Today, the Russian language as a developing phenomenon is rarely considered. Everyone is used to it, they use words automatically, sometimes without even thinking. And this is understandable, because we are native speakers of the Russian language. However, based on the same, one should at least sometimes be interested in its history and specifics. Over the centuries, it has undergone changes, old words were eradicated, new ones were added, and the alphabet became different. The Russian language as a developing phenomenon is a completely unique cultural heritage.
Connection with history
Many centuries separate the current Russian language from the one spoken by our distant ancestors. Much has changed during this time. Some words became completely forgotten, they were replaced by new ones. The grammar has also changed, and the old expressions have acquired a completely different interpretation. I wonder if a modern Russian person met with one of our distant ancestors, would they have been able to talk and understand each other? Definitely yes, that the fast-paced life has changed along with the language. A lot of it turned out to be very stable. And the speech of the ancestors could be understood. Philologists conducted an interesting and painstaking experiment - they compared Ozhegov's dictionary with the Dictionary of the Russian Language of the XI-XVII centuries. In the course of the work, it turned out that about a third of mid- and high-frequency words are identical to each other.
What influenced the changes
Language as a developing phenomenon has always existed, from the very moment people began to speak. The changes taking place in it are an inevitable companion of the history of a language, and absolutely any. But since it is one of the richest and most diverse, it is more interesting to watch how the Russian language develops. I must say that mainly the conditions for the functioning of the language were changed due to political upheavals. The influence of the media grew. This also influenced the development of the Russian language, making it more liberal. Changed to him, respectively, and the attitude of people. Unfortunately, in our time, few people adhere to literary norms, it is spreading more and more. As a result, the peripheral elements of genres have become the center of everything. I mean vernacular, slang and jargon.
Dialectism
It is worth noting that the language is a developing phenomenon in all regions of our vast country. And new norms of lexicology appear both in popular speech and in certain regions of Russia. I mean dialectisms. There is even a so-called "Moscow-Petersburg dictionary". Despite the fact that these cities are quite close to each other, their dialects differ. A special dialect can be observed in the Arkhangelsk and Vyatka regions. There are a huge number of words that actually mean quite ordinary concepts. But as a result, if you use these expressions, then a resident of Moscow or St. Petersburg will understand such an interlocutor no better than if he spoke the Belarusian folk language.
Slang and jargon
Language as a developing phenomenon could not avoid the introduction of slang expressions into it. This is especially true for our time. How is the language developing today? Not in the best way. It is regularly updated with expressions that are most often used by young people. Philologists believe that these words are very primitive and do not have a deep meaning. They also assure that the age of such phrases is very short, and they will not live long, since they do not carry any semantic load, they are not interesting for intelligent and educated people. Such words will not succeed in crowding out literary expressions. However, in reality, quite the opposite can be observed. But in general, this is already a question concerning the level of culture and education.
Phonetics and alphabet
Historical changes cannot affect any one aspect of the language - they affect everything completely and completely, from phonetics to the specifics of sentence construction. The modern alphabet is derived from the Cyrillic alphabet. The names of the letters, their styles - all this was different from what we have now. Of course, because in ancient times the alphabet was used. Its first reform was carried out by Peter the Great, who excluded some letters, while others became more rounded and simplified. Phonetics has also changed, that is, sounds began to be pronounced differently. Few people know what was voiced in those days! His pronunciation was close to "O". By the way, the same can be said about a solid sign. Only it was pronounced as "E". But then those sounds disappeared.
Vocabulary
The Russian language as a developing phenomenon has undergone changes not only in terms of phonetics and pronunciation. Gradually, new words were introduced into it, most often borrowed. For example, in recent years, the following sayings have firmly entered our everyday life: file, floppy disk, show, movie, and many others. The fact is that not only language is changing, changes are taking place in life. New phenomena are being formed that need to be given names. Accordingly, words appear. By the way, old expressions that have long sunk into oblivion have recently been revived. Everyone has already forgotten about such an address as “gentlemen”, calling their interlocutors “friends”, “colleagues”, etc. But recently this word has again entered Russian colloquial speech.
Many expressions leave their habitat (that is, from professional languages of a certain profile) and are introduced into everyday life. Everyone knows that computer scientists, doctors, engineers, journalists, cooks, builders and many other specialists in a particular field of activity communicate in “their” languages. And some of their expressions sometimes begin to be used everywhere. It should also be noted that the Russian language is also enriched due to word formation. An example is the noun “computer”. With the help of prefixes and suffixes, several words are formed at once: computerization, geek, computer, etc.
