Russian language. History of the origin of the Russian language

RUSSIAN LANGUAGE
the language of the Russian people, a means of interethnic communication between the peoples of Russia. Belongs to the eastern group of Slavic languages.
The origins of the Russian language go back to ancient times. Around the 2nd-1st millennium BC. From the group of related dialects of the Indo-European family of languages, the Proto-Slavic language stands out (at a later stage - approximately in the 1st - 7th centuries - called Proto-Slavic). Where the Proto-Slavs and their descendants, the Proto-Slavs, lived is a debatable question. Probably Proto-Slavic tribes in the 2nd half. I century BC and at the beginning of AD occupied lands from the middle reaches of the Dnieper in the east to the upper reaches of the Vistula in the west, south of Pripyat in the north and forest-steppe areas in the south. In the 1st half. I century The pre-Slavic territory expanded sharply. In the VI-VII centuries. The Slavs occupied lands from the Adriatic in the southwest to the upper reaches of the Dnieper and Lake Ilmen in the northeast. The pre-Slavic ethno-linguistic unity collapsed. Three closely related groups were formed: eastern (Old Russian people), western (on the basis of which Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Lusatians, Pomeranian Slavs were formed) and southern (its representatives are Bulgarians, Serbo-Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians).
The East Slavic (Old Russian) language existed from the 7th to the 14th centuries. Its characteristic features: full voice (“crow”, “malt”, “birch”, “iron”); pronunciation of “zh”, “ch” in place of Praslav. dj, tj, kt (“walking”, “candle”, “night”); change of nasal vowels o, e into “u”, “ya”; ending “-т” in 3rd person verbs plural present and future tense; ending “-e” in names with a soft stem to “-a” in the genitive case singular(“earth”); many words not attested in ancient Slavic languages ​​(“bush”, “rainbow”, “milk”, “cat”, “cheap”, “boot”, etc.), and a number of other Russian features. In the 10th century on its basis writing emerges (Cyrillic alphabet, Cyrillic alphabet). Already in Kievan Rus(IX - early XII centuries) the Old Russian language became a means of communication for some Baltic, Finno-Ugric, Turkic, and partly Iranian tribes and nationalities. In the XIV-XVI centuries. the southwestern variety of the literary language of the Eastern Slavs was the language of statehood and the Orthodox Church in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Principality of Moldova.
In the XIII-XIV centuries. part of the Russian people fell under the occupation of the Tatar-Mongol and Polish-Lithuanian conquerors. As a result, unity is destroyed Old Russian language. New ethno-linguistic centers are emerging. The peculiarity of the existence of some parts of the Russian people leads to the emergence of three main dialects of the Russian language, each with its own special history: northern (Northern Great Russian), middle (later Belarusian and southern Great Russian) and southern (Little Russian).
During the era of Muscovite Rus' (XIV-XVII centuries), dialect features continued to develop. Two main dialect zones took shape - the Northern Great Russian (approximately in the north of the line Pskov - Tver - Moscow, south of Nizhny Novgorod) and the Southern Great Russian (in the south from the specified line to the Belarusian and Ukrainian regions) dialects, overlapping with other dialect divisions. Intermediate Central Russian dialects arose, among which the Moscow dialect began to play a leading role. Initially it was mixed, then it developed into a coherent system. The following became characteristic of him: akanye; pronounced reduction of vowels of unstressed syllables; plosive consonant “g”; ending “-ovo”, “-evo” in the genitive case of the singular masculine and neuter in the pronominal declension; hard ending “-t” in 3rd person verbs of the present and future tense; forms of the pronouns “me”, “you”, “yourself” and a number of other phenomena. The Moscow dialect is gradually becoming exemplary and forms the basis of the Russian national literary language. At this time, in living speech, a final restructuring of the categories of time occurs (the ancient past tenses - aorist, imperfect, perfect and plusquaperfect are completely replaced by a unified form with “-l”), the loss of the dual number, the previous declension of nouns according to six stems is replaced modern types declination.
In the XVIII - 1st half. XIX century a national literary language is being created. The language theory and practice of M.V. played a major role here. Lomonosov, the author of the first detailed grammar of the Russian language, who proposed to distribute various speech means depending on the purpose of literary works into high, middle and low styles.
M.V. Lomonosov, V.K. Trediakovsky, D.I. Fonvizin, G.R. Derzhavin, N.M. Karamzin and other Russian writers prepared the ground for the great reform of A.S. Pushkin. The creative genius of Pushkin synthesized into unified system various speech elements: Russian folk, Church Slavonic and Western European, and the Russian folk language, especially its Moscow variety, became the cementing basis. The modern Russian literary language begins with Pushkin, rich and diverse linguistic styles (artistic, journalistic, scientific, etc.) are closely related to each other, all-Russian phonetic, grammatical and lexical norms, the lexical system develops and generalizes. Russian writers of the 19th and 20th centuries played a major role in the development and formation of the Russian literary language. (A.S. Griboedov, V.A. Zhukovsky, I.A. Krylov, M.Yu. Lermontov, N.V. Gogol, I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A. P. Chekhov and others).
Kn. XX century by vocabulary, variety of meanings and possibilities for conveying the most subtle shades of human experiences, descriptions of nature and public relations The Russian language was one of the richest literary languages, which naturally led to the complete displacement of outdated dialects and dialects from the cultural sphere. All cultured people of Russia, no matter where they lived - in Siberia or Belarus, in the Urals or in Little Russia - used the Russian literary language.
As in the 7th-14th centuries. The Old Russian language was one of the most important factors of national unity, so in the 19th century. XX century this factor became the all-Russian literary language of Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. The Russian literary language united all branches and parts of the Russian people, creating favorable conditions for the development of all-Russian culture and mutual understanding between Russians and other peoples of Russia. The destruction of the Russian Empire and the division of the Russian people lead to the forcible displacement of the all-Russian language from the territory of Little Russia and Belarus and a number of national regions. Long-outdated, archaic dialects are being exhumed, and artificial languages ​​are being implanted.

Source: Encyclopedia "Russian Civilization"

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1. Which group of world languages ​​does the Russian language belong to?

Russian is one of the largest languages ​​in the world: in terms of the number of speakers it ranks fifth after Chinese, English, Hindi and Spanish. Belongs to the eastern group of Slavic languages. Among the Slavic languages, Russian is the most widespread. All Slavic languages ​​show great similarities among themselves, but the ones closest to the Russian language are Belarusian and Ukrainian. The three of these languages ​​form the East Slavic subgroup, which is part of the Slavic group of the Indo-European family.

2. Name the two most characteristic features of the grammatical structure of the Russian language

The first feature that creates the complexity of Russian morphology is the variability of the word, that is, the grammatical design of words with endings. The endings express the case and number of nouns, the agreement of adjectives, participles and ordinal numbers in phrases, the person and number of verbs of the present and future tense, the gender and number of verbs of the past tense.

