Even before the advent of writing, from ancient times, thanks to economic, political, educational and everyday language contacts, the Russian language included borrowed words. Both whole words and stems, and individual morphemes can be borrowed.
Borrowings
There is not a single language on earth in which the vocabulary would be limited only to its native words. The percentage of "non-own" words in different historical periods is different in languages. Turkisms, like any other borrowings, passed into the language with different intensity, this process is influenced by both proper linguistic and extralinguistic factors. The latter include political, cultural, technological, economic and domestic.
According to data collected on the basis of various criteria, modern Russian contains from 10 to 35% of borrowed vocabulary. All such vocabulary can be divided into two large groups:
- Slavic (related) borrowings.
- Non-Slavic (foreign)borrowing.
Turkism words belong to the second group. Borrowings can be part of the active or passive vocabulary of the language. Sometimes a word from another language can displace the original word from the main vocabulary. For example, the word "horse" taken from the Tatar, which replaced the word "horse", which became expressively colored in the Russian literary language.
In cases where the word denotes a new reality and has no analogues in the receiving language, the fate of the borrowing is directly related to the fate of the designated object or phenomenon. The once extremely popular word of Turkic origin "epancha" today is historicism. The transition from an active vocabulary to a passive one is quite natural and logical and is determined by the historical development of society and language.
Passing from the source language, borrowings can either go through assimilation (of a different nature) or remain in the position of exoticisms (national names) and barbarisms (the least mastered type of borrowings).
Thematic groups that include borrowings are very diverse, but there is still a certain trend, for example, political and philosophical terminology is rich in Greek-Latin borrowings, and transitions from German have replenished the administrative, technical and military sphere. Turkisms in Russian also have some thematic commonality inherent in most borrowings. For the most part, such words denote concepts related to everyday life. This can be consideredtheir semantic hallmark.
Turkisms in Russian
Turkisms are considered to be not only those words that were borrowed directly from the Turkic languages, but also those that came into the Russian language indirectly through them. That is, the word first passed into Turkic from one or another source language, and then was borrowed into Russian. Or, on the contrary, some language borrowed a word of Turkic origin, and then it passed into Russian. Thus, it is customary to call all words of Turkic origin, regardless of the source language. The main part of Turkisms passed into the Russian language in the 16th-17th centuries.
For ease of study and systematization, borrowed vocabulary is often classified. The division into groups can be based on a variety of characteristics. For vocabulary, one of the most convenient bases for classification is thematic relevance. An example of such a distribution of Turkisms is the following classification:
- Words for clothing and parts, shoes and hats: kapturok, kaptorga (buckle), astrakhan, heel.
- Words naming representatives of the animal world: kapkara (hyena), karakurt.
- Words related to the plant world: slippers (representatives of the buttercup family), pencil (small aspen or birch shoots).
- Words related to agricultural work: astrakhan (forks with bent ends).
- Names of a person by his trade, occupation or socialsocial position: guard (watchman), kulak (farmer-owner).
- Names that give an expressive description of a person, including curses: baskak (brave man).
- Words naming buildings and their parts (tower, guardhouse).
- Words denoting parts of the body (head, stump).
- Words for household items: kaptar (scales).
- Ethnonyms (Bashkir, Karachai).
- Anthroponyms (Kablukov).
- Toponyms (Karaganda).
- Hydonyms (Fr. Karakul).
- Other words of disparate meaning: kultuk (river branch, bay, ravine).
Phonetic features
There are several phonetic signs that can be used to identify Turkisms in Russian. One of them is vowel harmony, that is, the repetition of the same vowel sound in a word. Such examples of Turkisms in Russian can be the words diamond, cockroach, cast iron, shoe, chest, etc. Another sign of Turkic borrowings is the presence of -cha and -lyk at the end of the word: kalancha, locust, brocade, label, bashlyk, shish kebab. Often the final –cha is found in geographical names.
