Interesting facts about prefixes in Russian. An entertaining selection of facts about the Russian language. Common words and their origins
The history of the Russian language goes back thousands of years. And it is not at all surprising that previously many words to which we have long been accustomed were translated differently or even taken from some other languages. But today people are only surprised at what interesting facts there are about the Russian language.
Words starting with the letter “Y” exist!
A small but interesting fact that definitely deserves the attention of a Russian person. The fact that there are no words starting with the letter “Y” is a stereotype. They exist, although in small quantities. These are geographical names, such as Ynykchan (village), Ygyatta (river), Yllymakh (village), Ynakhsyt (village) and Ytyk-kyyol (this is the name of the administrative center of the Tattinsky ulus of Yakutia). It is interesting that all these geographical objects are located in Yakutia.
Considering unusual facts about the Russian language, I would like to note that the only word (from the multi-billion dollar list) that does not have a root is the verb “take out”. And only three nouns starting with the letter “a”. These are “az”, “maybe” and “alphabet”. But we are talking about original Russian words - the rest of the nouns are borrowed from foreign languages.
Common words and their origins
Speaking about interesting facts about the Russian language, it should be noted that the well-known word “negligence” did not originate from “robe”. In fact, it comes from a word like “khalad”. That is cold. Thus, if a person talks about something, he means that his opponent is very cool towards any matter. And the word “doctor” comes from the verb “to lie.” However, this did not mean a lie in those days. This verb was translated as “to know, to speak” in the modern sense. But “friend” is a word that comes from the definition of “another, stranger.” Today, on the contrary, people call this only the people closest to them, who have literally become family. By the way, in almost all Slavic languages “friend” sounds almost the same. In Czech and Slovak it is druh, in Polish it is drug, even in Lithuanian it is draũgas.
Longest words
Perhaps, if we talk about the most that exist, the German language will come to mind first. Indeed, a person who does not know its specifics, looking at some text, may be horrified by the length of some nouns or verbs. However, interesting facts about the Russian language say that we also have very large words. The names of chemical elements can be simply endless. One of the longest such words is “methylpropenylenedihydroxycinnamenylacrylic” (used in combination with the noun “acid”). Well, from a theoretical point of view, the length of a Russian word can be limitless. Take, for example, “great-grandmother”. After all, if you look at your family tree, then there can be a lot of prefixes “great-.” Considering this topic, I would like to note the word that was registered by the Guinness Book of Records. And that's the 35-letter definition of "overly deliberative."
Paronyms and homonyms: hell for a foreigner
Most people whose native language is Russian get confused in the use of paronymous words, which can be said about foreigners, for whom they become a real hell. Addressee and addressee, for example. Almost identical in sound and spelling, but they are absolute antonyms. The addressee is the one who receives the parcel or message, but the addressee is the organization or person sending the notification or parcel. Similar cases include the words “ignorant” and “ignoramus”. The last term defines, but the first - the ignorant, uneducated.
What about homonyms? The most popular example is a lock: for keys or as an architectural creation. The word “glass” can mean a liquid that leaks or something that is inserted into a window frame. What if entire sentences are homonyms? This is where everyone gets confused, because sometimes they can be identified by their writing (if you couldn’t catch the meaning): “We’re on friendly terms!” - "We are married"; “Awkward things” - “I’m carrying different things,” etc. The listed examples are also called homophones. Simply put, phonetic ambiguity.
Quotes from the greats
Many world-famous figures of past years and centuries loved and respected the Russian language, treating it with all respect. Some have studied it specifically and continue to master it in order to write scientific papers, defend presentations and teach. For example, Geoffrey Hosking, a famous British historian who is a specialist in Russian literature. Or Morier Abhay (Russianist from India), Oliver Bullough (British journalist of our time) and many other figures. And one cannot help but quote the great words about the Russian language, the author of which is Turgenev: “O great, mighty, truthful and free Russian language.” And, I must say, one can only be surprised at this love of Ivan Sergeevich. He was sure that a person’s true love for his homeland is impossible without love for his own language. And the great writer was right.
An insult or an old term?
Interesting facts about the Russian language tell us how the word “nonsense” came into use. It has a very interesting history, which dates back to the end of the last century. Such a famous doctor as Gali Mathieu worked in France. He treated his patients with jokes! The doctor became so popular that he even served people by mail, sending them healing puns. This is how the word “nonsense” appeared, on behalf of the great doctor. Then it was interpreted as a healing joke. But now this word is translated completely differently. Nonsense, nonsense, stupidity, nonsense - these are the synonyms people choose as soon as they hear “nonsense”.
