Even before the advent of writing, from ancient times, thanks to economic, political, educational, and everyday language contacts, borrowed words entered the Russian language. It can be borrowed as a whole word, and the basics, and individual morphemes.
Borrowing
There is not a single language on earth in which the vocabulary is limited only to its original words. The percentage of "not your" words in different historical periods is different in languages. Turkisms, like any other borrowings, passed into the language with different intensities; both linguistic and extralinguistic factors influence this process. The latter include political, cultural, technological, economic and domestic.
According to data collected on the basis of various criteria, modern Russian contains from 10 to 35% of borrowed vocabulary. All such vocabulary can be divided into two large groups:
- Slavic (related) borrowings.
- Non-Slavic (foreign) borrowings.
Turkic words belong to the second group. Borrowings can be included in the active or passive vocabulary of the language. Sometimes a word from another language can crowd out the original word from the main vocabulary. For example, the word “horse” taken from the Tatar, which replaced the word “horse,” which has become expressively colored in the Russian literary language.
In cases where the word denotes a new reality and has no analogues in the host language, the fate of borrowing is directly related to the fate of the designated subject or phenomenon. The once extremely sought-after word of Turkic origin "epancha" today is historicism. The transition from an active vocabulary to a passive one is quite natural and logical and is determined by the historical development of society and language.
Moving from the source language, borrowings can either undergo assimilation (of a different nature) or remain in the position of exotisms (national names) and barbarism (the least developed type of borrowing).
Thematic groups, which include borrowings, are very diverse, but there is still a certain tendency, for example, political and philosophical terminology is rich in Greek-Latin borrowings, and transitions from German have expanded the administrative, technical and military sphere. Turkisms in the Russian language also have some thematic commonality inherent in most borrowings. For the most part, such words indicate concepts related to everyday life. This can be considered their semantic distinguishing feature.
Turkisms in Russian
Türkisms are considered not only those words that were borrowed directly from the Turkic languages, but also those that came to the Russian language indirectly through them. That is, the word first went into Turkic from one or another source language, and then it was borrowed by the Russian language. Or, on the contrary, some language borrowed a word of Turkic origin, and then it became Russian. Thus, it is customary to call all the words of Turkic origin, regardless of the source language. The main part of Turkisms in the Russian language passed XVI-XVII centuries.
For ease of study and systematization, borrowed vocabulary is often classified. Dividing into groups can be based on a variety of signs. For vocabulary, one of the most convenient grounds for classification is thematic relevance. An example of such a distribution of Turkisms is the following classification:
- Words calling clothing and its parts, shoes and hats: kapturok, kaptorga (buckle), astrakhan fur, heel.
- Words calling representatives of the animal world: kapkara (hyena), karakurt.
- Words related to the plant world: slippers (representatives of the buttercup family), pencil (small aspen or birch shoots).
- Words related to agricultural labor: karakul (bent pitchfork).
- Names of a person by his craft, occupation, or social and social status: guard (watchman), fist (owner-peasant).
- Names giving an expressive characteristic of a person, including swearing: Baskak (brave man).
- Words calling buildings and their parts (tower, guardhouse).
- Words denoting parts of the body (head, stump).
- Words calling household items: kaptar (scales).
- Ethnonyms (Bashkirs, Karachays).
- Anthroponyms (Kablukov).
- Toponyms (Karaganda).
- Hydronyms (about.Karakul).
- Other words of scattered meaning: kultuk (river sleeve, bay, ravine).
Phonetic features
There are several phonetic signs by which one can identify Turkisms in the Russian language. One of them is the vowel synharmonism, that is, a repetition of the same vowel sound in a word. The words diamond, cockroach, cast iron, shoe, chest, etc. can serve as such examples of Turkisms in the Russian language. Another sign of Turkic borrowings is the presence of –ch and –fang at the end of the word: kalancha, locust, brocade, label, turf, kebab. Often the final –ch is found in geographical names.
