Russianism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

11/07/2016 20:22

Russianism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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]

Contents
1 Classification by Ajdukovi
2 Russianisms and Russification
3 See also
4 Notes
5 References

Classification by Ajdukovi
Jovan Ajdukovi reinterprets and innovates the "theory of transfer" of lexical borrowing (.g., Rudolf
Filipovi 1986, 1990) and introduces the "theory of approximate copying and activation" of contact-lexemes.
In the "theory of transfer", the concept of Russianism (Russism) in lexicographical sources in the broader
sense means (1) an unmotivated or motivated word of Russian origin which has kept a strong formalsemantic connection with the corresponding word in Russian (e.g. Serb. bauka, votka, daa, samizdat,
sputnjik, uravnilovka), (2) an unmotivated or motivated word of Russian origin which has partially or
completely lost its formal-semantic connection with the original Russian word owing to adaptation (e.g.
Serb. blagovremen, iskrenost, istina, pravda, ljubimac, ljubimica, predostroan, predostronost), (3) an
unmotivated or motivated word of non-Russian origin borrowed through Russian (e.g. Serb. agitprop,
agitpropovski, almaz, bandura, aul, kilka, tajga, aj, korsak, jantar, kumis, kaftan, arin) and (4) an
unmotivated or motivated word of Russian or non-Russian origin borrowed into the receiving language
through a transmitter language (e.g. Maced. boljar, kolhoz, sovhoz, kolhozovtina). For example, the
transmitter language in Russian-Macedonian language contacts is Bulgarian or Serbian (Ajdukovic 2004:
94; 340).
In the "theory of approximate copying and activation" (so-called "Ajdukovic's Theory of Contacteme"), the
concept of Russianism (Russism) means a word having one or more "independent contactemes", which have
arisen under the dominant influence of Russian (e.g. Serb. vostok, nervik, knjika, bedstvo, krjak). Jovan
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Ajdukovi introduce the term "contacteme" for the basic unit of contact on each separate level of language.
He distinguish "contact-phoneme", "contact-grapheme", "contacteme in distribution of sounds", "prosodic
contacteme", "derivational contacteme", "morphological contacteme", "semantic contacteme", "syntactic
contacteme", "stylistic contacteme", "contact-lexeme" and "contact-phraseme" (e.g. Serb. ovek u futroli,
Baba Jaga, pali borac, planska privreda, iroke narodne mase, Sve srene porodice lie jedna na drugu,
svaka nesrena porodica nesrena je na svoj nain) (Ajdukovic 2004: 99; 340) (see also Ajdukovic's
Homepage) (http://www.ptt.rs/korisnici/j/o/joralbgd/).

Russianisms and Russification

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 "" (asy, "clock") instead of "" (hodynnyk),
"" (kov'or "carpet") instead of "" (kylym), "" (praznuvaty, "to celebrate") instead of
"" (svjatkuvaty), and many others. Examples from Moldavian include "odecolon" and "subotnic".
Use of russianisms results in creation of Russian-Ukrainian or Russian-Belarusian pidgins (called surzhyk
and trasianka accordingly).

See also
List of English words of Russian origin

Notes
1. Nicolai, p. 11.

References
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) (http://www.ptt.rs/korisnici/j/o/joralbgd/abstract.htm)
Jovan Ajdukovic, "An Introduction to Lexical Contact: The Theory of the Adaptation of Russisms In
South and West Slavic Languages", Foto Futura, Beograd, 2004, 364 pp.
Giorgio Maria Nicolai. Dizionario delle parole russe che si incontrano in italiano (http://findarticles.co
m/p/articles/mi_qa3763/is_200503/ai_n14901094). Biblioteca di cultura. Roma: Bulzoni Editore,
2003. 529 pp.
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