Russian borrowings in english language

      Main Entry: theremin Function: noun. Etymology: Lev Theremin born 1896 Russian engineer & inventor. Date: 1927: ‘a purely melodic electronic musical instrument typically played by moving a hand between two projecting electrodes.’ (Merriam-Webster, http://www.m-w.com/home.htm). Ex.:

      Percy Grainger’s Free Music #1 (1936) is an intriguing experiment scored for four theremins emphasizing the free tonality of the instruments (Gualtiery, http://www.msu.edu/user/gualtie3/Theremin.htm).

      Main Entry: tovarich Variant(s): or tovarish Function: noun. Etymology: Russian tovarishch. Date: circa 1917: COMRADE (Merriam-Webster, http://-www.m-w.com/home.htm). Ex.:

      From a letter to Tovarich, 1957 (an imaginary Russian friend). (Mills, http://-www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8760/8760.excerpt.html)

      Main Entry: troika Function: noun. Etymology: Russian troika, from troe ‘three’; akin to Old English †rıe ‘three’. Date: 1842. 1: ‘a Russian vehicle drawn by three horses abreast; also : a team for such a vehicle.’ 2: ‘a group of three’; especially: ‘an administrative or ruling body of three.’ (Merriam-Webster, http-://www.m-w.com/home.htm). Ex.:

      Nikita Krushchev presented Cyrus Eaton with a troika - a Russian vehicle driven by a team of three horses.

       (Tower, http://www.tantramar.com/trib/2001/08/01/-columns.html)

      ‘Is Political Troika In Russia’s Future?’ (Alden, http://www.spintechmag.com/-9911/sf1199.htm

      Main Entry: verst Function: noun. Etymology: French verste & German Werst; both from Russian versta; akin to Latin vertere ‘to turn’. Date: 1555: ‘a Russian unit of distance equal to 0.6629 miles (1.067 kilometers).’ (Merriam-Webster, http://www.m-w.com/home.htm). Ex.:

      Besides, the mountain is about two versts … in length (Lermontov, http://www.bookrags.com/books/ahero/PART2.htm )

      Main Entry: vodka Function: noun. Etymology: Russian, from voda ‘water’; akin to Old English wäter ‘water’. Date: circa 1803: ‘a colorless liquor of neutral spirits distilled from a mash (as of rye or wheat)’ (Merriam-Webster, http://-www.m-w.com/home.htm). Ex.:

      And there is rice-growing in China, consequently they drink rice vodka (Sereda, A. http://www.daochinasite.com/eng/ch/ch8.htm)

      Main Entry: zemstvo Function: noun. Inflected Form(s): plural zemstvos. Etymology: Russian; akin to Russian zemlya ‘earth’, ‘land’, Latin humus -- more at HUMBLE. Date: 1865: ‘one of the district and provincial assemblies established in Russia in 1864)’ (Merriam – Webster, http://www.m-w.com/home.htm). Ex.:

      The district zemstvos elected executive committees and delegates to the provincial assemblies…(The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, http://www.factmonster-.com/ce6/history/A0853343.html) 
 

      2.1.3. WORDS OF FOREIGN ORIGIN BORROWED FROM RUSSIAN

      Apart from the words analyzed above, English has also borrowed from Russian a variety of words, which originate from other languages. Because of the restricted character of this work it is impossible to analyze them scrupulously and therefore we will classify them only in accordance with their initial sources.

      Words of Turkish origin: archine, ataman, buran, caftan, cossak, coumiss, kurgan, saiga, shashlik.

      Words of Latin origin: collegium, comissar, comissariat, czar, intelligentsia, nomenclatura, presidium. English has also borrowed some derivatives of the word czar: czarevitch, czarevna, czarina; czaritza. The Russian word cezarevitch borrowed into English originates from the same word as czar- namely from the Latin word caesar.

      Words of German origin: duma, kremlin ( the latter is from obsolete German).

      Furthermore, the word knout is of Scandinavian origin, suprematism – of French, cosmonaut -of Greek; sevruga is a Tatar word, shaman is borrowed from Tungus and pika- from Evenki, tundra is a Lappish word. Finally bidarka is of Siberian origin. 
 

      2.1.4. SUBCATIGORIES OF NOUNS

      Among the above-mentioned words there are both proper nouns and common nouns. Proper nouns are the following: Bolshevik, Comintern, Doukhobor, Komsomol, Leninism, Menshevik and Samoyed. All other words are common nouns.

      Moreover, among common nouns there are words that are derived from personal names : Kalashnikov, paulownia, samarskite, stishovite and theremin.

      For instance, Kalashnikov is the name of an assault rifle. This word is derived from the name of Michail Timofeevich Kalashnikov (born 1919), Soviet arms engineer. Paulownia is a tree name and it originates from the name of the Russian princess Anna Pavlovna who died in 1865. Rare-earth metals with niobium and tantalum oxide are called samarskite after Col. M. von Samarski, a 19th-century Russian mining official. The lexeme stishovite denotes ‘a dense tetragonal polymorph of quartz that is formed under great pressure and is often associated with meteoroid impact’. Stishovite originates from the name of Sergei Mikhailovich Stishov (born 1937), a Russian mineralogist. An electronic musical instrument is called theremin after Lev Theremin born 1896 Russian engineer & inventor.  
 

