Wednesday 23 January 2019

Послушай, Зин

First published 22 January 2019 @ sólo algunas palabras

The first time I read the word зин I almost fell off the chair. (I was sitting on the sofa though.) Of course, зин is nothing but a Russian spelling of zine, itself a short of fanzine (фэнзин), which is a blend of fan and magazine. However, the meaning of the Russian word магазин (shop, store) is very different from that of magazine. My first association of зин was with the name Зин as in Vysotsky’s song:

“Ну, и меня, конечно, Зин,
Всё время тянет в магазин,
А там — друзья... Ведь я же, Зин,
Не пью один!”
Владимир Высоцкий, «Диалог у телевизора»
“And, of course, Zin,
I always long for the <liquor> store,
There are my friends, because, Zin,
I never drink alone!”
Vladimir Vysotsky, Dialogue by the TV set

By the way, I already mentioned this song when discussing Russian terms for in-laws. But why Зин instead of Зина?

You might remember that Russian has six cases. Or at least this is what we were taught in school. Well, that is not exactly true. There are remnants of up to ten additional cases! One of them is vocative. According to Russian Wikipedia, the historic Slavic vocative started to die out (by getting mixed with nominative) as early as XI century. By XIV—XV its use was restricted to addressing the higher social ranks and by mid-XVI century it disappeared from vernacular altogether, the only remaining forms being those to address the clergy. Nevertheless, until 1918, the vocative case was formally listed as the seventh case of the Russian language.

Nominative Vocative Meaning
Бог Боже God (in monotheistic religions)
Господь Господи Lord
Иисус Иисусе Jesus
Христос Христе Christ
владыка владыко lord; bishop
отец отче father
старец старче (literary) old man; elder
царь царю tsar, king
князь княже prince
человек человече human being, person

The handful of surviving vocative forms are still very common in both literary and spoken Russian.

Врачу, исцелися сам!
Physician, heal thyself
Отче наш, иже еси на небесе́х! Да святится имя Твое...
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Не лепо ли ны бяшет, братие, начяти старыми словесы трудных повестий о полку Игореве, Игоря Святославлича?
Might it not become us, brothers, to begin in the diction of yore the stern tale of the campaign of Igor, Igor son of Svyatoslav?
«Чего тебе надобно, старче
А. С. Пушкин, «Сказка о рыбаке и рыбке»
“What do you need, old man?”
Alexander Pushkin, The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish
Ой, как худо жить Марусе
В городе Тарусе!
Петухи одни да гуси.
Господи Исусе!
Oh what trial is Tarusa
For the girl Marusya —
Nothing but the hens and geese,
What a living, Holy Geez!
Он говорит в ответ:
— Мёртвый или живой,
Pазницы, жено, нет.
Сын или Бог, я твой.
Иосиф Бродский, «Натюрморт»
He, in turn, explained:
— Dead or alive, this time,
Woman, it’s all the same.
Son or God, I’m thine.
Joseph Brodsky, Nature morte

In Ukrainian, vocative (кличний відмінок) is alive and kicking. In Russian literature, it is widely used to give a Ukrainian feel to dialogue (while leaving the rest 100% Russian):

— Не смейся, не смейся, батьку!
— Не слушай, сынку, матери: она баба, она ничего не знает.
Н. В. Гоголь, «Тарас Бульба»
“Don’t laugh, don’t laugh, father!”
“Don’t listen to your mother, my son; she’s a woman, she doesn’t know anything.”
Nikolai Gogol, Taras Bulba
— Вы не медик, панычу? Медики, те привыкают сразу.
М. А. Булгаков, «Белая гвардия»
“Not a medical man, are you, sir? Medical gentlemen soon get used to it.”
Mikhail Bulgakov, The White Guard

In modern Russian, a number of nouns of the first declension and some (typically, diminutive forms of) given names which end with or could drop the ending to form a “neo-vocative” («современный звательный» or even «новозвательный падеж»). For instance, (nominative) Зинаида → (diminutive nominative) Зина → (diminutive neo-vocative) Зин.

Full NominativeDiminutive NominativeDiminutive Neo-vocative
Александр (m), Александра (f)СаняСань
СашаСаш
ШураШур
Анна (f)АняАнь
АсяАсь
НюраНюр
Алла (f)АлкаАлк
Андрей (m)АндрюшаАндрюш
Владимир (m)ВоваВов
ВовкаВовк
ВолодяВолодь
Елена (f)ЛенаЛен
Зинаида (f)ЗинаЗин
Иван (m)ВаняВань
Мария (f)МаняМань
МашаМаш
Михаил (m)МишаМиш
Надежда (f)НадяНадь
Николай (m)КоляКоль
Ольга (f)ОляОль
Тамара (f)ТомаТом
ТомкаТомк
Татьяна (f)ТаняТань
ТанюшаТанюш

These short forms can make for almost untranslatable wordplay:

Как-то раз в коридорах Центрального телевидения встретились диктор ЦТ Ангелина Вовк и канцлер ФРГ Хельмут Коль. Произошёл любопытный разговор:
— Как дела, Вовк?
— Да ничего, Коль!
Андрей Кнышев, «Тоже книга»

Normally full Russian names do not form neo-vocative, so we don’t say “Алл”, “Анн”, “Елен”, “Надежд”, “Ольг” etc. Of course, there are exceptions, for example Вера → Вер, Зоя → Зой and Тамара → Тамар. A small number of “family” nouns, viz. мама (mum), папа (dad), тётя (auntie), дядя (uncle), баба (granny), wonderfully combine with proper names to form binary constructions which take neo-vocative as in “дядя Ваня” → “дядь Вань” or “баба Шура” → “баб Шур”.

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