How often do we, Russian speakers, think about such an important moment as the history of the emergence of the Russian language? After all, how many secrets are hidden in it, how many interesting things you can find out if you dig deeper. How did the Russian language develop? After all, our speech is not only everyday conversations, it is a rich history.
History of the development of the Russian language: briefly about the main thing
Where did our mother tongue come from? There are several theories. Some scientists consider (for example, linguist N. Gusev) Sanskrit to be the closest relative of the Russian language. However, Sanskrit was used by Indian scholars and priests. Such was the Latin for the inhabitants of ancient Europe - "something very clever and incomprehensible." But how did the speech that was used by the Indian scholars suddenly end up on our side? Is it really with the Indians that the formation of the Russian language began?
The legend of the seven white teachers
Each scientist understands the stages of the history of the Russian language differently: this is the origin, development, alienation of the bookish language from the vernacular, the development of syntax and punctuation, etc. All of them may differ in order (it is still unknown when exactly the bookish language separated from the vernacular) or interpretation. But, according to the following legend, seven white teachers can be considered the "fathers" of the Russian language.
There is a legend in India that is even studied in Indian universities. In ancient times, seven white teachers came from the cold North (the Himalayas region). It was they who gave people Sanskrit and laid the foundation for Brahmanism, from which Buddhism was later born. Many believe that this North was one of the regions of Russia, so modern Hindus often go there on pilgrimage.
A legend these days
It turns out that many Sanskrit words completely coincide with Russian words - this is the theory of the famous ethnographer Natalia Guseva, who wrote more than 150 scientific works on the history and religion of India. Most of them, by the way, have been refuted by other scientists.
This theory was not taken out of thin air by her. Her appearance was an interesting case. Once Natalia accompanied a respected scientist from India, who decided to arrange a tourist trip along the northern rivers of Russia. Communicating with the inhabitants of local villages, the Hindu suddenly burst into tears and refused the services of an interpreter, saying that he was happy to hear his native Sanskrit. Then Guseva decided to devote her life to studying the mysterious phenomenon, and at the same time to establish how the Russian language developed.
This is truly amazing! According to this story, beyond the Himalayas live representatives of the Negroid race, speaking a language so similar toour native. Mystic, and only. Nevertheless, the hypothesis that our dialect originated from Indian Sanskrit is in place. Here it is - the history of the Russian language in brief.
Dragunkin's theory
And here is another scientist who decided that this story of the emergence of the Russian language is true. The famous philologist Alexander Dragunkin argued that a truly great language comes from a simpler one, in which there are fewer derivational forms, and the words are shorter. Allegedly, Sanskrit is much simpler than Russian. And the Sanskrit script is nothing more than Slavic runes slightly modified by the Hindus. But this theory is just a law of dialectics, where is the origin of language?
Scientific version
And here is the version that most scientists approve and accept. She claims that 40,000 years ago (the time of the appearance of the first man) people had a need to express their thoughts in the process of collective activity. This is how the language was born. But in those days the population was extremely small, and all people spoke the same language. After thousands of years there was a migration of peoples. The DNA of the people has changed, the tribes have become isolated from each other and began to speak differently.
Languages differed from each other in form, in word formation. Each group of people developed their native language, supplemented it with new words, and gave it shape. Later, there was a need for a science that would deal with describing new achievements or things that a person came to.
As a result of this evolution in people's heads,called "matrices". The well-known linguist Georgy Gachev studied these matrices in detail, having studied more than 30 matrices - language pictures of the world. According to his theory, the Germans are very attached to their home, and this served as the image of a typical German speaker. And the Russian language and mentality came from the concept or image of the road, the way. This matrix lies in our subconscious.
The birth and development of the Russian language
About 3 thousand years BC, among the Indo-European languages, the Proto-Slavic dialect stood out, which a thousand years later became the Proto-Slavic language. In the VI-VII centuries. n. e. it was divided into several groups: eastern, western and southern. Our language is usually attributed to the eastern group.
And the beginning of the path of the Old Russian language is called the formation of Kievan Rus (IX century). At the same time, Cyril and Methodius invent the first Slavic alphabet.
