Very recently in a russian newspaper I came across the words якобы and дабы. I surfed the internet for these words and found out that generally якобы is alike псевдо or как будто бы, and дабы is так как. How do I use these old-fashioned words correctly in a context? Thank you in advance!
1 Answer
Якобы means "allegedly". It's perfectly normal in everyday speech.
Дабы (either the first or the second syllable can be put under the stress) is an old-fashioned conjunction meaning "so that". You must have a clear intention on using such outdated word. Normally Russian speakers say "чтобы" or "для того, чтобы", but not "дабы".
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@Anixx МАС shows two stresses. Also "дабЫ" is iambus, so there are numerous poetic examples with stable stress on the second syllable starting from Lomonosov: "Дабы признали все народы и языки,//Коль мирные твои дела в войну велики.//Дабы украшенный твоей рукой Парнас//Любителей наук призвать возвысил глас".– MattCommented Apr 19, 2016 at 8:02
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@Matt This poetry can be as well read with stress on the first syllable. Also, it is 18th century, far from modern Russian. Also, in poetry the stress is often wrong.– AnixxCommented Apr 19, 2016 at 10:06
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1@Anixx I believe you can't. Also it's the same for Pushkin and many others - it's not just a single deviation. Also both Малый академический словарь (МАС) and Грамматический словарь Зализняка (and, I believe, other dictionaries too) explicitly state that both stresses are OK.– MattCommented Apr 19, 2016 at 11:15
For some reason, it reminds me (though unrelated)Well,бы-part is a sort of "would be" (arachaic past tense of "быть" actually), so "если бы"="if [it] would be", "дабы" = "да+бы" = "что+бы" = "so that [it] would be" etc.