Classification of borrowings

Borrowings which are included in the vocabulary of a language can be classified into three groups:

1) according to the source of borrowings[10];

2) according to the aspect which was borrowed;

3) according to the level of assimilation.

According to the aspect that was borrowed, loan-words are divided into: phonetic and transcription, when the sound structure is rendered to be completely new, so this is when the sound structure remains unchanged in the borrowed word it only acquires some phonetic peculiarities of the Target language; calque-translations (the blue-print translation of the notion); semantic loan-words and the borrowing of wordbuilding elements.

Under the semantic borrowing we should understand the adoption of new nomination; it is often a figurative meaning to the already existing notion. The words “pioneer” and “brigade” have already existed in English word-stock before the penetration of sovetisms into it, but the definitions “” and “” they acquired under the influence of Russian language of Post October period.

As to the Russian language, in Before October period the words were borrowed mainly referring with the peculiarities of Russian nature, life and objects of trade: sable “соболь”, astrakhan “каракуль”, starlet “стерлядь”, steppe “степь”, verst “верста”, izba “изба”. There are a lot of sovetisms in English. Among them there are phonetic borrowings, where new notion and new sound structure are borrowed together: soviet, sputnik, bolshevik, kolkhoz, activist. After having made the analysis of new word definition with the original language one it turned out that it preserves just a part of definitions, often one of them and besides not the primary, but derivational one and it is quite often becomes a term (for example: sputnik and soviet.)

Calque-making - is the process of borrowing new words within adopting its associative meaning and the structure of the word or word combination 9for example: house of rest – “дом отдыха”, five-year-plan – “пятилетний план, пятилетка”). During the process of calque the words or word combinations are translated separately and then combined together according to the foreign pattern of the word or word combination. According to the structure of the Target language calques can be divided into three groups:

1) word-formative calques – the morphological structure is reproduced;

2) phraseological – the process of blue-print translation of each word;

3) semantic – to attach figurative meaning to the already existed word according to the foreign pattern.

So that the process of calque-making realizes a very important function, being the guide of intercultural influence between languages. Word-formative calques can be inexact: during the translation one of the morphemes can be interpreted with the help of approximate equivalent.

Calque-making and transcription as the means of borrowing should be distinguished from the of the same name methods of translation. They do not differ by the mechanism but they do by the final result: the enlargement of vocabulary doesn’t take place during the process of translation, whereas during the process of borrowing new lexical units appears in the language.

Periods of Russian words’ penetration into English language

 

Most of research workers divide Russian influence on the English lexical system into two periods:

1) borrowings of the pre-revolutionary period;

2) borrowings of Soviet period.

However, V.V.Akulenko in his Ph.D. thesis (candidate's dissertation) divided the history of Russian language interaction with other Occidental languages, including English, into four periods.

The first period covers the influence of Old Russian language of the Kiev Russia on the Old and partially Middle English languages.

The second period is closely connected with the development of trade and political communication of Russia and England, the upgrowth of Russian nation’s power; it begins from the second half of XVI century and continues up to the middle of XIX century.

The third period begins from the 60 years of XIX century and lasts till 1917. Here the modifications in economical and social spheres are in the focus of interest, the increasing power of revolution struggled with the reaction and a great progress in the development of native science and culture.

The fourth period of Russian influence is the Soviet epoch. One could say about a new stage in the development of political and social-economic vocabulary of Russian language and also about the further development of its international significance in the post-war period connected with the beginnings of powerful camp of peace, democracy and socialism as far as the creation of UNO (United Nations Organization), where Russian language was declared as the international language along with English, French, Spanish and Chinese.

Today we can speak about the fifth Post-Soviet period.

The first period

The mutual attention between English, French and Russian nations may be observed from ancient times. The Kiev state had extremely wide connections with different nations of Asia and Europe, including ancient Englishmen. As far back as in the XI century Novgorod was well-known by English people first of all as the supplier of furs and jewelry. The marriage of Vladimir Monomakh with the daughter of the English king Gerald had taken has taken place by this time. The cultural level of Kiev Russia was so high that occidental people thought it to be a rival to the Constantinople. Undoubtedly, the importance of Russian language must have been very considerable with such position of Russian state. Especially with the regard of the fact that Russian nation have already made a significant progress in its economical, political social and cultural spheres by this time. However, the process of borrowing new words by English language were not so large in number and the interpenetration of languages in this period did not occur, though it presents itself very probable that Russian language was able to make some influence on the vocabulary of English language.

