I tried googling “борже мой,” [borzhe moi] and to my extreme surprise it comes up a handful of times in use by actual Russians. Now I’m wondering if it’s like saying “oh my gosh” instead of “oh my God” to avoid actually invoking the deity. In other words, a mild phonetic alteration within the language itself. The word “борже” seems to come up in other contexts where I’d expect “боже,” but most of its uses are trasliterations of the name Borge etc.
I must retract my “incorrect”: sorry, Amateur Barbarian.
Given the depth and breadth of Russian experience with balky machinery of all sorts, this I could readily believe. Soviet (& post-Soviet) quality control was/is not what the Japanese would call “good”.
Take it from me, Yob t’voyu maht. does NOT mean “Have a nice day”. And if you’re on a Coast Guard Cutter back during the bad old days and you’ve stopped a Soviet fishing trawler in US waters for a routine Fisheries Inspection, do not lead the crew in chanting that to the crew of the Soviet ship.
Of course, if you’ve got a couple trusty and respected witnesses, you can get away with telling 2 or 3 not very bright yet very loud-mouthed shipmates “I heard that Yob t’voyu maht is “Have a nice day” in Russian, but I’ve never really checked it out, so I’m not certain.”
Going off on a completely unrelated tangent, why doesn’t this MB have a smiley that features a halo hovering over the face of an angelically innocent smiling face?