New era of the Russian language
Be that as it may, everything that is done is for the better. In this case, this expression is also suitable. Due to the freedom of forms of expression, a tendency to the so-called word creation began to appear. Although it cannot be said that it has always been successful. Of course, the formality that was inherent in public communication has weakened. But, on the other hand, the lexical system of the Russian language has become very active, open and “alive”. Communicating in simple language makes it easier for people to understand each other. All phenomena have made a certain contribution to lexicology. Language, as a developing phenomenon, continues to exist to this day. But today it is a bright and original cultural heritage of our people.
Increased interest
I would like to note that the Russian language is a developing phenomenon that interests many people today. Scientists around the world are engaged in its study and knowledge of the specifics that are characteristic of it. Society is developing, science is also advancing by leaps and bounds, Russia is exchanging scientific developments with other countries, cultural and economic interchange is taking place. All this and much more causes the need to master the Russian language among citizens of other countries. In 87 states, its study is given special attention. About 1640 universities teach it to their students, several tens of millions of foreigners are eager to master the Russian language. This cannot but rejoice. And if our Russian language, as a developing phenomenon and cultural heritage, arouses such interest among foreigners, then we, its native speakers, must master it at a decent level.
In the modern world, borrowing words from different languages are becoming more common, and the Russian language is no exception. What is it connected with? Is foreign borrowing good or bad? Why did the idea of creating a universal language Esperanto fail? These and other questions were answered by Iya Nechaeva, senior researcher at the Institute of the Russian Language. V.V. Vinogradova and Scientific Secretary of the Spelling Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
- Please tell us what are the differences between philology and linguistics? They are often confused, and sometimes these terms are used interchangeably.
- Philology is a set of humanities related to the study of language, written texts and verbal creativity. It comes from the Greek philologia - literally "love of the word." The term "linguistics" (synonymous with "linguistics") comes from the Latin word lingua - "language" and denotes the science of natural human language. Philology includes linguistics, literary criticism, textual criticism, source studies, paleography (a scientific discipline that studies the monuments of ancient writing), etc.
So the concept of philology is broader than the concept of linguistics.
- Borrowing words from other languages - is, in your opinion, a positive or negative phenomenon? Or is it a natural process, shall we say, the evolution of a language?
— Lexical borrowing is a normal phenomenon. Even Academician Yakov Karlovich Grot, an outstanding Russian linguist of the late 19th century, who made a huge contribution to streamlining Russian spelling, said that “unconditional hostility to borrowed words has no reasonable basis”, and the acceptance of foreign words into the language is “a natural and inevitable process”. There are, of course, abuses of foreign language vocabulary, but this should be regarded as a fact of the speech of specific people or a fact of speech practice for a limited period of time (there are, so to speak, “fashionable” words and expressions). In any case, these things are transient. The language itself is gradually cleared of everything that it does not need.
- Do you think it is worth using borrowed words if there are their Russian counterparts?
- The fact is that borrowings take root in speech, as a rule, just when there are either no exact Russian analogues, or exact analogues are not a word, but a more extended construction, a phrase. Usually, the original and borrowed words, which seem to us to be synonyms, have some semantic or stylistic nuances that distinguish them from each other. After all, it cannot be said that, for example, a killer is absolutely the same as a murderer or even a hired killer.
The one who killed the old pawnbroker is not a killer.
The killer is not the one who, for a good bribe, will pour poison into someone's glass or act in a similar way. This is a professional with certain skills, owning modern weapons, who performs his menial work to order. Woman, lady, madam, lady - these are all different concepts. Filmmakers often use the word "picture" instead of "film", but that's more of a professional usage, we don't usually say that.
— During what period of Russian history was foreign borrowing the most intensive?
— There are several periods of intensive borrowing of vocabulary in the history of the Russian language. This, for example, is the era of Peter the Great, when Russia “cut a window to Europe” and Peter began to build the Russian fleet (borrowed from Dutch, German and other languages), or the Age of Enlightenment (mainly from French), or the 1990s and early 2000- x (borrowings mainly from English and its American version, but not only).
