CC BY
29Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 1 (2015 8) 114-120
УДК 801.313
Culinary Russianisms in Guides to Russia
Ksenia A. Egorova*
Pskov State University 2 Lenin square, Pskov, 180000, Russia
Received 16.10.2014, received in revised form 30.11.2014, accepted 04.12.2014
The article is devoted to the xenonymic Russianisms, one of the major issues of interlinguoculturology, a comparatively new linguistic discipline, which studies language in its secondary cultural orientation. In this article the main means of xenonymic formation are being discussed as applied to the culinary examples from the up-to-date authentic travel guides about Russia. The paper dwells upon the culinary Russianisms which exist in English and the culinary occasional xenonyms which are frequent in the texts of travel guide literature.
Keywords: interlinguoculturology, authentic text, secondary cultural orientation of the language, Russian- Culture -Oriented English, culinary xenonymic Russianisms, xenonymic loans, lexical and semantic calques, xenonymic analogues, hybrid xenonyms, xenonymic descriptive names.
Research area: philology.
Introduction
Due to the processes of globalization and "globanglization", each culture has a chance and opportunity to express itself in the world by means of specific kind of communication -Foreign Language Culture Description. The Russian scholar VV.Kabakchi and his scientific school have been working in a new branch of linguistics called interlinguoculturology which studies language in its secondary cultural orientation (KaôaKHH, 1998, 17). Each language is characterized by its functional duality. Functional dualism of language is the cornerstone of the theory of interlinguoculturology (ILCology). The main idea of functional duality is based upon the fact that it is presupposed historically that a language is oriented to its own internal culture
with such orientation being primary for it. A language's orientation towards a foreign culture (external) is considered to be its secondary cultural orientation. As our world is multilingual, it is inevitable that, although historically each language is primarily oriented towards its own ("internal") culture, it is also used to speak of foreign ("external") cultures as well.
The names of elements of cultures may be divided into culturonyms, polyonyms and idioculturonyms (idionyms and xenonyms). The theory of ILCology studies the characteristic features and development of the specialized language - Foreign - Culture-Oriented Language (FCO-English). FCO-English, being a global phenomenon, is characteristic of any world culture and language. The scientific school
© Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved
* Corresponding author E-mail address: ksenia@aeropskov.ru
by Prof. Kabakchi has been studying Russian-Culture-Oriented English (RCO-English) as a variety of Foreign-Culture-Oriented Language. Due to some reasons, the fastest development of RCO-English is observed in English travel guides literature about Russia.
The national Russian cuisine is an integral part of the Russian culture and Russia's everyday life. The culinary subject is being mostly highlighted in the up-to-date travel guides. The authors pay special attention to the names of the Russian food and its food ritual.
Any English-written travel guide includes in itself a section about the local food, and as a rule, is supplied by a phrase book or the Russian menu guide, where the Russian culinary terms are listed and explained. Therefore, the description of Russian food is usually full of respective names of culinary dishes. As most readers are usually not familiar with these culinary xenonyms, the texts about the Russian cuisine are usually supplied with the appropriate explanations and comments (the so-called "parallel attachment" - Kabakchi 1998: 52-54) so that a reader could grasp the idea what kind of food is mentioned in the text.
Although basic ways of forming xenonyms are more or less universal, each sphere of communication has its specific features. It applies to food too. Texts devoted to Russian food demonstrate the following types of xenonyms: a) xenonymic loans; b) lexical and semantic calques c) hybrid xenonyms; d) descriptive xenonymic names; e) inter-cultural xenonymic analogues; f) hyperonyms.
