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IN SLOVAK 183 (249)
Projective lexicon of the Russian language May 20, 2007

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Conversation with Alexander Genis.
Gifts of Seliger and the Volga to the Russian language.

This issue contains my conversation with the famous cultural critic, essayist A. Genis, host of the “American Hour” program on Radio Liberty from New York. We are talking about the current state of the Russian language and, in particular, about the results of a dialectological expedition to the Seliger region in July 2006. And then I will give a number of records from this expedition, especially those words and expressions that, as it seems to me, are not only local , dialectal interest, but can also revive our speech and enter into colloquial use.

http://www.svobodanews.ru/Transcript/2007/03/27/20070327231930710.html
(below is a slightly corrected and expanded transcript of the conversation)

Philosophy of the native language

Guest of "The American Hour" - cultural scientist Mikhail Epstein
Presenter - Alexander Genis. Radio Liberty, New York. 03/27/07

Alexander Genis: In our New York studio he is a frequent guest of the “American Hour”.
This is a philosopher, philologist, observer of our intellectual mores, professor
Emory University in Atlanta Mikhail Epstein. The topic of our conversation was suggested
the latest theoretical and practical works of our guest in the field of philosophy and
sociology of the Russian language. So, Mikhail Naumovich, I ask you to tell us about your
unusual experience, about your unusual trip that you took last summer.

Mikhail Epstein: I was on a dialectological expedition to Lake Seliger. Students of the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg University, led by Professor L.V. Zubova, have been working on compiling a dictionary of the local dialect for a long time. Together with them, I wandered through the villages and wrote down the words and expressions of the Lakeland region. In particular, there is a village located at the very source of the Volga, it is called Volgoverkhovye. Our wanderings took place near these springs of the great Russian river and, in a sense, Russian speech.

Alexander Genis: I, of course, remember my dialectological expeditions, which I
committed by a university student, this was more than 30 years ago. And I remember what it is
It was an absolutely wonderful not only linguistic experience, but also an ethnographic one.
Because the people you meet there are completely unusual. However, a third passed
century, everything has changed. What did you find there?

Mikhail Epstein: If we talk about ethnography, then, unfortunately, the subject itself is quickly disappearing. Approximately 80 percent of villages in three to four years will most likely be empty and uninhabited. What will remain is simply an archaeological layer called the Russian village. Let's say that in the village that is closest to the source of the Volga, there are three permanent hotels left. Whereas, for example, according to the 1889 census, about two hundred people lived there. Then, in 1950 - 72 people,
in the late 1980s - 20 people, and now 3, and very elderly
age. As for Russian speech, it is pleasing in these places. Unfortunately, only there.
Because, if you look at official scientific reports on the state of the Russian language, about
What words replenish it, it causes despondency. In dictionaries
Neologisms include words such as “Aumsinerikov” - a member of the Aum Shinrikyo sect,
or “parking meter”, or “congressman”, and similar asphalt words. At the headwaters of the Volga and on Seliger you see, or rather, hear, how Russian speech lives and happens. I came across quite a few words that I had heard for the first time. And they are alive, they grow from primordial roots. For example, there is a “drinker” - someone who likes to drink, and there is a “nalivokha” - someone who likes to pour water for others.

Alexander Genis: A very figurative word.

Mikhail Epstein: Yes, that’s a good word. Or, for example, "perepelka " - a girl who
I stayed with the girls for a long time. But a guy who has been single for too long is called a “cross-dresser.” “The Celestial Empire” is a prayer that ascends to the heavens. “Cooky” is a quick-witted, resourceful, clever person. Perhaps this is a formation from the root “chu” (“sense,” “sensitive”) according to the same model as “evil.” Words that we use in one meaning live there in others. For example, “day” - doors (external, street). And then you begin to remember that the word “day” comes from the verb “to weave”, to connect. The halves of the doors “join”, like the parts of the day, and a “day” is formed.

Alexander Genis: That is, dialects reveal etymology.

