The Russian Language Today

Larissa Ryazanova-Clarke, Terence Wade

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• eBook ISBN: 9781134765553
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The Russian Language Today provides the most up-to-date analysis of the Russian language. The Russian language has changed dramatically in recent years, becoming inundated by new words, mainly from American English. The authors focus on the resulting radical changes in Russian vocabulary and grammar.
Supported throughout by extracts from contemporary press and literary sources, this is a comprehensive overview of present-day Russian and an essential text for all students of the Russian language.

Part 1

1 Lexical development in the Soviet period

1.1 1917–1920s

Although 1917 has traditionally been regarded as a major watershed in the development of the Russian vocabulary, the language had in fact been evolving continuously since the end of the nineteenth century and into the early years of the twentieth, but had not undergone a thorough-going revolution. The previous period had been a time of intensive economic and technological progress, unremitting political movements, including the Revolution of 1905 and the First World War (1914–18), all of which stimulated lexical activity. The October Revolution of 1917 intensified certain processes in the Russian vocabulary: the removal of words from active use, the addition of new words to the vocabulary, semantic transformations and stylistic shifts.

One of the characteristics of the post-Revolutionary language was an extension in the use of certain words from narrow social circles to the language of the masses. A large number of these lexemes are words of foreign origin, introduced into Russian at the turn of the century. Nevertheless, before 1917 these lexical items, which constituted in the main political, social, military and economic terminology, had enjoyed a fairly limited circulation, being predominantly confined to groups of educated people. Particularly conducive to the further proliferation of specialist vocabulary were political and economic theories, imported from the West and disseminated by Marxist circles and other revolutionary groupings. The October Revolution, the Civil War (1917–22) and the political struggle accompanying and following these events drew large numbers of uneducated or poorly educated people—workers, soldiers and peasants—into political discourse. Words of foreign origin, which had previously enjoyed limited circulation, flooded into mass usage via the press, political leaflets and oral propaganda. Among the most widespread political terminology adopted by the popular language at this time are:

автонóмия ‘autonomy’	анарх зм ‘anarchism’
агитáция ‘agitation’	анарх ст ‘anarchist’
агрáрный ‘agrarian’	аннéксия ‘annexation’
акт вный ‘active’	бойкóт ‘boycott’
буржуаз я ‘bourgeoisie’	конферéнция ‘conference’
дезерт р ‘deserter’	лóзунг ‘slogan’
делегáт ‘delegate’	манифестáция ‘demonstration’
демонстрáция ‘demonstration’	милитар зм ‘militarism’
демокрáтия ‘democracy’	милиционéр ‘policeman’
депутáт ‘deputy’	м тинг ‘mass-meeting, rally’
дефéкт ‘defect’	óрдер ‘warrant’
директ вы ‘directives’	прокламáция ‘proclamation, leaflet’
дискýссия ‘discussion’	пролетариáт ‘proletariat’
империал зм ‘imperialism’	революционéр ‘revolutionary’
интернационáл ‘international’	револ ция ‘revolution’
интернационал зм ‘internationalism’	резол ция ‘resolution’
	респýблика ‘republic’
коал ция ‘coalition’	сепарáтный ‘separate’
контрибýция ‘contribution, indemnity’	социал зм ‘socialism’
	талóн ‘coupon’
контрреволюционéр ‘counter-revolutionary’	федерáция ‘federation’ and others.

They include words borrowed from French and associated with the French Revolution and the days of the Paris Commune, such as декрéт ‘decree’, комиссáр ‘commissar’, мандáт ‘mandate’, террóр ‘terror’, трибунáл ‘tribunal’ (Selishchev, 1928:21, 157).

1.1.1 Loan words

The lexical borrowings from foreign sources which were attested in the post-Revolutionary decade were few and far between. They number some industrial and military terms:

бл

минг (English blooming)

концéрн (German Konzern ‘concern’)

оккупáнт (German Okkupant ‘member of occupying force’)

фаш

зм and фаш

ст (Italian fascista ‘fascist’, fascismo ‘fascism’)

but, perhaps surprisingly, the list of borrowings also contained words connected with culture, entertainment and everyday life:

конферансьé (French conférencier ‘master of ceremonies, compère’)

св

тер (English sweater)

такс

(French taxi)

фокстрóт (English fox-trot)

шезлóнг (French chaise longue ‘deck-chair’).

Also recorded at this time are the words кинó ‘cinema’, рáдио ‘radio’, ф

льма ‘film’, later adapted to become masculine фильм.

After the formation of the Soviet Union (in 1922), words were also borrowed from the languages of the Union Republics, albeit on a minor scale. Thus, words of Turkic origin, such as ар

к ‘irrigation canal’ and басмáч ‘basmach’ became part of the Russian language; previously ethnographic exoticisms such as чадрá ‘yashmak’ and кишлáк ‘village’ lost their exotic flavour in combinations such as:

революциóнный кишлáк ‘revolutionary village...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• List of abbreviations of newspapers and journals
• Part 1
• Part 2
• Bibliography and further reading
• Index