There are a number of words which were borrowed in different periods from Slavic languages into the Old Germanic. The main part of them got into the Scandinavian languages, the native speakers of which had a direct connection with the Slavs. As to the Old English, the number of Slavic borrowings is not so numerous in it. Thus, for example English words “talk” (разговор, беседа) and “to talk” (говорить, разговаривать, болтать) goes back to the Scandinavian root “tolk” from Russian “толк” (that is: толковать, толковый). At the same time the word “sable” from Russian “соболь” appears not just in English but in many other occidental languages as the expansive fur of this small animal was selling to many countries by East-Slavs. But during the period of assimilation this word acquired the second meaning – the adjective “dark”.

Even in ancient times Old English as many other German languages had a number of words which went back with the roots of words Slavic in origin. It is obvious that they were already borrowed in XII century. They are: “мед” – meodu (Old English) and mead (contemporary English), “молоко” – meolk (Old English) and milk (contemporary English), “плуг” – ploz (Old English) and plough (contemporary English) and others. Professor A.I.Smirnitsky have distinguished a more early Slavic borrowing in Old English language: the word “syrce” (рубаха, панцирь, кольчуга) which goes back to the Old Slavic “sork” which can be compared with Russian “сорочка”.

It is interesting that there are the same Slavic borrowings in both Old English and Scandinavian languages and it is hard to find out weather they were borrowed from Slavic language into each separately or they penetrated directly from Slavs into Scandinavian and then to Anglo-Saxons.

The second period

This period (XVI-XVII centuries) is well-observed by means of three sources:

1. «Словарь московитов» (French-Russian, 1586);

2. «Записная книжка» - Richard James’ Russian-English dictionary (1618-1620);

3. «Русская грамматика» by Henry Ludolf (Oxford, 1696).

Stable relations between Russia and England nations were settled only in XVI century. This time is characterized by lasting commercial and diplomatic relations between England and Muscovy and by real interest of London merchants in maintenance of business connections with Russian nation. On the other hand the ignorance of foreign languages, including English in Moscovy was at that time an extremely important motivation towards the studying Russian languages by foreigners. Consequently, owing to the development of capitalism in England and the expansion of traffic by sea England was very interested in communications with Moscovy. English government in XVI-XVII centuries took care of permanent trainings for translation staff from Russian language.

The most of Russian borrowings of this period penetrated into English by writing – over the different reports, diaries and descriptions of Englishmen who visited Russia. In most cases they were nominations of marketing articles, household goods, officials’ names, geographical names and others.

1. Names of officials, subordinate people and governors, nominations referred with the state arrangement: tsar, voivode, knes, bojar, mouzhik, Cossack and others;

2. Measures of weight, distance and currency: verst, arshin, pood, rouble, copeck, chervonets;

3. Objects of clothing and food which were exotisms for Englishmen: shuba, kvas, shchi, borshch, calash, vodka, nalivka, bliny, okroshka and many others;

4. Household goods: troika, izba, telega, balalaika, samovar, tarantas, droshki, kibitka, makhorka;

5. Geographical peculiarities and animals: steppe, tundra, taiga, suslik, borzoi;

Later on English language borrowed another words like: kokoshnik, khorovod, beluga, obrok, zolotnik, otrezok, vedro, matrioshka. Thus for example the word “mammoth” was borrowed by English language as the name of prehistoric animal which was founded in Russia.

word english russian language

The third period

This period is characterized by the developing of industry and at the same time the working class. The struggle of leading people against tsarist government, the growth of people's democratic liberation movement and further strengthening revolutionary movement in XIX and the beginning of XX centuries were reflected in borrowing of such Russian words as: nihilist, nihilism, nihilistic, intelligentsia.

The word narodnik and narodism appeared in English language as a result of the narodnik movement’s development.

