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,
Владимир Высоцкий, «Диалог у телевизора»
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“And, of course, Zin,
Vladimir Vysotsky, Dialogue by the TV set
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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»
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“What do you need, old man?”
Alexander Pushkin, The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish
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Ой, как худо жить Марусе
Николай Заболоцкий, «Городок»
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Oh what trial is Tarusa
Nikolay Zabolotsky, The Town
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Он говорит в ответ:
Иосиф Бродский, «Натюрморт»
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He, in turn, explained:
Joseph Brodsky, Nature morte
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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»
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“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
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— Вы не медик, панычу? Медики, те привыкают сразу.
М. А. Булгаков, «Белая гвардия»
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“Not a medical man, are you, sir? Medical gentlemen soon get used to it.”
Mikhail Bulgakov, The White Guard
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In modern Russian, a number of nouns of the first declension and some (typically, diminutive forms of) given names which end with -а or -я 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 Nominative | Diminutive Nominative | Diminutive Neo-vocative |
|---|---|---|
| Александр (m), Александра (f) | Саня | Сань |
| Саша | Саш | |
| Шура | Шур | |
| Анна (f) | Аня | Ань |
| Ася | Ась | |
| Нюра | Нюр | |
| Алла (f) | Алка | Алк |
| Андрей (m) | Андрюша | Андрюш |
| Владимир (m) | Вова | Вов |
| Вовка | Вовк | |
| Володя | Володь | |
| Елена (f) | Лена | Лен |
| Зинаида (f) | Зина | Зин |
| Иван (m) | Ваня | Вань |
| Мария (f) | Маня | Мань |
| Маша | Маш | |
| Михаил (m) | Миша | Миш |
| Надежда (f) | Надя | Надь |
| Николай (m) | Коля | Коль |
| Ольга (f) | Оля | Оль |
| Тамара (f) | Тома | Том |
| Томка | Томк | |
| Татьяна (f) | Таня | Тань |
| Танюша | Танюш |
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!
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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