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I've seen it used, albeit not often, in a sense precisely parallel to that of the German Herr or the Spanish Señor, and it is that sense in which I use it. I ha
by aaronem 13y ago
I've seen it used, albeit not often, in a sense precisely parallel to that of the German Herr or the Spanish Señor, and it is that sense in which I use it. I have never found myself troubled by being regarded as old-fashioned, but if you know a term which would better serve my purpose, I'd be obliged to you for making me aware of it.
- eps 13y agoSalutations are just not that common in modern Russian. It used to be Gospodin or Sudar (сударь) before the Revolution, but these were forcibly replaced by Tovarish (comrade, or rather - friend). Then after collapse of Soviet Union tovarish died out and neither of old salutations came back. In day to day life if you need to attract someone's attention, you'd use an equivalent of "excuse me", "hey" or "hello". In rare cases people would use "man" (мужчина) or "woman" (женщина), but that's very impersonal and frequently antogonistic, so most people avoid it. In press and written language, it's just the last name, preceded by the position when appropriate. Sometimes they will use gospodin, but that would typically be reserved for pompous occasions and when referring to people at important positions, e.g. a president of a bank. And yet it still looks odd and catches the eye. So in the context of your post it's just Kalashnikov. No gospodin.