Not only balalaika: what Russian words have taken root in other languages. Borrowings from the Russian language in the English vocabulary

Foreign words are an integral and important part of any developing, living language. The Russian language is no exception in this regard. Foreign terms and words enrich it, make it more flexible and figurative, help to explain complex phenomena and thoughts more simply and concisely. Language borrowings serve as an indicator of the depth of interstate and international interaction.

What it is?

Foreign words are words that have entered the Russian language from other languages. The borrowing of words is a completely natural and necessary process, which becomes a consequence of the cultural, trade, military, political ties of the Russian state with other countries.

During its development, the Russian language passed through itself many foreign words, sifting out unnecessary ones, leaving and mastering useful ones. At the moment, foreign borrowings make up about a tenth of the entire Russian vocabulary. Many of them have so dissolved in the language that they are now perceived as native Russian words.

Why is this happening?

Intensive borrowing of foreign words is not a sign of language weakness. On the contrary, it is an indicator of his strength, energy, liveliness. The more actively the state develops and interacts with the world around it, the more new terms and concepts the state language absorbs.

Especially many foreign words appear in the language at the moments of cardinal social, political or cultural transformations. For example, on Russian soil, such transformations were the coming of Orthodoxy to Rus', the Mongol-Tatar invasion, the reforms of Peter the Great, the revolutions of the early 20th century, the collapse Soviet Union. The Russian language has always easily absorbed foreign words, using them for its own needs.

The main reasons for borrowing are:

• contacts with other states;
• the need for terms and names that were lacking in the Russian language;
• replacement by one foreign word of large and difficult to understand descriptive phrases;
• differentiation of concepts that are close in meaning, but differ in details;
• authority of a foreign language in a certain area (science, music);
• fashion for language in certain sections of society;
• the need to identify and describe a foreign culture, customs, traditions.

How does this happen?

Foreign words in Russian appear in two ways: through oral speech or through writing. Oral borrowing sometimes changes words beyond recognition. So, the Italian word tartufolo turned into "potato", and the German word kringel - into "pretzel". When borrowed in writing, words practically do not change their appearance and sound.

Getting into a new language environment, a foreign word gradually obeys the laws of grammar, phonetics, word formation adopted in the Russian language and eventually turns from cutting ear and eye " foreign body"into a full-fledged representative of Russian vocabulary. Foreign words are borrowed both directly when the Russian language comes into contact with a foreign language, and indirectly - through an intermediary language.

Languages ​​- donors

Russian state at all times led an active foreign policy spreading its activities and interests outside. In this it differed, for example, from China or Japan, which were reluctant to contact foreigners. Rus' was open to relations with its neighbors, occupied new lands, traded and fought with other countries, willingly got acquainted with foreign cultures, learned crafts, science, and military affairs from more developed states.

These contacts were accompanied by intensive borrowing of foreign words. Russian came into contact with many languages, mastering new and necessary foreign terms. Some of them left a very weak trace, but several languages ​​in total became a source of hundreds of new words for Russian:

Types of foreign words

All foreign words mastered by the Russian language can be divided into four large parts:

• Borrowed.
• Exoticisms.
• Foreign inserts.
• Internationalisms.

Borrowed words

Borrowed (or mastered) foreign words are words that originally appeared in foreign language, and then were brought into Russian and mastered by him. Borrowed words have completely settled down in the new language environment. Such words are transmitted through the graphic and phonetic means of the Russian language, are subject to its grammar rules, have a definite, stable value, are widely used in various fields of knowledge and activity. Examples: clown, rocket, body, arsenal, saber, shark, sandals, office, square, kefir, zenith, confusion, fakir, verse, fiesta, cavalier, company, tea, holidays, postulate, oval, fruit, canister, backpack, peat, film, flask, ottoman, table, fair, driver, locomotive, orange.

exoticisms

These are words that will allow you to localize, clarify the description of something for which there are no specific words in the Russian language. Exoticisms help to figuratively and succinctly describe foreign reality, to convey the national flavor, the originality of the region, people, country. With their help, you can create endow with special national characteristics literary characters. The most common types of exoticisms are:

• Institutions - Sejm, Khural, Reichstag, Parliament, Rada.
• Drinks and food - whiskey, gin, perno, goulash, pilaf, pudding, risotto, paella, poses, pasta.
• Clothing items - sombrero, kimono, sari, zhupan, geta, poncho.
• Money - dollars, yens, drachmas, francs, dinars.
• Titles, professions, officials- lord, laborer, abbot, bek, chancellor, gondolier, rickshaw, geisha, hetman, burgher, mr., don, mrs.
• National holidays- Purim, Hanukkah, Yom Kippur, Shabbat, Eid al-Adha, Eid al-Adha, Pongal, Vesak, Asala, Fiesta.
• Dances, songs and musical instruments- hopak, minuet, sirtaki, yodel, khoomei, duduk, bagpipes, sitar, maracas.
• The name of the winds is sirocco, tornado, snowstorm, marshmallow, boreal, mistral.
• Dwellings - yaranga, wigwam, mud hut, needle.

Foreign blotches

These foreign words differ from exoticisms in that, as a rule, they retain their original phonetics and graphic spelling. Often foreign inclusions become idioms, which are used in scientific papers, fiction, journalism and direct speech. Often they are playful or ironic.

Examples: alter ego, post factum, c "est la vie, tete-a-tete, happy end, o.k., post scriptum, terra incognita.

Internationalisms

These are a kind of cosmopolitan words that sound almost the same in many languages. Internationalisms often become universal scientific terms that are easily understood without translation around the world. The greatest contribution to the creation of such foreign words was made by Latin, English and Greek.

Examples: television, philosophy, republic, civilization, constitution, space, satellite, chaos, gas, car, democracy, monologue, atom, student.

Foreign words in modern Russian

The last decades have brought two large waves of borrowings to the Russian language. The Union collapsed, the ideological curtain collapsed, rigid party censorship disappeared, and a grandiose socio-political reorganization took place in the country. In the lexicon of Russians, on the pages of books and newspapers, on television screens, a lot of new words or words that have been mastered for a long time, but have gone out of use, have appeared.

At the same time, the information technology revolution was unfolding in full force on the entire planet, resulting in hundreds of phenomena, processes and things that had no name and received them, as a rule, with the help of the English language. These new terms were quickly absorbed by other languages. In Russian modern language foreign words appeared or played with new colors. These are, for example, words such as:

• in politics - separatist, corruption, legitimate, inauguration, PR, oligarch, prime minister, image, president, senator;
• in economics - brand, default, outsourcing, business, voucher, inflation, investment, holding, emission, firm, consulting, holding, management, merchandiser;
• in the information technology field - blog, internet, site, avatar, update, installation, cursor, browser, click, offline, interface, login, posting, link;
• in sports - snowboarding, freestyle, curling, kiting, overtime, kitesurfing;
• in music - rap, punk, house, hip-hop, rave, mix.

One of the sections of vocabulary is etymology, which studies the origin of a word against the background of changes in the entire vocabulary of the language. Originally Russian and are considered just from the standpoint of etymology. These are the two layers into which the entire vocabulary of the Russian language can be divided, in terms of origin. This section of the vocabulary gives an answer to the question of how the word came about, what it means, where and when it was borrowed, and what changes it has undergone.

Vocabulary of the Russian language

All words that exist in a language are called vocabulary. With their help, we name various objects, phenomena, actions, signs, numbers, etc.

The vocabulary is explained by the entry into the system, which led to the presence of their common origin and development. Russian vocabulary is rooted in the past of the Slavic tribes and has developed along with the people over the centuries. This is the so-called primordial vocabulary, which has existed for a long time.

There is also a second layer in the vocabulary: these are words that came to us from other languages ​​as a result of the emergence of historical ties.

Thus, if we consider the vocabulary from the position of origin, then we can distinguish the words originally Russian and borrowed. both groups are represented in the language in large numbers.

Origin of Russian words

The vocabulary of the Russian language has more than 150,000 words. Let's see what words are called native Russian.

Originally Russian vocabulary has several tiers:

Borrowing process

In our language, native Russian and borrowed words coexist. This is due historical development countries.

