The how and why of some borrowings from English in third-wave emigre Russian.

In the twentieth century there have been three "waves" of Russian-speaking immigrants to the United States. Unlike that of the first two waves, the language of the third emigration, which dates only from the early 1970s, can still be studied as that of a living Russian speech community. Nevertheless, third-wave emigres have already adopted many new borrowings from English. Various systems for classifying borrowings according to their degree of adaptation to the borrowing language must first be examined and some typical emigre Anglicisms analyzed according to these criteria. Attention must also be paid to borrowings from English in Soviet Russian. The delineation of various types of language-interference phenomena, along with emigre examples of each, completes a methodological framework. Perhaps the best approach is to divide a given body of examples into broad semantic categories and to explore the precise social and semantic motivations for each. Phonetic, syntactic and morphological considerations can be treated individually. A brief discussion must follow of borrowings that have no apparent semantic motivation. The relationship between bilingualism and language interference must be examined in light of the examples presented. Also to be examined is the logical progression in a language-contact situation from lexical to syntactic to morphological interference. The history of Anglo-Russian linguistic contacts should be placed in its proper context, i.e. its relation to the parallel process of borrowing by emigres. Borrowing from English by previous Russian immigrant groups must also be surveyed. Finally, one must examine the third-wave in terms of the assimilation pressures facing all American immigrant groups, especially in regard to the difficulty of maintaining non-English mother tongues. Special attention should be given to the status of the third-wave as the first group of immigrants raised wholly under Soviet socialism and their often difficult adjustment to life under American capitalism. For many emigres the integration of Anglicisms into their Russian speech is a subconscious coping mechanism which facilitates assimilation. Borrowing from English--the result of a multitude of linguistic and non-linguistic motivations--will continue unabated, despite attempts to eliminate or control it.PhDLinguisticsUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161896/1/8821543.pd