Posted 22 декабря 2022, 08:26
Published 22 декабря 2022, 08:26
Modified 24 декабря 2022, 22:38
Updated 24 декабря 2022, 22:38
The policy of “preserving” the Russian language, widely announced by the Russian authorities, by ridding it of foreign borrowings, is still widely discussed on social networks. The Moscow philologist and teacher Mikhail Pavlovets noted a very unexpected and amusing aspect of this problem:
“Optimism post. The fighters against the dominance of anglicisms in the Russian language are not ready to admit a simple fact: the borrowing of a word usually occurs with the borrowing of someone else's invention, or if this word makes subtle differences in the definition of a particular concept; plays a certain role and the length of the word, and the simplicity of its articulation. Let's say - "fake" is not just a "lie", and "insight" is not just an "insight". When we have something to share with the world, we share not only this object/phenomenon (as the Japanese shared their “tamagotchi” and “hikikomori” with us in their time), but also the concept that denotes them.
Personally, I admire the brevity, bitingness and accuracy of such Russian neologisms as “siphon off”, “that which is brought”, “rollback”, “throw”, “leak”, “gag order”. Their emergence and consolidation indicate that the Russian language is alive, and these words have every chance to enter other languages of the world, enriching them: there is no cancel culture and the language policy here is not able to resist natural processes..."
At the same time, it is interesting to remember that there were words in the history of the Russian language that became international, and by right! For example: satellite or perestroika. True, there was also the word GULAG... The current situation, however regrettable it is, only shows that Russia has absolutely nothing to be proud of in front of the rest of the world. Well, in fact, isn't it a shame for all these cuts and stuffing?
On the other hand, of course, it is possible to completely isolate the Russian language from the rest of the world, as, for example, Iceland does, in which almost an entire ministry has been specially created to combat borrowings, and it is difficult to learn the Icelandic language precisely because all the words it has its own, relatives. As for Russia, it is unlikely that the process of borrowing, which has been going on at least since the era of Peter I, will stop at the behest of officials. To do this, you need to have at least methodicalness and unbending discipline, which never happened in the vastness of Rus'.