Facts about the Russian language for children. Unusual facts about the Russian language
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. This geographical names, such as Ynykchan (village), Ygyatta (river), Yllymakh (village), Ynakhsyt (village) and Ytyk-kyyol (the name of the administrative center of the Tattinsky ulus of Yakutia). The interesting thing is that all these geographical features 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 speaks of a negligent attitude, then he means that his opponent is very cool in 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 first thing that will come to mind is German. 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 fun facts They say about the Russian language that we also have very large words. Titles chemical elements may simply be 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 consider your family tree, then there can be a lot of prefixes “pra-”. Considering this topic, I would like to note a 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 works, 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 true love a person's love for his homeland is impossible without love for his own language. AND great writer was right.
An insult or an old term?
Interesting Facts about the Russian language they tell us how the word “nonsense” came into use. It has very interesting story, which has its roots in the end of the last century. This one worked in France famous doctor as Gali Mathieu. 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 nice 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 If you can find a translation, 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 the very global problem modernity. 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. Insert terms into sentences true meaning which they do not know, place accents 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.
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 bee 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, which has the meaning of “roar”, “buzz”, “buzz” and is etymologically related to the words bee, bug and bull, then it becomes clear what it was like general meaning of these words.
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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Did you know how many interesting facts there are about the Russian language? No! Then this article is a must read for you.
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 Russian Federation, and also official in some countries 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 have guessed (at least I definitely would not have guessed) that two of these different words, like “bull” and “bee” are 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, they say, the word “coffee” - male, 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 " official language» in many former republics of the USSR due to the fact that it is being replaced official language 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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The Russian language is one of the most complex and amazing languages on our planet. Its history and development are long, just like the history of our state. Did you know that there are 74 words in our language that begin with “Y”? And in the Guinness Book of Records there is a word consisting of 35 letters. People never cease to be amazed at the richness and complexity of the Russian language. We present to your attention interesting facts about the Russian language for wall newspapers.
From the names of flowers
Poets have written a huge number of poems about flowers. It is difficult to choose a favorite flower, because there are many of them and each is beautiful in its own way. However, each of us has tried to make a bouquet at least once in our lives. Let's try to find out where the name of our favorite flowers came from in our language.
Let's start with the word "bouquet", which has French origin. Each plant has its own meaning. Thus, during the reign of Empress Catherine the Great, there was a registry about flowers, thanks to which people knew that red bouquets spoke of love, and yellow ones - of betrayal. Compositions from blue flowers given as a sign of recognition of fidelity. However, we are not interested in the language of flowers, but in their names.
Let's talk about gladiolus. The name of this flower sounds solemn and even courageous. It is directly related to gladiators. After all, “gladiolus” translated from Latin means “sword”.
And people call it “sword” because the leaves of the flower are long and sharp, like a real sword. Did you know that “aster” translated from ancient Greek means star? The ancient Greeks gave the flower this name because it has sharp petals. They make the aster look exactly like a star. These people believed that the aster could communicate with the stars.
And we continue to consider interesting facts about the Russian language. Let's move on to beautiful flower iris. And he also has Greek origin. The Greeks used the word “Iris” to describe the rainbow.
But let’s leave the ancient Greeks alone and talk about the dahlia flower. It turns out that it was named after the St. Petersburg professor, ethnographer and traveler Georgi Gottlieb.
Now you can not only compose and give a beautiful bouquet, but also briefly tell interesting facts about the Russian language and flowers!
"Yellow and Blue Bus"
Do you know how the British remember the reverent phrase “I love you”? You've never heard anything like this before. In order to successfully master a difficult phrase - a declaration of love, they use a mnemonic made up of three English words: “yellow-blue bus”. Our list of interesting facts about the Russian language does not end here. And we continue to surprise you again and again.
Are you coming with us to the forest to “break your lips”?
