One of the sections of vocabulary is etymology, which studies the origin of a word against the background of a change in the entire vocabulary of a language. The native Russian and borrowed words are considered precisely from the standpoint of etymology. These are the two layers into which the entire vocabulary of the Russian language can be divided, in terms of origin. This section of the vocabulary provides an answer to the question of how the word came about, what it means, from where and when it was borrowed and what changes it underwent.
Russian vocabulary
All words that exist in the language are called vocabulary. With their help, we name various objects, phenomena, actions, signs, numbers, etc.
The vocabulary is explained by the entry into the system of Slavic languages, which led to the existence of their common origin and development. Russian vocabulary rooted in the past of the Slavic tribes and over the centuries developed along with the people. This is the so-called native vocabulary that has existed for a long time.
Also in vocabulary there is a second layer: these are words that came to us from other languages due to the emergence of historical connections.
Thus, if we consider the vocabulary from a position of origin, then we can distinguish the words native Russian and borrowed. Examples of words from both groups are presented in large numbers in the language.
The origin of Russian words
The vocabulary of the Russian language has more than 150,000 words. Let's see what words are called native Russian.
The native Russian vocabulary has several tiers:
- The first, the oldest, includes words denoting such concepts that all languages have (father, mother, meat, wolf and others);
- The second tier is composed of Pre-Slavic words that are characteristic of all Slavic tribes (pine, wheat, house, chicken, kvass, cheese, etc.);
- The third tier is formed by the words that appeared in the speech of the Eastern Slavs starting from the 6th-7th centuries (dark, stepdaughter, churchyard, squirrel, today);
- The fourth group is the actual Russian names that appeared at the end of the XVI-XVII centuries (jam, blizzard, shrubs, uproot, idle, once, a bricklayer, pilot, deceit, tidiness, etc.).
Borrowing process
In our language, native Russian and borrowed words coexist. This is due to the historical development of the country.
As a people, from ancient times, Russians entered into cultural, economic, political, military, trade relations with other countries and states. This quite naturally led to the fact that in our language the words of those peoples with whom we collaborated appeared. Otherwise, it was impossible to understand each other.
Over time, these language borrowings Russified, entered the group of commonly used words, and we have ceased to perceive them as foreign. Everyone knows such words as “sugar”, “bath”, “activist”, “artel”, “school” and many others.
The words are originally Russian and borrowed, examples of which are given above, have long and firmly entered into our everyday life and help to build our speech.
Foreign words in Russian
Getting into our language, foreign words are forced to change. The nature of their changes affects different sides: phonetics, morphology, semantics. Borrowing is subject to our laws and regulations. Such words undergo changes in endings, in suffixes, and gender changes. For example, the word "parliament" in our country is masculine, and in German, where it came from, it is average.
The very meaning of the word may change. So, the word "painter" here means a worker, and in German it means "painter".
The semantics are changing. For example, the borrowed words “canned food”, “conservative” and “conservatory” came to us from different languages and have nothing in common. But in their native language, French, Latin and Italian, respectively, they came from Latin and have the meaning of “save”.
Thus, it is important to know from which languages the words are borrowed. This will help to correctly determine their lexical meaning.
In addition, it is sometimes difficult to recognize the original Russian and loanwords in the mass of vocabulary that we use daily. For this purpose, there are dictionaries that explain the meaning and origin of each word.
Classification of loan words
Two groups of loan words are distinguished by a certain type:
- come from the Slavic language;
- taken from non-Slavic languages.
In the first group, a large mass is comprised of Old Church Slavs — words that have existed since the 9th century in church books. And now such words as “cross”, “universe”, “power”, “virtue”, etc. are widespread. Many Old Slavs have Russian analogues (“Lanites” - “cheeks”, “mouth” - “lips”, etc. ) Phonetic (“gates” - “gates”), morphological (“grace”, “benefactors”), semantic (“gold” - “gold”) Old Slavs are distinguished.
The second group consists of borrowings from other languages, among which:
- Latin (in the field of science, politics of public life - "school", "republic", "corporation");
- Greek (household - “bed”, “dish”, terms - “synonym”, “vocabulary”);
- Western European (military - “headquarters”, “junker”, from the field of art - “easel”, “landscape”, nautical terms - “boat”, “shipyard” “schooner”, musical terms - “aria”, “libretto”);
- Turkic (in culture and trade, “pearls”, “caravan”, “iron”);
- Scandinavian (household - “anchor”, “whip”) words.
Dictionary of foreign words
Lexicology is a very accurate science. Everything is clearly structured here. All words are divided into groups, depending on the attribute underlying.
The native Russian and loanwords are divided into two groups based on etymology, i.e. origin.
There are various dictionaries that meet specific goals. So, you can call the dictionary of foreign words, which contains foreign-language examples that have come to us for many centuries. Many of these words are now perceived by us as Russian. The dictionary clarifies the meaning and indicates where the word came from.
Dictionaries of foreign words in our country have a whole history. The first was created at the beginning of the eighteenth century, it was handwritten. At the same time, a three-volume dictionary was published, the author of which was N.M. Yanovsky. A number of foreign dictionaries appeared in the twentieth century.
Among the most famous are the “School Dictionary of Foreign Words” edited by V.V. Ivanova. In a dictionary article, information about the origin of the word is called, an interpretation of its meaning, examples of use, stable expressions with it are given.