The Russian language has changed. Dozens of monographs have been written on this topic, but almost no one has looked at them. The beginning of the disappearance of the language is spoken of in emotions, without referring to scientific data. This is done mainly by people who have already formed as individuals, with their own ideas about the world. They react more negatively to changes - they need stability, including linguistic stability. It is useless to wait for an objective assessment in this case.
Yes, we litter speech with stupid words, local accents, English and jargon, but we do this to add more meaning to the language game. This does not mean that we spoil it. People love to play games. We do not condemn the writers who freely handled the language and introduced such words as “epoch” (thanks to Karamzin), “thermometer” (Lomonosov), “obscure” (Saltykov-Shchedrin) and “mediocrity” (Severyanin). All this has nothing to do with linguistic degradation.
“Language is a slow, clumsy system that maintains balance under the influence of stronger influences,” says Anna Potsar. - Statements in social networks, as a rule, are spontaneous, in many respects close to oral speech. It’s not even water that cannot be entered twice. This is the air that we breathe: we do not undertake to look for the air that we exhaled five minutes ago. "
The change in language proves that the language is in circulation and remains alive. But word formation is one thing, foreign borrowing is another.
Speak Russian! OK!
In the Russian language, foreign borrowings appeared hand in hand with the first foreign contacts. Firstly, to designate the phenomena and things that were not previously in the life of a Russian person - "sheepskin coat", "cocoa", "penguin". Second, foreign terms helped to reduce the number of words (summit is a summit meeting, deadline is a deadline for submission of work). We do not even suspect how many foreign terms we use in everyday life. These "aliens" are already inseparable from our culture.
Foreign borrowings are a natural mechanism for the evolution of language in a world where conditional boundaries are expanding every day.
It must be understood that in lexicology, a word formed even from a borrowed root, but only with the help of Russian-language derivational parts, is considered to be primordially Russian. For example, “highway” is quite a Russian word; by definition, the word “memasik” can be recognized as the same.
In most discussions about the degradation of language, we are not talking about deep academic scientific polemics. It happens that less common words are extracted from private correspondence and discussed so actively that they smuggle into our everyday spoken language. A similar mechanism worked in the case of criminal jargon, which is already perceived as a perfectly acceptable means of expression for the media. For example, "put on the counter" or "get on the money."
Foreign borrowings are a natural mechanism for the evolution of a language in a world where conventional boundaries are expanding every day. New words are organically built into the system and do not in any way affect the internal rules of grammar and punctuation, which determine linguistic originality. True, mistakes and misprints have ceased to be a rarity in our time.
Is the Internet evil?
It seems to us that we were more literate before. But in fact, slipshod, clumsy formulations and distortion of structures simply did not go beyond the scope of private communications. All this remained at home, in the family, in a professional team. But then the Internet came along.
Everything is collected here: foreigners, people with professional slang, regional characteristics and the language of small groups. We suspected there was professional jargon, but we haven't seen that much. "Ban" (English "block"), "mimimi" (Chinese, meowing sound), "like" (English "like") - these are just foreign words that we have not used before.
Today anyone can write a text, bypassing editorial and proofreading, and everyone will see his message.
Now all this is piled into one big box, from which we, willingly or unwillingly, choose cubes and build our linguistic image. British philologist David Crystal even invented a new profession for learning a language on the Internet - interlinguist. But, as he himself wrote in one of his scientific works, "the Internet just puts a mirror in front of us."
“The Internet has partially made the private public, exposing all the imperfections of unprofessional speech and writing,” continues Anna Potsar. “Today, anyone can write a text, bypassing editorial and proofreading, and everyone will see his message. The Internet just showed us our flaws. "
It turns out that we always wrote illiterately. But the rules of grammar don't change because most people don't know how to use them correctly. Moreover, these rules do not apply to visual images, which can easily replace words.
Rock painting of the XXI century
Fashion and time change us: life is accelerating, and we no longer have the opportunity for a long time to explain to the interlocutor the feelings that gripped us. As soon as humanity was offered a simplification in the form of a smiley face, we grabbed onto it as a lifeline.
The smiley - scientifically "emoticon" - came into our lives with a keyboard, virtual texts and e-mails: written communication has become faster, easier and more understandable. In 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, in one of his interviews, literally asked when the emoticons would appear. After 13 years, Scott Fahlman answered his request and came up with this :-).
“Emoticons simply reflect changes in ourselves. It's not about the language, it's about us, - says Anna Potsar. - We stopped holding back emotions. We have become more open and more aggressive. This is a change in the communication model, and not at all an update of the language. For example, society has ceased to believe that abusive vocabulary is something outrageous. This is a trend, and it can lead anywhere: both to a complete prohibition of obscene vocabulary, and to the disappearance of the veil of prohibition. "
Language games and cryptography with emoticons do not affect the language in any way, as long as its native speakers have reference samples before their eyes. In writing and speaking, there should be sections where literacy and purity of the language are necessary, and then the temporary fashion can remain temporary.
"I am responsible for the market"
But there are still negative trends. We really began to pay less attention to literacy and purity of the language. The user is responsible for the selection of quality information. We are our own scientific and literary editors. Personal blogs and groups on the Internet are recognized as new media, but regulators care about their content, not literacy.
To preserve the norms of the language, a sample is needed. A mistake read a thousand times eats into the brain of even a very literate person. When the reader does not see an example, either in the book or on TV, he takes error for the norm. Having repeated the mistake two thousand times, he himself begins to influence the formation of the language.
The way we write and speak every day is the answer to the question of what language we will speak tomorrow
It is impossible to predict what will happen to the language tomorrow. You will have to predict political, economic, cultural breakthroughs, fashion trends, population growth and many related factors. Language norms will fluctuate on the scales from "bastards" to "grammar nazi", but military expansion will not save the day.
