The Russian language is one of the largest world languages with a long history. Belongs to the Slavic dialect, and the closest to it - Belarusian and Ukrainian languages. Together they make up the East Slavic subgroup. Throughout its history, rules and grammar have undergone numerous changes. So, for example, over time, the Russian language has lost its dual number, which will be discussed below.
History of occurrence
Old Russian language is the ancestor of the Russian familiar to us. He inherited a lot from the Pre-Slavic, which, in turn, received its structure from the pan-European. Old Russian consisted of a completely different alphabet and different from modern grammar. If we talk about the account, without which life, in principle, would have been impossible, then in addition to the singular and the plural, there was also a specific dual number.
In Old Russian, it was used to designate paired items: gloves, glasses, etc. This greatly simplified the understanding of the meaning of what was said. For example, the interlocutor informed you that he had acquired two gloves. What did he mean? Did he buy one pair of gloves or two pairs? Until the indicated grammatical construction left the language, such misunderstandings did not arise.
Use in other languages
In addition to Russian, such a grammar was present in the languages of other countries. For example, the Indo-European parent language. It had three dual forms for different cases:
- Nominative, Accusative, Vocal.
- Genitive, Local (Prepositional).
- Dative, Suspicious, Creative.
For example, in the language in question, the numeral "eight" was the dual form of the number four. In some other languages (Tocharic) there was also a separate pair number for designating objects that arose naturally in a pair: hands, eyes, etc.
Currently, this form of calculus is present in Arabic, Hebrew, and some other less-used dialects.
When was the grammatical construction used
Until the dual number is no longer in use, it was used in the following cases:
- The designation of objects that naturally come in pairs, mainly somatisms - ears, eyes. Accordingly, when using these words, the interlocutor immediately understood that we were talking about parts of the body of one person.
- The mention of things, objects, persons in an amount of two. For this, there was a special morphological form - the ending "a", "and" and zero (discussed in more detail below). For example, a table - tables - tables, where the second word denotes a dual number.
- The use of words is two and both , which were used with the desired form of the word and meant duality. For example, two brothers.
In modern Russian, there are some words that refer to the lost grammar.
Description of the morphology of the structure
The most typical endings for the dual number of the Old Russian language are "a" and "ѣ", the second of which is now not used due to the loss of the symbol. They also include the ending "and".
For nouns, there are some rules for using numbers:
- masculine nouns (in the modern language - noun. I squad) have the ending "a" or, if the basis ends with a soft consonant - "I": two chairs, a mole, an elk , etc .;
- the words of the middle gender (1st squad) and female (2nd squad) had the ending “ѣ” with a solid consonant at the end and “and” - with a soft consonant: two sisters;
- in all other cases (declination III refers here), the dual number appeared through the end of "and": two mice.
There were exceptions. This refers to the morpheme -u lost in antiquity, which over time was supplanted by the ancient plural, and the noun of the dative and instrumental case, where the ending "ma" was.
The rest of the speech leaned almost as described above, had the same endings and usage.
Study history
The first to start exploring the grammatical construction of Old Slavonic was A. Belich. In one of his works of 1899, devoted to this topic, it was expressed bewilderment why such a useful and used form has now completely disappeared in most languages, and still exists in some. The study of the problem took place over many years, but the reasons have not been established.
There are several scientific works of the 20th century by foreign scientists dedicated to the dual number: Dostal (Polish), Lotzsch (Serboluzhitsky) and others. The research results are recognized as final, but they do not answer the specifically posed question.
Currently, studies of the lost design are also being conducted, further possible ways of its use are being considered, however, there are no facts confirming the return to the Russian language.
Remains of the dual in Russian
There are few words whose forms are inherited from the Old Russian language. Some paired objects preserved the morphology characteristic of the dual number: eyes, sleeves, sides, eyes, horns , etc. The same applies to plural forms of cases, for example, two, three, two, three, four , etc. , where -x and - me are the endings of the dual. There are many more examples.
In old Russian proverbs, this grammatical construction is also periodically found: "A sparrow sits on a tyne, hopes on a wing ." Here, the word "wing" is an obsolete form of the accusative case of the dual.
There are words that have long been "petrified," and it is almost impossible to discern the dual number there. For example, adverbs firsthand and between . The first came from the word eyes and meant "to see something with your (two) eyes." And the second is a slightly modified form of the obsolete word mezh.
The meaning of construction for the modern language
As a rule, returning the old is not good. If something is out of use, it means that it was necessary, you should move for a new one. However, not in this case.
The dual is a useful construct. There is no sense in returning it to the grammar of the modern Russian language, but for linguists, knowledge and study of the lost is useful. When considering the origins, the secrets of the emergence of certain words are revealed. For example, a hoop. It seems to have been borrowed, but it is not. It consists of two words: both and hands . That is, a hoop is an item that must be taken with both hands. Another word is earrings. Like the first example, it refers to the native Russian. It was formed by merging ears and dressing. Thus, the dual number played an important role in layering.
The influence of language on worldview
Since human speech is the connecting link between individuals, it can also direct other actions to transform the world. The singular gives a vision of one independent subject, the plural describes the whole aggregate. The dualism allowed our ancestors to distinguish among all other opposites, the paired nature of the world.
When the grammatical construction left the language, the person ceased to see the singularity in this double and began to isolate with the multitude. From here follows the erection of a personality cult and its entry into a powerful society. But against the backdrop of this ideology, the value of love and marriage, the distinction between good and evil, as well as other important opposites, have now begun to be lost.
From the above it follows that speech is a natural engine of development. The loss of the dual number was reflected in the moral component of people, in culture and in general on world perception.
Philosophical meaning
One of the greatest philologists of all time, Wilhelm von Humboldt attributed the dual to a special form of calculus, not comparable to the ordinary plural. Translated into Russian colloquial, his thought sounded something like this - "husband and wife are one Satan." This meant that the two parts are components of a single whole, and their existence is meaningless without each other. For example, an explosion. With the interaction of oxygen and sparks, this phenomenon is obtained, but alone they can not do anything like this.
The dual in German sounded like dualis. An association with the unity of opposites, duality, immediately appears in the head.
If we consider the construction as a philosophical component, then it can transform speech: shorten speech explanations, which will make the process of understanding easier, but at the same time expand the boundaries of the language. Since there was such a grammar, then there were reasons.
To summarize, it is worth noting that each letter, word or construction is important for the language. They change the meaning of what has been said, reflect the state of society for a given period of time, and show values. Therefore, human speech needs constant monitoring, cutting off excess and replenishing with useful new ones.