Scientific approach
The history of the scientific study of Turkism in the Russian language dates back to the XVIII century. The first surviving comparative study dates from 1769. In the same year, Podenshina magazine published a number of Russian words that resemble the words of some Eastern languages. This list included both successful examples of Turkism in the Russian language (biryuk, horse, reed, chest), and those Russian words that are simply consonant with Turkic (say, Russian. Cabbage soup and Turkic. Ashchi, which means " cook").
In the XIX century, a number of studies were conducted on the impact of various languages on Russian, including Turkic. But unfortunately, very limited language material was examined.
The Etymological Dictionary of Oriental Words in European Languages, published in 1927, also did not make a significant contribution to the study.
An extensive contribution to the study of Turkism was made during the scientific polemic of F. E. Korsh and P. M. Melioransky on the issue of Turkic borrowings in the text "Words on Igor's Campaign".
In 1958, the work of N. K. Dmitriev “On the Turkic Elements of the Russian Dictionary” was published. This is a very comprehensive and successful study in which the author offers several glossaries based on the degree of reliability of scientific data. So, he distinguishes the classes of Turkisms:
- the origin of which is confirmed by a sufficient number of facts;
- those that require additional evidence;
- those whose origin is considered Turkic only in the order of a hypothesis.
We can say that Turkisms in modern Russian are still waiting for their researcher, who will create a comprehensive monographic description of vocabulary borrowed from Eastern languages. It should be noted that the lack of accurate conclusions on the issue of Turkic borrowings is due to poor knowledge of the dialect vocabulary of Turkic languages. In such studies, it is especially important to rely not only on the data of dictionaries that record only a literary language, but also on dialects, since the genetic connection of languages is reflected in them. That is why the success of further studies of Turkic vocabulary as part of Russian directly depends on the development of the dialectology of Turkic languages.
Lexicographic Description Experience
In 1976, the Dictionary of Turkisms in Russian was published in Alma-Ata, authored by E. N. Shipova. The book has about 400 pages, on which 2000 tokens are presented. Despite the fact that the dictionary was compiled on the basis of a systematic study of the Turkisms of the Russian language, it was repeatedly criticized. Linguists note that it contains etymologies related to doubtful and unproven. A number of words are also provided with a false etymology, although such cases are rare.
Another significant drawback of the dictionary is that the vast majority of the words presented in it (about 80%) belong to the category of uncommon vocabulary. These are obsolete, regional, or highly specialized words, including craft terminology.
Controversial origin
It is impossible to say exactly how many Turkisms in the Russian language, since linguists differ on many words. For example, N. A. Baskakov attributes the words “bump”, “gogol”, “pie” and “balamut” to Turkic origin, with which some other scholars fundamentally disagree.
Often during historical reconstruction and etymological studies, controversial or mixed results arise. For example, if we want to find out whether the word “hearth” is Turkism, then when we look at the dictionaries, we will find an ambiguous assessment of the origin of the word. So, in the dictionary of V.I. Dahl, this word has a litter “Tatar.?”, This indicates that the compiler of the dictionary was not sure of the origin of the word and gives it as an assumption. In the etymological dictionary of Fasmer, the word is given with the mark “borrowings. from the Turk. ". Dmitriev assumes that the word “hearth” was borrowed by the Russians from the Turks. In other dictionaries, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Teleut, Altai, Sagai and some others are considered as the source language. Thus, when asked whether the word outbreak is Türkism, most authoritative sources respond positively, but it is not possible to pinpoint the source language. Which brings us back to the controversy of etymological research.
But there are cases when words that are definitely not Turkisms are presented as such. Frequent etymological errors in relation to a number of tokens: lagoon, ox, pouch, balamut, hash, beg, barberry, ladle, rosemary, gurt, sausage, mess, colic, bergamot, kalach, chain mail, tag, buzz, quinoa, crucian carp, lemon , beads, tub, cherry, penal servitude, lighthouse, fur, fakir, aspen and many others. etc. Some scholars insist that the word "hurricane" is also not of Turkic origin. But there is a diametrically opposite opinion regarding this word.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that there are several classifications of the Turkic languages, they differ not only in the issues of bordering between different languages within the Altai macro-family, but also in the belonging of some languages to this family.
