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comment by elizabeth
elizabeth  ·  3016 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: State of the Internet in Russia

I love shkvarki! Rassian bacon ftw





user-inactivated  ·  3015 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Well, the meaning of "зашквар" is a little different: it has a distinct negative connotation. If something is "зашквар", it's a bad situation.

elizabeth  ·  3015 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Talked to my Russian friends last night and it's actually pretty bad prison slang. Zashkvaritsia is basically opozoritsia, but in really dirty prison talk. Got some prison initiation stories about kissing toilets, if you cave and do it, ty zashkvarilsia. eww.

user-inactivated  ·  3015 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Uh. And yet, I'm not that surprised to see prison slang make way into non-mainstream language when it comes to Russian: a lot of things come from there.

Thanks for letting me know of that. It's an interesting point.

raisin  ·  3013 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Wasn't it Solzhenitsyn who said something about the prevalence of prison slang in the Russian language after the increase in prison sentences starting in the 20s? I'll try and find the actual quote once I get home, but if I remember correctly, he mentioned something like that in The Gulag Archipelago (or was it The First Circle?). In any case, the prison slang is there and it doesn't seem to be going away.

What do you mean by non-mainstream language?

user-inactivated  ·  3013 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I always assumed that the prevalence of the prison slang has to do with Russian culture's morbid obsession with prisons and crime in general. There's even quite a popular TV channel in Russia, NTV (or, НТВ), that seemingly specializes in producing crime-related series (both from the police' and criminals' perspective). Whether the Soviet imprisonments have to do anything with it, I don't know, but it's interesting to find a point of origin.

    What do you mean by non-mainstream language?

I mean the kind of lingo that's not used officially but is prevalent nonetheless, mostly among the youth. I learned the word "зашквар", for example, from an acquaintence of mine who's in her early 20s, who used it without a second of hesitation or embarrasement. I sadly lack the eloquience to put it in a more correct way.

elizabeth  ·  3015 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah, it was mostly used as discrimination against the gays in prison:

на тюремном слэнге - контактировать с опущенными, или касаться предметов или еды которых касался опущенный.

:(

My friend is old(er) tho. mid forties. the meaning and usage of the world might have changed with the internet speak but he said using this kind of talk was pretty frowned upon in Moscow. You don't use prison slang if you want to be respected.

user-inactivated  ·  3014 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It is no surprise, then, that the younger generation would apply a much milder meaning to the words their parents would shy away from without hesitation.