The Slavic language has been rapidly developing, and in terms of popularity it has already caught up with Greek and Latin. It was the Old Slavonic language (the predecessor of modern Russian) that managed to unite all the Slavs, it was in it that the most important documents and literary monuments were written and published. For example, "The Tale of Igor's Campaign".
Normalization of writing
Then came the era of feudalism, and the Polish-Lithuanian conquests in the 13th-14th centuries led to the fact that the language was divided into three groups of dialects: Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian, as well as some intermediate dialects.
In the 16th century in Moscow Russia, it was decided to normalize the writing of the Russian language (then it was called “prosta mova” and was influenced by Belarusian andUkrainian) - to introduce the predominance of the coordinative connection in sentences and the frequent use of the unions "yes", "and", "a". The dual number was lost, and the declension of nouns became very similar to the modern one. And the characteristic features of Moscow speech became the basis of the literary language. For example, “akanye”, the consonant “g”, the endings “ovo” and “evo”, demonstrative pronouns (yourself, you, etc.). The beginning of book printing finally approved the literary Russian language.
Petrine era
The Peter's epoch greatly influenced speech. After all, it was at this time that the Russian language was freed from the "guardianship" of the church, and in 1708 the alphabet was reformed so that it became closer to the European model.
In the second half of the 18th century, Lomonosov laid down new norms for the Russian language, combining everything that had come before: colloquial speech, folk poetry, and even command language. After him, the language was transformed by Derzhavin, Radishchev, Fonvizin. It was they who increased the number of synonyms in the Russian language in order to properly reveal its richness.
A huge contribution to the development of our speech was made by Pushkin, who rejected all restrictions in style and combined Russian words with some European ones to create a full and colorful picture of the Russian language. He was supported by Lermontov and Gogol.
Development Trends
How did the Russian language develop in the future? From the middle of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, the Russian language received several development trends:
- Development of literary norms.
- Convergence of the literary language and colloquial speech.
- Language expansion thanks todialectisms and jargon.
- Development of the "realism" genre in literature, philosophical issues.
Somewhat later, socialism changed the word formation of the Russian language, and in the twentieth century, the media standardized oral speech.
It turns out that our modern Russian language, with all its lexical and grammatical rules, came from a mixture of various East Slavic dialects that were common throughout Russia, and the Church Slavonic language. After all the metamorphoses, it has become one of the most popular languages in the world.
A little more about writing
Even Tatishchev himself (the author of the book “Russian History”) was firmly convinced that Cyril and Methodius did not invent writing. It existed long before they were born. The Slavs not only knew how to write: they had many types of writing. For example, traits-cuts, runes or a drop cap. And the scientist brothers took this very initial letter as a basis and simply finalized it. Perhaps they threw out about a dozen letters to make it easier to translate the Bible. Yes, Cyril and Methodius created the Slavic alphabet, but its basis was a letter. This is how writing appeared in Russia.
External threats
Unfortunately, our language has been repeatedly exposed to external danger. And then the future of the whole country was in question. For example, at the turn of the 19th century, all the “cream of society” spoke exclusively French, dressed in the appropriate style, and even the menu consisted only of French cuisine. The nobles gradually began to forget their native language, ceased to associate themselves with the Russian people, acquiring a new philosophy andtradition.
As a result of this introduction of French speech, Russia could lose not only its language, but also its culture. Fortunately, the situation was saved by the geniuses of the 19th century: Pushkin, Turgenev, Karamzin, Dostoevsky. It was they who, being true patriots, did not allow the Russian language to perish. It was they who showed how handsome he is.
Modernity
The history of the Russian language is polysyllabic and has not been fully studied. Don't briefly describe it. It will take years to study. The Russian language and the history of the people is a truly amazing thing. And how can you call yourself a patriot without knowing your native speech, folklore, poetry and literature?
Unfortunately, modern youth has lost interest in books, and especially in classical literature. This trend is also observed in older people. Television, the Internet, nightclubs and restaurants, glossy magazines and blogs - all this has replaced our "paper friends". Many people have even ceased to have their own opinion, expressing themselves in the usual clichés imposed by society and the media. Despite the fact that the classics were and remain in the school curriculum, few people read them even in a summary, which "eats" all the beauty and originality of the works of Russian writers.
