Borrowings in English from Russian and their role

Linguists call borrowing one language to learn words from another. This can happen in many ways: copying, transliterating, creating tracing paper. As a result, the foreign word enters the native language. Often, at the same time, the completeness of its meaning is lost, there remains one nuance.

The language of any nation is developing, since it is a living product of the communication of people. Some languages ​​are dying, leaving the world stage, but new ones are constantly being born. English is divided into classical and practical, Chinese - into traditional and simplified. A new nationality does not appear, the language simply accumulates words that provide seamless communication of a certain group of people.

It can be slang, argo, professional speech. It is more correct to call such formations sublanguages. Interestingly, they are often providers of new words for borrowing.

Reasons for borrowing in Russian

With the expansion of communication in the modern world, there is an intensive penetration of foreign words into the environment of the native language. Why is this happening, is it not possible to translate some event or name an object using the roots of the native language for this?

This problem is being studied by specialists from all over the world, and here is the conclusion they come to: sometimes translating a word from a foreign language into their native language causes more rejection than direct borrowing. Under Peter the Great, many German words penetrated the Russian language, this was justified by the need for joint production, and technical terms appeared. How to translate the names of objects and concepts that were not part of Russian culture? Yes, so as to avoid the need to translate technical literature not only into Russian, but also into German. Only by borrowing do they come to a common understanding of things. German borrowing in Russian:

• Overkil, chisel, valve, rasp, paste - these are the words of the Petrine era.
• Mine surveyor, accountant, spy, hose, plug - modern Germanism.

If you open a dictionary of foreign words, you can see that there are a lot of such borrowings. Is this a natural process? Of course. For this, language exists to understand each other. How not to remember the builders of the Tower of Babel, with whom God mixed languages ​​so that they do not understand each other's speech! The construction has stopped. In order not to destroy the joint business that has been started now, one has to find it difficult and learn a language. Progress does not stand still, new terms are born, new verbs arise. Therefore, borrowing words in Russian speech is not surprising. An educated person responds positively to such a process. This enriches the vocabulary and allows you to seamlessly build bridges with various native speakers of the donor language.

Categories of borrowed Russian words

The Russian language gave some words to European, including English. They are not always used, remaining in the passive reserve of the majority of the country's population. Nevertheless, linguists have deduced several of their categories.

Borrowing in English from Russian are three large groups:

1. Designation of things and events unnatural for the British. These are the names of national dishes, entertainment and clothing: kvass, three, porridge, kokoshnik, dumplings - kvass, troika, kasha, kokoshnik, vareniki.
2. Historical terms found in literature and textbooks. The words populist, police, corvee exist in the English language - narodnik, ispravnik, barshina.
3. Popular words that came from the Russian language. Mammoth and parka became international, although before they were known only in Russia - mammoth, parka.

You can find more categories, but these are the most significant. In addition, there are four historical periods of Russian borrowing.

The first and second periods of the arrival of Russian words

Of the four borrowing periods, the first is the longest in time. Kievan Rus reluctantly opened to the West. The second period began in the sixteenth century. This is a time of acquaintance with Russian manuscripts, compilation of dictionaries and scientific works of English scientists.

The first English-Russian dictionary was compiled by Mark Ridley at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Ridley served as a doctor in the royal family of Fyodor Ivanovich and compiled a dictionary of six thousand words. At the same time, Richard James visited Russia to carry the word of God and left a notebook in which he described some Russian words.

From these diaries and notes of other compatriots Ridley and James, who visited Russia in the XVI-XVII centuries, the following borrowings in English from Russian became known:

1. Names of government posts, estates, military posts and buildings. These include tzar, cossack, kremlin (tsar, Cossack, Kremlin).
2. Measures of weight, volume and other units for trading. These are rouble, chervonets, pood, verst (ruble, chervonets, pood, versts).
3. Words of Russian everyday life: shchi, borshch, vodka, balalaika, samovar, sable, taiga (cabbage soup, borsch, vodka, balalaika, samovar, sable, taiga).

The third period of Russian borrowing

With the onset of the 19th century, political movements appeared in Russia, publishing their views in foreign languages. Widely discussed events, both social and cultural. Along with this, the third stage of borrowing in English from Russian begins, which brings new words:

1. The widely lit suppression of the Decembrist uprising brought the word decembrists.
2. Political movements, such as the cadet parties, bring their names. Cadet is a transliteration of one of many such words.
3. The nihilism described in the novel by F. Dostoevsky, when translated, is included in the English dictionary as nihilism.
4. The concept of intelligentsia, discussed in educated circles, also came in as transliteration: intelligentsia.