Scientific approach
The history of the scientific study of Turkisms in the Russian language dates back to the 18th century. The first surviving comparative study dates from 1769. The magazine "Podenshina" in the same year published a number of Russian words that are similar to the words of some Eastern languages. This list included both successful examples of Turkisms in Russian (biryuk,horse, reed, chest), as well as those Russian words that are simply consonant with Turkic ones (say, Russian “shchi” and Turkic “ashchi”, which means “cook”).
In the 19th century, a number of studies were conducted on the influence of various languages on Russian, including Turkic. But unfortunately, very limited language material was considered.
The Etymological Dictionary of Oriental Words in European Languages, published in 1927, also did not make a significant contribution to the study of the issue.
An extensive contribution to the study of Turkisms was made during the scientific controversy of F. E. Korsh and P. M. Melioransky on the issue of Türkic borrowings in the text "The Tale of Igor's Campaign".
In 1958, the work of N. K. Dmitriev "On the Turkic elements of the Russian dictionary" was published. This is a very thorough and successful study, in which the author offers several glossaries, based on the degree of reliability of scientific data. So, he singles out the classes of Turkisms:
- whose origin is confirmed by a sufficient number of facts;
- those that require additional evidence base;
- those whose origin is considered to be Turkic only as a hypothesis.
It can be said that Turkisms in the modern Russian language are still waiting for their researcher, who will create a comprehensive monographic description of the vocabulary borrowed from Eastern languages. It should be noted that the lack of accurate conclusions on the issue of Turkic borrowings is explained by the poor knowledge of the dialectvocabulary of the Turkic languages. In such studies, it is especially important to rely not only on the data of dictionaries, which record only the literary language, but also on dialects, since they reflect the genetic connection of languages. That is why the success of further studies of the Turkic vocabulary as part of Russian directly depends on the development of the dialectology of the Turkic languages.
Lexicographic description experience
In 1976, in Alma-Ata, the “Dictionary of Turkisms in Russian” was published by E. N. Shipova. The book has about 400 pages, which contain 2000 lexemes. Despite the fact that the dictionary was compiled on the basis of a systematic study of the Turkisms of the Russian language, it has been repeatedly criticized. Linguists note that it contains etymologies that are dubious and unproven. Also, a number of words are provided with a false etymology, although such cases are rare.
Another significant drawback of the dictionary is that the vast majority of the words presented in it (about 80%) belong to the category of little-used vocabulary. These are obsolete, regional or highly specialized words, including craft terminology.
Disputed origins
It is impossible to say exactly how many Turkisms there are in the Russian language, since the opinions of linguists differ about many words. For example, N. A. Baskakov attributes the words “bump”, “gogol”, “pie” and “troublemaker” to Turkic origin, with which some other scientists fundamentally disagree.
Often during historical reconstruction andetymological studies produce controversial or ambiguous results. For example, if we want to find out whether the word "hearth" is Turkism, then when referring to dictionaries, we will find an ambiguous assessment of the origin of the word. So, in the dictionary of V. I. Dahl this word is labeled "Tatar.?", This indicates that the compiler of the dictionary was not sure about the origin of the word and gives it as an assumption. In Fasmer's etymological dictionary, the word is given with the mark "borrowings. from the Turks. Dmitriev suggests that the Russians borrowed the word "hearth" from the Turks. Other dictionaries consider Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Teleut, Altai, Sagai and some others as the source language. Thus, the majority of authoritative sources answer positively to the question of whether the word home is Turkism, but it is impossible to accurately indicate the source language. Which brings us back to the controversial etymological research.
