Gorban O.A. Grammatical Assimilation of Foreign Words in Russian in the First Half of the 18th Century (Based on Documents from Institutions in South of Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2025.4.10

Oksana A. Gorban

Doctor of Sciences (Philology), Professor, Department of Russian Philology and Journalism, Volgograd State University, Volgograd, Russia

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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2345-3673

Abstract. The article deals with the analysis of morphological properties of foreign language vocabulary used in official records written in the south of Russia in the 18^th century and aims to identify ways of its grammatical adaptation. The research material is comprised of the documents issued in the Don Cossacks Army (kept in the State Archive of the Volgograd Region), the Kalmyk Commission of the Board of Foreign Affairs, and the Astrakhan Provincial Chancellery (the National Archive of the Republic of Kalmykia). Words from Western European, Mongolian, and Turkic languages are identified. Most borrowings adapt to Russian morphology by receiving the typical features of masculine-gender nouns with a zero ending or masculine- and feminine-gender nouns with an -a ending; units with a final element that is unusual for Russian grammar do not decline. Masculine-gender words ending at the consonant were noted to have no forms of the "second genitive" and "second prepositional" within the variant case forms; in the plural the new a-forms dominated, but the old ones also remained. Ambiguous grammatical phenomena are characterized. They indicate a special tendency in its formation or an unestablished norm: nominative case variants (Ombo – Omba, Dashi – Dasha) of male names with a final element unusual for the Russian language, the existence of decline forms (Dashi – Dasheyu); female names ending with a consonant decline according to the masculine-name with the zero ending declension type.

Key words: Russian language, official language, borrowing, grammatical adaptation, 18th century, south of Russia.

Citation. Gorban O.A. Grammatical Assimilation of Foreign Words in Russian in the First Half of the 18^th Century (Based on Documents from Institutions in South of Russia). Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 2. Yazykoznanie [Science Journal of Volgograd State University. Linguistics], 2025, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 120-131. (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2025.4.10

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