In this article we will consider such layers of vocabulary as obsolete and native Russian words. By origin, the native Russian vocabulary is heterogeneous. It consists of several layers that differ in time of their occurrence.
Indo-Europeanism
The most ancient of the native Russian are Indo-Europeanisms, that is, words that have passed into our language since the time of Indo-European unity. According to researchers, in the 5-4 centuries BC there was an Indo-European civilization, within which various tribes living in a fairly large territory united. According to the research of some scientists, this region extended from the Yenisei to the Volga. Others suggest that it was South Russian or Balkan-Danube localization. Such a linguistic community as Indo-European laid the foundation for European languages, as well as some Asian (for example, Sanskrit, Bengali).
Words that go back to the parent-language basis of this community mean animals, plants, minerals and metals, forms of managing, tools, types of kinship and others - these are originally Russian words. Examples: salmon, oak, wolf, goose, copper, sheep, honey, bronze, son, mother, night, daughter, snow, magnifying glass, new, water, sew , etc.
Common Slavic words
The next stratum of primordially Russian words includes pan-Slavic words that were inherited from pan-Slavic (i.e., Proto-Slavic) Russian. They served as a source not only for our language, but also for all other Slavic. This basic language existed in prehistoric times on the territory of the Vistula, Bug and Dnieper. These places were inhabited by ancient tribes of the Slavs. The common Slavic language disintegrated in the 6-7 centuries of our era. This opened the way to the development of a number of Slavic languages, to which Old Russian belongs. Common Slavic words in them are easily distinguished, the commonality of their origin is obvious today. The Russian language also dates back to the Slavic languages. Natively Russian words include Slavic as an integral part.
Many of them are nouns. First of all, these are concrete names that are originally Russian words. Examples: throat, head, heart, beard, field, palm, forest, mountain, maple, birch, cow, ox, sickle, knife, pitchfork, neighbor, net, servant, guest, friend, spinner, shepherd, potter.
There are also abstract ones, but they are much smaller. These are: will, faith, sin, guilt, glory, happiness, thought, rage.
Among other parts of speech are presented in common Slavic vocabulary and verbs: hear, see, lie, grow. Adjectives: old, young, cunning, wise. Numerals: three, two, one. Pronouns: you, we, you. Pronoun adverbs: where, there, how. Some official words: by, yes, and, and, a, above and other native Russian words. Examples can be continued.
Common Slavonic vocabulary is today about two thousand words, but this rather small vocabulary is the core of the Russian dictionary. It includes the most common, neutral in style words that are used in both written and oral speech.
Having a source of their Proto-Slavic language, Slavic varieties of it, possessing various lexical, grammatical and sound features, were separated into the following three groups: eastern, western and southern.
East Slavic vocabulary
The third layer, which is available in Russian, is made up of the words of Old Russian (East Slavic) vocabulary. This is already a later time, to which the origin of the original Russian words also belongs. This vocabulary has developed on the basis of the East Slavic language, one of the three groups in which the ancient Slavic are combined. The time of its appearance is 7-9 centuries AD. The tribal unions living in Eastern Europe date back to the Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian nationalities. That is why the words remaining from this period in our language are known in two others: Belarusian and Ukrainian, but are absent in the languages ​​of the southern and western Slavs.
We can distinguish the following belonging to the East Slavic vocabulary. Since these words were used in the language from the very beginning, they were not borrowed, these are also originally Russian words. Examples:
- names of birds, animals: squirrel, dog, drake, jackdaw, bullfinch ;
- names of tools: blade, ax ;
- names of household items: bucket, boot, ruble, casket;
- names by profession of people: cook, carpenter, miller, shoemaker;
- names of various settlements: settlement, village, as well as other lexical and semantic groups.
Actually Russian vocabulary
The next, fourth, layer that can be distinguished is actually Russian vocabulary, which was formed after the 14th century, that is, during the independent development of the Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian languages. Their equivalents already appear in them for expressing certain objects or phenomena.
Actually, Russian words can be distinguished by derivative basis: leaflet, mason, community, locker room, interference, and others.
It should be noted that such vocabulary can also contain words with different foreign roots, which have gone the way of word formation and have attached Russian prefixes, suffixes ( non-partisan, partisanship, ruler, aggressiveness, teapot, glass), as well as having a complex basis ( steam engine radio node). They also include many different complexly abbreviated words that replenished our language in the 20th century: wall newspaper, timber industry farm, Moscow Art Theater , etc.
