DYNAMIC PROCESSES IN THE CONTEXT OF GERMAN BORROWINGS IN THE UKRAINIAN DIALECTS OF TRANSCARPATHIA

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DYNAMIC PROCESSES IN THE CONTEXT OF GERMAN BORROWINGS IN THE UKRAINIAN DIALECTS OF TRANSCARPATHIA

Journal Title: Scientific journal «International Journal of Philology» - Year 2016, Vol 1, Issue 257

Abstract

It is known that most languages have a mixed character as the result of interlingual contacts. Such contacts may occur both on the level of literary languages and dialects. Although the problem of language integration, interlingual contacts and interaction of languages is scientifically substantiated at present, it is still topical. Various aspects of language contacts were thoroughly investigated by U. Weinreigh, J. Zhluktenko, S. Semchynsky, M. Kocherhan, D. Sheludjko and others. Such attention to this problem can be accounted for by the fact that the language has always been very susceptible to the changes in the life of people and this leads to certain changes in the vocabulary. There are a lot of scientific problems in this field, the detailed investigation of which will enable us to throw light on solving the questions of enriching the vocabulary with the help of borrowings. The process of borrowing from German to the Ukrainian literary language and dialects has a rather long history. The influence of German on different Ukrainian dialects was investigated by O. Rot, D. Kostyuk, M. Kocherhan, V. Lopushansky, T. Pyts, N. Nechajeva etc. A considerable contribution to the studies of the development and functioning of the Transcarpathian German dialects in the foreign language environment was made by Uzhhorod national university scholars L. Vladymyr, S. Shtefurovsky, J. Shraml, M. Shin, G. Melika, M. Medvidy, E. Starodymova, F. Kulya, I. Cholos, L. Shmidzen and others. They analysed the history and modern state of the German dialects of Transcarpathian region. The author of the given article continues investigating the problems of German-Ukrainian interlingual contacts in our region. The aim of the article is to analyse German loan-words introduced into the Ukrainian dialects of Transcarpathia. In the process of the investigation different methods were used, such as: general scientific, individual, the method of analysis, synthesis, descriptive and comparative-historical ones. Ukrainian Germans live in dense communities on the territory of theTranscarpathian region. The first German settlements appeared in the xii-xiii centuries. German colonists of those times left traces in toponyms and antroponyms of the Ukrainian and Hungarian autochtonous population of the region. The Germans who have kept their language, customs and traditions until now, settled on this territory in the 18-19th centuries. Most German words penetrated into Ukrainian dialects of Transcarpathia by word of mouth as a result of everyday direct language contacts of the local Ukrainian population of the region with Germans, Hungarians, Slovaks and others. That is why we can distinguish two types of borrowings: direct and through the mediator language. The first group includes those loan-words which got into Ukrainian dialects due to direct language contacts of Ukrainians with German colonists. They predominantly consist of the objects of everyday life, clothing, agricultural and building vocabulary. For example: shnurok ‛a lace’ (Schnur), shtreka ‛railway’ (Strecke), tashka ‛a bag’ (Tasche), shuflyada ‛a drawer’ (Schublade), biglyaz ‛an iron’ (Bügeleisen), firhangy ‛curtains’ (Vorhang), antsug ‛a suit’ (Anzug), fryshtyck ‛breakfast’ (Frühstück), shuter ‛broken stone’ (Schotter) etc. Direct borrowings from German to Ukrainian dialects of the investigated region are connected with the army service in Austria: urlap ‛a holiday’ (Urlaub), flinta ‛a gun’ (Flinte), ferdebungy ‛manoeuvres’ (Feldübungen). The majority of German borrowings got into Ukrainian dialects through the mediator language i.e. Hungarian. For example: pryzli ‛dried bread’ (Brösel, hung. prézli); balta ‛an axe’ (Beil, hung balta); korhaz ‛hospital’ (Kurhaus, hung. korház); krumpli ‛potatoes’ (Grungbeeren, hung. krumpli); paradychky ‛tomatoes’ (Paradiesfpfel, hung. paradicsom); tanir ‛a plate’ (Teller, hung. tanyer); fanky ‛dumplins’ (Pfannkuchen, hung. fank) etc. Some German borrowings penetrated into Ukrainian dialects of Transcarpathia through Czech and Slovak languages: shvablyk ‛a safety match’ (Schwefelhölzer, slov. švablik); dylya ‛the floor’ (Diele, slov. dyla); knedlyky ‛dumplings‛ (Knödel, cz. knedlìk(y)) etc. German lexical borrowings went through three level process of adaptation in a foreign language environment: 1) phonetic, 2) morphological and 3) semantic. What concerns the process of borrowing words from German dialects into Ukrainian we should mention that it has stopped and there is no influence of the German language on the Ukrainian dialects under study. Lots of loan words used by the people of different age groups were either archaized or substituted by Ukrainian (or sometimes Russian) ones: biglyaz → an iron, antsug → a suit, blovdary → an oven, shlayer → a veil, kufer → a suitcase, shpayz → a storeroom, shtrimlfi → socks. It should be noted that mostly people who belong to older generation use German loan words. The investigation of German borrowings in the interethnic area of the Transcarpathian region is still the object of special interest for scholars. The lexemes borrowed due to interlingual contacts undergo a process of assimilation, having adapted to the language-recipient and thus becoming an integral part of a new language system. We see the prospects of further research in the detailed study of the temporal stratification of German borrowings in Ukrainian dialects of the Transcarpathian region and their usage by people of different age groups.

Authors and Affiliations

O Hvozdiak

Keywords

interlingual contacts German borrowings Transcarpathian region Ukrainian dialects phonetic morphological and semantic adaptation

EP ID EP387050
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