Tiuremno-blatnaya lirika [SEC=PERSONAL]

[Paul B. Gallagher]

John Dunn wrote:

> ...
> I am also not sure about your final paragraph.  It is true that
> criminal structures and the armed forces everywhere, not to mention
> universities, public schools (in the British sense) and certain
> professions, all have their own slangs, and that Russian zhargon does
> have certain features in common with these slangs (I do sometimes
> wonder how Russian criminals cope now that their corporate language
> has entered the public domain).  Nevertheless, and in spite of my
> general scepticism about Russia always being 'different', it does
> seem to me that 'zhargon' has acquired certain cultural accretions
> that set it apart from slangs occurring in other cultures.  One of
> these, I would suggest, is that it was not just a language of
> association, but also one of dissociation (i.e. some people used
> zhargon to show not they were criminals, but that they were
> unSoviet).

This is not a new issue, and Russian criminals need not reinvent the 
wheel. Exclusive groups throughout history have continually updated 
their jargon as older versions leak out into the general public, and I 
expect "real" criminals in Russia will continue to devise new jargon to 
maintain the separation, just as real rappers and real ballplayers and 
real academics do here. ;-)

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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