The English lexical system is rapidly enriches itself by many new neologisms which express social concepts. From the latter half of the XIX century Russian literature became the matter of interest for deep and serious studying in Occidentals. Thus, the word “nihilist” penetrated into English after the translation of the novel «Отцы и дети» by Turgenev.

Undoubtedly, the roots of such words as “Decembrist” or “intelligentsia” are Latin and there already existed words of the same root, but, nevertheless, it is absolutely correct to treat them as Russian because their new meanings were acquired in accordance with the Russian reality of that days. The word “Decembrist” refers to the range of political ideas, which appeared as a result of armed revolt against autocracy and serf-ownership which took place in Saint-Petersburg on the 14 of December 1825.

In the very beginning of the XX century the words “duma”, “pogrom” were borrowed by English language.

The fourth period

The language is directly connected with the human activity and as the result it reflects all changes in industry, society, politics and other spheres. As more significant the event, occurred in one country, so much attention it stimulates in other countries.

As far as the XX century begun, the new Socialistic state was formed in Russia. Russian political terms became well-known in the whole world, they entered into international usage and filled up the word-stock of many languages.

Such words as “Bolshevik”, “Menshevik” and others became widespread. This fact shows the interest of English nation to the political situation in Russia. The grate number of Marxist-Leninist terminology was borrowed by many languages, including English after the victory of the Great October Socialistic revolution.

Words which were borrowed from Russian language in this period are called sovetisms which serves to denote the ideas, concepts and institutions appeared owing to the revolution and appearance of the first socialistic state - the Soviet Union.

For example the word “Soviet” was fixed by English dictionaries in 1917 and was very common in English and American periodical press and literary in 1918-1919 years. However, the Russian word “совет” has an appropriate equivalent in English - “council” with the meaning of administrative, social organ (e.g. Council of ministers – Совет министров), but it did not became established as it could not express the whole range of concepts which were included in this notion.

This period is characterized by appearance of such words as: sovkhoz, kolkhoz, Komsomol, Leninism, bolshevism, commissar, collectivization, industrialisation, subbotnik and many others.

The development of socialistic agriculture which was the foundation for the appearance in English language of such words as: “jurovisation” (яровизация) and the verb “to jarovize”, “podzol” (подзолистая почва) and the adjective “podzolic”.

During the Second World War English language enriched with such words as: stormovik (штурмовик), partisan (партизан), Yak (самолет – як).

Russian borrowings played a great role in the perfection of contemporary philosophic and political terminology of many countries, including English.

Also, during the Soviet period English language was penetrated by such new phraseologisms as: hero of labour (герой труда), socialist construction (социалистическое строительство), indestructible moral-political unity (нерушимое морально-политическое единство), vital interests of the people (жизненные интересы народа), reclamation of virgin and unused lands (освоение целинных и залежных земель).

The fifth period

The first Russian word which was borrowed in this period was the word “glasnost”[11] that was used in English since 1986. It was registered in the dictionary of neologisms as “the willingness of the Soviet government to be more open about its affairs” (Longman Guardian New Words Ed. By S.Mort – Bristol, 1986). During the process of assimilation the word “glasnost” formed new word “preglasnost”. This fact proves that this word became widespread in English vocabulary.

In 1987 the word “perestroika” penetrated into English word-stock. It is often used in the meaning of restructuring or economic reform.

The pages of English newspapers became full of such words as: novoe muishleniye, democratizatsia[12], hozyaschot[13], gospreyomka.

The Canadian communistic newspaper wrote the following about the word democratizatsia: Democratizatsia… does not mean the same thing as its English equivalent – democratization. In fact the Soviet concept of democracy is quite different and may turn out to be far more comprehensive and liberating («Canadian Tribune», 1988).

The word hozraschot was often replaced by “cost-accounting” or “self-management” which served to exaggerate the independency of enterprises in USSR.

The mass media: newspapers, TV, radio, advertising and Internet help to popularize new concepts in the new lexical system. For example: “The second section of the Druzhba oil pipeline … (1971 Novosti Press Agency Publishing House Moscow) (Вторая секция нефтепровода «Дружба»…). Here the word “Дружба” penetrates into English without translation as a proper name and at the same time with the opened inner meaning-form. As the recognition of Russian ballet the word-combination Bolshoy ballet got into English without translation.

