Are there uhmm honorifics in russian? Like sir or ma'am or Herr? I'd like to know some family related ones, some business toned ones, and like, friendly ones between friendly friends.
Thank you for your time, kind admins
I love this question so much! This is gonna be long, oh my god. I'll start with some general information and then give some specific examples.
So, unlike English, Russian allows two ways of addressing people instead of one.
"Ты"/"ty", which I'm going to spell as "T" to save time, is a casual "you", suitable for talking to a friend or colleague, to a family member, to a child, or to a stranger that you are reasonably sure is considerably younger than you.
"Вы"/"vy", which I'm going to spell "V", again to save time, is a polite "you", suitable for addressing a stranger, a person in a position of power such as a teacher, or a higher-ranking colleague, or someone presumably older than you.
This distinction is quite important.
Using T where V is required will make you sound disrespectful. People can actually get offended, especially older people who can very reasonably demand that you "don't T" them.
On the other hand, using V where T would be more suitable can create a very uncomfortable situation. The person might feel distanced, or worse - think you're mocking them, using a polite manner ironically.
Because using T or V defines the entire, uh, manner of your communication! Some words won't apply to people you're on V-terms with, and others won't apply to those you use T with!
Basically, I'm going to try and separate various honorifics and forms of address into these two categories and then try to fit various TF2 characters into these categories as well, based on what kind of manner I think Heavy would use with them.
It's also worth noting that using a certain manner with someone doesn't always mean they're gonna be using the same manner for you. For instance, a teenage student would always use V with a teacher, but a teacher would almost always use T.
Well, we know from the Russian dub of the game that he uses T with Medic.
He also uses V with the Engineer. I find it fascinating because they're about the same age and exactly the same rank - they're both mercenaries on equal rights - which means Heavy uses V out of pure respect and admiration.
He would definitely use V with the Administrator.
And with Miss Pauling too, even though she's younger than him. She's his boss, after all.
He would definitely use T with Scout.
With all the others it could go either way. He would definitely use V when they first met, but would eventually switch to T, as it often happens.
Oh, btw it pretty much never happens the other way. Using T is considered something of a "next step".
If you headcanon Pyro as nonbinary, Heavy might use V to avoid gendered language, but I won't go into details here.
Why is that important? He doesn't speak Russian to them.
Well, no, but he thinks in Russian! And he would think in T/V terms, too. And that would define the language he would use with them.
I promise the specific examples are coming, bear with me.
"But I know all about names" no you don't.
Okay, as it functions in English, a person has a First Name, a Middle Name (or several), and a Last Name, which is their family name - "Tavish Finnegan DeGroot". Or, well, you could go about this even simpler and skip the middle name - "Dell Conagher".
In Russian middle names traditionally do not exist. I say "traditionally" because who knows what the young folks are up to these days, but by the proper naming conventions that would definitely be really important at the time Heavy was born, there are no middle names in the Russian language.
Instead, we have a patronymic. Well, a lot of them. A patronymic is your father's name with a proper ending attached to it. Think last names such as "Johnson" and "Stevenson" - yup, those were patronymics some hundred years ago.
How does that relate to honorifics?
There are a lot of ways to combine a First Name (F), a Last Name (L), and a Patronymic (P)!
L-F-P is the proper official model. It's not really used outside really formal business or legal procedures, such as getting married or getting sued. Or. Well. One of those two things, really.
F-P is the usual polite structure. If a Russian stranger wanted to be polite with Heavy, they would say "Михаил Whatever-you-headcanon-his-dad's-name-to-be-ович". If someone wanted to talk to Zhanna in that same manner, they'd have to say "Жанна Her-father's-name-овна". It's a very Gimli-son-of-Gloin kind of structure.
Some parents also use it mockingly to lightly scold their kids. "Яна Father-овна, what do you think you're doing?"
I just realized you probably need me to translit all that. Oh god, uh.
Mihail Whatever-you-headcanon-his-dad's-name-to-be-ovich.
Zhanna Her-father's-name-ovna.
I'm gonna type in Latin letters from now on. And I promise specific examples are coming!
Calling someone by just their patronymic is considered friendly and very, uh, familiar. Casual-like. Somewhat rude, even. You have to really make sure you're allowed to do that before you make an attempt.
A name typically has a full and a short form, much like in English. James - Jim, Mihail - Misha. Except in Russian, there's an even shorter short version, used only when addressing the person directly. It's used all the time, you should make sure to use that in writing, otherwise it sounds really unnatural.
Okay, great, can we get some SPECIFIC WORDS now?
Let's start with the ones you already know.
