There was no sound A in Russian?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

From scientific reports: “The first letter of our alphabet loves to show off at the end of feminine nouns: ARM, LEG, LUNA, KOROVA … But pick up any dictionary of the Russian language, and you will find a strange thing: it turns out that the Russian language almost does not know words at all, starting with "A". No, of course, no words in "A" generally quite a lot - the most complete dictionaries contain up to two dozen pages. But almost all of them indicate that the word is borrowed - either from living languages, or from those that have long been dead - Latin and Ancient Greek. The primordially Russian words starting with the letter A can be counted literally on the fingers - these are the so-called service words: AW, ABOS, exclamations - AGA, ASU, moreover AZ and ABC … Those wishing to add to this list will have to sweat a lot."

Today we do not know which of the linguists was the first, but in the last 150 years in linguistics there has been a postulate - the Russian language never had its own words beginning with "A". Linguists explain this by the fact that our ancestors, they say, were embarrassed to pronounce the sound "A" at the very beginning of the word, considering it too frank and defiant. And to cover up this frankness, the sound "A" in the speech of our ancestors, they say, was hidden behind the sound "Y". The writer Lev Uspensky, whom linguists take for their own (linguist), writes: “The Russian language does not like to start its words with such a“pure”,“real”“A”! And all because the pronoun "I", borrowed by our ancestors from the Old Church Slavonic speech, at that distant time was pronounced as "Az".

It turns out that our ancestors did not have a personal pronoun I, didn’t have it until the mythical Old Slavs in the person of the enlightener Kirill donated it to the Russians? How did they live without him?

The phonetic transformation "A" - "YA" - "I" for a part of Old Russian words (about 20-25 lexemes) really took place: Yaviti (to reveal), Agoda - Yagoda, Aice - Egg, Ama - Yama, Antar - Amber, Hell - Poison, Lamb - Lamb … but it was not determinative, making up only 5% of such vocabulary.

Here is how Svetlana Burlak answered this question, where she answers a question from the audience about the initial "A" in Russian - video excerpt from the speech of Doctor of Philology Svetlana Burlak, But overseas words with the spelling "A" we have - a cart and a small cart, as evidenced by almost all dictionaries of the modern Russian language. This circumstance gives linguists the right to declare: "Without exception, the words on" A "in Russian are foreign."

In Ushakov's dictionary alone (issue 1935-40) there are about 400 such pseudo-Russian words! And all of them: Greek, Latin, French, German … Not a single native, native Russian! There are no own words in Russia, invented by Russian people for Russians! Our ancient ancestors were stupid, barbarians, as Patriarch Kirill called them.

Why are there a dime a dozen such words in foreign languages, including our neighboring Slavic languages, and in Russian there is only one foreign language? Even everyday words: "watermelon", "airfield", "orange", "artillery" … are exactly the same dominance in the Russian language, like the Englishisms recently introduced into our speech: "fake, respect, boutique, merchandiser" … But really the presence of exclusively borrowed words in modern dictionaries proves that the Russian language never had its own words on "A"?

This is not about the modern Russian language, which lost a huge layer of folk vocabulary with the era of Pushkin, but about the language as a whole. Unlike the archaic languages of Western Europe, which were never understood by the modern descendants of these cultures, the ancient Russian is much closer and more understandable to an ordinary Russian. The dialect vocabulary, which our fathers and grandfathers spoke not so long ago, is also more or less accessible. If linguists do not consider outdated and dialectal vocabulary a full-fledged part of the Russian language, believing that Russian is the language of the urban intelligentsia or modern academic dictionaries of the 20th and 21st centuries, then it is time to sound the alarm in order to draw public attention to this circumstance. The rupture of the literary language (including the ancient literary one) with oral speech turned out to be fraught with great losses for our culture. And this trend is only getting stronger. At the same time, we see that many borrowings into the Russian language were of a deliberate nature, imposing extremely limited or even practically useless vocabulary on Russians:

Aangich is a Turkish word, Argal - Mongolian

Abracadabra - Thracian, Abtsug - German

Abred - Prussian

Avegars - Dutch

Arai-Arandat - Finnish words, Alam-Ashat - Kypchak, Arhaluk-Alan - Turkic, Abaz - Persian-Georgian, Alcove-Asker - Arab, Augur-Arkush - Latin, Abaka-Aksamit-Aconite-Agave-Azim-Anakruza - Greek, Apache-Antuka-Atande-Aprosh-Abrikotin - French …

The first to distinguish himself on this modernist soil was the Soviet linguist Dmitry Ushakov, who released in 1935-40. the first explanatory dictionary of the Russian language of the young Soviet Republic! The USSR embarked on the path of speaking in a renewed Russian language, a stump language filled with a new revolutionary theme, according to the principle "We will destroy the whole world of violence, we will build ours, we will build a new world."

At the same time, we know many words that have long been firmly registered in the language: stork, watermelon, apricot, orange, car, address, accordion, applause … They are also foreign by origin and origin. Another thing is that we have long been accustomed to these words, so we consider them Russian.

To the direct question "Are there native words in the Russian language beginning with" A "?" the linguist first says - there are no such words! and then he still clarifies about the Russian "sneezes, bunches and ahi". And what are these words? Are they complete? Is it worth paying attention to some 6 "unfinished" words: AW, ABOS, AGA, ASU, AZ and ABC »?

What happens if you look into special academic publications and look for these interjections, conjunctions, onomatopoeia and official words? As simple people, we cannot doubt that the vocabulary of our grandfathers and grandmothers was at one time carefully collected, processed and carefully packed by linguists in a special philological jar. And indeed, thanks to the efforts of conscientious linguists, many words in the "A" are still preserved. There are much more of those six options offered by careless linguists! Why, then, do the experts say: "Those who want to add to this list will have to sweat a lot"?

Well, you can sweat! Here's a still incomplete but compelling list:

Ay, ah! Aya-yay (ayay, ayaya), Aya, Ayayo, Ainki (aichka, aika), Aikhma, Aki (aky), Ako, Akoy, Akos, Akromya, Anys, Anadys, Anamnyas, Anamed, Anat, Anatys-on (anatstsa), Anagda, Anady, Anta, Antuta, Aniazh (anezh), Akoby, Aras, Archi, Aredom, Ary (Arya, Arrya, Aryo), Antela, At (at, Ate, Ati, Ato, Ata), Atu, Atyu, Alyu, Alya, Aoi, Anos, Alala (alaloy), Allali, (alili), Alandas (alandys, alania), Alya, Alya, Alibo (albo), Atno, Aibo, Alsa, Agu (agulenki, agushenki, agunushki), Adva, Adli, Adali, Adyli, Agy, Agyn, Akika, Aba (abo), Abiye (abye), Aluino, Aby, Abizh, Avzho, Azh, Azhe, Azhe-zh, Azhno (azhnak, azhnut, azho, azhny), Azhnol (azhnoli), Azhby, Azhnyk, Azhin, Azno, Aza, Aze, Azaska, Azym, Aida (ada, adyai), Ay-ta, Ay-you, Aposlya, Aprachi,, Avos (avose, avosev, maybe-ta), Abos, Au (ahy), Auy, Auk, Auh, outu, Atata (atati, atatya), Attaty, Attya (atya), Aema, Ayov, Ayonsya, A, Ayu, (ayo), Avava (avvava), Avoy (avoy-howl), Ah-you, Ay, Aikalo, Avid, Aga (agach), Ade, Agatu, Atuta, Adva, Anegozh (anevozh, anego, anezh, anezh), Aylyuli, Adem (ayda, aydaknut), Adali (adoli), Avsegda (avsegdy), Avcheras, Agaga, Adzabl, Avka (avkat), Al, Adyak, Avila, Alby, Adlyga,Ali (aky, atsy, atsem), Akov, Akysh, Adyu, Amki (amkat), Am, Amba, Amozhe, Amaram, An, Agaga, Anno, Ano (anko), Anda (andes, ando, anizh), Andysh, Ah, Akhny, Akhyan, Akhakha, Akhma, Akhti (akhte), Ah (ach-ach), Asche, Achi (aci, ache), Atski, Achev, Achki, Asho, Aevo, Ashkyr, Aschut, Ashut …

and about 50 more independent units not included in this list!