Mikhail Epstein: Yes. And the most joyful thing for me is that I discovered several
words that. I thought I came up with it myself. But it turns out that they exist. For example,
the word "anyone", i.e. worthy of love. There is such a regular model
word formations in Russian: “pour - loose”, “drown - topkiy”, “forge - malleable”,
"to break - brittle." The suffix "k" in these adjectives means that the object is amenable to the corresponding action. And that which is amenable to the action of love is
"darling". And just imagine, I’m talking in the village of Voronovo (also at the source of the Volga) with Faina Ivanovna Larionova, the same age as the October Revolution, a former elementary school teacher. And it turns out that she knows this word, it is in her language. “Lyubkaya” is a beloved girl, the one who is loved. And he adds: “Only a girl is a darling, a darling, they don’t say that about a guy.”

Alexander Genis: That is, you followed the logic of the language.

Mikhail Epstein: Yes, it turned out that the logic of language, as I feel and understand it, somewhat coincided with the logic of popular speech, popular thinking. At my request, students interviewed other river bearers. And it turned out that they were also familiar with other words that I had previously thought were necessary for the Russian language, “destined” for it, but did not yet exist in it. It turned out that they already exist in the popular consciousness. True, they sometimes interpret them in their own way.

“Own-right” is the one who shakes the rights.
“Osebeinik” - brings everything to the family, takes care of himself, is a good person.
“Nedolyubok” is an evil woman, she was not loved.
“Agreeable” - agrees with everyone.
"Conscientious" - gives good advice.

I have long been engaged in the possibilities of creative development of the Russian language on its own root basis. And now - an important meeting for me. Particularly amazing because it happened at the source of the Volga. River and speech.

Alexander Genis: It is clear that the words you are talking about have always been there. right into them
one feels something primordially Russian. But new realities are emerging, and they need new ones
words. It amazes me how often the Russian language manages to find a very beautiful and capacious
an image for something that didn’t exist before. For example, a clasp when one part
sticks to the other. How to say this in Russian? "Hedgehog clasp." In my opinion,
wonderful word. How does the introduction of new words occur in such an environment?

Mikhail Epstein: It is always a miracle - the birth of a word and its entry into the speech environment. “It is not possible for us to predict how our word will respond.” “The Gift of Words. Projective Lexicon of the Russian Language” has been dealing with this entire range of issues for almost seven years now. This project is on the Internet, it is also published as a weekly email newsletter for three thousand subscribers, but I would like the language to live and be updated on everyone’s lips. I am glad that last summer I was able to meet in St. Petersburg with the rector of St. Petersburg University L.A. Verbitskaya and with her help to establish the Center for the Creative Development of the Russian Language on the basis of the university. I believe that through the joint efforts of writers, scientists, philologists, and journalists, it is necessary to turn the Russian language towards self-awareness and towards a more complete implementation of its creative mission. To create not an analogue of the French Academy, which clears the French language of borrowings, but a scientific council for the creative renewal and enrichment of the language. Nothing can be prohibited or imposed on the language, but it can be offered to it in the hope that it will learn what will benefit it. The Russian language, it seems to me, at the turn of the 20th - 21st centuries found itself in a critical state, when the sources of its internal development were not visible, so much did the abundance of borrowings compact its living, grassy soil with asphalt.

Alexander Genis: Of course, your fight for the Russification of foreign terms is worthy
respect, but do you remember what this led to in previous eras, when in Pushkin’s
For a time they tried to replace the word "billiards" with "balloon". In general, how do you feel about
massive borrowings from foreign languages? Especially from English to Russian
speech? The fact is that I had to talk about this with several large
Russian poets. And one of them, I think it was Gandlevsky, said that it was nothing
he doesn’t see anything terrible in this, because reality itself has intervened in Russia, and this is for him
recalled the situation that existed in the era of Peter the Great. I think this is very correct
comparison, because it is the texts of Peter’s era that are most difficult for us to read
Today. Let's say the language of Ivan the Terrible is more understandable than the language of Peter the Great's era. Not
By chance, by the way, Sorokin’s book “The Day of the Oprichnik” has just appeared, where
The language of Ivan the Terrible is being successfully revived. Sorokin said about this that everyone
Russian people remember Ivan the Terrible and can genetically recreate this language. And here
Petrine language - no, because it is oversaturated with borrowings. But these are the ones
Borrowings disappear from the language the fastest. The same thing will happen to the Russian
tongue,” says Gandlevsky, “because he will simply throw off everything unnecessary, and
Nothing wrong with that. Others believe, on the contrary, that we must fight for language.
How do you solve this problem?

