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The East Slavic Languages, and How They Compare to American English

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The East Slavic Languages, and How They Compare to American English THE EAST SLAVIC LANGUAGES, AND HOW THEY COMPARE TO AMERICAN ENGLISH Rudenka A. Belarusian State University The aim of the paper is to compare American English and the Slavic languages, especially East Slavic, first of all Belarusian. The Slavic languages is one of the groups of the Indo-European languages, just as the German languages, especially English. PIE (Proto-Indo-European) is estimated to have been spoken as a single language around 6000-2500 BCE during the Neolithic Age. Then it began to disintegrate into related languages. Proto-Germanic itself was spoken after c. 500 BC. Proto-Slavic has occurred in the period 1500–1000 BCE. Since the Germanic and Slavic languages are relatives, there are common Indo- European words in English and Belarusian. The most obvious of these words are Engl. mother – Bel. maci (маці), Engl. brother – Bel. brat (брат), Engl. sister – Bel. siastra (сястра), Engl. daughter – Bel. dachka (дачка), Engl. wolf – Bel. vowk (воўк), Engl. snow – Bel. s’nieh (снег), Engl. milk – Bel. malako (малако), Engl. water – Bel. vada (вада), Engl. salt – Bel. sol’ (соль), Engl. day – Bel. d’zien’ (дзень). For centuries, the Slavs and Germans were neighbors, so the Germanic and the Slavic languages have many mutual borrowings. There are some examples of borrowings from Proto-Slavic to Proto-Germanic: Proto-Slav. děliti ‘divide’, dělъ ‘part’ > Proto-Germ. daila ‘part’ > Engl. deal; Proto-Slav. molto > Proto-Germ. malta > Engl. malt; Proto-Slav. netijь > Proto-Germ. neþ̅ ija > Engl. nephew; Proto- Slav. hvatati ‘to grab’, ohota, họtь ‘wish’ > Proto-Germ. hwata ‘fast, brave, clever’ > Engl. hunt, hunter. Borrowings from Proto-Germanic to Proto-Slavic are: Proto-Germ. helma (> Engl. helmet) > Proto-Slav. šelmъ ‘helmet’; Proto-Germ. wedra (> Engl. weather) > Proto-Slav. vedro ‘good weather’; Proto-Germ. glōza (> Engl. glass) > Proto-Slav. glazъ ‘something shining’, ‘shining stone’, ‘eye’; Proto-Germ. kuninga (> Engl. king) > Proto-Slav. kъnęd'z'ь ‘prince’; Proto-Germ. wīkinga (> Engl. viking) > Proto-Slav. vitęd'z'ь ‘knight’. For the same reason of the neighborhood there are common loan words in the Proto-Germanic and Proto-Slavic languages, for example from Latin. These loan words are not modern internationalisms, but ancient borrowings: Proto-Germ. disku ‘table, dish’ (> Engl. desk, dish); Proto-Slav. dьska ‘plank, board’ < Lat. discus. Modern internationalism disk is borrowed from the same Latin word nowadays. Proto-Germ. cat; Proto-Slav. kot < Lat. cattus: domestic cats were borrowed from exotic countries, such as Egypt together with their name. Proto-Germ. vinum (> Engl. wine); Proto-Slav. vino < Lat. vinum were also borrowed with a drink. Many words from religious sphere were borrowed both in the Slavic and Germanic languages from Latin and Greek: devil, abbot, apostle, monk, as well as clerk, minister, and many others. Later the Proto-Germanic and Proto-Slavic languages disintegrated into subgroups and separate related languages. Here the East Slavic languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and socio-linguistic situation in these countries, first of all in Belarus, are compared to the American English and language situation in the USA. At 17 075 200 square kilometers, Russia is the largest country in the world by surface area, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, and the ninth most populous, with over 144 million people at the end of March 2016. Population of the USA is over 324 million people and its area is 9.8 million square km. Russian is spoken not only in Russian Federation, but also in Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and several other countries. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, and the most widely spoken Slavic language. It is also the largest native language in Europe, with around 160 million speakers in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Russian is one of the official languages of UNO, as well as English. In terms of language prevalence, Russian is the most similar to English among all Slavic languages. English has not official status in the USA. There are many countries, where language has not official status de jure, but de facto state language is that one, in which constitution is written, for instance France or Germany. For historical reasons there are a lot of other than English languages in the