Since ancient times, as a people, Russians have entered into cultural, economic, political, military, and trade relations with other countries and states. This quite naturally led to the fact that the words of those peoples with whom we collaborated appeared in our language. Otherwise it was impossible to understand each other.

Over time, these language borrowings became Russified, entered the group, and we no longer perceive them as foreign. Everyone knows such words as "sugar", "banya", "activist", "artel", "school" and many others.

Originally Russian and borrowed words, examples of which are given above, have long and firmly entered our everyday life and help build our speech.

Foreign words in Russian

Getting into our language, foreign words are forced to change. The nature of their changes affects different aspects: phonetics, morphology, semantics. Borrowing is subject to our laws and regulations. Such words undergo changes in endings, in suffixes, the gender changes. For example, the word "parliament" is masculine in our country, but in German, where it came from, it is neuter.

The very meaning of the word may change. So, the word "painter" in our country means a worker, and in German it is a "painter".

The semantics are changing. For example, the borrowed words "canned", "conservative" and "conservatory" came to us from different languages and have nothing in common. But in their native language, French, Latin and Italian, respectively, they came from Latin and have the meaning of "preserve."

Thus, it is important to know from which languages ​​words are borrowed. This will help to correctly determine their lexical meaning.

In addition, sometimes it is difficult to recognize native Russian and borrowed words in the mass of vocabulary that we use every day. For this purpose, there are dictionaries that explain the meaning and origin of each word.

Classification of loanwords

Two groups of borrowed words are distinguished by a certain type:

• those who came from the Slavic language;
• taken from non-Slavic languages.

In the first group a large mass make up Old Slavonicisms - words that have been in church books since the 9th century. And now such words as “cross”, “universe”, “power”, “virtue”, etc. are widespread. Many Old Slavonicisms have Russian analogues (“lanites” - “cheeks”, “mouths” - “lips”, etc. ) Phonetic (“gates” - “gates”), morphological (“grace”, “benefactor”), semantic (“gold” - “gold”) Old Slavonicisms are distinguished.

The second group consists of borrowings from other languages, including:

• Latin (in the field of science, politics public life- "school", "republic", "corporation");
• Greek (household - "bed", "dish", terms - "synonym", "vocabulary");
• Western European (military - “headquarters”, “junker”, from the field of art - “easel”, “landscape”, nautical terms - “boat”, “shipyard”, “schooner”, musical terms - “aria”, “libretto”);
• Turkic (in culture and trade "pearl", "caravan", "iron");
• Scandinavian (household - "anchor", "whip") words.

Dictionary of foreign words

Lexicology is a very exact science. Everything is clearly structured here. All words are divided into groups, depending on the feature underlying them.

Native Russian and borrowed words are divided into two groups based on etymology, that is, origin.

There are various dictionaries that suit specific purposes. So, you can call a dictionary of foreign words, which contains foreign examples that have come to us over the course of many centuries. Many of these words are now perceived by us as Russian. The dictionary explains the meaning and indicates where the word came from.

Dictionaries of foreign words in our country have a whole history. The first was created at the beginning of the eighteenth century, it was handwritten. At the same time, a three-volume dictionary was published, the author of which was N.M. Yanovsky. In the twentieth century, a number of foreign dictionaries appeared.

Among the most famous are the “School Dictionary of Foreign Words”, edited by The dictionary entry provides information about the origin of the word, gives an interpretation of its meaning, examples of use, set expressions with it.

Language is the most universal means of communication that reacts mobilely to changes in the needs of society. Every day one or more new words appear, which are the result of a simplification or merger of existing ones, but the largest number verbal novelties come from abroad. So, foreign words in Russian: why do they arise and what are they?

Original Russian vocabulary

The Russian language has been formed over many centuries, as a result of which three stages of the genesis of original Russian words have been identified.

Indo-European vocabulary arose in the Neolithic era and was based on the basic concepts of kinship (mother, daughter), household items (hammer), food (meat, fish), the name of animals (ox, deer) and elements (fire, water).

The main words were absorbed by the Russian language and are considered part of it.

Proto-Slavic vocabulary, which had a high relevance at the border of the 6th-7th centuries, made a great influence on Russian speech. and spread to the territory of Eastern and Central Europe, as well as the Balkans.