If a person reads something correct from childhood, not in terms of content, but in terms of literacy of the text, his speech level also rises. Literacy is primarily visual memory, not memorizing rules. Speech is formed not by accent dictionaries, but by the musical sound of words. It turns out that we ourselves are responsible for the competent Russian language with us and our children. What we read, how we write and speak every day, is the answer to the question in what language we will speak tomorrow.
About the expert
Anna Potsar- Associate Professor at the Department of Public Policy, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
The first myth. "We are losing it!"
Everything was good with the language in previous eras, but the current generation ruined everything. We stopped speaking Russian, we communicate in surzhik, good Russian is a thing of the past.
This is perhaps the most widespread myth about the language, it is reproduced by every generation. True, with different variations. Some see a threat from the outside - in the influx of foreign words, others - in the activities of scientists who are allowed to speak and write "so, and so", allegedly constantly reforming the rules, are too liberal in their attitude to speech errors, and still others - in the activities of journalists who have no time to check their texts (yes, radio and television are also to blame for spoiling the language).
Those who share this myth demand to “defend” the beautiful Russian language of Pushkin and Tolstoy. They perceive the language as a kind of museum exhibit, the "purity" and safety of which must be taken care of. What does it mean? In fact - wipe the dust, admire, put a sign "do not touch", do not experiment. Any attempts at language development, language experiment are perceived as degradation, sabotage.
According to native speakers who share this myth, the language can be easily spoiled. Firstly - the penetration of "non-literary", foreign words - jargon, vernacular, swearing, "Albany language", as well as foreign words. Secondly, mistakes that become the norm, which we stop noticing. In other words, society is afraid of everything that is abnormal, not ordered, not according to the rules. Fear of the element of language. Here you can give the following analogy: there is a large natural area (forest, steppe, desert) and there is a small fenced regular park. What is regulated by the rules is just such a small park, garden, orchard. Everything else in the language is a natural element of dialects, jargons, urban words and phrases.
How is it proposed to “defend” the Russian language?
a) by introducing legislative prohibitive measures (fines for mat, for the use of foreign words);
b) with the help of popular initiatives ("secret spelling police", collecting signatures on the Internet against neuter "coffee", for masculine "coffee");
c) by aggressive censure, ridicule of mistakes, like the community "I will tear myself apart".
How is it really?
Those who share this myth usually do not imagine what a huge path the language has traveled over the past centuries. The ideal for them is always in the past, but this past is vague: for some, the “pure” Russian language froze in the Pushkin era, for some, the pre-war years are the ideal, for some, the language of the Vremya program of the Brezhnev stagnation (namely because the friendly team of editors, proofreaders and censors worked at this time as strictly and unitedly as never before, not allowing an extra stress, an extra word, or an extra thought to appear on the air).
So, really, in these epochs, everyone was unanimous about the fate of the Russian language? Not at all. At the time of Pushkin, the main language of cultural communication was French, and much more heated debate was conducted regarding the Russian language than today. This is the well-known controversy about galoshes and wet shoes, about the sidewalk and gulbische. Even in Stalin's time, there was room for discussions about the fate of Russian spelling. And, perhaps, only the Brezhnev era can boast of a relative stability in the language and a steady increase in the number of Russian speakers around the world. But even in these years, there were still changes, there were discussions about the culture of speech, new words appeared, and moreover, it was during the years of stagnation that a special series of dictionaries "New in Russian vocabulary" began to appear, in which new words were collected and interpreted.
Anyone who agrees with statements like "the Russian language is dying" or "modern youth distorts the Russian language", we strongly recommend the excellent book by Korney Chukovsky "Alive as Life". Written in 1962, more than half a century ago, it still hasn't lost its relevance. The author begins a conversation with readers with a story about how in different eras among native speakers there were disputes about certain words, how what seemed to be a mistake in the past, in the present seems to be an integral part of the literary language. “Old people almost always imagined (and still imagine) that their children and grandchildren (especially grandchildren) disfigure the correct Russian speech,” Chukovsky writes. It is very interesting to read this book half a century later, already knowing that today some of the options that were then argued about have become part of the literary language, and some have disappeared altogether. After reading this and other books about the language of those years, you understand: in the 1960s and 1970s, talk about the “death” of the language, the “damage” of it by young people went on with the same intensity as today, but after half a century this time many seem to be a reference in terms of the purity of the Russian language.
Let's show how changes occur in the language with specific examples. Take, for example, the verb "experience." Quite a literary word, isn't it? But here's a question that recently came to the "Information Bureau" of Gramota.ru:
“I read in Nora Gal’s book“ The Word Living and the Dead ”that the word“ experience ”in the meaning of“ worry, be upset ”is illiterate,“ one of the signs of vulgar, philistine speech ”. I was very surprised. In my opinion, a normal literary word. Can you comment on this? When and how did it happen that it turned from an illiterate into a dictionary one (I checked, it is in the dictionary, and without any marks)? And does it still have that bourgeois flavor in the modern language? "
Nora Gal's wonderful book "The Word Alive and the Dead" was first published in 1972. Indeed, then - in the 1960s and early 1970s - the use of the word "experience" without the addition to mean "worry" ("I worry") was new, unusual and caused some rejection among native speakers (especially the older generation). Korney Chukovsky, among other things, wrote about this new use in his book “Alive as Life”: “… Young people began to feel the verb to experience in a new way. We said: "I am experiencing grief" or "I am experiencing joy", and now they say: "I am experiencing this way" (without the addition), and this word now means: "I am worried", and even more often: "I am suffering", " I am suffering. " Neither Tolstoy, nor Turgenev, nor Chekhov knew such a form. For them, "to experience" has always been a transitive verb. "
In other words, “worry-worry” has gone the same path that almost every linguistic innovation goes through: from rejection and rejection (primarily by the older generation of native speakers) to its gradual recognition as normative. Now the verb "to experience" in this sense is part of the Russian literary language, there is no "vulgarity" in it. True, in some dictionaries this meaning is still given with the mark “colloquial”.
