in the city of N

[Alina Israeli]

N or even NN for a city or person meant that 'we will not disclose the  
name, it's anonymous, it's any name'. I think it comes from French, at  
least French authors have been doing it plenty in 19th century.

S and other abbreviations are more transparent: S — Saratov, O —  
Orel

Перед раскрытым окном красивого дома,  
в одной из крайних улиц губернского  
города О... (Дворянское гнездо)

And since we all know that Turgenev is from Orlovskaya guberniya we  
can decipher it.

In "Дама с собачкой" it's gorod S. which is Saratov, I  
believe.


On Nov 4, 2013, at 9:19 AM, Michele A Berdy wrote:

> 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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Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
WLC, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu






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