Summary: _polbanka_

[Loren A. BILLINGS]

Dear colleagues,

The subject line of my preceding summary was mistaken; I had intended to
send both summaries together.  This one will be mercifully short.  (Again,
I've corrected the minor errors in the responses, but no content.  First,
my original query:

>In connection with my previous queries about _pol_ "1/2" (and my
>forthcoming summary to this list thereof), I've come across the following
>item:
>
>polb'anka/polb'anki (sl)--pollitrovaja banka vodki --half-liter bottle of
>vodka
>
>This (verbatim) is an entry on page 563 of the following dictionary:
>
>     ZALUCKY, Henry K. (1991)  _Compressed Russian.  Russian-
>          English dictionary of acronyms, semiacronyms and
>          other abbreviations used in contemporary standard
>          Russian._  Amsterdam:  Elsevier.
>
>I've encountered _polbanki_ before, but _polbanka_ seems to me (and my
>informants) to be totally unfamiliar.  Has anyone out there encountered it,
>by chance?
>
>Best,  --Loren Billings <billings at rz.uni-leipzig.de>

There were only two responses.  Israeli's is the confirmation I needed.

Alina Israeli <aisrael at american.edu>:
>>I've encountered _polbanki_ before, but _polbanka_ seems to me (and my
>>informants) to be totally unfamiliar.  Has anyone out there encountered it,
>>by chance?
>
>Polbanka is slang. What age and social strata are your informants? How long
>have they lived in Russia?
>Alina

To respond:  They vary from their twenties to late sixties.  All have spent
most of their lives there.  Yes, _sl_ in Zalucky means "slang".

Georges Adassovsky <Gadassov at mail.pf>:
>In the former Soviet Union, vodka used to be sold by the gram, not by the
>liter.
>Heavy drinkers, when they had not enough money, wandered around state shops,
>trying to find a companion or two, unite their money, and buy and share the
>vodka.
>Now, you can find everywhere vodka in cans, just like beer or cocacola in
>Europe.
>(I wouldn't recommend to buy any vodka that is not bottled, and that didn't
>bear the brand "Moskovskaja" or "Stolicnaja"!)
>May be,  pianitsy use the popular -and not grammatically correct-
>expression  "polbanka" when sharing their drink ?
>I suppose your informants have not wandered around vodka shops to partake
>drinking, I haven't either, so my answer is a supposition, to be checked.

I have some co-dependent informants, but haven't consulted with users per se.

Incidentally, note Zalucky's use of _pollitrovaja_, without a hyphen
between _pol_ and the following _l_-initial word.  Never trust orthography!

Best,  --Loren Billings <billings at rz.uni-leipzig.de>


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Loren A. BILLINGS, Ph.D.  (e-mail:  billings at rz.uni-leipzig.de)

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