The twists and turns of the Russian language
LET’S face it, learning the Russian language is a challenge from the very start, because you start with studying new letters – the Cyrillic script.
As one popular internet meme goes: “Russian cursive makes me cry sometimes…” The phrase always appears together with a picture of virtually unreadable handwritten words in Russian. A printed Russian text often seems to be no better – an amalgam of unfamiliar symbols and shapes.
Yet, the Cyrillic script on which the Russian alphabet is based is one of the world’s most used writing systems. To name a few, languages that use the Cyrillic script include Belarusian, Bulgarian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Mongolian, Russian, Tajik, Ukrainian.
In the 9th century two Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries, brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius, streamlined the existing Slavic languages by providing a codified Cyrillic alphabet and thus creating the first Slavic literary language – Old Church Slavonic.
These days, Russians as well as a number of other nations pay tribute to the two brothers on the Saints Cyril and Methodius’ Day or as it is known in Russia specifically – the Day of Slavonic Literature and Culture (May 24).
By the end of the 10th century the Christianisation of the territories that nowadays constitute the European part of Russia brought about the domination of the Old Church Slavonic language which in turn evolved into Church Slavonic
– a Slavic liturgical language. The latter became the literary language of Russia and existed as such for several centuries. Local spoken dialects appropriated many of its features and adopted its alphabet.
As the Grand Principality of Moscow (existed between 1283 and 1547) prevailed in the political arena, the Moscow dialect expanded its influence and gradually emerged as the basis of the modern Russian language. In the following periods, many transformations and reforms of the language came to pass.
Some of the changes concerned the very basics – the Russian alphabet. The last major reform to date took place in 1917-1918 and from that time on it takes only 33 steps to take you “from A to (read like ‘ya’ in ‘yard’).
The vocabulary of the Russian language has also been undergoing constant transformations Understanding medieval texts is no easy task for modern Russians.
At the same time, what we now regard as classics and the benchmark for the pure Russian language used to receive much criticism from the champions of the canonical lexicon just a couple of hundred years ago.
The genius of Russian literature Alexander Pushkin introduced many loanwords, which back in the 19th century grated on the ears of his contemporaries. Nowadays however the words “duel”, “vulgar” or “lemon” sound anything but foreign.
Loanwords in the Russian language are not just spelled in Cyrillic, they also get modified grammatically.
The ability to transform and adapt foreign words so that they could fit in the Russian vocabulary is a great asset of the language. In the age of globalisation, the language is experiencing a great influx of borrowed words. Inevitably, this tide of linguistic change sparks heated debates in society, but one thing is for sure – Russian is a flourishing, dynamic and vibrant language.
Look how many words burgeoned from just one little acronym “PR”: (piarshchik) – a person working in PR, in some contexts a spin doctor; a noun (“piar”) meaning the cultivation of a certain image through mass media; a verb (“piarit”) used to describe such activity and of course a variety of prefixed derivatives each with a subtle difference in meaning.
With all these foreign words penetrating the Russian language it remains enigmatic and conceals an entirely unique world. Some call it “the Russian soul”.
Embark on the journey of learning Russian and you might find it there.