The second feature of the Russian language is word order. Unlike other languages, the Russian language allows greater freedom in word arrangement. The subject can come either before the predicate or after the predicate. Other members of the sentence can also be rearranged. Syntactically related words can be separated by other words. Of course, this or that word order is not at all random, but it is not regulated by purely grammatical rules, as in other European languages, where it is used to distinguish, for example, such functions of words as subject and object.

3. Why do you think the Russian language is difficult for an Englishman?

The main difficulty lies in the variability of the word. Russian people, of course, do not notice this, because for us it is natural and simple to say now EARTH, then EARTH, then ZEMLE - depending on the role of the word in the sentence, on its connection with other words, but for speakers of languages ​​of a different system - this is unusual and difficult. The point, however, is not at all that there is something superfluous in the Russian language, but that those meanings that are conveyed in Russian by changing the form of a word are conveyed in other languages ​​in other ways, for example, using prepositions, or word order, or even a change in the intonation of a word.

4. Does the Russian language need foreign words?

The lexical wealth of a language is created not only by its own capabilities, but also by borrowing from other languages, since political, economic and cultural ties have always existed and continue to exist between peoples. The Russian language is no exception. In different historical periods, words from various languages ​​penetrated into the Russian language. There are very ancient borrowings. Speakers may not even be aware of this. For example, “foreign” words are: sugar (Greek), candy (Latin), August (Latin), compote (German), jacket (Swedish), lamp (German) and many other familiar words. Starting from the era of Peter the Great, for obvious reasons (“window to Europe”), borrowings from European languages: German, French, Polish, Italian, English. Currently - the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century - the Russian vocabulary is replenished with Americanisms, that is, English words that came from the American version English language. The flow of borrowings in different historical periods is more or less active, sometimes it becomes violent, but over time its activity is lost. At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century there were many borrowings from the French language. By borrowing words from any language, the Russian language adapts them to its structure, that is, foreign words are mastered. So, in particular, nouns acquire Russian endings, acquire gender, and some begin to decline.

5. Why do Russian people so often make mistakes when using numerals?

Extremely complex system represent Russian numerals. This applies not only to their changeability. The names of numbers have different structures and represent different types declination. Wed. one (inflected as an adjective), two, three, four (a special type of declension), five (inflected as a noun of 3 declension, but not in numbers), forty, ninety and one hundred have only two forms: in all oblique cases the ending is a: forty, one hundred. However, if one hundred is part of a compound numeral, it changes differently, cf: five hundred, five hundred, about five hundred.

At the moment, for example, there is a very noticeable tendency to simplify the declension of numerals: many Russians decline complex numerals only by half: cf. with fifty-three instead of the correct one with fifty-three. The system of declension of numerals is clearly being destroyed, and this is happening before our eyes and with our participation.

6. Name one of the changes in sounds and two changes in morphology known from the history of the Russian language (optional)

The sounding speech of a Russian person in that ancient era, naturally, was not recorded by anyone (there were no appropriate technical methods), however, science knows the main processes that took place in the Russian language over the centuries, including processes that change the sound structure of the language, its phonetic system. It is known, for example, that the words forest and day until about the 12th century had not three sounds, but four, and that the first syllable of these two words had different vowel sounds. No one who speaks Russian today can reproduce them accurately, including phonetic specialists. but experts know what they roughly sounded like. This is because linguistics has developed methods for studying ancient languages.

The number of types of declension of nouns has been significantly reduced: now, as is known, there are 3 of them, but there were much more - in different periods different quantities. For example, a son and a brother leaned differently for some time. Nouns such as sky and word were declined in a special way (the features were preserved in the forms heaven, word), etc.

Among the cases there was a special case - “vocalative”. This case form was used to address: father - father, old man - elder, etc. In the prayers in Church Slavonic it sounded: “our father”, who art in heaven..., glory to you, Lord, heavenly king.... The vocative case has been preserved in Russian fairy tales and other works of folklore: Kotik! Brother! Help me out! (Cat, rooster and fox).

The Old Russian verb was significantly different from the modern one: there was not one past tense, but four. - each with its own forms and meaning: aorist, imperfect, perfect and plusquaperfect. Three tenses were lost, one tense was preserved - the perfect, but it changed its form beyond recognition: in the chronicle “The Tale of Bygone Years” we read: “Why did you go and catch all the tribute” (why are you going again? - after all, you’ve already taken all the tribute) - auxiliary verb(esi) disappeared, only the participle form with the suffix L remained (here “caught”, i.e. took), which became for us the only past tense form of the verb: walked, wrote, etc.

7. In what area of ​​the Russian language system are changes most noticeable and understandable: in phonetics, morphology or vocabulary. Why?

Different sides languages ​​change with varying degrees of activity: vocabulary changes most actively and most noticeably for speakers. Everyone knows the concepts of archaisms/neologisms. The meanings of words and their compatibility change. The phonetic structure and grammatical structure of the language, including Russian, are much more stable, but changes occur here too. They are not immediately noticeable, not like changes in the use of words. But specialists, historians of the Russian language, have established very important, profound changes that have occurred in the Russian language over the past 10 centuries. The changes that have occurred over the last two centuries, since the time of Pushkin, are also known, but they are not so profound. For example, a certain type of entity. husband. p changed the plural form. numbers: in the times of Zhukovsky and Pushkin they said: houses, teachers, breads with the emphasis on the first syllable. The replacement of the ending Y with a stressed A first occurred only in individual words, then more and more words began to be pronounced this way: teacher, professor, haystack, workshop, mechanic. It is characteristic that this process is still ongoing and involves more and more words, i.e. You and I, who speak Russian now, are witnesses and participants in this process.

8. What is the essential difference between changes in language and changes in writing?

As we see, there is a fundamental, fundamental difference between changes in writing (graphics) and changes in language: no king, no ruler can change the language by his own will. You cannot order speakers not to utter certain sounds or not to use certain cases. Changes in language occur under the influence various factors and reflect the internal properties of language. They occur against the will of the speakers (although, naturally, they are created by the speaking community itself). We are not talking about changes in the style of letters, in the number of letters, or in spelling rules. The history of language and the history of writing are different stories. Science (the history of the Russian language) has established how the Russian language has changed over the centuries: what changes have occurred in the sound system, morphology, syntax and vocabulary. Development trends are also studied, new phenomena and processes are noted. New trends arise in living speech - oral and written.

9. Is it possible for a language to exist without writing? Give reasons for your answer

In principle, a language can exist without writing (although its possibilities in this case are limited). At the dawn of mankind, at first there was only oral speech. There are still peoples in the world who do not have a written language, but they naturally have a language. Other proofs of the possibility of language without writing can be given. For example: young children speak a language without writing (before they go to school). So, language existed and exists primarily in oral form. But with the development of civilization, it also acquired another form - written. The written form of speech developed on the basis of oral speech and existed, first of all, as its graphic representation. In itself, it is a remarkable achievement of the human mind to establish a correspondence between an element of speech and a graphic icon.

