English loanwords in the Russian Language

English Loanwords in Russian

Introduction

Loanwords are words adopted by the speakers of one language from a different language (the source language). A loanword can also be called a borrowing. The abstract noun borrowing refers to the process of speakers adopting words from a source language into their native language.

The Russian government declared 2007 the year of Russian language. Since then the problem of the purity of the Russian has become the national policy of Russia.

That is why the problem has become the topic of our research work and our project work is dedicated to the spread of English words into Russian.

The main aim is to see how much English influences Russian and to try to      foretell whether English and Russian will mix up.

The object of our work is language borrowings as natural process of existing and developing a modern language.

The subject of the work is peculiarities of the borrowing process from English into Russian.

The aims of our project work are:

1. to find out how deeply the English words entered the Russian language

2. to gather information about different sorts of borrowings

3. to attract the attention of teenagers to the universal significance of the English language

4. to stimulate interest in learning English

Hypothesis:

English words are found everywhere: in the media, in the names of the shops, in science and technique. The percentage of its implementation in the Russian language is at least 15%.

  The methods of our research are: magazine and TV program analyzing, exploring the neighbourhood to find out the shop with English names, interviewing classmates to know how often they use English words in every day life, studying the dictionary.

1.Theoretical Footing.

Nowadays due to a rapid development of science and technology English words appear in the Russian language. It’s not a new phenomenon as in the course of history Russian people have been carrying on trade and maintaining social and cultural relations with lots of foreign countries. Vocabulary is the most accessible sphere for different kinds of external impacts, the sphere where all changes are reflected that happen in life of a society.

There are several reasons why borrowings appear:

1. it is necessary to give a name for a new notion or a thing.

2. a new notion should be expressed not by a word combination or a sentence but by one word.

3. social-and-psychological factors. Very often people consider that a foreign word sounds more beautiful and it is more fashionable to use adopted word as it shows that you are well informed about all novelties. [2,187]

There are different causes of language borrowings. 

First, the cause can be connected with a new object or event which doesn’t have the name in the nation’s language. Here are some examples of English borrowings in Russian language (‘принтер’, ‘сканер’, ‘файл’, etc.)

Second, if people are not satisfied with some word in their native language which is the name of some object or event a loan word can replace it and give necessary stylistic effect for more appropriate using of a new word in the recipient language.

Third, the borrowing can be led by the absence of such word in the receiving language. (‘bestseller’ – ‘бестселлер’ (‘лучшая по продаже книга, фильм и т.д.’)

Nowadays the language that influences Russian the most is English. It is unsurprisingly because English has become an international language and is used all over the world. With the help of the Internet and the mass media, especially such channels as MTV, Animal Planet, CNN, and BBC, the number of English slang words are increasing.

Borrowings from English language have come into different spheres of life of Russian people. Businessmen, politicians, sportsmen and many people of other professions face to borrowed words every day.

In the sphere of economics there are such words as ‘бартер’ (barter),  ‘брокер’ (broker), ‘дилер’ (dealer), ‘дистрибьютор’ (distributor), ‘инвестор’ (investor), etc.

In the sphere of computer world we can find different words including new jargonisms such as ‘баг’ (bug), ‘ньюс’ (news), ‘юзер’ (user), ‘гамер’ (gamer),  ‘онлайн’ (on-line), ‘чат’ (chat), ‘чатрум’ (chat room), etc.

English borrowings are met also in the sphere of politics: ‘саммит’ (summit), ‘электорат’ (electorate), ‘брифинг’ (briefing), ‘импичмент’ (impeachment), ‘спичрайтер’ (speechwriter), ‘инаугурация’ (inauguration), etc.

Sport world has taken many English words which are used as names of different kinds of sport becoming famous and popular in our country as well as they are used to name some other aspects of sport life, for example, ‘фристайл’ (free style), ‘ски-стрим’ (ski stream), ‘армрестлинг’ (arm wrestling), ‘овертайм’ (overtime),         ‘плей-офф’ (play off), ‘сёрфинг’ (surfing), ‘скейтборд’ (skateboard)

 ‘файтер’ (fight), etc.

