question about slang

[Josh Wilson]

I'm afraid I'm not a linguist, so I can't explain much of the orthographic
contours and implications here - but I can affirm it is firmly a part of
modern Russian culture. 

Both "prived" and "preved" are used interchangeably (they each come up as
alternative spellings for the other if you type one into yandex).   

Preved's even got its own Wikipedia page:
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%B4

Also, using another sacred measure of language, google lists 327,000 "ПРЕВЕД
МЕДВЕД" hits and 375,000 (how's that for interesting) for "PREVED MEDVED"
Search for just "preved" or "prived" also lists a plethora of sites. 

Most of those hits will go to the slew of "prikol" sites (which are all
highly irreverent, perhaps to the point of pornography for more sensitive
viewers) that have grown around the expression (popularized by an
underground comic)

See: 

http://prevedmedved.ru/ 
http://pics.protoplex.ru/pics_group/2.html

for example.... 

As to the pronunciation - not sure I can explain that either. However, I can
hear the difference when it's used (the fact that it's usually followed by a
laugh similar to that of Butt-Head's from MTV fame is usually a give away,
though). 

I don't know if I could pull it off myself, but perhaps it's one of those
true tests of coolness. Like the ability to pronounce "all right" in the
true style of American black culture. (I'll leave the translit of that to
someone else...)

All this might make for an interesting graduate project for some
enterprising soul... 

Josh Wilson
Asst. Director
The School of Russian and Asian Studies
Editor-in-Chief
Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies
www.sras.org
jwilson at sras.org

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of John Dunn
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 5:10 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] question about slang

I am intrigued by Josh Wilson's reference to 'prived'.  Leaving aside the
spelling, which looks like a contamination between standard Russian 'privet'
and standard olbanskij 'preved', the whole point of olbanskij forms is to
create an alternative orthography for what in principle should be the same
spoken language.  It is not entirely clear to me how even the coolest of
Russians make it clear they are saying 'pri/eved' and not 'privet', and
further enlightenment would be greatly appreciated. 

I don't think chuvak and chuvikha have additional meanings.  Both the
Bol'shoj slovar' russkogo zhargona and the Juganovs' Slovar' russkogo slenga
suggest the words are borrowed from Romany; this seems plausible enough,
though, for what it's worth, I can't find either word in R.S. Demeter and
P.S. Demeter's Cygansko-russkij i russko-cyganskij slovar'.

John Dunn.

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