Assimilation of borrowings

CONTENTS

 
Introduction

Chapter I. Historical Contacts between Russia and Britain 
1.1 Russian Loan Words in English 
1.2 The Lexical Category of the Russian borrowings 
1.3 The Meanings and the Etymological Characteristics of the Borrowings

1.4 Words of Foreign Origin Borrowed from Russian 
1.5 Subcategories of Nouns 
1.6 Folk Etymology 
1.7 Morphological Features of the Russian Borrowings 
1.8 Orthographic Features of the Russian Loan Words 
1.9 Thematic Classification of the Russian Borrowings 
1.10 The Meaning Changes of the Russian Borrowings 
Chapter II. Borrowings as a way of replenishment of the vocabulary. 
1.1 Assimilation of borrowings. 
1.2 Phonetic assimilation. 
1.2 Grammatical assimilation. 
1.4 Lexical assimilation. 
Conclusions 
Bibliography 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

The English vocabulary contains an immense number of words of foreign origin. Words that came to English from other languages and constantly used in it as the original are called borrowings. One of the main way of enlarging the lexical system of the language is represented by borrowings.

The role of borrowings is different in various languages and it depends on certain development conditions. 

The quantity of borrowed words in English is much higher than in other languages.

The English language had more opportunities to borrow words from other languages due to the great history of England that includes various invaders and  
It is calculated that 30% of all English words are native. That’s why a lot of linguists consider that the English language doesn’t belong to the group of Germanic languages but to the Romano-Germanic group. 

It happens very often that a foreign word comes to English and it is borrowed not only with its lexical meaning but also with its grammar form which makes more difficulties for those people who study and speak English. It allows us to speak that the topic of this project is relevant.

The issue of Russian borrowings is very important in terms os sociolinguistics and language interaction development. 

The aim of this project is to study the usage of Russian borrowings in the English language, to analyze what words of Russian origin have been borrowed into English and to study their thematic groups and find out whether they have undergone some morphological and semantic changes in English or not and compare the received results with the above mentioned postulates. 

The main subject of this study is the Russian words borrowed into English. Various linguists mention Russian loanwords in their works. However, many of them are inclined to think that English has borrowed a very restricted number of such terms. For example, in her article Words in English S. Kemmer mentions only seven words borrowed from Russian (Kemmer, http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kem-mer´-/Words/loanwords.html).

The object is the English language itself. Analysing Slavonic words in English Alarik Rynell (1974:41-42) expresses the same opinion and he mentions only eleven words borrowed from Russian. Furthermore, the author draws the conclusion that words from the above-men-tioned languages denote exclusively Slavic phenomena. Moreover, Thomas Pyles and John Algeo (1993:309) claim that some Russian borrowings are known in English but they have not been naturalized. Simeon Potter (1969: 63) admits that because of the closer contacts with Russia in recent years an augmented use of many old Russian terms is observed. However, the author describes only eighteen words of the Russian origin.

Another linguist David Wilton analyses 13 words borrowed from Russian. (Wilton, http://www.-wordorigins.org/loanword.htm).

Thus the majority of the authors mention only a few Russian words borrowed into English.

Even though it is common knowledge that in the new language loan words begin to take inflections and some of them change their meanings, there is no information about the morphological and semantic development of the Russian borrowings in English. 

The object is the English language itself.  
The aim, the subject and the object of this project allow us to state the following research tasks: 

 
1) to analyze the theoretical literature of the topic of the project;  
2) to study the question of borrowing and their role in English;  
3) to study the types of borrowings in the English language;  
4) to study the ways of assimilation of Russian borrowings in English;  
5) to analyze what words of Russian origin have been borrowed into English and to study their thematic groups and find out whether they have undergone some morphological and semantic changes in English or not and compare the received results with the above mentioned postulates. 

 

The investigation was done on the base of two dictionaries: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and The American Heritage Dictionary of the English language. 
It is used the descriptive, comparative, etymologycal and analytical methods in this project. 