It turns out a bit too much for a language in which linguists have not been able to find even a dozen words for 150 years! It is also awkward for the linguist Lev Uspensky, who in millions of copies of his book "Word about the Word" inspired the reader with dubious information. It is difficult to understand why a specially trained professional does not see in reference books what an uneducated layman can easily find there? How, out of almost 300 common speech units recorded in Russian, linguists manage to discern, at best, only six of them? How is it that the specialists, appointed as overseeing the state of the Russian lexical fund, for centuries have not been able to determine even its quantitative indicators?

Let's ask ourselves a question. If even in the young Russian language there are about 300 different common lexemes with the initial "A", therefore, in any other, especially ancient language - in the same Latin or Greek, there must be many times more of them! It is not for nothing that these languages are considered the parents of many other languages, including Russian!

So let's see if everything is as common sense suggests. Let's turn to large dictionaries: modernized versions of the Latin language and the dictionary of ancient Roman law:

Age! - hey !, well! come on!

Ah! Aha! - (a!) ah! Oh! (surprise, annoyance, sorrow, joy);

Ai! - ah! Oh! Oh! (expresses a complaint);

An - or, whether; may be;

Ac - and;

Absque - without, except;

Apud - at, at, before, in the presence;

Aut - or, or, or at least, or in general;

Atqui - however, on the contrary; of course, anyway; but still; but, a;

Antea - before, before;

Autem - but, same.

Well, the Roman Empire is not very impressive in variety! And against the background of the Russian list of 300 units, it rather resembles a plot from a dirty anecdote about “size that matters”. It is not fitting for such an ancient culture to have such a small and short … list of "sneezes and ahs", without which no self-respecting people or tribe can do. Smallish for the highly publicized Roman Empire. But the curators of the Latin language for 400 years of its imaginary suspended animation could have come up with something on a larger scale. But, apparently, they decided that "and so it will do!". And now it’s too late, tickets to the theater of "true antique history" are sold out. What we managed to do, we did it. And can you really foresee everything? Who could have known in that troubled era that there would come a time when it would be easy to expose even the most talented falsifiers? So it remains that out of love for art alone, continue to support the dear antiquity with dead, but in no way dying Latin with more and more new modern vocabulary.

And what about our second parent, the Greek, with his legendary Hellenic culture? He will give us a mountain? What's in the academic dictionaries of Old, Middle, and New Greek ?:

Α! ! - a, aha; Oh; oh, oh (bewilderment; admiration);

άι - ah! (surprise or pain);

ἅἅ!! - ha ha!

Αχ!, άου!, αλί!, αλίμονο! - ah !, pain, regret;

Α μπα! - denial.

Yes, the second parent also disappointed! Where is this vaunted antiquity of Greek culture! What else, besides its absence, can explain such scarcity of the common people a-vocabulary, which as specially exists for all kinds of "sneezes, bunches and ahs"? Why do linguists reproach the Russian language for the absence of words, which are actually complementary in it, but do not pay attention to Greek and Latin, extremely poor in such a vocabulary?

Well, we found out with interjections and other "frivolous" words. Greek and Latin did not pass the antiquity test, yielding several times to the young Russian language. But all this, linguists will say, related only to defective vocabulary! You never know what the villagers will think of in their dialects and dialects! And I want to see something serious, some examples from full-fledged vocabulary: nouns, adjectives, verbs … But they are not in Russian!

