Slavicism

Key takeaways

Slavicism belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Slavicism to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Slavicism from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Slavicisms or Slavisms are words and expressions (lexical, grammatical, phonetic, etc.) borrowed or derived from Slavic languages.

Distribution

Southern languages

Most languages of the former Soviet Union and of some neighbouring countries (for example, Mongolian) are significantly influenced by Russian, especially in vocabulary. The Romanian, Albanian, and Hungarian languages show the influence of the neighboring Slavic nations, especially in vocabulary pertaining to urban life, agriculture, and crafts and trade—the major cultural innovations at times of limited long-range cultural contact. In each one of these languages, Slavic lexical borrowings represent at least 15% of the total vocabulary. However, Albanian has much lower influence from Slavic than Romanian or Hungarian. This is potentially because Slavic tribes crossed and partially settled the territories inhabited by ancient Illyrians and Vlachs on their way to the Balkans.

Germanic languages

Max Vasmer, a specialist in Slavic etymology, has claimed that there were no Slavic loans into Proto-Germanic. However, there are isolated Slavic loans (mostly recent) into other Germanic languages. For example, the word for "border" (in modern German Grenze, Dutch grens, Swedish gräns) was borrowed from the Common Slavic granica. There are, however, many German placenames of West Slavic origin in Eastern Germany, notably Pommern, Schwerin, Rostock, Lübeck, Berlin (some linguists don't agree that Berlin is a Slavic loanword), Leipzig and Dresden. English derives quark (a kind of cheese and subatomic particle) from the German Quark, which in turn is derived from the Slavic tvarog, which means "curd". Some German surnames, particularly in Eastern Germany and Eastern Austria, are Slavic in origin. The Scandinavian languages include words such as torv/torg (market place) from Old Russian tъrgъ (trŭgŭ) or Polish targ, humle (hops), reje/reke/räka (shrimp, prawn), and, via Middle Low German, tolk (interpreter) from Old Slavic tlŭkŭ, and pram/pråm (barge) from West Slavonic pramŭ. The Scandinavian languages also has the word läkare/lege/læge/læknir/lækni (doctor) from Serbo-Croatian lekar/лекар, or Polish lekarz. There is also a word: lök/løk/løg/laukur/løkur from Russian лук (luk) or Serbo-Croatian luk/лук.

Uralic Languages There are a number of borrowed Slavic words in the Finnic languages, possibly as early as Proto-Finnic. Many loanwords have acquired a Finnicized form, making it difficult to say whether such a word is natively Finnic or Slavic. To date, a huge number of Slavicisms are found in the Hungarian language (Finno-Ugric in origin). This is due to the fact that the Hungarian language was largely formed on the basis of the Slavic substratum of the former Principality of Pannonia.

Others The Czech word robot is now found in most languages worldwide, and the word pistol, probably also from Czech, is found in many European languages. A well-known Slavic word in almost all European languages is vodka, a borrowing from Russian водка (vodka) – which itself was borrowed from Polish wódka (lit. "little water"), from common Slavic voda ("water", cognate to the English word) with the diminutive ending "-ka". Owing to the medieval fur trade with Northern Russia, Pan-European loans from Russian include such familiar words as sable. The English word "vampire" was borrowed (perhaps via French vampire) from German Vampir, in turn derived from Serbo-Croatian vampir, continuing Proto-Slavic *ǫpyrь, although Polish scholar K. Stachowski has argued that the origin of the word is early Slavic *vąpěrь, going back to Turkic oobyr. Several European languages, including English, have borrowed the word polje (meaning "large, flat plain") directly from the former Yugoslav languages (i.e. Slovene, Croatian, and Serbian). During the heyday of the USSR in the 20th century, many more Russian words became known worldwide: da, Soviet, sputnik, perestroika, glasnost, kolkhoz, etc. Another borrowing from Russian is samovar (lit. "self-boiling").

Inside the Slavic area Borrowings from one Slavic language to another are also noted within Slavic languages, for example, medieval polonisms and russicisms in the literary Ukrainian and Belarusian languages. Following the baptism of Poland the Polish language was influenced by Czech brought by missionaries from the Kingdom of Bohemia. Czech "wakers" (Czech: buditelé, "evocative") and Slovenian linguists of the late 19th century also turned to the Russian language in order to reslavicize their resurgent languages and clear them of foreign language borrowings. This was mainly due to the imposition of the German language on Slavic-speaking areas, and gave significant results (for example, the word vozduh ("air"), translated into Czech and Slovenian).

See also Russianism — borrowing from the Russian language Bohemism — from the Czech language List of English words of Polish origin List of English words of Ukrainian origin

References

External links

Bibliography L. I. Timofeev, S. V. Turaev (1974). Slavicism // Dictionary of literary terms (in Russian). Moscow: «Просвещение». A. P. Kvyatkovsky (1966). Slavicisms. Soviet encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Ulyanov I. S. (2004). Slavicisms in the Russian language (verbs with non-consonantal prefixes) (in Russian). Moscow: Управление технологиями. ISBN 5-902785-01-4.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Slavicism

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Slavicism claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Slavicism before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Slavicism ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Slavicism

In research: Slavicism appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Slavicism in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Slavicism is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Etymology, Lexicology, Slavic languages, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Slavicism outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Slavicism in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Slavicism means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Slavicism out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Slavicism in simple terms?

Slavicisms or Slavisms are words and expressions (lexical, grammatical, phonetic, etc.) borrowed or derived from Slavic languages. Distribution Southern languages Most languages of the former Soviet Union and of some neighbouring countries (for example, Mongolian) are significantly influenced by Ru…

Why does Slavicism matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Slavicism?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Slavicism.