There were four periods in the history of the Russian language:
Old Russian language of the Kiev state of the XI-XVI centuries
The language of the Great Russian people of the Moscow state of the XIV-XVII centuries
The period of the formation of the modern Russian literary language (late 17th - early 19th centuries)
Modern Russian - from the first quarter of the 19th century to the present day.
The language of each of the periods is characterized by its own phonetic, morphological and syntactic features. In addition, in each period many words left the language, new words appeared in it. Many words have lived a long life in the language and have not changed their meaning.
The history of the origin of words, their meanings is dealt with by a special science - etymology. There are etymological dictionaries in which you can clarify the origin of a particular word.
Words that have existed in the language for many years and do not go out of use in oral and written speech include words denoting important, vital concepts that are found in all Slavic languages.
These are the names of body parts: hand, leg, nose; names of dwellings and parts of a dwelling: house, door, window, wall, stove, floor; designations of kinship relations: mother, father, son, brother, sister.
How old is the word sun? No scientist will answer this question. The sun is a large incandescent ball emitting light, it is a heavenly body. In this meaning it was used by our ancestors, in this meaning it still exists.
In addition to words that are preserved in the language throughout all periods of its development, there are special groups of words: archaisms and neologisms.
Traces of vanished words
Archaism is an outdated word that has gone out of common use. Some of the words leave the language completely, leaving no traces in it.
So the words went away: balia is a doctor; sackcloth - bag, basket; gonositis - to relieve.
A number of words have survived only in geographical names, as common nouns they have long ceased to be used.
For example, near Moscow are Mytishchi. In the Old Russian language, this was the name of the place where the tax was collected.
We have conducted a study of some words of the Russian language.
Let's take a trip to old Moscow. (Staging - puppet performance).
Let's get out early. It was just dawn, and there were still few people on the street. Look, someone over there has set a ladder to the post and is climbing up it. This is a lamplighter. In the morning he changes the kerosene lamps in the lantern, and lights it up in the evening.
And here is the old Moscow transport - a horse tram - a two-story car with an open top. This trailer is pulled by horses - where there is one, where there are two. Although it moves along the rails, it is very slow. They wait a long time for the oncoming show jumping, because the rails are laid in one track. And if the horse-drawn tram goes off the rails? No problem. All the passengers will get out, and the coachman, the conductor and a man of 5-6 passengers will swing it by the steps and put it in place. The bell will ring again, the horse tram will carry Muscovites further.
The city woke up, shops opened. Let's go to one of them. The owner of the shop, the merchant, solemnly sits at the cash register. Clerks (the merchant's hired employees) scurry about around the first buyers.
And there are more and more people on the street. The policeman (the policeman who oversaw the order in the city) stretched out, greeting the police chief, the police chief, who was passing in the carriage.
The artisan people are in a hurry to work. Here a guy ran past us with a cardboard box. And the other one over there carries something else. Why aren't they studying? Nothing surprising. Previously, the children of the poor, having learned how to write and read, went to work as boys in an apprentice in a shop, in a hairdresser. Yes - yes, exactly "boys". That was the name of a person, usually a teenager, who did all sorts of work - giving, bringing, taking. And everything had to be done quickly, so he ran all day. From the old days, we have only the expression errand boy.
Lamplighter, horse tram, coachman, shops, merchant, clerks, policeman, carriage, police chief, artisans, errand boys, apprentices
The vocabulary of the Russian language is constantly changing: some words disappear, others appear. The withering away of a word does not occur immediately, at first it becomes of little use, and then it disappears altogether.
The withering away of words is caused by life itself. If any object leaves life, the word itself also goes away with it. For example: horse, shop, flail, etc. Such words are called historicisms.
In fiction, obsolete words are used to characterize the era that the author is describing. For example, in the book by S. Alekseev "Stories about Suvorov and Russian soldiers" there are the following historicisms: field marshal, courier, centurion, grenadiers, hussars, verst, etc. There are many archaisms in the book: army (army), this (this), victoria (victory), say (say).
Some outdated words have survived in proverbs, sayings, stable expressions, for example: to cherish like the apple of an eye as an arshin swallowed a penny is not worth it.
It is interesting to get to know the old words. How many new things you learn about the past! And even many words of our days will become understandable. You've probably heard the word stun. “He stunned me,” that is, he surprised me with something, amazed me. And this comes from the old days, when warriors fought in heavy armor. If the warrior was hit hard on the silk (helmet), he lost consciousness, fell and could not fight. He was "stunned".
We have prepared a museum of old words. Now we will go there and get acquainted with some historicisms.
"The tools of agricultural labor of the Slavs":
A knotted harrow - a spruce trunk with branches cut off to half the length, for loosening the soil and embedding seeds in the ground.
The threshing floor is a place for processing grain harvested from the field.
The scythe is a long curved knife with a long handle for cutting grass, cereals.
Oratai is a plowman.
Ovin (riga) - a room for drying sheaves before threshing.
The sickle is a hand-held tool in the form of a curved knife for cutting off cereals.
The plow is an agricultural tool for plowing the soil.
Tok is a cleared and rammed platform on the threshing floor where bread was threshed.
The chain is a hand-held threshing tool.
"Hunting and Fishing"
Delirium is a net that two people pull along the bottom of a lake or river. Nets and seine are kept on the water by means of floats tied to the upper edge, stone sinkers are tied along the lower edge of the nets.
A hook, a stockade, fishing hooks.
A seine is a net-like trap consisting of a large bag and wings on the sides.
The top is a wicker fishing tackle in the form of a funnel.
The overheads are gigantic bird-catching nets that are stretched between tall trees.
