Borrowed words, falling into the Russian language, eventually lose the features of their other origin and assimilate. But not all of them are absorbed in the same way. Foreign vocabulary is classified according to the degree of development and distinguish: undeveloped, partially mastered and fully mastered vocabulary. Exotisms are unexplored vocabulary, they are otherwise called words-realities, they clearly stand out from other words by their non-Russian nature. In the future we will talk about them, but first we look at the existing types of foreign words in Russian.
Foreign vocabulary
Borrowed words, as a result of international communications, well enriched and supplemented the Russian language. They are divided into several groups.
Foreign inclusions. Tokens that are transmitted in oral speech and in writing by means of the source language. For example, Happy end is a happy ending.
Internationalism. Words are mostly technical and scientific terms used in many countries. They were formed from Latin and ancient Greek elements. For example, philosophy, republic.
Mastered words. These are tokens fully accustomed to the Russian language, for example, jeans, coats. Or of more ancient origin, the borrowing of which not everyone knows: school, icon, lamp, pearl.
Exotisms are words inherent in other nations and states. For example, kunak (Asian word) is a guest or amigo (Spanish word) is a friend.
The concept of exoticism
Exotisms (from the Greek Exoukos, which means "alien") are lexemes denoting the social life, life and realities of a country, people or a certain locality.
A characteristic feature of exoticisms is that they practically cannot be translated. They have no analogues of Russian synonyms, therefore they are often resorted to as necessary. For example, the Sunnah (Arabic word) is a Muslim holy tradition. Real words also have an unstable external form and low word-formation activity.
In journalism and fiction, exotism words perform a stylistic function. This helps to convey a special local flavor and characterization of the characters. For example, exotic words in describing the life of the peoples of Central Asia: dzhigit, aul, teahouse, aryk, and so on.
Exotism Groups
Every language, no matter how self-sufficient, has a need for borrowed words in order to somehow denote the realities of another culture.
Realistic words are divided into three main groups:
- Geographical realities. Everything related to geography and nature features: prairie, savannah, tornado.
- Ethnographic. They have several subgroups: life, culture and art, labor, measure and money.
- Socio-political realities. They include authorities, administrative-territorial structure, social and political life, social phenomena.
Wide and narrow exotisms are also distinguished. When words reflect the life or phenomenon of one country or several countries at once. For example, the exoticism of a sheriff (official) is used in England, the USA and Ireland. And hopak is a purely Ukrainian dance.
Signs of Realities
Being on the periphery of the vocabulary, exotism words are little known in Russian to most speakers.
Distinctive signs of exoticism:
- do not have a transfer;
- preservation of national linguistic features;
- fixed affiliation to a particular people, country;
- book coloring;
- use in nominative function.
There are signs that are not universally recognized. For example, the metaphorical use of exoticism (urban jungle, spread a harem, went into nirvana) or the formation of derivatives (aul - aulny). Also stable expressions (dollar exchange rate).
Transmission methods
Exotisms come into the language mainly in writing, rarely when the penetration of the oral occurs. Their development primarily occurs at the grammatical and phonetic levels. The main way exoticism comes into the language is transcription - a phonemic assimilation. The translation unit is a phoneme. After transcription, the word begins to acquire grammatical indicators of the language.
Realistic words are actually an approximate reproduction of their original from the language from which they were borrowed. During phonetic mastering, a number of changes may occur due to assimilative processes. And there may be a discrepancy with the graphic design. Translators try to display the pronunciation or spelling of the borrowed word as accurately as possible. For example, exotics from the Kazakh language - Tobyl - Tobol or Shaban - Shepherd.
Exotic vocabulary features
The vocabulary of a foreign language origin makes it possible to more reliably convey the phenomena occurring in other cultures. And in its transfer, it performs several functions. In the works describing the life and life of a people, the words of reality have a nominative function, naming concepts that have no analogues in the Russian language. The next function of exoticism is to give national color to bring the listener or reader as close as possible to the country in question.
Exotic vocabulary can carry an emotionally-evaluative function. For example, the word "caste", which came from India, is used as a negative evaluation metaphor for a separate grouping. Sometimes, in order to achieve a comic effect, they also resort to exoticism. In this regard, Ukrainians have shown themselves well, creating a festive atmosphere of joy and fun.
Another function is aesthetic. It helps to create or give the right image in literary texts and colloquial speech. Often, exoticism is used to give the message a special novelty.
Passive use words
Exotisms (like jargon and historicisms) are far from the words that are actively used by all carriers in everyday life. As mentioned earlier, being an undeveloped vocabulary, they are far in the passive vocabulary. But this is not a final sentence. Exotisms can well be mastered, since vocabulary, like a living organism, is constantly in motion and development. And first of all, it is she who responds to all changes and introductions from the outside: new words appear, some become obsolete, and something completely becomes a thing of the past or, conversely, comes to life.
Limited use vocabulary includes:
- obsolete words (historicisms, archaisms),
- dialecticism (the dialect of residents of any locality),
- professional vocabulary (specific words of a particular profession),
- jargon (words of a separate social group),
- Exotisms (untrained vocabulary)
- neologisms (new words that have entered the language).
Active vocabulary words include everyday use words without any touch of novelty or obsolescence.
Exotisms in Russian
There are more than enough examples of exotic vocabulary in Russian. It varies among themselves in terms of use and degree of use. Researchers highlight the more well-known words of reality for most carriers. For example: tornado, sari, geisha, shaman, kimono. But there are those whose significance can only be guessed at by individual speech fragments. For example, exotism words are a lightweight ao-zai robe or a non-hat.
Some Russian classic writers introduced exotic vocabulary in their works. For example, N.V. Gogol in his work to create a special atmosphere and character images often used Ukrainian exoticism: scroll, dummy, zupan. Without them, it was impossible to bring the reader closer to the local flavor.
Exotic vocabulary occupies a significant place in the Russian language and it is used, as a rule, by educated and well-read people. Unlike mastered borrowings, an appeal to exotism will be appropriate only when it comes to non-Russian reality.