Borrowings in Russian language

From the ancient times Russian nation came into cultural, trade, military and political relations with other states that certainly leaded to the language borrowings. Within the process of usage the majority of them were exposed by the borrowing language influence. Step by step loan-words, assimilated (from Lat. “assimilare” – усваивать, уподоблять) in borrowing language, had formed the layer of widespread words and by this time weren’t perceived as foreign anymore. In different epoch words from other languages penetrated into original Russian vocabulary. However, national originality of Russian language did not suffer at all from the penetration of foreign words into it, as the process of borrowing is quite natural way of any language enrichment. Russian language preserved its self-dependency and just got rich by means of borrowed words.

Linguistic borrowing are words (morpheme or syntactic construction) and set expressions, moved from one language to another. The beginning of English borrowings in Russian language refers to the beginning of XVII century. Later by the middle of XIX century loan-words entered Russian to become its essential part. The word-stock of international vocabulary was being arisen.[2]

As for nowadays a great interest of linguists is concentrated upon the Russian–English lingual communication. Intensification of informational flow, appearance of Internet, expansion of international relationships, development of world trade, economy, informational technologies, participation in various international competitions, fashion shows are the reasons that caused the new words entering into Russian lexis.

The openness of our society leads us to a considerable enlargement of mental outlook and range of interests, and to the improvement of foreign languages knowledge. The spheres of international business, trade, culture and tourism have been raised after the long period of Soviet “iron curtain”. So that the necessity of communicating with the users of other languages has evolved in our lives. Consequently the necessity of borrowing English words in modern society fits with the above mentioned reasons.

Adopted words come into system-defined relations with original vocabulary:

1) Loan-word can be a synonym to the original one:

For example: Файтер – боец;

Мониторинг – наблюдение;

Киллер[3] – убийца;

Пиар – связи с общественностью;

Контракт – договор; etc.

2) Loan-word can replace the Russian word:

For example: Секонд-хэнд – комиссионный магазин;

Компьютер - ЭВМ;

Шоу - представление; etc.

3) Loan-word that has no equivalent in Russian language, new notions borrowed from another culture with the respective unit or concept:

For example: Спрэй;

Инвестор;

Виртуальный;

Лэптоп[4];

Дайджест; etc.

There are two different extremes, which occur with respect to loan-words: on the one hand, oversaturation of a speech with foreign words, on the other hand – the negation of them, the effort to use only the original word. At the same time it is often forgotten, that most of adopted words have been assimilated in Russian language and even have no equivalent, turning up the essential name of corresponding concept. The absence of scientific approach to the problem of foreign vocabulary familiarization reveals also in the fact that its usage is occasionally regarded in isolation with the functional–stylistic attaching of linguistic means. In some cases the application of foreign words is not appropriate, in others - it is necessary, as these words make up an essential part of lexis, fixed over the definite style.

The number of new concepts and phenomena Russian in origin is very limited. That’s why the adoption of already existing nomination with the respective notion and item is considered to be the most prestigious and effective way of enlarging the vocabulary. It is possible to distinguish the following groups of loan-words:

1. Direct borrowings. The words are met in Russian in the same form and in the same meaning as in the initial language. They are: “уик-энд” – weekend, leisure time; “блэк” – black(man) or Afro-American; “мани” – money or cash.

2. Hybrids. These words were formed by addition of Russian suffixes, prefixes and endings to the foreign root. In this way the meaning of the word often changes. For example: “бузить” (busy – беспокойный, суетливый).

3. Calques. Word of foreign origin using with the preservation of its phonetic and graphic shape. They are: “код”, “вирус”, “клуб”, “диск”, “сленг”, “бакс”, “ди-джей”.

4. Half-calques. Words which after being grammatically assimilated were put under the grammatical rules of Russian language (suffixation).for example: “драйв” – “драйва” (drive) “давно не было такого драйва” - в значении энергетика, кураж.

5. Exotisms. Such words are characterized by specific national customs or manners of foreign nations and are used to show the atypical for Russian reality notions. The distinctive feature of them is that they have no equivalent or synonyms in Russian. For example: “чипсы” (chips), “хот-дог” (hot-dog), “чизбургер” (cheeseburger).