10. In what other way, besides writing, can speech be preserved and transmitted over a distance in our time? (There is no direct answer in the textbook)

Speech in our time can be recorded - saved on various audio and video media - disks, cassettes, etc. And later it can be transmitted on such media.

11. Is writing reform possible in principle? Give reasons for your answer

Yes, it can be changed and even reformed. Writing is not part of the language, but only corresponds to it, serves to reflect it. It is invented by society for practical purposes. With the help of a system of graphic icons, people record speech, save it and can transmit it over a distance. The letter can be changed according to the will of the people, reformed if a practical need arises. The history of mankind knows many facts about changes in types of writing, that is, methods of graphically transmitting speech. There are fundamental changes, for example, the transition from a hieroglyphic system to an alphabetic one or within an alphabetic system - replacing the Cyrillic alphabet with Latin alphabet or vice versa. Smaller changes in writing are also known - changes in the style of letters. Even more specific changes are the elimination of some individual letters from the practice of writing, and the like. An example of changes in writing: for the Chukchi language, writing was created only in 1931 based on the Latin alphabet, but already in 1936 the writing was translated into Russian graphics.

12. With what historical event Is the emergence of writing in Rus' related? When did this happen?

The emergence of writing in Rus' is associated with the official adoption of Christianity in 988.

13. Why is the Slavic alphabet called “Cyrillic”?

Russian adaptation of the Greek alfabetos, composed of the names of the first two letters Greek alphabet– alpha and beta – in the Slavic version az and beeches. It is generally accepted that the names of the Slavic letters were invented by the creator Slavic alphabet Cyril in the 9th century. He wanted the name of the letter itself not to be a meaningless complex of sounds, but to have meaning. He called the first letter azъ - in ancient Bulgarian “I”, the second - simply “letter” (this is what this word looked like in ancient times - bouki), the third - vede (from the ancient Slavic verb veti - “to know”). If we translate the name of the first ones into modern Russian three letters this alphabet, it turns out “I recognized the letter.” Slavic alphabet(Cyrillic) was developed by a team of missionary scientists under the leadership of the brothers Cyril and Methodius, when the adoption of Christianity Slavic peoples demanded the creation of church texts in their native language. The alphabet quickly spread in Slavic countries, and in the 10th century it penetrated from Bulgaria to Rus'.

14. Name the most famous monuments of Russian writing

Monuments ancient Russian literature about ancient Russian writing and literature: The Tale of Bygone Years, Degree Book, Daniil Zatochnik, Metropolitan Hilarion, Kirill of Turov, Life of Euphrosyne of Suzdal, etc.

15. What significance do “birch bark letters” have for the history of Russian writing?

Birch bark documents are both material (archaeological) and written sources; their location is as important a parameter for history as their content. The charters “give names” to the silent finds of archaeologists: instead of the faceless “estate of a noble Novgorodian” or “traces of a wooden canopy,” we can talk about “the estate of the priest-artist Olisey Petrovich, nicknamed Grechin” and about “traces of a canopy over the premises of the local court of the prince and mayor.” . The same name in documents found on neighboring estates, mentions of princes and others statesmen, mentions of significant sums of money, geographical names - all this says a lot about the history of buildings, their owners, their social status, their connections with other cities and regions.

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Russian language belongs to the group of Slavic languages, part of the Indo-European language family. It is the state language adopted on the territory of the Russian Federation and the most numerous in terms of geographical distribution and number of speakers in Europe.
Story
Modern lexical and grammatical norms of the Russian language appeared as a result of the long-term interaction of various East Slavic dialects that existed on Great Russian territory and the Church Slavonic language, which arose as a result of the adaptation of the first Christian books.
East Slavic, also known as Old Russian, is XIV-XV centuries was the basis for the formation of the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian languages, however, the dialectical features that make them so different appeared somewhat earlier.
Dialects
In the 15th century, two main groups of dialects established themselves on the European territory of Russia - the southern and northern dialects, which have a number of distinctive features, for example, akanye is characteristic of the southern dialect, and okanye is characteristic of the northern one. In addition, a number of Central Russian dialects appeared, which were essentially intermediate between the northern and southern ones and partially absorbed their distinctive features.
A bright representative of the Central Russian dialect, Moscow was the basis for the emergence of the literary Russian language, which is currently considered classical Russian; literature and periodicals are not published in other dialects.
Vocabulary
A large layer in the Russian vocabulary is occupied by words of Greek and Turkic origin. So, for example, diamond, fog and pants came to us from the Turkic language, and crocodile, bench and beets are words of Greek origin, and in our time it is no secret that most of the names given at baptism also came to us from Greece, and these names were not only Greek, such as Catherine or Fedor, but also of Hebrew origin, such as Ilya or Maria.
In the XVI-XVII, the main source of the emergence of new lexical units in the Russian language was Polish, thanks to which such words of Latin, Germanic and Romance origin as algebra, dance and powder came into our speech and directly Polish words, for example bank and duel.

In Belarus, Russian is the official language along with the Belarusian language. In Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, the Russian language is recognized as the official language, that is, it has a privileged status despite the presence of the state language.

In the US, in the state of New York, Russian is one of the eight languages ​​in which all official election documents are printed, and in California, you can take the driver's license exam in Russian.

Until 1991, Russian was used for communication in the territory former USSR, essentially being the state language. For this reason, for many residents of the republics that seceded from the USSR, Russian is still their native language.

In the literature there are such names of the Russian language as Russian and Great Russian, but they are used mainly by linguists and in modern colloquial speech are not used.

The alphabet of the Russian language, consisting of thirty-three letters in the form in which we are all accustomed to seeing it, has existed since 1918, and was officially approved only in 1942. Until this time, the alphabet officially had thirty-one letters, because E was equated with E, and Y with I.

From its inception to the present day, the Church Slavonic language has been the language used in Orthodox services. For a long time It was Church Slavonic that was used as the official written language and predominated in spoken language.

The oldest monument of literary art written in Russian is the Novgorod Codex, its appearance dates back to the beginning of the 11th century. In addition to it, historians mention the Ostromir Gospel, written in Church Slavonic in 1056-1057.

The modern Russian language that we use, also known as the literary language, appeared in the 17th-18th centuries, after which it underwent serious intervention in 1918, with a reform that removed the letters “decimal i”, “fita” and “yat” from the alphabet. , instead of which the letters “i”, “f” and “e” appeared, respectively; in addition, the use of a hard sign at the ends of words was canceled. In prefixes, it has become customary to write the letter “s” before voiceless consonants, and “z” before vowels and voiced consonants. Some other changes were also adopted regarding the use of endings in different case forms and the replacement of a number of word forms with

more modern. By the way, the official changes did not affect the use of Izhitsa; this letter was rarely used even before the reform, and over time it disappeared from the alphabet.

