The article focuses on untranslatability connected with the use of non-standard language by some literary characters. In individual dialect usage many translators would apply the technique of compensation. Many cultures have developed a phenomenon, a 'scenic dialect', which is a number of stereotyped forms used by authors to portray characters with non-standard language. These cultural phenomena are not language-specific but culture-specific, which can be demonstrated by translation into different national variants of same languages. In a Russian context, there is no such 'scenic dialect'. Instead, Russian translators use a so-called 'general non-standard Russian', i.e., forms which are outside the accepted literary standard but do not belong to any particular local dialect. This is termed 'prostorechie', literally, 'common speech'. There are two major theoretical problems connected with this practice. One belongs to the linguistic theory of translation; the other is partly a problem of linguistics proper, partly of psycholinguistics.