A ty zasteklil svoi pen'?

[Hugh M. Olmsted]

Dear Colleagues,

Another area heavily influenced by English these days is the world of
the komp'iutershchik.  The language is full of lexical borrowings
(straight or with phonetic and morphological modifications), syntactic
borrowings (such as biznes-prilozheniia, biznes-set'), Russian
translations and partial translations, mistranslations, puns, etc.  In
1994 S. Marder published some materials towards studying the phenomenon
(Marder, S.  A brief analysis of modern Russian computer slang.  New
Zealand Slavic Journal, 1994: 97-112), and at the 1997 AAASS I gave a
preliminary presentation on the phenomenon.  Below is a sampling of the
sort of thing I'm talking about.  I would be grateful for more sources
or examples that colleagues would be willing to send my way.  Probably
best to respond off-list and for me to summarize afterwards.  Thanks in
advance.

(Capitalized medial vowels in the Russian entries indicate accented
syllables, in certain cases of ambiguity)

arzhanoj     (ARJ- compressed)
Ave Mariia     (AWE32 soundblaster)
batOny     (keys on a keyboard (from 'buttons'))
BliuvAva     (Blue Wave      (E-mail program))
flopovod     (floppy)
flopY, flOpiki     (floppy disks)
fortochki     (Windows)
gamOver     (interrupt, abort)
Golyj Ded     (Gold Edit program)
khlopar'     (floppy disk drive)
kiliAt'     (to kill, interrupt, stop)
Klava     (periferals: keyboard)
klopodav     (debugger)
kompakter     (compact disk player / drive)
krysa     (large Sovok-style computer mouse)
maternaia plata     (motherboard)
melkoskhemy     (microchips)
mezhdumord'e     (interface)
mYlit' / namYlit'     (to send by e-mail)
      (namyl' mne, pozhaluista)
mylo     (mail, e-mail)
ne sniukhalis'     (no carrier; no connection)
obut'     (to boot   (up))
paskuda     (Pascal)
paskudnichat'     (to work with Pascal)
paskvil'     (Pascal)
paskviliant     (Pascal- user / programmer)
Pen', Pentiukh     (Pentium)
pisIshka, pisiUk     (PC )
podmyshka     (mouse-pad)
rUlez, rUleznyj     (good, fine (evidently from "rules"))
sionist     (C- user / programmer)
sisopit', sysopit'     (to work as sysop)
steklit',  zasteklit'     (to install Windows)
Sukhkh     (bad      (from "sucks"))
tiap-liap     (laptop)
trubopaskal'     (Turbopascal)
vinchEster, vint (vintA), vintchik
      ("Winchester," hard disk)
      Proposed etymology: One of the first models
      bore the numbers 30/30, which unequivocally meant
      "Winchester" for those who were used to American
      firearms.  The term caught on quickly and stuck,
      in the generalized meaning "hard disk"
vinduzA     (Windows)
Vorotov     (Bill Gates)
zalaptit'     (to boot   (up))
zvonilka     (communications program)
u nikh     (UNIX)
-----
Hugh Olmsted

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