| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Okay, not needed. The Russians approved the ban on unnecessary foreign language statements |
| 2023-02-15 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Aleksandr Tishchenko [REGNUM] Most Russians were in favor of officials not overloading their speeches with foreign words. This was shown by a poll of the FOM, conducted in the wake of the decision of the State Duma. The majority of Russians (65%) approve of the idea of a legislative ban on officials using foreign borrowings in speeches if they have a full-fledged replacement in Russian. This is evidenced by a survey conducted by the FOM in the last days of January and whose results were published at the end of last week. 18% of fellow citizens do not support the idea of such a ban, another 17% of respondents find it difficult to decide on an answer. On December 13 last year, the State Duma adopted in the first reading a government bill, which says that the use of foreign words is inadmissible, with the exception of those that do not have commonly used replacements in Russian. This applies to cases of using the Russian language as the state language, Interfax clarifies . Most of the respondents reported that in general they had a negative attitude towards foreign borrowings. But about 28% said that the Russian language, on the contrary, is enriched by such words. In the list of the most unpleasant foreign words for Russians, “ok” is in the first place (only from 6%). By the way, OK is the most common word on the planet, according to the Global Language Monitor association . And, according to Russian philologists, it has come into use since at least the 1970s. Further, in the FOM survey, “all youth slang” follows (3% each). 1% each scored “business slang”, as well as the words “shopping”, “shop”, “boutique”, “cashback”, “wow”, “krinzh”, “hype”, “manager”, “fake”, “ hello, goodbye and rofl. A few modern jargons perhaps need clarification. “Krinzh” can be “translated” as something related to a sense of shame, “ruffling” is something between “joking” and “joking viciously”. The more well-known "hype" is just a hype or, to use a borrowed word from French, a hype. Krinzh == cringe A wary and negative attitude is characteristic mainly of the older generation, and the older the Russians, the more intolerant they are of foreign borrowings in the language. On the other hand, the respondents aged 18-30 mostly approve of borrowing and believe that they enrich the language. It seems that this is also the case with answers to the question of whether the use of foreign words in Russian by others causes irritation. Young survey participants in the majority (68%) say they do not experience irritation. People older than 31 are more likely to say that “it happens”. In the older group of respondents, irritation already prevails. The authors of the FOM study drew attention not only to age differences, but also to where respondents prefer to get information from. “The use of foreign words in the media does not irritate 51% of Russians who read news on the Internet (sometimes it causes 45% of the Internet audience), and among respondents who prefer traditional media, 61% are irritated from time to time (32% are more likely not irritated). are being tested)," the Public Opinion Foundation said in a statement. For decades, Russia has been developing as a state that has partially lost its independence, and the Russian elite, including the creative one, switched to the language of the “big brother,” writer and public figure Yuri Polyakov noted in an interview with REGNUM news agency. "In this case, it is the American version of English. From here all these endless “car sharing” appeared, although we have a wonderful word “rental," says Polyakov. Although, on the other hand, "car sharing," which recently came into the language, replaced two words - “car rental”. Yuri Polyakov recalled foreign borrowings that logically entered the language, such as a computer "click". "But still, the number of unreasonable borrowings is off scale, and, of course, this issue needs to be dealt with. At the same time, there are also tracing papers - for example, “panel discussion”, a literal translation of the English panel discussion, which simply means “round table," Polyakov pointed out. A law that would introduce foreign borrowing within a certain framework is really needed, the interlocutor believes. “It is necessary to create, for example, an interdepartmental language center that will monitor unnecessary borrowings or confirm their necessity, which will give permission and advise, for example, when registering the names of new companies,” Polyakov believes . At the same time, he urged not to turn the law into a tool for a "witch hunt", because "many people think that borrowing can be dispensed with." "It is impossible to do without them, but it is possible and necessary to do without unnecessary and stupid borrowings,” the writer noted. However, he clarified, it is not only about borrowed "shops", but also about the incorrect use of primordially Russian words. "There is also an illiterate use of the Russian language - for example, the word “settlement”, which in Russian has always been associated with deprivation of liberty and which is used as a territorial-administrative unit,” Polyakov noted. It is unlikely that the language requires legislative protection from foreign excesses - it gets rid of them on its own, in a natural way, a teacher of Russian language and literature at the Moscow school named after V.I. F. M. Dostoevsky Sergey