      2.1.5. FOLK ETYMOLOGY

      As mentioned, seecatch originates from the Russian sekach, from sech’, to cut. Interestingly, the change of the form of seecatch might occur because of the folk etymology. This means that the English speakers might take this word for the combination of the English words see+catch. 
 

      2.1.6. MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE RUSSIAN BORROWINGS

      From the examples above it is apparent that the majority of the Russian borrowings have the most usual English noun ending –s in the plural. However, some words have two plural forms: the English-s ending and the Russian plural ending -i/y. For example: Bolsheviki/Bolsheviks, kolkhozy/kolkhozes, Mensheviki/

      Mensheviks, oblasti/oblasts, polynyi/polynyas, sovkhozy/ sovkhozes. Interestingly some words are used only with the Russian-i/y ending in the plural. For example, the term starets has the form startsy in the plural. The plural form of the lexeme seecatch is seecatchie and apparently this -ie ending originates from the Russian plural ending-i. The lexeme sastruga has also the Russian ending in the plural:sastrugi. Surprisingly the word blin has two plural forms: blini and blinis. In the latter case the English plural -s ending is added to the Russian plural ending -i. 
 

      2.1.7. ORTHOGRAPHIC FEATURES OF RUSSIAN LOAN WORDS

      The spelling of the majority of the Russian words is standardised in English. However, there are some cases where the same word is spelled in two different ways. For example, boyar/boyard, droshky/drosky, kopeck/kopek, pirozkipiroshki. podzol/podsol, ruble/rouble, Samoyed/Samoyede, tovarich/tovarish, sastru-ga/zastruga. 
 

      2.1.8. THEMATIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE RUSSIAN BORROWINGS

      The Russian borrowings analyzed above can be divided into a variety of thematic groups:

      Political terms: agitprop, Bolshevik, Comintern, glasnost, Komsomol, Menshevik, perestroika, Politburo. Ideological term: Leninism.

      Words denoting government and administration: gulag, oblast, soviet, zemstvo.

      Words denoting social strata: nobility: boyar/boyard; lower social strata: muzhik. Religious terms: Doukhobor, starets. Honorific term: tovarich.

      The names of animals: beluga, borzoi, kolinsky, mammoth, Samoyed seecatch, sterlet.

      The names of food and drink: blin/blini, kasha, pierogy/pirozhki, kefir, kvass, vodka.

      Words denoting: natural phenomena: sastruga, polynya; substances: gley, mineral: stishovite.

      Names of soils: chernozem, podzol, sierozem.

      Geographic term: taiga.

      Transport names: droshky, troika.

      Monetary terms: kopeck, ruble.

      Weight and length measures: pood, verst.

      The names of the musical instruments: balalaika, theremin.

      Words denoting farming: kolkhoz, sovkhoz.

      Words denoting clothing: galyak; and mateiral: crash. 

      Moreover, the word sputnik is connected to the exploration of cosmos and Kalashnikov is a name of a weapon.

      Samisdat is a literary term and samarskite is a metal name.

      Among Russian borrowings there is a term denoting a game: bridge and a kinship term: babushka.

      Paulownia is a plant name, samovar is a utensil and dacha is a building.

      Thus Russian borrowings belong to different thematic groups, which can be explained by the fact that the cultural contacts between the two countries covered various aspects of life.

      In conclusion, among Russian borrowings there are both proper nouns and common nouns and they belong to a variety of thematic groups. Among common nouns there are also words that have been converted from proper nouns. Some terms of foreign origin were also borrowed from Russian into English. The majority of the Russian nouns have the same inflections in English as other English nouns. Nevertheless there are also such words that have both Russian and English plural endings. There are a few words that have only Russian plural endings. Some Russian loan words have two different spelling forms. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

      2.2. THE MEANING CHANGES OF THE RUSSIAN RORROWINGS

      Some Russian loanwords analyzed in the second chapter have extended their meanings in English. For example, the word agitprop has the general meaning ‘political propaganda promulgated chiefly in literature, drama, music, or art’. Nevertheless it is apparent that initially this word was used only in connection to the soviet political propaganda. Now it seems to be applicable to political propaganda in other places. Ex.:

      Here’s the agitprop intent of this terror “propaganda by deed” followed by video replay: “The World Trade Center was terror en masse, our ‘execution’ of Mr. Pearl is terror in the particular (Bay, http://www.strategypage.com/onpoint-/articles/20020227.asp).

      There is also another Russian loanword gulag that has undergone a similar extention of meaning. In Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary the following meaning of this word is registered: ‘the penal system of the U.S.S.R. consisting of a network of labor camps’. At the same time this word seems also to be applicable to the penal systems of other countries. Ex.:

      Private prison companies, from 1983-1994 represent one of the biggest growth industries in America. The growth curve for the American Gulag looks remarkably like the graph for the growth of derivatives, and not without reason (David http://www.pdxnorml.org/GULAG.html).