But there are cases when words that are definitely not Turkisms are passed off as such. Frequent etymological errors in relation to a number of lexemes: lagoon, ox, pouch, troublemaker, hashish, beg, barberry, ladle, wild rosemary, herd, sausage, mess, colic, bergamot, kalach, chain mail, tag, buzz, quinoa, crucian carp, lemon, beads, tub, cherry, penal servitude, lighthouse, fur, fakir, aspen and many others. etc. Some scholars insist that the word "hurricane" is also not of Turkic origin. But there is also a diametrically opposite opinion regarding this word.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that there are several classifications of Turkic languages, theythey differ not only in matters of drawing boundaries between certain languages within the Altaic macrofamily, but also in the belonging of some languages to this family.
Before the Golden Horde
The transition of words from one language to another is in close causal relationship with the linguo-social conditions characteristic of a particular historical period.
It is quite logical that a significant part of the Turkisms passed into our language during the Tatar-Mongol invasion, but this does not mean that there were no language contacts before it. And although the number of transitions is small, they still exist. Among the Turkisms preserved in the Russian language, borrowed in the pre-Mongolian period, one can name such words as tent, pearls, horse, gang, boyar, ark, idol, chamber, horde, hero, temple, san, koumiss, beads. Linguists differ on some of these words. So, the word "dog" is considered by some scientists to be Iranian, and some - Turkic. Bulgar origin is attributed to a number of words.
The period of the Tatar-Mongol invasion
In the era of the Golden Horde, many words related to different spheres of human activity entered the Russian language. Among them, not only household names stand out, but also words serving the economic, state and military spheres. Among borrowings related to everyday life, one can, in turn, distinguish a number of thematic lexical groups:
- construction (brick, shack, tin);
- food and drinks (braga, rhubarb, buza, watermelon);
- jewelry (earrings, emerald, diamond);
- clothes and shoes (dress, veil, shoe, stocking, cap, caftan);
- fabric (coarse calico, satin, braid, calico);
- household items (chest, tub, glass);
- natural phenomena (hurricane, fog), etc.
Since the 16th century
The next peak of replenishment of the dictionary of Turkisms in Russian falls on the 16th-17th centuries. This is due to the spread of the influence of the culture of the Ottoman Empire. It can be traced back to the 18th century, since even in the Petrine era there were borrowings from Turkic languages (for example: porcelain, head, pencil, flaw).
Besides, after the conquest of Siberia, there is another round of borrowing. This applies to a greater extent to toponyms (Altai, Yenisei) and local realities (chipmunk).
mess and many others.
Sometimes it is impossible to determine the transition time of a word even approximately. Such borrowings include, for example, the word "babay".
Some examples
Relative agreement was reached in relation to a number of words in the linguistic environment. Their Turkic origin is generally accepted. These words include, for example:
- arshin;
- groceries;
- stupid;
- hood (hood);
- tower;
- golden eagle;
- blizzard;
- felt;
- sofa;
- jumble;
- donkey;
- Adam's apple;
- border;
- karapuz;
- pocket;
- quiver;
- fist;
- stump;
- kumach;
- mess;
- sash;
- lula kebab;
- Murza (princely son);
- sofa;
- braid;
- sheepskin coat;
- skullcap;
- bale;
- tyutyun (tobacco);
- ghoul;
- cheers;
- robe;
- persimmon;
- chumichka (ladle), etc.
Also, many anthroponyms are of Turkic origin. Such etymology is inherent in the following surnames: Akchurin, Baskak, Baskakov, Bash, Bashkin, Bashkirtsev, Bashmak, Bashmakov, Karaev, Karamazov, Karamzin, Karamyshev, Karaul, Karaulov, Karacheev, Kozhev, Kozhevnikov, Kulakov, Turgenev, Ushakov, etc.
There are also many Turkisms among toponyms: Bashbashi, Bashevo, Kapka, Karabash, Karabekaul, Karabulyak, Karadag, Karakul, Karakum, Karatau, Kara-Tyube, Karachaevsk, Kultuk, Kultuki and many others. others
Some hydronyms come from Turkic languages: Basbulak, Bastau, Bashevka, Kara-Bogaz-gol, Karadarya, Karatal, Kara-chekrak, Dead Kultuk and others.
