Almost every single circle of communication has its own language. There are concepts such as professional slang, student, and, of course, thieves' jargon.
It was the natives of the criminal world who created a special language that reflects not only prison life, but also the psychology of prisoners, reveals the principles of criminal business, and assesses the behavior of both prisoners and people who are far from crime. In essence, thieves' jargon or fenya is the only slang that can rightfully be considered a full-fledged language. It is applicable in ordinary life and you can communicate on it on any topic, and not just in your limited circle, but at the same time be sure that a simple layman is unlikely to understand what is being said now.
For the sake of justice, it should be said that recently the boundaries between thieves' jargon and normal human speech have become increasingly blurred. Now thieves can be heard from a person who has nothing to do with crime. But back to the origins and try to figure out what all the same means to "run the hair dryer."
A bit of history
Fenya is an artificial language that, according to historians, originates in the 16th century, at the time of the appearance of the first prisons in Russia or, as it was called then, prison, where the criminals were kept. For a very long time, only prisoners owned thieves' jargon, but since about the last century, prison vocabulary has become popular among ordinary people. Most likely, this is due to the fact that in Soviet times the number of prisoners increased sharply, which in pre-revolutionary Russia was much less. This was followed by massive amnesties and propaganda of thug romance.
Now slang words have almost lost their purpose, since initially they served to hide from the inhabitants any information. In those days, criminal elements could easily discuss some of their affairs, not only in the presence of onlookers, but even with the police. In modern Russia, almost any child, not to mention an adult, will easily understand almost the whole conversation.
The origin of the word "fenya"
The meaning of the word in Ozhegov’s dictionary is a rude expression of indifference, but historians believe that this language originates from wandering merchants - Offen, who, without their written language, verbally transmitted the language among themselves, using it when it was necessary to communicate something something not intended for the ears of others. Later, these words were adopted by prostitutes, pimps, horse thieves, beggars and other marginalized people.
Even in Tsarist Russia, it was believed that Fenya was something akin to the specific language of the criminal world and treated it with great interest. Scientists of those times and simple curious people were very interested in the thieves' jargon. Even V. Dahl did not ignore Fen or thieves' jargon. The dictionary compares thieves 'jargon with “thieves' music” owned by tens of thousands of people.
Another version
According to another version, Fenya is considered to be the secret language of the Jews. Scientists even draw many parallels between the thieves' jargon and Hebrew, which was spoken in Jewish criminal groups. Over time, this incomprehensible language has become a stable artificial language of the criminal world.
The expression "run on a hair dryer", which means:
- bot - to express oneself;
- Fenya is a way.
All together means: to express themselves in a way incomprehensible to others.
But on the other hand, Fenya is not only the language of the Jews, it was also widespread outside the Jewish diaspora. Most likely, thieves' jargon is a sort of “hodgepodge” made up of words from different countries and peoples. According to Dal, the word “bot” means “to talk” in the Nizhny Novgorod dialect. And the “Jewish” language itself is a mishmash of Slavic and Germanic languages, slightly diluted with independent Jewish words.
Language features
Thieves fenya is replete with words that are used in ordinary life, but in its own, distorted sense. For instance:
- A lot of words are taken from textbooks on zoology. Most likely, this is such a psychological aspect of life in captivity, when in order to gain authority among fellow inmates, it is necessary to somehow humiliate the weak. From here come words like “goat”, “rooster”, “rat” and the like.
- The use of the adjective as a household word characterizing a person. Words such as "looking," "omitted," "red," "cop," by hairdryer are words used as nouns.
- Using words from other languages. This is due to the fact that in Soviet times prisons were international and prisoners still communicated with each other. For example, the word "fraer". In German, this word means "free." In thieves hairdryer, this word eventually acquired a certain dismissive connotation and means a person who “never stomped the zone”, that is, he was never prosecuted.
But by and large, almost all the words of thieves' jargon have their roots among the Old Slavonic words, long out of circulation and forgotten by the townsfolk. Sometimes these words are given a modified meaning, more suitable for modern reality. In addition, thug fenya is a language that is replete with some of its phrases, depending on in which prison the criminal element was serving his sentence or what criminal profession he speaks.
Fenya in the modern world
Now from TV screens and among other mass media, slang words are increasingly heard. Many Russians are unhappy with this, but this is modern reality and it is unlikely that anything will be able to change it. If you cast aside the entire “rotten bazaar”, then you have to admit that the hair dryer has capacious and very vivid words and expressions that can quickly and accurately characterize a person or a situation.
And although real thieves now use Fenya rather simply as an indicator of their belonging to the criminal world, they can still easily distinguish the so-called “passengers”, that is, people who have never sat, but are constantly confronted with the criminal world. For the criminal world, Fenya is a way to express her thoughts and feelings, they simply don’t know how to do it differently.
Fenya (thieves' jargon): dictionaries
Currently, you can find a large number of dictionaries of thieves' jargon, but not all of them, unfortunately, are reliable. Perhaps the most complete dictionary was published in 1983 in New York - it consisted of four volumes compiled by the author V. Kozlovsky. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, dictionaries of "thieves' music" began to be published in Russia.