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linguistic silliness
Apr. 9th, 2005 02:36 pmI just had the funniest thing happen to me on the way home from the bus stop. I was coming home from observing lessons at the Gliere School of Music and the bus stops right near the new supermaket on Navoi street. This is also where the surnai karnai and nagora (shawm, long trumpet and kettle drums) players wait to get picked up at the roadside and hired for weddings. As I was walking along I walked past a group of three elderly and portly musicians. One of them was fiddling and trying out his surnai reed and saw me as I walked by and said "voy voy devochkahon, kak dela?" This struck me as such a hilarious mix of the Uzbek and Russian languages and it was said in such an upbeat, jovial manner that I couldn't help but giggle as I raised my hand to my chest in gratitude and said spasibo.
To analyze what was said, 'voy' is an Uzbek exclaimation that is pretty much akin to 'hey there.' It's fairly common, but is pretty colloquial. Devochka is the Russian word for girl and is the normal way to address a woman of my age in Russian. -hon is the respectful Uzbek ending for women that are obviously younger than you. This guy had white hair, so it was completely normal. Kak dela is "how are you" in Russian, and is the Russian analoge of the normal Uzbek greeting "yakhshimisiz?" Russian words slip into Uzbek a lot, especially in Tashkent, but this particular combination just struck me as too funny.
Then to top it all off, as I turned off of Navoi street to walk past the circus (which is also on the way home), the circus related festivities were in full swing. All around the circus building there were bouncy castles, horsey rides, food vendors and people dressed up as cartoon characters, all trying to make a few Sum off of the people who are rich enough to take their kids to the circus. As I walked by, a brass band started playing the Andijon Polka. The Andijon Polka is a bit of a mystery to me. If a Westerner knows one song that they identify as Uzbek, it is probably the Andijon Polka. I have a hard time believing it is actually Uzbek, since just about everytime I've heard it, it has been with Western Harmonic accompaniment in oom-pah style. It has to be a Soviet-era composition designed to represent Uzbekistan, much the way a lot of folk dances were "created" for ethnic groups by Igor Moiseyev and the likes, because their folk dances weren't thought to be suited for the concert stage. I really need to do more research on the Andijon Polka's creation.
The rehearsal at the Gliere school was quite interesting. Timur aka was coaching some students from Gliere's uchilish for the upcoming competition and they were singing with the faculty ensemble. It was quite impressive the level at which these kids were singing. They had the ornamentation down pat and were even singing pieces from maqom Rost and Navo. Then he had some of the school kids from the class sing and he made some slight corrections, mostly on wrong notes or forgotten words. Last he had a girl who was hoping to be accepted into Gliere sing a song and Timur aka, Mavluda opa (one of his former students), and the girl's mother all got in a debate about how to sing with a more "an'anaviy" (traditional) style. The mother was complaining that the girl's teacher was teaching her to sing through her nose (by which they mean head voice), she was saying that the an'anviy style is singing through the throat. Mavluda opa chimed in at this point and said that it was more through the mouth as well as the throat and advised the girl to open her mouth more when singing. Timur aka got the final word, saying that all singing should come from the diaphragm, but yes the an'anaviy style is singing through the mouth rather than the nose. It was a really telling exchange about how people differentiate European and Uzbek vocal production.
To analyze what was said, 'voy' is an Uzbek exclaimation that is pretty much akin to 'hey there.' It's fairly common, but is pretty colloquial. Devochka is the Russian word for girl and is the normal way to address a woman of my age in Russian. -hon is the respectful Uzbek ending for women that are obviously younger than you. This guy had white hair, so it was completely normal. Kak dela is "how are you" in Russian, and is the Russian analoge of the normal Uzbek greeting "yakhshimisiz?" Russian words slip into Uzbek a lot, especially in Tashkent, but this particular combination just struck me as too funny.
Then to top it all off, as I turned off of Navoi street to walk past the circus (which is also on the way home), the circus related festivities were in full swing. All around the circus building there were bouncy castles, horsey rides, food vendors and people dressed up as cartoon characters, all trying to make a few Sum off of the people who are rich enough to take their kids to the circus. As I walked by, a brass band started playing the Andijon Polka. The Andijon Polka is a bit of a mystery to me. If a Westerner knows one song that they identify as Uzbek, it is probably the Andijon Polka. I have a hard time believing it is actually Uzbek, since just about everytime I've heard it, it has been with Western Harmonic accompaniment in oom-pah style. It has to be a Soviet-era composition designed to represent Uzbekistan, much the way a lot of folk dances were "created" for ethnic groups by Igor Moiseyev and the likes, because their folk dances weren't thought to be suited for the concert stage. I really need to do more research on the Andijon Polka's creation.
The rehearsal at the Gliere school was quite interesting. Timur aka was coaching some students from Gliere's uchilish for the upcoming competition and they were singing with the faculty ensemble. It was quite impressive the level at which these kids were singing. They had the ornamentation down pat and were even singing pieces from maqom Rost and Navo. Then he had some of the school kids from the class sing and he made some slight corrections, mostly on wrong notes or forgotten words. Last he had a girl who was hoping to be accepted into Gliere sing a song and Timur aka, Mavluda opa (one of his former students), and the girl's mother all got in a debate about how to sing with a more "an'anaviy" (traditional) style. The mother was complaining that the girl's teacher was teaching her to sing through her nose (by which they mean head voice), she was saying that the an'anviy style is singing through the throat. Mavluda opa chimed in at this point and said that it was more through the mouth as well as the throat and advised the girl to open her mouth more when singing. Timur aka got the final word, saying that all singing should come from the diaphragm, but yes the an'anaviy style is singing through the mouth rather than the nose. It was a really telling exchange about how people differentiate European and Uzbek vocal production.
