What language group is Russian? Svetozar: open international Olympiad for schoolchildren in the Russian language
Russian language belongs to the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic group Indo-European family languages. It is the language of the Russian nation and a means of interethnic communication for many peoples living in Russia. Also, Russian is one of the six official and working languages of the UN. With the expansion of the European Union, Russian has become the fourth most common language foreign language among EU citizens.
In the history of the Russian language, it is customary to distinguish 3 main periods:
- there was a strong influence from the South Slavic variety;
- it has become a closed system, clearly opposed to other varieties of language;
- it embraces secular genres more widely, which encourages the infusion of colloquial elements.
The modern Russian language began with A.S. Pushkin.
The basis of the literary language is stylistically neutral means. They make up approximately three-quarters of the pronunciation norms, grammatical forms, words and meanings of the language.
It is customary to distinguish between common literary language and language fiction. The latter is broader and at the same time narrower than the general literary language: wider in that it uses means that are outside literary norms, narrower in its scope of application: the general literary language serves all types of social life. The influence of the language of fiction on the general literary language is very great.
The Russian language also includes colloquial speech, vernaculars, local dialects, and various kinds of jargons. Part of the modern Russian language, in addition to commonly used words and expressions, is made up of special terminology that reflects the characteristics of various professions and specialties.
Nowadays, significant changes are taking place in the Russian language system - in its semantic system, stylistics, vocabulary, types of phrases. According to the observations of Russian scholars, deviations from the norms and traditions of the literary language standard have become a characteristic feature current state language. The boundaries of the literary language turned out to be blurred, the norms weakened and more and more variable. Russian language entered new Age in a changing historical state, and the speech based on it became emphatically individualized, rich and expressive.
Every living language has a large layer of international vocabulary, and it is impossible to do without it. The enormous size of Russia, its intensive contacts with many countries in the East, South and West, its open spaces and its history have led to a very large number of borrowings in the Russian language. Most often, this phenomenon should be considered not as a disadvantage, but as an advantage, as a process of language enrichment. The Russian language turned out to be richer than other less widespread or more conservative languages precisely because it turned out to be capable of adopting and reinterpreting words and concepts from other languages - both Eastern and Western. Also A.S. Pushkin said about Russian: “It is overbearing and sociable in its relations to foreign languages.”
Today we can easily distinguish words with Latin or Greek roots in Russian. But even professional writers are surprised when they trace the origin of words that we mostly consider to be native Russian. “Every word in the Russian dictionary is of foreign origin! - says writer and publicist L. Grigorieva. – This discovery shocked me in my first year of the Faculty of Philology. Most of the words starting with “A” are of Turkic or deep Latin origin: cart, watermelon, anemia, army... Almost all words starting with “F” are originally Greek, because in the Slavic language there was no such letter at all before the adoption of the Byzantine version of Christianity... You can’t count everything! They ate everything, digested everything, attached their prefixes to everything, attached suffixes, articulated it with case endings and put it on the rails of literary and colloquial speech this reinforced concrete composition of the great Russian language, which is very difficult for foreigners to understand.”
Ubiquitous in English as an additional language - for special communication and reading specialized literature - it does not threaten strong and widespread languages. The Russian language has not only withstood the trials of the last few decades, but has also developed and expanded its position in many areas. Only in the last 15 years has the Russian language expanded its lexicon several thousand words – mainly from English and French – such as “inauguration”, “presentation”, “PR”, “mayor”, etc. The Russian language has managed to master tens of thousands of terms in various sciences, technology, medicine and all other special fields, which was beyond the power of other languages with a smaller distribution area.
Today, the Russian language is widely used outside of Russia. It is used as the language of science - a means of communication between scientists from different countries, a means of encoding and storing universal knowledge (60–70% of all world information is published in English and Russian). The Russian language is also a necessary component of world communication systems (radio broadcasts, air and space communications, etc.).
Russian and other world languages are characterized by specific social functions. For example, they perform the role of lingus franca, i.e. intermediary in disseminating and leveling the level of knowledge in different countries; become the languages of diplomacy, international trade, transport, and tourism. In addition, such languages are also characterized by a conscious choice of them for study and use (for example, recognition of their teaching in schools and universities in most countries; legal recognition as a working language in international organizations, etc.).
