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The Incredible Here and There

?’????: out, off, away, over there

 What with all the demonstrations and pre-election excitement — oh, wait! That’s in other countries.

Let me start again.

What with all the stability and absence of pre-election excitement, I find myself somewhat linguistically bored. So I’ve drifted back to old language obsessions, like nailing down those little words like ?????‚ (here) and ?????? (there), which have a range of meaning that is nothing less than astonishing.  

I think of ?????? as the verbal equivalent of a head nod to indicate “over there” or “out.” When someone asks where the metro is, you can nod in the right direction and say: ?’???? ?‚?°?? (Over there). When an unpleasant person bothers you on the street, you can pull this phrase out of your pocket: ???????‘?» ??????! (Get out of here!) (Note: Not recommended for use with the police).

And if all this chatting on the street distracts you so much that you’ve forgotten a business meeting, you can exclaim: ?’???‚?€?µ?‡?° ???‹???????‡???»?° ?????? ???· ?????»?????‹! (The meeting just completely slipped my mind!).

To continue in the ?????? vein, you might try to convince the person you stood up that your lapse of memory was ???»???‡?°?? ???· ?€?????° ?????? ???‹?…???????‰???? (absolutely extraordinary). But you might hear an angry reply: ?? ???· ?????¶?? ?????? ?»?µ?·?»?°, ?‡?‚???±?‹ ???€?????»?°?????‚?? ?‚?µ?±??, ?° ?‚?‹ ?·?°?±?‹?»?°? (I went through hell to get you an invite — literally, “I climbed out of my skin” — and then you forgot?)

?’???‚ is “here” physically or figuratively: ?’???‚ ?????? ?????? (Here’s my house). ?’???‚ ?‡?‚?? ?? ?‚?µ?±?µ ?????°?¶??! (Here’s what I’ve got to say to you!) It can be used as an intensifier that draws attention to the word near it. ?????»???¶???‚?µ ???????????? ?????‚ ???????° (Put the letter right over here.) ?’???‚ ?????µ??????! (That’s exactly it!)

Doubling ?????‚ doubles the meanings. ?’???‚-?????‚ can mean “any minute now” or “just a little more.” A gloomy commentator writes: ?????€?°???????° ???»?°???‚?? ?????‚-?????‚ ?€???…???µ?‚ (The pyramid of power is about to come crashing down). ?’???‚-?????‚ alone — often pronounced without the final “?‚” and in multiples — is used as a warm approval when someone has caught on to something. When I’m doing my usual “stick the cables randomly into the DVD player and TV until there is sound and image,” I wait to hear my helper’s ?’??-????-????! (Now you’ve got it!)

A lot of ?????‚ phrases express surprise or astonishment, pleasant or otherwise. For example, ?????‚ ???°?? (sometimes ?????? ???°??) means something like “It’s like that, is it?” When you still can’t get the DVD player to work and your helper finally reads the instructions to discover that you need an entirely different cable, you reply: ?’???‚ ???°??! (So that’s it!) Or you might say: ?’???‚ ?????? ?‡?‚?? (So that’s the problem). And your helper might say: ?•?·?¶?°?? ?? ???????? ???°?±?µ?»??. ?’???‚ ?? ?????‘. (Go and buy the cable. That’s all there is to it.)

Another astonished and astonishing ?????‚ phrase is ?????‚ ???‚?? ???°, which translates literally as “here this is yes” but means something like “That’s incredible!”  ?’???‚ ???‚?? ???° can be used when the expensive new cable breaks in your hands (Shoot!), or when the picture and sound are perfect (Now that’s really something!)

After your DVD player is working and you suggest that your helper fix the cable TV box, you might hear: ?’???‚ ?µ?‰?‘. ???°???° ?????µ?»?°??. (No way. Do it yourself.)

Michele A. Berdy, a Moscow-based translator and interpreter, is author of “The Russian Word’s Worth” (Glas), a collection of her columns. 

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