In the history of mankind with its variety of cultural trends, there have always been certain layers of people who, in their behavior and value orientations, do not fit into the general standard and are carriers of traditions that go beyond generally accepted norms, but have an impact on the life of society. In Russia, a vivid example of this is the prison subculture, which brought numerous prison phrases to the life of law-abiding citizens, which became the basis of slang that is widespread today.
Thieves' jargon - heir to the language of merchants
Since thieves' prison phrases are part of the Russian language (whether we like it or not), they also came into the field of view of researchers, like all other elements of it. Scientists began a serious study of this phenomenon back in the 19th century and established an interesting fact. It turned out that the thieves' jargon not only has a connection with the secret language of Russian merchants, but is also its product. Even its very name, "fenya", comes from the completely innocent word "ofenya", which means a traveling merchant, a peddler.
It is believed that the reason for the creation of a secret language lies in the desire to hidefrom prying ears everything related to trade secrets - sources of obtaining goods, purchase prices, implementation plans and much more. But here the path begins, leading from the honest merchant's shop to the thieves' den. The fact is that the merchants themselves called themselves "obzetilnik", and, apparently, for a reason - the verb "obzetit" in their language meant to deceive, to make a fool of. Apparently, the secret language also served to exchange information about where and how to commit fraud.
"Fenya" - a sign of belonging to the thieves' world
However, many serious researchers, among them Academician D. S. Likhachev, were of the opinion that prison phrases could hardly serve as a reliable means of conspiracy. Specific thieves' speech is more likely to betray the attacker than to hide his intentions. In addition, although it is saturated with characteristic slang expressions, it is not so much as to be incomprehensible to others. It would be more correct to assume that the purpose of "fenya" is to expose "one of his own" in the thief and, along with other signs: the manner of dressing, gait, tattoos, gestures, and so on, to emphasize his belonging to the criminal world.
Another reason why prison jargon, expressions, phrases and other characteristic elements of speech cannot be used for conspiracy is their easy assimilation by others. For example, law enforcement officers, that is, those from whom secrets must be kept, easily master a specific vocabulary. The same can be said about servants.places of detention, and about prisoners who ended up behind bars, but nevertheless do not belong to the criminal world. Practice shows that thieves' language is the first thing that every new inmate learns.
Words that survived time
There is an erroneous opinion that characteristic prison phrases disappear from the lexicon of the criminal world and are replaced by new ones as soon as their meaning becomes known to operatives. This is not true. Research in this area shows that many elements of jargon have been around for several centuries.
Suffice it to recall the well-known words: sucker (gullible simpleton), shmon (search), grandmas (money), cop (police officer), bazaar (conversation, dispute) and many others. These expressions used today are found in a manual on the study of the language of the criminal world, published even before the revolution, intended for investigators and called “Thieves' jargon. Thieves music.”
Folk speech is the basis of thieves' language
It should also be noted that prison phrases and expressions, for all their outward unattractiveness, often have deep folk roots. Each "urka" - this is how representatives of this social stratum often call themselves, is a native of a particular region, and in his "hair dryer" there are often expressions that are a reflection of the linguistic characteristics of their native area. For example, the Great Russian language enriched "thieves' music" with such words taken from the dialects of various regions of Russia as bazlat (shout and swear), cormorant(small, novice thief), bot (speak jargon) and so on.
The process of assimilation into the thieves' language of folk expressions became especially active during the period of mass Stalinist repressions, when millions of people ended up in the Gulag. During this period, the thieves "fenya" was subjected to a powerful influence of all kinds of local dialects and dialects. In addition, it has absorbed elements of urban slang and various types of professional jargon. It is also characteristic that the thieves' language, which had undergone significant changes by that time, reflected many of the realities of the world of that time, both at the everyday and at the political level.
Reasons for rooting in the modern language of slang expressions
It is known that from the 1920s to the 1950s, representatives of various strata of society served long terms in places of detention. Among them were dispossessed peasants, workers, former nobles, military personnel, clergy and many others. All of them, once behind the barbed wire, quickly assimilated the jargon adopted there and introduced various elements of their vocabulary into it. It is generally accepted that it was during this period that “fenya”, due to the changes introduced to it, became the common language of all prisoners, regardless of their camp status.
Those millions of Gulag prisoners who were lucky enough to be released brought jargon to freedom, which has become an integral part of their vocabulary over the years of imprisonment. It was the huge number of its speakers that provided this "thieves music" with a wide influence not only on the spoken, but also on the literary language of the freesociety.
Jargon as an integral part of modern culture
Thus, in the Soviet Union, in view of its “special path of development”, prison jargon, unique in its expressiveness and linguistic richness, appeared, the phrases and words of which have no analogues in any other language of the world. Being a "Babylonian pandemonium" and a mixture of languages, views and ideas about the world, the GULAG - the great tragedy of the people, became fertile ground for the creation and spread of thieves' bullshit. In its open spaces, she rose to unheard-of heights.