 

Conclusion

During the study of intercultural communication of Russian and English languages it became clear that the process of new words’ borrowing occur within the specific range of social or political events. So the history of the country has a great influence upon the history of the language. All events in the history such as: wars, revolutions, trade, economical and political contacts, new inventions and many others always have a definite reflection in the lexical system of a language.

As it was mentioned in the work there is always a risk of inappropriate usage of new words. Hence, the topicality of this investigation lies in the consideration of the problems which are connected with the theory and practice of borrowings and it is very actual for nowadays.

In this course project I have made the classification of loan-words which includes: direct borrowings, hybrids, calques, half-calques, exotisms, foreign lingual spots, composites and jargonisms. Besides there are some other classifications: according to the system-defined relations and according to the time period of borrowing the word.

English-Russian lingual intercommunication attracts the strong investigators’ interest aimed on the investigation of the whole layer of loan-words.

In general the layer of foreign terminology presents itself a significant linguistic phenomenon the role of which in both English and Russian is very essential.

The general rule of the system character of the language phenomena in application to a problem of loan-words can be formulated, consequently, as follows: any change in dictionary of any language by means of new words’ penetration into another language entails semantic or stylistic changes in original words already available in language and shifts in synonymic groups.

Word - is a conductor of thoughts, feelings and ideas. The word is capable to tell much of history of people which have met on the historical way of any nation.

But the phenomenon of new words appearance presents a very complicated problem and we can’t deny the significant role of the mass media. In our modern life we are permanently connected with it. Mass media brings “high speed circulation” into our life. There are many purposes, which can be achieved by the press. It enriches our knowledge and broadens our outlook. The press shapes public opinion, influences governmental policy, gives citizens a view of our country and foreign countries as well. It performs a few functions: informative, entertaining, commercial, and is addressed to people of different political views and different stations in life. What is printed and what is not, largely depends on the publishers’ concert of news. The most number of up-to-date things we usually hear or read by means of mass media. In this way, new concepts come into our life. The speed of foreign words’ penetration became faster within the development of mass media. It becomes obvious if we look through the classification of the periods when the borrowings were made.

The problem of loan-words’ translation presents a great interest to the translators of all languages, because there are some difficulties in choosing the most appropriate equivalent to the corresponding item. This aspect may have a different effect on the future usage of the chosen nomination and presents the great responsibility for the translator.

This problem also presents an interesting subject to the students which learn foreign language professionally in order to avoid the possibility of making the mistake while translating some articles or speeches.

 

List of literature

 

1. М.А.Брейтер «Англицизмы в русском языке: история и перспективы», Владивосток: издательство «Диалог», 1995.

2. Г.О.Винокур «Заметки по русскому словообразованию», Москва 1996.

3. Л.П.Крысин «Иноязычные слова в современной жизни. Русский язык конца XX столетия», Москва, 1996.

4. Э.А.Бурова «Лексические галлицизмы в современном русском языке», Ростов-на-Дону, 2004.

5. А.И.Дьяков «Причины интенсивного заимствования англицизмов в современном русском языке», Новосибирск, издательство «Язык и культура», 2003.

6. М.П.Алексеев «Английский язык в России и русский язык в Англии» Серия филологических наук, 1974.

7. В.Д.Аракин «История английского языка», издательство «Просвещение», 1985.

8. В.М.Аристова «Англо-русские языковые контакты», 1978.

9. И.В.Арнольд «Лексикология современного английского языка», 1959.

10. А.А.Брагина «Русское слово в языках мира», издательство «Просвещение», 1978.

11. Л.П.Крысин «Иноязычные слова в современном русском языке», Москва, издательство «Наука», 1968.

12. В..Кожевникова, П.А.Николаева «Литературный энциклопедический словарь», Москва, издательство «Советская энциклопедия», 1987.

13. Русско-европейские литературные связи: сборник статей, Москва, издательство «Наука», 1966.

14. Электронный словарь «ABBYY Lingvo 11» шесть языков, 2005.

 

Application №1

Borrowings in Russian