Influence On Neighboring Languages
Most languages of the former Soviet Union and some neighboring countries (for example, Mongolian) are significantly influenced by Russian, especially in vocabulary. In the south, the Romanian, Albanian and Hungarian languages show the influence of the neighboring Slavic nations, especially in vocabulary pertaining to urban life, agriculture, 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 20% of the overall vocabulary. The Romanian language in particular shows strong Slavic influence at all levels, including phonetics, syntax, and grammar. This is because Slavic tribes crossed and partially settled the territories inhabited by ancient Illyrians and Vlachs on their way to the Balkans.
Although also spoken in neighbouring lands, the Germanic languages show less significant Slavic influence, partly because Slavic migrations were mostly headed south rather than west. Slavic tribes did push westwards into Germanic territory, but borrowing for the most part seems to have been from Germanic to Slavic rather than the other way: for instance the now-extinct Polabian language was heavily influenced by German, far more than any living Slavic language today. For political reasons, there is a tendency to play down Slavic contributions to Germanic languages. For instance, Max Vasmer has claimed that there are no Slavic loans into Common Germanic. The only Germanic language that shows significant Slavic influence is Yiddish. Modern Dutch slang, especially the Amsterdam dialect, borrowed much from Yiddish in turn. However there are isolated Slavic loans (mostly recent) into other Germanic languages. For example the word for "border", in modern German Grenze, Dutch grens, was borrowed from the Common Slavic *granica. English derives quark (a kind of cheese, not the subatomic particle) from the German Quark, which in turn is derived from the Slavic tvarog, which means "curd". Many German surnames, particularly in Eastern Germany and Austria, exhibit Slavic origins. Swedish also has torg (market place) from Old Russian tъrgъ, tolk (interpreter) from Old Slavic tlŭkŭ, and pråm (barge) from West Slavonic pramŭ.
The Czech word robot is now found in most languages worldwide, and the word pistol, probably also from Czech, is found in many Indo-European languages, including Greek (πιστόλι, pistóli).
A well-known Slavic word in almost all European languages is vodka, a borrowing from Russian водка (vodka), lit. "little water", from common Slavic voda (water, cognate to the English word) with the diminutive ending -ka. Owing to the mediæval 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 Serbian 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. Also in the English language borrowed from Russian is samovar (lit. self boiling) to refer to the specific Russian tea urn.
Read more about this topic: Slavic Languages
Famous quotes containing the words influence on, influence, neighboring and/or languages:
“I am not sure but I should betake myself in extremities to the liberal divinities of Greece, rather than to my country’s God. Jehovah, though with us he has acquired new attributes, is more absolute and unapproachable, but hardly more divine, than Jove. He is not so much of a gentleman, not so gracious and catholic, he does not exert so intimate and genial an influence on nature, as many a god of the Greeks.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Nature has taken more care than the fondest parent for the education and refinement of her children. Consider the silent influence which flowers exert, no less upon the ditcher in the meadow than the lady in the bower. When I walk in the woods, I am reminded that a wise purveyor has been there before me; my most delicate experience is typified there.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“People in places many of us never heard of, whose names we can’t pronounce or even spell, are speaking up for themselves. They speak in languages we once classified as “exotic” but whose mastery is now essential for our diplomats and businessmen. But what they say is very much the same the world over. They want a decent standard of living. They want human dignity and a voice in their own futures. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and free.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)