Decay Soviet Union became the cause of complex problems not only in the field of economics or state building, but also in the field of culture. And in such an extremely important area as the position and role of the Russian language and its relationship to the languages of the titular nations in all the new states of the Commonwealth, a particularly a difficult situation. But despite some unpleasant moments, interest in the Russian language in the CIS countries has not weakened, and in Lately, on the contrary, has intensified. Even in Armenia, the only country where the titular nation makes up more than 90% of the total population, the Russian language has not completely disappeared either as a language of Russian culture that is respected here, or as a language of international communication. For business and diplomatic correspondence within the CIS countries, all interested institutions and persons in Armenia use Russian, not Armenian. When speaking outside the CIS, Armenian diplomats and politicians use both English and Russian. They treat the Russian language with respect in Azerbaijan. After the collapse of the USSR, the University of Slavic Studies began operating in Baku. Many newspapers and books are published here in Russian. According to the Constitution of Kazakhstan, Kazakh language is defined as the state language, and Russian as the “official” language. Office work is conducted here in both Kazakh and Russian languages. Almost half of the positions in the government of Kazakhstan are occupied by managers and specialists of Russian, Ukrainian and German nationality, and Russian is the common working language here. Russian language is a compulsory subject in schools; moreover, over 40% of children study in educational institutions republics where teaching is conducted exclusively in Russian. And this despite the fact that there are only 26% of ethnic Russians in Kazakhstan. In April 2006, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev arrived in Moscow on an official visit. In his speech in the State Duma of Russia, he devoted Special attention status of the Russian language in Kazakhstan. He embellished his statement with the words of the great Kazakh poet Abai: “The Russian language will open our eyes to the world. Russian science and culture are the key to the world's treasures. Those who own this key will get everything else without much effort.”
The situation in Uzbekistan was similar to Kazakhstan, and Tashkent showed a very respectful attitude towards the Russian language. In 1998, at the proposal of President I. Karimov, the parliament of Uzbekistan abolished any restrictions regarding positions held, career advancement, participation in public and state life due to lack of knowledge of the Uzbek language.
Parallel development and use of both Russian and one’s own language is necessary in the CIS countries and for the development national system education. Russian television also contributes to the spread and preservation of the authority of the Russian language. In the CIS countries, this is the most accessible of all other foreign television broadcasting systems, since the Russian language is known here much better than the languages of other countries. Almost all CIS countries have preserved the mass Russian press. “Kazakhskaya Pravda” is popular in Kazakhstan, “Pravda Vostoka” is popular in Uzbekistan, “Kievskie Vedomosti” is popular in Ukraine, and “Vyshka” newspaper is popular in Azerbaijan. There are dozens of such newspapers and they differ in their political orientation. In Belarus, the Russian-language press dominates, but in Turkmenistan there is almost none. Books published in Russia are distributed and sold in all CIS countries.
To summarize, it should be said that the Russian language has generally survived in the CIS, and its authority today is not associated with any pressure, but only with its merits and needs for it. The Russian language continues to play important role in all spheres of life in the CIS countries and, above all, in the field of culture. The Russian language is also indispensable in the field of interethnic communication. Knowledge of the Russian language is a positive part of the heritage that remains in the post-Soviet space.
When asked about the position of the Russian language at the global level, the director of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Viktor Alekseevich Vinogradov, answered this way: “The language of a great power is a great language! The Russian language occupied a strong position in the world in previous years, but now it has lost a little before the onslaught of the American type of culture and language in particular.” But the scientist is confident that with such a great literary past we have nothing to fear.
Undoubtedly, the Russian language has become a highly developed, rich, revealed in its potential, orderly, stylistically differentiated, historically balanced language, capable of serving all needs - not only national, but also universal. This happened largely thanks to the creative creativity of the Russian people, first of all, generations of Russians and all Russian figures in science, politics, technology, culture and, to a greater extent, literature, which was the main source of development, processing and polishing for the Russian language. The universal significance of fiction, of the entire culture created in a certain language, is of great importance when assigning the status of “world” to a language.
Russian literature is almost a thousand years old. This is one of the most ancient literatures in Europe. Its beginning dates back to the second half of the 10th century, and for more than seven hundred years it belongs to the period that is commonly called “ancient Russian literature.”
The emergence of literature occurred simultaneously with the advent of Christianity and the church in Rus', which brought with them writing and church books. However, such a leap was prepared by the entire preceding history of the Russian people. High level the development of folklore made it possible to perceive new aesthetic values, which were introduced by writing. Although the authorship in Old Russian literature is muted, the reader does not know the names of the bright, original writers who lived at that time (many works remained anonymous), this period in the development of Russian literature has a special place in the history of the Russian people and human culture as a whole.
However, the greatest era in the development of Russian classical literature is rightfully considered the 19th century. The work of Russian writers and poets was permeated with patriotism and love for people. In Russia, the social role of literature has always been high. In bright, deeply typical images, Russian classics captured the essential phenomena of the complex and contradictory reality of the 19th century. Many of these images entered the gallery of characters created by world literature and began to live their own literary life outside the era reflected in them. Let us recall just a few of them: Eugene Onegin from the novel of the same name by A. S. Pushkin, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov - the hero of N. V. Gogol’s poem “ Dead Souls", Judushka Golovlev is the hero of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s novel “The Golovlev Gentlemen”, Evgeny Vasilyevich Bazarov from the novel “Fathers and Sons” by I. S. Turgenev. This gallery can be continued endlessly.
Word artists reached in the 19th century. an aesthetically perfect art form capable of conveying all the richness of its content. The merit of A. S. Pushkin and M. Yu. Lermontov is especially great in developing the language of fiction, in enriching it with the treasures of popular speech. Achievements of Russian literature of the 19th century. were due to its close connection with the life of the people, with the socio-historical development of Russia at the turn of the 18th–19th centuries. entered a new historical era. Being a complete and vivid reflection of national life, Russian classical literature did not develop in isolation from other literatures, but was influenced by them.
