In praise of linguistic innovation

[John Dunn]

I don't know if с деньрожденьем [s den'rozhden'em] is обычная безгрмотность [obychnaja bezgramotnost'].  The re-analysis of the phrase as a single word is not perhaps that unusual: it can be argued that something similar happens with English birthday (with no grammatical implications, but with consequences for spelling and pronunciation), with Italian compleanno (with grammatical implications for the formation of the plural) and, perhaps most relevantly, in the languages formerly known as Serbo-Croat with rođendan (with implications for the declension).  In Russian a simllar (though not, I agree, an identical) re-analysis takes place with the sequence name + patronymic: Я только что был у Иван Иваныча [Ja tol'ko chto byl u Ivan Ivanycha], which you may or may not wish to consider обычная безчгрмотность.

Still, if с деньрожденьем can triumph over both what appears at least to the likes of us to be a transparent grammatical structure and the massed ranks of the defenders of linguistic orthodoxy, this might well be an achievement worthy of note.  Except for one troubling thought: in these days when, as we have just seen, no-one quite knows any more what is or is not a parody, might it not be the case that those who continue to use с деньрожденьем even after reaching the age of grammatical discretion do so precisely because their elders and betters consider it 'wrong'?  After all, the deliberate flouting of traditional norms is not exactly a rarity in present-day Russian.

John Dunn.

P.S. I am old enough to remember the days when Rugby Union commentators routinely referred to 'lines-out'; now only 'line-outs' is heard, and while someone is sure to leap in to prove me wrong,  I suspect that the only surviving English compound noun that adds the plural ending to the first part is 'procurator(s) fiscal'.

________________________________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of STEPHEN MARDER [asured at VERIZON.NET]
Sent: 07 October 2010 16:10
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: [SEELANGS]

----- Original Message ----
From: Bradley Agnew Gorski <bradleygorski at GMAIL.COM>
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Sent: Thu, October 7, 2010 9:47:50 AM
Subject: [SEELANGS]

Irina and others:

I'm interested in a follow-up question: Do children then congratulate each
other (and their parents) with the words, "с деньрождением"?

Bradley

_______________________________________________________________________


Yes -- and no. A forum posting summarizes the situation thusly:

Не могу не обратить внимание на один лингвистический казус: в последнее время в
молодёжной среде стало принято говорить "деньрождение" (одним словом среднего
рода!). Соответственно, и поздравляют теперь не с "днём рождения", а с
"деньрождением". Думаю всё же, что это не новояз, а обычная безграмотность.
Точно такая же, как говорить "в двухтысячнодевятом году" вместо правильного "в
две тысячи девятом году". Друзья, срочно исправляемся! (
http://comport.region.kz/forum/viewtopic.php?p=19679 )

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