Facts about the Russian language. Amazing in Russian

The Russian language at school can, perhaps, be considered one of the most important subjects, ignorance of which can leave a serious imprint on a person’s future life. But how to increase children's interest in it? How to make it easier to understand such difficult and confusing rules at first glance? A regular issue dedicated to the Russian language will help with this. Interesting facts, funny stories of the origin of words, “blunders” from essays - all this will come to the rescue and make Russian a truly native language for students.

What can a wall newspaper tell you about?

A school wall newspaper dedicated to the Russian language should become not just a statement of facts, but also a way of communication. Let students ask questions, leaving them in a special pocket, bring their notes (you can introduce some kind of encouragement for such activity) and participate in competitions.

• Did you know that in the Russian language there are animate neuter nouns: “child”, “animal” and “monster”?
• The only complete adjective in the Russian language that has one syllable is the word “evil”.
• The verb “take out” is the only word in our language that does not have a root. It is considered that it is zero here and alternates with -it (take out - take out).

“Any foreigner who claims to know the Russian language perfectly can be tested. Invite him to translate the following sentence (I wonder if you yourself will understand what it is about?): “Mowed with a scythe.” And if a foreigner as a result says something like: “A man with a crooked tool cut the grass,” then he can indeed be considered an expert on the “great and mighty.”

But at the end of these notes, don’t forget to ask: “Do you know any fun facts like this?” This will stimulate children's interest in reading and create the beginning of communication.

Information that a wall newspaper can tell about

A school wall newspaper can become a collection of amazing facts. Like these, for example:

• all obscene words before the 14th century. in Rus' they were called “absurd verbs”;
• in the Russian language there is a word consisting of 46 letters - “thousand-nine-hundred-eighty-nine-millimeter”, and the longest preposition and at the same time the longest conjunction is the word “respectively” consisting of 14 letters;
• and the word “darkness” used to be a numeral, denoting the largest known quantity - 10 thousand.

No less interesting will be the information for the “Entertaining Russian Language” section about nouns with “dropping out” vowels. If you decline words such as louse, day, lion, forehead, lie, stump, ditch, rye, sleep, seam, etc., then not a single vowel will remain in their roots. And since not all words are listed, you can invite readers to add to this list.

Amazing letter "Ъ"

The history of the 28th letter of the Russian alphabet “ъ” is complex and confusing and may also become the topic of one of the newspaper issues.

In the old days, it meant something very short about which linguists are still arguing. Later, from about the middle of the 12th century, it was used to break words into syllables, and a line into individual words, until the widespread transition to the use of spaces (to God's chosen king) took place.

But even after spaces appeared between the words, the rule remained in Church Slavonic writing: “ъ” is the letter indicating the end of the word. That is, every word in the Russian language could previously end only with a vowel, й, ь or ъ (pawnshop, address, grocery store). Imagine, writing this absolutely unnecessary sign took up to 4% of the text!

Now, as a result of the Russian spelling reform carried out in 1917-1918, a new rule has appeared: the unpronounceable “ъ” is a letter that is used only as a dividing mark between a consonant and a vowel. It can be found at the junction of a prefix and a root (congress, embrace, corrosive, etc.) or to indicate the iotized pronunciation of vowels in (injection, adjutant, etc.).

But, of course, this is not all that can be said about the solid sign.

Let's talk about suppletives

It is not necessary to collect interesting facts about the Russian language for a wall newspaper “from the world.” After all, even a completely scientific phenomenon from the field of linguistics can turn out to be surprising and entertaining for the average reader. For example, suppletives.

Each of the native speakers can easily form from any:

• write - wrote,
• read - read,
• do - did,
• sing - sang,
• go - ... walked.

This “strange” discrepancy between the root of the initial and derivative form is called suppletive. The same phenomena occur when forming the comparative degree of some adjectives:

• funny - funnier,
• smart - smarter,
• warm - warmer,
• good - ... better or bad - ... worse.

The same can be found in nouns, for example, in the word “man” (its plural is “people”, formed from another root), in the pronoun “I” (its indirect cases “me”, “me”, etc. . also have a different root).

How a hooligan appeared in Russia

A school wall newspaper on the topic: “The Russian language and its history” can successfully publish interesting facts about the origin of some words. Here is an example of a short note about how the word “hooligan” appeared in the Russian language.

It’s no secret that a hooligan is a person who indulges in outrages and does not respect the law, but the fact that this word was previously an English surname is probably few people know.