Prison phrases have become an integral part of the Russian language. It is known that many representatives of the intelligentsia, especially the humanities, who went through the Stalinist camps, noted in their notes that they unwittingly fell under the influence of this wild and bright element, which became the concentration of genuine folk speech. They quite rightly pointed out that without the vocabulary of this peculiar jargon, the amazing etymology of the words included in it, the knowledge of the roots and features, no doubt, not only the Russian language, but also Russian history, and as a result, culture as a whole, will become impoverished.
The origin of some common expressions
Continuing the conversation about the connection between "thieves' music" and dialect vocabulary, as well as analyzing prison phrases and their meaning, it is appropriate, among other things, to recall the word leben (jacket), which is very common in the criminal world. Its etymology is quite interesting. Once upon a time, among wandering peddlers, it meant a painted women's scarf (judging byeverything, from the Slavic word lepota - beauty). It had the same meaning at first among the thieves. It is known that during the long hours of forced idleness, the inmates painted handkerchiefs and sent them home as gifts. But over time, their products were called marochki (from the word to dirty, dirty), and their former name was transferred to jackets, instead of the previously used word clip.
Comicality of some thieves' expressions
It should be noted that there are quite funny prison phrases and expressions. For example, the uninitiated will be at a dead end when they hear the phrase "coffin with music." It turns out that this is nothing more than an ordinary piano. Or the purely ecclesiastical word " altar", used as a judge's table. And it seems quite funny to use the name of the famous French film actor Belmondo in the meaning of a very stupid person, a complete fool. In general, prison phrases - funny and not so cool, are often built on the basis of expressions used in ordinary language and giving them a new, sometimes completely unexpected meaning, which makes them comical.
Jewish roots of many thieves' expressions
Oddly enough, but the formation of the notorious "criminal music" was greatly influenced by two Jewish languages - Hebrew and Yiddish. This happened after in pre-revolutionary Russia, as a result of the law on the Jewish Pale of Settlement, places of their compact residence were formed. Ethnic (in this case, Jewish) organized criminal groups were not slow to form in them. Their members communicated with each other in Yiddish orHebrew - languages completely incomprehensible to police officers, since Jews were not accepted into the service, and, accordingly, there were no translators. Over time, these expressions formed a specific prison jargon, the phrases and individual words of which could not be understood by the authorities.
As an example, we can cite the well-known word shmon (search). It came from the Hebrew - shmone (eight), and this is no coincidence. The fact is that in the south of Russia, where Jews often settled and where they had to serve their sentences, searches were carried out in prison cells, according to the established schedule, at eight o'clock in the evening. It was the semantic connection between the action of protection and the time in which it was carried out that gave rise to the expression rooted in the thieves' world.
Another example of borrowing from the Hebrew language, this time from Yiddish, is the word fraer, which comes from Frej (freedom). It serves to refer to people who have not been in prison and do not have the relevant experience. By the way, the word blat, so used in our life (for example, to get something for blat) also comes from Yiddish. It is based on the word Die Blatte - a sheet of writing paper or a note. In this case, we mean a note from the right person necessary for the arrangement of cases.
Dictionaries of thieves' expressions
As mentioned above, prison slang - phrases and individual words used in the criminal world, has repeatedly become the subject of research by linguists. This began in the 19th century with the release of slangdictionaries V. I. Dahl and I. D. Putilin. However, a special surge of public interest in this area of linguistics was provoked by the appearance in 1908 of a dictionary compiled by V. F. Trachtenberg, one of the most famous swindlers of the early 20th century.
This prominent crook became famous for selling to the French government the mines of Morocco, which he had nothing to do with and which he had never seen in his eyes. Finding himself after numerous and “glorious” adventures in the Taganskaya prison, he filled his free time with collecting material for a thieves' dictionary, which included prison jargon - phrases with translation.
After his sensational publication, dictionaries of other compilers were published at different times, but, as even the most superficial acquaintance with them shows, they were all simply rewritten by the previous author and given to the publisher with a new signature. So, the dictionary of V. Lebedev, published in the 1920s, is a slightly supplemented edition of Trachtenberg, and the collection of V. M. Popov became a repetition of Lebedev's work. Further S. M. Potapov released his own dictionary, which is no different from Popov's edition. By the way, it was during this period that the foundations of the later widely practiced lexicographic plagiarism were laid.
Thieves' jargon these days
Connoisseurs of modern criminal jargon believe that today he is going through hard times. In their opinion, it is steadily degrading. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is called the changed contingent of places of detention. Among those who find themselves behind barbed wire,a large percentage of lumpen - people with an extremely primitive vocabulary. The low level of development of the criminogenic layer of youth also affects. In general, many are inclined to state the “decline in morals” of the prisoner world.
Editor-in-Chief of "Mediazona" Sergei Smirnov, after talking with the current inmates, selected 15 prison phrases, in his opinion, allowing to get an idea of modern Russia. This repeatedly published document sums up the path that Russian thug jargon has traveled over many decades. Leaving aside the question of the objectivity of its reflection of modern life, it can be said with full confidence that from a phraseological point of view, it undoubtedly testifies to the uninterrupted continuity of the current "feni" and the language of the former inhabitants of places not so remote. This is “without a market”!