Examples
Xenonymic loans drew the linguists' attention to themselves in the 20th century within the theory of literary translation. The Soviet lexicologists wrote a lot about the Russian loans in different world languages and there had been a special term for such words as "Sovietisms". In
the Soviet linguistics xenonymic loans had been known as "barbarisms", "exoticisms", "culture-bound lexis", "xenisms", "transliterations", "transcriptions", "retents" and "lacunas" or lexical gaps". In the contemporary theory of inter-cultural communication, this type of lexis is considered to belong to the "lacunary concepts" that haven't got any equivalents in other cultures. The more detailed approach can be found in the book by O.A. Leontovich "The Russians and The Americans: the paradoxes of inter-cultural communication ".
Xenonymic borrowing is a basic means of xenonymic formation in Foreign-Culture-Oriented Language. It provides reliable xenonymic convertibility that enables to restore an idionymic prototype (an original word or phrase) with a high level of accuracy while naming a specific element of an external culture (idionym): водка О vodka; борщ O borshch. Borrowing is a universal and the most common way of xenonymic formation. Most of the existing culinary xenonyms in Russian-Culture-Oriented English are loan-words. In his book, The Dictionary of Russia, Prof. Kabakchi V.V. has collected, written down and analyzed more than 2500 cultural terms and the traditional xenonymic variants which are widely used in the authentic texts of RCO-English. "The terminology of The Russian cuisine is fairly well known in the English-speaking world, because the culinary theme inevitably arises in direct inter-cultural contacts. One should be particularly careful about referring to culinary dishes in intercultural communication because each name will be used to identify to respective dish" (Кабакчи, 2002, с.544). The last 3rd edition of The Oxford English Dictionary, which has been widely regarded as an accepted authority in English, states 32 basic xenonyms of the Russian origin which have become a part of the Global English vocabulary within the sphere "Food".
According to the OED, the first Russianisms that entered English were the following: kvass (1556), beluga (1591,), sterlet (1591,), sevruga Д591), pirog (1662). They were first cited in Giles Fletcher's book Of Russe Commonwealth. Fletcher was the first English diplomat who wrote about Muscovy. In the 19th century the following new culinary Russian words supplemented the English language's lexicon: vodka (1802), kasha (1808), shchi (1824), pivo (1873), bliny (1889), borsch (1884;, zakuska (1885), paskha (1885) (meaning «a rich Russian cheesecake or dessert traditionally eaten at Easter»), pirozhok (1887), coulibiac (1889), rassolnik (1899). It is interesting to know that the xenonym «pirog» had been first cited in 1662, but the diminutive word «pirozhok» meaning "little pirog" became the part of the English vocabulary only two centuries after.
The third, most productive period in xenonymic loaning of the culinary terms, happened in the 20th century (in the Tsarist Russia and after the Revolution of 1917 in the Soviet time). Most of the culinary Russianisms appeared in the English language at this time: smetana (1909), ukha (1911), tvorog (1918), kissel (1924), pelmeni (1926), samogon (1928), zubrovka (1944), kielbasa (1953), solyanka (1958), malossol (1959), Stolichnaya (1966), a meat kebab of Caucasian cuisine shashlik (1925) and two sorts of Georgian wine - Mukuzani (1948) and Saperavi (1926).
One of the characteristic features of The Russian cuisine is its multiculturalism. It comprises of the Belarusian, Ukrainian, Armenian, Georgian, Azeri, Kazakh cuisine. Many dishes of non-Russian Soviet republics were integrated into the international diet of Soviet people making the present-day Russian cuisine diverse and multicultured. Darra Goldstein writes about it in her book, called «A Taste of Russia: a Cookbook of Russian Hospitality»: «The Russians eagerly adopted
specialties from many of the regions that made up the Soviet Union. Russia was just one of fifteen republics of the Soviet Union, each of which maintained its own culinary traditions. Thus contemporary Russian cuisine includes elements from the Baltic region (where food is rich in butter, cream and eggs) to the mountains border China (where standard fare is fermented mare's milk and exotic lamb stews) to the Sea of Okhotsk (where local delicacies include balyk and vesiga - the dried and salted fillet and backbone of the sturgeon) to the far north beyond the arctic circle (where the inhabitants feast on stroganina - frozen raw fish) (Goldstein, 1999, xvii).