Rogatina is a hunting weapon in the form of a spear with a long shaft for hunting bears.
Rojon is a sharp stake used for hunting bears.
"Weaving"
The spindle is a spinning device.
Spinning wheel, comb, loom
Towel is the fibrous part of flax.
Hemp is a fiber made from hemp stems.
Scutcher - a device for scattering and fiber cleaning
"Wood products"
The bucket is a wide low wooden bucket.
Cooper (bochard) - a master of making barrels.
Burak is a birch bark vessel with a wooden bottom and a detachable lid.
A barrel is a wooden container with two bottoms and usually with slightly curved sides.
Bratina is a circular table cup used in the old days for drinking wine.
Endova is a large open dish with a spout for wine.
Jug - a vessel with a lid in the form of a jug for liquids.
The tub is a barrel with straight sides and a hugging bottom.
Lohan - wooden round or oblong dishes for household needs.
A basket is a handmade basket made of splint or twigs.
The bark is the bark of the tree together with the fibrous inner part.
A ushat is a small wooden tub with two planks protruding against each other - ears.
"Clothes and Jewelry"
Shirt - men's and women's clothing
Sundress - women's clothing.
The shirt is the undershirt.
Bast shoes - shoes woven from birch bark, bark or rope.
Pistons - shoes made of leather, sometimes pigs, like slippers.
Kokoshnik - female headdress
Kolt - female temporal decoration
An amulet is an item that protects its owner
Hryvnia - neck decoration
Casing - sheepskin fur coat
Onuchi - port women, windings under boots or bast shoes
Fibula - cloak clasp
"Armament"
Mace is a short stick with an iron ball-shaped bulge at the end.
The shaft is a long round stick on which the point of a spear is planted or a flag is hung.
Quiver is a bag of arrows.
The sword is a melee weapon with a double-edged long straight blade.
The club is a club made of wood with a thickened end.
A saber is a cold weapon with a long curved blade.
The ax is a battle ax.
Sulitsa is a short spear.
"Trade, money"
Rook - merchant ship
A drag is a section between two navigable rivers, through which in the old days a ship was dragged to continue the journey.
The guest is a merchant; the one who visits someone.
Ruble - severed pieces of gold or silver.
In the Russian language there are very ancient words that, having served people, disappear. Look at the picture of an ancient warrior and read the words that call him armor.
Words leave the language if objects, phenomena, things leave life. A modern warrior cannot be armed with a spear, sword, bow and arrow. These objects are not needed, and the words that call them are gradually disappearing from life. Some words received a new meaning: a spear - for an athlete, a helmet for a tanker or an astronaut, a flag pole, a gentleman - a lazy person, a white-handed person. But there are also words that have become obsolete, and the objects they call remain, for example: a warrior is a warrior, in vain - in vain, too much - very much, only - only, a playboy - an actor.
Here is a picture of a person in front of you. Here are the names of the body parts. - What did the words vyya, lanita, finger, mouth, forehead mean? (neck, cheek, finger, lips, forehead)
As you can see, some words have died and others have appeared in their place.
Now it is clear to us from which words the words originated:
Ring, thimble, glove - from the word finger
Bangs - from the word brow
Oral - from word of mouth
Thus, unlike historicisms, archaisms are designations of things and phenomena that have now received a different name.
We found the old roots of words in our other words as well. We say, for example: soup with veal, cabbage soup with pork, beef cutlets.
Veal - calf meat
Pork - pig meat
But why beef?
It turns out that there used to be the word beef. They were called cattle: cows, bulls, oxen.
Or the old word rekh. It meant - "hole, hole." Now it is clear why we say a hole, a grate, a sieve.
And here is the old word lop. It meant a wide sheet. From it the words burdock (wide leaf) spade (a tool resembling a leaf) were formed;
We can explain the meaning and origin of the word ruble.
Ruble - in the old days, the Slavs had gold or silver bars instead of money, which, if required, were chopped: hence the word ruble (stump)
Shirt, shirt, frontier, ruble. These words are not only close in sounding, but also close in their meaning, as they come from the same word “cut”. "Cut" means "hem, edge, edge, edge, edge"
3. New words supplant old ones.
Why are new words appearing?
With the development of society, industry, agriculture, science, culture, new objects appear in each country, new phenomena arise, new events occur. Imagine a new object has appeared, an unusual event has occurred, for which there is no name yet. Words should appear in the language to denote them.
New words have their own names - neologisms.
The reason for the appearance of neologisms is social and scientific and technological progress, discoveries in the field of science and technology, achievements in the field of culture.
So in due time the words appeared: Stakhanovite, electricity, harvester. Spartakiad, cosmonaut, cosmodrome, landed, radar, helicopter, astronautics, etc.
The main feature of neologism is the absolute novelty of the word for most native speakers. The word has been in a state of neologism for a very short time. As soon as the word begins to be actively used, it loses the sign of novelty, that is, it gradually enters the lexical system of the language as a common one. Now these words cannot be considered neologisms. They were new for their historical period.
Often the literary language is replenished with new words due to the vocabulary of folk dialects. These new words could exist alongside the old ones for some time, and then they replaced the old words from use. This is how eyes, lips, forehead appeared from the living folk speech, displacing the words of the Old Russian language from the general use of the eye, mouth, brow. The nouns eye, peephole meant a ball in the Old Russian language. In the 16th century, the word eye became synonymous with the word eye (probably an association for shape and brilliance).
Mouth - no matter how offensive it may be, our mouth is one root with a "snout"; its first meaning was: what they dig. In the Old Russian language "mouth" meant beak, point, cape.
