Russian borrowings in the Tatar dialects: function and adaptation features

Abstract

The article examines the borrowed Russian-language words in the vocabulary of the Tatar dialects, identifies the function features of Russianisms in the local dialects and describes the mechanisms of the borrowed vocabulary adaptation at the phonetic level. The relevance of the work is the need to study Russian borrowings in the functional and semantic aspects. The purpose of the research is to study the functional features of Russian borrowings in the Tatar dialects. The scientific novelty is to disclose the functional potential of the Tatar dialectal vocabulary category under consideration. The study is based on the “Dialectological Dictionary of the Tatar Language” (1993, 2009). As a result of the study, the article argues that the presence of such a large number of lexemes indicates the important role of Russianisms in the worldview of the people and, consequently, in their lifestyle, culture and language. The article concludes that Arab-Persian borrowings prevail most in the accents of the middle dialect, and Russianisms are primarily recorded in the accents of the Western dialect and in the dialects of the Siberian Tatars. We have found that Russian borrowings in the process of phonetic development undergo a strong phonetic adaptation to the orthoepic norms of the Tatar language, which is due to the difference between the languages in contact at all levels of the language structure, including the system of vocalism and at the consonant level.