This is exactly how people in some rural areas of our state were invited to pick mushrooms. The thing is that our ancestors used to call mushrooms also lips. Philologists explained this phenomenon this way: the mushroom comes from the ancient Slavic word for “hump.” And humps were called boletus, boletus and other mushrooms whose cap looked like a hump. Saffron milk caps and milk mushrooms were called lips, since their caps resembled lips. So in V.I. Dahl’s dictionary you can find the phrase “break your lips,” which means the modern phenomenon of “picking mushrooms.” But in the Urals and in the outback of Siberia, a soup made from such mushrooms is called nothing more than “gubnitsa”.
“By the ruble” or “I’ll chop”?
We continue to share with you interesting facts about the Russian language. This time we'll talk about money. What do you think is the origin of proud word"ruble"? The head of the numismatics department of the Historical Museum in Moscow, Igor Shiryakov, advised us on this issue. He shared that no one still knows the true origin of the word “ruble”! For a long time it was believed that medieval ingots, cut in half, yielded two rubles. And then the Russian people realized that half is “polt”, which gave the name “poltina”. Then the ruble began to be called a whole ingot. For example, in the 14th century, a ruble ingot could buy 200 squirrel skins at once, and four centuries later, for 1 ruble you could buy 27 kilograms of fish and even meat. The interesting facts about the Russian language for the wall newspaper do not end there. And you and I move further through the expanses of our native language.
Word without root
When we were studying at primary school, our first teacher told us that every word has a root, and words that have the same roots are called related. But no matter how it is! In our native language Still, there was one word that does not correspond to this reality! The word “take out” turns out to have no root. Linguists believe that it contains a zero root, which alternates with the root /im/ in the word “take out/im/at”. In the 17th century, our ancestors said “take out” and it had a material root, the same as in the words “take off”, “understand”, “embrace” and others. But a little later, the root /nya/ was rethought into the suffix /nu/, as in the case of the words “shove”, “blow”. These are some educational and interesting facts about the Russian language for wall newspapers.
Break the stereotype about the letter
Yes, yes, that’s exactly what we’ll try to do now! You can name a few words starting with “Y” without difficulty. However, as mentioned above, there are at least 74 of them in the Russian language. But can you remember at least one word starting with the letter “Y”? Perhaps such a task will baffle even the most well-read person. But since we are talking about this, the “Dictionary of Geographical Names of the Russian Federation” will come to our aid. It is in this book that you can find words starting with the letter you are interested in. All of them indicate the names of domestic rivers and cities. Get ready to listen: Ygyatta, Ynakhsyt, Ytyk-kyuel and other equally strange names.
Is physician Guillaume Guillotin really so outstanding?
We bring to your attention another interesting fact about the Russian language for wall newspapers. If you are asked: have you heard anything about the French doctor Guillaume Guillotin? Of course, you will refuse. However, this is not the case. And here's the thing! This man, as he grew older, trained to be a doctor. He had a boundless love for medicine, and therefore wanted to gain world fame and recognition. Whether he became an outstanding doctor is up to each of us to decide. If you think that the weapon death penalty guillotine and the surname Guillotin are ironically consonant, then you are seriously mistaken.
The Frenchman Guillotin felt sorry for the criminals sentenced to death. Therefore, he invented a weapon that cuts off the head, and, according to Guillotin, painlessly sends the soul of the criminal to another world. Whether Guillaume Guillotin is so talented as a doctor is something everyone decides for himself.
Finally
Our article ends. We, as promised, told you interesting facts about the Russian language for the wall newspaper. We hope that the interesting material we collected was useful to you.
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.
The richness of the Russian language is in synonyms
Synonyms are words that, as a rule, belong to the same part of speech, differ in pronunciation and spelling, but have a similar lexical meaning. 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. By the way, the portal www.sinonim.org automatically selects synonyms for the word you enter.Common words and their origins
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 speaks of a negligent attitude, then he means that his opponent is very cool in 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 dra?gas.Longest words
If we talk about the longest words that exist, then 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 a 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 an ill-mannered person, but the first one defines an ignorant, uneducated person. 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.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.