6. Foreign lingual spots. Such words usually have lexical equivalents, but they stylistically differ from these equivalents and are used in the sphere of communication as expressive means to add a peculiar emotiveness to the speech. For example: “о’кей” – O.k!; “вау” – Wow!

7. Composites. Words which were made by means of two or more English lexical units. For example: “видео-салон” –a special apartment for watching movies , “секонд-хэнд” – a shop that sells the goods which have already been used, “лаунж-бар” – a comfortable coctail bar.

8. Jargonisms. These are words appeared in consequence of some sounds distortion. For example: “мыло” – e-mail, “крезанутый, шизанутый” – crazy.

The joining of borrowings into Russian language increased especially in 90 years of XX century. The tendency of expansion foreign words could be observed in almost every sphere of life. It occupied the leading position in political sphere of the country getting accustomed with new concepts: president, inauguration, speaker, impeachment, electorate and others. Such words began to form the layer of new social and political vocabulary. This group is typical for the periodical press and then to the publicistic-functional style.

If to speak about the time period there are two major types of borrowings. The first type is presented by old borrowings which were actualized during last years with respect to the political and economical systems modification. The second type includes the number of loan-words which were made directly during last years.

The most typical example of the first type is the word “президент” – president. As far back as the Council of People’s Commissars took place, M.S.Gorbachiov rectified one of the representatives’ error when he called him with the term “господин президент”. He asked the representative to be more accurate next time as this term “президент” – is the different post and it refers to the other reality and so on. The adopted word “президент” was popular that time as the nomination of foreign political and social realities (for example: “президент США”, “президент Франции”). Since that time the political situation in the country has been changed and so extralinguistic factors have modified the function of the word “президент” into actual term appropriate for our modern lifestyle (for example: “Президент Российской федерации”, “Президент Республики Казахстан”). Such words as “электорат” and “легитимный” can be observed in the same way as they received a wide spreading in Russian language in the last decade of XX century within the process of actualization of the respective notions.

Hence foreign terminology became predominant in the most progressive spheres of science, techniques, politics and financial activities. Such words as “бестселлер”, “вестерн”, “триллер[5]”, “хит” have broken into the sphere of culture. Our everyday speech has keenly begun to adopt new notions with its foreign nominations – “сникерс”, “твикс”, “гамбургер” and others.

Time will show us if these borrowings can change, enrich or deteriorate the image of Russian language. Time will define the future destiny of each loan-word which is to be finally adopted or rejected by linguistic flavor of the epoch. Russian language has a long history of adopting words dictated by the necessity to perceive useful information in the form of new words drawing on international experience. Such words are named in many ways, most commonly: borrowings and loan-words. The process of new words adoption is determined by nations’ contacts which generate a necessity of new concepts and ideas nomination. Such words are usually the results of some nation’s innovation in any sphere of science or techniques. They may also appear as a consecutive result of snobbery, fashion. Nevertheless, there are essentially linguistic reasons: for instance, the necessity to express polysemantic Russian words by means of foreign word or to widen the expressive means of a language, etc.

For those who are fond of sports such new notions appeared: “виндсерфинг”, “армрестлинг”, “фристайл”, “скейтборд”, “кикбоксинг”, “файтер”, “овертайм”, “гол”, “хоккей”, “футбол”, “баскетбол” and even the word “спорт”.

In the sphere of non-manufacturing business many new notions appeared: “презентация”, “номинация”, “видео”, “шоу”, “хит”, “дискотека”, “диск-жокей” (ди-джей) and many others.

Loan-words usually refer to the layer of bookish words and special terminology and are used mainly in bookish speech genre and in the scientific or technical articles. At last time, the main source of linguistic stuff became contemporary mass media.

Modern life is hardly possible without information. The mass media plays an important role in our life. Millions of copies of newspapers are printed in our country every day. The role of the press can hardly be overestimated, particularly at present. It keeps you to be informed in the latest news, different events, home and foreign affairs, news of culture, science and engineering development. While reading newspapers or watching TV every person is confronted with a great number of borrowed words. As to the rule words occur in the newspaper pages and magazines can be divided into three groups:

1. Words which have synonyms in Russian:

For example: “бренд” the synonym is “торговая марка”.

2. Words which have no equivalents in Russian:

For example: “спортсмен”, “футбол”, “проблема”.

3. Words which are printed in newspapers in English:

For example: “non-stop”