      It should be mentioned that these words denote phenomena of the Soviet period. Because of the confrontation during the Cold War, people in western countries had negative attitudes towards different Soviet phenomena. In my view, the meaning extension of these words is caused by the negative attitudes of the English speakers to these phenomena and the transfer of the negative features ascribed to these phenomena to other things they dislike. These terms have negative nuances of meaning in English. For instance, agitprop seems not to be applicable to any other kind of political propaganda, but only to aggressive political propaganda. It can also be guessed that Gulag can be applicable to a very severe penal system, but it is not a suitable term for those penal systems whose function is considered to be the rehabilitation of the prisoners. In my view, the new meanings of these words are based on the evaluative similarity between the Soviet phenomena mentioned and other disliked things.

      At this point another word denoting a Soviet phenomenon should be discussed. The definition of the word samizdat is ‘a system in the U.S.S.R. and countries within its orbit by which government-suppressed literature was clandestinely printed and distributed; also: such literature’. Nevertheless, samizdat starts to get a general meaning, ‘a government-critical literature’:

      Post-Sept. 11 samizdat ranges from interviews with Noam Chomsky to essays by Indian novelist Arundhati Roy to frontline dispatches by Robert Fisk of the London Independent (Cohen, http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1130-10.htm).

      It may be assumed that behind this generalization of the meaning lies the similarity of the content of the two phenomena.

      The word mammoth is an animal name. In the second chapter of this essay it was mentioned that mammoth also has the meaning ‘of great size’ and some examples of the use of this word were given. This meaning of mammoth is unknown in Russian. This meaning change can be explained by the fact that mammoth is a large animal and therefore things of big size are called mammoth. The ground for this metaphorical meaning is similarity of size.

      The word babushka has two meanings in Russian: ‘grandmother’ and ‘old woman’. However, this word developed a new meaning in English: a ‘a usually triangularly folded kerchief for the head’; b : ‘a head covering resembling a babushka’. It is known that old Russian women wear triangularly folded shawls and because of this a certain triangularly folded kerchief got the name babushka in English. In addition a certain head covering resembling old women’s head covering has also the same name. The ground for such a metaphor is similarity of form.

      It must be mentioned that the well- known doll called matreshka in Russian has the name Babushka in English. Ex.:

      Feel Like a Babushka Doll

      (Madhur, http://www.indianest.com/poetry/2002b-/0994.htm)

      Apparently, the reason why Russian dolls got the name babushka is that these dolls have a head covering resembling the head covering of old Russian women. Thus this metaphor is also based on similarity of form.

      According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary the word tovarich has the meaning ‘comrade’. At the same time there is also a cocktail with the same name: TOVARICH COCKTAIL

      Cocktails

      1 1/2 oz. (4.5 cl)

      Vodka 3/4 oz. (22.5 ml) Kümmel

      Juice of 1/2 Lime (Tovarich Cocktail.

      http://www.barfliers.com/drinks/VIEW/2006/Tovarich%20Cocktail/).

      Apparently the coctail got such a Russian name because of the fact that the main ingredience of it is vodka – a Russian product.

      The original meaning of the word kasha is ‘a porridge made of grain or groats’. However, this word got a new additional meaning in English ‘kasha grain before cooking’. In the second chapter one example of the use of kasha in this meaning was given. Thus grain is an ingredient necessary for making kasha and therefore in this case the meaning extension is based on metonymy.

      Russian borrowings have developed their meanings in English in a variety of ways in accordance with the rules of the semantic system of English. The result of the analyses of the semantic development of the Russian borrowings is contrary to the opinion that they only denote Russian phenomena and that they are not naturalized.

      The reason why some linguists believe them not to be naturalized is that there is a lack of thorough research on the Russian borrowings and their development in English. Therefore new research on the development of the Russian borrowings is needed. 
 
 
 
 

      CONCLUSIONS

      Permanent diplomatic and cultural contacts between Russia and England were established in the 16th century. The visits of the different ambassadors and trades-men to Russia were depicted in the works of various English authors. In this way the English got knowledge of Russia and its culture. In addition, for a long time an exchange of ideas has taken place. Russia imported many skilled English specialists and the works of some Russian authors were known in England. Cultural contacts between the two countries included art, science, literature etc. After the October Revolution many Russians immigrated to England and they published their newspapers and magazines there. As a result of these cultural contacts many Russian words were borrowed into English.

      All Russian words chosen for analysis from the two dictionaries are nouns. Among them there are both proper and common nouns. There are also some common nouns that converted from proper nouns. The majority of the nouns analyzed have -s as the plural suffix just like most English nouns. However, there are also nouns that have two endings: the Russian -i/y ending and the English -s ending. Some words have only the Russian plural ending. Among words borrowed from Russian there are also terms which originally belonged to other languages. Russian borrowings belong to a variety of the thematic groups, which can be explained by the fact that contacts between the two countries covered various aspects of life.