Tatar Affecting How Russians in the Middle Volga and More Generally Speak Russian, Kazan Scholars Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 18 – Russian scholars have devoted enormous efforts to the study of how the Russian language affects non-Russian languages, but few of them have focused on the opposite process, the way in which non-Russian languages affect the way Russians speak Russian at least in areas where the non-Russian language is dominant.

            The ideological reasons for this imbalance are obvious; but as more and more Russians find themselves in areas where non-Russian languages are dominant, some non-Russian scholars are considering the ways in which their languages affect how Russians speak Russian, a form of influence they take pride in but that may worry some Russian speakers.

            Researchers at Kazan’s Institute of Language, Literature and Art have now focused on this process, and the Milliard.Tatar portal has summarized what is certain to be the most politically sensitive cases of Tatar influence on Russian (milliard.tatar/news/mog-li-tatarskii-yazyk-okazat-vliyanie-na-to-kak-govoryat-russkie-v-povolze-1088).

            One example of this influence is the use by Russians of repetitions like shashlik-mashlyk, taksi-maksi, and frukty-mrutkty, where the second component does not change the fundamental meaning of the first but makes the expression more poetic. Such word combinations, the Kazan scholars say, is “absolutely atypical” for Russian, but quite common in Tatar.

            In addition, the researchers point out, there are many examples of direct lexical borrowing. They give as typical examples the use of ayda, from the Tatar eide, to express the idea of “let’s” and the repurposing of the Tatar word sabantui to mean in Russian any mass gathering of people.