Questions tagged [история-языка]
Questions on the history of the Russian language, its origin and changes it underwent through the centuries.
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Странный слог А. Дубровского
В романе Пушкина «Дубровский» повествователь, комментируя следующее письмо, написанное одним из персонажей,
Государь мой премилостивый,
Я до тех пор не намерен ехать в Покровское, пока не ...
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Why is "миллиард" used instead of "биллион"?
Russia uses the short scale number-naming system.
Why is, then, "миллиард" used instead of "биллион"?
"Миллиард" (as opposed to "биллион") is used in the long scale number-naming system.
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Church Slavonic lettering style
Church Slavonic texts often appear in a particular old style of script. The lettering is related to Glagolitic and Blackletter (Gothic) in its parallel-line construction and dense packing. It does not ...
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What were the original half-Russian Siberians called?
What were the Imperial Russian terms for a mixed-race Siberian person?
Historical background: As Russia expanded eastward, many mixed children were born to native women and Russian men. Near the end ...
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What is the correct name of the ship, Il'men or Il'mena?
About 1814 the Russian-American Company renamed an old ship, called "Il'men" or "Il'mena" in works written in English. Ильмень is of course a famous lake.
Boris Dralyuk suggested to Susan Morris that ...
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"Промышленники" working for the fur companies
The term промышленник described individuals seeking furs and the employees of 1700s and 1800s fur companies such as Shelikhov-Golikov and the Russian-American Company. Those workers were involved in a ...
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Alternate shapes of cyrillic letters?
In the below image, the two characters underlined don't seem to have a match in the character map program I'm using:
The closest matches I can find are п and д, respectively. Are these indeed the ...
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Как бы звучало по-русски название медведя *r̥ḱs-os/*r̥ḱt-os, доживи оно до наших дней?
Как известно, слово "медведь" это слово-заменитель табуированного "истинного" имени зверя. Похоже что такие замены происходили неоднократно - старое "истинное" имя забывалось и табу переходило на ...
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Откуда взялось местоимение «её» и куда пропало «ея»?
Интересно было бы узнать больше об истории и этимологии личных местоимений третьего лица.
Помнится, я где-то читал, что они якобы происходят от слова «оный». Как вы считаете? Может быть, все как ...
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Why do verbs in past tense—and not other parts of speech—have gender?
In Russian, verbs in the past have gender information attached to them, so that “я спросил” implies that the asker was male, whereas “я спросила” comes from a female.
Why no other tenses have this ...
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Examples of compound words "hidden in plain sight"?
I've known for a while what the word "совсем" means, but only recently did I realize that the meaning stems from the fact that: "совсем = с(о)+всем" (entirely=with everything).
This is probably ...
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When (and, if applicable, where) did ся cease to be a free clitic?
Russian and other East Slavic languages are peculiar, by Slavic standards, in having a fixed post-verbal reflexive particle rather than a free one (or rather, one that tends to follow Wackernagel's ...
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What is "Э оборотное"?
Today I heard from my friend "Э оборотное". I still do not understand why he called it "оборотное". Is there a secret letter "э", which only Russian native speakers know about, which is turned the ...
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Раз, два и обчёлся
I was just wondering what would be the origin of the verb обчёлся? Does it have something to do with закончил считать? I don't think we use other forms of this verb, but in this idiom. How old is this ...
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Why Lomonosov calls Russian language "российский"?
Lomonosov consistently calls Russian language "российский" in his works:
"Российская грамматика"
"Письмо о правилах российского стихотворства"
"Предисловие о пользе книг церковных в российском языке"....
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What are the advanced Russian words якобы and дабы?
Very recently in a russian newspaper I came across the words якобы and дабы. I surfed the internet for these words and found out that generally якобы is alike псевдо or как будто бы, and дабы is так ...
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Why are United Nations and United Arab Emirates translated as "Объединённые", but United States as "Соединённые"?
Are there two different ways to be "United", or is one simply the more modern usage while the other was used historically in previous centuries?
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Orthodox priests' facility with the Church Slavonic language
What I got from reading this is that the Russian recension of Church Slavonic (церковнославянский язык) is probably not terribly difficult to understand, at least generally, for an educated Russian. ...
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Russianization of Ancient Greek personal names
Can anyone shed some light onto the process by which (masculine) personal names of the Ancient Greek world were Russianized? With some notable exceptions (Homer, Aristotle, Hadrian, et al.), English ...
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Может ли известное ругательство с упоминанием матери быть сохранившимся аористом 1 л. ед. ч.?
У глаголов с основой на согласный формы аориста 1 л. ед. ч. (несъ, везъ и т.п.) совпадают с их прошедшим временем ед. ч. м. р. в современном русском. (Которое, разумеется, возникло гораздо позже с ...
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What are all the times where "е" changes to "ё"?
I don't know if this was asked before but I never saw it in search, so I'll just ask it.
Can someone list all the situations where "е" would be changed to "ё" ?
Like maybe after 2 vowels or if the ...
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Russian words with negative connotation substituted by english ones [closed]
I'm looking for russian words that throughout the course of history acquired a negative connotation, because they were linked, for exemple,to the politics of Soviet Unione, and during the last years ...
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Recent Russian language changes
What are the most significant changes in Russian language in 20th-21st centuries other than orthography rules and lexicon?
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Использование слова "один" до 1910-ых годов
Как можно видеть из графика в Google Ngram Viewer, все числительные использовались с примерно постоянной частотой с 1800 года. Но слово один до 1910 года практически не встречается в литературе. В то ...
