Origin of language contact

The infiltration of English words into Russian language progressed in the age of Peter I (seventeenth/eighteenth centuries). There were not only shipbuilding and nautical terms but also included items like ростбиф (roast beef), пудинг (pudding), энтузиазм (enthusiasm) in the domain of “social life”.

Lexical borrowing in the nineteenth century was one of the consequences of the Industrial Revolution. English words and phrases entered the literary style and spread in the speech of the aristocracy, some of them in their phonological shape: джентльмен (gentleman), коттедж (cottage), колледж (college), others preserved their foreign spelling: вульгарный (vulgar), клоун (clown).

The second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century saw the growing influx of direct borrowings from English. This was due to the strengthening of English-Russian contacts before the First World War, and the well-known Anglomania of the middle class and the aristocracy, as well as purely literary influence through the translations of English and American novels and poetry: Kipling, Longfellow, Byron. The development of capitalism and revolutionary movement also added to the growth of borrowed word stock relation to social and political terminology: бойкот (boycott), локаут (lock-out), тред-юнион (trade union), than the sports terms were adopted, at first as foreignisms: бейсбол (baseball), бокс (box), матч (match), рекорд (record), старт (start), трек (track); the name of dances and other new concepts of everyday life such as music, drinks..

The twentieth century is characterized by several subsequent waves of borrowing, especially after the Second World War. In the late 1960^s the English and American words massively penetrated into Russian during the period of general “liberalization” of relationships between the East and the West. political, economic (импичмент - impeachment, менеджер - manager, дайджест - digest),

food (чипсы - chips, крекер - cracker, черри - cherry, джус - juice),

transport (лайнер - liner, боинг - boeing, аэробус - airbus)

clothes (твид - tweed, блейзер - blazer)

other fields (гуд бай - good bye, о’кей - okay)

The second half of the twenty century is characterized by heavy borrowing of youth slang.

The 1980s and 1990s were characterized by a new wave of English vocabulary as a consequence of Russia’s transition to the market economy. The domains affected in previous decades are being enriched: хит - hit, клип – clip, шейпинг - shaping, холдинг - holding, дистрибьютор - distributor, дилер - dealer.

To understand what is happening with modern Russian discourse, and with its vocabulary in particular, it is necessary to look back to the1980s when perestroika started. In the Russian discourse of the Cold War period, there were not many borrowings. The spread of ‘foreignness’ was stimulated by increased international cultural and political relations.

At the beginning of the 21^st century it was possible to identify the following main spheres in the use of anglicisms: economics and politics; technology; spheres of people’s everyday activities, often pertaining to their senses of comfort and well-being; and the most recent category, the names of various kinds of services (catering, cleaning).

Since the 1990s, after the collapce of the USSR, began the new era in the Russian history, the mass westernization of the social layers and culture through the western films, books, music, fashion, food.

Now, the major part of the anglicisms in Russian is the IT vocabulary: дисплей - display, принтер - printer, провайдер - provider, драйвер - driver, юзер – user.

Table

Period	No. of E loans	% of all Anglicisms
1500-1700		2.2
1701-1800		12.1
1801-1900		30.2
1901-80		55.5

Advantages

extends the vocabulary of the language prevents the creation of new words making it adaptable to the current use;

acquaints the reader with a foreign culture;

testifies to people’s increased knowledge and interest about the world around them

Disadvantages

prevents the creation of new through the language’s own means and thus the specific character of the language is not preserved;

leaves certain aspects of information unclear for the reader;

excuses translator’s inability to look for the corresponding equivalent in the language.

Table 1.Advantages and disadvantages of the use of anglicisms in modern Russian discourse

English and Russian are from different language families, and their phonological systems and the articulation of individual sounds differ considerably. The next Table illustrates these differences: English phonemes not found in Russian are italicized whereas phonemes peculiar to Russian are in bold type. There are also the following phonotactic differences.

Miscellaneous Russian Pronunciation Points:

a) Generally, long vowels sounds like short vowels i.e мастер-класс - masterclass
b) T/D/L/N are aspirated by the tongue touching the top teeth-this sounds "foreign" Every consonant in Russian pronunciation is either palatalized (is followed by the front vowels /i/, /e/) or non-palatalized (before back vowels /a/, /o/, /u/, /y/): consonants in English loanwords are treated accordingly лидер /l’id’er/.
c) Final voiced consonants (T, D, G) are devoiced in Russian ie. lab-lap, said-set
d) stops and fricatives are regularly devoiced at the end of Russian words: P, K, T are not aspirated. Therefore, mispronounced at beginning of words ie. Pit-bit, come-gum.
e) Dark L (full, hill) replaces Clear L (light, fly) and may have two interpretations [l] and [l’] – folk – rock / folk music –фолк-рок, фольк-музыка
f) Consonant Clusters are very difficult for Russians! i.e. Months, clothes, sixth.
g) Initial Clusters; TW, TR, PR, DR, BR cause problems i.e. twice, tree, price.
h) 2nd part of diphthongs and 2nd/3rd part of tripthongs tend to be over pronounced. Non-Russian diphthongs became monophthongized holding – холдинг or replaced by an intramorphemic vowel sequence file-файл

b) Articulation standard Russian has a different [r] from English, rolled

c) Not differentiate between /n/ and /N/,

d) The pronunciation of English loans may be based on spelling and remain very similar to an existing Russian word with their Russian equivalents, as in bobby [o] and disk [i]

e) [ei] has been interpreted in various ways: [e] in l e di, b e bi; [é] l é di, b é bi; [ei] l eí di, b eí bi.

However, since the phonological type of borrowing from acoustic sources is more frequent today, the latest borrowings tend to render the English pronunciation quite closely: кеш - cash, крэйзи - crazy, бобслей - bobsleigh, имидж-мейкер – image maker

The interference in the pronunciation of English words by Russian learners

Consonants		Honophthongs
English	Russian	English Russian
b	b, b'	i:,I i
p	p, p'	E: E:
t	t, t’	e F
d	d, d'	a: a
k	k, k'	L, O O
g	g, g'	u:, u u
m	m, m'	A -
n	n, n'	q q
f	f, f'	q -
v	v, v'	x -
s	s, s'	[There are no
		diphthongs in Russian.]
z	z, z'
S	S
G - Z Z	-
tS	tS
j	j
l	l,l'
r	r, r'
h	-
-	x, x’
D	-
w	-

[i:] [I]

keen kin

scene sin

[L] [ou]

want won’t

ball bawl

[x] [e]

bad bed

pan pen

[n] [N]

thin thing

ban bang

[A] [R]

fust fast

cut cart

[L] [O]

cort cot

port pot

[v] [w]

vest west

vine wine

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