It is difficult to say in which period borrowing was the most intensive. "Awareness of one's country as part of the civilized world" is one of the conditions for the adoption of new foreign words, says Doctor of Philology, Professor Leonid Petrovich Krysin. In any case, such “bursts” of interlingual activity are usually caused by social or political reasons and are associated with the need for social renewal. Language perfectly reflects our life.
- In general, is the Russian language highly susceptible to foreign borrowing? If yes, why?
- Pretty receptive. Despite the fact that Russia was a closed country for quite long periods of its development, foreign words and concepts still penetrated into the language. But this process was more active, of course, during periods of greater openness of Russian society, with more intensive communication between native speakers of the Russian language and representatives of other cultures, which is currently facilitated by the rapid development of information technologies.
We, without noticing it ourselves, measure the results of our labors by comparison with developed countries West (when we say "like in Europe" - this is a synonym for a positive assessment of an object or phenomenon). And along with foreign subject-conceptual realities, new words also penetrate our lives. In general, there is nothing wrong with this. Zealots of the purity of the Russian language and fighters against foreign words themselves do not notice that they use borrowings every day.
Foreign words are not only a speaker (as well as a vice speaker), mayor, prefect, computer, bluetooth, interview, trend, penthouse, show, hit, fast food, etc., but also an elevator, car, bus, tram, director, actor, floor, literature, mathematics, office, hall, album, date, center, text, theme and many others.
Many of them are examples of foreign words that cannot be replaced by anything.
— What words, which we usually consider to be native Russian, are actually borrowed?
I have already partially answered this question. I remember that at one time many people recounted someone’s anecdotal statement: “Why do they come up with such complex names as a cell phone, isn’t it better to use the simple Russian word“ mobile phone ””? But the fact is that although the word "mobile phone" is formed using the Russian suffix -nick, it goes back to the French word mobile ("mobile", "mobile"), and the latter, in turn, to the Latin mobilis with the same meaning, that is, by its origin it is borrowed. Many everyday things and concepts have foreign names: tea, bath, fashion, hairpin, interest, nature, package, character ... It's hard to believe, but from childhood, the well-known word "notebook" also goes back to a foreign source, namely: to the Greek root tetra, denoting the numeral "four", since the original name for a notebook was a piece of paper folded four times.
— Let's remember the legend about the Tower of Babel — the diversity of languages has led to misunderstanding and conflicts between people. Do you think that languages are connected with conflicts now?
- This legend is connected with the idea of ancient people that initially after the Flood all people spoke the same language, only after God created new languages, people scattered throughout the earth. I think that very often conflicts arise among people who have been speaking the same language all their lives, and the common language does not help them understand each other at all.
Conflicts are more likely to be associated with mental or religious differences, with contradictions in the system of values and, of course, interests, and not with language.
- What problems can misunderstanding between people caused by the fact that they speak different languages lead to?
- Well, even a comma, as you know, can have a fateful meaning (execution cannot be pardoned). Of course, it is necessary to achieve a correct understanding of a foreign language text. But, as we know, the expression "to speak different languages" also has a figurative meaning and means "to understand things in its own way, different from the interlocutor, not to find common ground." The problem of the language barrier is solved with the help of an adequate translation, but with mental differences it is more difficult.
As for borrowed words, their incomprehensibility for interlocutors can lead to oddities in communication. I recall a humorous poem by V. Mayakovsky “On fiascos, apogees and other unknown things”:
Akulovka received a bundle of newspapers.
Read.
They stick their eyes into the letters.
Read:
"Poincaré fails."
Thought.
What kind of "fiasco" is this?
— Is it possible that a single “world language” like Esperanto will emerge in the future? Why did Esperanto fail to become a universal international language?
- I don't think it's real. The failure of Esperanto is due to the fact that it is an artificial language. The national languages we speak are of natural origin. Nobody invented them, they arose and developed under the influence of objective circumstances. Attempts to forcibly impose something on a language are rarely successful. Even out of invented new words, only a few are fixed in the language (but this, of course, does not apply to special terminology). The national language reflects the national culture, the rejection of it means the rejection of one's national identity.
In addition, it is not enough to create a "world language", for that matter - you still need to master it.
But the countries and the ethnic groups inhabiting them are very different in terms of their level of development, the level of education of the population, and so on. So it's not realistic.
- Now the language of international communication is English, Chinese and Spanish are becoming more common. In your opinion, will the linguistic "balance of power" change in 25-30 years?