In English magazines for a wide audience begin to publish essays about Russia, articles on current Russian topics and interesting notes, cases of travelers. All these publications contain Russian words. In Russia itself, neologisms multiply to indicate the events and phenomena of political and public life. They are distributed through the printed word to European countries, including the UK.

Finally, the time comes to study our country by Western social activists. The popularization of Russian literature begins. William Rolston put a lot of effort into this.

The fourth period of Russian borrowing

The most productive stage of borrowing begins in the twentieth century of the last century. The difficult history of not only Russia, but the whole world has had a mutual influence on many languages. Only appearing in the Russian language, new borrowings spread across Europe:

• The names of authorities, political organizations, administrative units, such as Soviets, Komsomol, collective farms and state farms, are transliterated in English as Soviet, Komsomol, kolkhoz.
• The names of people standing on a certain socio-political platform - Bolshevik, drummer, activist - pass as activist, bolshevik, udarnik. And the title of Hero of Labor began to look like a hero of labor.
• In Russia at the beginning of the last century, neologisms and abbreviations fill the everyday speech. Some borrowings in English from Russian remain in modern English, others become history, remaining, however, in dictionaries. The familiar five-year plan turned into a five-year plan.

After the revolution of 1917, with the first wave of emigration, the list of Russian words included in the language of Misty Albion was significantly replenished. The emigrants carried with them the Russian spirit, which through national dishes acquainted with culinary words, and through restaurant performances of domestic artists and salon conversations with concepts:

• Russian roulette.
• Russian maybe (Avos).
• Feat (podvig).

The Second World War brought, in addition to technical words, the concept of partisan movement (partisan). A little later, the Kalashnikov assault rifle became world famous.

The sixties were marked by scientific and technical terms. This, for example, is a satellite, an astronaut and rationalization: sputnik, cosmonaut, rationalisers. A satellite, by the way, can mean a companion - both in Russian and in English.

Further spread of Russian words

The nineties in Russia had a great influence on the vocabulary of the average person. Its powerful expansion occurred, caused by the penetration of political terms from outside. There were such words as “consensus”, “referendum”, “alliance”.

At the same time, the process of the transition of primordially Russian words to foreign-language cultures began. Such Russian borrowings in English as “matryoshka”, “perestroika” and “glasnost” (matryoshka, perestrojka, glasnost) were familiar to everyone at that time. At the same time, some Russian special terms are included in English.

Examples of such borrowing:

1. Gulag, apparatchik and the like: gulag, apparatchik.
2. The word "pogrom", which originally denoted the oppression of the Jews with the robbery of their shops and shops, now has the meaning of oppression of any group on any basis: Pogrom.
3. The speeches of the Russian stands brought the following words: new thinking, democratization, self-financing, acceleration, state acceptance. Attempts to translate these terms into English were unsuccessful, it was easier to explain the essence of what was happening. Therefore, the words novoye muishleniye, uskoreniye, gospreyomka and democratizatsia become borrowings.

Similar words enriched not only English. They firmly became part of the dictionaries of both Europe and the whole world.

Interesting transformations of Russian words

Turning to English, not all words retained their original meaning. The word “grandmother”, familiar to the Russian ear, began to mean first of all the way to bandage the scarf under the chin, and only then the Russian analogue of grandmother. Unusually called and vinaigrette: in English it is literally "Russian salad" - Russian salad. No less interesting are the following two Russian borrowings in English.

The cottage movement that arose two centuries ago, when urban residents moved to the countryside near the city during the summer season, changed the meaning of the word “cottage” in Russian several times. It was his own country house or estate, and rented for the summer from the owner, and government summer houses for the military. In the sixties, the government gave out land for the construction of the garden, and the word "cottage" takes on the concept of private property - land and a house on it. In English, the word Dacha is now common and means not only summer apartments - country house, but also a garden with a garden on the adjacent plot.

Literature published contrary to censorship is called samizdat in Russia. It's funny, but this word, although it could be easily translated into English, is included in the transliteration language - Samizdat. Similarly, foreign language borrowings appear in Russian, because a word meaning an event that is not in our country cannot be translated. An example is the word "lunch": in both languages ​​it is a meal in the afternoon. Attempts to translate “lunch” as “lunch” or “lunch” failed, it became easier to accept the concept.

Transition of English words into Russian

The process of transition of words and concepts from one language to another is constant. But the language of international communication enriches other cultures more strongly. Now English acts as a language of universal communication. Naturally, the borrowing of words in the Russian environment is very active.