Modern world gives us its rules and many new professions are led by the process of global economical development and international contacts in different spheres of our life. However, not only new professional lexis has appeared in the life of Russian people as loan words from English. We can watch the using of borrowed words in our everyday life. These words are the following:        ‘тостер’ (toaster), ‘термопот’ (phermopot),         ‘миксер’ (mixer), ‘плейер’ (player), ‘шузы’ (shoes), ‘траузеры’ (trousers), ‘гамбургер’ (hamburger), ‘чизбургер’ (cheeseburger), ‘хот дог’ (hot dog), etc.

Analyzing the language of our own town we have become the witnesses of the total use of English borrowed words. There are many shops and clubs, firms and cafes which have full English names or have some parts of the names borrowed from English language: ‘Фэмили’ (clothes shop), ‘Стоун’ (computer firm), ‘Бэби’ (shop for children), ‘Лидер Фуд’ (cafe), ‘Авто’кей’ (automobile shop), ‘Евромаркет’ (trade center), ‘Фитнес клуб Лайт’ (fitness club), ‘Глория Джинс’ (clothes shop), ‘Хорс’ (food shop), ‘ БиЛайн’ (mobile service), ‘Инсайдер’ (computer firm), ‘М-Лайн’ (firm); ‘Секонд хэнд’ (clothes shop)…These names are the result of transliteration.

There are also some examples of original using of borrowed English words in different names seen in the streets of our town. They are ‘For Men’ (clothes shop for men), ‘Fast Food’ (café of fast food), etc.

This event demonstrates common using of these borrowings by Russian people.

However, not only our streets are full of English borrowings but also magazines and newspapers and even examples of modern literature pieces such as  «Духless» (by Oleg MInayev), «Про любоff /on»  (by Oksana Robski), «Casual» (by Oksana Robski).

The using of such language means gives  some stylistic effects to the names of the literature pieces and helps to understand their plot.

English is usually considered as a language that can be easily learnt and this way understood. More and more people, both youth and grown-ups, use these words in their speech. These words are used in all sorts of activities: politics, fashion, trade, medicine, law, military, mass media, sports.

2. English borrowings on TV

Mass Media is a source of a big number of foreign words.
We can see and hear a lot of English words on TV

The biggest part of borrowings comes from:

• the names of some channels

• new kinds of programs invented in the USA and the UK

• new types of films

• sports programs

• music programs

The titles of some channels contain English letters or words. For example: Euro sport, National Geographic channel, Mtv, Kino club, Kino hit, Animal planet, A-one, KidsCo  TV.

A lot of English borrowings dedicated to different kinds of sports have come into Russian language .It is possible to explain it because many sports were originated in England. So on channels Sport and Russia 2 we often hear such words as: Football/Match/Football boots, Surfing/Windsurfing/ Kite surfing/Skim board , Bodybuilding/ Power lifting , Basketball/block , Snowboard/Free ride/ Backcountry , Box/Knockout/ Kickboxing/Mix fight. There are a lot of other kinds of sport: volleyball, tennis, auto sport, motorsport, baseball, skateboarding, Aerobic, Gymnastic, Break dance, arm sport, badminton, bobsleigh, bowling, BMX, darts, golf, curling, paintball, Rafting, squash, hockey, cheerleading and so on.

I have followed as an example two channels MTV and TNT which names of programs are English borrowings and it is brightly expressed.

From MTV we know such programs as Trendy, America’s next top model, News block, Dance chart, Europe Music Awards, Hit-parade, Freak and Chic.

From TNT we know: Comedy club, Comedy woman, Cosmopolitan video version, Interns, Nasha Russia.

There are uncountable quantity of English words that we hear on TV. I want to repeat  just few of them which I often hear: TV, show, teenager, model, musical, show business, celebrity, style, fashion, trend, top, super, weekend, test-drive, up-grade, jazz, hip-hop, rap, pop, rock’n’roll, cover, PR-manager, battle, freestyle, casting, comment, Hollywood, designer, track, boyfriend, price-list, exclusive.

