Translation?

[mananas.livejournal.com]

I've heard "Боже мой!" translated as, "My goodness!" and "Oh my God!". So tell me, is it corny or no? Would it be offensive if I, an American 20 something in Russia (well I'm not there... yet), said it?

Comments

[prosto-los.livejournal.com]

If you refer to a situation in which you'd say "Oh my God" in USA, then yes.
But if you need to say something stronger, like "Holy Shit!", "Jesus Christ!", etc., there is a wide range of curses that would fit better :)

That's my opinion.

[prosto-los.livejournal.com]

by "then yes" I meant - it's gonna sound OK.

[wire-shock.livejournal.com]

No, that's not offensive, feel free to use it :-)

[gera.livejournal.com]

It's not in the least offensive, but it is kinda theatrical. I'd compare it with "God Almighty!" You are much more likely to find it in literature than in real life.
So it won't be offensive but it would be weird if a 20 year old used it.

[aciel.livejournal.com]

THANKS BE TO GOD. =D

[gera.livejournal.com]

I just noticed - you said "corny" - that's exactly what it is.

[wire-shock.livejournal.com]

Mmm, I doubt that very much... But perhaps you're right.

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

What does "corny" mean here?

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

~~old-fashioned, outdated...

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

thank you :)

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

Then, it's probably not the case.

Боже мой! - Прибил над койкой
Лозунг я: "Не божемойкай!"

- written in 1996, and hardly intended to sound old-fashioned :)

[yozhevich.livejournal.com]

So tell me, is it corny or no?

The Russian girl on Captain Planet says it. Case closed :)

[schwarzer-tod.livejournal.com]

Ba ha ha ha, I've always wondered if Linka is even a real Russian name?

[oryx_and_crake]

It could be a diminutive of Lina, which in turn is a diminutive of Angelina, Capitolina and Akulina :-) (I am not kidding, those are genuine Russian female names).

[wire-shock.livejournal.com]

Is Angelina a genuine name?!
Capitolina and Akulina are, of course.

[spiderhood.livejournal.com]

Ohyesitis. It is Greek in origin (as many "Russian" names are, actually) and is spelled as «Ангелина».

[dimon37.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine spelled her name Анжелина

[froeken-snork.livejournal.com]

Or just no diinutive at all: Lina can be used as a full name.

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

Hahaha! I always wondered about her, since they always said "Linka from Eastern Europe!" and it's like... there are a lot of countries there, you know... but once I heard her Боже мой and I knew... )))

[yozhevich.livejournal.com]

...she's just Linka from the Bloc... :)

[oryx_and_crake]

In Russian cultural tradition (unlike, say, Western/Protestant) mentioning of God and religion-related things is not called swearing and is not considered offensive. (My impression is that the people who answered before me did not even catch this meaning of your question.) Lately, there is a tendency in online forums and such to write "Б-г" and "Б-же"; people tend to think somehow that this is a very pious way of doing it but in fact this is a bad copy from Jewish "non-mentioning the name of the L-d" and in Russian context it looks, well, very much out of context.

I don't think it's corny. I use it from time to time but I think I say "О Боже" more often.
So, the summary of all this is: if you feel like saying "Боже мой!", you can perfectly well do so without risking to offend anyone's feelings.

[spiderhood.livejournal.com]

Correction. First of all, mentioning the name of God is allowed in any Cristian culture, originally it was prohibited to swear by it, so you can't say something like "I swear by God I'm gonna pay ya", but it's OK to say "oh my God" or "thanks God" or whatever. This rule's been followed more or less strictly (and in more or less twisted form) in different countries by different groups of people. However, in the Bible it's like I've just told ya.

Besides that, writing a dash instead of a couple of letters has its roots in Old Slavonic language, where ye had something called a "титло" - a thingy that was actually a tilde written above some letters of the word (used to identify it). The whole construction was interpreted as a regular word and should've stayed identifiable. For example, something like "ГИ" with a tilde over it would mean "Господи" (Lord). Together with center dots it designated a number.

[oryx_and_crake]

I thought things like "Oh My God" were prohibited under "7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

[oryx_and_crake]

P.S. I know that титло was used in Old Church Slavonic, but it is definitely out of context in modern Russian.

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

Old Church Slavonic being... ?

I don't think you were referring to 9th century manuscripts from Bulgaria :)

[oryx_and_crake]

Let he who says that Church Slavonic is new cast the first stone at me...
:-)

[spiderhood.livejournal.com]

Don't mix up three different languages: Ancient Russian (древнерусский), Old Slavonic (старославянский) and Church Slavonic (церковнославянский). Only the first one is the direct ancestor of the Russian language, and Church Slavonic (called neither old nor new) together with some other languages (like Bulgarian, for example) were obtained from Old Slavonic and have no direct relations with Russian.

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

The (modern) Church Slavonic spelling of Господи (when addressing God) looks more like Г^сди (it's слово-титло rather than plain титло, and it is over д).

In Russian, titlo(e)s ceased to be used somewhere in 18th century. Russian versions of Bible, in particular, use none.

[spiderhood.livejournal.com]

Ye right. I was just talking about the roots of the phenomenon.

[mananas.livejournal.com]

So when I don't want to sound corny, but I don't want to be offensive to anybody, what should I say?

And thanks to everyone who responded, by the way.

[yozhevich.livejournal.com]

I think it probably depends on what you're reacting to. Maybe if you gave of a few examples of when you would expect to say "Oh my God!" in English, those responding could provide some suggestions...

[mananas.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... let's see. "Oh my God, it's beautiful" - maybe seeing something spectacular, like Lenin's preserved corpse. "Oh my God..." - seeing something shocking or disgusting, like a frozen hobo in the Red Square, or a car wreck.

[schwarzer-tod.livejournal.com]

lolololol @ Lenin's preserved corpse

[mananas.livejournal.com]

If it's not a pipe, what is it?

[schwarzer-tod.livejournal.com]

A Magritte parody?

[yms.livejournal.com]

Russuan tend to mention God much more seldom :)
If you're amazed, you can say "Ого!", or "Ничего себе!" with proper intonation. (Lingvo translates "ничего себе" as "not so bad", but it's only one meaning, and I mean the other one, expressing astonishment. It depends on intonation.)

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

The word you're looking for is "wow."

[yms.livejournal.com]

and it can be said in Russian speech as well :)

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

...if you are a female teenager whose education comes from TV :)

(an exaggeration, I know)

[yozhevich.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think it would apply in those cases just fine. I thought you meant something closer to "Ohhhh my God, this purse is so cute!" Then... probably not so much. :) Though, I guess if it's really cute...

[yms.livejournal.com]

Simple "Боже!" or "О боже!" doesn't sound corny and still is not offensive. But, IMHO, it sounds a little female, women tend to use this expression much more often.

[ducking.livejournal.com]

I've got a male friend who uses the exclamation "Господи!" way too much. It sounds cute sometimes though.

[yms.livejournal.com]

I just forgot about "Господи" :)
But it has slightly different set of meanings. You can hardly express amazement with it.

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

oops.

[kart.livejournal.com]

My dear grandmother still says Боже-Боже-Боже sometimes.