Differences in dialects have never been an obstacle for people to communicate with each other, however, compulsory education, the advent of the press and the media, and large-scale migration of the population during the Soviet era almost completely forced the dialects out of use, as they were replaced by standardized Russian speech. Currently, echoes of the use of dialects can be heard in the speech of representatives of the older generation living mainly in rural areas, but, thanks to the spread of television broadcasting, their speech is also gradually leveling out, acquiring the outlines of a literary language.

Many words in modern Russian came from Church Slavonic. In addition, the vocabulary of the Russian language was significantly influenced by those languages ​​with which it was in contact for a long time. The oldest layer of borrowings has East German roots, as evidenced by words such as camel, church or cross. A few but frequently used words were borrowed from ancient Iranian languages, the so-called Scythian vocabulary, for example, paradise or dog. Some Russian names, such as Olga or Igor, are of Germanic, most often Scandinavian origin.

Since the 18th century, the main stream words are coming to us from Dutch (orange, yacht), German (tie, cement) and French (beach, conductor) languages.

Today, the main flow of words comes to us from the English language, and some of them began to appear at the beginning of the 19th century. The flow of English borrowings intensified in the first half of the twentieth century and gave the Russian language such words as station, cocktail and container. It is interesting to know that some words entered Russian speech twice from English, displacing each other, an example of such a word is lunch (formerly lunch), in addition, modern English borrowings are gradually replacing earlier borrowings from others in the Russian language, for example English word“Bowling” with its appearance displaced the old German word “bowling alley” from use, and the old French lobster became the modern English lobster.

It is impossible not to note the influence of other languages, although to a much lesser extent than English, on the modern sound of the Russian language. Military terms (hussar, saber) came to us from Hungarian, and musical, financial and culinary terms (opera, balance and pasta) from Italian.

However, despite the abundant influx of borrowed vocabulary, the Russian language developed independently, managing to give the world many of its own words, which became internationalisms. Examples of such words are vodka, pogrom, samovar, dacha, mammoth, satellite, tsar, matryoshka, dacha and steppe.

Teacher's advice:

Learning a foreign language becomes easier when you practice it a little every day. Each language has its own special sound. The more you listen to the language, the easier it becomes. Reading helps strengthen your grammar and your vocabulary, so read every day. It doesn't matter if you listen to the news or music, or read a book, magazine or website, the most important thing is a little bit every day.

Learning a language becomes easier when you practice a little every day. Every language has a different sound and the more you listen the easier it gets. Reading improves your grammar and vocabulary so read a little every day too. It doesn't matter if you listen to the news or music, or read a book, magazine or website, the important thing is to a little every day.

Modern Russian is the language of the 19th–21st centuries. Literary language is language in its standardized, exemplary variety.

The roots of the Russian language go deep to Indo-European family of languages, one of the largest (there are language families: Semitic, Finno-Ugric, Turkic, etc.), common language which was the Proto-Indo-European language (Sanskrit). The Indo-European family includes the Indian, Iranian, Baltic, Germanic, Romance, Celtic, Greek, Albanian, Armenian and Slavic families.

The Russian language belongs to the Slavic group of the Indo-European family of languages. Within the Slavic group, in turn, three groups-branches are distinguished: eastern (languages ​​Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian), southern (languages ​​Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian) and western (languages ​​Upper Lusatian-Serbian, Lower Lusatian-Serbian, Polish, Slovak and Czech). All Slavic languages ​​are related to each other, which is due to their origin from one common source: the Proto-Slavic language. Let us give just one of many illustrations of the vocabulary similarity and commonality of these languages: naked (gol), thick (gust) - Russian; Goliy. gusty (Ukrainian), gol, gust (Belarusian), gol, gust (Bulgarian), gol, gust (Serbo-Croatian), gol, gost (Slovenian), holy, husty (Czech, Slovak).

Proto-Slavic language disintegrated inVI– VIIbb. n. e., and this marked the beginning of the formation of three Slavic language groups and then separate Slavic languages. All Eastern Slavs originally constituted one people, whose language is called Old Russian or Old East Slavic. Until the 14th century, the ancestors of Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians constituted a single people who spoke the Old Russian language (the closeness of these languages ​​is evidenced by numerous facts of similarity in the field of vocabulary, phraseology, grammatical and phonetic structure, for example: embrace (Russian), ohopit (Ukrainian), Abhapits (Belarusian); thought heavily (Russian), pondered heavily (Ukrainian), pondered (Belarusian).) Around the 14th–15th centuries. From a single ancient Russian nationality, the Belarusian, Russian (or Great Russian) and Ukrainian nationalities are formed. Accordingly, three languages ​​are formed: Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian. From the middle of the 17th century. begins in the first half of the 19th century. The formation of the national Russian language ends. The development of language occurs, according to I. I. Sreznevsky, “among the people” and, when writing appears, “in the book.” The language “among the people” and the language “in the book” (i.e., colloquial and literary) are interconnected, but they also have their own characteristics (they will be discussed later).

The first bookish, literary language of the Slavs was the Old Church Slavonic language - this is the conventional name of the language of the most ancient Slavic translations of liturgical books from Greek, made in the second half of the 9th century. Constantine (Cyril) and Methodius and their disciples. This is only written book language. The Old Church Slavonic language became the common literary language of the Slavs of the Middle Ages. This is one of the oldest book languages ​​(it is assumed that the Old Church Slavonic language is based on the South Slavic dialects: Bulgarian and Macedonian). Thus, the Old Church Slavonic language was basically a South Slavic language. In 863, Cyril and Methodius brought the first books in the Slavic language, written in Cyrillic, intended for worship and education of the Slavs (before the Cyrillic alphabet, the Slavs had a Glagolitic alphabet, which had 38 letters). Thus, the Cyrillic alphabet was formed on the basis of the Glagolitic alphabet. Later, untranslated works were written in this language, and not only church works. At that time, all Slavic languages ​​were very close to each other, and the Old Church Slavonic language was well understood by all Slavs, including the Eastern ones. When, in connection with the spread of Christianity in Rus', liturgical books were required, such books appeared in the Old Church Slavonic language. They were quite understandable, there was no need to translate them, they were simply rewritten.

During the correspondence, the original Old Slavonic forms were not consistently maintained and were mixed with East Slavic forms. Those. The Old Church Slavonic language gradually absorbed local linguistic features and acquired, as it were, a “local flavor.” This is how a language was formed, which, unlike Old Church Slavonic, was called Church Slavonic language Russian translation (or Russian edition). It was used in Christian church services throughout the subsequent course of Russian history, interacted with the Russian language, being increasingly influenced by it, and itself influenced the Russian literary language.