In many cases the non-Russian culinary xenonyms get into the English by means of the Russian language which therefore serves as a bridge between Europe and Asia. Hence, such xenonyms as shashlik, Mukuzani, Saperavi, being of the Caucasian origin in fact, were first cited in the English texts as the Slavic loan-words according to the OED's data.
Therefore, we must admit the fact that under the term "Russian xenonyms" (or: xenonymic Russianisms)"Russism" in a broad scope of its meaning the following senses are implied by linguistics: a) words of the Russian origin, pertaining the strong formal semantic relations with corresponding Russian words; b) words of the Russian origin that have lost completely or partially their formal semantic relations with corresponding Russian words; c) words of the non-Russian origin that had been loaned by the Russian language before the word appeared in other languages. In this case the Russian language acts as an intermediate language (the term by Filipovich R.) (Айдукович, 2002, с.294)
The culinary Russianisms of the post-Soviet period haven't been stated in the OED yet. In this respect current guides to Russia provide pioneer texts with culinary xenionyms. Most of
innovative culinary xenonyms are so far at the stage of occasional xenonyms, not registered by lexicographers yet, thus not appearing so far in such academic dictionaries like The OED.
The other wide-spread means of xenonymic formation is calquing. Calquing is an indirect borrowing when the model of the lexical prototype is either reproduced by means of native morphemes (in the case of lexical calques, i.e. translation loans) or when an existing word acquires a new meaning under the influence of the respective foreign word (in the case of semantic calques, i.e. semantic loans). The example of lexical calques among the Russian culinary xenonyms is the phrase "red/black caviar". Another lexical calque "Swedish table", being the calque from the Russian descriptive xenonymic name «шведский стол», now is passing through the phase of occasionalisms, though this term is quite frequent in descriptions of the Russian food rituals in many Russia's travel guides: «There's no better place to indulge in shvedsky stol (smorgasbord, or "Swedish table" in Russian) than at a place called Scandinavia (Russia & Belarus, 2006, p.178). In our opinion, the English word "buffet" in the meaning of «a sideboard or side-table extended to cover the refreshments set out on the sideboard, table, etc., and where guests or customers are usually served standing» (OED 2011:buffet) roughly corresponds to the Russianism "Swedish table".
In the case of hybrid xenonyms (Kiev cutlet), one component of the prototype is borrowed (Kiev) while the other component is translated (cutlet). The borrowed part guarantees the intercultural convertibility of the xenonyms (the "guarantee component"), while the translated component makes the phrase comprehensible for the reader (tourist): "окрошка" =>okroshka soup.
Some culinary xenonyms should be discussed specially as they are hard to classify, the Russianism "Beef Stroganov" is one of them.
The first part of the prototype (beef) has been anglicized, while the name of the Count has been spelled in many different ways. Some researches consider Beef Stroganov to be the Russian dish, but others argue about its French origin (supposedly from French bauf stroganoff). In fact, "beef Stroganov is the one of not numerous Russian dishes that has become internationally known. There are different written variants of this phrase: beef a la Stroganov, in Stroganov sauce, Stroganovsky. Nowadays the process of restoration is being observed, and L.Chamberlain prefers the variant of formal transliteration -Beef Stroganov. Sometimes only the second component is used" (Ka6aKHH, 2002, c.434).
The next type of hybrid xenonyms is the «okroshka soup» model. The xenonyms consists of two parts: the borrowed original (which guarantees the convertibility) and the generic term (its hyperonym) attached to it to supply comprehensibility. This model has many variations, for instance with the hyperonym "soup": shchi cabbage soup, okroshka cold soup, borsch beet soup. The phrases, like Olivier salad, ossetra/asetra caviar, are frequently used in the texts of travel guides. In many texts the loan "ossetrova" is considered to be the preferable variant while speaking about the sturgeon caviar: «caviar from the Russian sturgeon, hence also: the fish itself» (OED 2004: ossetrova).
