Ukrainian servicemen pose for a photo during the shoot towards Russian forces of self-propelled artillery at a frontline in Kharkiv region, Ukraine. AP.
Kyiv: On 24 February 2022, Russia began “special military operation” in Ukraine which is seen as a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which started in 2014. The conflict, in turn, has spawned a new lexicon.
What was once a word only used by the Ukrainian air crew – ‘kranje’ – which roughly translates to ‘on the edge’ has now gained far wider usage, employed by soldiers and civilians in a country where presently almost everyone knows someone who is serving at the frontline. The word, roughly, denotes a premonition of death.
However, it is not the only word to make it to common usage. Words and phrases that have entered Ukrainian society include both those that were used in the beginning of the war in 2014 as well as those from the Soviet era, military slang that has become popularised again and others which are completely new.
For example, the word ‘avatar’ is used for drunken soldier, derived from a Ukrainian expression to get drunk, ‘chandelier’ to describe a white phosphorous airburst named for the falling points of white light as well as ‘at zero’, which means frontline.
Another chilling usage is ‘to the basement’ which describes the risk of what will happen to Ukrainians if captured by Russian forces.
However, the incursion of military slang, into civilian language is not new. According to a report by The Guardian, as conflict changes societies, it also changes the way people talk about it. In ways it provides a useful tool to talk about the reality of the experience.
Les Beley of the Potebnya linguistics institute at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine told the publication that while new words began appearing in 2014, some of them were even older, with them getting into wider usage.
“That includes some army slang that was common in the Russian and the Ukrainian language that had its origin in the Soviet war in Afghanistan. ‘Two-hundreds’ was military slang for dead and wounded whose origin was the fact that when bodies were transported from Afghanistan in that era, the weight of the coffin was 200 kilos,” Beley revealed.
“This process is part of reality we live, and this reality requires this lexicon. Language constantly changes and adapts,” Beley added.
According to Beley, the most famous among them has been Ukrainian memes that use the word for ‘cotton’ for explosions targeting Russian forces.
Beley explains that Russians do not talk about an explosion and would often say ‘klapok’, which means loud noise or clap. However, if those letters are used through Google Translate it will translate as cotton, a word used to mock Russians.
Beley also revealed how modes of communication have also changed in emails and text, along with words borrowed from JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, like ‘orc’, used as a derogatory term for Russians.
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