Linguistic Escapades in Lingua Russe

Time was, speaking French for the Russian elite was considered комильфо (comme il faut or proper) whereas speaking Russian was моветон (mauvaix ton, bad form). The nobles would occasionally utter some Russians words like muzhik, and yet this sounded pejorative – e.g dressed – а ля мужик (a la muzhik).

These days, the Russian elite – the political elite at least – have more or less forgotten комильфо language (and manners for that matter). The only French word that likely is widely spoken in the Kremlin is the non-translatable брют, as in champagne. But even this Frenchism may soon disappear. President Yeltsin recently promised President Jacques Chirac that Russian wine producers will stop labeling their wares with the French terms шампанское or коньяк (champagne, cognac), words the French consider trademarked. Russians will apparently now call their champagne and cognac “sparkling wine” and “brandy” (шипучее вино and бренди, respectively).

As to the once-pejorative muzhik, it is now associated in elite circles with machismo. Public opinion here seems to feel that a president messing around with куртизанки (courtisanes – female aides) is a sign of a “real man” (настоящий мужик). There was even widespread public sympathy for Minister of Justice Sergei Kovalyov, who was fired after he was caught on video cavorting with some кокотки (from the French cocottes) in a banya (an escapade later dubbed “Banyagate”). Some papers and journals publicly acquitted Kovalyov, saying that the politicians’ амурные дела (affairs of the heart) or альковные страсти (from the French alcove, bedroom) were his private business and that it is wrong to будировать этот вопрос (to hype the issue, from the French bouder). This is an example of how poor Russian makes it into media parlance. Interestingly, Lenin once criticized this pretentiously incorrect idiom, for initially будировать in Russian meant what it means in French – to be capricious, to show one’s discontent.

Given centuries of court French in imperial Russia, French borrowings in Russian are innumerable. For instance, эскапады (escapades) and carte blanche (карт-бланш) are direct borrowings that could be freely used, say, to discuss recent scandals at the Clinton White House.

But not all borrowings are immediately apparent to an English speaker. Thus, sticking with current events, манкировал своими супружескими обязанностями means to neglect one’s conjugal duties (from the French verb manquer, to miss). And, interestingly, the familiar импичмент, a recent Russian borrowing from English, can be traced back to the French empecher.

Linguistic borrowings tend to occur when another culture has a particular strength in an area. Thus, the plethora of Frenchisms in Russian in the area of love and wine. Of course, there is also cuisine. Here, borrowings range from the common меню (menu) to бланманже (blanc-manger), пюре (puree) and рулет (roulette). And in ballet we have па-де-де (pas de deux), фуэте (fouette), пуанты (pointe) and what not.

Frenchisms have been sprinkled throughout Russian, to the extent that some are almost клише (cliche), like the fatalistic declaration of форсмажорные обстоятельства (force majeure). In sports there are terms like пелетон (peloton – cycling) or туше (touche – in wrestling or fencing). Oh, and the haute couture is высокая мода or just от кутюр.

But the most subtle (and interesting) borrowings are those where differences of nuance have somehow arisen between the borrowed foreign word and the Russian equivalent, or where the fact of a foreign borrowing is somehow disguised. For instance, it is common to use the word чувства to mean feelings. But don’t use the French borrowing сантименты to mean sentiments. For the Russian word has more to do with the English word “sentimental” and can often be pejorative, e.g: Давайте без сантиментов (Let’s proceed without emotions). The French plaisir (pleasure) has been disguised as блезир and is often used in the phrase для блезиру, meaning “for fun” or doing something for the heck of it. And then there is the very Russian sounding noun амикошонство. It is actually a compound borrowing from the French words ami (friend) and cochon (pig). This has become a phrase (meaning excessive unceremoniousness or familiarity) beloved by the Russian intelligentsia.

Finally, it is worth mentioning two borrowings with fascinating historical roots. The first, шерамыжник, is derived from the French cher ami (dear friend). Linguistic legend has it that the word was concocted by French prisoners of war who were abandoned by Napoleon in Russia after his 1812 debacle. The Frenchmen in question used the word to address Russian peasants and beg for a piece of bread. So now шерамыжник means an obnoxious cadger.

The French feminine for “dear” (chere) is also at the root of another idiom, шерочка с машерочкой (chere + ma chere). This phrase refers to years during and after the Great Patriotic War, when there were not enough men for dances and woman-to-woman dancing pairs were common at soirees.

In the end, unless you are faced with some форс-мажор situation requiring use of Frenchisms in Russian (e.g. to impress intellectuals), you can regard this vocabulary as optional (or факультативный, from the French, facultatif ), an a la carte part of your Survival Russian меню, if you will. It certainly will not add any couleure locale to your Russian – hough блезир and шерамыжник would be exceptions. But, then again, it doesn’t hurt to know the basic French borrowings in Russian. For then you have карт-бланш to use this or that клише, depending on where your эскапады take you.