The richness of the Russian language is in synonyms
What facts about the Russian language are known to every person? Perhaps one of these is the statement that we have the most synonym-rich language. And indeed it is. If you ask any Russian person to choose synonyms for a word, he will, without hesitation, immediately name at least five. Beautiful - attractive, stunning, luxurious, charming, enchanting... The lists of synonyms for words in the Russian language can be selected endlessly.
What else interesting things should you know about the Russian language? Perhaps synonymous phrases. Take, for example, not the most pleasant word - “die”. It is one of the richest synonyms! What can they replace it with: “give your soul to God”, “leave our mortal world”, “go to the next world”, “play in the box”, “give oak”, “stretch your legs”, “repose”. The expressions are completely different in emotional coloring and sound, but they mean the same thing. And if in the case of ordinary synonyms in foreign languages it is possible to select a translation, then it is unlikely that the same Englishmen can say “he stretched out his legs” in relation to the deceased.
Obscene expression or church term?
Unusual facts about the Russian language can tell you a lot of interesting things. Many will be surprised, but there is nothing wrong with a word like “dick”. This is exactly what one of the letters was called in the Slavic church alphabet, designated “x” in writing. Crossing out in the shape of a cross was also called by this word. And if they crossed out any place in the text, then this process was called the term “throw away”. The word has passed through the centuries, and today it means something completely different. By the way, another interesting point is that the expression “suffering from bullshit” in Russian is translated as “suffering from a hernia.” This is because “hernia” is “hernia” (from Latin). Doctors made this diagnosis for those young men who were the children of wealthy townspeople and did not want to join the army. So at the end of the century before last, every fifth Russian conscript “suffered from bullshit.” These are very interesting facts about the Russian language, after learning which you can change your attitude towards some words and teach others literacy.
Modern Russian language
Interesting facts about the Russian language are an interesting topic, but a few words must be said about a very global problem of our time. For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that today, unfortunately, not all native speakers of the Russian language can correctly use certain words in their speech. They insert terms into sentences whose true meaning they do not know, place stress incorrectly, “swallow” letters or pronounce them unclearly. And some should think about this, since excessive (and, most importantly, massive) abuse of such illiteracy can lead to the degradation of the Russian language itself. And this will be a truly global problem.
The statement that the great and mighty Russian language is one of the most expressive and richest has long become an axiom. A clear confirmation of this is a selection of amazing facts about the Russian language.
The Russian language has an interesting alphabet, which contains unique letters, the meaning of which is not fully understood. For example, a hard sign denoted in the letter “ъ”.
And if we consider the not so often used letters “s” or “th”. Do you know many words in which these letters occupy the first position? In fact, there are not so few of them:
- The Russian language has over 70 words starting with “y”: youg, yurugu, iota, yesha, Yeri, yyusaka.
- Several dozen words starting with “s”. These are mainly the names of Russian rivers and cities borrowed from the Turkic language: Yrban, Yb, Yra, Ynakhsyt, Ynat, Ylych.
Despite the fact that the letter “f” is present in all Cyrillic Slavic alphabets, words using it are borrowed. Master of words A.S. Pushkin at one time managed to write the permanent work “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, using only one borrowed word with this letter - fleet.
Few people have thought that the word “savagery” is the longest of those formed from letters in alphabetical order.
The concept of “double consonants” is familiar to many. But not everyone knows the amazing fact about the Russian language that there are words with triple vowels. These words are long-necked, zoo-association and snake-eater. Another equally interesting example of a word in which three pairs of identical letters are located in a row is telegammaapparat.
Russian speech is also rich in difficult-to-pronounce words, in which 5 or even 6 consonants are located in a row. These are: filterpress, counterstrategy, screw up, adjunct.
Fun facts about morphemes
The fact that the main elements of word formation are morphemes, such as the prefix root and suffix, has been known to many since school. But, did you know that in Russian there is a word that is devoid of its main part - the root. The word “take out” has a zero root, formed as a result of alternation with another form of the word “take out”.
It is also difficult to imagine the fact that two completely different words “bee” and “bull” have the same root. The reason for this explanation lies in the fact that previously honey-bearing insects were called nothing more than “beaches”. The sounds made by bulls and these insects were called “booming.”
