"The influence of the English Language on Russian Youth Slang”
статья по английскому языку (7 класс) по теме

“The influence of the English Language on Russian Youth Slang”

«Влияние английского языка на русский молодежный сленг»

    Выполнили:

 Муллагалиева Элианора

 и Ермолаева Карина  

                                               Руководитель:

Фаттерахманова

Руфина Рафкатовна

Казань

2014

CONTENTS:

Introduction ..............................................................................................3

PART I

Chapter I  Slang. Youth slang.........................................................5

Chapter II  Slang Creation..............................................................8

Chapter III  Russian Youth Slang .................................................12

Chapter IV Loan words in Russian Slang  ....................................14

PART II English Loans in Russian Youth Slang  ...................................16

Conclusion ................................................................................................

Bibliography ............................................................................................

Supplements ............................................................................................

                                                               INTRODUCTION

      Slang is an important part of everyday speech of teenagers that makes the vocabulary lively, more teen-like, brightens the language.

It is common knowledge, that Youth takes part 1/3 part of the world population.

    Young people’s coinages are now probably the richest source of new language in the world and in Russian language as well. So we have chosen youth slang as the object of our study.

    The slang of pre-teens, teenagers, students and young adults uses all the techniques of English, the world’s most influential language. Thus, the subject of our research will be English loan words in youth slang of Russian teenagers.

It was very interesting for us to understand if such words and expressions are used not only by the members of the subculture but become a language norm.

   A word is a language norm if it is used, known and understood by most people in the society and if it is used in the Mass Media. So the aim of our study was to analyse the usage of English loans among teens’ slang expressions and see if such words become a language norm after some period of time of their existence in the language.

  We studied youth slang of our area which makes our study original and special.

So we think that our work will be quite useful for those who are interested in modern Russian and English languages. Besides, some students use different slang words in their everyday speech not knowing about their English origin, so it may be surprising for them to get to know the fact.  So there is a serious side to analysing young people’s slang and the usage of English loan words in teen’s everyday talks.

PART I    

 CHAPTER I

                                                              Slang. Youth slang

    The word SLANG is an abbreviation from the words “Sub” and “LANGuage”, so slang is the language of minor importance used by a definite group of people.        Different dictionaries give different definitions of the phenomena.

   Slang – words and phrases used informally in everyday speech and writing and not for formal or polite use.

  Slang - language peculiar to a particular group, an informal nonstandard vocabulary composed typically of coinages.
  Slang - nonstandard vocabulary composed of words or senses characterized primarily by connotations of extreme informality and usually by a currency not limited to a particular region.

  Slang fills a necessary niche in all languages, occupying a middle ground between the standard and informal words accepted by the general public and the special words and expressions known only to comparatively small social subgroups. It can serve as a bridge or a barrier, either helping both old and new words that have been used as "insiders" terms by a specific group of people to enter the language of the general public or, on the other hand, preventing them from doing so.

  Slang words cannot be distinguished from other words by sound or meaning.

Such words dо not change their sound or meaning when they becоme slang. Many slang words, such as blizzard, mob, movie, phone, gas, have become informal or standard and, of course, did not change in sound or meaning when they did so. In fact, most slang words are homonyms of standard words, spelled and pronounced just like their standard counterparts, as for example in American slang, cabbage  means money, (kapusta) and cool  is relaxed (krutoi).Of course, the words cabbage and cool sound alike in their ordinary standard use and in their slang use.

The same linguistic processes are used to create and popularize slang as are used to create and popularize all other words. Thеу are labeled slang only according to their current social acceptance, long after creation and popularization. Slang is not the language of the underworld. The main sources of slang change from period to period. Thus, in one period of American slang, frontiersmen, cowboys, hunters, and trappers may have been the main source; during some parts of the 1920s and 30s the speech of baseball players and criminals may have been the main source; at other times, the vocabulary of jazz musicians, soldiers, or college students may have been the main source. To fully understand slang, one must remember that a word's use, popularity, and acceptability can change. Words can change in social level, moving in any direction. Thus, some standard words of  William   Shakespeare's day are found only in certain modern-day British dialects or in the dialect of the southern United States.

  Words that are taboo in one era (e.g., stomach, thigh) can become accepted, standard words in a later era. Language is dynamic, and at any given time hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of words and expressions are in the process of changing from one level to another, of becoming more acceptable or less acceptable, of becoming more popular or less popular.

  Youth slang is crucial part of a young person's 'coming of age', one of the first detectable signs of their breaking away from their parents and their parents' values. It is a cheap second language that expresses the differences between a young person who is about to enter adulthood from his or her parents' generation.

