Russian language defended with reservations – Picture of the Day – Kommersant

The Federation Council today approved a law clarifying the ban on the use at the state level of foreign words that have analogues in Russian. But this happened only after a heated discussion: the senators wanted to make sure that the ban would not apply to scientific and legal terms. “Otherwise, it will be a catastrophe,” Andrei Klishas, ​​chairman of the constitutional committee, warned his colleagues. Representatives of the regions were also confused by the uncertainty of the bans and the very subject of regulation. But for all the imperfection of the initiative, there is no alternative to it, the speaker of the upper house, Valentina Matvienko, explained: the law should be approved at least as a “message and call” to protect the Russian language.

representing law Senator from Sevastopol Yekaterina Altabaeva recalled that the initiative developed by the government in order to improve the mechanisms for ensuring the status of the Russian language as the state language obliges to use it, including in the field of education, state and municipal information systems, information for consumers of goods and services.

The law also does not allow the use of words and expressions that “do not correspond to the norms of the modern Russian literary language.”

What exactly should be considered the norm will be explained in dictionaries and reference books, the procedure for compiling which, however, has yet to be developed by the government.

And, judging by the questions of the senators, such uncertainty greatly embarrassed them.

“I want to ask a government representative a question so that we can have a joint understanding in the transcript of what we are now adopting: did I understand you correctly after the committee meeting that all scientific terminology, regardless of the industry, in particular legal, will not be regulated by the fact that in this law you call “the norms of the modern Russian language”? Andrey Klishas, ​​chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Legislation, immediately took the bull by the horns.

“Normative dictionaries of the Russian literary language are formed in order to determine how a word is pronounced, written, that is, the rules of grammar for commonly used words. These dictionaries will not include scientific terms that are already used either in scientific or specialized dictionaries,” Deputy Minister of Education Andrey Korneev assured the senator. A few hours earlier, at a meeting of the constitutional committee, the deputy minister was not yet so sure of this, but Mr. Klishas, ​​under the threat of rejecting the law, demanded that the notion of “modern Russian literary language” be recorded under the protocol that scientific terms do not apply.

“Otherwise it’s a disaster,” he warned. “I’ll write a letter using the word ‘jurisdiction’ and get comments from 20 crazy people.”

The senator from Tuva, Lyudmila Narusova, said that she did not quite understand what foreign analogues would be removed from the literary language. “We are going backwards. These foreign words can be used, but if there are no analogues in the Russian language,” explained Ms. Altabaeva.

“The word ‘analogue’ confuses me,” admitted Taimuraz Mamsurov, a senator from North Ossetia, in turn. “It is not Russian in itself.”

There was applause in the hall. “It is clear that this law will not be able to solve the issue of using foreign words in our language in one day,” Senator Altabaeva said. “But the message of the law is obvious: you need to use as few foreign words as possible in your speech.”

Altai Senator Vladimir Poletaev was concerned about the need to conduct a linguistic examination of regulations on the ground. Will all local authorities have to do this, he asked apprehensively. “Only in those cases when new ones are accepted,” Deputy Minister Korneev reassured him. And Ms. Altabayeva added that in the future it is planned to use special information platforms during the examination, which will allow you to quickly receive reference linguistic information. But that won’t be until 2025.

“Valentina Ivanovna, here you are – the speaker, this is a non-Russian word,” Narusova continued to bend her mind, turning to the head of the chamber. “I am the chairman,” snapped Ms. Matviyenko. “’President’ is also a non-Russian word,” the senator from Tuva did not give up. The colleague was supported by the senator from the Omsk region Elena Mizulina. The law is not based on anything and is not addressed to anyone, it does not even define what “modern Russian literary language” is, she was indignant.

Valentina Matvienko put an end to the dispute. Despite the imperfection of the law, it should be adopted and its application strictly monitored, she said. “The law is rather a message and a call that the language should have a status and should be protected,” explained the chairman of the chamber. The doubters in the hall after that, however, remained, but in a minimal number: 149 senators voted for the approval of the document, one was against and 3 abstained.

Anastasia Kornya