Review: Slang Dictionary

[Andrew Jameson]

Russian-English Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (Second Edition)
A Guide to the Living Language of Today
UFO (Valery Nikolski), revised and enlarged by James Davie
Bramcote Press, Nottingham NG9 3FW, 1997
Paper #11.95, 152pp.
ISBN 1-900405-03-2

UFO is the hippie pseudonym of Valery Nikolsky, born in Altai in 1953. He
 studied applied mathematics at Leningrad University,
served as a military interpreter, spent a year in a labour camp and was
 imprisoned several times in psychiatric hospitals for
political reasons. Later he became a leading member of the Soviet hippie
 movement.

UFO's experiences make him ideally qualified to compile this dictionary. It
 first appeared as a bilingual Russian-English
dictionary in Moscow in 1993, entitled the Dictionary of Contemporary Russian
 Slang, with a print run of one thousand copies. The
dictionary is a unique personal document consisting of about 1,300 words of
 urban youth slang, covering (to a greater or lesser
extent) the following areas: school slang, hippie, mit'ki, punk and football
 slang, drug addiction, army service, and the criminal
underworld. There are cultural references to St Petersburg and to Moscow.
 Typically each article contains the headword, its
translation into standard English, an illustrative Russian phrase, sometimes a
 note on origin or usage. The first edition, however,
has some drawbacks: occasionally the English definitions are not clear, and the
 illustrative phrases are not translated. The choice
of standard English for the translation of the headword was wise in view of the
 difficulty a non-native would have with English
slang equivalents, but this, in a sense, left the dictionary half complete. The
 stylistic annotations were not as full as they
might have been - a pity because this was potentially the most interesting
 feature.

The second edition has been extensively revised by a British specialist in
 substandard Russian, James Davie of the University of
Portsmouth. English slang translations have been added, occasionally showing
 slight Scottish influence (and why not?). The entries
have been arranged in a more familiar dictionary order, for example bringing
 together verb-governed phrases in a single entry. The
grammatical annotation of headwords has improved and the illustrative phrases
 have all been translated. The stylistic annotations
remain much as they were, which I feel is a chance missed. Since modern youth
 slang is of an eclectic nature, it would have been a
useful service to include stylistic annotation for words which do not originate
 within that culture. More significantly, however,
Dr Davie has added about 200 words, mainly from the obscene vocabulary, which
 were absent as headwords from the first edition
(although some were present in the illustrative phrases). As a purist, I regret
 this change to UFOs original concept, as most
Russians do not regard the obscene vocabulary as slang. However the dictionary
 does increase its coverage thereby, and there are
not many places where information about these words and phrases can be found.

The personal slant of this dictionary means that it is best regarded as a record
 of the nonstandard vocabulary of one individual in
his progress through the formative stages of life, and, in view of this, the
 dictionary might best be titled Russian-English
Dictionary of Youth Slang. Its strong points are in the representation of school
 and university speech, personal relations, rock
music, drink and drugs, urban youth culture etc. Here the dictionary is
 unsurpassed for the amount of detail of word-forms,
derivatives and illustrative phrases in these topic areas. Considerable cultural
 information is included, on two levels. On the
first level, there is factual information, for example the names of the places
 where the various youth groups assemble. On the
second level, much information about youth culture in Russia could be derived
 from a statistical study of the semantic areas
covered and the groups referred to, but I will leave further comment to those
 specialising in this area. Widely known words which
are symptomatic of the age are here, with explanations and quotations (bomzh,
 homeless; chelnok, shuttle-trader; krysha, front,
cover, "protection"; tusovka, party, gig, hangout).

Many words are conventionally derived from the standard language (obozhrat'sya,
 get pissed; otpad, a scream, hoot; sekuchii,
brilliant), or new ironic meanings are attached to existing words (amyoba,
 biology teacher; demokratizator, rubber truncheon
adopted by police under Gorbachev; mavzolei, shop with long queues; khunta,
 criminal gang; raiska, small bottle of vodka, Gorbachev
period). Words are also formed by witty combinations (alkonavt, a drunk;
 sekretutka, secretary who sleeps with her boss). A very
large number of word stems are English, sometimes Russianised so much as to be
 unrecognisable (byozdnik, birthday; dabl, WC;
obkhairat'sya, have a haircut; oldovost', experience of the hippie scene;
 yangovyi, young), sometimes transparent (fazer; gerla;
kamat'; klouz; lukat'; naif; seishen). Some English words suffer semantic drift
 (askat', to beg). German is also an influence
(abzats, garbage; gesheft, shady deal; glyuk, hallucination; greta, female punk;
 kind, child).

Contemporary youth slang inevitably includes many words from related jargons, of
 which the most obvious are the army, criminal and
camp slang, and trade languages. Army language is not a large presence in the
 dictionary, although you will find the obvious terms
(afganets, cherpak, ded, dembel', dukh, fazan, molodoi, salabon, slon). Criminal
 and prison camp slang is represented better
(avtoritet, baryga, bespredel, chistyak, ksivy, pakhan, patsan, shmara). Finally
 the survival ability of the old traders and
tinkers languages of the 18th century is once more demonstrated (chuvak,
 chuvikha, fenya, khavka, khilyat', kimarit, kiryat',
klyovo, lokh). None of these jargons is comprehensively covered, and it may be
 that there is an opening for Russian-English
dictionaries of these varieties to be produced in the future. These varieties of
 Russian are present only so far as they are known
in modern colloquial Russian.

Comparisons will inevitably be made with Shlyakhov and Adler, Dictionary of
 Russian Slang and Colloquial Expressions, Barron's,
1995. In fact the two are very different, with the Barron's work aiming to be a
 comprehensive collection, with stylistic
annotation. The strength of the UFO/Davie Russian-English Dictionary of
 Contemporary Slang is that it presents the Russian
linguistic world from the point of view of the young, as the illustrative
 phrases amply demonstrate. In this sense it is more than
a dictionary, it is a social document, an authentic sample of youth feelings and
 attitudes. As an introduction to contemporary
Russian youth slang, it is unbeatable.

ANDREW JAMESON


Andrew Jameson
Association for Language Learning UK
Russian Committee
Languages and Professional Development
1 Brook Street, Lancaster LA1 1SL UK
Tel: 01524 32371  (+44 1524 32371)