EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION

2022-2023 FALL SEMESTER

ELTE224- Language and Society

Assignment (15%)

SUBMITTED BY:

ILIYA URAZOVA 19700015

SUBMITTED TO:

PROF. DR. Necdet Osam

Topic: Foreign borrowings in Russian language in terms of sociolinguistic.

Abstract: Russian language has borrowed a lot of words from other languages such as English, French,
German and Turkish. It is important to know that the most of the words came from these languages to
Russia under different social and cultural circumstances. However, practically all loan words were changed
lexically and morphologically for better adaptability. These borrowings helped a lot to make Russian richer
and connect it with the outer world. However, it has own advantages and disadvantages of foreign
borrowings for the mother tongue.

Introduction: Language considers as a “living organism” that always “grows” in terms of sociolinguistic not
only by internal changes, but also by taking some aspects of other languages such as vocabulary. Although, I
believe that borrowing words is a good way to enrich a language, but also it is important to keep language
clean. What is the most interesting fact about Russian language is that it is not only open to new loan
words, but also is able to create its own by changing morphologically already existing word. In this way,
Russian is a really flexible language for borrowing. Besides, it has a long history of growth and borrowings
that made language one of the richest nowadays.

1. Reasons for foreign borrowings in Russian.

According to Richard Nordquist, in linguistics, borrowing (also known as lexical borrowing) is a process by
which a word from one language is adopted for use in another. As it can be seen, the most of the words that
came from other languages changed a bit to make it possible to adapt it in Russian. There are two main
factors for borrowing a word such as external factor and to replace a long descriptive definition by a single
word definition. The first one that is external factor refers to strong political, economic, and cultural
relationships between people. For example, Russia has a long controversy relationship with French and
Germany that full of conflicts and truce before that lead to borrowing a lot of words from them to be able
to communicate. There are some loan words that were borrowed in a peace time such as: фейверк
(Feuerwerk)(Havai Fişek)( ярмарка(Jahrmarkt)( Adil), стул (Stuhl)(Sandalye), бутерброд (Belegtes Brot)
( sandwich). As a result of Russian interest in the German military system the following military terms were
adapted: аксельбанты (Achselschnur)( aiguilletler), хаупвахта (Haupwache) (umut evi). In addition,
interlinguistic and external factors are connected with each other that leads apppearing to similar in
meaning, but not always synonyms words such as репортаж ( report), сообщение ( message), тотальный
( total). Another interlinquistic way of borrowing was to replace a long descriptive definition by a single
word definition. For example, Russia has a lot of loan words from English, French, and German that were
used as a term for some things. That could be a single word from English that is «sniper» that replace a
collocation in Russian of the same meaning « мелкий стрелок». The other word that is from America «
motel» that consists of tree words in Russian « гостиница для автотуристов». As it can be seen, foreign
borrowings have a good impact on Russian language too by shortening some words. And the last reason for
borrowing in my opinion is a technological progress. Nowadays, the world around us is in constant change
where a great number of new things discovers thanks to technology. As it appeared that the first computer
and other technological tools were invented by United Kingdom and America, the right to name it creatin
was on them. In this way, I would say that it was necessary borrowing of some terms of these inventions
that became global : computer, internet, online etc. As it can be seen, there are a lot of reasons for
borrowing in Russian language that came from mostly necessity to communicate with outer word and be in

touch with it.

Appendix 1: There are some English words that integrated smoothly in Russian language. It is a questioner
where Russians answer if they know a loan word or not. As we can see, the most Russians are fully aware of
foreign borrowings that shows a good adaptability. For example, everyone knows the word « loser",»Lol",
and «Hot dog".

2. Foreign borrowings adaptation into Russian language.

language itself need to be able to adapt foreign words into own language by changing them a bit lexical or
morphologically. As I mentioned before, the foreign word cam be adapted by adding some Russian endings
or suffixes that makes it almost as a Russian word. I will mention three main types of loan words' adaptation
in Russian language such as words that lost personal identification of its foreign origin, words that keep
certain external features of non-Russian origins and global words. The first category are words such as
кровать ( bed), картина ( picture ), стул ( chair). The second one is when loan words integrated so well that
became almost Russian. For example, as I said before it is mostly morphological change of the word with
help of suffixes and endings that are added to a foreign word. For example, the word «техникум» means
«technical school» on English that was created with adding Russian ending «ум». And the last one is global
words or scientific terminology that adapted fully without any external or internal changes. I believe that
popular words such as computer, internet, cafe, telephone adopt well around the world because there is no
other definitions for them. In this way, loan words mostly adapts in three ways in Russian language: external
changes, internal changes and global words or term that have no changes. I think that some code-switching
is possible when loan words integrate into Russian language in terms of sociolinguistic. For instance, person
may use a foreign word in native language if there is no other synonyms in own language or as a
slang/terminology: « У вас здесь есть Wi-Fi?» ( Do you have Wi-Fi here?). I noticed recently that teenagers
borrowed a great number of words from English language that might be because of its increasing popularity
in Russia and Kazakhstan. There are such slang words as «cringe», «cool", «bro" and many others that

became the part of the Russian teenage language now.

Appendix 2: Loan words in English are similar with loan word in Russian from other countries.

Appendix 3: Russian suffixes and endings for foreign words adaptation.

