How often do we, Russian speakers, think about such an important moment as the history of the Russian language? After all, how many secrets are hidden in it, how many interesting things you can find out if you dig deeper. How did the Russian language develop? After all, our speech is not only everyday conversations, it is a rich history.
The history of the development of the Russian language: briefly about the main thing
Where did our mother tongue come from? There are several theories. Some scholars consider (for example, linguist N. Gusev) Sanskrit the closest relative of the Russian language. However, Sanskrit was used by Indian scholars and priests. This was Latin for the inhabitants of ancient Europe - "something very smart and incomprehensible." But how did the speech used by Indian scholars suddenly find ourselves on our side? Is it really from the Indians that the formation of the Russian language began?
The legend of seven white teachers
Each scientist understands the stages of the history of the Russian language in different ways: this is the origin, development, alienation of the book language from the folk language, the development of syntax and punctuation, etc. All of them can differ in order (it is still unknown when exactly the book language separated from the folk language) or interpretation. But, according to the following legend, seven white teachers can be considered “fathers” of the Russian language.
In India, there is a legend that is even studied in Indian universities. In ancient times, seven white teachers came from the cold North (Himalayas). It was they who gave Sanskrit to the people and laid the foundation of Brahmanism, from which Buddhism was later born. Many believe that this North was one of the regions of Russia, so modern Indians often go there on a pilgrimage.
Legend today
It turns out that many Sanskrit words completely coincide with Russian words - this is the theory of the famous ethnographer Natalya Guseva, who has written more than 150 scientific works on the history and religion of India. Most of them, by the way, were refuted by other scientists.
This theory was not taken by her “out of thin air”. An interesting case served as its appearance. Once Natalya accompanied a respected scientist from India, who decided to arrange a tourist trip along the northern rivers of Russia. Communicating with residents of local villages, the Indian suddenly burst into tears and refused the services of an interpreter, saying that he was happy to hear his native Sanskrit. Then Guseva decided to devote her life to the study of a mysterious phenomenon, and at the same time to establish how the Russian language developed.
After all, this is truly amazing! According to this story, representatives of the Negroid race live behind the Himalayas, speaking a language so similar to our own. Mystery, and only. Nevertheless, the hypothesis that our dialect came from Indian Sanskrit, has a place to be. Here it is - the history of the Russian language briefly.
Dragunkin Theory
And here is another scientist who decided that this story of the origin of the Russian language is true. Well-known philologist Alexander Dragunkin argued that a truly great language comes from a simpler one, in which there are fewer word-formation forms, and words are shorter. Allegedly Sanskrit is much simpler than Russian. And the writing of Sanskrit is nothing but the Slavic runes slightly modified by the Indians. But this theory is just the law of dialectics, where is the origin of the language?
Scientific version
And here is the version that most scientists approve and accept. She claims that 40,000 years ago (the time the first man appeared) people needed to express their thoughts in the process of collective activity. So language appeared. But in those days, the population was extremely small, and all people spoke the same language. Thousands of years later, peoples migrated. People’s DNA changed, tribes isolated from each other and began to speak differently.
Languages differed from each other in form, in word formation. Each group of people developed their native language, supplemented it with new words, gave shape. Later there was a need for science, which would deal with what describes new achievements or things that people came to.
As a result of this evolution, so-called “matrices” arose in human heads. These matrices were studied in detail by the famous linguist Georgy Gachev, who studied more than 30 matrices - linguistic pictures of the world. According to his theory, the Germans are very attached to their home, and this served as the image of a typical German speaker. And the Russian language and mentality came from the concept or image of the road, the way. This matrix lies in our subconscious.
The birth and formation of the Russian language
About 3 thousand years BC, among the Indo-European languages, the Proto-Slavic dialect stood out, which after a thousand years became the Proto-Slavic language. In the VI-VII centuries. n e. It was divided into several groups: eastern, western and southern. Our language is usually attributed to the eastern group.
And the beginning of the path of the Old Russian language is called the formation of Kievan Rus (IX century). At the same time, Cyril and Methodius invented the first Slavic alphabet.
