Vocabulary of the Russian language

By its origin, the vocabulary of the modern Russian language is divided into two large unequal groups:

• primordial;
• borrowed.

Original vocabulary

The original vocabulary is divided into the following subgroups ^[1] :

• Common Indo-European (animal names, kinship terms, and simple numerals: sheep , bull , wolf , meat ; brother , daughter , mother ; one , two , three , four , five, and so on.)
• general Slavic, which goes back to the linguistic community of all Slavs in the VI-VII centuries. During this period, most of the words of modern Russian and other Slavic languages ​​appeared, denoting the names of trees, plants, birds, the main household items: boron , branch , bark , forest , leaf , branch ; oak , spruce , maple , linden , pine , bird cherry , ash ; peas , poppy ; oats , millet , wheat , barley ; forge , slash ; hoe , cloth , shuttle ; home , shelter , floor , canopy ; goose , chicken , starling , nightingale ; kvass , kissel , lard , cheese , sword , book and so on.
• the East Slavic stratum is represented by Old Russian words that appeared and spread within the Slavic population of Kievan Rus , which reached its peak in the 11th – 12th centuries. These include such words as rumble , gray , good ; uncle , stepdaughter ; lace , graveyard ; squirrel , finch ; forty , ninety ; suddenly , today , etc.
• proper Russian lexical units began to appear from the end of the 15th century. These include, for example, the words grumble , coo , smash , destroy , bake ; cover , irradiation , wallpaper ; stuffed cabbage , kulebyaka ; total , bluntly , deceit , experience and many others.

Borrowed vocabulary

By the number of foreign borrowings, the modern Russian language as a whole occupies a balanced position in the circle of Slavic languages. Their number is not as great as in Polish, but not so insignificant as in Croatian, where language purism is noted. In this regard, modern Serbian language is close to him. Despite the influx of words of non-Slavic origin into the Russian language over the past 400 years, most of the borrowings in Russian are borrowings from other Slavic languages, primarily church Slavic languages, which make up 10% of the vocabulary of the Russian language. Another significant group of early borrowings are groups of words of Turkic origin - Turkism . Later borrowings represent polonisms , bohemisms , gallicisms , Greekisms , Latinism , Italianism , Spanishism , Germanism , Anglicism and others.

In modern Russian, there are many lexical borrowings from Church Slavonic (for example, such familiar words as thing, time, air, delight, verb, single, withdraw, award, cloud, general, answer, victory, work, advice, compose, vain, excessive, and many others), some of which coexist with Russian doublets proper, differing from Church Slavonic in meaning or stylistically, cf. (Church Slavonic word is given first): power / volost, drag / drag, head / head, citizen / city dweller, milky / dairy, darkness / hassle, clothes / clothes, equal / equal, debauchery / U-turn, give birth / give birth, cathedral / gathering , guardian / watchman , etc. Separate morphemes (for example, verb prefixes from -, lower -, pre - and co -) and even separate grammatical forms - for example, verbal participles (compare Church Slavonic by the participle origin , are also borrowed from the Church Slavonic language in the literary language ). current or burning with suitable and the age-old Russian form of fluid and hot, preserved in the modern language as an adjective meaning permanent features) or verbs such as trembling (with uncharacteristic actually Russian forms alternating t / u, Wed primordially Russian laughing or babbling).

The vocabulary of the modern Russian language was greatly influenced by those languages ​​with which Russian (and earlier Old Russian and Proto-Slavic dialects) had been in contact for a long time. The oldest borrowing layer is of East German (“ Gothic ”) origin (these are words such as a dish, a letter, a camel, much, a hut, a prince, a cauldron, a cross, buy, a donkey, a plow, glass, bread ^[2] , a stable, a hill, artist [nickname], church, helmet , etc.), as well as a few, but important words borrowed from ancient Iranian languages ​​(“Scythian vocabulary”) - for example, a god, a dog, an ax (though you should keep in mind that all of these Germanic and Iranian etymologies are considered absolutely certain). German (mostly Scandinavian) origin and some Russian personal names, for example, Gleb, Igor, Oleg, Olga .

The next time layer is composed of Greek words ( hell, letter, clerk, abbot, icon, catavasia, penal servitude, bed, crocodile, doll, magnet, cucumber, chamber, sail, shroud, beets, bench, notebook, vinegar, lantern , etc. ) and Turkic origin ( diamond, lasso, head, shoe, turquoise, money, raisins, wild boar, treasury, rim, shackles, trap, guard, caftan, carpet, sausage, quiver, horse, hearth, shed, chest, goods, fog , prison, hut, marquee, pants, coachman, label , etc.; part of these words, in turn, goes back to Arabic or Persian sources). It should be borne in mind that the vast majority of Russian personal baptismal names are also borrowed from Greek (such as Alexander, Alexei, Anatoly, Andrey, Arkady, Vasily, Vlas, Gennady, George, Denis, Dmitry, Evgeny, Kirill, Kuzma, Leonid, Luke, Makar, Nikita, Nikolai, Peter, Stepan, Timothy, Fedor, Philip; Anastasia, Varvara, Galina, Ekaterina, Elena, Zoya, Irina, Ksenia, Pelageya, Praskovya, Sofya, Tatyana , etc .; entered Greek through Russian into Russian and such common Christian name of Hebrew origin, like Benjamin, aniil, Ivan, Ilia, Matthew Michael, Naum, Osyp, Simon, James, Anne, Elisabeth, Maria, Martha, etc.)..

