(no subject)

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

When Russians write on their blogs or write comments, why do a lot of them smile like this )))?

The first time I saw it, I thought to myself "HOLY CRAP! That smiley has no eyes! And... multiple mouths!" I now understand multiple mouths means a bigger smile, but no eyes? Weeeird. I've adopted the smiley to an extent, however.

And do Russians have any equivalent to LoL, OMG, or brb? Maybe, БМ! Or я с?

Comments

[rooskiyroulette.livejournal.com]

Oh my! I love the )))))) or :)))
I do it all the time now.
It makes me feel more.. authentic. :)))

[oryx_and_crake]

It's a BIG smile (and/or multiple chins, because, as Russian proverb goes, there's no such thing as too much of a good person ;-)))

As for things like LOL and ONG, I think we just use those or their transliterations (like ЛОЛ) - there are no direct equivalents АФАИК ;-)

correction

[oryx_and_crake]

that's OMG not ONG

[hope1972.livejournal.com]

There were attempts to create abbriviations like LOL, OMG, IMHO and so on. But they were not accepted by the users. So, we just write ИМХО - imho in Cyrillic, everyone knows what it means. Everyone knows it`d from English. But we don`t have any abbriviations of our own.

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

I don't know what IMHO is... I thought it was "In my own opinion," but the H doesn't match.

[happy-accidents.livejournal.com]

In my honest opinion? In my humble opinion?
In my HORSE'S opinion?
:)

[justaduck.livejournal.com]

I learned it as, 'in my humble opinion'

[gera.livejournal.com]

In my HUMBLE opinion.
It's supposed to be a kind of reservation.

No.

[rottenshworz.livejournal.com]

"Имею мнение, хрен оспоришь!"
Not a "humble" opinion. MY opinion. (...and now - get lost) :)

Re: No.

[mooose.livejournal.com]

hehe, well if you're going to translate it like that, IMHO could then mean
"In My Holy Opinion"

Re: No.

[mooose.livejournal.com]

or better, "In My Holiest Opinion" :))))

And...

[rottenshworz.livejournal.com]

There is also wonderfull 100% russian neologism "моё ИМХО" ~_^

Re: And...

[b-w.livejournal.com]

)))

[rowaasr13.livejournal.com]

Oh, but there's some:
x3 (=dunno)
ШЗД? (=WTF?)
ЕМНИМП or ЕМНИМС (=AFAIR)
КГ/АМ (=Your work is shit and you suck). :)

There's also some copies of english abbreviations written by pressing same keys as in english, but with russian keyboard layout, so P.S. becomes З.Ы., etc...

[ppenguin.livejournal.com]

there are one equivalent
wtf - in english
but чзх in russian. it means "чё за хрень"

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing чё = что and хрень... I don't know what that means.

[mricon.livejournal.com]

and thus, you learn "ХЕЗ" -- another popular Russian acronym :)

it means "Хрен Его Знает" (~= "hell if I know"), but that's the polite version. :)

I can also think of "ЧАВО", which is a cute translation of "FAQ", or "ЧАстые Вопросы и Ответы".

[constpd.livejournal.com]

I personally and many of my freinds usually use ХЗ instead of ХЕЗ (simply хрен знает, omitting его)... That's probably the most popular Russian-originated slang acronym.
Also we use :((( for exaggerating the :( — again, more chins, the stronger emotion is :)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Хрен (literally, a horse-reddish) is used for the same purpose as English speakers use "sheesh" :))

[ppenguin.livejournal.com]

Чё - means Что, or What
Хрень - ...

ЧЗХ, and Xtf have the same meaning, so you can guess what "хрень" exactly means

[ppenguin.livejournal.com]

X=w :)

[temcat.livejournal.com]

хрень = thing

[gera.livejournal.com]

There is nothing Russian about either multiple ))) smilies or no-eye smilies.
Both had been in active use on IRC in pre-Web era - the early 90s.

[schwarzer-tod.livejournal.com]

But only Russians use them now. I've never seen anyone else use them. Even on IRC :)))

[gera.livejournal.com]

))) is not very common (never was, actually), but :)))) has always been pretty popular, and I believe, still is (not only among Russians).

[schwarzer-tod.livejournal.com]

I don't mean to be rude, but who else have you seen using them? (I'm not contesting your assertion, I'm just interested in knowing)

[gera.livejournal.com]

I'd been active on IRC in 91-97, but not in last 8 years, so any information will be irrelevant.
But trust me, :))) with the eyes was very common. Multiple ) would usually mean laughter and joy as opposed to just a smile.

[nemica.livejournal.com]

I agree. And the more ), the louder laughter.

[temcat.livejournal.com]

Did IRC exist in 1991? :-0

[gera.livejournal.com]

Yep. Read this (http://daniel.haxx.se/irchistory.html).



I still remember those times :)

[russian-bob.livejournal.com]

I have British colleague and he uses :)) even in internal e-mail.

[schwarzer-tod.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Although if he's a slavophile, maybe he's just mimicking.

[sai17.livejournal.com]

Sometimes LOL is equal ГЫ-ГЫ %)

)))

[soffty.livejournal.com]

or Ыыыыыыы

Re: )))

[http://users.livejournal.com/__marla_singer/]

or ржунимагу, афтар, пеши исчо -)))))

Re: )))

[temcat.livejournal.com]

And what is this "афтор жжот" that I'm seeing everywhere? Can't understand it though I'm Russian myself. My only guess would be "the author should calm down"...

[yms.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's because when you switch to Russian keyboard the ":" key types letter "Ж" (btw, you may occasionally see smilies like Ж)) ). The colon still remains in the place where "^" is, but people tend to forget it.

[yms.livejournal.com]

and you don't need to remember in which layout you are...

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

Actually, I once used Ж))) because it portrayed someone so happy, that he practically looks constipated. Not because I mistook Ж for : And besides, it's much funnier looking than %) or X) or... I dunno what else.

[temcat.livejournal.com]

Well, Ж has uts use. Look at this: Ж:-)

[noser.livejournal.com]

I think it's a cell phone smile. It's faster to type ")))" than ":)" on a cell phone numpad. Somehow it caught on in the net too.

[http://users.livejournal.com/__marginal/]

I know only two widely-used netspeak abbreviations, which are authentic Russian (not borrowed from English). Both are mentioned above.

x3 - хрен знает - dunno
кг/ам - has two opposite meanings:

1) креатив говно, автор мудак - the work is shit and its author is a dumbass
2) (less used) креатив гениальный, автор молодец - the work is brilliant and its author is cool

Note the word 'креатив' as a borrowing from English. This word is used among adverisement industry workers. Креатив is a noun, and means a result of a creative work, e.g. a text, a picture, etc. A person who makes креатив is called криэйтор (a creator).

-----

Why do we have so few abbreviations? This can be because in Russian language, abbreviations are very much associated with official institutions, official activites, and so on. So the unofficial language avoids them.

We also use some acronyms, transcribed (or not transcribed) from English, such as ИМХО, RTFM, or ЛОЛ.