Yes, many of the words we are now used to acquire their present meaning did not immediately, gradually, overcoming certain barriers of perception. So, 80 years ago the sports word "fan" was a new word. It was enclosed in quotes and commented on. Lev Kassil in his book "Goalkeeper of the Republic" (1937) encloses the word "get sick" in quotation marks and explains it: "To get sick" in football jargon means to get carried away, go to matches, yearn for the victory of your team. " But at the same time, the very word "fan" was by no means new. It was used before in the meaning of "the one who shows participation, interest in some business, cares, worries about it." Here is an example from L. Uspensky: "In Russia he [Wells] is heard and understood ... as a great fan for the future of humanity." Now we are not used to just such - "unsportsmanlike" - meaning of the word fan, but in the 1930s it was the other way around.
Changes in the language can go in the other direction: words can become outdated, go out of active use. Since we remembered Chukovsky today, we will quote lines from another of his works:
Let's wash, splash, swim, dive, somersault
In a tub, in a trough, in a tub,
In the river, in the stream, in the ocean ...
Do we understand well the difference between a tub, a trough, a tub? What is the difference? Let's look at the dictionaries:
Tub- a tub with two ears on the upper cut, through the holes of which a stick is threaded for lifting, carrying.
Lohan- wooden riveting dishes of round or oval shape, with low edges for various needs (washing dishes, washing clothes, slops).
And just what a trough is, we know well thanks to illustrations for Pushkin's fairy tales and the cartoon "Vovka in the Far-Away Kingdom".
The withdrawal of words from active use is also an example of changes taking place in the language - such changes that occur constantly, but which we, as a rule, do not think about.
So, the language is changing, but these changes do not happen when journalists trumpet it. Changes in the language occur gradually, step by step, but steadily and continuously. Today the Russian language is a little different from what it was yesterday, and tomorrow it will be a little different from what it is today. And this is normal, because nothing changes only in dead languages, and the Russian language is alive - “alive as life”.
Some truth in this myth
Languages can indeed fade and die. But this does not happen due to linguistic reasons proper (literally - not because of "clogging" and not because the stress in words changes). Languages disappear due to the fact that their speakers are passing away. But this applies to the so-called small languages. The Russian language is not threatened with extinction.
The second myth. "The dominance of foreign words"
The Russian language is littered with foreign words. We need to get rid of borrowings, we have enough of our own, Russian words. If we don’t take action and stop the flow of borrowing, soon we will all speak English.
This myth is also passed down from generation to generation. Let's try to prove it. Here are two quotes. Try to name dates (at least a decade).
Quote one:
“We spoil the Russian language. We use foreign words unnecessarily. We use them incorrectly. Why say "defects" when you can say "shortcomings" or "shortcomings" or "gaps"? ... For example, they use the word "wake up" in the sense of "excite", "bother", "wake up". But the French word "bouder" means "to be angry", "to sulk". Therefore, “to wake up” actually means “to be angry”, “to sulk”. To adopt the French-Nizhny Novgorod word usage means to adopt the worst from the worst representatives of the Russian landlord class, who studied French, but, firstly, did not finish their studies, and secondly, distorted the Russian language. Isn't it time to declare war with the ruffling of the Russian language? "
Quote second:
“We need to cleanse our language of an unjustifiably large number of borrowings that we have picked up over the past years ... There is the word 'merchandiser'. Why? Why use it if there is a normal Russian word "merchandise"? Why is it necessary to say "primaries" instead of saying "intraparty elections"? Is it so hard to say another word? Why write “manager” in your diploma, if you can just as well write “manager” ”.
Who is to blame for the "clogging" of the language with foreign words (from the point of view of those who share this myth)? The fault is the journalists who unjustifiably use foreign words, lexicographers who include these words in dictionaries. For example, the authors of the Russian Spelling Dictionary of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been criticized for including a large number of new words from other languages into the dictionary. In the dictionary you can find both "offline" and "primaries" and "excit-poll". Except that there is no “selfie” yet, since this word appeared after the last print edition. How could these words be included in a dictionary, the purists exclaimed? And the linguists answered: how could you NOT include these words in the dictionary if they have already appeared in the Russian language?
How is it really?
It is very easy to prove that the Russian language is inconceivable without borrowed words. It is enough to give examples of words that seem to us primordially Russian, but in fact are not.
Indeed, many words that seem to us primordially Russian were borrowed in ancient times from other languages. For example, from the Scandinavian languages the words shark, whip, herring, sneak came to us, from the Turkic - money, pencil, robe, from Greek - letter, bed, sail, notebook. Even the word bread is very likely a borrowing: scientists assume that its source is the languages of the Germanic group.
And now let us recall the lines of Sergei Mikhalkov, which can be called a poetic illustration of this myth:
"Not! - we said to the fascists, -
Our people will not tolerate
So that Russian bread is fragrant
Called the word "brot".
We live in a Soviet country,
We recognize the language German,
Italian, Danish, Swedish
And we recognize Turkish
Both English and French
But in my native land in Russian
We write, we think, we eat.
In fact, as already mentioned, "Russian sweet bread" is probably called a word that came to us from the Germanic languages.