I have been watching each of this 10 channels(MTV, TNT,1, Russia 1, Russia 2, STS, NTV, Muz-TV, DTV, TV-3) for half an hour and counted how many English borrowings were told there. I did not include any advertisement. Then I made this diagram. As you see  youth commercial music channels are in the lead.(Mtv and Muz-TV)

According to this we can say that English words influence teenagers and their speech is full of English words.

3. English borrowings in the names of the shops and some goods

Vocabulary of a language is changing constantly. This mobility is directly related to social activities of people. Trade is one of the oldest methods of language exchange

     Borrowings have always come to the language through a variety of goods trade. And today, new products bring its contribution to linguistic borrowing

There are a lot of sources of borrowings. Among them I can name

• Names of the stores

• Product names

• household appliances

• the names of cafes and restaurants

Every day people go shopping and find English words everywhere. Firstly, I would like to highlight the names of the stores in our area in the title of which there are some English words and letters. 

Every day people go shopping to buy different goods and the names of these items, written by a bright bold are well-remembered by consumers

• We buy food every day and see the words Coca-Cola, Drinks ,Sprite ,Bubble Gum, Ice-Tea, Sandwich, Cracker, Earl Grey, Lipton, Whisky, Nuts, Snickers, Picnic, Mars, Bounty, Red Bull, Effect, beefsteak,  grapefruit, Juice ,Juicy fruit and others

• Food for pets also brings its contribution to the borrowing of words: Pedigree, Whiskas, Puppy, Parrot, Royal Canine and others

• Household appliances and computer equipment have given us Cannon, Flash, Computer, Notebook, Monitor, Video, Game, Media, Mixer, Toaster, Shaker and others

• the names of many brands have become a part of our speech: Topshop, Topman, Stone Island, Polo and others

• Borrowings have come into fashion and become the names of cafes and restaurants

4. We have asked the pupils of our school some questions on the topic English borrowings:

1.How often do you use English words in your speech?

1. Often

2. Sometimes

3. Do not use

2. Examples of English words in your speech

3. Where do you learn these words?

1. TV

2. Magazines

3. Stores

4. Friends

The results

The words in the speech of the pupils

Output

  We have analyzed    some TV programs,     some newspapers, magazines,   the names of the shops in our area, vocabulary of our classmates to find out how deeply English borrowings have come into Russian.

According to these research works we can see that modern Russian language can be hardly imagined without English words.

Our first hypothesis is not right. The percentage of English slang words is quite small- only 1-2%.The main sources of borrowings: trade, Mass Media, science.

The main sources of English borrowings are TV, Magazines, Stores, Friends.

 Having analyzed the results of the sociological research we can make some conclusions.

1. 90% of respondents state that they use English borrowings very often even if they know some Russian equivalents of these words. That means that there are many words which have adapted to the norms of Russian.

2. The students understand that Russian borrowings in English are mostly words connected with Russian national culture and traditions.

Despite everything we know that the process of language borrowings is constant and natural which can’t be stopped by anybody.

Certainly we can say about both positive and negative points of this process.

Many people are worried today about the fact of total “americanization” of Russian language which can lead to losing of many Russian words.

On the other hand this enriches the language with new words which reflect the new reality.

Of course there is a great distance from Russian to English and from English to Russian but realization of how many words there are in common between Russian and English can offer us a “bridge” to the new language the language of mutual understanding.

 We should preserve our language using Russian equivalents for the words and developing Russian trade, politics, science and culture.

Sources:

1. Krysin L.P. Foreign words in modern life. // Russian language in the end of the 20th century. — М., 1996. Р. 53-187 (in Russian))

2. Krongauz M.A. Russian language on the brink of nervous breakdown // Znak, Yazyki slavianskih cultur [The languages of Slavic cultures], 2007. P 41(in Russian)

3. http://nsportal.ru/Исследовательский лингво-страноведческий проект "Language Borrowings: Pros and Cons"

4. internet free sources.