The Slavic language developed rapidly, and in terms of popularity it was already equal to Greek and Latin. It was the Old Slavonic language (the predecessor of modern Russian) that managed to unite all the Slavs, it was on it that the most important documents and monuments of literature were written and published. For example, "The word about Igor's regiment."
Writing Normalization
Then came the era of feudalism, and the Polish-Lithuanian conquests in the XIII-XIV centuries led to the fact that the language was divided into three groups of dialects: Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian, as well as some intermediate dialects.
In the sixteenth century in Moscow Russia it was decided to normalize the written language of the Russian language (then it was called “simple mov” and was influenced by the Belarusian and Ukrainian) - to introduce the predominance of the compositional connection in sentences and the frequent use of the unions “yes”, “and”, “a”. The dual number was lost, and the declension of nouns became very similar to the modern one. And the basis of the literary language became the characteristic features of Moscow speech. For example, “hiccups”, consonant “g”, endings “ovo” and “evo”, demonstrative pronouns (oneself, you, etc.). The beginning of typography finally approved the literary Russian language.
Peter's era
The Petrine era greatly influenced speech. Indeed, it was at this time that the Russian language was freed from the “guardianship” of the church, and in 1708 the alphabet was reformed to make it closer to the European model.
In the second half of the 18th century, Lomonosov laid down the new norms of the Russian language, combining everything that was before: colloquial speech, folk poetry, and even the command language. After him, the language was transformed by Derzhavin, Radishchev, Fonvizin. It was they who increased the number of synonyms in the Russian language in order to properly reveal its wealth.
A huge contribution to the development of our speech was made by Pushkin, who rejected all restrictions on style and combined Russian words with some European words to create a full and colorful picture of the Russian language. He was supported by Lermontov and Gogol.
Development trends
How did the Russian language develop in the future? From the middle of the XIX - beginning of XX centuries, the Russian language received several development trends:
- The development of literary norms.
- The rapprochement of the literary language and colloquial speech.
- Expansion of the language thanks to dialectisms and jargon.
- The development of the genre of "realism" in literature, philosophical problems.
Somewhat later, socialism changed the formation of the Russian language, and in the twentieth century, the media standardized spoken language.
It turns out that our modern Russian language, with all its lexical and grammatical rules, came from a mixture of various East Slavic dialects that were distributed throughout the whole of Russia, and the Church Slavonic language. After all the metamorphoses, he became one of the most popular languages in the world.
A little more about writing
Tatishchev himself (the author of the book “Russian History”) was firmly convinced that Cyril and Methodius did not invent writing. She existed long before their birth. The Slavs not only knew how to write: they had many types of writing. For example, cut features, runes or initial letter. And the fellow scientists took as a basis this very initial letter and simply finalized it. Perhaps about a dozen letters were thrown away to make it easier to translate the Bible. Yes, Cyril and Methodius created the Slavic alphabet, but its letter was the basis. That's how writing appeared in Russia.
External threats
Unfortunately, our language has repeatedly been exposed to external danger. And then the future of the whole country was in doubt. For example, at the turn of the 19th century, all the "cream of society" spoke exclusively in French, dressed in the appropriate style, and even the menu consisted only of French cuisine. The nobles gradually began to forget their native language, ceased to bind themselves with the Russian people, having acquired a new philosophy and traditions.
As a result of this introduction of French speech, Russia could lose not only its language, but also its culture. Fortunately, geniuses of the 19th century saved the situation: Pushkin, Turgenev, Karamzin, Dostoevsky. They, being true patriots, did not let the Russian language die. They showed how beautiful he is.
Modernity
Polysyllabic and not fully studied the history of the Russian language. You can’t summarize it briefly. It will take years to study. The Russian language and the history of the people is a truly amazing thing. And how can you call yourself a patriot without knowing your native speech, folklore, poetry and literature?
Unfortunately, modern youth has lost interest in books, and especially in classical literature. This trend is also observed in older people. Television, the Internet, nightclubs and restaurants, glossy magazines and blogs - all this has replaced us with “paper friends”. Many people even ceased to have their own opinions, expressed in the usual cliches imposed by society and the media. Despite the fact that the classics were and remain in the school curriculum, few people read them even in a summary, which "eats" all the beauty and originality of the works of Russian writers.