Now the native Russian vocabulary continues to replenish with new inclusions that are created using the word-building resources of our language as a result of various word-formation processes.
Outdated Russian words
Words that are no longer actively used do not immediately disappear from it. They are still understood by those who speak it for some time, we are known from works of fiction. Although the speech practice of everyday life no longer needs them. These words constitute a passive supply of vocabulary and are given in various explanatory dictionaries with a special mark "outdated."
The process of archaizing words
Usually the process of archaization is gradual. Among the obsolete words, therefore, there are those that have significant “experience” (for example, this, therefore, scarlet, speech, vorog, child). Others are withdrawn from active vocabulary due to the fact that they belong to the Old Russian period of its development. Sometimes words become obsolete in a relatively short time, arising and disappearing in the newest period. For example, “scrub” meant “teacher” until the 1920s. Words such as "rabkrin", "enkavedist" appeared, which went out of use very quickly. The corresponding marks in the dictionaries do not always have similar nominations, since the process of archaization can be recognized as not yet completely completed.
Reasons for Archaization
There are various reasons for archaizing vocabulary. They can acquire an extralinguistic (extra-linguistic) character if the refusal to use certain words is associated with social transformations. But they can also be determined by linguistic laws. The adverbs “right-handed”, “oshu” (right, left), for example, disappeared from the active dictionary due to the fact that the nouns producing them (“left hand” - “shuytsa” and “right hand” - “right hand”) were archaized. In such cases, the systemic relations of various lexical units played a decisive role. For example, the word "shuytsa" has come out of use, and therefore the semantic connection of various words that have been united by this historical root has also disintegrated. "Shulga", for example, in the language did not keep in the meaning of "lefty" and remained as a surname that goes back to the nickname. So now this word is used. You can talk about the Russian language, the processes inside it for a long time. All this is very interesting. We will only briefly describe one typical process.
The following anatomical pairs collapsed : Oshu-Odessa, Shuytsa-right; synonymous connections ( left, oshu ). But the word "right hand" for some time, despite the archaization of the systemic relations associated with it, remained in our language. For example, in the Pushkin era, this word was used in poetic speech, "high syllable". One can speak of the Russian language as constantly evolving, so the fact that vocabulary is becoming outdated is a natural process. The word "oshu" remained only as an echo of the archaic, its use only in a satirical context at that time was possible.
Composition of obsolete vocabulary
Outdated vocabulary is heterogeneous in origin. Its composition includes primordially Russian words (examples: seme, one, so that, creeping ), as well as Old Church Slavs ( loins, kissing, smooth ), borrowing from different languages ​​("polites" - "politeness", "voyage" - "travel", "abshid" - "resignation").
Revival of obsolete words
There are also cases where obsolete Russian words are being revived and returned to the active vocabulary. For example, in Russian today the following nouns are often used: minister, ensign, officer, soldier, who were archaized after October. They gave way to others: the People's Commissar, having started, the Red Army . For example, the word “leader” was extracted from the composition of passive vocabulary in the 1920s, which was perceived as archaism even in the Pushkin era and was quoted in the dictionaries of that time. Today it is archaizing again. Words such as the Duma, gymnasium, department, and lyceum have relatively recently lost their tint of archaism. They were evaluated after 1917 as historicisms.
History
The return to the active reserve of certain words is possible only under special circumstances. This is always due to various extralinguistic factors. In the event that archaization is dictated by linguistic laws and is reflected in lexical systemic connections, the resulting words are called historicism.
Among them, the names of concepts, phenomena, objects that have disappeared are distinguished: chain mail, oprichnik, city police, gendarme, tutor, hussar, Bolshevik, institute, surplus-appraisal, NEP, middle peasant, fist, VKP (b) and others. Historisms, as a rule, appear as a result of extralinguistic reasons: development of production, social transformations, renovation of household items, weapons, etc.
Today, the theme "Outdated and primordially Russian words" (Grade 6) is included in the school curriculum. Any person should know at least a little about the native language, the history of its development. Our article is written in order to expand readers' knowledge about the various layers of vocabulary that make up the great Russian word.