Valyugin , head of the organizing committee of the international competition "Dostoevsky Readings". Foreign borrowing, if appropriate and done in moderation, has its own advantages - in particular, the convenience of their use. Most often, borrowed words are shorter, which means they simplify and speed up communication, "Some words, such as, for example, the names of certain equipment - “iPhone”, “iPad”, remain, because the language “understands” that using these words is easier and shorter than using any other word,” Valyugin noted . It can be added that often the Russian language adapts to its needs not even a foreign technical term, but the name of a particular brand, turning a proper name into a common noun. So, for some time the word "copier" replaced the longer "copier" (an adjective and a noun also of foreign origin). Short loanwords are sometimes used to replace a whole expression. For example, tracing paper from English - "fake" - in the meaning of "widespread disseminated false message." The Anglicism "fake" can be replaced by the more traditional Latinism "disinformation" (although this will not be entirely accurate, because "disinformation is being launched" deliberately, and "posting a fake" can be done by accident). Valyugin gave an example of how an "alien" word begins to change when it enters the environment of the Russian language. "The word “umbrella” is borrowed and came from the Dutch language," the interlocutor recalled. The Dutch word zondek is made up of two words - zon (sun) and dek (approximately meaning "protection"). But the Russian language "recognized" the final element "ik" in the word "umbrella" as a diminutive suffix - like "cat". And so the “serious” word “umbrella” appeared, which is not in Dutch, but is in Russian. "Language takes some foreign words, which it begins to transform and create new, own words on their basis," Valyugin noted. Let us add that, in a similar way, foreign borrowings originally entered the Russian language: from Varangian (for example, the word "sneak" - presumably from the Old Norse embaetti - "service") and Byzantine-Greek (not only "grammar" and "mathematics", but and “lime” and “bench”) up to the Americanisms of the 20th century - like the word “computer”, which by the 1980s replaced the Soviet abbreviation “EVM”. Those words that remain in the language for a long period of time are words that the language itself accepts, and thus its development takes place, Valyugin noted. "At the same time, you need to understand that part of the youth slang that is used by young people in everyday life does not remain in the language, and if we look at the words that young people used in past years, we will see that now they are practically not used," said Valyugin. So the same "krinzh" or "experience" in a generation may end up in the same place as "shoes" or "girl" - in dissertations on the youth jargon of a certain era. Certain words that at some point came into general use "mark" a specific historical moment - for example, "putana" or "mafia" (as a synonym for any organized crime) are associated with the last years of perestroika or with the beginning of the 1990s, but from living speech, perhaps, they left. Many current language innovations cause irritation among the older generation and acceptance among people born in the 1980s-2000s. "There can be misunderstandings between generations because too many foreign words can be incomprehensible to older people. Thus, certain generational gaps arise," Valyugin points out. It is also annoying that borrowing can be redundant, the interlocutor notes. Indeed, "research" instead of "research" is not always justified. The author doesn't address the issue of commonly used idioms and how they have been transformed by the Internet. Or of portmanteaus, which Russian love to aggregate, and quite often. It will be interesting how the language evolves as the law takes hold. From a native English speaker, it should be noted, as is peculiar with all languages, is how Russians may have a word for something that is Russian, originally Russian, but it means something different. For example, I learned the term for "It's time" to Пора, which can be broken down into two different root words. I heard a different way to express it in a recent film. Meaning's is the same, but it is not the same. Would the younger Russian generation understand it? Valyugin recalled the principle of "everything is good in moderation." “If we take and start replacing all words with native Russian ones, or if we start replacing all Russian words with borrowed ones, there will be no benefit in either case. Everything needs harmony, as Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, the creator of the modern Russian literary language , said . February 14, 2023 |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #3 The people who should be most conscious of what schadenfreude means are the most in the dark. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2023-02-15 12:28 |
| #2 Farfingnugen never caught on, even with a stupidly large ad campaign. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2023-02-15 12:27 |
| #1 One of the great strengths of the English language is the constant inclusion of new words either taken from other languages or slang. If a foreign language word or slang term offers a more efficient way to convey a meaning it should be adopted to make the language more efficient, easier to use and more powerful. It's called evolution. The alternative is to ossify. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2023-02-15 12:22 |