This group contains words related to flora(tree, grass, root), names of crops and plants (wheat, carrots, beets), tools and raw materials (hoe, fabric, stone, iron), birds (goose, nightingale), as well as food products (cheese, milk, kvass).

Modern words of primordially Russian vocabulary arose in the period from the 8th to the 17th centuries. and belonged to the East Slavic language branch. The mass fraction of them expressed an action (run, lie, multiply, lay down), the names of abstract concepts arose (freedom, outcome, experience, fate, thought), words appeared that corresponded to household items (wallpaper, carpet, book) and names national dishes(stuffed cabbage, cabbage soup).

Some words have taken root so firmly in Russian speech that they will not need to be replaced soon, while others were brazenly replaced by more consonant synonyms from neighboring countries. So "humanity" turned into "humanity", "appearance" was transformed into "image", and "competition" was called "duel".

The problem of borrowing foreign words

Since ancient times, the Russian people have had trade, cultural and political relations with speakers of other languages, so it was almost impossible to avoid mixing vocabulary.

New words were introduced into Russian speech both from neighboring states and from distant republics.

In fact, words of foreign origin are present in our speech so often and for a long time that we are already used to them and absolutely do not perceive them as something alien.

Here are some examples of well-established foreign words:

• China: tea.
• Mongolia: hero, label, darkness.
• Japan: karate, karaoke, tsunami.
• Holland: orange, jacket, hatch, yacht, sprats.
• Poland: donut, market, fair.
• Czech Republic: tights, pistol, robot.

Official statistics say that only 10% of words in Russian are borrowed. But if you listen to colloquial speech of the younger generation, we can conclude that the contamination of the Russian language with foreign words has a more global scale.

We go to a fast food restaurant for lunch and order a hamburger and a milkshake. Having found free Wi-Fi, we will not miss the opportunity to visit Facebook to put a couple of likes under the photo of the best friend.

Borrowing foreign words: the main reasons

Why are we so attracted to vocabulary from neighboring countries?

Greece

Now consider the geography of borrowing.

The most generous country that has lent part of the vocabulary to the Russian language is Greece. She gave us the names of almost all famous sciences(geometry, astrology, geography, biology). In addition, many words related to the field of education (alphabet, spelling, Olympiad, department, phonetics, library) have Greek origin.

Some foreign words in Russian have abstract meanings (victory, triumph, chaos, charisma), others characterize quite tangible objects (theater, cucumber, ship).

Thanks to the ancient Greek vocabulary, we learned how sympathy is expressed, felt the taste of style and were able to capture bright events in photographs.
It is interesting that the meaning of some words passed into the Russian language without change, while others acquired new meanings (economics - home economics, tragedy - a goat song).

Italy

What do you think, are there many words in Russian speech that come from the Apennine Peninsula? Surely, apart from the famous greeting “chao”, nothing will immediately come to mind. It turns out that Italian foreign words in Russian are present in sufficient quantities.

For example, an identity document was first called a passport in Italy, and only then this word was borrowed by many languages, including Russian.

Everyone knows the tricks of the Sicilian clans, so the origin of the word "mafia" is beyond doubt. Likewise, "carnival" has taken root in many languages ​​thanks to a colorful costume show in Venice. But the Italian roots of “vermicelli” surprised: in the Apennines, vermicelli is translated as “worms”.

IN Lately it became fashionable to use the definition for the press as "paparazzi". But in direct translation, these are not journalists at all, as you might think, but "annoying mosquitoes."

France

But France gave Russian speech a lot of “delicious” words: grillage, jelly, croissant, canape, creme brulee, scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, stew, soup, soufflé, eclair, cutlet and sauce. Of course, along with the names, recipes were borrowed from French chefs, many of which were to the taste of Russian gourmets.

A few more extensive branches of borrowing are literature, cinema and the entertainment industry: artist, ballet, billiards, magazine, couplet, play, purse, repertoire, restaurant and plot.

The French also became the inventors of seductive details of women's clothing (underpants and peignoir), taught the world the rules of behavior in society (etiquette) and the art of beauty (make-up, cream, perfumery).

Germany

German vocabulary is so different from Russian that it is difficult to imagine what kind of words could take root in it. It turns out there are quite a few of them.

