Russianism or Russicism is an influence of the Russian language on other languages. In particular, Russianisms are Russian or

Russified Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...

words, expressions, or grammar constructs used in

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto ...

, languages of CIS states and languages of the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographic ...

. However, the scope of the Russian language influence is wider. For example, in Italian Russianisms rank fifth and sixth after

Anglicism An anglicism is a word or construction borrowed from English by another language. With the rise in Anglophone media and the global spread of British and US cultures in the 20th and 21st centuries, many English terms have become widespread in o ...

Gallicism A Gallicism can be: * a mode of speech peculiar to the French; * a French idiom; * in general, a French mode or custom. * a loanword, word or phrase borrowed from French. See also * Francization * Franglais * Gallic (disambiguation) * Gallican ...

s, Germanisms,

Hispanism Hispanism (sometimes referred to as Hispanic studies or Spanish studies) is the study of the literature and culture of the Spanish-speaking world, principally that of Spain and Hispanic America. It can also entail studying Spanish language ...

s, and Arabisms.

Classification by Ajduković

Jovan Ajduković reinterprets and innovates the "theory of transfer" of lexical borrowing (е.g., Rudolf Filipović 1986, 1990) and introduces the "theory of approximate copying and activation" of ''contact-lexemes''. In the "theory of transfer", the concept of Russianism (Russism) in lexicographical sources in the broader sense means (1) an unmotivated or motivated word of Russian origin which has kept a strong formal-semantic connection with the corresponding word in Russian (e.g. Serb. ), (2) an unmotivated or motivated word of Russian origin which has partially or completely lost its formal-semantic connection with the original Russian word owing to adaptation (e.g. Serb. ), (3) an unmotivated or motivated word of non-Russian origin borrowed through Russian (e.g. Serb. ) and (4) an unmotivated or motivated word of Russian or non-Russian origin borrowed into the receiving language through a transmitter language (e.g. Maced. ). For example, the transmitter language in Russian-Macedonian language contacts is Bulgarian or Serbian (Ajduković 2004: 94; 340). In the "theory of approximate copying and activation" (so-called "Ajduković's Theory of Contacteme"), the concept of Russianism (Russism) means a word having one or more "independent contactemes", which have arisen under the dominant influence of Russian (e.g. Serb. ). Jovan Ajduković introduce the term "contacteme" for the basic unit of contact on each separate level of language. He distinguish "contact-phoneme", "contact-grapheme", "contacteme in distribution of sounds", "prosodic contacteme", "derivational contacteme", "morphological contacteme", "semantic contacteme", "syntactic contacteme", "stylistic contacteme", "contact-lexeme" and "contact-phraseme" (e.g. Serb. ) (Ajduković 2004: 99; 340
(see also Ajduković's Homepage)
.

Russianisms and Russification

In countries that have long been under the influence of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

, the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, and modern

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

, Russianism is a direct result of

Russification Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...

, when native words and expressions were replaced with Russian ones. Russianisms are especially frequent in Ukrainian and

Belarusian Belarusian may refer to: * Something of, or related to Belarus * Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent * A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus * Belarusian language * Belarusian culture * Belarusian cuisine * Byelor ...

, as the languages are linguistically close to Russian. Examples of Russianisms in Ukrainian would be "часи" (''časy'', "clock") instead of "годинник" (''hodynnyk''), "ковьор" (''kov'or'' "carpet") instead of "килим" (''kylym''), "празнувати" (''praznuvaty'', "to celebrate") instead of "святкувати" (''svjatkuvaty''), and many others. Examples from Moldavian include "odecolon" and "subotnic". Use of Russianisms results in creation of Russian-Ukrainian or Russian-Belarusian

mixed language A mixed language is a language that arises among a bilingual group combining aspects of two or more languages but not clearly deriving primarily from any single language. It differs from a creole or pidgin language in that, whereas creoles/pidgi ...

s (called

surzhyk Surzhyk (, ) refers to a range of mixed sociolects of Ukrainian and Russian languages used in certain regions of Ukraine and the neighboring regions of Russia and Moldova. There is no unifying set of characteristics; the term is, according to so ...

and

trasianka Trasianka ( be, трасянка, ) refers to a mixed language, mixed form of speech in which Belarusian language, Belarusian and Russian language, Russian elements and structures alternate arbitrarily.Hentschel, Gerd Belarusian and Russian in th ...

accordingly).

Notes

References

*
(Abstract)
* *{{cite book , last=Nicolai , first=Giorgio Maria , year=2003 , url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3763/is_200503/ai_n14901094 , title=Dizionario delle parole russe che si incontrano in italiano , series=Biblioteca di cultura , language=it , location=Rome , publisher=Bulzoni Editore , isbn=978-88-8319-858-8 Russian language Transliteration Types of words Word coinage