Well, it's the Soviet Union. How about "comrade"?
That one's fine, if overdone. It was really in use back then.
Except it doesn't really mean a comrade, as in "friend" of some sort. It's typically all very official, followed by a last name or a rank.
Yeah, a rank. Like a military rank. Soldier would be "Comrade Sargeant" - "товарищ сержант".
"Comrade Medic" would be a thing, too, as long as they're not too well-acquainted.
Pretty much any "Comrade Class" would work, except "Comrade Scout", because we're using T for him, remember? It doesn't go with a T! I told you it was important, ha.
Beware though, nobody says "comrade" these days. Ever. Not a thing.
So it's not like "sir" or "ma'am"?
The closest to "sir"/"ma'am" I can think of is гражданин/гражданка, which is - don't laugh! - "citizen".
It's almost always followed by a last name, but never by a rank or title, so it wouldn't really work with the mercs. It's only for civilian context, you see?
We also don't pepper it into our regular speech. Where you'd say "yes, sir", we'd just say "yes".
I'm actually having trouble with this at work. I'm so very much not used to saying "sir" and "ma'am". It's not that I'm being disrespectful, but I constantly forget to say it! Argh.
Oh, "citizen" is also not in use anymore. Unless it's some police procedural on TV.
How do you address someone you don't know, then? What if you need to get someone's attention and you don't know their name and patronymic?
Well, just "мужчина"/"man" and "женщина"/"woman" is fine, really.
"Девушка"/"girl" and "девочка"/"girl (child)" if she's young.
"Молодой человек"/"young man" and "мальчик"/"boy" if he's young.
They're fine. They're only rude in English. We say them all the time. "Woman, you dropped something!", "Man, could you hold the door, please?", "Boy, where's your mom?". It's fine. It's polite, I promise.
Ah, that depends on the family.
Here's a funny example from my own family. I have a grandma on my father's side. Well, my mother - her daughter-in-law - calls her "mom", but addresses her with a V, as a way of being respectful. I, on the other hand, although way younger, use T with her because she's my grandma and she doesn't mind at all and that's how she taught me to talk to her.
So it all depends on the kind of dynamic you have. The level of respect, the traditionalism of it, how old your folks are and how much they go outside.
Bear in mind you can absolutely cuss a bitch out while still using V.
"Bro" migrated into Russian some years ago. We have the whole "брат-братан-братишка" (brother-brother (informal)-brother (small) shtick but it's a little, uh, complicated. It gets mocked a lot. There's a bit of a subculture around the people who say it.
Really, we just call people by their names. I'd love to see more of that in fics. Heavy wouldn't go "sis" @ Zhanna, but he would say "Zhann", as a shorter and more casual form of address. She'd call him "Mish". We love to see it. They're besties.
That's still not very specific though.
Ah, well, here's a few odd examples.
"Мужик"/"muzhik" is something Heavy would say. It means "man", but, like, in a casual and friendly manner. I say that to my friends who are men. He would say that to everyone but ONLY once he's on T-terms with them. I told you it was important. He wouldn't say it to Scout though. Maybe in a moment of transgender affirmation. Once. But never again.
"Чувак" is "dude" but it fucking sucks to say, idk, 0/10, would not say that. Adults never say it tbh. Kids these days don't say it either.
"Madam" (from French) was popular way back in the day. "Madmuazel" aka a bastardization of "Mademoiselle" is also out there but more sarcastic. Both used with V.
"Чел"/"chel", short for "chelovek" ("human") - another version of "man", basically. With T.
"Парень", "приятель" - guy, pal, pally, dude, fella. Can be genuine or sarcastic. Both male and used with T.
"Тётя" or "тёть" - kinda like ma'am but disrespectful. Literally means "aunt", figuratively - any woman who's any amount of years older than you and a bit of unpleasantness to have around. Not to confuse with "тётя [name]" which is literally "aunt [name]", in an affectionate way and not necessarily towards family.
"Дядя" or "дядь" - a male version of that. Also on both cases the second version is less respectful.
"Начальник" - "boss". Goes with T better than with V, ironically.
"Народ" - "people". Can be either really epic or really casual. A way to address multiple people.
"Братва" - "brotherhood" (derogatory). Sounds like. Uh, it's hard to explain. You guys remember Shark Tale? When, in Russian it's called Underwater Brotherhood, with that specific word for brotherhood. It has that kind of energy.
That's about it! There's a good Wiki page about these things, I recommend skimming through it, though some terms are a bit underexplained there in my opinion. Thanks for asking, and sorry if this post reads a bit haphazard. I'm rusty.