- I think that Chinese may become relatively more widespread (due to the strengthening of the role of this country in the political arena and the need for interethnic communication), but English is unlikely to lose its importance. Spanish still ranks second in the world - this language, except for Spain, is spoken by most South American and Central American countries.
25-30 years is a very short period of time for history, and we can hardly expect any radical changes in this regard.
Although, in general, forecasts are a thankless task.
Attempts to "upgrade" the Russian language were made several times. Mikhail Lomonosov made it more refined, Nikolai Karazmin strove for lightness and elegance. In 1912, the language began to be simplified. How did we get to common genders and stresses?
Mikhail Lomonosov
He not only went on foot to Moscow, founded Moscow State University, but also reformed the Russian language. Mikhail Lomonosov's project to improve the Russian language was expressed in Grammar. It was reprinted 14 times, it formed the basis of the Russian grammar course of the Russian linguist Anton Barsov. Lomonosov's love for the language was active, but the reform was criticized by the heirs.
“Our everything” Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin spoke completely disrespectfully about the views and odes of Lomonosov:
“His odes are tedious and inflated. His influence on literature was harmful and still reverberates in it. Grandiloquence, sophistication, disgust at simplicity and accuracy, the absence of any nationality and originality - these are the traces left by Lomonosov.
Europeanization
The fact that at a certain time the oral Russian language of high society was more like a dialect under French is known to many. Nikolai Karamzin introduced French flair into written Russian. Moving away from classicism, the writer was carried away by the sentimentalism of poor Lisa and Natalya, the boyar daughter. A new literary trend is recognized behind his sentimentalism, but the author himself did not create a new style, but a new Russian language - without church influence.
Nikolai Karamzin introduced new words into the pages of his works, trying to simplify the language and at the same time give it elegance, in defiance of the state "clumsiness" - the writer's literature was full of words, tracing papers of generally accessible French.
Karamzin introduced a number of new words into the Russian language, for example: public and love. It is not necessary to blame Karamzin for an excessive predilection for "foreignness" - he only dreamed of ease, trying to fit all classes with their language preferences on one page. Accomplishment Karamzin failed, he passed the baton to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.
Nicholas II
The reforms carried out by Nicholas II do not include a change in the Russian language. The reform of 1918 is known to the general public. The new Soviet state was getting rid of the remnants of the past. However, it was Nicholas II who drew attention to the requirements of the time, already in 1904, the Spelling Commission was organized at the Russian Academy of Sciences under the leadership of the famous Russian linguist Philip Fedorovich Fortunatov. Linguists have thought about simplifying the language, primarily for schoolchildren.
It was believed that linguistic simplification would allow depriving schools of lagging students. The reform project was ready by 1912 and got rid of a sufficient number of spelling rules, and the first timid editions with new spelling rules appeared in stores. The reform, however, did not add literacy, and they became interested in the new project only after the February Revolution. The glory of the reform with imperial roots came out revolutionary - during the Civil War in the territories belonging to the whites, the new spelling was not used categorically.
Futurists
Appeared in St. Petersburg in 1912, the “budetlyans” brought with them a manifesto: “A slap in the face of public taste.” The new rules opposed Alexander Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy, regulated an irresistible hatred for the existing language and demanded verbal arbitrariness from the writer.
The creation of the “self-valuable Word” captivated Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv and Baku. But the "explosion" did not happen, irresistible aspirations were ruined with the coming to power of the Bolsheviks.
"Disheveled Poetry" was preserved on the pages of poetry collections by Vladimir Mayakovsky and Velimir Khlebnikov, but did not make it into textbooks. There is a common misconception that Khlebnikov introduced the word "pilot" into the Russian language, but this is just a beautiful myth.
"Night", "hear", "cucumber"
On September 24, 1964, the Izvestia newspaper published an article with "Proposals for the improvement of the Russian language."
The wide publication ruined the reform, the draft submitted for public discussion received only negative reviews for six months. The introduction of the letter “and” at the end of the word “cucumbers”, one separating sign (soft) and the words “night”, “hear” did not find support among the general public. Khrushchev's quick departure from the Soviet proscenium made it possible to forget about the failed reform.
