Русские заимствование в английском языке

Russian borrowings in English

CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .  2  
2. INTEREST TO RUSSIAN      . .  . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .. . .  . . . . 3
3. THE FIRST PERIOD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .  .4  
4. THE SECOND PERIOD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5  
5. THE THIRD PERIOD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .  7  
6. THE FOURTH PERIOD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . 7  
7. THE FIFTH PERIOD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . .10
8. CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11  
9. REFERENCES . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .  .12  
10. THE  SUPPLEMENTARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13  

Introduction

The Modern English language, with its specific features, phonetic and grammatical systems and lexical structure, is a product of long historical development.

The English language has undergone considerable changes for more than a thousand-year history. It has been improved  by a number of other languages over centuries. One of the sources of this enrichment is borrowings from different languages including Russian.

The purpose of the work is to watch the history of  Russian words in the English language and to prove that Russian words have played a particular role in the development of  Modern English.

 The object of the work: the analysis of the lexical structure of the Modern English language  from point of view of originally Russian words.

The problems of the work are:

1.      to study the literature on this topic;  

2.       to examine   the reasons and stages of entering Russian words into English;

3.        to study the classification of borrowings;

4.        to watch the character of existing Russian words in the English language;

5.      to  prove that some English words changed their meaning under the influence            of Russian.        

  Research methods:

•        Studying and analyzing the literature;

•        The analysis of using Russian words in the English language.

The structure of the work:

1.        Introduction which indicates shows an urgency of the chosen topic, a subject, an object ,  the purpose and research problems.

2.        The Basic part in which the reasons and stages of entering of Russian borrowings in the English language are examined.

3.        The Conclusion in which the result of the work is summed up.

4.        The List of the used literature.

5.        In the supplementary there is a list of Russian borrowings in the English language.

 INTEREST TO RUSSIAN.

In 1812-1814 Europe met the Russian army, including Cossacks, as the  army – which gave them the freedom from Napoleonic invasion. The future Decembrist Feodor Glinka said: « … the glory of the people gives the value and shine to their language».

A great interest to study Russian appeared in England after the First World War. It was taught in many private schools.

The great October socialist revolution caused a stream of new political terminology of Russian origins which had  no equivalents in any language. They were borrowed almost all over the world.

The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 caused a new wave of interest to Russia – to the Soviet Union, to Russian.

Russian was studied in Great Britain after 1965. That wave was connected with the success of Russian people in space exploration.

Russian was studied in Great Britain after 1965. That wave was connected with the success of Russian people in space explorations.

The majority of linguists divide the influence of Russian on the English lexicon

into five periods.

THE FIRST PERIOD.

   There was close communication between ancient Russia and England of that period. Otherwise how to explain the fact that the English king’s sons

 (Edmund 981 – 1016) lived in the Kiev prince residence after the conquest of England by Scandinavians.

The small amount of Russian words has got to the Scandinavian language and then to the Old English language. The first Russian word which has entered into the English language, was ‘tapor’ or ‘taper-zeh’, the connection of  Russian and Norwegian words ‘tapor-taper ' and ‘ axe ’. But the word was not kept in the English language.

  English words ‘a talk ‘ (разговор, беседа); ‘to talk ‘ ( разговаривать,болтать ), date back to the Scandinavian root “tolk” from Russian  ‘толк’ (compare: толковать, толковый).

In the English language during the most ancient times there were such words, as: ‘мед, молоко’ and others:  

Old English ” meodu”  Modern English “mead”;

Old English “meolk” Modern English “milk”.

The word ‘Sable’ is an early borrowing. The animal  was known for its fur and was used instead of money. Besides the meaning of a noun ‘a sable ’ the word was given one more  meaning ‘black ’. This fact also makes us think that the word has had time to get in this additional meaning ‘black’ and ‘a mourning dress ’.

THE SECOND PERIOD

 Throughout XVI—XVII centuries the interest to Russian was so great that in a number of countries, a lot of linguistic researches were made by foreigners. The Soviet linguist B.A. Larin mentioned  three foreign dictionaries of Russian words:

1)        «The Dictionary of Muscovite » (French-Russian, 1586);

2)        «Russian-English dictionary» by Richard Jams (1618-1620);

3)        «Russian grammar» by Henry Ludolfa (Oxford, 1696).

Close relations between the Russian and English people were formed only in the XVI th century, but at the beginning they had rather limited character. Russia was associated as the strong state (after Ivan III). Ambassadors from many countries began to come to rich Muscovy with various tasks and purposes. Foreigners had to study the Russian language because the Russian people were indifferent to foreign languages.

