Padonkaffsky jargon (russian: язык падонкафф, ''yazyk padonkaff'') or Olbanian (, ''olbanskiy'') is a cant language developed by a subculture of Runet called padonki (russian: падонки). It started as an

Internet slang Internet slang (also called Internet shorthand, cyber-slang, netspeak, digispeak or chatspeak) is a non-standard or unofficial form of language used by people on the Internet to communicate to one another. An example of Internet slang is " LOL" ...

language originally used in the Russian

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...

community. It is comparable to the English-based Leet. Padonkaffsky jargon became so popular that the former

President of Russia The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...

Dmitry Medvedev jokingly suggested that Olbanian be taught in schools.

Origin and etymology

The term ''Olbanian'' is an alteration of Albanian, although Albanian is not used to create Olbanian slang. Learn Olbanian! (''Russian'': Учи олбанский!) is a popular phrase that was coined in a 2004 incident in

LiveJournal LiveJournal (russian: Живой Журнал), stylised as LiVEJOURNAL, is a Russian-owned social networking service where users can keep a blog, journal, or diary. American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal on April 15, 1999, ...

when an

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to t ...

user found a post written in Russian, which he didn't understand and was unable to translate. He asked what language was being used. He was jokingly told that the post was in Albanian. He questioned why people were posting messages in Albanian by saying:

Because? It's LIVEJOURNAL. An American website. Not an albanian; (#*!@()! site. Plus, being an American means that the rest of the world should have to cater to me. But that's just mypointofview.

In reaction to this comment, an

Internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

started, urging the English language user to ''Learn Albanian!'' and flooding him with email messages, text messages, and calls to his personal cell phone. Eventually, the English language user wrote an apology in Russian, explaining that he had mastered the Albanian language. Since then, the request to "Learn Olbanian!" became a friendly response to anyone using incorrect grammar or when saying something that doesn't make sense. An invitation to "Learn Olbanian!" was directed at Madonna in 2006, when in her blog she used an electronic translator to address her Russian fans and called them "Russian ventilators" by mistake.

Use and development

The language was first developed in 1997 by intellectuals with

Internet access Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Internet ...

who were developing and using

open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Ope ...

and Russian FidoNet. They were

journalists A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, system administrators and professionals with

academic degrees An academic degree is a qualification awarded to students upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, usually at a college or university. These institutions commonly offer degrees at various levels, usually including ...

. The language is based on sensational (mostly

phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

, but also counterphonetic) spelling of the Russian and Ukrainian languages often using

profanity Profanity, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenities, expletives or vulgarism, is a socially offensive use of language. Accordingly, profanity is language use that is sometimes deemed impolite, ru ...

. It combines complex

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mo ...

with creative use of idioms and literary expression. It is often used to express disagreement, amusement, or to create political satire. It was popularized by the padonki subculture on websites like Udaff.com and Fuck.ru (currently defunct) created by entrepreneur Egor Lavrov and Konstantin Rykov, now a deputy of the

Duma A duma (russian: дума) is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were f ...

. Padonkaffsky

jargon Jargon is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The context is usually a partic ...

is difficult to translate with a traditional dictionary because many of the misspellings also involve

puns A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic ...

and cultural slang. Padonkaffsky language has gone mainstream and is common in Russian

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

and

popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in ...

. As a result, the websites on which Padonkaffsky language originally appeared are now dominated by another kind of high-shock-value material, adult content.

Rules

The unstressed letter is replaced by , and sometimes the other way around. The unstressed letters , , and are also interchangeable. The consonant may become or , the suffix becomes , becomes , becomes , etc. Examples: превед ( PREVED, from привет ''privet'' 'hi!'), аффтар ''afftar'' (from автор ''avtor'' 'author'), йад (from яд ''yad'' 'poison'), etc.

Notable examples

References

{{internet slang Cant languages Languages of Russia Online chat Russian Internet slang Russian language varieties and styles Russian slang

Origin and etymology

Use and development

Rules

Notable examples

See also

References