Understanding Nadsat Talk in Anthony Burgess' a Clockwork Orange

"'Oh that,' I said, 'is what we call nadsat talk. All the teens use that, sir'" - Alex (Burgess, A Clockwork Orange 167).

Throughout Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange, the main character and his "droogs" speak in a new and entirely unheard of dialect (as of 1962, when the book was published). This dialect was created especially for the book itself in what Burgess called an "exercise in linguistic programming" (Burgess 38), and it was later popularized by Stanley Kubrik's film interpretation of the book. What makes Nadsat so interesting is that it is still a recognizable form of English, not an entirely new language. Such examples of entirely invented languages may be found in books such as J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series, or even in video games, such as Final Fantasy X's Al Bhed language. Nadsat, however, is more reminiscent of George Orwell's Newspeak from 1984. This essay will be an investigation of Nadsat's lexicon and morphology. It will also examine Nadsat's history, construction, and use of cockney (rhyming slang) in an effort to show that it is both similar to and different enough from English to be a dialect of its own. Above all, I would like to show that Nadsat could conceivably still grow and be used; that its construction allows for it to be expanded upon, making it a viable English dialect. It may be practical to have Stanley Edgar Hyman's A Nadsat Glossary (printed in the 1963 edition of A Clockwork Orange) near at hand for quick referencing.

In his autobiography, Anthony Burgess relates that Nadsat developed as a result of a number of factors. First and foremost was a group of British teens in the late 1950's called the Edwardian Strutters. "These were youths dressed very smartly in neo-Edwardian suits with heavy soled boots and distinctive coiffures" (26). The British teens, who were prone to violence, inspired not only the look and behavior of the main character, Alex, but they later gave Burgess a blueprint by which he constructed Nadsat. He knew that charactars' manner of speaking would have to match their exterior to be believable, and after trying to impose the slang of the 1960's on his novel, he scrapped it and decided to invent his own. "The story had to be told by a young thug of the future, and it had to be told in his own version of English. [...] It was pointless to write the book in the slang of the early sixties: it was ephemeral like all slang and might have a lavender smell by the time the manuscript got to the printers" (27). Several years passed, and the manuscript lay dormant; that is until Burgess began to relearn Russian for a vacation he and his wife were planning. One day while poring over the Cyrillic alphabet, the solution came to him: "The vocabulary of my space-age hooligans could be a mixture of Russian and demotic English, seasoned with rhyming slang and the gypsy's bolo" (37). From this series of events, the foundation of Nadsat was born. Its final product, as found in A Clockwork Orange, held surprisingly true to that first vision.

Nadsat relies heavily on a number of modified Russian loan words. There are about two hundred direct loan words in A Clockwork Orange, and even the name Nadsat istaken from the Russian numeric suffix equivalent to the English -teen (ex. seventeen). In producing his dialect, Burgess relied heavily on the phonetics (sounds) of the Cyrillic words rather than their actual English translations. For example, one Nadsat term which may seem like an English composition, "horrorshow," actually stems from the Russian word for good; khorosho. In this same manner many of the Russian loan words became something of an English-Russian hybrid, with Russian origins, but English spellings and pronunciations. When studying the application of this process, we find that Nadsat occasionally takes on new and entertaining meanings such as the Russian word for people, lyudi, being transliterated to the English "lewdies". However, many of Burgess' loan words, such as devochka (woman) and droog (friend) maintained both their relative spelling and meaning over the course of translation.

As stated above, Nadsat had more influences than Russian alone. Burgess cites one of these as some kind of gypsy dialect. Nadsat terms such as "dook" (ghost) and "cutter" (money) may have their roots in the gypsy dialect, however there are Russian and English equivalents that the words may also have been parented from. The Russian word дух, (dukh English equivalent) means literally "soul", while in some English gypsy dialects "dook" denotes anything magical. A consensus on close matters such as this are impossible to come to, but it is possible that some of the manners of speech used, such as "O my brothers", may also have been derived from a regional nomadic dialect.

Some general guidelines for Nadsat's grammatical layout are laid out concisely by Rita Gladsky. She states that, "[Burgess] limits the use of Nadsat vocabulary to concrete nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Second, he retains in English all connectors, referents, transition words and other cohesive elements. And third he always places Nadsat vocabulary within familiar linguistic environments and reduces the possibility of ambiguity" (44). In addition, Nadsat's English slang is constructed with common language formation techniques. Some words are blended, others clipped, and still more compounded. All of these techniques reflect what seems to be one of the driving focuses of Nadsat as a whole; a strive for economy. In the cant of Alex and his friends, a fit of laughter becomes a "guff" (shortened version of guffawing); a skeleton key becomes a "polyclef" (many keys); and the state jail becomes the "staja." Many common English slang terms are simply shortened. One such figure of speech, which refers to a cigarette as a "cancer stick" is shortened to just "cancer." This economical use of words also carries over to the Russian loan words; many of the longer ones are also clipped or shortened to have either a more economic sound, spelling, or number of syllables.