For example, we often use german word"route", which refers to a pre-selected path. Or "scale" - the ratio of sizes on the map and on the ground. And the "font" in Russian is the designation of the characters of the letter.

The names of some professions also took root: a hairdresser, an accountant, a locksmith.

The food industry was also not without borrowings: sandwich, dumplings, waffles and muesli, it turns out, also have German roots.

Also, the Russian language has absorbed several fashionable accessories into its vocabulary: for women - “shoes” and “bra”, for men - “tie”, for children - “backpack”. By the way, a smart child is often called a "wunderkind" - this is also a German concept.

foreign words in Russian they feel quite comfortable, they even settled in our house in the form of a chair, a bathroom and a tile.

England

The largest number of borrowed words come from Foggy Albion. Since English is an international language, and many people know it at a fairly decent level, it is not surprising that many words migrated into Russian speech and began to be perceived as native.

Foreign words in Russian are almost ubiquitous, but the most popular areas of their use are:

• business (PR, office, manager, copywriter, broker, holding);
• sports (goalkeeper, boxing, football, penalties, time-out, foul);
• computer technologies (blog, offline, login, spam, traffic, hacker, hosting, gadget);
• entertainment industry (talk show, casting, soundtrack, hit).

Often English words are used as youth slang, which is most influenced by fashion (baby, boyfriend, loser, teenager, respect, make-up, freak).

Some words have become so popular in the world that they have acquired a nominal meaning (jeans, show, weekend).

Examples of loanwords: guest worker, motel, confetti, olivier, jam, latte, bulldozer. More examples look in the dictionaries of foreign words L.P. Krysina, N.G. Komleva.

Borrowing words

The reasons for borrowing words from other languages ​​are related to technical and technological progress - the emergence of new technologies, inventions, objects, concepts in the world, for which there are no words in the Russian language.

When borrowing, other people's words undergo phonetic, morphological, morphemic and semantic changes. This is due to the “adjustment” of borrowing words to the established features and rules in the Russian language. Some authors of school textbooks on the Russian language share the concepts of a borrowed and a foreign word. If a borrowed word comes into the vocabulary of the Russian language with changes, then a foreign word undergoes almost no changes, retaining its original phonetic, morphological and other features.

There are a lot of borrowed words in modern Russian. Most of them are deeply rooted in the Russian language, and for modern native speakers, the words are perceived as native Russian. Their true origin is shown by an etymological analysis.

The process of borrowing words began in the Old Russian language and is currently taking place. Words were borrowed from Latin, Finno-Ugric, Greek, Turkic, Polish, Dutch, German, French, English. People's names were borrowed geographical names, names of months, church terms. Some borrowed words have become obsolete: blubber, Berkovets, tiun, grid, golbets and others.

Borrowing morphemes

Not only whole words are borrowed into the Russian language, but also parts of words (morphemes) that affect word formation and give birth to new words. We list some foreign prefixes and foreign suffixes, for each item we give examples of words.

Borrowing prefixes

• a- - immoral, amorphous, apolitical, arrhythmia, anonymous, apathy, atheist.
• anti- - antiworld, anticyclone, antithesis.
• archi- - archival, arch-millionaire, archbishop.
• pan-pan-American, pan-Slavism, pan-epidemic.
• de- - deheroization, degradation, decomposition, dismantling, demobilization, demotivation.
• dis- -disinfection, disorientation, disorganization.
• dis- - disharmony, disqualification, disproportion, dysfunction.
• dis- - disassociation, disjunction.
• counter-counterattack, countermarch, counteroffensive, counterrevolution, counterstrike.
• trans- - transatlantic, trans-European, trans-regional.
• ultra-ultrasound, ultrashort, ultra-left, far-right, trendy.
• and others...

Borrowing suffixes

• -ism - anarchism, collectivism, communism.
• ist - scuba diver, careerist, machinist, parachutist.
• -izirov- - militarize, mechanize, fantasize.
• -er- - poacher, gentleman, trainee, boyfriend.
• and others...

Borrowing foreign words contributes to the development of the language. Borrowing is associated with close communication between the peoples of the world, a developed system of communications, the presence of international professional communities, etc.