The theoretical base of this project is stands on the works of such scientists in the sphere of linguistics as Charles F. Hockett, Alarik Rynell, J. A. Sheard, Otto Jesperson, Mitford M. Mathews, Thomas Pyles and John Algeo and others. 
Structurally, this project consists of the introduction, theoretical and practical parts, conclusion and bibliography. 

In the introduction it was explained the aim, the object, the subject, theoretical base of research, theoretical and practical sigificance, methods of research structure of the work, tasks and the relevancy of the project.  
In the theoretical part the questions of borrowings, types of borrowings and ways of their assimilation were examined. 

The theoretical significance of the work lies in the fact, that the investigation of Russian borrowings and its linguistic aspects contribute for the further development of sociolinguistics theory, Russian studies etc.

The practical part represents the analysis of 59 words of Russian origin from two dictionaries: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and The American Heritage Dictionary of the English language and illustration of their peculiarities by giving examples from different texts. Since the majority of these words were borrowed during various periods of time from the 16th century until now it is difficult to find such examples from one particular source. Therefore we decided to collect them from different Internet sources. 

All main thoughts are set in the conclusion of the project.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter I. HISTORICAL CONTACTS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND BRITAIN

 

According to historians (Ocherki, http://russianculture.ru/brit/brit2.htm) some contacts between Russia and England might have occurred in early periods.

For example, in some British and Russian chronicles there are some vague pieces of information about the presence of two princes from The British Isles at the court of Jaroslav the Wise.

There is also information that in 1074 Gytha – King Harold’s daughter - married the Russian Grand Prince Vladimir Monomakh. King Harold was defeated and killed at Hastings in 1066.

According to these chronicles Gytha gave her first son the double name Mstislav-Harold in honour of the grandfather.  
However, these early contacts were of an occasional character.

Permanent trade and diplomatic relations between the two countries were established only in the middle of the 16th century from the moment when the British navigator Richard Chancellor was given an audience with Ivan IV (The Terrible) in Moscow.

It must be mentioned that in 1553 The English Company of Merchant Adventures for the Discovery of Lands, Territories, Isles, Dominions and Seignories Unknown organized an expedition for the exploration of a possible Northeast Passage to Asia.

Edward Bonaventure was the only ship to survive this expedition and all other ships were devastated by storm in the White Sea. Richard Chancellor was second in command under Sir Hugh Willoughby. However, Hugh Willoughby died during this storm. Chancellor managed to reach a fishing wharf in the mouth of Northern Dvina. His negotiations with the Russian czar paved the way for trade with Russia and the formation of Moscovy Company. 

During the period of his reign czar Ivan IV (The Terrible) invited many skilled British specialists: physicians, chemists and craftsmen. British physicians Robert Jacob, Mark Ridley and Arthur Dee worked at the courtyard of Ivan IV (The Terrible). In the second half of the 16th century British readers derived information about Russia not only from literary works but also from other documentary sources (Ocherki).

For example, the British ambassador A Jenkinson made a geographical map of Russia which was published in London in 1552 .One of the well-known writers of the time, Gilles Fletcher (1548-1611), wrote the tractate Of the Russe Common Wealth.After the October Revolution the interest in Russia increased gradually.

In 1921 Britain was the first European country to commit a trade agreement with USSR and in 1924 England established diplomatic relations with the country.Among famous Russian emigrants of the 1930s Bertold Ljubetkin should be mentioned.

He was an architect and he represented the Russian avant-gardism in England.  At the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century a very large amount of translations of Russian literary books were made.

One of the most successful Russian books translated into English was F. Dostojevsky’s book The Brothers Karamasov.