Continuing the topic is another amazing fact of the Russian language. There are no restrictions on the number of consoles. In addition, there are words with unique and unusual prefixes for Slavic speech:
- nook with the prefix “ko”;
- total with the prefix “and”;
- maybe with the prefix “a”.
The length of Russian words can be unlimited. Among the words formed as a result of the merger of several, there are polysyllabic variants, the writing of which involves the use of 25 or more letters. These are mainly medical, geological and chemical terms. The longest of them includes 55 letters: “tetrahydropyranylcyclopentyltetrahydropyridopyridine.”
Their complete opposite - monosyllabic words in Russian speech are also not a rare phenomenon. Among them there are also interesting options, which contain 5-6 letters: get in, to your heart's content, passion, casually, open.
Amazing variations with parts of speech
Many people were probably perplexed by the word “win.” This verb cannot be used in the first person. I will win or I will run, or maybe I will win - neither option is correct. The absence of a given form is explained by the laws of euphony. Philologists suggest replacing a simple verb in this form with constructions like “I will become a winner” or “I will win.”
The verb "to win" belongs to the category of "insufficient". He is not the only one of his kind. Verbs such as “vacuum”, “to dare”, “to find oneself”, “to convince”, “to outshine” are also deprived of the first person form.
Take, for example, another verb “to be.” How is it that he cannot exist in the present time, but feels excellent in the past and future?
Among the amazing facts of the Russian language is the abundance of palindromes. They are most often found among nouns. These words are read the same in both directions: rotator, sabbath, tevet, flood, lump, order.
And finally, a not so significant, but quite interesting point: the longest particle of Russian speech is the word “exclusively”.
Russian is one of the languages of international communication, especially in the post-Soviet space.
It has been poeticized by many writers and has many fans among foreigners who want to study it only at the behest of their hearts, and not because it is necessary.
Literate people naturally know the basic rules of grammar, spelling, and punctuation, but few know them.
But in vain, because it really is much more exciting and interesting than cramming rules from a textbook.
“The Russian language is an interesting fact in itself”
This is exactly what my teacher of Russian language and literature said.
I have never met a teacher more passionate about his subject in my entire academic life.
She not only taught us to write and speak Russian, she literally reveled in its sound.
And her lessons were incredibly exciting and interesting, because she taught them in an original way, actively used visual aids and constantly told something interesting that you couldn’t read in a textbook.
Russian language is one of the East Slavic languages.
It is state-owned in the Russian Federation, and also official in some countries of the former USSR, for example, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, etc.
It is widespread in the world (ranks eighth in the number of people who consider it their family).
It is spoken by over 250 million people around the world.
There are powerful Russian-speaking communities not only in most republics of the former USSR, but also in countries that are geographically distant from the Russian Federation: the USA, Turkey, Israel and others.
It is also considered one of the 6 working languages of the United Nations.
In general, there are plenty of reasons to have a good command of the Russian language (whether it is your native language or not is not so important).
But, alas, it is not easy for foreigners, especially those whose native language is not part of the Slavic group, to master Russian.
It has an interesting alphabet with unique letters, for example, “ъ”, words that are written and sounded completely differently, variable endings, distribution of words by gender, type and case, many rules and exceptions to these rules.
What also distinguishes the Russian language from others is that you can give many interesting facts about it.
Interesting facts about Russian letters
Well, it would seem that what is so interesting about the letters, especially in the letters of the Russian language, especially for the countries neighboring the Russian Federation, for whose residents Russian, although not their native language, is familiar and understandable.But as it turned out, there are many interesting facts about the letters of the Russian language:
The letter “f,” which is familiar and understandable to us today, turns out to have its own peculiarity: most of the words with it are borrowed from others.
A.S. knew this very well. Pushkin tried to use such words less in his “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”.
Besides the word “fleet” you will not find anything else in the “Fairy Tale”.
How many words can you remember that begin with the letter “y”?
Well, maybe 5-6 at most.
But it turns out that there are over 70 such words in the Russian language.
Do you know words that start with the letter “s”?
Personally, I don’t.
It turns out that there are such words, although they are all unpronounceable geographical names, for example, Ynykhsyt or Ytyk-kyuel.
It seems incredible that there could be a word that contains three identical letters in a row.
But the Russian language has distinguished itself here too, because it can boast of the word “long-necked”.
The letters "i" and "a" can serve as prefixes.
Want examples?
Please: “total”, “maybe”.