Words such as airbus, computer science, electric car are of course new words. But they can no longer be called neologisms. But words such as nanotechnology, bioreactor, bionics, etc. are neologisms of our days.
Abbreviation (contraction) in modern Russian has become one of the most common ways to create neologisms. For example: riot police, special forces, CIS.
The so-called occasionalisms (Latin Occasionalis - random) belong to neologisms - these are words formed by writers and used only once in a certain work: wide-noisy oak groves, in heavy snake hair.
Especially many casualisms are created by children:
I made a macaron; I'm not a baby anymore, but a big one, etc.
In the last decade, a large number of borrowed words related to the development of electrical engineering and computer technologies have entered the Russian language. The following words can be considered neologisms: dealer, manager, marketing, mortgage, impeachment, briefing, modem, pager, etc. These words have already entered the Russian vocabulary and are widely used. However, they have not yet been fixed by existing dictionaries and are perceived as new.
4. Meeting with foreign guests
One of the ways of vocabulary development is borrowing foreign words to denote new concepts. The penetration of foreign words is a completely natural phenomenon, since economic, political and cultural ties between the peoples of different countries give rise to the mutual exchange of new concepts, introduce new ideas, with new objects of everyday life and culture. Now these are well-known words that have come to visit our language and have remained in it forever.
Football - eng. , postman - ital. , coat of arms - Polish.
The vocabulary of the Russian language at different periods of its development included many foreign words, the fate of which is not the same.
Some of them fell out of use over time (voyage, fortetia is a fortress; stimball is a steamer).
Some words firmly entered the Russian language, became Russified, appeared for many derived words (master, defect, tendency)
The Russian language, like the languages of other peoples inhabiting the globe, was replenished with words that came to us as guests and remained with us forever. Our friendship with such words has been tested for centuries.
From the words that came into the Russian language from other languages, we made a crossword puzzle.
Horizontally:
1. Apparatus for breathing underwater.
2. Paint.
3. Globe.
4. "with a thin feather, they teach at school"
5. The first book of Buratino.
6. Graduate document.
7. "Yeralash".
8. Science of numbers.
9. It says "chicken paw".
10. Winter, summer, spring
Vertically:
11. Station.
12. General.
13. Black Ivashka, wooden shirt. Wherever he holds his nose, he puts a note there.
14. The pine and the Christmas tree have leaves-needles. And on which leaves are words and lines growing.
15. Lesson where problems are solved.
16. for drawing.
17. "Favorite" business of the student.
18. Enemy of the pencil.
2. Rides down the street, carries the kids.
3. "City News".
Horizontally:
1. Scuba.
2. Watercolor.
3. Globe.
4. Notebook.
5. Alphabet.
6. Certificate.
7. Journal.
8. Algebra.
9. Doodles.
10. Vacations.
Vertically:
11. Railway station.
12. General.
13. Pencil.
14. Paper.
15. Mathematics.
16. Album.
18. Eraser.
2. Bus.
3. Newspaper.
Here's what some of those words told us.
NOTEBOOK. I am originally from Greece. My Greek root is tetra, which means four, and the original meaning is a piece of paper folded in four. Try bending the sheet in half, and then in half again. It remains to cut this little book, sew it in the middle, and the notebook is ready. It will have four sheets. This is how the first notebooks were, then there were more sheets, but the name remained.
PENCIL. And I have two roots, and all are from Turkic (eastern0 languages: kara - means “black”, tash - “stone.” Indeed, the main thing in me is a black lead, similar to a stone. But my story is not easy. The pencil began its journey from lead sticks used for writing. The mark from such a pencil remained very weak, and the hands were covered with a gray coating. Then black sticks appeared, they began to prepare "clothes" for them - leather, metal and, finally, wood. Now the rod can be of different colors , but we still use the word pencil.
NEWSPAPER. And my homeland is Italy, although, incidentally, I have many relatives in other countries, because my modern meaning is conveyed by similar words in more than one Russian language. But this meaning (a periodical in the form of large sheets dedicated to the events of current political and public life) arose much later than the original one. Indeed, at first in Italy, a small coin was called a "newspaper", which was paid for the first sheet of "Written News". Then this leaf by the name of the coin was also called a newspaper, and the word went around the world. It has taken root in our language as well.
HOLIDAY. If you translate the word vacation into Russian, you get "dog days". The word vacation in Latin means "dog, puppy". The ancient Romans called "Vacation" the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major. When hot days came, the sun passed through this constellation. Then they took a break from their studies, a "vacation" began. The word vacation in Russian also means a break in classes, but not only in the summer. We have autumn, winter, spring and summer vacations.
How many hours are spent in elementary school on calligraphy, but still, some students manage to write like a chicken with a paw, and you get CARAKULI. It turns out that in the Turkic language kara- means “bad”, a-kul came from another language, meaning “by hand”, and in some Turkic languages, also “writing”, “handwriting”. And it turns out that "scribbles" are bad handwriting, "bad hand".
The word sport and its ancestors.
Many words just like people like to travel.
The word does not sit still, so it wanders from country to country like a bird. And during a long journey, the word sometimes changes so much that it becomes completely different from itself.
You all know the word sport. This word sounds the same in the languages of many nations. But how it was born, not everyone knows.
The word sport was born a long time ago in France. And it was pronounced differently: "deport". It meant nothing more than "entertainment", "fun".
Once this word boarded a ship - either it was captured by merchants or by brave sailors - and, having crossed the English Channel, found itself in England. Only the British began to pronounce it in their own way: "dysport". And then they dropped the "di" part altogether. It turned out the word "sport". This word began to be called competitions, but not all, but only some, for example, horse racing, rowing races.
And the word went for a walk around the world, until it returned to its homeland, to France. At first, the French did not want to recognize their compatriot, but then they got used to it.
