Twenty-year olds know the word chuvak, or the second birth of a slang unit

Abstract

This article examines the pragmatic meaning of the slang lexeme chuvak [dude], primar­ily when used as an address. The study aims to identify the components of this pragmatic meaning that contributed to the resurgence of the lexical unit in the 21st century after a peri­od of usage decline and oblivion. Currently, the word chuvak is an integral part of youth vernacular. The pragmatics of the word chuvak was analysed by methods of corpus analysis and questionnaire survey. It was concluded that within the slang of the 1950s' stilyaga subcul­ture, the term chuvak developed strong associations with American music, particularly jazz, and American culture overall. These associations, alongside other features of the pragmatic component, such as designation as slang, contributed to the re-emergence the word at the end of the 20th century. At the time, the word was extensively used in the Russian dubbing of American films to render the English word 'dude', thus becoming familiar to younger genera­tions.

Keywords

• russian language
• jargon
• slang
• pragmatics
• connotations
• translations