2017 # 2 (22)
Orel I.
Russian Lexemes in Slovene Lexicography in the second half of the 19th century
Abstract
This article provides a typological analysis of marked lexemes appropriated from Russian lexicographic sources and listed in the most comprehensive collective bilingual dictionaries of the 19th century, Deutsch-slovenisches Wörterbuch (1860) and Pleteršnik’s Slovenian-German Dictionary (1894–1895). The portal www.fran.si was used to verify their continuity in contemporary standard Slovenian and in the past, including Lägreid’s Russianisms indexed in Vodnik’s and Murko’s dictionaries from the first half of the 19th century. The Slavic lexemes were used as a source of appropriation or interlinguistic comparison. Russianisms were utilised for nomenclatural purposes or the conveyance of semantic nuances, although Slovenian equivalents did exist. The Slovenian-German Dictionary includes approximately 400 (0.4% of all) entries or sub-entries, which are part of the neutral or terminological lexis. Thematically, the most prevalent ones are the names for social and cultural concepts, animals, plants, characteristics etc. A quarter of the entries have entered the standard language, 13% are temporally (obsolete, archaic, historisms), literally and expressively marked or restricted to a particular field. Certain lexemes with a mutual comparative basis only vary phonetically or with regard to word formation. Approximately 15% of the transliterated Russian lexemes are linguistically comparable and show a high degree of relatability. Half of all (mostly terminology in various fields) have not taken root in standard Slovenian. 12% derive from Old Church Slavonic, whether directly via Russian or indirectly via Croatian / Serbian or other Slavic languages (Czech, Polish); contemporary research has shown that some are derived from another Slavic language or that they have a common Proto-Slavic ancestor.
Key words
history of the standard Slovenian language, 19th-century Slovenian lexicography, Russian lexemes, Russianisms