Interesting facts about Russian words
“If so many interesting facts are known about letters, then there must be an infinite number of them about the words of this wonderful language,” I thought and turned out to be absolutely right.Here are some interesting things about Russian words:
- There are quite a lot of words in the Russian language that have 10 or more letters, and we won’t be too surprised by words that have more than 20 letters.
Monosyllabic words are not uncommon in the Russian language, but for some reason most adjectives contain two or more syllables.
The only exception to this rule is “evil”.
You would never guess (at least I definitely wouldn’t guess) that two such different words as “bull” and “bee” have the same root.
Do you know why?
Because earlier they used to say “buchela” to a honey-bearing insect, and the sounds that both bulls and bees made were called “booming.”
Ah, that terrible word “win”, which cannot be used in the first person.
How many people were forced to blush, muttering inaudibly “I will win...”, “I will run...”, trying to find a way out of the bad situation into which they had driven themselves.
By the way, this is not the only “insufficient verb” (one that cannot be used in the first person) in the Russian language.
If someone wants to correct you that the word “coffee” is masculine, you can safely tell him:
"Your information is out of date."
In 2009, the Ministry of Education itself admitted that coffee is neuter.
The pundits apologized for the mistake that had crept in: “coffee” is a derivative of “coffee,” which is actually masculine.
Are there not enough interesting facts about the Russian language for you?
So catch a few more:
- The alphabet of the Russian language is the Cyrillic alphabet, which was subject to civil modification (I don’t know what that means, but Wikipedia says so☺).
- God alone knows why, but until the 14th century, linguists, writers and other literate Russians called all words with a not very decent meaning “ridiculous verbs,” even if they were not verbs at all.
We can be proud that in 2003 an interesting fact about the Russian language was included in the Guinness Book of Records.
The people keeping records were amazed that we had a 35-letter word: “highly considerate.”
In the Russian Federation, 99.4% of residents speak Russian fluently.
True, I think no one surveyed labor migrants, of whom there are so many now, but oh well, this figure is still impressive.
The Russian language is gradually losing its position as the “official language” in many former Soviet republics due to the fact that it is being replaced by the state language of these countries.
In the video below you will find 12 more interesting facts about the Russian language:
What facts about the Russian language seem interesting to foreigners?
But what facts about the Russian language seem most interesting to foreigners:
Why are there two letters in the alphabet that do not represent sounds: “ъ” and “ь”.
“This is some kind of absurdity,” many foreigners think.
Well, how can it be that such a good word as “to be” cannot exist in the present tense?
But it feels great in the past and future.
Well, is it really so difficult to come up with a word to address?
“Comrade” and “citizen” went out of fashion, “Mr.” and “Madam” never caught on.
And “man” and “woman” sound rude.
What remains? "Hey you"?
On the one hand, the order of words in sentences is arbitrary, but on the other hand, you cannot rearrange them as you please.
For example, rearrange the words in the short sentence “I’m going home” and you will have a new meaning each time.
To turn an affirmative sentence into an interrogative one, all you need is a question mark at the end and the appropriate intonation.
No special words or constructions.
Of course, that's not all interesting facts about the Russian language.
There are so many of them that you can’t remember them all, and it’s quite difficult to talk about everything within one article.
Which fact do you find most interesting?
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Do you know that in Russian the words “bull” and “bee” have the same root?
Contrary to popular belief, the Russian language does not have one word with three “e”s in a row, but two. And there are as many as 74 words starting with the letter “th” in our language. And the Guinness Book of Records records a word with a length of 35 letters.
Most words with the letter “F” in Russian are borrowed. Pushkin was proud that in “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” there was only one word with the letter “f” - fleet.
There are only 74 words in the Russian language that begin with the letter “Y”. But most of us remember only “yod, yogi” and the city “Yoshkar-Ola”.
There are words in the Russian language that start with “Y”. These are the names of Russian cities and rivers: Ygyatta, Yllymakh, Ynakhsyt, Ynykchansky, Ytyk-kyyol.
The only words in the Russian language with three letters “e” in a row are long-necked (and others with -neck, for example, crooked-, short-) and “snake-eater”.
In the Russian language there is a word with a unique prefix for the language - ko- - nook.
The only word in the Russian language that does not have a root is take out. It is believed that this word contains the so-called zero root, which alternates with the root -im- (take out-im-at). Previously, until about the 17th century, this verb looked like take out, and it had a material root, the same as in remove, embrace, understand (cf. remove, embrace, understand), but later the root -nya- was reinterpreted as the suffix - well- (as in stick, blow).