More than a hundred years ago, the word "sport" has penetrated into our country. In the beginning, sports in Russia was called anything - playing dominoes, collecting stamps, breeding pets, and even handicrafts. It took a long time before the word sport acquired the meaning that we attach to it today.
4. Conclusion
In different historical periods of our Motherland, the Russian language has changed. Some words left the language, others came. To find out the meaning of a word, you can refer to the etymological dictionary.
Serving society as a means of communication, language is constantly undergoing changes, more and more accumulating its resources to adequately express the meaning of the changes taking place in society. For a living language, this process is natural and logical. However, the degree of intensity of this process can be different. And there is an objective reason for this: society itself - the bearer and creator of the language - experiences different periods of its existence in different ways. During periods of sharp breakdown of established stereotypes, the processes of linguistic transformations also intensify. This was the case at the beginning of the 20th century, when the economic, political and social structure of Russian society changed dramatically. Under the influence of these changes, the psychological type of the representative of the new society also changes, albeit more slowly, which also acquires the character of an objective factor influencing the processes in the language.
The modern era has actualized many processes in the language, which in other conditions could be less noticeable, more smoothed. A social explosion does not make a revolution in the language as such, but actively influences the speech practice of a contemporary, revealing linguistic possibilities, bringing them to the surface. Under the influence of an external social factor, the internal resources of the language, developed by intrasystemic relations, which were previously not in demand for various reasons, including, again, for socio-political reasons, come into motion. So, for example, semantic and semantic-stylistic transformations were found in many lexical layers of the Russian language, in grammatical forms, etc. Rosenthal D.E., Golub I.B., Telenkova M.A. "Modern Russian language". - M .: Ayris-press, 2002., p. 38.
In general, language changes are carried out with the interaction of external and internal causes. Moreover, the basis for changes is laid in the language itself, where internal laws operate, the reason for which, their driving force, lies in the systemic nature of the language. But a kind of stimulant (or, conversely, "extinguisher") of these changes is an external factor - processes in the life of society. Language and society, as a language user, are inextricably linked, but at the same time they have their own, separate laws of life support.
In my opinion, one of the reasons for the official recognition of language changes in our country is the continuing assimilation of migrants in the capital. Last year, the transition to the unified state exams was completed. It has been repeatedly said that the Unified State Exam will lead to an increase in the availability of education in the capital's universities for residents of other regions, and the forecasts have been fully confirmed. This means that the line between the capital and the province will continue to blur, and the most educated people from the regions will study in the capital.
There is a legalization of a large number of nonresident ways of pronunciation, they actually acquire a higher status. Hence, "coffee" in the neuter genus, and "curd" with an emphasis on the last syllable, and the admissibility of the use "on Wednesdays." Active discussions were held about how to legitimize the "agreement", "chauffeur". If the "agreement" was legalized, then, perhaps, the "chauffeur" will also be legalized over time.
However, language changes are taking place not only in our country, but also in Europe. There is a controversy about what is happening with the German and English languages. Confusion in cases, violation of conjugations, incorrect formulation of prepositions - all these tendencies characteristic of the Russian language are observed, for example, in German. There is a whole bunch of reasons here: the impact of English, and "writing" through chats and blogs with a mixture of written and oral style, and the active inclusion of regional components, and talk shows with their easy spoken language. In addition, classical literature has greatly lost its authority not only in Russia.
CHANGES IN THE LEXICAL SYSTEM OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AT THE END OF THE XX CENTURY
Ibatullina S.T.(MSTU)
Usually the chronological "step", during which significant shifts in the language accumulate, ranges from 10 - 20 to 30 - 40 and more years. In accordance with this, there are three types of evolution of the language and its norms:
1. Highly dynamic, or accelerated, type (10 - 20 years);
2. Moderate type of evolution, which is characterized by smoother shifts in time (30 - 40 years);
3. Low-dynamic, or slowed down, type of evolution, which is characterized by minor changes in the state of the norm (50 and more years).
An example of an accelerated type of evolution in the Russian language can serve as lexical changes that have been observed over the past 15 years (1985 - 2000), during the period of economic, political, social and psychological upheavals. Similar processes have already taken place in the foreseeable past: this was the case at the beginning of the 18th century, in the era of reforms of Peter I, and after the 1917 revolution. This is because each new way of thinking requires a new way of expressing.
In recent years, a real lexical explosion has taken place in the Russian language, which is characterized by a number of important changes. One of them should be recognized as the stormy process of word formation: new derivative words appear and enter speech use not gradually, as happens during periods of "calm" language development, but simultaneously, when, in accordance with the needs of the linguistic community, a whole word-forming nest is formed around words denoting the most relevant concepts of our time: perestroika (perestroika, perestroika, anti-perestroika, pre-perestroika, post-perestroika, counter-perestroika, perestroika, etc.); democrat (anti-democrat, anti-democrat, democracy, democratized, democrat, democrat, etc.).
The openness of modern society for international contacts, the orientation in many respects to Western culture, the way of life led to the massive entry into the Russian language of borrowed vocabulary and word-formation elements (mainly from the American version of the English language): dealer, offshore, producer, rating, summit, exclusive, etc.
Semantic transformations are also proceeding very intensively at the present time: the compatibility of many words is rapidly expanding, which leads to the rapid appearance of new meanings in them. So, for example, the noun crime, which was usually used in the meaning of "criminal offense, criminal case", began to be understood more broadly as "something causing public condemnation, violating moral norms", as well as in the new meaning "criminal environment, criminals". Frequent verb unwind used mainly in new, figurative meanings - "to bring into an active state, to force to act, to develop; to advertise widely, to popularize."