In teaching the Russian language as a foreign language, works of fiction occupy a special place. Text (including fiction) is both a means and a goal of learning. We teach using the material of texts so that the student can work with this text in the future: read, extract information, generate his own text works. It is impossible to know another culture without studying its integral part - fiction. Where else, if not in the works of famous Russian authors, could the essence of the Russian soul, the mentality of the people, their picture of the world be so fully captured? What, besides masterpieces of artistic expression, can awaken in a person the desire to learn something new, unfamiliar, which contains so many secrets and mysteries? No translation is capable of conveying the true atmosphere of the work or revealing to the reader the personality of the author himself. This is why many foreigners strive to learn Russian not only to use it for business purposes, but also to be able to read Russian classics in the original.
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 They 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 included in Slavic group Indo-European family.
- Name the two most characteristics 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.
- 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.
- 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 intensified: German, French, Polish, Italian, English. Currently - the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century - the vocabulary of the Russian person is replenished with Americanisms, that is in English words, which came from American English. 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 - beginning of the 19th century there were many borrowings from French. 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.
- 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 declensions, 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 accurately reproduce them, 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 - “vocal”. 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 have been lost, one has been preserved - the perfect, but it has changed its form beyond recognition: in the chronicle “The Tale of Bygone Years” we read: “because you went to sing and took all the tribute” (why are you going again? - after all, you have 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 of the tongue change with to varying degrees 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 taken place over the last two centuries, since the time of Pushkin, are also known; they are not so profound. For example, certain type noun 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 of various factors and reflect internal properties 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 sound system, in morphology, in syntax and in 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 humanity there was at first 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)
Nowadays speech 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 - the replacement of 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 Latin alphabet, but already in 1936 the letter was translated into Russian graphics.
12. What historical event is associated with the emergence of writing in Rus'? When did it 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 of the Greek alphabet - alpha and beta - in the Slavic version az and buki. 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 you translate the name of the first three letters of this alphabet into modern Russian, you get “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 by the Slavic peoples required 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 Russian writing
Monuments of 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, about their social status, about their connections with other cities and regions.
Dear Guys! On December 5-6, the 3rd round of our Olympiad took place in Moscow. We invite you to answer some of the questions at the oral stage.
1) Is it possible to answer the question absolutely accurately: “How many languages are there in the world?”
(No. Scientists answer this question differently: some say that there are 2.5 thousand languages, others - 3 thousand, others risk indicating 4-5 thousand. It is impossible to answer this question precisely, since it is impossible to draw a clear boundary between language and dialect - a local variety of language.)
2) Which language family does the Russian language belong to? Give examples of languages included in this family.
(Indo-European family - one of the largest language families on the ground. It covers languages spoken throughout almost all of Europe and many Asian countries - all the way to India.)
3) Read the words below
French, Slovak, Danish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Czech, Armenian, Moldavian, Tajik, Bulgarian, Gypsy, Brazilian, Russian, Belarusian, Latvian, Persian, Scottish, Swiss.
Can all of these adjectives be used in combination with the word language?
(not all - Brazilian - official language Brazil - Portuguese, Swiss - official languages of the Swiss Confederation - Italian, German, French, Romansh)
What languages are called related? What is the name of the language from which related languages grew?
(Related languages are languages that have the same ancestor. Proto-language, for example: Proto-Slavic language, Proto-Indo-European.)
4) “Decipher” the word, for this
1) Take the suffix from a word naming residents of Moscow.
2) The first root is the noun enlightenment (don’t forget that the root of a word can have alternating sounds).
3) The ending is in the synonym for the word eyes, and this synonym has the mark high in the dictionary.
4) You will find the second root in the beautiful word denoting the reflections of distant lightning in the sky. This word was sung by K. Paustovsky.
5) Between the roots there is the same vowel as in the word denoting the type of poetic activity of I.A. Krylov.
(glowing)
5) Read the poem by K. Aksakov:
My dreams and strength are young
I gave it to you alone, dedicating it,
By your wonderful fate in the days of yore
How much you worried the child!
I will stay with you all my life,
And you shine with immortal beauty.
- What is special about this poem? What are these poems called?
Try to create such a poem yourself with words
Capital, Russia, Svetozar, Moskvich, Motherland
(acrostic)
6) Give examples of stable epithets for the word "Moscow"
7) Which square in Moscow was called Torgovaya until the mid-17th century. Explain the etymology of the name "Red"
8) On December 19, 1699, signed by Peter I, a decree “On the celebration of the New Year” appeared: “On the 1st of the next January, the new year 1700 will begin, together with a new century”)
- What mistake was made in the decree of Peter I
.(A very common mistake both before and after Peter I: 1700 did not begin the eighteenth century, but ended the seventeenth)
The winners of the competition receive an additional 15 points:
Irina Zolotykh, 233366