"provincial" expressions

[Josh Wilson]

No, it really has nothing to do with geography anymore and is really much
more another way of saying "low-brow" or even something like "trailer park"
or "ghetto" in English. 

When I was in high school, we used to use "trailer park" as an adjective
(E.g. Yeah, she's cute, but a bit trailer park). It would mean uneducated
and coarse in character. "Ghetto" is more commonly used in this context in
English slang - but we didn't have many ghettos in Idaho. :) But I
digress... and am now rather self-conscience that I ever used any these
expressions in such a way... sigh... how trailer park. :) 





-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at listserv.cuny.edu] On Behalf Of Anne Lounsbery
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 7:54 PM
To: SEELANGS at listserv.cuny.edu
Subject: [SEELANGS] "provincial" expressions

I'm re-posting the query below with a different subject line, in case it was
missed by anyone not following the cell phone jargon thread.  Please forgive
the duplication.



I'm curious about the use of the term "provincial" in the discussion of cell
phone jargon.  What exactly do people see as the connotations of calling
something (a locution, a behavior, whatever) "provintsial'nyi" in
contemporary Russian context?   Is it perceived to have have anything to do
with geography really, or not?

As in:

>>"It's colloquial and slightly sloppy, if I may put it like that, but not
expressly provincial."
and
>>"SMSKI" a provincialism?  Gosh.  It's pretty much standard here in Moscow"

If anyone has thoughts on this I'd appreciate hearing them off-list at
anne.lounsbery at nyu.edu.  Thanks.



Anne Lounsbery
Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Study
Department of Russian and Slavic Studies
New York University
19 University Place, 2nd floor
New York, NY 10003

(212) 998-8674

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