Russianism
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Russianism, Russism, or Russicism is an influence of Russian language on other languages. In particular, Russianisms are Russian or russified words, expressions, or grammar constructs used in Slavic languages, languages of CIS states and languages of the Russian Federation.
However, the scope of the Russian language influence is wider. For example, in Italian language Russisms rank fifth and sixth after Anglicisms, Gallicisms, Germanisms, Hispanisms, and Arabisms ([1], p. 11 ). The difference between russianisms (russisms) in, say, the Italian language and the Ukrainian language is that in Italian Russisms stay for original Russian notions which did not exist in Italian and thus, Italian had to loan such words to describe Russian reality, whilst Ukrainian uses Russianisms to replace existing Ukrainian words, which describe Ukrainian reality.[citation needed]
[edit] Russianisms and Russification
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In countries that have long been under the influence of Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and modern Russia, Russianism is a direct result of russification, when native words and expressions were replaced with Russian ones. Russianisms are especially frequent in Ukrainian and Belarusian, as the languages linguistically close to Russian.
Examples of russianisms in Ukrainian would be "часи" (clock) instead of "годинник", "ковьор" (carpet) instead of "килим", "празнувати" (to celebrate) instead of "святкувати", and many other. Examples from Moldavian include "odecolon" and "subotnic".
Depending on speaker's region and social status, his/her use of russianisms may be as high as 50 per cent (the closer to Russia the higher). Use of russianisms results in creation of Russian-Ukrainian or Russian-Belarusian pidgins (called surzhyk and trasianka accordingly).
Even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, russianisms are still penetrating into national languages due to Russia's cultural and linguistical influence in post-Soviet states (via media, trade, politics etc.).
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ *Maria Nicolai. Dizionario delle parole russe che si incontrano in italiano. Biblioteca di cultura. Roma: Bulzoni Editore, 2003. 529 pp
- Mansvetova E.N. On the problem of semantic differentiation of Slavisms and Russism // Research on semantics. - Ufa, 1980. - pp. 20-30.
- Jovan Ajdukovic, Russisms in Serbo-Croatian Dictionaries. Principles of Adaptation. Dictionary, Foto futura, Beograd, 1997, 331 (Abstract)
- Jovan Ajdukovic, "An Introduction to Lexical Contact: The Theory of the Adaptation of Russisms In South and West Slavic Languages", 2004