Russian language extension dictionary
The attempt of Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn to resurrect the beauty of the Russian language was reflected in the dictionary published in 1995. In the preface to the Russian Dictionary of Language Extension, Solzhenitsyn writes:
“The best way to enrich a language is to restore wealth that was previously accumulated and then lost.”
In search of the beauty of the Russian language, Alexander Isaevich turned to the vocabulary of writers of the 19th-20th centuries and Dahl's dictionary. The Russian Dictionary did not become a reform, however, as well as a landmark event in linguistics.
Coffee and yogurt
The idea that reforms to simplify the Russian language is an endless process also occurs to our contemporaries. Attempts to unify the language are the heritage of the 2000s.
We have been thinking about a broad reform of the Russian language at the state level for a long time. Until 2009, however, little was known about the undertakings of the state.
In our time, the reform is carried out through dictionaries, which are regulated while the public is outraged. The approved list of collections, dictionaries and reference books does not include the works of Sergei Ozhegov and Vladimir Dahl, they present a common gender and a “general” stress.
The actual always seems to be unshakable, what should be and what has always been. First of all, this is how the perception of language works, which is why it is so difficult to get used to new words - borrowings or neologisms. We absorb language along with the laws of nature: it is dark at night, it is light during the day, the words in a sentence are built in a certain way. In fact, the Russian language has changed many times, and each time the innovations that have now become part of our everyday speech were perceived by many very painfully.
How and why to leave the simple Russian language and return to it back
If you try to read Russian texts of the second half of the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries, you will see how difficult it is now to perceive the first and how much easier the second. It's about two things. First, in fashion.The eighteenth century is a century of fashion moving away from naturalness as indicators of grace and culture. A decently dressed and made-up person should look like a porcelain figurine, no matter if he is a gentleman or a lady. The house of a decent person should look like a giant box with elegant, curlicues, with curved legs and handles knick-knacks inside. The same was expected from the language. It's just that only commoners should speak. The more cultured a person is, the more complex he makes constructions from words and uses intricate comparisons more.
The nineteenth century loved to combine the game of naturalness with decorativeness. The lady should not look like she was powdered with lead white, and the gentleman does not need to be as smart as a Christmas tree toy (well, except that his regiment’s uniform looks like that, then there’s nothing to do). The front bedrooms are dying off - which are needed only to receive guests "informally" in them. Decorativeness should no longer confuse the eye.
The entire beginning of the nineteenth century is in fact the development of a new language that would still be Russian, but would take on the simplicity of natural speech familiar to everyone from peasant dialects without its rudeness, would be suitable not only for primitive feelings and thoughts, but also for complex , would allow maintaining a polite distance without turning it into a ridiculous ceremony. This process went on virtually throughout the nineteenth century.
Many turns that seem familiar and familiar to the modern Russian ear, in fact, it was in the first half of the nineteenth century that they were borrowed from French or German by literal translation. Here are just a few of them: “kill time”, “a matter of life and death”, “be imprinted”, “be on pins and needles”, “without a second thought”, “at first sight”, “with all my heart” - from French . “Winged words”, “daily routine”, “to utterly smash”, “regardless of faces”, “that's where the dog is buried” - from German.
It was in the first half of the nineteenth century that many French came into the Russian language, which in our time look like native ones. "Baton", "author", "vase", "hero", "screen", "chic", "blonde", "hair", "trick" - these are just a few examples. At the same time, the English "club" joined the Russian speech. The transitional era from the post-Petrine to Pushkin Russian language also gave us invented words with a Russian basis, for example, “touching”, “love”, “industry”, “attraction” - thanks to Karamzin for them and some others.
Many, however, did not like borrowings from French. It was proposed to look for an alternative based on Slavic roots. Why a frock coat if there is a caftan? Let's assume that the caftan just changed its style... that is, the shape... that is, ugh, cut it. However, upon closer examination, the caftan also turned out to be non-Russian in its root, and the people were still in no hurry to switch from galoshes to wet shoes.
When the whole world changes
A new category of words was presented by the second half of the nineteenth century, when young women began to go to work en masse. Some did it for ideological reasons, others - because after the abolition of serfdom they found themselves without a source of income. In addition, women began to study. Words-versions of the names of professions, new and old, in the feminine form appeared in the press and speeches.Of course, new words were resisted again. Isn’t it ugly, not across the Russian ear, such freaks as “student”, “telephone operator”, “journalist” sound, the guardians of the Russian language asked in their articles (and this “tourist” has not yet overtaken them). Throughout the last third of the nineteenth and the first third of the twentieth centuries, female forms for professions will multiply: lecturer - lecturer, aviator - aviatrix, sculptor - sculptress, seller - saleswoman, sailor - sailor, worker - worker, scientist - scientist, chairman - chairman. And only under Stalin, with a general fashion for conservatism and the second quarter of the nineteenth century, as a model in many things, the male gender will again begin to displace the female from the “professional field”.