In different eras, borrowings from one language usually predominated in the Russian language. When, during the time of Peter I, Russia was building a fleet in order to "cut a window to Europe", a lot of words related to maritime affairs came to us, with most of them from the Dutch language (shipyard, harbor, compass, cruiser, sailor), because the Dutch at that time were considered the best ship craftsmen and many of them worked in Russian shipyards. In the 18th - 19th centuries, the Russian language was enriched with the names of dishes, clothes, jewelry, furnishings that came from the French language: soup, broth, champignon, cutlet, marmalade, vest, coat, wardrobe, bracelet, brooch. In recent decades, words in the Russian language come mainly from the English language, and they are associated with modern technical devices and information technologies (computer, laptop, smartphone, online, website).
What has been said does not mean that the Russian language is so poor or so greedy: it only accepts and does not give anything back. Not at all. The Russian language also shares its words with other languages, but exports more often go not to the West, but to the East. If we compare the Russian language and the Kazakh language, for example, we will see that there are a lot of borrowings from the Russian language in the Kazakh language. In addition, the Russian language is a mediator for so many words that go from West to East and from East to West. The same role was played in the 17th-19th centuries by the Polish language, through which a lot of words came to Russian (thanks to the Poles we say “Paris”, not “Pari”, “museum”, not “museum”, “revolution”, but not "revolujon").
It is the recent borrowings that annoy many native speakers; English words are perceived almost as enemies of the Russian language. In response to this, we quote the words of Marina Sidorova, professor at Moscow State University: “But who is to blame? Layout and workout are absolutely innocent. Here it is a matter of the general culture of a person. The fact is that a person doesn’t think of a good, understandable Russian word in time, or he doesn’t bother to find this word ”.
And when a person introduces, sets in motion a new word, be it a borrowed word or an invented Russian, he cannot predict his fate. There is a wonderful example - the first Russian "Arithmetic" by Leonty Magnitsky (1703). And in the title of the textbook ("Arithmetic, that is, the science of the numeral ..."), and in the definition of science ("Arithmetic, or the numerator, is honest, unenviable art ...") Magnitsky proposed two names for this discipline - borrowed Greek and Russian.
The Greek word remained in the language. Why did it take root? Because it fits into the system: we have all the names of sciences with international roots (geography, biology, chemistry, etc.), and the word arithmetic was one of the first to appear in this row. Magnitsky also gave the names of arithmetic operations in pairs: “addition” or “adizzio”, “subtraction” or “subtraction”, and here we still have Russian words. Why? Because here it was more important to have a parallel with the verb: "add" - "addition", "subtract" - "subtract". And, of course, it's almost impossible to predict that. "
If we ban foreign words, we will simply stop the development of the language. And then there is a threat that we will start speaking in another language (for example, in the same English), because the Russian language in this case will not allow us to express our thoughts in full and in detail. In other words, the ban on the use of foreign words leads not to the preservation, but to the destruction of the language.
Some truth in this myth
Borrowings can indeed be used unsuccessfully. This does not mean that the word is unfortunate, it just might be used out of place. For example, we read in the newspaper: "a dramatic rise in unemployment." How to determine - successfully or unsuccessfully used a foreign language word? We open the dictionaries and look at the meanings of the word (in fact, we try on each meaning, like clothes). The word dramatic has four meanings: 1) to the word drama (dramatic theater). Wrong meaning; 2) calculated for effect, pompous (dramatic pause). Could the rise in unemployment be pompous? Unlikely. 3) tense, difficult, painful (dramatic period of life). Something is also wrong. And 4) about the timbre, the voice of the singer, singer (dramatic tenor). Obviously not suitable. We do not know, even with the help of a dictionary we cannot find out what the journalist wanted to say. In fact, he just took the close-sounding English word dramatic, which in one of the meanings "striking, impressive". These words should be used, the English word is unsuccessful here: in English the word dramatic has such a meaning, but in Russian the word “dramatic” does not. Thus, the foreign language word is used unsuccessfully.
But this does not mean at all that it is necessary to urgently ban the use of the word "dramatic", does it?
The third myth. "Dictionaries cannot be trusted"
Sometimes this myth is found in the following formulation: Modern dictionaries cannot be trusted, they are full of errors. Native speakers have heard only a few surnames, first of all - Dietmar Rosenthal, less often they remember Vladimir Dahl and Sergei Ozhegov, even less often - Dmitry Ushakov. Many do not trust dictionaries that do not have these names on the cover.
This myth is connected with the fact that many do not imagine what linguists are doing. To some native speakers, the linguist seems to be a rather evil creature who deliberately does not include this or that option in the dictionary. Everybody says so, but the linguist from the principle asserts that it is impossible to say so. Everyone says "kill the spider with a slipper", but the linguist says: you can't say that, you have to: "with a slipper."
To others, on the contrary, the linguist seems to be a rather weak-willed and weak-willed creature. He must guard the norm, protect it from the assassination of illiterate people, and he takes a step towards them and includes illiterate options in the dictionary. Well, for example, why does he include in the dictionary "coffee" in the neuter? All my life they taught that it is illiterate, and linguists took it and included it in the dictionary. What right did they have? Many people think so.
How is it really?
In fact, the linguist is not an enemy of the people and not a malicious destroyer of the norm. Linguists do not set norms at all, they codify them. What does this mean? The linguist observes the language and records observations in dictionaries and encyclopedias. He must do this regardless of whether he likes this or that option or not.
For example, we heard the news that in the Large Hadron Collider, particles were accelerated at a speed exceeding the speed of light. Imagine a physicist who says, "let's pretend it didn't happen." Well, we know that nothing can move faster than the speed of light. Let's not notice this. What will you do with such a physicist? You will fire him. You will say: if you are a physicist, you are obliged to note and record this. And explain to us why this happened.
