Donetsk linguist Terkulov assessed the bill to combat foreign names

Well-known Donetsk linguist, Doctor of Philology Vyacheslav Terkulov spoke on the topic of the bill on combating Anglicisms in advertising and product names, introduced on Wednesday to the State Duma by the head of the Culture Committee Elena Yampolskaya and her associates, and also commented on essentially similar amendments to the Urban Planning Code.

The professor said that measures regulating the use of words are being taken in many countries, this is global experience, but it must be remembered that language has a “self-cleaning” function.

The bill submitted to the State Duma proposes a ban on giving names to villages, microdistricts, residential complexes (LCs) and neighborhoods in foreign languages. The legislative initiative also provides for the introduction of a ban on the use of derivatives from foreign words and expressions in names (with the exception of the state languages ​​of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation).

“What borrowings should we be afraid of in principle?” – the MK correspondent asked Terkulov with this question.

– Language is a self-cleaning system; it retains only what it considers necessary. The largest arrival of foreign words into the Russian language was under Peter I – speech then became macaronic, words like negotiation (negotiations), chord (agreement), malkonent (dissatisfied), alarm (alarm), desperatny (desperate), campament (camp) appeared. , retreat (retreat), exercise (exercise), confidentiality (confidential conversation), invitation (invitation)… But in the end, the language got rid of everything unnecessary.

– In what cases is lexical “import” still necessary?

– If the reality is taken from a foreign language, that’s fine. If the word means an abstract concept that comes from Western literature or art.

– And what kind of “foreignness” should we talk about as obvious ballast?

– If a word begins to be used under the influence of the “authority” of a foreign language.

– When is it considered that a “ticket” is cool, but a ticket is not?

– Yes, this is the case. When absolute synonyms, words are borrowed to designate realities that are already designated by some word in our language.

This works not only in Russian – in any language, when a native word is replaced by a foreign one, and unreasonably.

– Are there “pure” languages ​​with exclusively native vocabulary?

– All languages ​​have “foreign” words – Russian in foreign and foreign in Russian. And we consider many words to be native, like some shoe (Tatar) or industry (tracing paper from English), but they were taken from somewhere. The words “head”, “citizen” come from Old Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian). But I repeat: the tongue gets rid of the excess itself.

– Do you consider legislative interventions justified in this case?

– Government or departmental restrictions exist in many countries. In France, for example, there is a commission to combat Anglicisms.

– Please evaluate the amendments to the Town Planning Code, according to which it will be impossible to call villages, districts, streets, residential complexes and neighborhoods derivatives of foreign words.

– I would support this ban. Well, really, mixing French with Nizhny Novgorod is somehow rustic. Authentic toponymy is correct. Toponymy is always a reflection of linguistic and cultural specifics.

In the Donbass, for example, most of the names of settlements are associated with mines – Uglegorsk, Ugledar, Shakhtersk, there are cities named after industrialists – Yenakievo, Mospino. And this is the right approach.

– In the USA there is a city of St. Petersburg, which we know about thanks to Mark Twain. And no one prohibits anything there.

– “Moscow” and “Odessa” in the States are resettlement names. By the way, we also have many of these, the same Yalta and Gurzuf in the Donetsk Azov region. But now it is unlikely that any relocations are expected. Therefore, such names look stupid to us.