# Russki: impolite or not? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 13, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russki-impolite-or-not/681265 "2014-02-13T17:30:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2014, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russki-impolite-or-not/681265/41 "2014-02-16T06:55:40Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > I’d love it if you could show me an example. Here is a recent example: [http://www.sovsport.ru/news/text-item/638986](http://www.sovsport.ru/news/text-item/638986) ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2014, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russki-impolite-or-not/681265/42 "2014-02-16T06:56:40Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Yeah, and an Englishman might say “I’m English.” He wouldn’t say “I’m an English.” Russkij isn’t a noun. Yes, it can be: [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/русский](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D1%80%D1%83%D1%81%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9) or [http://en.bab.la/dictionary/russian-english/русский](http://en.bab.la/dictionary/russian-english/%D1%80%D1%83%D1%81%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9) oh and “English” can be a proper noun. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2014, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russki-impolite-or-not/681265/43 "2014-02-16T07:31:07Z")
Just an aside on the “Russki” noun-adjective thing: during Khruschev/Brezhnev times there was this Russian diplomat Valentin Zorin (or Valeri Zorin) who looked a bit like Kissinger. So there was a joke in Russia about Kissinger and Zorin meeting at their conversation: - Скажите, пожалуйста, господин Зорин, вы еврей? - Я - русский! - А-а. А я - американский. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2014, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russki-impolite-or-not/681265/44 "2014-02-16T10:15:44Z")
Now in something the rest of us can read? > [@handsomeharry](#): > > Should one say, both in English and in America, “Let’s read some \*Francais \*newspapers” is not an insult. Only because Fransai isn’t a word which has been adopted into American English and repeatedly used as an insult. Wanna come with me as I walk into the black American neighborhood of your choice and I point at the biggest dude I can see and say “_mira, un negro_”? And even though _français_ doesn’t have the history of russki or negro, that line is still completely stupid. It makes the speaker look like someone completely _nyet kulturny_\*, if you ask me. \*“uncultured”, transliterated from Russian. Fighting words from what I understand ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2014, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russki-impolite-or-not/681265/45 "2014-02-16T13:21:04Z")
Well said, Nava. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2014, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russki-impolite-or-not/681265/46 "2014-02-16T14:41:21Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Now in something the rest of us can read? It’s a joke that goes something like “Tell me, Mr. Zorin, are you Jewish? Zorin: I’m Russian! Kissinger: Uh huh…And I’m American.” That example doesn’t clarify whether “русский” is being used as a noun or adjective, but **Terr** ’s first sports headline does clearly use “русский” as a noun. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russki-impolite-or-not/681265/47 "2014-02-16T15:08:47Z")
Catching up on connotation and denotation might be good. Russki is almost always use as a (mild) insult, whatever etymology it has or part-of-speech it is. Language is what it is, what people use. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2014, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russki-impolite-or-not/681265/48 "2014-02-16T15:42:49Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Very few English speakers possessed that knowledge 25 years ago, and very few possess it today. If its English meaning _is_ indeed in the process of changing, it’s probably not because more English speakers are now aware of its meaning in Russian than before. This just isn’t true. It was common knowledge when I was in Jr. High school, nearly 40 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russki-impolite-or-not/681265/49 "2014-02-16T16:02:16Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Well, since we’re being pedantic, russki is merely an adjective, and it kinda needs to modify something. Russki what? It’s a bit like referring to an English. An English what? An English man? You can say “the English” but you don’t normally say “an English.” > > A citizen of Russia is a Rossiyanin (россиянин) or Rossiyanka for a woman specifically, or Rossiyanye for Russian citizens in general. English is not Russian, the same rules don’t apply, and nounification of nationality is totally idiosyncratic in English. You can’t be “an English” but you can be “an Australian” “an American” “a German” or “a Korean.” (think about how irregular our system is… you can be a Frenchman but not a Spanishman (and chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature…); a Finn but not a Holl) Russian does drop the noun at times, leave the adjective to stand as the noun, when the noun is implied and the meaning obvious. For example in the phrase “kak pah russki?” which means “how do you say that in Russian?” the noun “yazik” = “language” is implied. So it can be that in common phrasings the adjective does indeed act like a standalone noun. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russki-impolite-or-not/681265/50 "2014-02-16T16:22:48Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Actualy my pedant friend, it’s ceh ceh ceh reh. Russian letters don’t have names per se, just the sound they make, but they have their own way of articulating that. > > Also someone upthread gave the wrong Russian word for a singular American. It would be Americanetz if male, Americanka if female. the adjective form is Americanski. IIRC, -ski (-skaya for female) is the default adjectival ending for imported words. > > BOOM my gold medal in the Pedant Olympics is a lock. You might want to wait until we see how the Romanian judge scored things. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2014, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russki-impolite-or-not/681265/51 "2014-02-16T16:37:34Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > This just isn’t true. It was common knowledge when I was in Jr. High school, nearly 40 years ago. May I ask where you went to Junior High School? There may be a regional aspect to this. You and your friends must have gotten more out of seeing _A Clockwork Orange_ than I did! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russki-impolite-or-not/681265/52 "2014-02-16T17:39:46Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > It’s a joke that goes something like “Tell me, Mr. Zorin, are you Jewish? Zorin: I’m Russian! Kissinger: Uh huh…And I’m American.” > > That example doesn’t clarify whether “русский” is being used as a noun or adjective It does if you know the context of the joke. Zorin protests that he’s a Russian (using “russki” as a noun). Kissinger deliberately interprets the word as an adjective, and implies Zorin said he was a “Russian [Jew]”. I hate explaining jokes. ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russki-impolite-or-not/681265/53 "2014-02-17T18:03:57Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Actualy my pedant friend, it’s ceh ceh ceh reh. Russian letters don’t have names per se, just the sound they make, but they have their own way of articulating that. > > Also someone upthread gave the wrong Russian word for a singular American. It would be Americanetz if male, Americanka if female. the adjective form is Americanski. IIRC, -ski (-skaya for female) is the default adjectival ending for imported words. > > BOOM my gold medal in the Pedant Olympics is a lock. I bow down to your superior pedantry. 😃 J. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russki-impolite-or-not/681265.md?page=2)