Russian lexical borrowings in the southern dialect of the Bashkir language

Abstract

The issues of Russian lexical borrowings (rusisms) in the Bashkir language dialects and subdialects have not been addressed yet. Dictionaries and monographs on the Bashkir language dialects and subdialects describe specific dialectal loanwords without providing a dialectal analysis of loanwords and the specific features of their adaptation and functioning in the Bashkir language dialects and subdialects. Meanwhile, studying rusisms in dialects and subdialects can elucidate both the dialectal lexicology and the formation history of the lexical, phonetic, and grammatical features of a particular Turkic language. Investigating rusisms in dialects and subdialects of Turkic languages, including Bashkir, is also relevant for the Russian language dialectology: the chronology of individual borrowings. It is worth studying the Bashkir language southern dialect widespread in the southern regions of modern Bashkortostan, Bashkir-speaking regions of Orenburg, Samara, and Saratov regions of Russia. Historically located in the very center of the Orenburg province, this territory bordered the provincial city of Orenburg and by the late 18th and early 19th centuries became one of the administrative, political, economic, and trade centers. It was then that Russian loanwords and lexemes of European languages began to actively penetrate the Bashkir dialects. These borrowings constitute a considerable group, thematically related to household, administrative and managerial, military- marching, and agricultural spheres. All rusisms underwent adaptation to the norms of the Bashkir language Southern dialect, e.g., Russian lexemes with hard-row vowels in the southern dialect have front-row vowels. South Russian dialects are considered the dominant source of the Bashkir language southern dialect lexical borrowings.