However, even before its transformation into the Church Slavonic language of the Russian version, the Old Church Slavonic language played a large role in the formation of the Old Russian literary language, the prerequisites for the formation of which arose even before the spread of Old Church Slavonic writing in Rus'. Thus, the Old Russian language had rich traditions of use in oral folk art, in historical legends, in various kinds of public speeches (“ambassadorial speeches”, appeals of princes and governors to the people, to soldiers, speeches at veche, at princely congresses), in formulas like so-called common law, etc. The appearance of Old Church Slavonic books in Ancient Rus' was the external impetus that gave rise to the powerful internal development of Old Russian book literature and its language. Old Slavonic texts served as models for Old Russian scribes, based on which they successfully carried out the literary processing of their native language. At the same time, the Old Church Slavonic language was not perceived as a foreign language, but was perceived as a bookish, processed language. Old Slavonic samples were important primarily for mastering the methods of linguistic organization of a literary (book) text.

Since the original Old Church Slavonic texts were translations from Greek, the Old Church Slavonic language, especially in vocabulary and syntax, reflected the features of the Greek language. And through the Old Church Slavonic language, these features were reflected in Old Russian. But there were also various direct contacts between Russians and Greeks; translations from Greek were also made in Ancient Rus', which contributed to the literary processing of the Russian language. This gave Pushkin the basis to say that the ancient Greek language saved the language of Russian literature from the slow improvements of time.

Thus, the circumstances of the formation of the Old Russian literary language were unique, and its composition was complex. As V.V. believed Vinogradov, the process of formation of the Old Russian literary language was determined by the interaction and unification of four (admittedly unequal) components: 1) the Old Church Slavonic language; 2) business, state-legal and diplomatic speech, which developed in the pre-literate era; 3) the language of folklore and 4) folk dialect elements. The unifying and regulating role first belonged to the Old Church Slavonic language. The actual composition and nature of the interaction of all these components depended on the genre of writing and literature.

The spoken language (the language “of the people”) develops faster than the literary language (the language “of the book”). Therefore, “the common dialect had to be separated from the bookish one.” The discrepancy between the spoken and literary languages ​​became especially noticeable by the 17th century, by the beginning of the formation of the Russian nation. Archpriest Avvakum contrasted “his Russian natural language”, “colloquial speech” with book “eloquence”, “philosophical verses”. Writers of the 18th century. constantly emphasized the difference between the then colloquial “living use” and the ancient literary language, to which the name “Slavic” was assigned. This was the general name given to the language of ancient books, mainly religious (“our Slavic language is the language of the church,” wrote V.K. Trediakovsky). The “Slavenian language” was correlated with the Russian language as a language of the past (“the Slavonic language in our present century is very obscure” - the same statement by Trediakovsky) with a modern language. In the 18th – early 19th centuries. the expression “Slavic-Russian (or Slavic-Russian) language” was also used. This name emphasized the continuity of the new literary Russian language in relation to the ancient “Slavonic” (“Slavic”). In this sense, Pushkin talks about the Slavic-Russian language as a material for literature.

In the pre-Pushkin and Pushkin times, the “common and bookish dialects” (i.e., colloquial and literary languages) entered a stage of decisive rapprochement, as a result of which the totality of linguistic means, the “element” that was given to the writers of the early 19th century began to take shape. as a material for literature. Pushkin expanded and approved the rights of the folk language in literature, showing at the same time that the literary language “should not renounce what it has acquired over the centuries,” that is, it should not break with book tradition. Pushkin discovered and made public new techniques and ways of using literary material (cm.: Gorshkov A.I. All the wealth, strength and flexibility of our language. A. S. Pushkin in the history of the Russian language. – M., 1992), created examples of new language use in all genres of fiction and in critical-journalistic and scientific-historical prose, and the Russian literary language entered the modern period of its history.

Forms of existence of language.

The national language as the property of the people exists in several forms. Among the variety of varieties of use (or, as they also say, forms of existence) of language, the following stand out: two main. These varieties are usually called colloquial use of language and literary the use of language, and more often simply spoken (“folk”, “living”) language and literary (“book”, “written”) language. The very fact of the existence of these two main varieties of linguistic use is quite obvious, but the nature of the difference (opposition, opposition) and the nature of the relationship between spoken and literary language in science are explained ambiguously.

The main question that arises in this case is: what is the basis, what is the root of the differences between spoken language and literary language? – in our science, L.V. Shcherba answered most convincingly and at the same time simply. Explaining the concept of “literary language” and comparing literary language with colloquial language for this purpose, he pointed out that the basis of spoken language is unprepared dialogue, and the basis of literary language is a prepared monologue. Dialogue is a chain of replicas. The exchange of remarks occurs naturally, naturally, without preliminary thinking (we mean, of course, dialogue in the process of everyday communication between people, and not dialogue in a play or prose work). A monologue, on the contrary, requires preparation, strict consistency, and thoughtful organization of linguistic material. Shcherba emphasized that monologue must be specially studied and that every monologue is a literary work in its infancy.

The main sphere of use of spoken language is direct “informal”, “everyday” communication. Conversational communication, as a rule, is direct, contact, and therefore largely depends on the situation. In contact communication, gestures and facial expressions play an important role, while many elements that are clear from the situation may not be expressed or named in the message. Since spoken language is spoken, the role of intonation is great.

Spoken language is successfully studied at all tiers of the linguistic system, but its detailed description is not part of our task. We will indicate here only the main general features of the spoken language, due to its dialogical nature, lack of preparation, reliance on an extra-linguistic situation, contact of communication, the use of gestures and facial expressions, and the oral form of expression.

Scientists note “linear progression without the possibility of going back” as a characteristic feature of spoken language. Of course, the replica could be, for example, like this: Well, I went to school, and on the way I saw Petya, and then Vanya... Although no, first Vanya, and then Petya. The speaker seems to have “returned”, but from the point of view of linguistic use, what is said is said. The word has already been spoken. No wonder they say: “The word is not a sparrow; if it flies out, you won’t catch it.” Another thing is literary use, a prepared monologue in written form - there you can “go back” as much as you like, redo what was written before presenting it to the reader (addressee).

Further, in the spoken language, “incompletely formed structures” are noted, mainly on the phonetic and syntactic levels. In phonetics this is a loss individual sounds or combinations of sounds, as a result of which there is an “incomplete” pronunciation of words like Marivanna, hello, shiisyat etc. instead Maria Ivanovna, hello, sixty etc. In syntax, this is the “incompleteness” of sentences, omission, omission of certain components of a statement, otherwise - ellipsis (Greek elleipsis – omission, deficiency). Ellipsis is very characteristic of spoken language. When buying movie tickets, we don't usually say Please give me two tickets for the show at sixteen o'clock, but we talk Two by sixteen. We usually don't ask Where are you going (going, going)? What happened (is happening) to you?, but we ask Where are you going? What's wrong with you? In colloquial language, predicates denoting movement or speech are often omitted: Why are you so late? Do you go straight home after work or to football? Are you on the metro?–We are on a trolleybus; That's not what I'm talking about; You are shorter; Are you serious? Etc.