The only one-syllable adjective in the Russian language is “evil”.
In the Russian language there are words with prefixes unique to the language and -, - total and total and a- - maybe (obsolete a vos “and vos will not be lucky”), formed from the conjunctions “and” and “a”.
The words “bull” and “bee” have the same root. In the works of ancient Russian literature, the word “bee” was written as “bchela”. The alternation of vowels ъ/ы is explained by the origin of both sounds from one Indo-European sound U. If we recall the dialect verb to buchachat, which has the meaning of “roar, hum, buzz” and is etymologically related to the words bee, bug and bull, then it becomes clear what the general meaning of these words
Dahl proposed replacing the foreign word “atmosphere” with the Russian “kolozemitsa” or “mirokolitsa”.
Until the 14th century in Rus', all indecent words were called “absurd verbs.”
In the 1993 Guinness Book of Records, the longest word in the Russian language was named “X-ray electrocardiographic”, in the 2003 edition “excessively considerate”.
In the Grammar Dictionary of the Russian Language A.A. Zaliznyak edition 2003, the longest (in letters) common noun lexeme in dictionary form is the adjective “private entrepreneurial”. Consists of 25 letters.
The longest verbs are “to re-examine”, “to substantiate” and “to internationalize” (all - 24 letters; word forms -uyuschimi and -hivsya 25 letters each).
The longest nouns are “misanthropy” and “excellency” (24 letters each; word forms -ami - 26 letters each, however, “misanthropy” is practically not used in the plural).
The longest animate nouns are “eleventh-grader” and “clerk” (21 letters each, word forms -ami - 23 letters each).
The longest adverb recorded by the dictionary is “unsatisfactory” (19 letters). However, it is necessary to take into account that the overwhelming majority of qualitative adjectives in -y / -iy form adverbs in -o / -e, which are not always recorded in the dictionary.
The longest interjection included in the Grammar Dictionary is “physical education-hello” (15 or 14 letters depending on the status of the hyphen).
“accordingly” is the longest preposition and the longest conjunction at the same time. It consists of 14 letters. The longest particle “exclusively” is a letter shorter.
In Russian there are so-called insufficient verbs. Sometimes a verb does not have any form, and this is due to the laws of euphony. For example: “win”. He will win, you will win, I... will win? Shall I run? will I win? Philologists suggest using the replacement constructions “I will win” or “I will become a winner.” Since there is no first person singular form, the verb is insufficient.
To successfully master the difficult phrase “I love you,” the British use the mnemonic “Yellow-blue bus”
Could you tell us a little more about our language?
But we use what we have. So, we bring to your attention the most interesting facts about the Russian language.
An interesting fact is that the only word in the Russian language that does not have a root is the word “take out”. It is believed that in this word the so-called zero root, which alternates with the root -im- (take out-im-at).
Previously, until about the 18th century, this verb looked like take out, and it had a material root, the same as in take off, hug, understand(cf. shoot, hug, understand).
However, the root -nya- was subsequently reinterpreted as the suffix -nu- (as in put, blow).
Another unusual and interesting fact about the Russian language. The words “bull” and “bee” have the same root. Yes, yes, don't faint!
In works of ancient Russian literature, the word was written as “bychela”. The alternation of vowels ъ/ы is explained by the origin of both sounds from the same Indo-European sound u.
If you remember the dialect verb rumble, having the meaning of “roar”, “buzz”, “buzz” and is etymologically related to the words bee, bug and bull, it becomes clear what the general meaning of these words was.
Another interesting fact about the Russian language that you probably didn’t know. The longest nouns are “misanthropy” and “excellency” (24 letters each; word forms - 26 letters each).
Did you know that the longest adverb recorded in the Russian language dictionary is “unsatisfactory” (19 letters). Although it should be taken into account that the vast majority of qualitative adjectives in -й/-й are formed into adverbs in -о/-е, which are not always recorded in the dictionary.
And this is a very necessary and interesting fact. Experts in the Russian language probably already know it. In Russian there are so-called insufficient verbs.
Sometimes a verb does not have any form, and this is due to the laws of euphony. For example, the word “win”:
- he will win
- you will win,
- I... – will I win? Shall I run? will I win?
Philologists suggest using the replacement constructions “I will win” or “I will become a winner.”
Since there is no 1st person singular form, the verb is "insufficient".
Now you know quite a few interesting facts about the great and mighty Russian language. If you have any questions, you can ask them in the comments.
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