No palm for Palmer
Sir: Far from being an abstract tongue, as Tony Palmer says in his review of Clockwork Orange (January 15), Nadsat is simply down-to-earth Russian. The word Nadsat itself is a Russian suffix meaning teen as in shestnadsat (sixteen). Deng may have a excremental impact on Mr Palmer but it is simply the Russian word for money. Horroshow is the English transliteration of the Russian word for good. Anthony Burgess's original novel contained many similar transliterations from the Russian (droog, friend; goodies, breasts; platties, clothes; gulliver, head) and Mr Palmer is mistaken in crediting Burgess with having invented a totally new language just as he was mistaken the previous week in saying Stanley Donen directed The Anderson Tapes when, in fact, it was Sidney Lumet. Peter Muccini 7 Ashley Gardens, Petersham, Richmond, Surrey
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