There is a complex, detailed system of labels in dictionaries. Some options are marked as equal (tvorog and cottage cheese), somewhere one option is recognized as preferable, and the second is admissible (for example: preferable to move, but it is permissible and move; again these verbs are in -it, in the verb "move" - in unlike “to call” - the stress on the root in personal forms has already been recognized as acceptable), in some cases the linguist marks the option in the dictionary (because he cannot but mark it), but writes: it is impossible to say that. The dictionaries contain labels "not recommended", "wrong". For example: scarf, scarves, wrong scarves. Therefore, the dictionary must be able to read, one must be able to use it. And another myth is connected with dictionaries: that literate people do not need a dictionary. The opposite is true. Linguists say that the more literate a person is, the more often he looks into the dictionary. Because he understands how many options - spelling, grammatical, spelling, exist in the language, you can't remember all of them, and you don't need to. For this, there are dictionaries, which you need to look into whenever doubts arise. And we urge you to look into dictionaries as often as possible.
Some truth in this myth
In fact, there are contradictions in the dictionaries. But they are caused not by the fact that linguists cannot agree, but by other objective reasons. First, the focus of the vocabulary (in dictionaries addressed to on-air workers, usually only one option will be indicated; dictionaries aimed at a wider audience may support less desirable options). Secondly, contradictions in dictionaries are due to contradictions in the language: there are "hot spots" of the language, which different authors reflect in different ways.
What to do if there is a discrepancy in the dictionaries? Which dictionary to believe? And how do you pick a good dictionary at a bookstore? Here are some practical tips.
First. Read reputable dictionaries, beware of counterfeits. Choose dictionaries with the stamp of academic institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Institute of the Russian Language, Institute of Linguistic Research); dictionaries published in a series of major publishing houses (for example: "Dictionaries of the XXI century", "Library of dictionaries EKSMO"). Do not trust publications on bad paper by obscure regional publishers.
Second. Learn more about dictionary authors. Think how Dmitry Ushakov (1873–1942) or Sergei Ozhegov (1900–1964) could be the authors of publications called something like this: "The New Spelling Dictionary of the Modern Russian Language." Consider this: is this a trick of marketers who take advantage of the fact that non-specialists only hear a few names of linguists? Do not use Dahl's dictionary, compiled in the 19th century, as a source of information about modern Russian.
Third. Focus on the vocabulary profile. Check the accent using the spelling dictionary, not the explanatory one; spelling - by spelling (and not by a dictionary of synonyms).
The fourth myth. "Literacy is the ability to order coffee, meatballs and toasts correctly"
To be literate, you need to remember the correct stress in complex words like "meatballs" and "croutons", and screw them in on time. And also learn that "coffee" is masculine and loudly resent when someone says "my coffee."
We cannot - even briefly - not say about another extremely widespread myth: as if literacy is solely the knowledge of the correct stress in words and the ability to write without mistakes.
People who call themselves grammar-nazi or enroll in the "secret spelling police" are, in fact, disseminators of this myth. It is also disseminated by popular tests on the Internet such as "How literate are you?"
How, in fact:
To a person who has passed such a test, it seems that this is the essence of literacy - to know the previously learned answers. Note that their number is not so large: cases like "coffee", "tulle", "shampoo", "calls", "contract", "in Strogino" are not so difficult to learn. But this does not mean that, having learned them, a person will perfectly master the Russian language.
There is a direct analogy to driving a car. Passing the test and getting a license does not mean becoming a good driver. It takes a lot of practice. And one more analogy: learning 100 words with a difficult accent and considering yourself a literate is like learning 100 names of states and their capitals and considering yourself an expert in geography.
We cannot fail to quote here Moscow State University professor Igor Miloslavsky. Paying attention to the fact that the most popular questions about the language are questions about how to do it correctly, the linguist writes: “Correctly - in relation to the norms existing in the Russian language that determine the continuous and separate spellings, or, for example, the place of stress in certain words and forms. At the same time, it seems that the most important question remains in the shadow of all these important questions: the question of how accurately all of us who speak Russian understand what and only what is behind the words, sentences and texts that we read and / or we hear. The question of how effectively all of us who speak Russian are able to choose exactly one of the various means of the Russian language in order to express our thoughts in full accordance with the reflected reality, and with our assessment of it, and with our attitude to reader / interlocutor.
We speak and write in Russian not for the sake of demonstrating our ability to speak and write without mistakes or to emphasize the necessary syllable, but in order to convey the meaning. “Compliance with the rules is, albeit very important, but a CONDITION for reasonable speech actions. The purpose of these actions is in a clear understanding of what reality is hidden behind the words. "
Literacy is by no means only knowledge of spelling rules and difficult accents. It is also the ability to use dictionaries, the ability to choose the most appropriate word in order to accurately express your thought, the ability not to offend the interlocutor with an unsuccessful remark. Literacy is also the ability to critically perceive information about the language received from the media, not to be intimidated and not to panic upon hearing talk about “language reform”. The Russian language is by no means limited to debates that have set the teeth on edge about the gender of the word "coffee" and the stress in the verb "rings." The Russian language is fraught with many mysteries, an incredible number of fascinating stories are associated with it, and we will definitely tell you about them - on the pages of the Gramota.ru portal.
Dear editors! Your long-time reader Lamerovich-Chainikov is writing to you. I want to note that I read your newspaper more out of regret about wasted paper and, as a result, ruined forests, than out of pleasure or curiosity - some kind of incomprehensible newspaper you have. Well, what are you writing about? Do you even understand yourself ?! Well, how can you talk about all this, and even at once ?! You would be ashamed - children read you! I myself am an experienced computer scientist, one might say, a Hacker, and with a capital X. Yes, with a capital letter, and so that you understand who is writing to you, I will briefly and modestly list my services to the computer world. Let's start in order. I was one of the first owners of the EU 1841, I am the first to guess where the power button is hidden in it, I am the first to realize that the unnatural noise it makes is just the noise of a fan, I was the first to download it , and several times in a row. And now about the main thing - I managed to work for my baby for 15 years. Fifteen long and happy years. Even if we didn’t always get along, let her childish whims and dementia, her slowness and sheer stupidity pissed me off, albeit, but how can this be compared with the uniform crackling of a drive, like spring drops, with the beautiful rustle of a hard drive playing with all musical scales. And the banging of your fingers on the keyboard ... Oh, yes! Yes! Yes! Yesaaaaaaaaaaa (sorry, the button sinks). So you see how great I am. But there is one but - recently she, my baby, died. I rebooted it all night, looked for different DOSs, but each time it was counting down its 640 kilobytes of memory more and more slowly and invariably demanded to press the F1 button .... By the morning it was gone. I don’t remember how I spent the first two weeks, I guess I drank a lot - I don’t remember.