A huge revolution in the language happened after the February and October revolutions. Writers, journalists, officials began to look for more energetic words and word forms that reflect changes in life. Abbreviations and abbreviations for the first syllables became more common: shkrab - a school worker, a workers' faculty - a working faculty, a rationalization proposal - a rationalization proposal, an idea to improve something, a city department of public education, educational program - the elimination of illiteracy. In an intelligent environment, words made up of abbreviations caused a painful reaction. Everything Soviet time the trend towards such words will continue: consumer goods - a consumer product, an analogue of the current mass market, indposhiv - clothes of individual tailoring.
At the very beginning of the Soviet era, the word "weekend" appeared, which began to denote days of rest. Before the revolution, workers rested on the holidays of their faith: either Sunday, or Saturday, or Friday. The mesh bag, which began to spread at the end of the nineteenth century, finally got the name - "string bag". They began to carry it with them on a "maybe", constantly - suddenly they will be able to buy something.
"Militsia" changed the meaning from the people's militia to the executive authorities. A “worker of labor” has appeared - a person who works especially selflessly and productively. "Oblasts" and "districts" began to be applied to administrative territories. The structure of sentences has changed a lot. The journalistic and clerical style began to include many impersonal sentences, where the action took place as if by itself, which means that many verbal nouns began to be used.
It was during the Soviet era that constructions such as “The air temperature is expected to rise” instead of the less impersonal “The air temperature is forecast to rise” became generally accepted and almost neutral. In the ads there is a "persuasive request" to do this or that.
A separate influence was exerted by universal literacy and saving on the letter Y: it was usually denoted in writing by the letter E. As a result, pronunciation and sometimes stress changed in words rarely used in everyday life: birch bark became birch bark, bile - bile, newborn - newborn, nonsense - nonsense, faded - faded.
English: never disappeared from the horizon
The flow of English words went into colloquial speech for almost the entire twentieth century. So, at the beginning, they began to go in for "sports" and play "football", "volleyball" and so on. In the middle, they wore "breeches" and a "polo" shirt. In the end, they watched the video "thrillers" and began to dress in "jeans" en masse.A lot of anglicisms came in the nineties when it was necessary to develop vocabulary related to entrepreneurship: business, manager, office. Very often, foreign words were replaced not by native ones, but simply by old borrowings. So, the “hit” replaced the “hit”, the same “office” replaced the “office”, and later, in the 2000s, the English-language “make-up” noticeably pressed the French “make-up”.
In the 2000s, words from English connected with the active use of the Internet, including, in fact, the word “Internet” itself, were pulled into the Russian language. In the tenths, it became popular to use English words related to fashion (beginning with the fact that the French word "fashion" went to be replaced by "fashion") and with the culture of the new "beautiful life" - not rich or sophisticated, but in the style of popular Instagram blogs , at the same time careless and extremely accurate, balancing between comfort and sterility. North American pancakes instead of Russian pancakes, co-working spaces instead of workshops, and workshops instead of master classes have become a sign of this beautiful life; however, both “master” and “class” are also far from Slavic roots.
As always, any wave of changes will end with the fact that what is really relevant in everyday life will be fixed, and the rest will be forgotten; as always, any wave is accompanied (and will be accompanied) by protests and the resurrection of words almost buried by time for a long time, only with a new, now ironic tinge. What turn awaits the living language tomorrow, no one knows. Only with the dead is everything clear.
The language responds not only to global historical processes, but also to small everyday needs. .
There is nothing more merciless than Russian disputes over the native language. They have spawned entire subcultures - from Grammar Nazis and lovers of "yates" to deliberately distorting the speech of bastards. Still alive in the memory of the Internet battle on the basis of what kind of "coffee" and on what syllable the stress in the word "ringing", and linguists have already thrown a new topic. The word "icing" is recognized as normative. Will this cause a new crusade against the desecration of the language of Pushkin and Tolstoy, and is it really necessary?