Yes, yes, at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. In England, in the city of Southwark, there lived a most unpleasant family engaged in banditry and robbery. They all bore the same surname - Khaligan. And soon they became sadly famous throughout England. And about the head of this robber clan, Patrick Haligan, there was even a mocking song composed, which over time became popular throughout Europe. Caricatures were drawn of the Khaligans, parodies were written, and their surname gradually became a household name, not only in England, but also in Russia, where, however, it was somewhat modified.

Contradictions in the same word

Interesting facts about the Russian language for a wall newspaper can be selected in huge quantities. Schoolchildren will probably be curious to learn about such an amazing phenomenon in the development of our language as enantiosemy - polarization of the meaning of one word. That is, in one lexical unit meanings can contradict and be opposed to each other. Judge for yourself - the well-known word “priceless” contains two concepts at once:

1) something that has no price;

2) something that has a very high price.

What does a person mean when he says, “I listened to the lecture”? That he listened carefully to her or, conversely, that he never heard anything? The verb “listen”, as you can see, is its own antonym.

How did enantiosemy arise?

Interesting facts about the Russian language for a wall newspaper may include the history of this phenomenon.

Linguists explain it by using the word in different areas, for example in and in book language. Something similar happened with the word “dashing.” If in ancient Russian manuscripts it had only one meaning: “bad, nasty” (dashing person), then in common parlance “dashing” also became “brave, daring” (dashing warrior).

The thing is that in ancient times they most often spoke of robbers as dashing people, capable, as everyone knows, of bold, risky and reckless actions. This is where the new, opposite meaning of the ancient word originated.

The Russian language is rich in examples of enantiosemy of words. You can remember the following: borrow (borrow - lend) or probably (certainly, definitely - maybe not exactly).

The wall newspaper can present facts about how the great Russian language developed both in the form of short notes and as popular science articles.

The newspaper discussed in the article should become both fascinating reading and thought-provoking for children of all ages. Interesting facts about the Russian language for wall newspapers can be found in large quantities in the media, especially now that interest in the native language has risen to a higher level.

But once again I would like to remind you that such a newspaper is not just an informative publication, but also a place for communication. Only in this way will interest turn from purely contemplative into something more real, leading to a passion for the subject, and perhaps even to the discovery of the talent of a writer, poet or artist. Good luck!

Russian Language Day is a Russian and international public holiday. It is celebrated today, June 6th. VK Press has collected for you eight interesting facts about the Russian language, which is considered one of the most difficult to learn.

Fact No. 1. Words starting with “Y”

When you are asked to remember some words starting with the letter “Y”, you will agree that yogi with yogurt and Yoshkar-Ola most often come to mind. But this is not all that the language has to offer. It turns out that there are more than 70 words starting with “Y”. From simple ones: iota, Yorkshire, yeti, yon to more complex ones: yodargyrite, yogachary, Yohimbine.

Fact No. 2. The longest words in the Russian language

For example, the word “tetrahydropyranylcyclopentyltetrahydropyridopyridine”. It means chemical substance. Do you agree that difficulties begin closer to the middle?
But we will pay attention to words that are closer and clearer in meaning, and we will leave the 55-letter articulation strength tester alone.
Already the adjective “highly considerate” contains 35 letters. By the way, it was this word that was once registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest Russian word.
It is believed that the longest verbs are “re-examine”, “substantialize” and “internationalize”. Each of them has 24 letters, and when they form forms with -ing and -having, then they already have 25 letters.
Among the nouns we can name “misanthropy” and “excellency”, which have 24 letters each.

Fact No. 3. Untranslatable words and phrases of the Russian language

There are several words in our language that are very difficult to find analogues in other languages. These are, first of all, our mysterious “maybe”, “I suppose”, “somehow”, which are very difficult for foreigners to understand. Secondly, “melancholy,” for which it is extremely difficult to even find a synonym, because it will not be able to fully convey this state.
Among the phrases that can confuse foreign guests are traditionally “No, probably not”, “Come on, see you tomorrow!”, “Good riddance”, “You can’t get around to looking”.

Fact No. 4. “Win ​​or win?”

If the verb does not have any form, then the so-called laws of euphony come into force. For example, very often a question arises with the verb “win”. If he “wins” and you “win”, then what remains for me? Will I “win” or “will I win?” Philologists encourage the use of options such as “I will win” or “I will become a winner.” Such verbs are called insufficient; they do not have a 1st person singular form. This also includes “to dare”, “to blow”, “to convince”, “to find oneself” and others.

Fact No. 5. Seven times "0" and three "E" in a row"

There is a word in our language in which the letter “O” appears as many as seven times - this is “defensiveness”. And we will find three letters “E” in a row only in the words “snake eater” and “long-necked”.