And then one day your newspaper caught my eye. Absorbed in my grief, I bought it, read it cover to cover, didn’t understand anything, read it again and threw it away, then walked around a bit, bought another one, read it again, and threw it away again. When I was waiting for the next issue, I still could not understand: how can you put so many incomprehensible words in such a small edition? Buying the next issue, I even asked the saleswoman - they say, is this Russian-language edition or not, she just looked at me in surprise and held out the newspaper. This number suffered the same fate. But I was stubborn, I bought number after number, and now, dear editors, in the end I saw through your insidious plan. You deliberately confuse people with incomprehensible words and, so to speak, jokes, you specifically write about some new developments and I am more than sure that there is not a word of truth in your articles. Otherwise, how can one explain that no one mentioned the EU firm in any of the issues, because it cannot be that such a giant as the EU, which at one time managed to get ahead of no less outstanding firms such as Corvette and Nemiga, lost I am not afraid of this word, its leading world positions and, which is quite incredible, lost them to some incomprehensible Western firms.
So, dear editors, I ask you to stop this mockery of worthy people and return the former glory to the firm, revered by all. If you don’t do it soon, then I’m more than sure that thousands, no, millions of proud owners of EU 1841 around the world will hold indefinite protest demonstrations and eventually sweep your publication off the face of the earth.
Glory to EU 1841 - glory!
LAMEROVICH-KETANIKOV
The letter was read by Ivan "Vano" Gerasimov
OUT-OF-CLASS WORK
0. A. ANTONOVA
Baykit village Evenk Autonomous Okrug
"What language do we speak? .."
We bring to your attention a scenario of a discussion for students in grades IX-XI "What language do we speak?" This event, dedicated to the current state of the Russian language, was held by me as part of the traditional Decade of the Humanities in our school.
I hope this material will be of interest not only to teachers of the Russian language and literature, but also to everyone who is not indifferent to the state of the modern Russian language.
The goals and objectives of the discussion were: 1) to draw the attention of students to topical problems of the state of the modern Russian language; 2) encourage them to more careful, deliberate possession of their own word (speech); 3) to familiarize students with the beauty and expressiveness of the Russian word, native speech; 4) promote the development of business communication skills.
The hall is decorated with posters with statements by famous writers and literary critics about the wealth and beauty of the Russian language.
(The facilitator (s) can be a teacher or trained students.)
Leading (to the sound of a light melody). We don't know exactly when and how people learned to speak. It was a very, very long time ago. One of the oldest Babylonian myths says: "When heaven is not named above, below the earth was nameless." There was chaos in the world, personified by a monster. After the victory over him were created - in other words, named by the word - heaven, earth and everything that is on them.
In ancient times, the meaning of the word was understood as follows: what is said is realized. From here arose the belief in the magical power of the word. Words can save a person, or they can kill, they can heal or bring illness, they can bring a loved one to your doorstep, or they can make him forget his way to you. The word can do everything!
More than four thousand years ago, the Egyptian pharaoh taught his son: "Be skillful in speech - the word is stronger than the weapon." This must be remembered by every person.
In a word, you can offend, offend, inflict a mental trauma that is more severe than a physical illness. On the contrary, the good power of the word relieves suffering, restores calmness, and improves mood.
One cannot but recall the famous words of Valery Bryusov about his native language:
My faithful friend! My enemy is insidious!
My king! My slave! Native language!
The words of the writer and popularizer of the science of language Lev Vladimirovich Uspensky come to mind: "If there are things in the world worthy of the name miracle, then the word is undoubtedly the first and most wonderful of them."
The most worthy of our compatriots who lived in the 19th century, I. S. Turgenev called the Russian language "a treasure, an asset carefully passed on to us by our predecessors."
Indeed, today no one will argue with the fact that the Russian language, the language of the works of Pushkin, Turgenev, Chekhov, Tolstoy and many other
kov words are our national pride, this is something that every Russian can be proud of. But it is alarming that this great language can remain only the language of works of art, go irrevocably into history, it can be erased from active use of words. In our modern life - there are a lot of prerequisites for this.
Is it scary? What language will we get in return? What language do we speak today? - this is the range of issues that we propose to discuss today. Let's give the floor on this topic to the famous modern writer - satirist Mikhail Zadornov.
Students (reading). "A rare bird will fly to the middle of the Dnieper." We have known these words of Gogol since childhood. Now imagine that Gogol works for a modern newspaper and is given the task of writing an essay. I think he will try to convey the greatness of the Dnieper with a much greater sense of patriotism. Let's just say: "A rare representative of the bird family will fly to the middle of the main waterway of Ukraine!" And then he will tell us how wonderful this artery is under favorable meteorological conditions.
And if Chekhov worked in a modern newspaper, he would hardly have written so out of date: "Everything in a person should be beautiful: soul, clothes, face, and thoughts." Surely he would have tried to show off his journalistic eloquence: "In a human individual, everything must meet aesthetic standards: the moral factor, and internal reserves, and products of the textile industry, and the front facade ..."