Diplomatic correspondence appeared between Russian Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible (1530-1584) and the English queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603). One of the first couriers, who studied Russian, said that   Russian was the richest and the most beautiful language in the world.

In the XVI-XVII th centuries England showed a particular interest to Russian. Russian was represented by the English queen as the most  famous and the richest language of the world.

The majority of Russian borrowings of that period got into the English language through a written way, through various descriptions, reports, diaries of the Englishmen who have visited Russia. Very many words from borrowings of that period were included in the English explanatory dictionaries. Certainly, the considerable part of Russian borrowings has appeared in the English language, as a result of difficulty, and sometimes impossibility to transfer words into the English language.

Among the first borrowings were:

2. Names, connected  with a state system, with names of the ruling, class, official and subordinated persons:  (царь) ‘ the tsar ’, voivode ‘ (воеовда)’, (бояре)  ‘ the boyar ’,(мужик) ‘ the muzhik ’,(козак) ‘ the Cossack ’, (опрична) opritchina ‘ опритчина ’, strelscy ‘(стрелец), ‘kremlin ‘(кремль ) and others.
3. Names of weights, distances, monetary units: verst ‘ (верста), arshin (аршин), pood  (пуд), sagene ‘(сажень), rouble ‘(рубль), copeck ‘(копейка), chervonets ‘(червонец).
4. Names of subjects of clothes and a food amazing Englishmen as exotisms: ‘shuba ‘( a fur coat ), ‘kvass ‘(kvass ), morse ‘( a berry juice),  shchi ‘( a Russian cabbage soup ), borshch ‘( a borsch ),  kissel ‘(kissel ), vodka ( vodka)’, nalivka ‘ (fruit liqueur), bliny ‘( pancakes), okroshka  (okroshka ).

5. Household words:  izba ‘ (a log hut ),  telega ‘( a cart )’, peach ‘( a furnace), balalaika ‘ (a balalaika), bayan ‘ (a bayan),  samovar ‘ (a samovar), tarantass ‘( a tarantass), kibitka ‘( a tilt cart).
6. Names of natural features of Russia and some animals: steppe ‘steppe ’, tundra ‘tundra ’, taiga ‘a taiga ’.
7. Later in the English language the following borrowings: kokoshnik,  khorovod , beluga,  obrok, ‘zolotnik , otrezok ,  matrioshka.

In the 18th century, more new Russian words appeared in English, mainly during the reign of Peter the Great, when Russia’s contacts with the West became intensive.

THE THIRD PERIOD.

The quantity of Russian borrowings increased in the 19th century.

English popular magazines quite often placed articles about Russian political events in which some Russian words were used.

There is also a large group of Russian borrowings which came into English through Russian literature of the 19-th century, such as : Narodnik, moujik, duma, zemstvo. volost, ukase etc, and also words which were formed in Russian with Latin roots, such as: nihilist, intelligenzia, Decembrist etc.

THE FOURTH PERIOD

In the XX-th century when the socialist state was formed, Russian political terms became known all over the world and have filled up dictionaries of many languages. After the Great October Revolution many new words appeared in Russian which were connected with the new political system, new culture, and many of them were borrowed into English. In the English language there were Russian words as Bolshevik, Menshevik and others. They showed a great interest of England to political events in Russia.

Many Russian words, such as:  ‘Soviet, Leninist, Komsomolsk, sybbotnic, kolkhoz,  stakhanovets, pyatiletka,  appeared in the English language. In 1936 Russian words stakhanovite, stakhanovism,  propaganda and agitatsiya’  were widespread  in the English press . Practically all of them got additional  meanings and entered English dictionaries as neologisms.

The Cultural Revolution gave start to general ‘liquidation of illiteracy ‘. As a result of education the following words appeared: liquidation of illiteracy, eradication of illiteracy. worker’s faculty, the worker correspondent, and the wall newspaper.

New children's and youth communist organisations  were formed. A member of Lenin’s communist organization was named ‘a pioneer’ (1921). In a new fashion the word ‘pioneer’  had a meaning  -‘ a member of  the children's communist organisation’. Under the influence of Russian reality  the meaning of the  new word ‘pioneer’ has changed and got into English having that meaning.

After 1917 the new life caused such word combinations as:  socialism construction (building of socialism), to construct a socialism (to build socialism), builders of a socialism, the socialism native land (Homeland of socialism), economic socialism bases (economic foundations of socialism), struggle for socialism, indestructible fortress of socialism, cultural front.

The development of the Russian socialist agriculture gave start to a new word in the English language  ‘ jarovisation’ and from it a verbal form ‘to jarovise’ was formed.