Conversational syntax is also characterized by a special word order and special types of connections between parts of a complex sentence, for example: Masha was enrolled in the English school; The train was announced to arrive on time; The kettle, I think she said she put it on etc.

The most important varieties The spoken language is territorial and social dialects, vernacular and “general” spoken language.

Territorial dialect(Greek dialektos – conversation, dialect, adverb) is a type of language that is characterized, in addition to features characteristic of the entire language, also by some specific features at all tiers of the linguistic system and is used as a means of direct communication in a certain limited territory.

Territorial dialects have characteristics that either bring them together or, conversely, distinguish them from each other. Based on these characteristics, modern Russian dialects are united into two dialects: Northern Great Russian and Southern Great Russian, between which there is a strip of Central Great Russian (or transitional) dialects. Approximately in the middle of this strip is Moscow, to the west of Moscow in this strip are Tver, Pskov, Novgorod, to the east - Vladimir, Ivanovo, Murom, Nizhny Novgorod. The range of transitional dialects is not wide; Yaroslavl and Kostroma are already located on the territory of the Northern Great Russian dialect, and Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, Smolensk are on the territory of the Southern Great Russian dialect. Siberian dialects developed on the basis of various dialects of the European part of Russia. Initially, Siberia was populated by people from the northern regions, therefore the so-called old-timer Siberian dialects are basically northern. The dialects with a South Russian basis in Siberia are of later origin.

The Northern Great Russian dialect is characterized by three main sound features: “okanie” (i.e., the distinction in the pronunciation of unstressed [o] and [a], for example palm–catch), pronunciation [g] stop plosive (city, horns) and hard pronunciation [t] in the endings of the 3rd person present tense of verbs (go, go).

The South Great Russian dialect is characterized by “akan” (i.e., non-distinction in the pronunciation of unstressed [o] and [a]: palm, to catch), pronunciation [g] fricative [y] (lat. fricare – rub; fricative consonants are formed by air friction in a narrow gap between the adjacent organs of speech, fricative [y] pronounced like [x], but louder: freak, rowa) and soft pronunciation [t"] in the endings of the 3rd person present tense of verbs (go, go). There are also lexical differences: in the north they say horse, rooster, hut, grip, ladle, skewer, yell, harrow– in the south, respectively horse, kochet, hut, rouach, korets, deja, plow, speed.

Middle Great Russian dialects are characterized by the pronunciation of a stop [g], which coincides with one of the features of the Northern Great Russian dialect, and at the same time, “akany,” which coincides with one of the features of the Southern Great Russian dialect. In the endings of the 3rd person present tense of verbs, in part of the Central Russian dialects [t] is hard, and in part - soft [t"].

The signs mentioned above are only the most important ones. general signs, by which two adverbs and transitional dialects of the Russian language are distinguished. Each individual dialect (spoken) has its own numerous characteristics. Dialects and their grouping are studied by a special science - dialectology.

Since the 18th century. territorial dialects with a special artistic purpose are displayed in works of literature, mainly when conveying the speech of characters. Of course, for artistic purposes it is not necessary to reproduce the dialect in every detail, as is done in scientific records, but the writer is required to have a deep knowledge of the local dialect and an aesthetically justified depiction of its most characteristic features.

In connection with the development of education and the spread of the media, especially radio and television, territorial dialects are under the powerful influence of the literary language. And although the complete disappearance of territorial dialects is still very far away, they are increasingly losing their originality. A phenomenon arises called a semi-dialect - a type of language that is a territorial dialect with a significant proportion of elements of the literary language. The speakers of semi-dialects are mainly representatives of the younger generation.

Along with territorial dialects, there are social dialects. A social dialect, as the name itself shows, is characteristic not of a certain territory, but of a certain social community of people. If territorial dialects have differences at all tiers of the linguistic system, then social dialects differ from each other and from the national language only in the field of vocabulary and phraseology. As part of social (they also say socio-professional) dialects, jargons and argot stand out.

Jargon(fr. jargon) is produced and used in groups of people united by profession, occupation, common interests, hobbies, etc. These groups are, as they say, relatively open, i.e. not trying to isolate themselves from other people. Accordingly, jargon (for schoolchildren, students, athletes, hunters, fishermen, dog lovers, etc.) is not a means of isolating its speakers from the “uninitiated,” but only reflects the specifics of activities, hobbies, habits, outlook on life, etc. . certain circle of people. One of the early and clearly defined jargons in Russian society was bureaucratic jargon. N.V. Gogol was a great connoisseur of this jargon and a master of its depiction in literature. Here's a small example from Dead Souls:

(...) A new governor-general was appointed to the province, an event that, as is known, puts officials in an alarming state: there will be quarrels, heckling, heaving and all sorts of official stew that the boss treats to his subordinates! "Well,–officials thought–if he only finds out, simply, that there are some stupid rumors in the city, and for this alone he can boil not for life, but for death.”

Other social and professional jargons are also reflected in Gogol’s work. For example, Petrovich’s language in “The Overcoat” is filled with expressions characteristic of the tailor’s profession: No, you can’t fix it: a bad wardrobe!; The thing is completely rotten, touch it with a needle–and now it’s crawling; Yes, there is nothing to put the patches on, there is nothing for her to strengthen herself with, the support is too great; If you put a marten on the collar and put on a silk-lined hood, it will cost two hundred; It will even be possible, as fashion has gone, the collar will be fastened with silver paws under the appliqué.

The meaning of the word described above jargon accepted in science, is terminological. But the word jargon It also has another, non-terminological meaning: a rude, vulgar type of language use containing incorrect and distorted forms.

Argo(fr. argot), unlike jargon, is the property of closed social groups striving for isolation. Argo is intended to serve as one of the means of this isolation, therefore it is characterized by convention, artificiality, which should ensure secrecy, secrecy of communication. Argo is typical primarily for the lower social classes of society and the criminal world. In this environment, the names “blat music”, “blat”, “fenya” arose and are in use. Methods of verbal communication that are accepted in a certain environment and are incomprehensible to the rest of society are also called conventional or secret languages. The secret language of the wandering traders of the past is known - ofeni. Like any social dialect, argot differs from the common language only in its vocabulary, and commonly used words are often used, but with a different meaning. This can be illustrated by an excerpt from a letter from one prisoner: When they were loading balans into the Pullmans, the bogons were smoked because of one hose. In the knackery, shamovka was normal, mandra and loose powder were always in the garage. They bungled tar with a Georgian broom, had both married dope and a joint. Here romp– immerse, Pullman– carriage, balance– log, hose- fool, lazy, smoke- break, cripple, bogons- legs, knackery– surgical department in a hospital, mandra– bread, products, looseness- tea, garage- bedside table, make a fuss– brew, Georgian broom– low-grade tea, tar– strong tea, chifir, married fool– hashish with tobacco, joint- a cigarette with hashish. Despite its external exoticism, the argot vocabulary is essentially not rich.