USA, for example Spanish – more than 12%, Indigenous American languages. But all of them haven't any official status, such as the Tatar language in Tatarstan in the Russian Federation. Population of Ukraine is 45 600 000; the state language is Ukrainian. It is spoken in Ukraine by c. 33 million, in the world – by c. 45 million. The second most widely spoken language of Ukraine is Russian. On the map you can see the extent of Ukrainian in different regions of Ukraine. Area of Belarus is 207,595 km2. According to the National Statistical Committee, as of January 2016, the population is 9.49 million people. Ethnic Belarusians constitute 83.7% of total population. The next largest ethnic groups are: Russians (8.3%), Poles (3.1%), and Ukrainians (1.7%). 70% of Belarusian population is concentrated in urban areas. Minsk, the nation's capital and largest city, is home to 2 million residents. Official languages of Belarus are Belarusian and Russian. The most common immigrant languages in Belarus are Tatar (12,000), Ukrainian (6,300), Polish (4,220), Erzya (2,600), Korean (1,000), Lithuanian (280), Standard Latvian (1,000). Russian and Belarusian, both indigenuos languages, have the same legal status, but Belarusian it is less spoken. Some facts about the usage of the Belarusian language. 7 million of citizens of Belarus understand Belarusian. 2/3 of this 5 million do not speak Belarusian at home. 34% of Belarusians speak Belarusian fluently. 6% of Belarusians always use Belarusian. 74% of Belarusians always use Russian. 21% of citizens of Belarus do not use the Belarusian language at all. 5 mln. people consider Belarusian as their mother language. Despite the fact that 74% of Belarusians speak only Russian, 80% of the country's residents say that their native language is Belarusian. It is obvious that the Belarusian language performs an ethnic function. For the same reason, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders insist that they have independent languages, not variants of English in their countries. Belarusian is limited functionally: it is used little in scientific and official discources, although there is a rich fiction in the Belarusian language, mass media, teaching in schools and universities. Limited usage reduces the ability of the language - it can’t be a full-fledged means of communication in a rapidly changing world. It is a vicious circle: the more limited is the communication in the language, the less are its capabilities as a means of communication. Belarusian and Russian are closely related languages. It is dangerous for Belarusian to be in contact with such a closely related language, which is much stronger, has a lot of speakers not only in Belarus, but in neighbor huge country, and which is one of world languages. There is strong interference of the Russian and Belarusian languages in Belarus. In Belarusian cities people speak pure Belarusian literary language (very rare, only 2% of our population), the Russian literary language, or, rather, the Belarusian variant of the Russian language, and “trasianka” – mixed Russian-Belarusian language. In countryside people speak local dialects of the Belarusian language with elements of Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Lithuanian, and, certainly, with “trasianka” components. In general, the prestige of Russian in Belarus is higher, although in the cities Belarusian has the status of refined language, which is spoken by highly educated young people - patriots of Belarus. Language situation in Belarus is bilingual, and this is a special kind of bilingualism. Belarusian bilingualism is unbalanced, but it is not diglossia. As diglossia may be qualified language situation in some states of the USA, for example English-Spanish diglossia. In Belarus there is no functional distribution of Russian and Belarusian. We may call the socio-linguistic situation in Belarus ambilingualism. A region is called ambilingual if the functional distribution is not observed. In a typical ambilingual area it is nearly impossible to predict which language will be used in a given setting. True ambilingualism is rare. Ambilingual tendencies can be found in small states with multiple heritages, it is just about Belarus. Ambilingualism also can manifest in specific regions of larger states, for example Quebec in Canada. This phenomenon can also occur in border regions with many cross-border contacts. Language situation in three countries, where the East Slavic languages are spoken, is different and differs from the language situation in the USA. .
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