Speak Russian correctly
For the first time, adherents of the purity of the Russian language flinched when Valentina Matvienko used the word "suck" while still being the governor of St. Petersburg. She made a proposal to "shoot down icicles with a laser." This caused a flurry of ridicule. However, now the representative of the Russian Language Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences said that the words "icicle" and "icicle" are equivalent.
Editor-in-Chief of the website Gramota.Ru, Candidate of Philology Vladimir Pakhomov in an interview with Pravda.Ru, he fully supported his colleague.
- You justified the neuter gender of the word "coffee" by the fact that in the first half of the 20th century, similar words "auto", "metro" and "cinema" were also masculine, but then the norm adjusted to the language. What do you say to justify "suck"?
- The fact that the word "icicle" has long been in dictionaries. In Dahl's dictionary, it is recorded as equal to "icicle", so there is nothing new in the statement. Another thing is that this word has almost gone out of use lately. Nevertheless, it has existed in Russian for a long time, and there is nothing unusual in it.
— Is it necessary to protect the Russian language from changes?
- You should treat changes in the Russian language in the same way as the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun. This is a completely natural process. It is good that the language is changing, because only the dead do not change. If the Russian language is changing, it means that it is alive, which means it's great. Now, if nothing changes in the language, then it is necessary to beat all the bells.
The Russian language is constantly enriched, words have some new meanings, stress changes, etc. This is a long, long process, but ongoing. For example, the word "voice" is often used in the sense of "say". That is, not in the usual sense of "voicing the film", but "voicing the version", for example. To speak of this as a mistake would perhaps be an oversimplification. I think we are still dealing with a change in meanings, with the gradual emergence of new ones that have not yet been reflected in dictionaries, but maybe they will find them in time.
All these are very long processes, and dictionaries always fix changes in the rules with a very big delay. They must maintain, as long as possible, the old rate. Only when there is no way to get away from the fact that it has become a fact of the language, only then it is entered into dictionaries.
— And what to do with new words from foreign languages? Accept?
“The language will sort itself out. We don't have to do anything. There is no need to adopt any laws, acts and. The tongue never takes what it doesn't need. If a word has appeared in a language, it means that the language needs this word for something. This means that it still conveys a slightly different shade of meaning than the Russian word, perhaps it has some other emotional coloring, etc.
An absolutely exact synonym with exactly the same meaning and the same coloring will simply not be accepted by the language. If the word appeared, it means that it is necessary for something. And again, some time will pass, and if it turns out that this word is superfluous in the language, it will disappear by itself, no matter how hard we try to keep it. And if it turns out that the language needs this word, it will be fixed in the language, no matter how hard we try to get rid of it. No need to interfere with the natural course of the language.
Chairman of the Russian Rhetorical Association, Doctor of Philology, Professor Vladimir Annushkin believes that changes should be taken calmly and there is no need to be a slave to the norms of the language.
— How do you feel about the fact that the Russian language is changing? Is it necessary to fight for the preservation of the language, or is its change a natural and inevitable process?
- The Russian language is changing, but there is a norm that it is desirable to adhere to. At the same time, our language is colored by certain territorial features and even by certain peculiar personal findings or changes that occur in the speech of this or that person.
When Valentina Matvienko uses the word "icicle", then for me, as a person who knows the peculiarities of Petersburg speech, there is nothing special in this, I see some special charm in this. We use the word "icicle". But after all, a word without this colloquial suffix "-to-" was probably more correct literary and historically, so you just have to smile at how our language is changing.
One can imagine that in 200 years we will not have the word "book", and only "book" will remain, just as there is no word "zachota", but there is the word "record book". Petersburgers and Muscovites very often compete in stress or pronunciation of certain words. I know a professor at St. Petersburg University who pronounces "What", "of course", "boring", and Muscovites pronounce everything with "sh" - "of course", "boring", and this is the norm. The written literary norm was with the sounds "-ch-", so the famous native of St. Petersburg, Georgy Ivanov, wrote:
"And in this world too narrow,
Where is all the loss and damage,
I think that we certainly need to preserve the norm of the language, but not be its slave, realizing that there are personal style features, and. Another thing is that you can not violate the already established norm, what is a strict norm - then it becomes a direct mistake. And let the "icicle" live. Let's smile at this Petersburg word.
