Dictionary of Russian Slang and Colloquial Expressions / Pershyi slovnyk ukrains'koho molodizhnoho slenhu

Bell & Howell Information And Learning: Foreign text omitted.

Vladimir Shlyakhov and Eve Adler. Dictionary of Russian Slang and Colloquial Expressions / (.......) Second Edition. New York: Barrons, 1999. 296 pp. $17.50, paper. Svitlana Pyrkalo. lurli Mosenkis, ed. Pershyi slovnyk ukrains'koho molodizhnoho slenhu [First Dictionary of Ukrainian Youth Slang]. Kyiv: AT VIPOL, 1998. 84 pp, paper.

Publications like these can substantially supplement textbooks and dictionaries employed in the second language classroom. The cover of Shlyakov's and Adler's volume advertises "more than 5000 words and their popular meanings that you won't find in standard Russian-English dictionaries." Today the high and low registers of a language often coexist not only in crime novels but also in newspapers, on TV, and even in everyday conversations. To understand them it is necessary to become acquainted with slang. Among North American students there is enormous interest in Russian and Ukrainian slang. Representing the most fluctuating aspect of a language, slang can be perceived as the pulse of life of any community of speakers. Scholars wishing to study recent changes in any language are naturally drawn to slang.

This is the second edition of The Dictionary of Russian Slang and Colloquial Expressions. It includes: 1) widely used colloquialisms and street language; 2) criminal slang; 3) army slang; 4) youth slang; 5) school and university, sports, and musical slang; and 6) obscenities (see Preface, pp. vi-vii). In fact, the latter stratum of the Russian lexicon is presented in much detail. Each Russian entry is accompanied by an English translation, an example of Russian usage and its English equivalent. Shlyakov and Adler show accentuation, present main grammatical forms, and identify grammatical categories, social spheres and emotional tone. Their Preface also lists works on slang that were published in Russia since the beginning of the 1990s (p. v).

The First Dictionary of Ukrainian Youth Slang has no predecessors. It was compiled on the basis of a BA thesis prepared for the seminar on "Language and History," which is under the direction of N. P. Pliushch, the Chair of the Department of Modern Ukrainian at Kyiv's Taras Shevchenko University. The volume is devoted to youth slang along with school and university, sports, and musical slang. However, it also presents many colloquialisms, examples of street language, and a few examples of criminal and army slang. It is difficult to clearly define these subcategories, inasmuch as the boundaries among them are permeable. In this dictionary Ukrainian explanations and examples of contextual usage within a sentence accompany each word or expression. The publication deserves to be expanded and translated into English.

The task of identifying all the newest slang is not easy. Thus, although the Russian dictionary presents the noun ,e6euK (p. 47), it does not contain the more colloquial ?96(...)and (...) for `KGB agent.' In contemporary newspapers the latter forms are used on a par with, if not more frequently than, the first. Regarding Shlyakov's and Adler's explanation of the word (...) (...) (p. 106), it should be noted that in Ukraine, at least, (...)(instead of(...)) is used.

In the Ukrainian dictionary (...) - (...) (p. 4) is registered for `money,' but the more recent (...) is not included. Interestingly, Pyrkalo avoided for the most part the inclusion of Russian origin slang, which is rather popular among Ukrainian youth. One should note here that the Ukrainian form (...), which is constituted by (...) (i.e., `old fart') is preferable to the russified (...) (p. 66). By the same token, (...) (p. 70) should have been rendered as (...) for `baked liver pasty.'

Both publications should be welcomed. Although every obscene word need not be mastered by students, these dictionaries can certainly liven up their languagelearning activities.

Valerii Polkovsky, University of Alberta