Like other varieties of spoken language, argot is used in fiction for a more vivid image of the described environment, for the linguistic characteristics of characters.

Along with the French words “jargon” and “argot”, the word “slang”, borrowed from English, has recently become widespread. It should be noted that in the use of the words “jargon”, “argo”, “slang” as terms there is no strict consistency and unambiguity, just as there are no sharp boundaries between the phenomena denoted by these words.

If territorial and socio-professional dialects are associated with one way or another limited groups of people, then vernacular has wider and less defined boundaries of use and is characterized mainly by emotional overtones. Initially, simple speech (including literary speech) was called vernacular, in contrast to eloquence - speech that was emphatically refined, complicated, or decorated. It is in this sense that Archpriest Avvakum called the language of his works colloquial. But these days this word has a different meaning. Scientists define vernacular as a relaxed and somewhat rude, “reduced” version of colloquial language use. Vernacular also refers to words, expressions and grammatical forms that are characteristic of this variety and have a connotation of swagger, rudeness (b lamba, butch, fidgety, really, excitedly, wobble, uncouth man, he tugged at his sleeve etc.). For vernacular speech, certain features of territorial dialects are not indicative; it is characteristic mainly of urban residents. Therefore, it is called mass (i.e., not confined to any one category of people) urban speech, mass urban language. In literature, vernacular language is used to describe characters linguistically, and in the author’s language – as a means of special expressiveness (irony, playful or negative assessment, etc.). For example:

Pyotr Matveyevich suddenly noticed that the school windows were glowing quite unnaturally for such an evening time: every single one of them was bright. Usually at this time–well, one is there, two are burning, where they are sawing on the violin, or strumming the piano, or something else–They open their mouths, but through the glass you can’t hear what kind of song is pouring out of it.

The highest form of the national Russian language is literary language. The main sphere of use of the literary language is literature, literature in the broad sense (i.e. literature is not only artistic, but also journalistic, scientific, official and business) and prescribed, “official” communication.

The main properties of the literary language are determined by its monological basis. It is thanks to the peculiarities of monologue use that such defining qualities of a literary language as processing and normalization are developed (i.e., the presence of norms - rules of language use, conscious, recognized and protected by society). In addition to being processed and standardized, the literary language is also characterized by widespread use, universality (i.e., binding on all members of a given national community, in contrast to a dialect, which is used only in a territorially or socially limited group of people), multifunctionality, universality (i.e., use in various spheres of life), style differentiation (i.e. the presence of a number of styles) and a tendency towards sustainability and stability. All these signs do not appear suddenly and in their entirety, but are developed gradually, in the process of using language in literature. At the first stages of the development of book literature, the main feature of the literary language, distinguishing it from the spoken language, was the monological organization.

Signs of a literary language:

written recording of oral speech: the presence of writing influences the nature of the literary language, enriching it means of expression and expanding the scope of application;

normalization;

universality of norms and their codification;

branched functional-stylistic system;

dialectical unity of book and colloquial speech;

close connection with the language of fiction

The Russian literary language has two main forms of existence: oral and written.

Oral form is the primary and only form of existence of a language that does not have writing. For colloquial variety of literary language, it is the main one, while book language functions in both written and oral form (report - oral form, lecture - written form). At the same time, with the development of electronic communications, the written form of spoken language is becoming increasingly widespread.

The oral form of language is characterized by the fact that it is irreversible, cannot be edited, and does not provide the opportunity for reflection or return to what was expressed. Oral speech without additional support (video, direct communication, etc.) is more difficult to perceive than written language and is forgotten more quickly. Therefore, large volumes of oral texts are undesirable, as are long periods and complex structures in them.

Written form is secondary, later in time of occurrence. So, fiction exists mainly in written form, although it is also realized orally (for example, artistic reading, theatrical performances, any reading aloud). Folklore, on the contrary, has an oral form of existence as its primary form; recordings of oral folk art (songs, fairy tales, anecdotes) are a secondary form of its implementation.

A distinctive advantage of written speech is the possibility of additional polishing, repeated reference to the text, accumulation of vocabulary, and therefore the possibility of creating texts of any volume. At the same time, the absence of sound and visual, i.e. visual support imposes special obligations on the written text to compensate for the information that is transmitted in oral communication by non-linguistic means.

In modern language, the connection between stylistic phenomena and the form of text implementation - only oral or only written - is weakening. New traditions of text perception are being formed: listeners are equally irritated by “reading from a piece of paper” and by the excessive looseness of a lecturer or speaker who speaks without notes or handouts, which is seen more as unpreparedness than as freedom of mastery of the material.

Within the literary language there are two main functional areas: book And colloquial speech. Each of them is subject to its own system of norms. The main purpose of literary language is to serve means of communication its carriers, the main means of expressing national culture, therefore, over time, independent varieties were formed in it, called functional styles and conditioned by the sphere of public life they serve. In other words, the functional-style stratification of a literary language is determined by social need specialize linguistic means, organize them in a special way in order to ensure verbal communication of native speakers of a literary language in each sphere of human activity

So, national language is the common language of the entire nation, covering all spheres of people’s speech activity. It is heterogeneous, since it contains all varieties of language: territorial and social dialects, vernacular, jargon, and literary language. The highest form of the national language is literary– a standardized language that serves the cultural needs of the people; the language of fiction, science, print, radio, theater, government institutions. The concept of “speech culture” is closely connected with the concept of “literary language”: one concept presupposes the other. The culture of speech arises along with the formation and development of the literary language. One of the main tasks of speech culture is the preservation and improvement of the literary language.

Conclusion.

The Russian language is one of the international and world languages ​​that are used in communication between the peoples of different states. The first and main function of such languages ​​is communication in them within a certain ethnic group; they are the native (mother) language for the people who make up this ethnic group. The intermediary function of international communication for such languages ​​is secondary. It must be said that the composition of international languages ​​has changed over time. In the ancient world and in the Middle Ages, international languages ​​were not so much international as regional (for example, among the peoples of the Far East this language was ancient Chinese - Wenyan; in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenistic era - ancient Greek; in the Roman Empire - Latin; in the Near and Middle East with the spread of Islam - Arabic). Modern international languages ​​have gone beyond the boundaries of their regions and are becoming world (global) languages, forming the so-called “club of world languages”. These are the most prestigious and generally recognized languages. They are widely promoted and studied for a variety of purposes: as foreign languages ​​in schools, for tourism, for reading specialized literature, for communication. The number of such languages ​​does not go beyond Miller’s “magic number” of 7 +2. Sometimes the “world languages ​​club” is identified with the official and working languages ​​of the UN (there are 6 of them: English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, French.)