Fact No. 6. One root for two

In ancient Russian literature you can often find that the word “bee” is written as “bchela”; such an alternation of vowels ъ/ы can be explained by the origin of the sounds from one Indo-European sound u. The dialectal verb “buchat” means “roar”, “buzz”, “buzz” and is etymologically related to the words “bee”, “bug” and “bull”. Then it becomes clear what the general meaning of these words was.

Fact No. 7. Eight mistakes in two letters

It turns out that there are cases where eight mistakes were made in a two-letter word. We are talking about the Russian word “shchi”. When Catherine the Great was still the German Princess Sophia, she once wrote it like this: “schtschi.” Everything here is written wrong.

Fact No. 8. Addressing people in Russian

The word “comrade”, previously necessary to address a person, is no longer used in our language, except in special circumstances. “Ladies and gentlemen” does not always sound appropriate, and the addresses “man” and “woman” are sometimes even rude, and not everyone can be called a “friend.” Therefore, the most appropriate treatment is usually selected for each individual situation.
Anna ANDRIYANENKO.

The Russian language has a rich history, and it is not surprising that Russian words, to which we have long been accustomed, actually once meant something completely different or were borrowed from other languages, and today we can only be amazed at how many interesting We don’t know the facts about Russian yet.

The most interesting facts about the Russian language:

1. You will be surprised, but in the Russian language there are still words starting with the letter “Y”. These are geographical names (Ytyk-kyyol, Ynakhsyt, Yllymakh, Ygyatta, Ynykchansky).

2. The word “negligence” does not come from the word “robe”, as many are accustomed to think, but from the word “khalad”, cold. That is, negligent attitude means cold.

3. A funny fact is that the word “doctor” was derived from the word “to lie,” but then this word had a slightly different meaning and meant “to speak, to know.”

4. Different sources give different versions of the longest words in the Russian language. However, in fact, the length of a Russian word is theoretically not limited at all due to the fact that, for example, the language has the prefix “pra” (great-great-great-grandfather, etc.) or due to the pronunciation of numerals (the numbers merge into one word - “sixty-sixty-six-year-old”, etc. .d.). In addition, the names of chemical elements also have an almost limitless length ("methylpropenylene dihydroxycinnamenylacrylic acid" (44 letters) acid)

However, here are a few examples of the longest words formed without the artificial addition of roots and prefixes:

In 2003, the Guinness Book of Records recorded the word “excessively considerate” (35 letters). In various dictionaries you can also find words such as: “private enterprise” (25 letters) or water-mud-peat-paraffin treatment (29 letters), etc.

According to some versions, the longest nouns are the words “misanthropy” and “excellency” (24 letters each).

The longest adjective according to dictionaries is “unsatisfactory” (19 letters).

The longest interjection according to the dictionary is “physical education-hello” (14 letters).

5. There is a version according to which the word “friend” comes from the word “another, stranger,” that is, it once had essentially the opposite meaning. However, most likely, the word came from the Old Slavonic “droug”, one or another form of which is found not only in the Russian language (“Bulgarian friend, Serbo-Croatian friend, Slovenian drȗg, Czech, Slovak druh, Old Polish drug . And even in lit. draũgas “companion, comrade”, Latvian.

6. The only word in the Russian language that does not have a root is the word “take out”.

7. Once upon a time there were 49 letters in the Russian language, 5 of which were excluded by Cyril and Methodius, who did not find corresponding sounds in the Greek language. Then Yaroslav the Wise, Peter I, Nicholas II reduced the Russian alphabet to 35 letters in total.

One of the most complex and multifaceted in the world. It is spoken by a huge number of people in almost all corners of our planet. It is the sixth largest speaker and the eighth largest native speaker. How much do we know about our native language? I propose to get acquainted with 20 interesting facts about him.

Fact 1

In Russian, almost all words with the first letter “A” are borrowed. There are very few words starting with “A” that originated with us in modern use - “AZBUKA”, “AZ” and “AVOS”.

Fact 2

“X” in the Old Russian alphabet had the name “XER”. This is where the derivative “FUCK IT” came from. This meant crossing out something with a cross. But over time, it acquired a familiar meaning for us, such as “LOSE” or “SPOIL”.

Fact 3

There are words in the Russian language with three “Es” in a row. There are only two of them - the exotic “SNEEDER” and “LONG-NECKED”.

Fact 4

In Rus', until the 19th century, all indecent words were called absurd verbs. “Beauty” meant beauty and grace, and “ridiculous” was the opposite of beauty, that is, its antonym.

Fact 5

The longest frequently used word in our language has 14 letters. By the way, it is both a union and at the same time. It is "ACCORDINGLY".

