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When studying Russian, I often encounter words that seem like they are coming from English. However, that is purely a superficial impression because the words are Latin or Greek.

практиковать - practice
рекомендовать - recommend
периодически - periodically
цензура - censorship

Historically, England had a compelling reason to adopt Latin words because of the Norman Conquest.

Russia, on the other hand, would have adopted such words "voluntarily", right?

The question is, did these borrowings come by way of France in the 1700's, or do they date back to ancient Rome? How long have they been Russian words? Is it an illusion that they are connected to English? Specifically such as in that list: практиковать, рекомендовать, etc.

Sam
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    It's more like England was compelled to use Latin words much later, at least most of those in use today. – Zeus Dec 06 '21 at 01:04
  • As a native English speaker who knows very little about Russian, I have to say that none of those words look similar at all to English to me, though that may be an artifact of Cyrillic script. How does "npaktnkobatb" resemble "practice" at all, for instance? – nick012000 Dec 06 '21 at 10:42
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    @nick012000: if you copy and paste a Russian word into Google translate, it will give you its English transcription and can even read it aloud for you. – Quassnoi Dec 06 '21 at 10:56
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    @nick012000, Russian words have suffixes which are variable/modifiable. So it's natural to remove the suffix when considering the root of the word. If you encountered "practik" in a foreign language, and the definition is "practice", well... – Sam Dec 06 '21 at 12:49
  • @Sam I was making a joke about how Cyrillic script makes Russian unrecognizable to an English reader. Google Translate might transcribe "практиковать" as "praktikovat'", but it looks like "npaktnkobatb". – nick012000 Dec 06 '21 at 13:23
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    English borrowed Latin words mainly because of French influence, not because England was part of Roman Empire (at the time of Roman Empire it were Celtic languages, not English that were spoken in Britain). – Anixx Dec 06 '21 at 14:01
  • @Anixx, updated the question. – Sam Dec 06 '21 at 14:11
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    @nick012000 it's a bad joke – user28434 Dec 06 '21 at 14:22
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    @nick012000 I too am English with almost no knowledge of Russian, but I suddenly realised that "прак..." looks quite similar to the Greek letters "pi-rho-alpha-kappa...", and hence "prac...". (And according to Wikipedia, Cyrillic script is derived from Greek uncial script). – TripeHound Dec 06 '21 at 16:12
  • "because of the Norman Conquest." - in general, it was common to all of Europe and the language of christianity (like Greek too); and later became a science language. https://youtu.be/klytKWgeikw –  Пилум Dec 06 '21 at 18:23
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    "Хулиган" and "вокзал", though, can only have come from English. – Daniel Hatton Dec 06 '21 at 18:25
  • more interesting are the ancient Slavic-Germanic's and P.I.E. Russian-English cognates... like : mother - матерь, мать sister - сестра son - cын daughter - дочь,дщерь,дочерь brother - брат brow - бровь nose - нос mouse - мышь goose - гусь swine - cвин, свинья Etc-etc-etc, I could write more, but this is, probably, not a subject of this topic:> –  Пилум Dec 06 '21 at 18:32
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    @nick012000 "No ... not at all like English ... an artifact of the Cyrillic" - rather this is an artifacts of modern English; you could easily see that English words aren't pronounced now - as they are written (and pronounced earlier). –  Пилум Dec 06 '21 at 18:48
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    @nick012000 "How does "npaktIk-oVat' " resemble "prac(or K?:>)tic(or K?:>)e "at all ?" Russian is the inflectional-synthetic language, but modern English is analytical language (Old English was inflectional-synthetic). I recommend reading about these things, it's interesting and explains a lot. And the conception of "the root of word" too. –  Пилум Dec 06 '21 at 19:12

1 Answers1

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The influx of Latin words into what is now the Russian language happened in several waves:

  • VII-X centuries, direct contact of Slavic people with the speakers of Romance languages: вино < vinum, кот < cattus, голубь < columba etc.

  • X-XII centuries, borrowings through Church Slavonic (which for the most part were themselves through Greek): царь < caesar, рака < arca, палата < palatium etc.

  • XIV-XVIII centuries, borrowings through Polish: почта < postus, спина < spina, школа < schola etc.

  • XVI-XIX centuries, borrowings from or through French: котлета < costa, душ < ductio, роль < rotulus etc. Some of these words had developed in French independently, others had been borrowed into French from other Romance languages.

  • XIX-XXI centuries, borrowings through English: компьютер < computo, лайнер < linea, юмор < humor etc.

  • XVIII-XX centuries, borrowings directly from Latin: казус < casus, корпус < corpus, мотор < motor etc. Most of them are scientific, medical and engineering terms.

Some Latin words also came through German, Italian, Czech and other European languages, but there are fewer of them.

As for your list:

  • практиковать - through Polish
  • рекомендовать - through Polish
  • периодически - through French, ultimately from Greek
  • цензура - most probably through German
Quassnoi
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    Луна is not a borrowing, it is a native Slavic word. – Anixx Dec 06 '21 at 11:00
  • @Anixx: you're right, I'll remove it – Quassnoi Dec 06 '21 at 13:53
  • @Anixx Sort of native - it derives from the same common ancestor as latin "luna", namely the proto-indo-european lówksneh. Interesting, though, that Latin and Slavic both somewhat independently evolved to the same pronunciation, and around the same time. – J... Dec 06 '21 at 17:41
  • @J...: for some reason I was sure that it was an early borrowing from Latin. But then I looked it up in the Etymological Dictionary of Slavic Languages and it specifically mentions that it would have ended up as лына should it have been borrowed from Latin, because of the long u – Quassnoi Dec 06 '21 at 18:15
  • @Quassnoi Indeed. I guess it could be an informal borrowing or sharing - passed by word of mouth, etc. It's a common and important enough word (the moon) that it would have been something discussed reasonably frequently, so a convergent evolution seems reasonable given extensive contact between the languages over hundreds of years. – J... Dec 06 '21 at 18:22