Mikhail Epstein: I believe that foreign borrowing is quite positive
factor in the life of a language if they awaken the response energy of word creation and meaning creation in a given language. This is, in fact, what happened in the era of Peter the Great. Yes,
a lot of words were captured and assimilated, but Lomonosov, Karamzin and others followed
word creators and renovators of the Russian language, who introduced many words into the language,
which we now use, without even suspecting that they had
individual authors.

Alexander Genis: "Industry", for example.

Mikhail Epstein: Or “pump”, “drawing” and “constellation”. These are Lomonosov's words.
“Sensitivity”, “touching”, “attainable” - Karamzin’s. Recently I
I discovered that Gogol also created new words. For example, "vidalshchina". I think this is
no worse than that taken from the French “déjà vu” (already seen).

Alexander Genis: And Dostoevsky came up with the word “to shy away.”

Mikhail Epstein: And he was prouder of this than of all his novels.

Alexander Genis: You can understand him. Gumilyov said: “I will remain in Russian literature,
because I came up with six new rhymes." What could be more valuable than a new word?

Mikhail Epstein: As you know, there is a demographic crisis in Russian society. The population of Russia decreases every year by 700-800 thousand, and the same
can be noted in lexicography. The Russian language is being eroded, entire layers of it are being washed away. If we compare the vocabulary of the modern Russian language with what it was at the end of the 19th century -
early 20th, we will see the same terrible gapings. Many roots that used to be
had, say, 40-50 derivatives, but were left with 6 or 7. For example, the root “lep”.
All that remains is “sculpt”, “stucco”, “ridiculous”. And in Dahl you can find about 50 words with this root. Or such fundamental roots for any worldview and language as “lyub” - to love, “dobr” - good. Their supply in the language has decreased by approximately 4-5 times. It seems to me that the linguosphere and demosphere of each nation are intimately connected. If the will to live is lost, then the will to meaning is also lost. And the will to meaning moves language forward. When we want to express as many meanings as possible with a given word, new derivatives begin to grow from its root.

Alexander Genis: That is, the word produces life.

Mikhail Epstein: The word produces or embodies the meaning of life, and if there is no meaning of life, then there is no need to live and give birth. That is why there is such apathy in life-building because there is a crisis in meaning-building. I believe that there is some mystical relationship between the semiosphere and the sociosphere. There are now about 140 thousand words in the Russian language (although this figure is somewhat exaggerated) - and the population of Russia is about 140 million. There are approximately one thousand inhabitants per word. I believe that if we produce at least one new word and root it in the language, a thousand more people will be born. This is the general germ of the creative renewal of life and language.
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Next, I would like to share with readers some of the lexical finds of this expedition. I wrote down some of them myself, and copied some from cards already prepared by the students. The words are accompanied by examples, interpretations and explanations of the speech-bearers and word-givers themselves.
Recorded in the villages: Svapusche, Karpovo, Sosnitsy, Alekseevskoye, Maseevtsy, Volgoverkhovye, Voronovo, Guscha, Zaborki.

People

Down - prone to fullness. Valya was so plump, well, like a little puffball.

humiliator - a woman who is humiliated and insulted.

dress up woman - a woman who loves to dress up.

I imagine the waxwing is a fashionista.

manager - the manager of the store.

snuffbox - woman smoking.

Balabeshka - mischievous (about a child, about a cow).

perErva - mischievous, daredevil (about children).

chatterbox - a restless child.

Magulka is a small child.

sticky - sticky. How can I pester my grandmother - why are you, sticky, pestering me?

flight - insanity. My mother had a crazy time in recent years - she went crazy.

vykavy - skillful, accustomed to kn. business; Whatever task he undertakes, he will do it.
unskilled - inept, unaccustomed.

meticulous - meticulous, attentive.
half-witted - stupid, innocent.

tyutelyalya, tyutekha, tyumlyay - a klutz, a half-baked person, a slow person.