  Slang comes from high schools and colleges but it isn't limited to those places. And slang is associated with youth; the older we get, the less likely we are to maintain it.

  So slang is not a language, dialect, or ordinary register. It is a special code that differentiates those who are 'with it', who 'make the scene'.

                                                        CHAPTER II

                                          Slang Creation and Spreading

  Every slang word has its own history and reasons for popularity. When conditions change, the term may change in meaning, be adopted into the standard language, or continue to be used as slang within certain enclaves of the population. 

  Some slang becomes respectable when it loses its edge; "spunk," "fizzle", "spent", "hit the spot", "jazz", "funky", and "p.o.'d", once thought to be too indecent for feminine ears, are now family words.

  Other slang survives for centuries, like "bones" for dice (Chaucer), "beat it" for run away (Shakespeare), "duds" for clothes, and "booze" for liquor (Dekker). These words must have been uttered as slang long before appearing in print, and they have remained slang ever since.

  While many slang words introduce new concepts, some of the most effective slang provides new fresh, satirical, shocking expressions for established concepts.

  Slang tends to originate in subcultures within a society. Occupational groups (for example, loggers, police, medical professionals, and computer specialists) are prominent originators of both jargon and slang; other groups creating slang include the armed forces, teenagers, racial minorities, citizens-band radiobroadcasters, sports groups, drug addicts, criminals, and even religious denominations .

  Slang expressions are created by the same processes that affect ordinary speech.

  Clipping is one of them, removing syllables from words, like teach for teacher or phys ed for physical education (физра), mike - microphone This is a common means of creating new words.

  Slang mostly relies on metaphor, though. Let's blow (leave) (слиняем) is a metaphor based on the movement of the wind. Diamonds look like ice (simile) and you'll find a lot of copper on a copper's uniform (synecdoche). When something exciting is called the bomb (implying a nuclear bomb), slang is relying on hyperbole. 

  Many slang words are simply made up and used because they are funny o: icky, yucky, dweeb, and nerd are fanciful concoctions that probably spread because the sound funny.

  The most productive elements in slang are suffixes. Sometimes a foreign suffix may be added (Russian -nik in beatnik).

  The range of word formation means is very wide, including abbreviation (,VIP, AWOL, snafu) pseudo cryptoformations, adverbs formed from names etc.

  Words may acquire new meanings (cool, cat) and foreign words may be adopted (baloney, from Bologna).

  Slang spreads through many other channels. First of all it is transmitted from mouth to mouth in oral speech. But nowadays there are other sources of spreading slang, such as popular songs. Today a sportscaster, news reporter, or comedian may introduce a lively new word already used by an in-group into millions of homes simultaneously, giving it almost instant currency.

  Most slang is used on the spoken level. When used by writers, slang is chosen to achieve a specific effect. Writers, however, seldom invent slang.

Slang is created by ingenious individuals to freshen the language, to make the language more picturesque, to increase the store of striking words, or to provide a vocabulary for new shades of meaning. Most of the originators of slang, however, are probably not conscious of these noble purposes and do not seem overly concerned about what happens to their language. In addition to occupational and professional groups, there are many other types of subcultures that supply slang.

                                                     CHAPTER III

                                              Russian Youth Slang

  Four great periods of rising up slang words can be defined in Russian history.

The first one is the beginning of the XX century when revolution and civil war brought a great army of young beggars, homeless poor children contacting widely with criminals and the speech of other young people was fulfilled with argot and slang words. So criminal jargon was widespread in the society.

  The second period is in 60-ies when ‘stilyagy’ went out to Russian streets and dance halls.

  The third period is the 70s 80s brought a lot of new subcultures created their own slang as the opposition to the official ideology.

  Nowadays we live through the fourth period when nearly every teen is a computer addict and spends evenings glued to the Internet. So a lot of computer terms invaded our speech.

  Youth slang is a coded language designed to exclude adults.

