translation in 1998, and in the years since then, in addition to numerous critical articles, many of his translations from Russian have appeared in our pages—of works by an unusual range of writers, including Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Akunin, Shcheglov, An-Sky, Jabotinsky, and Sophia Tolstoy. Besides a great deal of editorial assistance, for the special Russian feature in this current issue Michael Katz has provided us with excerpts of his new translation of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, as well as a new translation—for the first time with detailed annotations—of the record kept by Frida Vigdorova of the 1964 trial of the poet Joseph Brodsky. As it happens, also included in my first issue of NER was an essay by P. Adams Sitney, whose intricate analysis of the densely-conceived films...

Translation of the Russian Nadsat Slang in Anthony Burgess’ Novel A Clockwork Orange into Lithuanian

The translation of slang has always caused many problems for translators because of its cultural untranslatability. Its translation is a highly specific undertaking requiring creativity to render the effect of the source text in a form appropriate for the target culture and audience. Thus, the paper analyses the Lithuanian translation of an artificial language Nadsat in Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange, giving special focus to the Russian slang. First of all, it describes the Nadsat language and makes a distinction between the Russian borrowings and slang, which is not straightforward in most cases. Moreover, it presents the prevailing strategies applied for the translation of slang, i.e. preservation, softening and compensation, and expands on their application in the target text. For this purpose, all slang items have been manually collected from the first section of both the source and target text. To illustrate the use of the mentioned strategies, the paper introduces their density in the Lithuanian translation. As the results have demonstrated, the prevalent strategy in the translation of the Russian Nadsat slang into Lithuanian is softening, which comes in several different forms, i.e. softening by introducing a less expressive or more neutral words. However, the analysis of a greater amount of data could lead to a different result.

Polilingvali Vilniaus jaunimo raiška: socialinės tapatybės paieškos

Straipsnyje keliama iki šiol Lietuvoje nenagrinėta jaunimo polilingvalaus elgesio problema. Tyrimo duomenis sudaro Vilniaus paauglių kalbos tekstynas, sukauptas renkant savanorių informantų įrašus ir atliekant etnografinius stebėjimus. Darbo tikslas – palyginti kitų kalbų elementų vartojimo dažnumą ir funkcijas jaunesniųjų (13–14 m.) ir vyresniųjų (15–17 m.) moksleivių kalboje. Be to, remiantis pokalbių analizės metodu, norima ištirti, kokius vaidmenis Vilniaus jaunuoliai sau priskiria ir kokias socialines tapatybes kuria, pasitelkdami polilingvalią raišką.

Литературные и публицистические прецедентные феномены в современном сленге

The article deals with the analysis of the part that precedent phenomena play in the formation of the contemporary Russian slang. Main thematic text groups frequently used by the slang-speakers in communication are discovered. The functions of the precedent phenomena under study are determined.

Notes on the golden horde diplomatic ceremonial: The origin of the wordKorešin Russian slang

The article deals with the word koreš ‘close friend’ used in Russian cant. It comes from the Russian verb koreševat’sja ‘to greet each other friendly, to establish friendship and close relations’ that, in turn, has its origin in the Turkic verb körüš- ‘to see each other, to have an audience’. The diplomatic ceremony of koreševan’e ‘a kind of very close embrace’ was common in the Golden Horde and its successor states — the Khanates of the Crimea, Kazan and Astrakhan, the Noghay Horde and Muscovy, at least up to the end of the 16th century. Soon the word koreš (literally:’ a man participating in the ceremony of koreševan’e’) with the meaning ‘true and close friend’ was ejected to the sphere of Russian slang and acquired a secondary, alleged link with the Russian word koren’ ‘root’ as if it were its pseudo-diminutive form.