великий и могучий

[zombie-laika.livejournal.com]

I keep seeing "великий и могучий русский язык" all over the place. I understand the meaning, but why is this phrase so common? Where did it come from?

Comments

[predicata.livejournal.com]

From this "poem in prose" by Turgenev: http://www.litera.ru/stixiya/authors/turgenev/vo-dni-somnenij.html

[zombie-laika.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much!

[oblomov-jerusal.livejournal.com]

This "poem in prose" was taught to schoolchildren in USSR, so it is very widely known.

[zombie-laika.livejournal.com]

OK, this makes a lot of sense, then. Thanks for the help.

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

Yes, we learned it by heart.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

...and widely mocked. My favorite, which I use a lot, is:
О великий, могучий, правдивый и свободный, длинный и мускулистый русский язык!

[natumbra.livejournal.com]

Not only in the USSR, in Russia too.

[plum-passions.livejournal.com]

Russia was IN the USSR...?

[natumbra.livejournal.com]

I've meant "in modern Russia too".

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

Some russians, that know no other languages, and therefore have nothing to compare with, are convinced that the reason it is hard for foreigners to learn Russian, is because it is so velikij and moguchshij. A few times I've ended up in quite infected arguments trying to convince them that Swedish is not a more simpel language, and that we actually hav words for almost everything.

[wire-shock.livejournal.com]

Well don't let it upset you :-) Anyway, every language has words that have no equivalents in other languages.

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Russian has quite a few...
Sometimes words form our percetion of reality. A friend of mine wanted to dress out as a prorub' for a costume party (a "vak" in swedish). But when she tried to explain to an american friend what she was going to dress out as, it turns out that in English they have no word, they simply say "a hole in the ice". And then, for some reason, it is not quite that funny to dress out like it. Because t is not a "thing" anymore.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

What's the point to argue? One's native language is almost always the Best Language for its bearer. It's like to argue that your momma is better and more beautiful than the others' :)

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

So true... I studied english since I was ten and still it will never be like swedish to me. Even if I moved to an english speaking country and lived ther for twenty years.

But I'm not arguing that swedish is a particulary good language! Quite the opposite. I'm just saying that the fact that Russian is veliki and moguchij doesn't mean that we others lack words and therefore can't think straight and formulate our thoughts(I've actually met people who said they were told so in school. But I don't think they were, they probably just missunderstood the teacher)! Like Wire_shock is saying, that all languages have special words.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Well, some people definitely believe that they are better than the others, simply because they belong to a particular culture, religion, nation, race etc. This doesn't mean that they really are better. Some people also believe that the world is flat and stands on the backs of four mighty elephants, who, in turn, stand on the back of a giant whale. So what.

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

Yes, you have that kind of people everywhere, in all countries. I was merely pointing out that the "velikij i moguchshij" expression is sometimes missunderstood by that kind of people. And I don't think they are complete idiots... they don't think the world is flat :) So I've discussed it. I often disscus things with people, it's intressting, I learn a lot from it. It's boring to just talk to people who are exactly the same as me ;)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

That's right. I only pointed out that somebody's silly superstitions do not exhaust the whole spectrum of meanings which великий и могучий quotation bears in today's Russian culture. Many of those meanings are quite ironic, which I tried to explain with my favorite version of the quotation, the one with длинный и мускулистый addition.

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

:)

My very ironic friend Tanya has one on "Умом Россию не понять..." that I like, (but I don't remember and can't figure out wich aspect to put one of the words (ядрённая) in! Accusative? Or does it become very obscene if you put it in accusative?)

Давно пора, ядренн__ мать,
Умом Россию понять.

I understand the sence of it, but I don't know if ядрённая is a bad word or just a strong word.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

1. Ядрёна, not ядрёная. This form is colloqiual.
2. This is an euphemism, a closely-sounding substitute for a VERY bad word :)

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

aha...
and wich case shuold it be in? (I didn't mean aspect...:)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

ядрёна мать is nominative. It's an exclamation, and only substitutes for е**на мать (literally, f***ed mother.) The adjective here is in its brief colloquial form.

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

Aha, exclamation.
Thanks!
don't know why I suddenly fell in love with pretetitum particip passiv/prichastiya proshedshevo vremeni. I seem to want to have them everywhere, in poems and in the faul songs by gruppa leningrad...

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

And 3. it's понимать, not понять, otherwise you break the rhythm of this ironic two-line verse by Igor Guberman.

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[kotobasis.livejournal.com]

Nowadays the phrase "великий и могучий" is used generally as an euphemism for "containing a large amount of obscenity without equivalents in other languages".
For example, "владеть в совершенстве великим и могучим" means "swear, curse in Russian perfectly".

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

and as a foreigner, one shouldn't even try... it sounds soo stupid to curse with an accent!