I ask specifically about Russian because the slang in the book depends largely on Russian written out phonetically in our letter system. I think this is a clever way of creating a futuristic slang (especially considering back when it was written people thought the Russians were going to take over everything), but what would you do, or what has been done, when it's translated into Russian? Alot more Russians know English than the other way around, so I don't know how effective making the futuristic slang English written phonetically in the Cyrillic alphabet would work... anyone know the answer to this? It's sad that they'd never have horrorshow (which is from kharasho, which means good in Russian) in not just a Russian translation, but any outside of English. It's such a book for an English audience and, moreso, for one with a basic knowledge of Russian.
Wrenched my shoulder lifting weights yesterday. Heaving giant tomes for the Yale library apparently did not do anything for my upper body strength. Criminy.
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"When translated into Russian, this peculiar feature (slang based originally on Russian words) is lost. The only solution might be to use a different language as a basis for creating a new slang, analogously to the Polish versions. However, an author of the Russian translation has chosen a different strategy.
Boshn’ak decided to replace the original slang words from the Burgess’s text with Russian colloquial words and expressions.
Such a solution is unexplainable, since another, much better strategy seems to be obvious. Russia and the U S A belong to the
opposite powers; therefore, slang based on English roots embedded in Russian text would create a world close to the Russian reality. Apart from that, tendency to use
English language in everyday life is much stronger in Russia than in any other European country. Hence, slang used as a tool of communication among teenagers would
sound more natural for the Russian reader, if it was based on English words.
Unfortunately, the Russian version of slang lacks all the effects present in English and Polish texts. The only sign of a particular kind of language spoken by the characters is the use of the Latin alphabet instead of the Cyrillic one, which means nothing if we consider spoken language."
Nadsat in the russian wikipedia.
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