But how rich is the history and culture of the Russian language! For example, literature can provide answers to many questions better than any forums on the Internet. Russian literature expresses all the power of the wisdom of the people, makes you imbued with love for our country and better understand it. Everyone should understand that the native language, native culture and people are inseparable, they are one. And what does a modern citizen of Russia understand and think about? That you need to leave the country as soon as possible?
Main danger
And of course, the main threat to our language is foreign words. As mentioned above, such a problem was relevant in the XVIII century, but, unfortunately, has remained unresolved so far and is slowly acquiring the features of a national catastrophe.
Not only is society too keen on various slang words, obscene language, fictitious expressions, it also constantly uses foreign borrowings in its speech, forgetting that there are much more beautiful synonyms in the Russian language. These words are: “stylist”, “manager”, “PR”, “summit”, “creative”, “user”, “blog”, “Internet” and many others. If this came only from certain groups of society, then the problem could be fought. But, unfortunately, foreign words are actively used by teachers, journalists, scientists and even officials. These people carry the word to people, which means they introduce addiction. And it so happens that a foreign word settles so firmly in the Russian language that it begins to seem as if it is primordial.
What is the matter?
So what is it called? Ignorance? Fashion for everything foreign? Or a campaign against Russia? Perhaps all at once. And this problem must be solved as soon as possible, otherwise it will be too late. For example, it is more common to use the word “manager” instead of “manager”, “business lunch” instead of “business lunch”, etc. After all, the extinction of a people begins with the extinction of the language.
About dictionaries
Now you know how the Russian language developed. However, this is not all. A special mention deserves the history of Russian dictionaries. Modern dictionaries came from ancient manuscripts, and later printed books. At first they were very small and were intended for a narrow circle of people.
The most ancient Russian dictionary is rightfully considered a short appendix to the Novgorod Pilot book (1282). It included 174 words from different dialects: Greek, Church Slavonic, Hebrew, and even biblical proper names.
After 400 years, dictionaries of a much larger volume began to appear. They already had a systematization and even an alphabet. The then dictionaries were mostly educational or encyclopedic in nature, therefore they were inaccessible to ordinary peasants.
The first printed dictionary
The first printed dictionary appeared in 1596. This was another appendix to the priest's grammar textbook, Lawrence Zizania. It contained more than a thousand words, which were sorted alphabetically. The dictionary was explanatory and explained the origin of many Old Slavonic and borrowed words. It was published in Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian.
Further development of dictionaries
XVIII was the century of great discoveries. They did not go around explanatory dictionaries. Great scientists (Tatishchev, Lomonosov) unexpectedly showed increased interest in the origin of many words. He began to write notes Trediakovsky. In the end, a whole series of dictionaries was created, but the largest one was the Church Dictionary and its appendix. The Church Dictionary has interpreted more than 20,000 words. Such a book laid the foundation for the normative dictionary of the Russian language, and Lomonosov, along with other researchers, began its creation.
The most significant dictionary
The history of the development of the Russian language remembers a date so significant for all of us - the creation of the Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language by V. I. Dahl (1866). This four-volume edition has received dozens of reprints and is still relevant today. 200,000 words and more than 30,000 sayings and phraseologisms can be safely considered a real treasure.
Our days
Unfortunately, the world community is not interested in the history of the Russian language. His current situation can be compared with one case that once happened with an unusually talented scientist Dmitry Mendeleev. After all, Mendeleev could not become an honorary academician of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (current RAS). There was a huge scandal, and still: such a scientist could not be accepted into the academy! But the Russian Empire and its world were unshakable: they said that Russians since the time of Lomonosov and Tatishchev are in the minority, and one good Russian scientist is enough - Lomonosov.
This history of the modern Russian language makes us think: what if someday English (or any other) will supersede such a unique Russian? Pay attention to how many foreign words are present in our jargon! Yes, mixing languages and friendly exchanges are great, but we must not allow the amazing history of our speech to disappear from the planet. Take care of your native language!