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 the generally accepted norms, but which influence the life of society. In Russia, a clear example is the prison subculture, which brought into the life of law-abiding citizens numerous prison sentences that have become 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 would like it or not), they also fell into the field of vision of researchers, like all other elements that make up it. Scientists took up 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 also is its product. Even its very name - “fenya”, comes from the completely innocent word “ofena”, which means a wandering merchant, a peddler.
It is believed that the reason for creating a secret language lies in the desire to hide from prying ears everything related to trade secrets - sources of goods, purchase prices, sales plans and much more. But here the path begins, leading from the shop of an honest merchant to a thieves den. The fact is that the merchants themselves called themselves “obetilniki”, and, apparently, for good reason - the verb “overturn” in their language meant to deceive, to leave in the cold. Obviously, the secret language also served to exchange information on where and how to commit fraud.
"Fenya" - a sign of belonging to the thieves' world
However, many serious researchers, including academician D.S. Likhachev, were of the opinion that hardly prison sentences could serve as a reliable means of conspiracy. Specific thieves' speech can betray an attacker rather than hide his intentions. In addition, although it is full of characteristic slang expressions, it is not enough to be incomprehensible to others. It would be more correct to assume that the purpose of "fen" is to expose in the thief "his" and along with other signs: the manner of dressing, gait, tattoo, gestures and so on - emphasize his belonging to the criminal world.
Another reason why prison slang, 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 you need to keep secrets, easily learn a specific vocabulary. The same can be said about the ministers of places of imprisonment, and about the prisoners who were imprisoned, but nevertheless do not belong to the criminal world. Practice shows that thieves' tongue is the first thing that every new sider comprehends.
Words that survived the time
There is a misconception that characteristic prison phrases disappear from the vocabulary of the thieves world and are replaced with new ones as soon as their meaning becomes known to operational workers. This is not true. Studies in this area show that so many elements of jargon have existed for several centuries.
It is enough to recall the well-known words: sucker (gullible simpleton), shmon (search), grandmother (money), cop (police officer), bazaar (conversation, argument) and many others. These expressions used today are found in the manual on the study of the language of the criminal world, published before the revolution, intended for investigators and called “Thieves’ slang. Thieves music."
Folk speech - the basis of thieves language
It should be noted that the fact that prison sentences and phrases, for all their external unattractiveness, often have deep folk roots. Each “urka” - as representatives of this social layer so often call themselves, is a native of a particular region, and in its “hair dryer” there are often expressions that are a reflection of the linguistic features of the native area. For example, the Great Russian language enriched "thieves' music" with such words taken from dialects of various regions of Russia as basl (shouting and cursing), cormorant (petty, novice thief), bot (speak jargon) and so on.
The process of assimilation in the thieves' language of popular expressions became especially active during the period of mass Stalinist repressions, when millions of people ended up in the Gulag. During this period, the thug "fenya" was subjected to powerful influence of all kinds of local dialects and dialects. In addition, she 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 then world both at the domestic and political levels.
The reasons for rooting in the modern language of slang expressions
It is known that from the twenties to the fifties, representatives of the most diverse sectors of society served long sentences in places of detention. Among them were dispossessed peasants, workers, former nobles, military men, clergymen and many others. Once they were behind barbed wire, they quickly absorbed the jargon accepted there and introduced various elements of their vocabulary into it. It is generally accepted that it was during this period that “Fenya, ” in view of the changes introduced into it, became the generally accepted language of all prisoners, regardless of their camp status.
Those millions of Gulag prisoners who were lucky enough to be set free brought jargon, which has become an integral part of their vocabulary over the years of imprisonment. It was a huge number of its carriers that provided this “thieves music” with a wide influence not only on the spoken, but also on the literary language of a free society.
Jargon as an integral part of modern culture
Thus, in the Soviet Union, in view of its “special way of development, ” prison slang, 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, has become fertile ground for the creation and dissemination of thieves. In its open spaces she rose to unheard of heights.
Prison sentences 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 involuntarily fell under the influence of this wild and vibrant 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, undoubtedly, not only the Russian language, but also Russian history, and as a result, culture as a whole will become poorer.
The origin of some common language
Continuing the conversation about the connection of “thieves' music” with dialect vocabulary, as well as analyzing prison phrases and their meaning, it is appropriate, among other things, to recall the word ень ень ень (jacket), which is very widespread in the criminal world. Its etymology is quite interesting. Once among the wandering merchants-peddlers, it denoted a painted women's scarf (apparently, from the Slavic word lepota - beauty). At first it had the same meaning among thieves. It is known that for long hours of forced idleness, the occupants painted handkerchiefs and sent them home as gifts. But over time, their products received the name of the brand (from the word dirty, dirty), and their former name was transferred to jackets, instead of the formerly used word clift.
The comic nature of some thieves
It should be noted that there are quite funny prison phrases and expressions. For example, the uninitiated will be at a standstill after hearing the phrase "coffin with music." It turns out that this is nothing more than an ordinary piano. Or the purely church word "altar", used as a table of a judge. And it seems quite funny to use the name of the famous French film actor Belmondo meaning very stupid person, a complete fool. On the whole, prison phrases - funny and not very, are often built on the basis of expressions used in the ordinary language and giving them a new, sometimes completely unexpected meaning, which makes them comical.
Jewish roots of many thieves
Strange as it may seem, the formation of the notorious “thieves 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 Pale of Settlement of Jews, places of their compact residence were formed. In them, ethnic (in this case Jewish) organized criminal groups were not slow to take shape. Their members communicated among themselves in Yiddish or Hebrew - languages completely incomprehensible to police officers, since they did not accept Jews into the service, and accordingly there were no translators. Over time, these expressions formed a specific prison slang, phrases and individual words of which could not be understood by representatives of the authorities.
An example is the well-known word shmon (search). It came from Hebrew - shmona (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, in prison cells, according to the established schedule, searches were carried out at eight o’clock in the evening. It is the semantic connection between the action of the guard 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 Yiddish, is the word frayer, derived from Frej (freedom). It serves to designate people who have not been in prison and do not have relevant experience. By the way, the word blat so used in our life (for example, to get something by 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 have in mind the note necessary for the arrangement of affairs from the right person.
Dictionaries of thieves
As mentioned above, prison slang - phrases and individual words used in the criminal world, have repeatedly become the subject of study of linguists. The beginning of this was laid in the 19th century with the release of V.I. Dalia and I.D. Putilina. However, a special surge of public interest in this area of linguistics provoked the appearance in 1908 of a dictionary compiled by V.F. Trachtenberg - one of the most famous fraudsters of the early XX century.
This distinguished swindler became famous for selling to the French government the mines of Morocco, to which he had not the slightest relationship and which he had never seen in his eyes. Finding himself after numerous and “glorious” adventures in the Tagan 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 and other compilers were published at different times, but, as even the most superficial acquaintance with them shows, all of them were simply copied from the previous author and given to the publisher with a new signature. So, V. Lebedev's dictionary, published in the twenties, is a somewhat enlarged edition of Trakhtenberg, and V.M. Popov was a repeat of Lebedev's work. Next S.M. Potapov released his dictionary, no different from the publication of Popov. Incidentally, it was during this period that the foundations of the widely practiced subsequently lexicographic plagiarism were laid.