In recent years, there have been two major processes that are closely interconnected and complement each other. On the one hand, a large number of words associated with Soviet times, the socialist system ( nesun, october, political information, catering, party collection, etc.). On the other hand, some words that were previously considered obsolete and were accompanied by appropriate marks in dictionaries are returning along with new realities ( governor, duma, cadets, secular, etc..), as well as words that are firmly associated with bourgeois society ( strike, strike, unemployment, etc.).
Finally, a special feature of our time should be recognized as an active, uncontrolled invasion of lowered, slang, and often obscene vocabulary, and not only into spoken language, but also into various genres of journalism and fiction.
Thus, we can conclude that the changes taking place before our eyes indicate a low level of stability of the lexical system of the Russian language. In these conditions, linguists are faced with a serious task of collecting and describing new lexical material, as well as assessing it from the point of view of compliance with the linguistic norm.
2000In the modern world, borrowing words from different languages are increasingly common, and Russian is no exception. What is the reason for this? Foreign borrowing - is it good or bad? Why was the idea of creating a universal Esperanto language unsuccessful? These and other questions were answered by Iya Nechaeva, Senior Researcher at the Institute of the Russian Language. V.V. Vinogradov and Scientific Secretary of the Spelling Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
- Please tell us what are the differences between philology and linguistics? They are often confused, and sometimes these terms are used interchangeably.
- Philology is a set of humanities related to the study of language, written texts and verbal creativity. Comes from the Greek philologia - literally "love of the word." The term "linguistics" (synonym - "linguistics") comes from the Latin word lingua - "language" and denotes the science of natural human language. Philology includes linguistics, literary criticism, textual studies, source studies, paleography (a scientific discipline that studies the monuments of ancient writing), etc.
So the concept of philology is broader than the concept of linguistics.
- Is borrowing words from other languages, in your opinion, a positive or negative phenomenon? Or is it a natural process, shall we say, the evolution of a language?
- Lexical borrowing is normal. Even Academician Yakov Karlovich Grot, an outstanding Russian linguist of the late 19th century, who made a huge contribution to the ordering of Russian spelling, said that "unconditional hostility to borrowed words has no reasonable basis," and the adoption of other people's words into the language is "a natural and inevitable process." There are, of course, abuse of foreign language vocabulary, but this should be regarded as a fact of speech of specific people or the fact of speech practice for a limited period of time (there are, so to speak, "fashionable" words and expressions). In any case, these are transient things. The language itself is gradually cleared of everything that it does not need.
- Do you think it is worth using borrowed words if there are their Russian counterparts?
- The fact is that borrowings take root in speech, as a rule, just when there are either no exact Russian analogs, or the exact analogs are not a word, but a more extended construction, a phrase. Usually, the original and borrowed words, which seem to us to be synonyms, have some semantic or stylistic nuances that distinguish them from each other. After all, one cannot say that, for example, a hitman is absolutely the same as a murderer or even a hired killer.
The one who killed the old woman-pawnbroker, not the killer.
A killer is not someone who, for a good bribe, begins to put poison in a glass or act in a similar way. This is a professional with certain skills, wielding modern weapons, who does his dirty work to order. Woman, lady, madam, lady - these are all different concepts. Filmmakers often use the word "painting" instead of "film," but this is more of a professional use, we don't usually say that.
- In what period of Russian history was foreign borrowing the most intense?
- There are several periods of intensive borrowing of vocabulary in the history of the Russian language. This, for example, the Peter's era, when Russia "opened a window to Europe" and Peter began to build the Russian fleet (borrowed from Dutch, German and other languages), or the era of the Enlightenment (mainly from French), or the 1990s and early 2000s. x (borrowing mainly from English and its American version, but not only).
It is difficult to say in what period the borrowing was most intense. "The awareness of one's country as a part of the civilized world" is one of the conditions for the adoption of new foreign language words, says Doctor of Philology, Professor Leonid Petrovich Krysin. In any case, such “bursts” of interlingual activity are usually caused by social or political reasons and are associated with the need for social renewal. The language perfectly reflects our life.
- In general, is the Russian language strongly susceptible to foreign borrowing? If so, why?
- Sufficiently susceptible. Despite the fact that Russia was a closed country for quite long periods of its development, foreign words and concepts still penetrated the language. But this process was going on more actively, of course, during periods of greater openness of Russian society, with more intensive communication between Russian speakers and representatives of other cultures, which is currently facilitated by the rapid development of information technologies.
Without noticing it ourselves, we measure the results of our works by comparison with the developed countries of the West (when we say "like in Europe" - this is a synonym for a positive assessment of any object or phenomenon). And along with foreign subject-conceptual realities, new words also penetrate into our life. In general, there is nothing wrong with that. The adherents of the purity of the Russian language and the fighters against foreign language words themselves do not notice that they use borrowings every day.
Foreign words are not only speaker (as well as vice speaker), mayor, prefect, computer, bluetooth, interview, trend, penthouse, show, hit, fast food, etc., but also an elevator, car, bus, tram, director, actor, floor, literature, mathematics, study, hall, album, data, center, text, theme and many others.
Many of them are examples of foreign words that cannot be replaced by anything.
- What words that we, as a rule, consider native Russian, are actually borrowed?
- I have already partially answered this question. I remember that at one time many retold someone's anecdotal statement: “Why come up with such complex names as a cell phone, isn't it better to use the simple Russian word“ mobile phone ”? But the fact is that although the word "mobile" is formed with the help of the Russian suffix -nik, it goes back to the French word mobile ("mobile", "mobile"), and the latter, in turn, to the Latin mobilis with the same meaning, that is, it is borrowed in origin. Many everyday things and concepts have foreign names: tea, bath, fashion, hairpin, interest, nature, package, character ... It's hard to believe, but from childhood we all know the word “notebook” also goes back to a foreign language source, namely: to the Greek root tetra, denoting the number "four," since originally a notebook was a four-fold leaflet.
