Lesson 3. Vocabulary

In the life of every country there are periods of decline and increased interest in political issues. One of these periods of growth was observed in Ukraine during the famous “Orange” revolution. It was in 2004, when no one remained indifferent to the events taking place in the country, taking one side or another, that such concepts as “blue-white” and “orange” became actualized in the Ukrainian lexicon. As you know, these colors symbolize the Party of Regions, led by Yanukovych, and, accordingly, the Our Ukraine party, led by current President Viktor Yushchenko. After the end of the revolution, these concepts did not disappear from the vocabulary of Ukrainian citizens, but only became entrenched in it, although they changed their meaning somewhat. If in 2004 the “orange” included not only “our Ukrainians”, but also Yulia Tymoshenko, and the “blue and white” included the communists led by Pyotr Symonenko, bearing in mind the political sympathies of the above-mentioned figures, then by 2008 the words “white "blue" and "orange" have narrowed their meanings as political camps have fragmented over the past few years. However, the enrichment of the Ukrainian vocabulary was not limited to concepts expressing color symbolism. Increased interest in political issues has given rise to a number of new lexemes that function primarily among young people as slang, but are gradually penetrating the speech of the older generation and the media. Since political contradictions have acquired the tinge of interethnic disputes that periodically occur between Ukrainians and Russians, the concepts used in discussing political issues have a strong connotation of national preferences.

One of the terms that cannot be ignored is “fofudya,” which originally appeared in Byzantium and denoted expensive fabric embroidered with gold, and then penetrated into the territory of Kievan Rus as an element of church attire. From the depths of history, this concept emerged through a letter sent to the PDRS website. An angry resident of the Kherson region complained to Peter Simonenko that his daughter was forbidden to wear such original Russian clothes as fofudya at school, citing the fact that the state language of the country is Ukrainian. This appeal quickly spread across the Internet as an example of the “comic” category, as well as vivid Russophilia combined with Ukrainophobia. Soon the term went beyond the Internet and expanded its meaning. Nowadays, the mention of “fofudya” is generally associated with the phenomenon of Ukrainophobia in the field of politics and worldview. People who are adherents of an aggressive pro-Russian policy on the territory of Ukraine are called “originalists.” This term is motivated by the fact that in the oral and written speech of these citizens the concept of “original Russian” prevails. According to the “original people,” not only the Crimean lands, but also eastern and central Ukraine are considered primordially Russian. For all the inhabitants of these lands, the native language is allegedly primordially Russian, and the air is saturated with primordially Russian culture.

The opposite of the concept of "original" is the concept of "Svidomo". This term comes from the adjective “Svidomo”, which means “conscious” in Russian. “Svidomite” is a Ukrainian citizen who adheres to an active pro-Ukrainian position. This term, unlike the term that will be discussed below, is not tied to a specific territory, that is, “Svidomite” can be found anywhere in Ukraine.

Another thing is that a “Jewish Banderist” is, as a rule, a resident of western Ukraine. In a broad sense, this term is interpreted as “the enemy of the Russian person,” since in Ukraine there is an opinion that every true Russian has two enemies in the world - a Jew and a Banderaite. Thus, a “Jewish Banderite” is an enemy squared. The main occupation of the “Jewish Bandera” is the oppression of the Russian language and all sorts of manifestations of hatred towards the Russian people. One of these manifestations, as recounted by the “Jewish Bandera” themselves, is the removal of keys with the original Russian letters “y” and “e” from computer keyboards. In the process of communication, the word was shortened to the abbreviation ZhB (sounds like “zhebe”). Sometimes this term is used for self-identification by Ukrainians entering into interethnic disputes.

The concept of “Jewish Bandera” is associated with the concept of “Soton NATO member,” which is derived from the term “Soton NATO.” This term appeared by combining the abbreviation NATO and the word "soton", which has long been functioning on the Internet as Padonkovsky slang. This term refers not only to countries that are part of NATO, but also to Japan, Australia and many others. In other words, the concept of “sotonato” is an image of the decaying West in all the richness of all its manifestations. “Sotonato”, accordingly, is not so much a resident of Western Europe or America, but an individual who professes Western values. In relation to the interlocutor, this term is used to express a negative attitude towards him. If someone calls himself a “Sotonite” or “Jewish Banderist,” then this is done with the aim of expressing irony in relation to the interlocutor or the topic of conversation as a whole.

Thus, one can notice that disputes on political and national ideological topics are gradually moving from the plane of aggression to the plane of humor and irony. Some attribute the use of such vocabulary to a manifestation of sarcasm rather than irony; others insist that the average Ukrainian is tired of watching the castlings taking place in parliament, the strained relations between Russia and Ukraine, and is now simply looking at the situation from the outside, laughing at what is happening around. In general, it is worth noting that introducing humor into the discussion of serious pressing issues is a positive factor in the development of society.