Experts told which anglicisms will be left in the new dictionaries

After the release in February of a new law on the protection of the state language, including, among other things, a ban on the use of foreign words in its official version, it would seem that a lot should have changed in our lives, but most of us did not feel any changes on ourselves. The Ministry of Education, meanwhile, by June 1 plans to submit a draft of changes to the dictionaries of the Russian language, from which anglicisms will disappear. “MK” talked about the ongoing struggle for the “purity” of the speech of Russians with experts.

Recall that on February 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that is designed to stimulate compliance with the norms of the literary Russian language and take control of the use of foreign borrowing words. “When using the Russian language as the state language of the Russian Federation, it is not allowed to use words and expressions that do not comply with the norms of the modern Russian language (including obscene language), with the exception of words that have no … analogues in the Russian language and the list of which is contained in standard dictionaries” , – this is the amendment made to the law.

“Today we are preparing a new dictionary, where the implementation of the law on the protection of the Russian language. Within the framework of this law, we must adopt revised dictionaries, we are completing this work, ”said the head of the ministry, Sergei Kravtsov, at the All-Russian Forum of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature.

Anglicisms, we recall, were banned in areas related to state and municipal activities, in the official correspondence of companies and residents, as well as in the work of educational institutions. In some cases, foreign words are prohibited in the media, advertisements, movies in cinemas, etc.

The importance of preparing a new dictionary is evidenced by the fact that those foreign words that will be included in it, as experts say, can be used in official speeches, documents, etc.

But this law does not affect the scope of the use of the Russian language in ordinary, everyday speech. And therefore, in informal conversations and private correspondence, Russians can still ask each other about the “content” of the site and what are the “trends” in the form of jeans today. Put on clothes of famous “brands” and go to the “townhouse” with friends …

But after all, even when using the Russian language as the official language, it seems that we will absolutely not be able to do without such words of foreign origin fixed in our minds as “blockbuster”, “gadget” and “snowboard”. If you translate them into Russian counterparts, then you will turn off the language, and most importantly, it will take three times more time to pronounce … In general, questions remain.

“We are talking about amendments to the Federal Law “On the State Language” of 2005, which was amended in February, some of which relate to the use of foreign words, and the wording in the amendments, in my opinion, is rather confusing,” commented “MK” linguist, lecturer, member of the Spelling Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences Maria Rovinskaya. – It seems to me that it means that when using the Russian language as the state language, the use of foreign words is allowed, even not included in the dictionaries, which have no analogues in the Russian language. We are talking, most likely, about some still uncodified neologisms. If suddenly there is a need to use this particular word, there is no ban on its use.

At the same time, these amendments do not introduce any special additional restrictions on the use of foreign words. They say that you need to be guided by modern dictionaries of the literary language, but if a foreign word refers to jargon, vernacular, colloquial language, then we have the opportunity to choose some other way of expressing thoughts.

The use of the Russian language in ordinary, everyday speech is not affected by this law in any way.

– And such long-standing foreign words as a producer, football, etc. these innovations will not affect, they will not be removed from the updated dictionary?

– No, of course, because they have long been in the dictionaries of the literary language, they are codified. There is nothing and no reason to replace them. The discussion concerns only words that are not fixed as words of the literary language. If we talk about allowed anglicisms that can be included in new dictionaries, then let’s imagine that some new sport will be included in the Olympics program, but there are no analogues in the Russian language. If we need to use these borrowed sports terms, then there is no prohibition on this.

– How can one fight to reduce the use by modern teenagers of the same anglicisms that, in fact, all their speech consists of today?

– If we are talking about slang words, including youth jargon, then it is useless to fight them. And we see that jargon goes away naturally with age and a change in the status of a person’s life. Even when I, as a teacher, pronounce in a student audience, for example, the word “krinzh” (shame. – Note. ed.), then the students smile awkwardly, because they think that it is not my age and status to use such words. Although I cite it as an example. Everyone has an understanding of what, at what age and in what situation is used. Each generation has different jargons, we do not pass them on from generation to generation. And modern schoolchildren, of course, will not understand their peers from past years.

Teacher of the Year 2019 Larisa Arachashvili, who teaches Russian language and literature, shared her opinion on the new dictionary:

“The fact is that dictionaries are usually compiled on the basis of the changes that occur in the language,” explained the MK teacher of the year. – That is, new words appear, they are first used in oral speech, and then they are recorded in dictionaries. And such an artificial removal of foreign words from the language, it seems to me, cannot in any way seriously affect their distribution in oral speech. Still, people do not constantly look into dictionaries, and as such the publication of a dictionary will not change the speech of ordinary people …

Here, rather, we are talking about the fact that people use those speech means that they have heard. And the fewer foreign words will come across during the speech of announcers and speakers in TV programs, on the radio, in the course of some Internet communications, the fewer of these words will be around us, the cleaner the speech of adults and adolescents will become …