Fact 6

English learners of Russian have their own secret for remembering the sentence “I LOVE YOU”. They use a similar phrase in their language, “YELLOW BLUE BASS,” which literally translates to “yellow-blue bus.”

Fact 7

Our alphabet is quite strange. Some letters in it are similar to Latin ones. But others, although they are written the same way, sound completely different. There are also two letters that cannot be pronounced at all, they do not have their own sounds - these are hard and soft signs.

Fact 8

In our language there are words whose first letter is “Y”. Many people remember only “YODINE”, “YOGA”, “YOSHKAR-OLA”. And there are already 74 of them.

Fact 9

There are words starting with the letter “Y”. True, they are used only as names of cities and rivers located in Russia: YLYMAKH, YNAKHSYT, YTYK-KEEL.

Fact 10

Surprisingly, we have one word where “O” is used as many as seven times. This is "DEFENSE CAPABILITY".

Fact 11

Currently, 260 million people speak Russian. On the Internet it is the second most popular, second only to English.

Fact 12

Since 2009, the Ministry of Education has legalized the admissibility of using the word “COFFEE” in both the masculine and neuter gender.

Fact 13

The word "BABA" has now become slang. But before, being one was considered an honor. Moreover, this title had to be earned. Baba is a woman who gave birth to a son (namely a son, not a daughter).

Fact 14

The word “HOOLIGAN” is not of Russian origin at all. It arose on behalf of the English family Haligan, whose members were distinguished by their violent disposition.

Fact 15

The letter "Yo" is the youngest in the alphabet. It appeared only in 1873.

Fact 16

It was in Russian that the first words were spoken in space. By whom? Of course, Yuri Gagarin.

Fact 17

In 1993, the Guinness Book of Records recorded the longest word in our native language - “X-RAY ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHIC”. It has 33 letters.

Fact 18

The human hand is not only an important part of the body. They like to “use” it in many stable expressions in the Russian language: “Carry on your hands”, “Hands itch”, “Hand in hand”.

Fact 19

In the Old Church Slavonic language, “I” was the very first letter of the alphabet.

Fact 20

In the 18th century, the exclamation mark was called the point of surprise.

And with this we will put a bold point of surprise. Develop, study (including thanks to) and love your native language!

If you know any other interesting facts, don’t be greedy, share them with others in the comments to this article.

The Russian language is one of the most complex and rich languages ​​in the world. It has a long history of development. However, like Russia itself.

Language is not a random collection of letters and words. It represents a system. We see the richness of the Russian language at all its levels, from sounds to complex sentences and entire texts. For example, in Russian, one of the few languages, there is a division of verbs into persons. This is not found in English and many other languages ​​of the world.

The vocabulary of the Russian language contains enormous wealth. There are many words in it to denote not only feelings or actions, but even their shades.

A SELECTION OF THE MOST INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

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 this letter - fleet.

There are only 74 words in the Russian language that begin with the letter Y. But most of us only remember iodine, yoga and Yoshkar-Ola.

There are words starting with Y in the Russian language. 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 on the neck: for example, crooked-, short-).

In the Russian language there is a word with a unique prefix “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 angry.

In the Russian language there are words with prefixes unique to the language and- (total, total) and a- (maybe; obsolete “and you won’t 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 the same Indo-European sound u. If we recall the dialect verb buchat’, which has the meaning of “roar”, “buzz”, “buzz” and is etymologically related to the words bee, bug and bull, then it becomes clear what the general meaning of these words was.

Dahl proposed replacing the foreign word atmosphere with the Russian words 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, it was named “excessively considerate.”

In the Grammar Dictionary of the Russian Language by A. A. Zaliznyak, 2003 edition, the longest (in letters) common noun lexeme in dictionary form is the adjective private entrepreneur. Consists of 25 letters.

The longest verbs are to re-examine, to substantiate and to internationalize (all - 24 letters; word forms - uyuschimi and - having - 25 letters each).

The longest nouns are misanthropy and eminence (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 must be taken into account that the overwhelming majority of qualitative adjectives in -й / -й are formed into adverbs in -о / -е, which are not always recorded in the dictionary.

The longest interjection included in the Grammar Dictionary is fizkult-hello (13 or 14 letters depending on the status of the hyphen).

The word is accordingly the longest preposition. It consists of 14 letters. The longest particle is exclusively one 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 replacement constructions “I will win” or “I will become a winner.” Since there is no 1st person singular form, the verb is "insufficient".

To successfully master the difficult phrase “I love you,” the British use the mnemonic “yellow-blue bus.”

And yet, yes - in the Russian language there is a word with six consonant letters in a row, and even with only one vowel - vzbzdnil.