- Let's remember the legend about the Tower of Babel - the variety of languages has led to misunderstanding and conflicts between people. Do you think languages are associated with conflicts now?
- This legend is connected with the idea of ancient people that initially after the Flood all people spoke the same language, only after God created new languages, people scattered all over the earth. I think that very often conflicts arise among people who have been speaking the same language all their lives, and the common language does not help them to understand each other.
Conflicts are more likely associated with mental or religious differences, with contradictions in the system of values and, of course, interests, and not with language.
- What problems can be caused by misunderstanding between people caused by the fact that they speak different languages?
- Well, even a comma, as you know, can have a fateful meaning (you cannot be pardoned to execute). Of course, you need to achieve the correct understanding of the foreign language text. But, as we know, the expression "speak different languages" also has a figurative meaning and means "to understand things in their own way, different from the interlocutor, not to find common ground." The problem of the language barrier is solved with the help of adequate translation, but with mental differences it is more difficult.
As for borrowed words, their incomprehensibility for the interlocutors can lead to curiosities in communication. I recall a humorous poem by V. Mayakovsky "On the fiascos, apogee and other unknown things":
Akulovka received a bunch of newspapers.
They read it.
Eyes stick into letters.
Read:
- "Poincaré is failing."
Thinking.
What is this "fiasco" for this?
- Is the appearance in the future of a single "world language" like Esperanto realistic? What is the reason for the failure of Esperanto to become a universal international language?
- I don't think it's real. Esperanto's failure is due to the fact that it is an artificial language. The national languages we speak are of natural origin. Nobody invented them, they arose and developed under the influence of objective circumstances. Attempts to forcefully impose something on the language rarely lead to success. Even from the invented new words, only a few are fixed in the language (but this, of course, does not apply to special terminology). The national language reflects the national culture, the rejection of it means the rejection of their national identity.
In addition, the "world language", for that matter, is not enough to create - you still need to master it.
But after all, the countries and the ethnic groups inhabiting them are very different in terms of their level of development, the level of education of the population, etc. So it's unrealistic.
- Now the language of international communication is English, Chinese and Spanish languages are becoming more widespread. In your opinion, will the linguistic "balance of power" change in 25-30 years?
- I think that Chinese can become relatively more widespread (due to the strengthening of the role of this country in the political arena and the need for interethnic communication), but English is unlikely to lose its significance. Spanish and now ranks second in the world - this language, except for Spain, is spoken by most of the South American and Central American countries.
25-30 years is a very short period of time for history; any radical changes in this regard can hardly be expected.
Although, in general, predictions are a thankless job.
A lecture by the editor-in-chief of the portal "Gramota.ru", candidate of philological sciences Vladimir Pakhomov took place in the cultural center "Onezhsky" within the framework of the joint project of the site "Theory and Practice" and the Department of Culture of the city of Moscow "City Lecture Hall". He told how the spelling changed in the history of the Russian language, why the use of the words "rings" with an accent in the first syllable and "coffee" in the neuter gender is not an indicator of illiteracy, and why it is pointless to prohibit foreign words. "Lenta.ru" publishes the main theses of his speech.
How we hear and what we write
In the mind of most people, two different concepts are very often confused: language and spelling (spelling). Therefore, the Russian language is often perceived simply as a set of rules, sometime invented by someone and randomly systematized in textbooks and reference books. Many sincerely believe that if a person has learned the rules, it means that he knows his native language.
In fact, the spelling rules are not the language itself, but its shell. They can be compared to the wrapper in which the chocolate candy is wrapped (in this case, it is like a tongue). And in school, it is the spelling rules that are mainly studied, not the language. Writing competently does not mean that you are fluent in Russian. Doctor of Philology Igor Miloslavsky rightly notes that "the level of knowledge of the native literary language is determined by a person's ability to accurately and fully understand everything that he reads or hears, as well as his ability to express absolutely clearly his own thoughts and feelings, depending on the conditions and recipient of communication." ... Let me emphasize: language and spelling are completely different things.
There is nothing specially invented in the spelling rules. Our spelling is slender and logical. 96 percent of the spellings of Russian words are based on one single principle - the main principle of Russian spelling. This is a morphological principle, the essence of which is that each morpheme (prefix, root, suffix, ending) is spelled the same, despite the fact that it can be pronounced differently in different words. For example, we say do [n] and do [b] s, but we write this root the same way: oak.
How sailors changed the Russian alphabet
In the history of the Russian language, there were only two reforms of graphics and spelling. The first was carried out by Peter I in 1708-1710. To a greater extent, it concerned graphics: the writing of uppercase (large) and lowercase (small) letters was legalized, unnecessary letters were removed from the Russian alphabet and the writing of the rest was simplified. The second took place in 1917-1918. This was already a reform of both graphics and spelling. In the course of it, the letters Ѣ (yat), Ѳ (fit), I ("And decimal"), a solid sign (b) at the end of words were removed. In addition, some spelling rules have been changed. For example, in the genitive and accusative cases of adjectives and participles, the endings -ago, -iago were replaced by -go, -his (for example, old - old), in the nominative and accusative cases of the feminine and neuter plural -yya, -іya - by - s, s (old - old).