But how rich is the history and culture of the Russian language! For example, literature is able to provide answers to many questions better than any forums on the Internet. Russian literature expresses all the power of the wisdom of the people, makes you feel love for our homeland and better understand it. Every person must understandthat the native language, native culture and people are inseparable, they are one whole. And what does a modern Russian citizen understand and think about? About leaving the country as soon as possible?
Main danger
And of course, the main threat to our language is foreign words. As mentioned above, such a problem was relevant in the 18th century, but, unfortunately, has remained unresolved to this day and is slowly acquiring the features of a national catastrophe.
Not only is society too fond of various slang words, obscene language, made-up expressions, it also constantly uses foreign borrowings in its speech, forgetting that there are much more beautiful synonyms in the Russian language. Such words are: “stylist”, “manager”, “PR”, “summit”, “creative”, “user”, “blog”, “Internet” and many others. If it came only from certain groups of society, then the problem could be fought. But, unfortunately, foreign words are actively used by teachers, journalists, scientists and even officials. These people carry the word to people, which means they introduce an addiction. And it happens that a foreign word settles so firmly in the Russian language that it begins to seem like it is native.
What's the matter?
So what is it called? Ignorance? Fashion for everything foreign? Or a campaign directed against Russia? Perhaps all at once. And this problem must be solved as soon as possible, otherwise it will be too late. For example, more often use the word "manager" instead of "manager", "business lunch" instead of "business lunch", etc. After all, the extinction of the people begins precisely with the extinction of the language.
About dictionaries
Now you know how the Russian language developed. However, that's not all. The history of Russian language dictionaries deserves special mention. Modern dictionaries evolved from ancient handwritten and later printed books. At first they were very small and intended for a narrow circle of people.
The most ancient Russian dictionary is considered to be a short supplement to the Novgorod Pilot Book (1282). It included 174 words from different dialects: Greek, Church Slavonic, Hebrew and even biblical proper names.
After 400 years, much larger dictionaries began to appear. They already had a systematization and even an alphabet. The then dictionaries were mostly educational or encyclopedic in nature, so they were not available to ordinary peasants.
First printed dictionary
The first printed dictionary appeared in 1596. It was another supplement to the grammar textbook by Priest Lavrentiy Zizania. It contained over a thousand words, which were sorted alphabetically. The dictionary was explanatory and explained the origin of many Old Slavonic and borrowed words. Published in Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian.
Further development of dictionaries
XVIII was a century of great discoveries. They did not bypass explanatory dictionaries either. Great scientists (Tatishchev, Lomonosov) unexpectedly showed an increased interest in the origin of many words. Trediakovsky began to write notes. At the endIn the end, a number of dictionaries were created, but the largest was the "Church Dictionary" and its appendix. More than 20,000 words have been interpreted in the Church Dictionary. Such a book laid the foundation for the normative dictionary of the Russian language, and Lomonosov, along with other researchers, began its creation.
The Most Significant Dictionary
The history of the development of the Russian language remembers such a significant date for all of us - the creation of the "Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language" by V. I. Dahl (1866). This four-volume book received dozens of reprints and is still relevant today. 200,000 words and more than 30,000 sayings and phraseological units can be safely considered a real treasure.
Our days
Unfortunately, the world community is not interested in the history of the emergence of the Russian language. His current position can be compared to one incident that once happened to the extraordinarily talented scientist Dmitri Mendeleev. After all, Mendeleev was never able to become an honorary academician of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (the current RAS). There was a grandiose scandal, and still: such a scientist cannot be admitted to the academy! But the Russian Empire and its world were unshakable: they declared that Russians since the times of Lomonosov and Tatishchev were in the minority, and one good Russian scientist, Lomonosov, was enough.
This history of the modern Russian language makes us think: what if someday English (or any other) will replace such a uniqueRussian? Pay attention to how many foreign words are present in our jargon! Yes, the mixing of languages and friendly exchange is great, but the amazing story of our speech should not be allowed to disappear from the planet. Take care of your native language!