But it also shows what kids are concerned about. Some words only have one or two slang expressions, while others have lots of them. Where there are lots of words, we know it's something that concerns young people.
 So what are Russian teenagers concerned about? Pretty much what has interested young people all over the world for decades: sex, drugs, and music. Plus one modern addition: computers. If you are Russian and age 13 to 24, you call your computer аппарат, компик, компухтер, машина, тачила or числогрыз. If it's not working well, it's гнилой (literally, "rotten") or убитый ("killed"). If it's slow, it's задумчивый ("thoughtful").
 When life is going great, young people say it's балдёжно, зыко, неслабо, отпадно, улётно, файно, чётко, or чисто тайд. Here we can see the influence of English (файно is a Russified version of "fine") and the ad industry (чисто тайд -- pure Tide). English can also be found in several words for sex (факать, фачить) as well as words for a young woman: гёрла, герлёнок, гёрлышка, гирлица. French is represented by the cheerful селява (accent on the second syllable) -- from c'est la vie. However, it has been corrupted - perhaps due to the rhythmic echo of халява.
 If a child talks about антиквариат, нафталин, шнурки or ботинки (literally antiques, mothballs, shoelaces or boots) - these are all slang terms for parents. The witty шнурки завязаны - my shoelaces are tied -- means "My parents aren't home." Шнурки в стакане (literally "the shoelaces are in the glass") or предки в пещере ("my ancestors are in the cave") both mean "my parents are at home."
"The slang changes quickly. At first, kids said, Забей! (Forget it.) Then they started saying, Забей на это. It's hard to say exactly when the second expression appeared.

  And then, words and expressions keep coming back, sometimes with different meanings. In the '60s we used the word стиляги, which meant guys with greased-back hair, tight pants, and platform shoes. Now the word is used to describe anyone who is a hot dresser."
 Regional and institutional expressions quickly become universal. "Young people are extremely mobile. If a teenager comes to Moscow from Khabarovsk, he brings his slang with him. And it gets passed around in the mass media."
Young people develop their own dialect to encode their language, to conceal what they are saying from adults. There's nothing wrong with it. "Everything has its place - we shouldn't fight it. Let them play around with language. They'll grow out of it later."

                                                           PART II

                              English Loan-words in Russian Youth Slang

  Historically we can define three great periods of English language loans in Russian. The first is in 60s when after the Youth festival young people with the new stylish clothes and modern dances began using new English words for all this items unknown before. This time such slang words as  стиляги, фарца, битник         came into Russian language.

  The 70s and 80s brought subcultures and new terms and slang expressions with them: готы, панки, моды.

  Slang usually describes the fields of life most interesting for the society where it was born. The greatest amount of slang words represent such areas as “a person’, ‘appearance’, ‘clothes’, ‘home’, ‘leisure’.

  Nowadays when computers, computer games and the internet are widely spread, words connected with this sphere of life are very popular among young people, so we can consider it the third wave of English loan words in Russian youth slang.  

  Slang words occupy the language of Mass Media. All newspapers, magazines, TV programmes containing materials about young people and their interests include a great number of slang words, most of which are English loans.

  We began our practical work with collecting material: slang words and phrases used by teenagers in our area. Nearly …. people took part in our questionnaire. They were to name slang phrases they use  and hear in talks and answer some questions about this expressions.

All the examples were analyzed and the rating of the most popular slang words was made:

1. супер, (super)                                          21.   клабер (cluber)
2.  сори, (sorry)                                           22.  кипиш (to keep)
3. форевер (for ever)                                   23. батл (battle)
4. крейзи (crazy)                                         24.  бутсы (boots)
5. дарлинг (darling)                                    25. наличка (cash)
6. пати (party)                                             26. коменты (to comment)
7. хай, хэлоу (hi, hallo)                              27.   репосты (to repost)
8. брендовый (brand)                                 28.   геймер (gamer)
9. фан (fan)                                                 29.  реал, реально (real, really)
10. мэн (man)                                               30.  пиплы, (people)

11. бейби (baby)                                           31.  лузер,(lose)

11. коннектиться (connect)                         32. френды (friend)
12. дрес-код (dress-code)                             33.  апартаменты (apartament)
13. кул, кульный (cool)                               34.  ризон (reason)
14. креатив, креативный (creative)             35.мейк-ап (make-up)
15. уау (wow)                                               36.   зебестный (the best)
16. бёздник (birthday)                                 37.   кликнуть (click)  
17. фэйс (face)
18.  мэйкап (make up)
19. зебестный (the best)
20.   кликать (click)

These words were divided into semantic categories:

1. Words describing relations between young people
2. Words devoted to leisure activities

1) Adjectives expressing the attitude of young people to everyday life

2) Words connected with computers

3. Words naming people
4. Emotional and expressive words

  From the list of  words you can see that most of this words express relations between young people (коннектиться, фан, бэйби, дарлинг).

  Some adjectives are used to show the attitude of young people to everyday events (кульно, окейно, зебестный).

  Quite lots of words connect teens with the world of computers (комменты, лайки кликать, геймер).

  Some words are used to show people’s emotions (уау, кульно, супер).

 There are also words which call somebody (френды, пэрэнты, бой, гёрл).

But we can say for sure that all the slang expressions are the words from young people’s everyday talks and usual events.