By the way, the initiators of this reform were not the Bolsheviks at all. Changes in Russian spelling have been brewing for a long time, preparation began at the end of the 19th century. The spelling commission at the Imperial Academy of Sciences began work in 1904, and the first draft was presented in 1912. Some of the scientists' proposals were very radical: for example, at the end of words it was proposed to remove not only the hard sign (b), but also the soft one (b). If this proposal were accepted (later the linguists refused it), then we would now write not “night”, but “night”.
In May 1917, the reform project was approved by the Provisional Government. It was assumed that the transition to the new spelling will take place gradually, for some time both the old spelling and the new will be considered correct. But the Bolsheviks who seized power approached this issue in their characteristic manner. New rules were introduced immediately, and detachments of revolutionary sailors confiscated the "canceled" letters in printing houses. This led to an incident: the solid character (b) was also taken away, despite the fact that its spelling as a separating character within words was retained. Therefore, typesetters had to use an apostrophe ('), so spellings like con'zd arose.
The adoption in 1956 of the still officially valid Russian spelling rules was not a spelling reform: there were not many changes in the text. For example, now it was necessary to write the words "shell", "barber", "scurvy", "mat" with the letter "and" instead of "s", "apparently", "still" through a hyphen instead of the previously adopted merged spelling , the spellings "damn", "go", "come" were approved - instead of "devil", "go", "come".
Hare and parachute
The next major reform of spelling in the Russian language was planned for 1964. Many linguists were aware of the incompleteness and some inconsistency of the 1956 rules, which were replete with a huge number of exceptions. The idea was not to simplify the Russian spelling, but to make it even slimmer, more systematic and more logical, to make it easier to learn at school. This was important both for teachers, who even in the 1960s often complained about the low literacy of schoolchildren and the lack of hours for studying the Russian language, and for the state. Why, for example, was it suggested to write "hare"? Look, we write "fighter" - "fighter", "fighter". The vowel also disappears in the controversial word: "hare", "hare", so why not write "hare" by analogy with "fighter"? In other words, it was not about simplification for the sake of simplification, but about the elimination of unjustified exceptions. Unfortunately, after the removal of Khrushchev, the new leaders of the country, who were "allergic" to the ideas of their predecessor, rolled back the already prepared reform.
The need to streamline the rules of Russian spelling was again discussed in the late 1990s. The country changed, the time changed, and many of the 1956 rules began to look not only outdated, but also downright ridiculous. For example, in the Soviet years, in accordance with the ideological guidelines, the army of the USSR had to be called exclusively the Armed Forces. At the same time, when writing the names of the armies of the socialist countries, only the first word was written with a capital letter - the Armed Forces, and the armies of the capitalist states, NATO countries could only be called armed forces.
In addition, many new words have appeared, their first parts: media, internet, web, business. Therefore, the Spelling Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences began work on a new edition of the spelling rules, with examples relevant to modern written speech. Linguists discussed changes in the spelling of individual words (many people remember the discussion about the words "parachute", "brochure", "jury", which were suggested to be written with "y", later the linguists abandoned this idea). Alas, the work of linguists was not fully conscientiously covered in the media, journalists talked about the allegedly impending "language reform", and so on. As a result, the society reacted extremely negatively to the work of the Spelling Commission, therefore the draft of a new edition of the Russian spelling rules prepared by it was not approved and the 1956 code remains generally binding to this day.
However, the work of the Spelling Commission was not in vain, its result was a complete academic reference book "Rules of Russian spelling and punctuation", published in 2006, as well as the academic "Russian spelling dictionary" edited by Doctor of Philology Vladimir Lopatin - the most complete spelling dictionary of the modern Russian language ... There are few changes compared to the 1956 rules. For example, the verbal adjective "read", which used to be an exception and was written with two letters "n", is now summed up under the general rule and is written with one "n", while the participle - with two (a few minutes and money counted by an accountant, Wed: fried potatoes and fried potatoes in a pan).
Is it ringing or ringing?
We talked about how often spelling changes. How often does the Russian language change? Constantly, because the Russian language is a living language, and only dead languages do not change. Changes in the language are a normal process, which should not be feared and considered a degradation, destruction of the language.
The place of stress in words changes. Let's take the most famous example with the verb "call", anyway, no conversation about the language is complete without it. Some native speakers defiantly portray excruciating suffering when they hear the stress rings (while they themselves make similar spelling mistakes without noticing it at all, for example, they say drills instead of normative drills), and journalists use their favorite stamp “litmus test of illiteracy” in relation to stress rings. Meanwhile, linguists are aware of the presence in the language of such a phenomenon as shifting the stress of verbs to -it in personal forms from the ending to the root (this process began at the end of the 18th century). Some verbs have already gone this way. For example, they used to say: loads, warts, katITs, smokes, pays. Now we say: grUzit, varit, katit, kurit, pay.
Photo: Alexander Polyakov / RIA Novosti
Knowledge of this tendency gave the authors of the "Great Orthoepic Dictionary of the Russian Language", published in 2012, grounds to fix the option inclYuchit (previously prohibited) as acceptable (with a strict literary norm it will include it). There is no doubt that this option, which has already gone from forbidden to permissible, will continue to move towards the only possible and sooner or later will displace the old stress include
The same process happens with the verb "call". He, too, would have followed this path, but we - native speakers - will not let him in. The educated part of society has a sharply negative attitude to the option rings, and that is why it has not yet been included in the dictionaries as acceptable (although back in the 1970s, linguists wrote that the prohibition of stress rings was clearly artificial). Now, in 2015, it only calls normatively. But knowledge of the orthoepic law, which was mentioned above, gives grounds to assert that this will not always be so and the stress rings, most likely, sooner or later it will become the only correct one. Not because “linguists will follow the lead of illiterate people,” but because such are the laws of language.