In terms of prevalence, the Russian language ranks fifth after Chinese (over 1 billion people), English (420 million people), Hindi and Urdu (320 million people) and Spanish (300 million people). About 250 million people around the globe speak Russian. The Russian language is the national language of the Russian people. Russian is the official language for 145 million 600 thousand people inhabiting the Russian Federation. It should also be borne in mind that according to 1999 data from Carnegie Foundation specialists studying migration problems in the territory of the former USSR, about 22 million Russian people now live in the CIS and Baltic countries. In addition, 61 million 300 thousand people belonging to various nationalities named Russian as their second language in which they speak fluently. As stated in Article 68 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Russian is the state language of Russia. At the same time, the Russian language is used in communication not only by those people for whom it is their native language. The need of any multinational country for one, and sometimes several state languages ​​is obvious: in parallel with the languages ​​of individual regions, there must be a certain unified language that is understandable to employees of government agencies and citizens throughout the state. It is in this capacity that the Russian language is used in the highest bodies of state power and administration of Russia, in official records management and correspondence of Russian institutions and enterprises, as well as in television and radio programs intended for the entire territory of the country. As a state language, it is studied in secondary and higher educational institutions of Russia.

Many of the republics that are part of the Russian Federation also have their own state languages. However, official letters and documents sent outside such republics, in order for them to be understandable to the addressees, must be written in the state language of all Russia, i.e. in Russian. However, the use of the Russian language on the territory of the Russian Federation is not limited only to official spheres: historically, it has happened that, when communicating with each other, representatives of different nationalities living in Russia often speak Russian. The Russian language is widely used outside of Russia. First of all, it is a fairly convenient means for interethnic communication between residents of the former Soviet Union, for example, Moldovans and Ukrainians, Georgians and Armenians, Uzbeks and Tajiks. In addition, representatives of different nations outside the CIS often resort to his help. Russian language is widely used in work international conferences and organizations. It is one of the six official and working languages ​​of the United Nations (the other official and working languages ​​of the UN are English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese and French). Languages ​​that are widely used as a means of international communication are called world languages. Russian language is one of the world languages. The Russian language has made its valuable contribution to the development of world civilization. Russian culture, science and living ties with neighboring states and peoples are what primarily predetermined interest in the Russian language in the past.

Russian is one of the group of East Slavic languages, along with Ukrainian and Belarusian. It is the most widely spoken Slavic language and one of the most widespread languages ​​in the world in terms of the number of people who speak it and consider it their mother tongue.

In turn, Slavic languages ​​belong to the Balto-Slavic branch of the family of Indo-European languages. Thus, to answer the question: where did the Russian language come from, you need to take an excursion into ancient times.

Origin of Indo-European languages

About 6 thousand years ago there lived a people who are considered native speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language. Where exactly he lived is a subject of fierce debate among historians and linguists today. The steppes are called the ancestral homeland of the Indo-Europeans Eastern Europe and Western Asia, and the territory on the border between Europe and Asia, and the Armenian Highlands. In the early 80s of the last century, linguists Gamkrelidze and Ivanov formulated the idea of ​​two ancestral homelands: first there was the Armenian Highlands, and then the Indo-Europeans moved to the Black Sea steppes. Archaeologically, speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language are correlated with representatives of the “Yamnaya culture”, who lived in eastern Ukraine and the territory of modern Russia in the 3rd millennium BC.

Isolation of the Balto-Slavic branch

Subsequently, the Proto-Indo-Europeans settled throughout Asia and Europe, mixed with local peoples and gave them their own language. In Europe, languages ​​of the Indo-European family are spoken by almost all peoples except the Basques; in Asia, various languages ​​of this family are spoken in India and Iran. Tajikistan, Pamir, etc. About 2 thousand years ago, the Proto-Balto-Slavic language emerged from the common Proto-Indo-European language. The Pre-Balto-Slavs existed as a single people speaking the same language, according to a number of linguists (including Ler-Splavinsky) for approximately 500-600 years, and the archaeological culture of Corded Ware corresponds to this period in the history of our peoples. Then the linguistic branch divided again: into the Baltic group, which henceforth took on an independent life, and the Proto-Slavic group, which became the common root from which all modern Slavic languages ​​originated.

Old Russian language

Pan-Slavic unity was maintained until the 6th-7th centuries AD. When speakers of East Slavic dialects emerged from the general Slavic massif, the Old Russian language began to form, which became the ancestor of modern Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian languages. The Old Russian language is known to us thanks to numerous monuments written in Church Slavonic, which can be considered as a written, literary form of the Old Russian language. In addition, written monuments have also been preserved - birch bark letters, graffiti on the walls of churches - written in everyday, colloquial Old Russian.

Old Russian period

The Old Russian (or Great Russian) period covers the time from the 14th to the 17th centuries. At this time, the Russian language finally stands out from the group of East Slavic languages, phonetic and grammatical systems close to modern ones are formed in it, other changes occur, including the formation of dialects. The leading dialect among them is the “aka” dialect of the upper and middle Oka, and, first of all, the Moscow dialect.

Modern Russian language

The Russian language we speak today began to take shape in the 17th century. It is based on the Moscow dialect. The decisive role for the formation of the modern Russian language was played by literary works Lomonosov, Trediakovsky, Sumarokov. Lomonosov wrote the first grammar, establishing the norms of the literary Russian language. All the richness of the Russian language, resulting from the synthesis of Russian colloquial, Church Slavonic elements, borrowings from other languages, is reflected in the works of Pushkin, who is considered the creator of the modern Russian literary language.

Borrowings from other languages

Over the centuries of its existence, the Russian language, like any other living and developing system, was repeatedly enriched with borrowings from other languages. The earliest borrowings include “Balticisms” - borrowings from the Baltic languages. However, in this case, we are perhaps not talking about borrowings, but about vocabulary preserved from the time when the Slavic-Baltic community existed. “Balticisms” include words such as “ladle”, “tow”, “stack”, “amber”, “village”, etc. During the period of Christianization, “Grecisms” entered our language - “sugar”, “bench”. “lantern”, “notebook”, etc. Through contacts with European peoples The Russian language included “Latinisms” - “doctor”, “medicine”, “rose” and “Arabisms” - “admiral”, “coffee”, “varnish”, “mattress”, etc. Large group words entered our language from the Turkic languages. These are words such as “hearth”, “tent”, “hero”, “cart”, etc. And finally, since the time of Peter I, the Russian language has absorbed words from European languages. Initially, this is a large layer of words from German, English and Dutch related to science, technology, maritime and military affairs: “ammunition”, “globe”, “assembly”, “optics”, “pilot”, “sailor”, “deserter” " Later, French, Italian and Spanish words related to household items and the field of art settled in the Russian language - “stained glass”, “veil”, “couch”, “boudoir”, “ballet”, “actor”, “poster”, “pasta” ", "serenade", etc. And finally, these days we are experiencing a new influx of borrowings, this time from the English language.