Getting rid of foreign borrowings and swearing has been declared a task of Russia’s state policy

The President signed a decree on the Fundamentals of State Policy in the Field of Culture. A lot of attention in the document is paid to measures to support the Russian language, the eradication of “excessive foreign borrowings” and the reduction of the use of devalued vocabulary, popularly known as swear words.

What specific changes can occur in connection with this and how will they affect education and culture?

“Protection and support of the Russian language as the state language of the Russian Federation, ensuring compliance with the norms of the modern Russian literary language (including the prevention of obscene language) and counteracting the excessive use of foreign vocabulary,” the text of the decree declares.

The president’s efforts to preserve the “great and mighty” in all its original glory and power were supported in both houses of parliament. In the Federation Council, the chairman of the committee on science, education and culture, Lilia Gumerova, noted that the implementation of Putin’s decree would require “changes in the regulatory framework.” But which laws and legal acts should be subject to revision, the senator did not specify. “Among the population, it is necessary to consolidate the understanding that the correct Russian language is good,” the parliamentarian delivered such an imperfect in form, but essentially correct verdict.

Important principles of language policy were also revoked in the State Duma. There, the first deputy chairman of the committee on state building and legislation, Daniil Bessarabov, called for raising the culture of speech. For obscene language, of course, as for hooliganism and obscenity in public places, you can and should be fined. No less important, according to the deputy, is “getting rid of borrowed words from foreign languages.” They say that with sufficient knowledge of the native language, one can “give any phenomenon such a naming that would come into our everyday life and fully reflect the essence of processes and phenomena.”

One can argue with the latter – even during the time of Catherine II and Alexander III, attempts were made to rid the Russian of borrowings. And so far, no attempt at forcible “Russification” has been successful. Artificially replaced words: “listening” (audience), “wet shoes” (galoshes), “toptalische” (sidewalk) – did not take root in the Russian language.

About what specific changes may occur in connection with the new presidential decree and how they will affect education, “MK” talked with a linguist, teacher, member of the Spelling Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences Maria Rovinskaya.

– What legal acts can change if it concerns the language?

– Probably, we are talking about acts that regulate not the language, because it is impossible, but the use and use of the language in different areas. This is certainly possible and necessary, and the state does it in different situations. We have a law on the state language, which we recently discussed. There is an article in the administrative code that does not allow the use of foul language in public places. There is an article about insults, including verbal ones, and so on.

What is meant now, when the president speaks about the use of borrowed vocabulary, obscene language, is not yet very clear. If our legislators want to regulate the use of such vocabulary in the speech of native speakers in general, then it seems that this is an illusion. It’s impossible. And, I will not tire of repeating, I strongly advocate that our legislators, when they speak and think about language, start with themselves. Because the process of language vulgarization, the use of jargon, vernacular in colloquial vocabulary in official business situations is obvious to officials of all ranks. It does not embellish the language. If we want children, the younger generation to strive for a beautiful Russian language, we need examples. And to whom, if not those in power, to provide these samples.

– Can something change in education in connection with the decree?

– Normally, in the process of teaching, we do not use obscene language …

– But children at school swear only so.

– This is true. But we are fighting it as best we can. Perhaps this legislative will, this energy should be channeled in the right direction. And to make some kind of complex of educational, enlightening, cultural events that would explain to children how to speak in some situations, what is possible, what is not, and why. This would be much more effective than any kind of repressive measures.

And in the field of borrowed vocabulary and its use, something revolutionary is unlikely to happen. The field of education is conservative. Now educational programs are quite structured, built, formalized. And I don’t think there will be any extraordinary changes.

– Signs in a foreign language, company names can be banned?

Maybe they will, or maybe they won’t. We do not know. Business is a complex area, it is associated with advertising, registered trademarks, commercial brands and so on.

But most importantly, a ban on signs in a foreign language will not bring anything new or useful. We recently had a discussion with colleagues, and one children’s writer complained that her child did not know the word “coachman”. And it would be nice to ban all foreign words. But because we ban foreign words or replace the word “taxi driver” with “coachman”, taxi drivers will not be called coachmen. The ban is unproductive, it does not bear any productive consequences. On the contrary, a child needs to learn many different concepts and understand the difference between a conditional coachman and a conditional taxi driver. Between the conditional Russian word, because “coachman” is also a borrowed word (from the Turkic languages. — Auth.), and a borrowed word that has not yet been mastered. This is all in the field of education. We must explain, enlighten, tell. Finally, teaching is the only thing that works. But bans, repressions and all kinds of punishment – they do not work.