‘Rationalisation’,’ rationalisers’ — these words have come into the English  language in  1920-s. But  ‘stormovik’ ( an attack plane ), Yak ( a yak-plane), ‘partisan’  joined in the English dictionary in the Great Patriotic War time: «Stormoviks smashed up about 100 enemies»  (War News Weekly, 17.XII. 1942,); «А S. Yakovlev who created the famous Yak fighter series during the war» (Techn. Research news, N. Y., 1947 V. 1, N. 2).

Such word combinations as: ‘camp of peace’, ‘democracy and socialism’, ‘in the spirit of socialism’ were typical at that time.

Besides direct borrowings from Russian in the English language changes of some word combinations under the influence of Russian were observed. For example: ‘hero of labour’, ‘socialist construction’, ‘indestructable moral-political unity’, ‘vital interests of the people’, ‘reclamation of virgin and unused lands’, ‘Countries of New Democracy’ or simply ‘New Democracies’, ‘people of good will’, ‘struggle for peace’, ‘democracy and socialism’.

The suffix existed in English in dormant state for a long time, in borrowed terms. An example is raskolnik recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary as known since 1723.

New lexical units were formed in the English language with the help of Russian suffixes. For instance  -nik was used to form nouns which described a person related to the thing, state, habit, or action.   A typical example is the late-1950s  ‘neatnik 'a person who is overly neat' .  The suffix -nik came from Slavic languages. There are various words using this suffix that are much younger than Sputnik.  Let’s name some  examples, all-rightnik, meaning 'a smug -rich person', was first recorded in 1918 and was found several times before Sputnik; ‘refusenik’  (from ‘refusal’) was  an unofficial term for individuals, who were denied permission to emigrate abroad by the authorities of the former Soviet Union;

(In 2008 filmmaker Laura Bialis released a documentary film, Refusenik, chronicling the human rights struggle of the Soviet refuseniks); ‘no-goodnik ' a worthless person; good-for-nothing' dates back tothe 1930s (and is possibly based on or influenced by Russian ‘negódnik’ in the same sense).
The Russian satellite Sputnik, launched in 1957, has the same last element -nik; the word literally means 'traveling companion'. The launch of Sputnik was a huge new event in the United States. The first use of a word ‘sputnik’ as a name of a new reality has been noted on October in the English newspaper «As the Soviet Sputnik orbited around the earth tailed by its own sub-satellite …»  (« Daily Worker », New York, Oct. 9, 1957).The popularity of the word Sputnik helped to establish -nik in American English. The most notable early example was beatnik ‘ the representative of  a broken generation ’, created  by the late San Franciso newspaperman Herb Caen early in 1958 from Beat Generation and -nik. Some other, post-Sputnik uses include ‘peacenik ( the defender of peace ), nuclear-freezenik, (video) arcadenik, and filmnik.

 THE FIFTH PERIOD.

Reorganisation of the Soviet society was reflected in a variety of  Russian words.

The first Russian borrowings of our time are the words: glasnost, openness, publicity.

 “… the willingness of the Soviet government to be more open about its affairs” (Longman Guardian New Words Ed. by S.Mort. – Bristol. – 1986. Р. 4.).

 («His strategy: openness, publicity – all summed up in the Russian word glasnost»; «Newsweek», 1987).

“So long as unemployment cannot be accepted openly, it will be hard to believe that perestroika in the Soviet Union will be”. («Economist», 1987). At the same time the press  explains a word perestroika, as a revolutionary reorganisation of the society. “ Perestroika  is  the new Soviet revolution” («Canadian Tribune», 1988). The  word perestroika as well as the word glasnost, becomes a part of  lexico-semantic system of the English language. ‘Uskoreniye’ was borrowed too.

“ …‘uskoreniye’ means that the Soviet state is willing to create the preconditions for scientific and technological transformation”. («Canadian Tribune», 1988).

There were also other words reflecting reorganisation in the USSR such as  democratizatsia,  hozraschot on the pages of the western newspapers.

“Democratizatsia… does not mean the same thing as its English equivalent – democratization. In fact the Soviet concept of democracy is quite different. («Canadian Tribune», 1988).

CONCLUSION.

As you can see, interest to Russian is connected with different language borrowings.   A borrowing is a key which helps to understand the life of a certain epoch. The Russian borrowings have been having  influence for the English language since the ancient times.

The great Russian poet A.Tvardovskiy  said:

“The words Moskva, Bolsheviki, Soviets, Mir, Sputnik are Russian words.

They sound in all parts of our planet without translation”.

A Russian word which has fallen outside the Russian language  is the keeper of the Russian history, of material and spiritual culture of the country.