Paradoxically, another of Burgess' main foci is aestheticism. The English language is manipulated and archaized in an effort to make it more lyric; a venture only too appropriate for Nadsat's reckless and extravagant speakers. Unlike the modifications made to English and Russian loan words, however, there doesn't seem to have been any effort to economize the spelling or use of these antiquated words. Examples of the jargon's archaisms are rampant throughout A Clockwork Orange, especially when either two Nadsat-acquainted teens are speaking to each other, or a Nadsat speaker is addressing someone of authority in a disrespectful tone. The following examples were uttered by Alex himself; first to his father, then to a friend, "'[...]O my father,' I said. 'Fear not. He canst taketh care of himself, verily'," (Burgess 49) and "'Never fear. If fear thou hast in thy heart, O brother, pray banish it forthwith'"(21). Thee and thou are used excessively in the speaking of Nadsat, and one hint as to the reason for this can be found, again, in Anthony Burgess' auto biography. "[I tried] to devise new rhythms and resurrect old ones, chiefly from the King James Bible, to accommodate the weird patois" (Burgess, You've Had You're Time 38). If his goal was to create "weird patois", then Burgess achieved exactly what he intended; a strange mixture of invented neologisms and archaic words.

Even more estranged from its drive for economy, especially when assimilating loan words, is Nadsat's use of lengthy, infantilized terms. These invented words are referred to as "schoolboy transformations" in Hyman's glossary. These "schoolboy transformations" are most easily applied to one syllable words with a short vowel. First, the long e sound (ē) is attached to the end of the word. A copy of the original word is placed after the (ē), however, a [w] replaces the first letter if it is a consonant, or precedes it if it's a vowel. For example, in Nadsat talk the word egg becomes eggiweg, bad becomes badiwad, and school becomes skolliwoll. Of course, these are some of the more simple conversions; the conversion formula is only a guideline, as several exceptions exist in the book itself.

Schoolboy transformations seem to be used more or less arbitrarily in Nadsat talk; however, they are often employed sardonically to make light of authority figures, or in violent situations, as a kind of sadistic irony. An example can be found in Stanley Kubrick's film, A Clockwork Orange. The main character finds himself in a hospital, finally free of the conditioning that prevented him from expressing violent desires. When asked what feelings a picture of a nest with eggs in it are inspired in him he replies, "Eggiwegs. I would like...to smash 'em!" These schoolboy transformations seem to reflect an overall fascination with the rhyming and reduplication of words. "Welly welly welly well," "hi hi hi," and other such reduplications run rampant throughout the book.

The rhyming devices we have just discussed are part of a greater dominating factor that plays a large part in the Nadsat dialect: rhyming slang, which is often associated with England's Cockney speech. Cockney culture, and rhyming slang itself for that matter, are themselves enormous subjects, however, a rudimentary idea of what they are will be sufficient to understand their relevance to Nadsat talk. According to Antonio Lillo, "[I]t is generally agreed that [rhyming slang's] origins go back to mid-nineteenth century English, where it emerged as a secret language among the London lower classes (hence the common label 'Cockney rhyming slang')" (336). In its very simplest form, rhyming slang is accomplished when, according to the OED, "a word is replaced by a phrase which rhymes with it." If we wanted to replace the word 'booze' in the phrase, "I need a shot o' booze," we simply take any rhyming phrase, such as "Tom Cruise", and use it to replace the word.

Ideally, however, rhyming slang replacements have some bearing to the word they are taking the place of. A clever example of rhyming slang in A Clockwork Orange is the use of the word 'sinny' to replace the word 'cinema.' Rhyming slang and its origins become further complicated when the replacement phrase is shortened, especially when a non-rhyming part of the slang survives. Our phrase becomes, "I need a shot o' Tom," and, as is common to Cockney, only those within the dialect understand its connotations. Like any dialect, outside readers/listeners must extract the general meaning of a colloquialism as best they can, or have it explained to them. In Burgess' book we are almost exclusively required to do the former, as Alex gives us no quarter in his use of slang. For example, he uses performer Charlie Chaplain's name as a substitute for the job title of a priest, also known as a chaplain.

The linguistic traits we have examined up to this point indicate that Nadsat is an organic, functional dialect, capable of growth and expansion; not just a compendium of words and phrases. It is important to note that this theory is not only supported linguistically, but authorially as well. Burgess was violently opposed to the concept of a Nadsat glossary. The glossary printed in the 1963 American edition of A Clockwork Orange, written by Stanley Edgar Hyman, was included by American publishers (obviously confident in their audience's intellect) against Burgess' wishes. The glossary was eventually removed with the inclusion of the 21st chapter of the book, which publishers had also conscientiously cut for their American audiences.

Though it may not be widely used, the historical, semantic, and phonological traits of Nadsat give it the capacity to be a valid dialect. The elements of a dialect are there: it is a modified English, yet it is still within understanding; unknown words can be understood through context; it is capable of growing, changing, being created. Burgess' opposition to the inclusion of a glossary indicates that he hadn't meant the A Clockwork Orange's unique jargon to be a mere lexicon of invented and borrowed words, but a dialect unto itself. It is the author's willingness to bend and explore within and outside of his own guidelines which shows that Nadsat can still live and breath. In parting, I would just like to say, don't be like the milenky bratchnies with their bolshy chepooka gullivers who would leave Nadsat for deadwidead.

Works Cited

Burgess, Anthony. You've Had Your Time. NY: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990.

Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. NY: The Modern Library, 1962.

Gladsky, Rita K. "Schema Theory and Literary Texts." Language Quarterly. 30.1-2: 40- 46.

Lillo, Antonio. "From Alsatioan Dog to Wooden Shoe: Linguistic Xenophobia in rhyming slang." English Studies. 4 (2001): 336-48.