There are 250,000 words in Dahl's dictionary! It turned out, as statisticians calculated, journalists, announcers, commentators use only two thousand words! Moreover, the journalists came up with a clever idea: with the help of nomenklatura workers, they formed certain expressions that can be inserted into sentences without thinking, like cassettes into a tape recorder. For example, not a forest, but a forest area, because the word forest requires you to choose an epithet for it - which forest? And the forest area no longer requires anything ... Or the word field. We need to think, strain hard to describe this field. And he wrote endless spaces - and you don't need to think, and the bosses
enough. People who every day read newspapers, listen to the radio, watch TV, involuntarily and themselves begin to use such phrases in their speech. Thus, our speech becomes more and more impoverished.
Student. (From an overheard conversation :) “From the lips of my son’s friends, I constantly hear an approving exclamation“ cool! ” (from the English cool "cool"). A good magazine is cool, an interesting film is cool, a beautiful girl is cool. "
Leading. A huge number of Russian words expressing thought in a traditionally vivid form for our language remains unclaimed. Is this good or bad? How would you comment on this situation in the language? How should we relate to this? (Speech becomes impoverished - consciousness becomes impoverished, this is a direct path to spiritual "impoverishment, degradation.)
Student. (From an overheard conversation :) A university teacher complains: “Sometimes I don't understand the language of my students. It is worth distracting from the biology that I teach them, talking on other topics, as there is a desire to take a dictionary of foreign words. It seems that now different generations speak different languages: the elders - in Russian, and the youth - in semi-American .. "
Leading. What problem of the state of the modern Russian language are we talking about? Of course, this is the problem of borrowed words.
Student. Rapid transformations in the economy and politics, the development of science and technology, the openness of modern society to international contacts, the orientation towards a new system of values determined the active development of borrowed words.
In the Russian language, in the figurative expression of Pushkin, "receptive and sociable in its relations to foreign languages", borrowings have penetrated since ancient times. But in different historical periods, the pace of lexical changes in our language was uneven.
Early Greek and Latin borrowings appeared after the adoption of Christianity. The reforms of Peter I and the general Europeanization of Russian culture at the beginning of the 18th century caused a stormy stream of words - newcomers from German, Dutch, and French. Some words from time
I have forgotten, while others have firmly entered our language. And now it is difficult to imagine that the words notebook and bed came from the Greek language, the school and the audience - from Latin, pencil and pearls - from the Turkic languages, hook and sneak - from the Scandinavian, camp and tie - from German, bracelet and spear / eta - from french ...
In the 90s of the XX century - a time of global changes in all spheres of life in Russia - the newest foreign words are actively introduced into the Russian language. The influx of Americanisms, which is now observed not only in Russian, but also in many other languages, is called by some linguists "linguistic lawlessness." Active borrowing from "American English" is caused not only by the rapid development in the United States of all kinds of the latest technologies, but also by the fact that many young people in the United States have become a cult country, an example of economic prosperity and public order, therefore, it is young people who willingly use borrowings, considering that it is "stylish", modern.
Leading. It is known that borrowed vocabulary today penetrates the Russian language through the economic sphere (barter, charter, mortgage, marketing, etc.), music and television (talk shows, ratings, soundtracks, DJs, etc.). And how many foreign words the Internet gives (chat, file, printer, hacker, etc.)! I am alarmed by the huge number of borrowings, as well as the fact that many native speakers of the Russian language do not understand the true meaning of the borrowed words used.
Student. (From overheard conversations :) A kindergarten teacher told her pupils: "Ilya Muromets is an epic superhero." And the teacher described the abilities of the student as follows: "He has no priority in mathematics." In the writings of applicants one can find the following statements: "Saltykov-Shchedrin bitingly describes the unpresentable features of the inhabitants of the city of Foolov", "Petersburg was the citadel of the Silver Age", ". Andrei Bolkonsky is the standard of a Russian nobleman."
Leading. Let's check if you understand some of the borrowed words:
blockbuster (sensation, hugely popular film);
remake (remake); poster (small poster); teenager (teenager, boy or girl from 13 to 18 years old);
sale (sale at a reduced price); prime time (best time); mulypleks (multiplex complex).
Does the Russian language need all of them? What words are they replaced without any semantic loss?
But what is the opinion of scholars-philologists on this score: every day six to seven foreign words are poured into the Russian language. It would seem, so what? And then! If actively borrowed vocabulary in a language exceeds 2-3%, linguists confidently predict a very imminent disappearance of the language. And our number of borrowed vocabulary has already exceeded 10%! There is a reason to think, right ?!
Schoolchildren express their opinions. (In the borrowed words themselves, of course, there is nothing wrong. Without them it is impossible to imagine the speech of a modern person. However, the meaning of the borrowed word should be clear to both the speaker and the listener, and its use should be appropriate, justified. The ability to use foreign words correctly indicates respect G
V. A. Tyurin - 2011
ZHANG NA, ZHAO CHUNJING - 2015
S. V. Bobrova - 2008
What language do the citizens of Russia speak?
She has absolutely ceased to understand people, - a former classmate complained the other day. - Moreover, in the literal sense of the word. It seems that we all speak Russian, but we absolutely do not understand each other. I listen to my 14-year-old sister talking on the phone and I DO NOT understand AT ALL what she is talking about with her friend. "Mensha, you burn!" - what does this mean? I leave the store, I hear the young people standing at the beer booth talking. Each word separately - I understand, the meaning of the phrase - no. Some kind of wild mixture of jargon, mat and Russian. The grannies at the entrance ask something, but I have to ask them again. I don't understand this "country Russian" either! I’m not old, I’m only 25 years old, but I stopped understanding my fellow citizens - everyone speaks Russian, but I don’t always understand what they say.