However, even here, in terms of full-fledged vocabulary, a surprise awaits us! It turns out that there were such words with the initial sound "A" in Russian, and, moreover, in considerable quantity - about 500 non-derived units … From which, by the way, within the framework of the norms of Russian word formation, derivative words can be born. They survived not only as old-written units, but partially also as modern vocabulary. Let us turn to examples, independent of any foreign or proto-linguistic influences, the existence of which science denies:

Aas, Abait, Abab, Abakula, Abelma, Abdal, Abdushka, Abik, Abalyrya, Agovet, Abotat, Agrub, Atulka, Adai, Adalen, Adli, Adonye, Adur, Azlibat, Azet, Azor, Akudnik, Aimishtat, Akika, Aukat, Akipka, Akley, Akosit, Alabandin, Alabor, Alazhal, Alalyka, Alan, Akorye, Alpera, Alar, Alas, Alashit, Albasty, Alet, Alod, Alym, Alyn, Alyra, Alykhar, Alnik, Alusy, Akhalnik, Alchik, Allyu Alyusnik, Alyusha, Alyakish, Alyanchik, Alyapovaty, Alazh, Alody, Alyasnik, Alyat, Alapa, Alyos, Aluy, Alynya, Akorye, Alyabysh, Aloe, Alya, Andrets, Akhanshchik, Alkin, Aneva, Andelnoy, Anevozh, Anevozhnich Anchutka, Apayka, Apogare, Ar, Arava, Araina, Arandat, Arbuy, Argish, Argun, Arda, Ardy, Areva, Argat, Arandat, Aregva, Arakat, Ared, Araydat, Ared, Arem, Aresit, Aretega, Areshnik, Ary, Alipa, Arkat, Arkush, Armay, Arogda, Artachitsya, Arud, Archilin, Aryazina, Asbar, Asey, Asletok, Asota, Aspozhka, Asyt, Asya, Atava, Atayka, Atama, Atva, Atka, Afenya, Ahakha, Akhid, Akhlusha, Ashut, Ashchaulit, Ayu sha, Ayukla …

All in all, in the Russian language (taking into account the so-called full-fledged words, interjections and derivatives), about 2000 words with the initial "A" are recorded. In this sense, the Russian language did not differ from any other natural language. Unless, as we found out, there were more non-derivative units in it than even in some age and surviving languages. And how did one have to have a heart to dare to make such a sanctimonious statement: “The Russian language never had its own words beginning with the sound“A”, and the opinion of philologists on this issue is unambiguous: all words beginning with“A”are borrowed; for this it is enough to look into any dictionary of the Russian language "!?

But this is the same forgery, like the statement that has now become fashionable that there are more words in the English dictionary than in Russian! An amazing apostasy from one's own culture, propagandized for many decades in the name of science! A knife in the back of the history of the native language!

In the scans of the dictionary of Russian folk dialects published on the Internet, probably provided by some private person, many articles with the letter "A" are crossed out. It is not difficult to guess the reasons for this behavior - the owner of this publication, having heard from some linguist or school teacher that there are no “A” words in Russian, he decided to simply get rid of them. It is easier to live by the principle: do what they say, live like everyone else and be what happens! What is the use of keeping the rubbish thrown into the trash by science?

It turns out that for a scientist brother to mold an “educated idiot” out of an ordinary person is a piece of cake. At the same time, the layman himself becomes already a passionate adherent of science, ready to defend this deceiver to the last drop! Isn't it a pure religion, with its own parish and indisputable flock?

Another example is the "editorial oversight" that regularly pops up in various academic publications, calculated on our inattention. Haste, worries, inability to analyze data make us hostages of all sorts of forgeries. If the dictionary contains any "noun" word ABZHA

However, the promised clarification cannot be found at this link. Articles OBZHA just doesn't exist.

In the same dictionary of Russian folk vocabulary, you can find many links to such non-existent resources: Advasti, Addonok, Adnayo, Adynya, Azhegodno, Azoroda, Azyap, Algat, Alnishche, Alsa, Aste, Abanus, and other words with the initial "A", which They are not interpreted in any way, and the references given to them to the same words, but with the initial "O", are in fact absent. Thus, it is not possible to find out their meaning.