References:

• The American Heritage Dictionary (2006) Fourth edition, published by Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0-395-82517-2
• Ayto, John (1999). 20th Century Words. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-860230-8
• Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (1995) Tenth edition, published by Merriam-Webster, ISBN 0-87779-709-9
• Pyles, T. (1964). The Origin and Development of the English Language. Gainesville: University of Florida Press.
• Speake, Jennifer (ed.) (1997). The Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-861051-3
• Webster's New World College Dictionary (1997) Third edition, published by Macmillan, ISBN 0-02-861673-1

The supplementary.

16 CENTURY

arsheen – a linear measure equal of 0,71 m

boyar – A member of the highest rank

kopeck – a monetary unit of Russia, the 100-th share of rouble

Kremlin – a city fortress

kvass – the sourish drink prepared on water from bread with malt

muzhik –an uneducated peasant

rouble – the basic monetary unit in Russia, to equal 100 copecks

sevruga – a type of sturgeon found only in the Caspian and Black Seas

tsar –a title of the monarch

verst – a linear measure equal of 1,06 km

17 CENTURY

Cossack – the Cossack, a member of a military-agricultural community

kibitka – a covered cart

pood – a weight equal of 16,3 kg

sagene – a linear measure equal to three arshins (2,13)

sarafan – female country clothes

suslik – a small animal from group of rodents

telega – a four-wheel vehicle for transportation of cargoes

tsaritsa – the wife of the tsar

18 CENTURY

balalaika  -a  triangle-shaped mandolin-like musical instrument with three strings.

isba – the wooden country house

Raskolnik – the follower it is religious-social movement, arisen in Russia in a XVII-th century

shuba – the top fur winter clothes on

tsarevich – the son of the tsar

ukase – a proclamation of the ruling tsar or tsarina

19 CENTURY

ataman – the name of the leader in the Cossacks

blin – a thin flat cake from the liquid test, baked on a frying pan

bortsch – soup with a beet and other vegetables

chernozem – fertile  soil of dark colour

Cadet – a member of bourgeois  democratic party

dacha – a country house, usually for summer holiday

Decembrist – the participant of noble family in a revolutionary movement

druzhina – troops in East Slav countries

duma – advisory municipal councils in Russia

fieldsher – a doctor assistant

karakul – valuable skins newborn lambs

kasha – food from the welded groats

kulak – the rich peasant  

kurgan – a hill

pirog – a baked product from the test with a stuffing

samovar – a metal vessel for boiling water  

shchy – soup from cabbage

taiga – wild, almost impassable wood in the north of Europe and Asia

tarantas – a road four-wheel vehicle on long дрогах

tchin – the office category at military and civil employees;

troika – a Russian vehicle, either a wheeled carriage or a sleigh drawn by three horses abreast tsarevna – the daughter of the tsar

vodka – a strong alcoholic drink

20 CENTURY

babushka – the old woman

Bolshevik – a member of Bolshevist party, the communist

commissar – a person with political, administrative functions

glasnost – an openness of views

Gulag – camp for prisoners

intelligentsia – the workers of brainwork possessing formation and special knowledge in various areas of a science, technicians and culture

jarovisation – process of processing of the seeds

kazachoc – national dance

kissel – jellylike liquid food

kolkhoz – industrial association of peasants  (from the reduced expression "collective farm")

komsomol – the communist  union of youth

lunokhod – an  automatic self-propelled machine moving on the Moon

Menshevik – the follower of Menshevism, a member of Antimarxist party

narod – the state population

nekulturny – a ill-mannered person

niet - no

nitchevo - nothing

paskha – sweet food from cottage cheese, produced for  a spring holiday of revival of the Christ (an Easter cake)

pelmeny – food – a sort of small pies from the fresh test with the meat, used in a boiled kind

perestroika – a reorganisation of the Soviet economic and political system

proletkult – culture of broad masses

rassolnik – the soup welded with pickles

resident – the secret representative

riza – clothes of the priest for divine service

sambo – the wrestling, different the big variety of special receptions (from the reduced expression «self-defence without the weapon»)

samizdat – independent publishing house

shashlik – food from the slices of meat fried over fire on a spit

skaz – a sort of a national-poetic narration

solonchak – the soil containing salts

solyanka – food from stewed cabbage

Soviet – public authority in the USSR, one of forms of the political organisation of a socialist society

sovkhoz – socialist state (from the reduced expression «the Soviet farm»)

sputnik – a space vehicle, launched into an orbit in a space

subbotnik – voluntary collective free work (on Saturdays)

tovarish – the citizen of the USSR  

ukha – soup from fresh fish

vozhd –a political leader

zek – the prisoner