Internet language as total illiteracy
In fact, it's not always as funny as it sounds. Despite the recent “year of the Russian language” and the desperate resistance of philologists to “Americanisms” and other “innovations”, the Russian language is rapidly changing. For the worse or for the better - only time will tell, but the fact is that the language has already divided people into social classes more rigidly and more real than the level of income. You can dress in the same store with the head of a large company, but speak with him in different languages. Each social class has its own language, largely incomprehensible to another social class, reflecting its own lifestyle and values.
For example, getting a job on a new work, especially if it is from a different region than the previous one, for the first month you will walk as a visitor from Jupiter. Because, as a rule, you come to a well-coordinated team with its own values, which has a common history multiplied by professional "terminology" and understanding each other perfectly. Only in time will their history become your history, and the language your language ...
However, Russian philologists are now sounding the alarm on a completely different matter. In view of the “general accessibility” of the Internet, the “new Russian Internet language” has spilled out onto the streets and into educational institutions, the main feature of which is total illiteracy and deliberate distortion of norms.
I am already ready to cry from these newfangled words, - says Elena Korobanova, a teacher of the Russian language and culture of speech, and in the past - a teacher of the Russian language and literature with almost 30 years of experience. - You should have seen what the students write to me. They write the way they speak - and it's terrible. There are no words in the Russian language "anyway", "cool", "real man", "not on business", "chocolate" - and my students write this in their works. They absolutely do not feel the difference between literary and spoken language. Because the Russian literary language and the Russian spoken language have always run parallel to each other. Of course, they can overlap and even enrich each other, but to a fairly small extent, otherwise vulgarity turns out. Now some more incomprehensible words began to appear in my compositions, which I could not even pronounce. As they explained to me, this is the slang of Japanese anime lovers, for which the craze began.
I believe that the Russian language has begun to deteriorate unambiguously. Until the Internet is banned from speaking such a language, all the efforts of philologists and teachers are useless. It is not surprising that people stop understanding each other. Earlier, thanks to printed texts, verified by editors and proofreaders, intuitive literacy was formed for many generations. The rules could not have been remembered - visual memory saved me. And now - what is the visual memory, when so many people read news on the Internet, on all kinds of blogs and sites, sometimes not related to the media? I see a way out in returning to the "common" literary Russian language, so that everyone can understand the other.
"Oh *** but" instead of "great"
The Council, undoubtedly, is not devoid of rational grain, because even in this very publication the philologist will find many mistakes. The question is, how realistic is it under current conditions? Try to tell plumbers (option - taxi drivers, street vendors, cleaning ladies): “Gentlemen! Let me know where the restroom is? ”, They immediately have a linguistic stupor. They hear such words on big holidays and only on TV. Any request, accompanied by the appropriate amount "please - thank you - let me", is comprehended by them much longer than the usual: "Guys, where is the toilet here?" But people who have read only 2 books in their lives: an ABC book in grade 1 and a biology textbook in grade 9 are an impressive and constantly growing layer of people with whom you come into contact every day in one way or another.
The speech of people of retirement age is another Martian version of the Russian language, a cross between the colloquial street language and the village dialect. Who knows what the word "waddled up" means? And the "skull", together with "bude", "basco", "darkens", "buried", "falls away"? It is impossible to learn this, in this “linguistic environment” one must be born and live. On the other hand, it is just as unrealistic to explain to the older generation how I “see” my girlfriend from Izhevsk with the help of ICQ - whether she is online or not.
Teenagers are carriers of another dialect, sometimes strange, sometimes funny. At least in the light of glossy magazines and LJ, the cry of some 15-year-old girl trying on a dress in a store “Oh! Glamorous! " - more or less clear. Speaking of teenagers. Not so long ago, the Novaya Gazeta website - novayagazeta.ru - published a letter from one very "advanced" woman in defense of her daughter, a schoolgirl. It was called "Unified State Exam in Russian or why do we teach our children to lie?" The meaning of the many-page reasoning boiled down to the following thought: we teach our children those words that have not been used for a long time, calling all this "the Russian literary language", although, in fact, we teach them banal hypocrisy. That is, roughly speaking, why should my child write “great”, although he says “oh *** but” ?!
Of course, the position is controversial, since any other person can ask a counter question: why should I write "oh *** but" when I want to and my upbringing allows me to write "great" ??
Internet language as the destruction of stereotypes Alexander Morozov, a well-known Internet author, is known in many literary forums under the nickname Estrey, as the "author" of many works written in "spoken" language. It is surprising that he himself, at the age of 24, teaches general psychology at the Orenburg State University. That is, according to its social status, it should probably advocate for the purity of the language.
I believe that there is no contradiction here. Everyone should write and speak in a language that they think reflects their emotions and conveys their thoughts more clearly. My language is the so-called “new Russian Internet language”. I feel comfortable in it, no matter whoever shames me for "illiteracy".
By the way, the other day I went to the blog of one "comrade", a fighter for the purity of the Russian language on the Internet, and saw there such a banner (all stylistics and punctuation are preserved): “I want all the emblems on the Internet to write on -Russian is correct. " After that, which of us is an illiterate "embecyl" is still a big question!
Language is a living organism. He needs to be updated, you can and should experiment with him. And our philologists have grasped the rules of a century ago - and do not move! And the fact that this supposedly literary language does not reflect modernity is parallel to them. The main thing is tradition!
Even more annoying, of course, are the home-grown guardians of the purity of their native language, who comment on my stories. Now everyone who graduated from school with an “A” or “A” in the Russian language considers himself a great connoisseur of the language, and is sure that his rules are the most “correct”. Moreover, they still arrange a showdown with each other in my blog! ...
It seems to me that our society will soon split over language. Just as the Americans and the British once "split", who have been arguing for the last couple of hundred years about whose English is more "correct." Only in our case, these will be citizens of the same country ...
The spelling and syntax of the original are largely preserved.
