Fenya ( rus, феня, p=ˈfʲenʲə) or fen'ka ( rus, фенька, p=ˈfʲenʲkə) is a Russian cant language originated among the travelling

peddler A peddler (American English) or pedlar (British English) is a door-to-door and/or travelling vendor of good (economics), goods. In 19th-century United States the word "drummer" was often used to refer to a peddler or traveling salesman; as exem ...

s and currently used in the Russian criminal underworld and among former detainees of Russian penal establishments ("

prison slang Prison slang is an argot used primarily by criminals and detainees in correctional institutions. It is a form of anti-language.Mayr, A. 2012. Prison Language. The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Many of the terms deal with criminal behavior ...

"). In modern Russian language it is also referred to as

blatnoy In Russian culture, ''blat'' () is a form of corruption comprising a system of informal agreements, exchanges of services, connections, Party contacts, or black market deals to achieve results or get ahead. In the context of corruption in the So ...

language (), where "blatnoy" is a

slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...

expression for "professional criminal". It is also widely used in "thieves' songs" (Russian: "blatnaya pesnya").

Etymology

Initially, this was the name of the Ofenya language (, formerly "

Suzdal Suzdal (, ) is a Types of inhabited localities in Russia, town that serves as the administrative center of Suzdalsky District in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, which is located along the Kamenka tributary of the Nerl (Klyazma), Nerl River, north o ...

dialect"). This is a language that was formed in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, and was originally used by the ''ofenyas'' (travelling

s). The god-haulers — "ofenyas engaged in the resale of

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...

s" created a cryptolanguage, inventing new roots and leaving the traditional Russian morphology, and used this invented language to communicate "not for other people's ears".

Overview

The

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

of fenya is Russian; the

vocabulary A vocabulary (also known as a lexicon) is a set of words, typically the set in a language or the set known to an individual. The word ''vocabulary'' originated from the Latin , meaning "a word, name". It forms an essential component of languag ...

has changed over time. The original ''fenya'' consisted of broken Russian words borrowed from

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and other foreign languages.

Vladimir Dahl Vladimir Ivanovich Dal (, ; 22 November 1801 – 4 October 1872) was a Russian lexicographer, speaker of many languages, Turkologist, and founding member of the Russian Geographical Society. During his lifetime he compiled and documented the o ...

in his ''

Explanatory Dictionary of the Live Great Russian language The ''Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language'' (), commonly known as ''Dal's Explanatory Dictionary'' (), is a major explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. It contains about 220,000 words and 30,000 proverbs (3rd edi ...

'' gives the following examples: *"Ропа кимать, полумеркот, рыхло закурещат ворыханы." () *:Normative Russian: "Пора спать, полночь; скоро запоют петухи." () *:Translation: "It's time to go to bed, it's midnight, soon the roosters will be crowing." *"Да позагорбил басве слемзить: астона басвинска ухалила дряботницей." () *:Normative Russian: "Да позабыл тебе сказать: жена твоя померла весною." () *:Translation: "Oh, I forgot to tell you: your wife died this spring." The vocabulary changed over time, with notable infusion of words of

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

origin. During the times of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

''fenya'' penetrated into common spoken Russian and can no longer be considered cryptic, although it is still commonly associated with those who have connections to the Russian criminal culture or who have spent a significant amount of time incarcerated. A number of explanations for this phenomenon are suggested. For one, a significant part of the population, not necessarily criminals, survived the

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

and were released after the death of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

and during the

Khrushchev thaw The Khrushchev Thaw (, or simply ''ottepel'')William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, London: Free Press, 2004 is the period from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s when Political repression in the Soviet Union, repression and Censorship in ...

. This resulted in the merger of the culture of Gulag prisoners into everyday Soviet life, which resulted a

culture shock Culture shock is an experience a person may have when one moves to a cultural environment which is different from one's own; it is also the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration ...

on both sides. Particularly members of the

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

, including writers, poets, and journalists who had survived the Gulag as

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although ...

s, began to regularly use fenya in their writings after their release. Over time, criminals and

black market A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...

eers were covertly admired in working class Soviet culture. This resulted, for example, in " blatnaya songs". Few "common" Russians, however, possess a complete or even complex understanding of fenya and fewer still - for various reasons - will admit to it. Modern ''Fenya'' still influences

Russian culture Russian culture ( rus, Культура России, Kul'tura Rossii, kʊlʲˈturə rɐˈsʲiɪ) has been formed by the nation's history, its geographical location and its vast expanse, religious and social traditions, and both Eastern cultu ...

in different ways. In particular, a whole genre of Russian comedy exists, in which a well-known tale, such as ''

Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...

'',

J.R.R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...

's ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...

'', or even a popular

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

is satirized by rewriting the dialogue in ''fenya''. The

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

and the appearance of "

New Russians The New Russians ( tr. ''novye russkie'') is a cliché term referring to members of a newly rich social class in the Commonwealth of Independent States who made vast fortunes in the 1990s (also referred to as "the wild nineties") in Russia fol ...

" introduced new changes into ''fenya'', notably assigning new meanings and accents to common words. In January 2016, the use of both

profanity Profanity, also known as swearing, cursing, or cussing, is the usage of notionally word taboo, offensive words for a variety of purposes, including to demonstrate disrespect or negativity, to relieve pain, to express a strong emotion (such a ...

and fenya by prisoners was banned by the Russian penal system. This followed a 2013 ban on the use of fenya by Russian corrections officers.

References

External links

Glossary of Russian criminal slang
(Russian)
Russian criminal slang dictionaries (1859-1927)
(Russian) {{authority control Russian slang Cant languages Crime in Russia

Etymology

Overview

See also

References

External links