In the first years after the revolution nearly twenty periodicals about Russia were issued in England. Among them there are such journals as The New Russia, Russian life, The Russian, newspapers: The Russian Outlook, The Russian Gazette, Russian Times,

The Russian Economist etc. The British Russian Gazette reported on the activity of the Russian industrials. In 1923 The Slavonic and East European Review was published in London. 

Thus permanent contacts between Russia and England were established in the middle of the 16th century and they have continued until now. These contacts involve trade, diplomatic and cultural relations.

 

 
 1.1 RUSSIAN LOAN WORDS IN ENGLISH 
1.2 THE LEXICAL CATEGORY OF THE RUSSIAN BORROWINGS

 

All Russian borrowings chosen from dictionaries are nouns. Totally 59 nouns will be analyzed in this chapter and they are the following words: 

 

agitprop, babushka, balalaika, blin, Bolshevik, borzoi, boyar, bridge, chernozem, Comintern, crash, dacha, droshky, Doukhobor, galyak, glasnost, gley, gulag, Kalashnikov, kasha, kefir, kolynsky, kolkhoz, Komsomol, kopeck, kvass, Leninism, mammoth, Menshevik, muzhik, oblast, paulownia, perestroika, piroshki, podzol, politburo, polynia, pood, ruble, samarskite, samisdat, samovar, Samoyed, sastruga, seecatch, sierozem, soviet, sovkhoz, sputnik, starets, stishovite, sterlet, taiga, theremin, tovarich, troika, verst, vodka, zemstvo.

 
 
 1.3 THE MEANINGS AND THE ETYMOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BORROWINGS

 

Main Entry: agitprop Function: noun. Etymology: Russian, from agitatsiya agitation + propaganda. Date: 1935: PROPAGANDA; especially: political propaganda promulgated chiefly in literature, drama, music, or art. agitprop adjective (Merriam-Webster).

Ex.:The greater perversion of capitalist consumption, according to Veblen, was its willingness to waste – a tendency captured in Soviet agitprop as ‘Western decadence.’ (Neil). 

Main Entry: babushka Function: noun Etymology: ‘Russian grandmother’, diminutive of baba old woman. Date: 1938. ^ 1 a: ‘a usually triangularly folded kerchief for the head’ b: ‘a head covering resembling a babushka’; 2: an elderly Russian woman (Merriam-Webster, http://www.mw.com-/home.htm). Ex.: 
How to Tie a Scarf –Babushka. (Goltz) 
…a wonderful, smiling Russian babushka (grandmother) appeared in my doorway with a steaming bowl of Pokhelbka

 

Main Entry: balalaika Function: noun. Etymology: Russian. Date: 1788: a usually 3-stringed instrument of Russian origin with a triangular body played by plucking or strumming (Merriam-Webster).

Ex.: The varied family of Central Asian lutes is a large one, and one of the most popular and best known is the balalaika, with its unique triangular body shape  
(Brown,http://www.larkinam.com/MenComNet/Business/Retail/Larknet/ArtBala-laika).Main Entry: kopeck Variant(s): or kopek Function: noun. Etymology: Russian kopeika. Date: 1698 – see ruble at MONEY table (Merriam- Webster, http://-www.mw.com/home.htm).

Ex.: They were issued in six standard denominations: 10, 25 and 50 kopecks and 1, 5 and 10 roubles.(Hoge, http://www.money.org/sealskin2.html) Main Entry: kvass Function: noun.

Etymology: Russian kvas. Date: circa 1553: ‘a slightly alcoholic beverage of eastern Europe made from fermented mixed cereals and often flavored’ (Merriam- Webster).

 

 

1.4 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. 

 
 1.5 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. Paulowniais 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 samarskiteafter 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. 

 
 
 1.6 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. 

 
 1.7 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 lexemesastruga 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.

 
 
1.8 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. 
 
 1.9 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.

 
 
 1.10 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

 

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  
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.  

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. 

 

 

 Chapter II. BORROWINGS AS A WAY OF REPLENISHMENT OF THE VOCABULARY