The most popular English words among Russians appeared to be the words “fake”, “hype”, and “meeting”, according to the analysts of the Skillbox educational platform and the ResearchMe analytical agency. The study is dedicated to the Day of the Russian Language, which is traditionally celebrated today, on June 6.
According to the results of the study, the leader in the rating of popular borrowings from the English language in Russia was the word “fake” (29 per cent of respondents chose it). Every tenth person most often uses the word “hype“. Another 8 per cent of respondents like to use the word “meeting” in their speech, 7 per cent use the words “approve” and “weekend“, and 5 per cent often say “cringe“, “message“, “fix it“, and “insight“.
At the same time, Russians consider the words “crush” (11 per cent), “brainstorm” (3 per cent) and “deadline” (3 per cent) to be the most annoying ones.
The majority of respondents (83 per cent) indicated the active appearance of new words and slang expressions in the Russian language. Respondents also answered the question about the reasons for the spread of such expressions, noting the influence of the Internet, the digitalization of everyday life, as well as pop-cultural and youth trends.
A positive attitude to changes in the Russian language was expressed by 28 per cent of respondents, who believe that such phenomena enrich Russian speech. Mostly, respondents aged 25 to 34 approved of innovations in the language. At the same time, almost a third of respondents (31 per cent) adhere to a neutral position; in their opinion, convenient innovations take root, and useless ones disappear over time. However, 42 per cent perceive such innovations negatively. Most often, adults aged 35 to 55 give a negative assessment of Anglicisms (54 per cent).
Candidate of Philological Sciences, author of the course “Russian Language in the Digital Era”, Alexander Pipersky, noted that modern Russian, borrowing from English, does not blindly copy, but actively adapts Anglicisms, changing phonetics and grammar in them.
“For example, in the words random and randomny [Russian adaptation of the word], the Russian and English sounds ‘r’ are different. And words such as ‘spoiler’ and ‘cheat’ have acquired an impressive morphological adaptation and have many single-root versions: ‘spoilerit’ and ‘prospoilerit’ [to spoiler], ‘cheatit’ [to cheat] and ‘chiterstvo’ [cheating],” Piperski explained.
In turn, the Head of the Crimean Parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, on the eve of June 5, said that a dictionary on the replacement of Anglicisms had been prepared in Crimea. The dictionary is planned to be presented as part of the upcoming XV anniversary international festival “The Great Russian Word”, which will be held in Crimea from June 6 to 12, 2022.
Ru-Main, 06.06.2022
Source: Izvestia