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[о]>[у] в "господарь">"государь" — единичный случай?
Известны ли, помимо господарь>государь, еще случаи (до распространения аканья, разумеется), когда [о] сужалось в [у]? Может быть, также связанные с выпадением согласного?
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Н > И change in Cyrillic, when and why?
The modern Cyrillic letter had the shape of H a thousand years ago, it descends from the Greek H η 'Ήτα, Ēta'. What is interesting is when and why this letter changed the angle of its bar from H to И.
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Несовершенный вид в значении совершенного
Мы то и дело используем в прошедшем времени несовершенный вид там, где он по базовому смыслу вполне заменим на совершенный, однако контекст требует подчеркнуть, что было выполнено некое предписанное ...
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What is the origin and meanining of -ка in these words/Какова этимология и смысл -ка в этих словах?
Рассмотрим такие слова как ласка, тоска, доска, миска, полоска, колбаска, опаска, ряска. Морфемно-орфографический словарь выдает следующее разделение (в скобках - информация по Фасмеру):
ласк.а (...
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Думпкар и самосвал
Чуковский в книге "Живой как жизнь" перечисляет заимствованные слова и возникшие русские эквиваленты, например "голкипер" и "вратарь". Впервые в этом списке встретил слово "думпкар" аналогом которого ...
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What does "кося" in phrase "накося выкуси" exactly mean
These days I'm reading a book "История моего современника" by V. G. Korolenko (don't feel guilty for reading it online, you are not breaching any copyright laws in this case, since the author is ...
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Был ли раньше «приятный аппетит»?
Есть пожелание «Приятного аппетита», но нет словосочетания «приятный аппетит».
Почему так?
Это устаревшее?
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Russian term for returning emigres?
What is the Russian term for the emigres who returned to Russia during the Stalin years--and at his invitation? This was during the 1930s, I think, and was a specific term. Thanks!
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Was -ю ending in instrumental mandatory in Pushkin's times?
Was -ю ending in instrumental mandatory or overwhelming in Pushkin's times?
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"Качели" vs. "качель"
While reading Osip Mandelshtam, I came across the word качель in singular.
Я качался в далеком саду
На простой деревянной качели,
И высокие темные ели
Вспоминаю в туманном бреду.
...
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The origin of complex plural forms
What caused complex plural forms in Russian? Were they borrowed from another language, inherited from Old Russian, or is there another reason why they appeared?
By "complex plural forms" I mean the ...
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When did the к/ч consonant alteration appear in Russian? Когда в русском языке впервые появилось чередование к/ч?
In words like век - вечный, урок - урочный, доска - досочка or миска - мисочка. Can this be a result of Uralic influence?
В словах наподобие век - вечный, урок - урочный, доска - досочка или миска - ...
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Colloquial imperative with the particle -ка
This form seems to be very common in modern conversational Russian, e.g.
Пойдём-ка, покурим-ка.
Давайте-ка не будем пороть горячку.
Подожди(те)-ка!
This form also has its more colloquial (and ...
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When and how has the word широковещательный obtained its negative connotations?
I've stumbled upon this word in Andrey Bely's (Bugaev's) Символизм как миропонимание (СПб 1994). Even in the early 20th century the word was used negatively referring to 'широковещательность ...
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What is the origin of Russian suffix -шк-?
What is the origin of diminitive suffix -шк- for personal names (like Антошка, Машка, Мишка, Ивашка)?
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к/ц becoming к/ч in Russian: chronology and reasons? Чередование к/ц и его переход в к/ч в русском: хронология и причины?
Читаем Иванова, "Историческая грамматика русского языка": "...в древнерусском языке противопоставление [ц'] и [ч'] на стыке корневой и флективной морфем могло иметь такой характер, что при помощи ...
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Why рукопожатный?/ Почему говорится "рукопожатный"?
The word itself is like a standard p.pt., except that such words can be in Russian either т- or н-ending. How come that рукопожатен has both affixes?
Само слово похоже на обычное причастие прошедшего ...
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Are there any patterns for loanwords phonetics in Russian which are specific for a source language?
В (древне)русском языке есть (был) набор специфических фонем. В языках, из которых осуществлялись заимствования, тоже был набор специфических фонем. Вопрос: могли ли одни и те же звуки (древне)...
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Kакова этимология слова "варяг"? What is the etymology of 'varyag'?
Имеется в виду буквальное значение слова. The word is meant in its literal sense.
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Origin of the verb form "(я) ем"
Can please someone explain the origin of "-м" in "(я) ем".
Why do other verbs have "-у (-ю)" ending in the 1st person singular of present ("я работаю, я учу"), but this verb has "-м"?
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What is the etymology of чашка? Какова этимология слова "чашка"?
Does it have anything in common with Sanskrit चषक (casaaka) = bowl, glass, cup, wine, liquour? Please avoid elliptic definitions like 'it is a diminutive from 'чаша'.
Есть ли у слова что-либо общее с ...
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When did (Old) Russian lose its Plusquamperfect?
Did it disappear in some transitional period or later, when Modern Russian already existed?
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"достичь" vs. "достигнуть"
Словарь указывает оба варианта как допустимые. Но хотя достичь и считается основным, в его спряжении все равно присутствуют формы с суффиксом -ну \ -н: достигну, достигнешь, и т.п.
Как получилось, ...
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Why "обо всём" but "перед всем"?
Why is it
обо мне
обо всём
but
передо мной
перед всем
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