To the Golden Horde
The transition of words from one language to another is in close causal connection with the linguosocial conditions inherent in a particular historical period.
It is quite logical that a significant part of Turkisms came into our language during the Tatar-Mongol invasion, but this does not mean that there were no language contacts before it. And although the number of transitions is small, they still exist. Among the Türkisms preserved in the Russian language, borrowed in the pre-Mongol period, one can name such words as a tent, pearls, a horse, a gang, a boyar, an ark, an idol, a palace, a horde, a hero, a temple, a san, koumiss, and beads. With regard to some of these words, the opinions of linguists differ. So, the word “dog” is considered by some scholars as Iranian, and some as Turkic. A series of words is attributed to the Bulgarian origin.
The period of the Tatar-Mongol invasion
In the era of the Golden Horde, the Russian language includes many words related to different spheres of human activity. Among them stand out not only household names, but also words serving the economic, state and military spheres. Among the borrowings related to everyday life, we can in turn distinguish a number of thematic lexical groups:
- construction (brick, shack, tin);
- food and drinks (mash, rhubarb, buza, watermelon);
- jewelry (earrings, emerald, diamond);
- clothes and shoes (sundress, veil, shoe, stocking, cap, caftan);
- fabric (calico, satin, braid, calico);
- household items (chest, tub, glass);
- natural phenomena (hurricane, fog), etc.
Since the 16th century
The next peak of the replenishment of the dictionary of Turkisms in the Russian language falls on the XVI – XVII centuries. This is due to the spread of the influence of the culture of the Ottoman Empire. It can be traced back to the 18th century, since even in the Petrine era borrowings from Turkic languages took place (for example: porcelain, head, pencil, flaw).
In addition, after the conquest of Siberia, another round of borrowing takes place. This applies more to toponyms (Altai, Yenisei) and local realities (chipmunk).
Also examples of Turkisms that made the transition during the indicated period are the words dunce, prude, fuel oil, attic, artel, tuber, tolmach, closet, brush, sheepskin coat, melon, heel, basin, wick, iron, herd, harem pants, garbage, and many others .
Sometimes it is impossible to determine the transition time of a word even approximately. Such borrowings include, for example, the word "babai".
Some examples
With regard to a number of words in the linguistic environment, relative agreement was reached. Their Turkic origin is generally accepted. Such words include, for example:
- arshin;
- grocery;
- dunce;
- cap (hood);
- tower;
- golden eagle;
- snowstorm;
- felt;
- sofa;
- jumble;
- ass;
- Adam's apple;
- border;
- peanut;
- pocket;
- quiver;
- fist;
- stump;
- kumach;
- confusion;
- sash;
- kebab;
- Murza (princely son);
- sofa;
- braid;
- sheepskin coat;
- skullcap;
- bale;
- tyutyun (tobacco);
- ghoul;
- Hurrah;
- bathrobe;
- persimmon;
- Chumichka (ladle), etc.
Also, many anthroponyms are of Turkic origin. This etymology is inherent in the following names: Akchurin, Baskak, Baskakov, Bash, Bashkin, Bashkirtsev, Bashmak, Bashmakov, Karaev, Karamazov, Karamzin, Karamyshev, Karaul, Karaulov, Karacheev, Kozhaev, Kozhevnikov, Kulakov, Turgenev, Ushakov and others.
Among the toponyms there are also many Turkisms: Bashbashi, Bashevo, Kapka, Karabash, Karabekaul, Karabulyak, Karadag, Karakul, Karakum, Karatau, Kara-Tyube, Karachaevsk, Kultuk, Kultuki and many others. other
Some hydronyms come from Turkic languages: Basbulak, Bastau, Bashevka, Kara-Bogaz-gol, Karadarya, Karatal, Kara-chekrak, Dead Kultuk and others.