Філологічні науки/3.Теоретичні
і методологічні проблеми дослідження мови.
Andriyevska O. S.
Chernavtsi National University named by Y. Fed’kovych
Influence
of Anglicisms on the Ukrainian language
Since
Of course, there were English words in Russian and
Ukrainian in the Soviet period (we pronounced "girl friend",
"boy-friend", "weekend", "face", "happy
end" almost in the same way as they are pronounced in English).
But now we see a completely different influence: it is
very strong and new words from English are ubiquitous. The majority of them are
connected with computing. Some of them are used without changes: "upgrade",
"browser", "e-mail", "mailbox",
"provider", "hacker", "chat", "user",
etc.
The speech of young people is full of English words.
Ukrainian speakers use the words "cool", "dance",
"free love", etc. Very often English words are used in the
press, although there are Ukrainian words with the same meaning, for example,
the word "building".
Many new words in our Slavic languages are connected
with the field of economics ("coupon", "vaucher", "broker", etc). The
economy is changing a lot and many English words are becoming necessary. One
more interesting fact is that we can observe such changes in Slavic languages
not only in the countries where they are state languages, but also in the
countries where they are "minority" languages. For example, there are
huge Ukrainian-speaking communities in the
They are not homogenous, because there were several
completely different waves of immigration from the Slavic world across the
But the borrowings of Ukrainian
people in their home countries and in the
Why do many of us say "cottage cheese"
instead of "tvorog" or "syr"? We have completely different recipes for this
product in
The process of
borrowing of foreign words ambiguously affects development of our language.
From one side, its vocabulary enriches, but, from the other side, its own
elements, which are substituted by the words with a similar meaning, are
ousted. It negatively affects the state of national language and on saving of
originality of the Ukrainian people. We will quote V. Radchuk:
“… English words fill up our lexicon more active lately, than Russian; our
pronunciation, morphology and syntax, feels the considerable influencing from
the side of English. The causes of this are obvious:
computerizing, urge towards the international standards of business partnership,
towards science and education of the West, front-rank commodity producing in
English-language countries, leadership of English as international and others
like that. However quite a bit of Anglicisms forces
the specific Ukrainian words out of appeal, and it is a linguistic aggression.
Harm of this is not only to
It is considered that the
necessity of origin of new Anglicisms in Ukrainian is
considerably exaggerated. Peaces of literatures confirm that among not very
well-educated people there is a habit to boast by words not clear for
surroundings. Now not only semi-educated villagers use the “prestige words” but
also high officials do. A reason is the same: a desire to be at the level of
the fashionable figurativeness, to differ by the vocabulary from the “grey
people”. [3; c. 60-61]
Indeed, the phenomena
which are traced the last 10-15 years not quite well affect on the development
of Ukrainian, destroy its national features, expressive and aesthetically
beautiful qualities are lowered.
We cannot say that the appearance of
synonyms makes our language poor, but vice versa – enriches. Thought is not
wrong, though here is one “but”. At first, it is needed to be analyzed from
where came this enrichment. And it came from the place, the fashionable
Ukrainian vocabulary comes. Mastering this vocabulary, we do not develop our
own word building possibilities. The way of such enrichment is vicious. We must
take care of the development of our own sources of enrichment, and go not by
the way laid in other environment. It asserts our cultural dependence on
stranger, not always friendly to us sources. [3; c.
72-73]
A quite another tendency puts on our
guard. It is endeavour to exclude definite part of words from the Ukrainian
dictionary, in particular Anglicisms, which became
its item, and to substitute them by artificially created or by the before known
words adjusted to new operating conditions, especially in industry of
terminology and professional vocabulary (buffer – буфер
– відпружник, sportsman – спортсмен
– спортовець). In addition, these words, as a
rule, are unsuccessful in the aesthetically beautiful relation. [3; c. 42-43]
Mutual richness of languages is one
of the ways of evolution of languages of world association. It characterizes
development of the linguistic systems from the oldest times and, naturally, can
not expose itself now Of course, Anglicisms in
Ukrainian are not always blessing. Linguistic registration of separate spheres
of intercourse needs serious regulation measures, including spheres of
information, especially advertising – radio-television, stand, where the real
linguistic aggression can be seen. These phenomena, clearly, have nothing
common with Mutual richness of languages. Mutual richness is a process, when
the verbal sign of other language naturally “lies” down on the notion field of
mother tongue, closing in it a free cell.
It is
impossible to forget that language is a mechanism action of which is
conditioned by definite laws. A language is capable to clean itself, to deliver
from functionally superfluous and unnecessary things. It takes place with the
words of the English origin.
Literature:
1. Вайнрайх У. Языковые
контакты. Состояния и проблемы исследования. Пер. с
англ. – Київ Вища школа 1979 –
с.236
2. Грищенко А.П. Сучасна українська літературна мова.
Видавництво 2, переобладнане і доповнене – Київ Вища школа 1977 – с.493
3. Караванський
С. Пошук українського слова, або боротьба за національне Я – Київ, 2001