3. Turkish loan words in Russian.

Russian language is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the
Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe. On the other hand, Turkish language is Altaik
branch of languages that is spoken over 90 million people worldwide. As it can be noticed, they are both are
ancient languages that have almost nothing in common. However, there are some historical circumstances
that lead to borrowing words from both of the languages, but especially Russian. Russian language adapts
or excludes loanwords imposed by dominant language. For instance, there are two ways of Turkish loan
words adaptation in Russian such as regular and irregular. The regular adaptation is when Turkish phonemes
are similar to Russian phonemes. As a result, a Russian-Turkish bilingual is able to pronoun the Turkish
loanwords correctly due to the language contact (appendix 4). So, Turkish words were adapted within pre-
adaptation within morphological and phonological systems. In some cases, irregular adaptation might be
occurred indicated. For example, the following Turkish phoneme m>м, а> а, k > к can be regularly adapted
by the Russian phonological system. Otherwise, irregular adaptation can be called as an assimilation that is
the process of changing the adapted word. As I mentioned above, Russian language may add suffixes or
ending to the foreign word to make it sounds more native (Appendix 5). So, even the Russian language as
well as Turkish language are completely different languages, they are able to cooperate and borrow words
from each other. I think of it as a great opportunity to know better each other regarding society and
language. Turkish borrowing in Russian is also has many reasons such as historical, social and cultural
events. For example, Russian borrowed a significant amount of words from Turkish during Ottoman period
that shows how dominant culture by that time may affect another language. There are loan words: üzüm,
dombra, hurma, orda, tuman. All of the are used in Russian language as a native word because of the long
past borrowings. Besides, I as a Russian speaker also borrowed some Turkish words in my daily conversation
that help me to communicate better with Turkish people. For example, there are some basic Turkish words
and phrases such as tamam, teşekkürler, merhaba, nasılsınız and many others Sometimes I use it even
when I speak with Russian speaker as well that might consider as a code-switching. Due to the fact that
North Cyprus is mostly consists of Turkish and Cypriot population, foreign cultures are usually try to adapt

to the language and borrow some words.

Appendix 4: Regular adaptation of Turkish words in Russian language.

Appendix 5: Irregular adaptation of Turkish words in Russian language.

4. Disadvantages and advantages of foreign borrowings in Russian language.

I believe that foreign borrowings has mostly positive effect on Russian language. Sometimes language does
not posses all the words necessary for it and capture all its experience. At such times, it has to borrow
words and expressions from other languages that come in contact with it. There are two main factors that
shows it such as enriching a language and connecting with the other countries. The first one helps language
to grow and develop by borrowing new words and terms from other languages. It increases native language
vocabulary and leads to improvement of language lexically. The vocabulary itself indicates all the events if
society. Lexical borrowing also allows for restoring the history of different people as well as the form of this
relations. The other positive effect is the ability to be connected with other countries by borrowing some
scientific terms or new technologies’ names such as computer, I phone, television, market and many others.
In historical linguistic lexical borrowing help the evaluation of modern languages and indicate cultural
contact between distinct linguistic groups. In this way, borrowing in Russian helps improve relationships
between people from different cultures with help of language. On the other hand, borrowing language
leads to a huge disadvantage such as loosing ancestral language. In sociolinguistic it calls assimilation.
People may forget own language step by step or adapt native language completely. For instance, the
example of negative foreign borrowing can be total language shift from one language to another. It ends by
losing the most ancestral language as well as culture and traditions of the nation. Kazakhstan can be an
example of code-switching or total language shift in some regions where Russian is a dominant language
due to some historical events. The result of it is total assimilation to a new language and forgetting a new
language in few generations. For instance, I speak Russian and consider it as my native language despite the
fact that I am Kazakh. I think that it may consider as a negative effect of foreign borrowing in the past by my
ancestors.
Conclusion: To sum up, I think that foreign borrowings in Russian language has a long history of
communication and adaptation. The most important reason of using foreign words were political and
cultural aspect of the country and its communication with outer word in the past. However, Russian
language continues grow and borrow even more words nowadays thanks to technological progress. Russian
language is highly adaptive and is able to borrow any words from other cultures and makes its own. It has a
long history of communication with Turkish language not only because of some historical periods as
Ottoman time, but also due to its neighbors who are also relates to Turk’s nation such as Kazakhs, Uzbeks,
and Turkmens. Otherwise, there can be a huge problem of frequent foreign borrowings in Russian that is
total assimilation or language shift. In this way, society should keep own language clean and borrow only
unnecessary words such as terminology and other.

References:

1. Word in English: Loanwords

https://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words/loanwords.html#:~:text=Loanwords%20are%20words
%20adopted%20by,language%20into%20their%20native%20language.

2. Is there any relationships between Russian and Turkish languages

https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-relationship-between-the-Russian-and-Turkish-
languages#:~:text=They're%20not%20related%20%E2%80%9Cgenetically,other%20languages%20in%20the
%20area.

3. The role of borrowed words in language development

https://www.ajol.info/index.php/lwati/article/view/160753#:~:text=Sometimes%2C%20however%2C%20a
%20language%20does,expanding%20and%20developing%20the%20language.

4. English borrowings in modern Russian

https://multiurok.ru/files/english-borrowings-in-modern-russian.html