In the process of language evolution, the lexical meanings of some words often change. Korney Chukovsky in his book "Alive as Life" gives an interesting example. The famous Russian lawyer A.F. Horses in the last years of his life (and he died already under Soviet rule in 1927) was very indignant when those around him used the word "necessarily" in the new meaning "certainly", although before the revolution it meant only "kindly", "obligingly."
Why are languages being simplified?
The language changes grammatically. It is known that in the Old Russian language there were six types of declension of nouns, and in modern Russian there are three. There were three numbers (singular, dual and plural), only two remained (singular and plural).
And here it is worth mentioning another interesting pattern. We know that evolution is a path from simple to complex. But in the language, the opposite is true. The evolution of a language is a path from complex forms to simpler ones. The grammar of modern Russian is simpler than that of Old Russian; Modern English is easier than Old English; modern Greek is simpler than ancient Greek. Why is this happening?
I have already said that in the Old Russian language there were three numbers: a single, dual (when it was only about two objects) and a plural, that is, in the minds of our ancestors, there could be one, two, or many objects. Now in Russian there is only singular or plural, that is, there can be one object or several. This is a higher level of abstraction. On the one hand, there are fewer grammatical forms and some simplification has taken place. On the other hand, the category of number with the appearance of the distinction "one - many" has become more harmonious, logical and clear. Therefore, these processes are not only not a sign of language degradation, but, on the contrary, testify to its improvement and development.
From masculine to neuter
Many people misunderstand the work of linguists. Some believe that they are inventing the rules of the Russian language and forcing society to live by them. For example, everyone says "to kill a spider with a slipper", and the linguist claims that it is impossible to say that, because the word "slipper" is feminine (it would be correct: "to kill a spider with a slipper"). Some believe that linguists are simplifying the norm for the sake of less educated people and include in their dictionaries illiterate variants like coffee in the neuter.
In fact, linguists do not come up with linguistic norms, they fix them. They observe the language and write down the conclusions in dictionaries and encyclopedias. Scientists should do this regardless of whether they like this or that option or not. But at the same time, they look to see if the variant meets the laws of the language. Depending on this, the option is marked as prohibited or allowed.
Why is the word “coffee” very often used in the neuter gender? Is it only from illiteracy? Not at all. The fact is that the masculine gender of the word "coffee" resists the very system of the language. This word is borrowed, inanimate, common noun, non-declining and ending in a vowel. In the overwhelming majority, such words in Russian belong to the neuter gender. "Coffee" got into exceptions, because they were once in the language of the form "coffee", "coffee" - masculine, they bowed like "tea": drink tea, drink coffee. And now the masculine gender of the word "coffee" is a monument to long-dead forms, while the laws of a living language draw it into the neuter gender.
And these laws are very strong. Even the words that resist them still give up over time. For example, when the metro opened in Moscow in 1935, the media wrote: the metro is very convenient for passengers. The newspaper "Soviet Metro" was published, and Utesov sang: "But the metro flashed with oak handrails, at once he bewitched all the riders." The word "metro" was masculine (because "metro" was masculine), but gradually it "left" in the neuter gender. Consequently, the fact that "coffee" becomes a neuter word does not come from the illiteracy of people, but because such are the laws of language development.
Who gets in the way of foreign words?
Also, any conversation about the Russian language is not complete without a discussion of the borrowing of words. We often hear that the Russian language is clogged with foreign words and that we urgently need to get rid of borrowings, that if we do not take measures and stop the flow of borrowings, we will all soon speak a mixture of English and Nizhny Novgorod. And these myths are passed down from generation to generation.
Photo: Mary Evans Picture Library / Global Look
It is very easy to prove that the Russian language is inconceivable without borrowed words. It is enough to give examples of words that seem to us primordially Russian, but in fact are not. So, even in the Old Russian language from the Scandinavian languages came the words "shark", "whip", "herring", "sneak", from the Turkic - "money", "pencil", "robe", from Greek - "letter", " bed "," sail "," notebook ". Even the word "bread" is very likely a borrowing: scholars assume that its source is the Gothic language.
In different eras, borrowings from one language usually predominated in the Russian language. When, during the time of Peter I, Russia was building a fleet in order to "cut a window to Europe", a lot of words related to maritime affairs came to us, with most of them from the Dutch language (shipyard, harbor, compass, cruiser, sailor), because the Dutch at that time were considered the best ship craftsmen and many of them worked in Russian shipyards. In the 18th-19th centuries, the Russian language was enriched with the names of dishes, clothes, jewelry, furnishings that came from the French language: soup, broth, champignon, cutlet, marmalade, vest, coat, wardrobe, bracelet, brooch. In recent decades, words in the Russian language come mainly from the English language and they are associated with modern technical devices and information technologies (computer, laptop, smartphone, online, website).
This does not mean that the Russian language is so poor or greedy: it only accepts and does not give anything back. Not at all. Russian also shares its words with other languages, but exports often go not to the West, but to the East. If we compare the Russian language and the Kazakh language, for example, we will see that there are a lot of borrowings from the Russian language in the Kazakh language. In addition, the Russian language is a mediator for many words coming from West to East and from East to West. The same role was played in the 17th-19th centuries by the Polish language, through which a lot of words came to Russian (thanks to the Poles we say “Paris”, not “Pari”, “revolution”, not “revolusion”).
If we prohibit foreign words, then we will simply stop the development of the language. And then there is a threat that we will start speaking in another language (for example, in the same English), because the Russian language in this case will not allow us to express thoughts in full and in detail. In other words, the ban on the use of foreign words leads not to the preservation, but to the destruction of the language.