In the XVI-XVII century. the main source of borrowing is Polish , through which it penetrates into Russian as a large number of Latin , Romanesque and Germanic words (for example, algebra, author, pharmacy, Africa, screw, gwalt, ambition, barracks, keys, jacket, kitchen, paint, painter, music , drill, armor, paris, please, mail, private, powder, crimson, leggings, company, market, knight, steel, dance, plate, factory, fake, fortel, target, workshop, figure, school, grind, sword, thing , bayonet, sharpie, skirt, fair, and many others.), and a certain number of actually Polish ( cans, bottles ka, cattle, monogram, allow, finish, thorough, bully, inveterate, passionate, avid, beg, rabbit, jacket, cop, tradesman, courage, homeland, stick, lousy, jam, mean, duel, lieutenant, suburb, capital suma, figler, lad, fumbling, prudent, cheat sheet , etc.).

The influence of the Ukrainian language took place in the XVII - early XVIII centuries. In the Russian language of that time: girlo, relish, savory, shinok, shinkar, zlochino, joking, conscription, station wagon, commission and others. In modern Russian, words are preserved mainly of a domestic, ethnographic and historical nature related to Ukraine: a hut, a hat, a dumpling, a pot, a scroll, a shinok, a shinkar, a pandora, a hopak, a mace, a gaydamak, an old man (ataman), a lad and others; a small number of common words: small town, children, girls, braid, farmer, digger (the word cotton grower was created from this pattern), milkmaid ; in the 1920s and 1930s: hut-reading room, hut-laboratory . Stylistically colored words and phrases used to emphasize the "simplicity" of speech: already, with a hook: a hundred kilometers with a hook, Zhinka, dad , do not go in front of the dad into hell ; with an ironic connotation: sackcloth, spouting, don’t rock, curcule, schoolboy, verses, make a fuss, do anyhow, like my hut from the edge, in the elderberry garden, and in Kiev the uncle , in particular those used in relation to Ukrainians and Ukraine: independent, broad Ukrainian, mov ; some proper names: Oksana instead of Xenia or Aksinya , the affectionate forms of Maroussia, Natalochka . In the Russian language on the territory of modern Ukraine there are numerous cases of profanity ^[3] .

In the new period (from the 18th century), borrowings come mainly from the Netherlands ( apricot, admiral, orange, boatswain, pants, drift, umbrella, southwest, cable, cabin, berth, coffee, sailor, wig, flight, steering wheel, shout, hold, fairway, flute, gateway, yacht ), German ( paragraph, bandage, exchange, accountant, tie, general, count, huntsman, hall, apartment, movie, blot, resort, coachman, lieutenant, master, uniform, mouthpiece, officer , parade ground, plane, locksmith, mourning, fireworks, paramedic, time pressure, cement, mine, tire, screen, barrier, train, headquarters, staff, ersatz and many others) and French ( lampshade, avant-garde) rd, advance, album, actor, barrier, boulevard, bourgeoisie, bureau, veil, garage, debut, conductor, dossier, shower, blinds, magazine, canvas, caprice, kiosk, nightmare, courage, store, makeup, machine, menu, black, pavilion, parachute, park, password, ground, platform, platform, beach, area, rubber, relief, repair, restaurant, risk, role, piano, season, soup, circulation, sidewalk, trick, style, fairy, foyer, chance, charm, overcoat, highway, driver and many others.).

At present, the most powerful source of borrowing is English , some borrowing from which dates back to the 19th - first half of the 20th centuries. (early borrowings - avral, iceberg, bar, boycott, boxing, train station, clown, club, cowboy, cocktail, elevator, rally, rails, rum, square, sport, start, tank, tennis, underpants, fashionable, finish, folklore, football, bully, shorts , newer - business, businessman, briefing, dumping, default, jeans, dispatcher, clearing, combine, container, computer, content, leasing, marketing, rating, trend, weekend, file, holding and many etc.). Some English words were borrowed into Russian twice - for example, an old lunch and a modern lunch ; the latest English borrowings often supersede earlier borrowings from other European languages ​​- for example, the new English. franchising and the old franc. franchise , new eng. bowling and old mute. bowling alley in the same meaning, new English. broker and old dumb. broker , new eng. office and old it. office , new English. slogan and old mute. slogan , new english. lobster and old franc. lobster , new English hit and old mute. smash hit , new English. price list and old it. price list , etc.

Of the other European languages, borrowings were significantly less, but in certain areas of vocabulary their role is also quite important. For example, a number of military terms are borrowed from Hungarian ( haiduk, hussar, saber ), a large number of musical, as well as a number of financial, culinary and other terms, are from Italian (sometimes through French or German means): advice notes, aria, bravo, cello, libretto, pasta, malaria, opera, pasta, clownfish, piano, balance, somersault, scherzo, solfeggio, sonata, soprano , etc.

In turn, there are a lot of ancient borrowings from Russian in Finno-Ugric languages ​​(for example, in Finnish and Karelian , Mordovian , Mari , etc.). A number of Russian words (including the origin of the borrowed ones) became internationalisms borrowed from Russian into many languages ​​of the world ( vodka, dacha, mammoth, matryoshka, perestroika, pogrom, samovar, satellite, steppe, tsar ).