 Thus, its part of our research work shows that social relationships and peculiarities of life and leisure are reflected in youth slang.

And now it’s high time to prove our words, and give you some vivid examples.

In our questionnaire we also wanted to know if interviewees often use slang words. We learned that nearly half of then use slang words quite often:

Then we asked the youth about the sources of slang. The results were predictable – more than the half of the interviewees (51. 5%) learn slang words from their friends.  Internet, the mass media, music and subcultures   make 41.2 % of slang and the rest part of the interviewees create slang phrases of their own.  

The next question was about the reasons of using slang.  Most of interviewees (51.7 %) use slang as a habit,  19.5 % use slang in order to express their opinion more clearly and shortly,  17.5 % of teenagers of our area use slang because it is an easy way to express their emotions, and the rest part (11.3 %)  use slang in order to seem more “cool” in the eyes of friends.  

So, we can state:  

Youth use slang very often. And it is their second language .They want to add some emotions to a sentence or phrase. And even if people don’t use slang, in most cases they understand the meaning of the slang words.

 The most popular source of slang is a small company.  Most of all slang is used in oral speech.

Some slang words even become a language norm and are used in modern literature, in the newspapers and magazines, in TV programmеs in order to make the language brighter and the topic sound more modern and clear to teens.  

                                                     CONCLUSION

  Slang is a universal fact of culture. We can find the equivalents of modern slang in the Antiquity, in the Middle Ages, and in the modern era. All slang passes through the same developmental cycles.

  Today any writer may use slang freely, especially in fiction and drama.

 It has become a tool in the hands of master satirists, humorists, and journalists. Slang is now socially acceptable, not just because it is slang but because, when used with skill and discrimination, it adds a new and exciting dimension to language. At the same time, it is being seriously studied by linguists and other social scientists.

  The processes by which words become slang are the same as those by which other words in the language change their form or meaning or both. Some of these are the employment of metaphor, simile, folk etymology, distortion of sounds in words, generalization, specialization, clipping, the use of acronyms, elevation and degeneration, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole, borrowings from foreign languages, and the play of euphemism against taboo.

   For many other words, slang is a testing ground that shows them to be unnecessary, frivolous, faddish, or unacceptable for standard or informal speech. For still a third group of words and expressions, slang becomes not a final testing ground that either accepts or rejects them for general use but becomes a vast limbo, an area of speech that a word never leaves.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. Береговская Э. М. Молодежный сленг: Формирование и функционирование // Вопросы языкознания. - М., 1996.-N 3.-С32-41.
2. Борисова- Лушканец Е.Г. О лексике современного молодежного жаргона (англоязычные заимствования в студенческом сленге 60-70-х.годов) // Литературная норма в лексике и фразеологии .- М ., 1983.
3. Левикова С.И. Большой словарь молодежного сленга.- М., 2003
4. Широкова Е. Школьный жаргон: Что это такое // Lingua , 1992 N 1. – С. 23 – 26.
5. The All Nations English Dictionary.- Colorado Springs,1990
6. Cambridge Dictionaries online. Dictionary.cambridge.org\.-8k
7. Dictionary and Thesaurus. Merriam-Webster Online http://www.merriam.webster.com
8. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. A.S. Hornby.-M., 1981
9. Patton F.R. Expressive means in Russian youth slang // Slavic and East European Journal, 1980, № 24, 270—282.
10. Slang, youth subcultures and rock music. www.cheathouse.com/essay/

SUPPLEMENTS:

Supplement 1

Анкетирование

1. Часто ли вы употребляете английские слова в своей речи? (Ok, buy-buy, No и т.д.)

1. Да        
2.  Нет        
3.  Иногда

2. Какие английский слова вы употребляете в своей речи наиболее часто? (Привести пример)

3. Где вы употребляете слова английского языка?

1. Дома
2. В школе
3. В общественных местах
4. В интернете (в социальных сетях)

4. Зачем вы употребляете слова английского языка в своей речи?

1. Привычка

б) Модно

2. Для того чтобы выделиться среди окружающих

5. Понятно ли вам значение английских слов, которые используете в своей речи?

1. Да
2. Нет
3. Не совсем

6. Откуда вы узнали эти слова?

1. Из СМИ
2. От друзей
3. От учителей
4. От родителей
5. Из интернета

7. Используют ли в речи английские слова ваши учителя?

1. Да
2. Нет
3. Иногда

8. Используют ли в речи английские слова ваши родители?

1. Да
2. Нет
3. Иногда

9. Как вы считаете, нужно ли употреблять английские слова в русском языке?

1. Да
2. Нет
3. Свой вариант ответа: