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Nadsat is a constructed slang dialect of English with many Russian influences invented by the linguist, novelist, and composer Anthony Burgess. See Concordance: A Clockwork Orange for a full list, along with definitions. It is a transliteration of the Russian suffix for 'teen'.

Contents 1 Description 2 Function of Nadsat 3 See also 4 External links

Nadsat is a mode of speech used by various teen subcultures in the novel A Clockwork Orange. The anti-hero and narrator of the book, Alex, uses it, in first-person style, to relate the story to the reader. He also uses it to communicate with other characters in the novel, such as his droogs, parents, victims, and any authority-figures he comes into contact with.

It is not a written language: the sense that we have of the novel is of a transcription of vernacular speech, rather than an implementation of a published, bona-fide dialect.

Nadsat is basically English, with some transliterated words from Russian. It also contains influences from Cockney rhyming slang and the King James Bible, some words of unclear origin, and some that Burgess invented. The word 'nadsat' itself is the suffix of Russian numerals from 11 to 19 (-надцать). The suffix slurs the Russian words for 'on ten' — i.e., 'one-on-ten,' 'two-on-ten,' and so on — and thus forms an almost exact linguistic parallel to the English '-teen.'

Nadsat is in fact not so much a language as a register or argot. The words are inflected after English patterns regardless from what language they may have originated. Alex is capable of speaking standard English when he wants to; Nadsat is really a lexicon of 'extra' words which Alex uses to describe the world as he sees, and experiences it:

droog 

friend (друг drug)

britva 

razor (бритва)

chelloveck 

person, man (человек chelovek)

cutter 

money (most likely from Romani slang)

bog 

God (бог)

horrorshow 

good, well (хорошо khorosho, "good")

nozh 

knife/dagger (нож)

starry ptitsa 

old woman (старый stariy, "old"; птица ptitsa, "bird" as in English slang)

in-out in-out 

sex, especially rape (invented)

devotchka 

young woman (девочка, "little girl")

gulliver 

head (голова golova (but pronounced galavá), "head")

rot 

mouth (рот, rot (trilled r))

tolchok 

to hit, beat up (толчок, "a push/shove")

viddied 

viewed, looked upon (видеть vidyet´, "to see")

ochies 

glasses (очки, ochki)

moloko 

milk (молоко)

Nadsat words are all concrete or semi-abstract: to discuss philosophy Alex would probably have to shift into a more standardised form of English. The fact that a teen language has no abstract words is perhaps Burgess' reflection on the shallowness of the juvenile delinquent's thought processes.

At least one translation of Burgess' book into Russian solved the problem of how to illustrate the Nadsat words - by using transliterated, slang English words in places where Burgess used Russian ones.

A comprehensive lexicon lists the terms used in the book with their origins.

Burgess, a polyglot who loved language in all its forms, was aware that linguistic slang was of a constantly changing nature, and knew that if he used modes of speech that were contemporarily in use the novel would very quickly become "dated". His implementation of Nadsat was essentially pragmatic; he needed his narrator to have a unique voice that would remain ageless while reinforcing Alex's indifference to his society's norms and to suggest that youth subculture existed independently of the rest of society.

Burgess was aware of British youth culture in this era - the teddy boys, Mods, and Rockers. These subcultures were all influenced to some extent by American music, movies, language, and personalities. In the near-future world of "A Clockwork Orange" these influences are absent; instead, he seems to be suggesting that it is Russian culture that British youth is looking to for inspiration. This shows Burgess' views on the "vapidity" of youth culture, with Nadsat illustrating the lengths to which the people who use it are willing to go in identifying with whatever is "in" at any particular moment.

From a publisher's point of view, Nadsat also has the added effect of desensitizing concepts and scenes that would otherwise have been considered unprintable in 1960's Britain.

Another function of Nadsat was also that the reader was forced to learn it to understand the book, thus involving the reader in both the story and the youth culture in question. This also had the added bonus of forcing the reader to understand Alex, even identify with him.

• English to Nadsat
• List of fictional languages
• Wiktionary Concordance: A Clockwork Orange
• Newspeak
• Tom Wolfe in Religion and Language.
• A Clockwork Orange

• Nadsat Dictionary and Downloadable Translator
• Article and dictionary
• Nadsat Glossary (reprinted from novel)
• Bog & The Homo Loquax, article on Anthony Burgess's Nadsat