Russian Civil War: NRA DVR & old maids

[John Dunn]

Many thanks to Alina and Maryna for their helpful and intriguing answers to my question about девчата[devchata] and девчонки[devchonki].  My recollection, quite possibly dimmed by the passing decades, is that both forms were used by students of both sexes and all genders in Rostov University at the start of the 1970s.  I may be adding two and two to produce a very irrational number indeed, but all this makes me wonder whether девчата[devchata] is a South Russianism and whether this is what causes it to be perceived as a 'working class' feature.  

Lurking behind my question, however, was a totally different issue, namely that of whether девчата[devchata] functioned as a collective plural, essentially as the feminine of ребята[rebiata].  There are certain situations where Russian distinguishes between 'ordinary' and collective plurals (e.g. три мужика[tri muzhika] vs трое мужиков[troe muzhikov]), and I was wondering if девчата[devchata]/девчонки[devchonki] was another example of this phenomenon.  

John Dunn.
John Dunn
SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
University of Glasgow
Hetheringon Building
Bute Gardens
Glasgow G12 8RS
U.K.

Tel.: +44 (0)141 330 5591
Fax: +44 (0)141 330 2297
e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk

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