Actions

to mushroom, or hang mushrooms - get ready to cry. Well, did you hang up the mushrooms and roll out your lip?

to groom - to pay attention. He will chop firewood, bring water - all this means he will beautify.

to jerk - to live. It’s okay, we’re shaking little by little.

mumble - pronounce mmm, inarticulately. He's sick, he just grunts.

unpack - print out, open. I can't give you a 3-liter jar.

to yak - to run after someone if you like them.
My dear mother doesn’t know
Where the son snorts.
He's across the Dvina field
He's yelling at the girl.

to cause - to be pregnant.
causal - pregnant (most often about a cow).
reasons - childbirth (cf. "causal place" in literary language).

Be afraid, unfortunate girls,
Beware of treacherous men.
Their speeches are wonderful, passionate
You will be led to the reasons.

Things

zalepuha - wet snow.

a jerk is a broken car.

foundling - commuter train.

poems are strips of birch bark from which bast shoes are woven. I wove them into poems, but I don’t know how to weave them again.

kalyavka - a glass (hot kalyakat - speak?).

heaven - prayer. You need to tell the heavenly god in the evening.

soemka - what a shepherd or someone else takes with him into the field (bread, milk).

hug - a very tight blouse.

back street - the distance between neighboring houses standing on the same side of the street.

strekAva, strekAlina - nettle.
to cut off - to beat with nettles.

woo - sour (about soup). The soup is already getting matched... it's completely matched.

Expressions, phraseological units

She sings so well that the accordion player draws from her (repeats after her musically, plays along).

untie tails - untangle smth. relationships, understanding the complexities.

take your feet into your mouth - cut them loose, loosen your belt. I used to have a fight with someone and put their feet in my mouth.

runs around like a flea in his pants (about a restless person, about a child).

musical firewood is very dry wood that burns loudly.

foster sisters are several women of one man.

I can’t do something; I can’t do something; I can't.

dust and whine - no light to be seen.

du-bra on you - leave me alone, I'm tired of you.

hut to plow - sweep.

We walk with God, we live on our own side (we rely only on ourselves).

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Articles about language 2006 - 2007:

Russian language in the light of creative philology . "Znamya", 1, 2006, 192-207.

The language of existence by Andrei Platonov. "Questions of Literature", 2, 2006.

Love names. Introduction to erotonymy. "October", 7, 2006.

Anaphrase: a linguistic phenomenon and literary device . "Literature Issues", 5 (September-October), 2006.

Personal code: the experience of self-description. // Humanities today: conference materials / edited by Yu.S. Stepanov. - M. - Kaluga: IP Koshelev A.B. (Eidos Publishing House), 2006. - pp. 238-257.

Types of new words: Experience of classification . "Topos", 5 Dec. 2006; Portal Gramma.ru , Dec. 2006.

Word of the year, century, millennium
"Independent newspaper". March 2, 2007

" Pushkina, Dostoevskogo i Tolstogo nashim pravnukam pridetsa chitat na latinitse
Magazine "New Time", #5, March 12, 2007

About the creative potential of the Russian language. Transitivity Grammar and Transitive Society . "Banner", 3, 2007.
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The network project “The Gift of Words” has been published since April 2000. Every week, several new words are sent to subscribers, with definitions and examples of use. These words are not in any dictionary, and yet they denote significant phenomena and concepts for which there has not yet been a place in the public consciousness. "Dar" also conducts discussions about the Russian language, discusses letters and suggestions from readers. Modern Russian (and any) language is only one slice of the linguistic continuum, which extends into the past and future, and it virtually contains thousands of words that have not yet been identified, not pronounced, but are called into speech as the historical consciousness of the people expands , and in turn expanding it. “The Gift of Speech” can serve as a guide to word creation, an introduction to the linguistic and conceptual sphere of the 21st century. All previous issues.

Subscribe your friends to “Dar” (you need to insert into this form ) your email address

PreDictionary - a collection of English neologisms by M. Epstein.

Association of Word and Term Finders ( AIST ) is a linguistic community on LiveJournal. An open platform for discussing new words and ideas.

The future of the humanities is the community in LiveJournal.

Gramma. ru is a Runet language portal dedicated to the culture of written speech.