Echoes from the Past: The Influence of other Languages on Russian
The Russian language has been influenced by a variety of other languages over its history, reflecting its interactions with neighbouring and distant cultures. Whilst some words, such as блогер (blogger), президент (president), теннис (tennis) are almost direct synonyms from English, I want to investigate how other languages, especially lesser-known and old languages, have impacted Russian, and what value they still hold in today’s version of the language.
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic was the first Slavic literary language and a liturgical language. Developed in the First Bulgarian Empire, it was used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and played a significant role in shaping the early phonological, grammatical, and lexical aspects of the Russian language. As this language was created so everyone could understand the liturgy in the same language for more than a thousand years, it has undoubtedly had a lasting effect.
While both Russian and Old Church Slavonic are Slavic languages, some early Slavic sound combinations evolved slightly differently. Therefore, the following words have the same meanings, yet different pronunciations. The first word is in Russian, the second in Old Church Slavonic.
золото / злато – gold
город / град – city
горячий / горящий – hot
рожать / рождать – to give birth
Furthermore, an aspect of this ancient language’s grammatical structure is still being used today. For example, all words with the prefix пре- or participles with the suffixes -ущ/-ющ, -ащ/-ящ come from Old Church Slavonic.
Old Norse and Old East Slavic
Contact with Scandinavian traders and warriors in the early medieval period led to the incorporation of Old Norse words and grammatical structures into Old East Slavic, which eventually influenced the Russian language. Even the noun “Russia” comes from Old Norse, deriving from the name of a Viking tribe from Sweden called “Rus”. This tribe founded the kingdoms which are now Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
Some lasting examples of Old Norse and Old East Slavic are:
Акула– shark
Кнут – whip
Селедка – herring
Шелк – silk
Scholars estimate that there are only around one hundred words being used in Russian today that derive from Old Norse. Some more critical scholars estimate even lower, to around thirty. However, it is notable that these nouns that have stood the test of time were merchandise being sold by Scandinavian traders. In a sentimental light, they are echoes of the past from the bustling medieval markets and merchants, unaware that they would have such a lasting impact upon linguistic tradition.
Turkic Languages
The influence of Turkic languages, particularly Tatar and Mongol, is evident in Russian vocabulary related to trade, governance, and cultural exchange during the Mongol domination of Russia.
Mongolic influences that still survive include:
Мерин – gelding
Телега – a simple horse-drawn four-wheeled vehicle
Furthermore, there are still many Turkic loan words in the Russian language. For example:
богатырь – heroic warrior
Казна – government money
деньги – money
палач – executioner
On the contrary, the amount of ‘false friends’ in modern Turkish and Russian is astounding. To name a few, кулак meaning an ear in Turkish yet a fist in Russian, and табак meaning a plate in Turkish yet tobacco in Russian.
Despite these language influences, Russian has a unique grammar, phonology, and overall structure that distinguish it from its influences. On your language learning journey, I am certain you will find many more examples that nod to modern day languages such as French, German, and Spanish, and I hope this inspires you to research how these languages have become welded together.
This blog was brought to you by Emily Gray, currently studying Russian at Liden and Denz in Riga
This image was taken from Pexels
Hi Emily,
I was searching the (alleged) connection between “у меня” and Finnish “minulla”, and then Google strayed into this website, and your text. Really interesting refernces you gave there – thank you!
On the subject of “Russia” and “Rus”, I’d like to add a comment.
Note: this doesn’t concern your work in any way, it’s merely clearing up a small detail.
Not being a historian, I’ll keep my mouth shut as far as kingdoms and politics are concerned; I’ll just stick to the etymology.
During the Viking era, boatmen on the East coast of Sweden were organized in rowing teams in order to defend their shores from enemy attacks. The term for such a team was (solely using modern Swedish now) “ro+s*+lag”, where “ro” is the verb ‘to row’, “s*” is a genitive ending, and “lag” means ‘team’.
So we have ‘rowing team’ = “roslag”, OK? (cf. “fotbollslag” = ‘football team’).
Hence, this whole coastal area was referred to as Roslagen (pl. ‘The Rowing Teams’), and it seems that the term travelled along with the inhabitants as they explored the rivers down to the Black Sea. Incidentally, that part of Europe was under Swedish taxation right up to the 11th century, kingdom or not. Folks in those places would have been painfully aware of who those robbers were…
So: it wasn’t really a tribe, but rather a kind of local marine force.
And it wasn’t really “Rus”, but rather “roþsbyggiar” or something along those lines (and this is Old Norse!)
But, one way or the other, the syllable “Rus” would have been easily discerned and then stuck on any region under these intruders’ command.
By the way, to this day, the Finnish word for Sweden is “Ruotsi”.
—
Good luck with your studies!
Best wishes,
Anders Melander
former student of Polish
Dear Anders,
Thank you for your thoughtful comment and for sharing such an intriguing etymological perspective on the origins of “Rus” and its possible connection to Old Norse and Swedish coastal terminology. It’s always fascinating to see how linguistic threads can trace unexpected routes through history!
Emily has already completed her Russian studies with us, but I’m sure she would have appreciated your kind words and the insight you’ve provided. As for your reflections — while we are not historians ourselves, we’re grateful for your contribution to the discussion. It’s clear that the etymology of “Rus” is a topic that invites deep historical and linguistic research, likely involving access to specialised sources and academic studies.
Still, the version you’ve presented is a compelling one, and we’re always pleased to see such engagement with the cultural and linguistic roots of the Russian language. Thank you again for your interest!
Best regards,
The Liden & Denz Team