in the city of N

[R. M. Cleminson]

N. stands for "nomen".  It was the convention all over Europe to write "N." anywhere where an unspecified name needed to be supplied, and so this is a "westernising" feature in Russian literature (the Slavonic equivalent is имярекъ).

----- Pôvodná správa -----
Od: "Michele A Berdy" <maberdy at GMAIL.COM>
Komu: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Odoslané: pondelok, 4. november 2013 14:19:50
Predmet: [SEELANGS] in the city of N




Dear SEELANGers 

An internet friend with an engaging blog called LanguageHat posed a question a few days ago that I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know the answer to and in fact never thought to ask. He asked why Russian authors writing about provincial cities called them “N” (or S, etc.). Beyond “it’s a convention” and “it gives an air of verisimilitude” – I have no idea. Where did this convention come from? Has anyone written about this? 



The second question that followed: can anyone think of pre-revolutionary Russian fiction about provincial cities (other than St. Petersburg and Moscow) where the city is identified? 

Many thanks! 

Michele Berdy 

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