Conversations and correspondence of people, joint projects, films and music - all this acts as a common information field. Where efforts are being made to translate something into their native language, the speed of human interaction will be lower. One can cite as an example modern attempts to Ukrainize some Russian words, for example, “puporizka” instead of “midwife”.

In addition, for translation it is necessary to deeply understand, love and know the native language. Keep abreast of the dialects that make up domestic literary works. Then it will turn out successfully and competently apply knowledge, translating a particular word.

But such work requires special linguistic training. This is worthy of the Institute of the Academy of Sciences, but by no means a simple layman. Therefore, it is easier to adopt a new concept, use a phrase from a movie in your speech, tell a joke with Englishisms. The reasons for borrowing in Russian are understandable and natural. You can only save the baggage of Russian words accumulated so far, as far as possible decorating your speech with a good accurate literary definition.

Word Integration in the 21st Century

If the word cannot be translated without distorting the meaning, it transliterates. But to fully understand what it means is not easy. Some concepts cannot only be accurately translated - they are difficult to even explain. There are many such words in Russian. The examples of borrowing some of them in English are quite interesting:

• Vulgarity (poshlost). Nabokov, giving lectures to his students in America, gave an example of a family-bought radio, elevated to the rank of an idol.
• Tear (nadryv). This psycho-emotional state described by F. Dostoevsky requires too many explanations. It is translated as exaggerated distorted feelings.
• Tosca is a word that is written equally in both languages. The closest term for its translation is depression. But if depression is a clinical condition, a disease, then longing happens in healthy, full of life people.
• Rudeness (khamstvo). The writer S. Dovlatov, perhaps, best expressed this negative quality, which is not in America: “Anything can happen to you, but there is no rudeness. They will not close the door for you. ”
• Feeling sick (stushevatsya). Russian artist understands this: he shades the shadow, making the borders blurry. So a person fades into the background. Another word of F. Dostoevsky.

One can argue about the role and relevance of borrowing in Russian from others, but these five words have rightfully entered the world collection as a reflection of the mystery of the Russian soul.

The process of replacing Russian words with foreign

Oddly enough, the unjustified inclusion of foreign words in the native language was noticeable even during the time of A.S. Pushkin. His friend, compiler of the explanatory dictionary V. Dahl complained about this problem. But over the past ten years, the situation has worsened. Native speech is subjected to a massive attack by the media, as a result of which there is a borrowing of foreign words in Russian. These are TV-introduced Anglicisms that could have been avoided:

• Briefing.
• Reality show.
• Mani.
• Weekend, happy ending.

Some even joke that this integration of Anglicisms resembles intervention. Obviously, the role of borrowing in the Russian language is its development and enrichment. But when the usual Russian words “meeting”, “money” or “day off” are replaced with English counterparts, it becomes sad.

The role of borrowing in English

If the reasons for borrowing words in the Russian language are not always justified, then the reverse process has a harmonious system. These are words reflecting Russian realities, many of which are already in the past. They remain to study history and are still contained in the educational literature. Another group of Russian words is known only to narrow specialists, whether in Russia or in an English-speaking country. An example is Sovietism, which is gradually turning into dictionaries as obsolete even in Russia. And something happens before our eyes.

The suffix “-nik”, previously unknown in English, took root and began independent word formation. An example is the word “flopnik” created by English journalists by analogy with the “satellite”, which they nicknamed the American artificial Earth satellite after numerous unsuccessful attempts to put it into orbit. Formed from to flop - "plop." Its second name is Yanknik and Kaputnik (Yanknik, kaputnik). The initiative was supported by peacenik - “peace supporter” and returnik - “returnee”.

On the whole, there is a tendency for cultural penetration and the mixing of speech styles while maintaining the national mentality. In English, as in no other, the number of borrowings from other languages, including Russian, is high. True, in comparison with other languages, Russian has slightly added to the English dictionary. But this does not detract from its influence, albeit small, on the formation of modern English.

Conclusion

English-language borrowings in Russian, as well as Russian in English, contribute to the rapprochement of peoples and their cultures. If at the same time our own linguistic heritage is carefully preserved, then we can talk about the development of world culture. Otherwise, the tongue may become impoverished. Some even assimilate with others and disappear. This is happening in the Caucasus.

Therefore, it is so important to be a true native speaker, use quotes in your speech and constantly replenish your vocabulary by reading classical literature. Then even communication in English will become more expressive, rich and colorful. Words are expressions of thoughts and the spiritual world. The speech of a person who speaks vividly and figuratively in any language will be interesting.