Undoubtedly, there was a time when the oral speech of our ancestors was not yet graphically recorded “on paper”. People for hundreds and thousands of years pronounced words as they pronounced - through the initial sound "A", until the moment when speech, for example, was not heard by philologists and was not finally recorded in large reference books, becoming a national norm. How could our ancestors have known that, after many years, writing, the alphabet, the science of philology or cognitive linguistics would appear? Could they have foreseen that linguists in the 19th century, for some reason, would decide to remake their ancient phonetics for new written norms? Did they care that in the 19th century linguists in many Russian words would write the initial sound "A" through "O"?

To summarize what has been said, it turns out that native speakers of the Russian language have always had an abundance of words beginning with the sound "A", and have always loved to pronounce such words. a-vocabulary in special dictionaries of the Russian language. The overwhelming majority of Russians, even before St. Cyril, pronounced many words through the "A": Aer, Aist, Ayda, Abet, Aboz, Agon, Arava … and continues to pronounce it to this day. Through the efforts of linguists, many hundreds of such words disappeared from the language, but disappeared only on paper and in the scientific dissertations they created. In oral speech, these words have been preserved. Many original words have survived in writing. But scientists don't like to think about them.

How can we not recall the statement of Lev Uspensky, under the hypnosis of scientific ideas which almost every Soviet person was for decades: likes "to begin his words with such a" pure "," real "" A ". And the business of linguists is not to grieve over this, but to try to find out why this happened, why such a centuries-old habit has emerged in the language."

One gets the impression that, creating the book "The Word about the Word", the linguist writer was under hypnosis, instead of healthy information about the history of the Russian word, giving young generations dubious knowledge. The writer believed, or pretended that linguists would really someday want to “try to find out why the centuries-old habit of avoiding the initial sound“A”was outlined in the language of the ancient Russian ancestor! As if linguists need it!

Simple logic suggests that the compilers of Russian dictionaries did not consider it necessary to mention even the primordial words starting with "A" that have survived in the language, not to mention the outdated ones. Who needs Avos, Akudnik or Alkat today? Who cares about old, decrepit parents, from whom the benefits are like a goat of milk? By means of banal silence, Soviet philology got rid of the rich Russian linguistic heritage. Democratised in this way back in the 19th century, Russian archaism has sunk into oblivion. And the new Soviet power, with its proletarian newspeak and unwillingness to rely on the heritage of their ancestors, only exacerbated this process.

In spite of historical linguistics, there are plenty of words in "A" in the Russian language. Even without taking into account toponyms, proper names, interjections and similar "trifles", there are still more than two dozen full-fledged Russian words that we use every day: Alcoholic ("Drunk", "drunkard", from the old Alkat), Greedy ("greedy"), Maybe ("Maybe", from the old. Avose), Alet (other Russian Al), Arius ("Tiller", metathesis from Ra/ thai), Lurid ("tasteless"), String bag ("net"), The basics ("Beginning, foundation", from the old. Az), Ace ("Great master"; from Aza, old Az) Ayda ("let's go to"), As ("what"), Akat, Avkat ("bark"), Ahti ("Very", old. Akhte), Amba ("the end"), Artel ("Squad", from the old. Rota, Orava), interjections: Uh uh huh, Ay, Uh huh, Already, Ale, Ay, Aby, ("If"), etc.

Questions remain.

How did it become possible for many, many years to lead an entire society of educated people by the nose? Who and why so skillfully played on our credulity, confirming in the science of language postulates that contradict historical, factual data? And why don't we notice this "scientific bungling", don't we try to stop it? Who are we on this lost planet, people or hangers-on who exist for the sake of every minute whims and pleasures?

So it turns out that it is impossible to draw "final conclusions" regarding the volume of the historical Russian lexicon solely on the basis of the pitiful crumbs of Russian vocabulary preserved in modern dictionaries. So far, we can only talk about an intermediate result. This is evidenced not only by the initial "A", which linguists unceremoniously refused to exist, but also by a huge layer of other vocabulary in our language. A lot of Russian words seem to have dissolved in the past, waiting for their final fate, and if you and I are not so tolerant of outright falsifications in science, they will someday surely rise from buried non-existence.