Cotton memes from Ukraine. Why did they appear during the war?
U know, that russians are not allowed to call a spade a spade, the war — the war, right?
The same command has the russian military: they can’t pronounce phrases like “missile hits” or “explosions” if those are made by the Ukrainian army toward the russian positions. It’s like “to accept” that Ukrainians also have some daily wins.
Magic of languages
Now, once again, they are not allowed to talk about that. Instead, they name the hits with the word “хлопок” — /hlopok/.
In russian you may pronounce this word in two different ways, changing the stress in the word.
So, the translation also changes:
⠀⠀1) /hlopÓk/ mostly means “clap”, like in “clap your hands” or “crack” like a loud short sound when you use New Year’s firecrackers.
⠀⠀2) /hlÓpok/ means “cotton”, fiber/fabric type.
In Ukrainian, cotton is not “hlópok”, it is “бавовна” — “bavÓvna”.
These are homonyms — in linguistics, homonyms are words that are homographs, homophones, or both. So, each time when russian soldiers or media ignore the truth, each time when they write the word “хлопок” /hlopok/ in their news or feeds, our military trolls them with a picture of cotton and the phrases like: “What happened, guys? Bavóvna?😂”
It’s impossible to win our sense of humor, therefore, the country and people in general.
Glory to Ukraine! 🇺🇦❤️
Author: Valeriia Modenko
Instagram: @jepiag