There are hybrid xenonyms in Russian-Culture-Oriented English culinary vocabulary formed by the "Russian salad" model. As everything that belongs to the Russian culture and to the Russian cuisine in particular, can be described with the adjective "Russian" («Russian pancakes», «Russian soup», «Russian vodka» and etc.), the model has a limited use. It is widely spread when speaking or writing about the unique elements of the Russian culture (for example, the Russian Museum). The OED lists the following phrases of this type:
Russian dinner n. a style of dinner in which fruit and wine are placed at the centre of a table and courses are served from a sideboard;
Russian dressing n. a savoury dressing with a mayonnaise base.
Russian egg n. a poached or hard-boiled egg mixed with mayonnaise and freq. served with lettuce or a salad.
Russian salad n. a salad consisting of diced cooked vegetables mixed with mayonnaise and vinegar, formerly also made with meat or seafood.
Russian tea n. (a) tea grown in the Caucasus or a drink made from this; (b) any tea laced with lemon or rum.
Readers of the texts containing such culinary terms might be confused by their meaning. Thus, the hybrid xenonym "Russian salad" in the first half of the last century usually referred to what the Russians call vinegret salad rather because that was the most popular one, while in the second half the traditional (especially for the New Year celebrations) dish was the "Olivier salad". Sometimes the whole original name is borrowed "salat olivye".
Some western travel guides, such as the authoritative Rough guide, use even such occasional xenonymic formation as the «Russian table»: «Zakuski traditionally form the basis of the famous Russkiy stol, or "Russian table", a feast of awesome proportions, in which the table groans under the weight of numerous dishes while the samovar steams away. (RGSPb, 2004, p.345). The Russians never call a sideboard table with food and refreshments and the custom of serving guests standing "the Russian table", because the tradition was borrowed by the Russians from Scandinavia. Therefore, the descriptive xenonymic name «Swedish table» is rather used by the native Russian speakers. It is obvious that the term has been formed by the travel guide's author due to the analogy with
the "Swedish table". In our opinion, the notion «Russian dinner» meaning «a style of dinner in which fruit and wine are placed at the centre of a table and courses are served from a sideboard» (OED 2011: Russian table) will mostly correspond to this occasional xenonym.
The fourth way of xenonym formation, specific for Russian-Culture-Oriented English, is relating to descriptive names. The practice of inter-cultural communication approves only short descriptive names that do not make a sentence or the whole text cumbersome and difficult for understanding. The typical examples of culinary xenonymic descriptive names widely used in RCO-English are: cabbage soup (usually referred to «щи») <> open sandwich (бутерброд) <> meat- and cabbage-filled pies (pirozhki) <> salo, thin slices of fat<> solyanka (meat and vegetable soup) <> syrniki (cottage-cheese fritters). They are often accompanied by a loaned xenonym itself.
Substitution of an English analogue for a Russian xenonym inevitably leads to simplifying the text. There are a number of xenonyms which partially coincide in their meaning on the inter-language level. These are inter-cultural analogues. By using analogues in the text is much easier to explain the meaning of a Russian culinary term if you prepared for the partial loss of the information. That's why analogues are widespread in the culinary descriptions: "Ubiquitous are pelmeni: Russian-style ravioli (generally stuffed with pork or beef) and served either heaped on a plate with sour cream, vinegar and butter, or in a stock soup" (Russia & Belarus, 2006, p.108); plov (A Central Asian rice pilaf) (Fodor's Moscow and St. Petersburg, 1999, p.75); Chai, as tea is known in numerous Eurasian languages, is served black with lemon, sugar and cheese and biscuits. (ThCPG: Moscow, 2010, p. 26); Hotels will serve an approximation of the "Continental" breakfast, probably just a fried egg,
bread, butter and jam; the flashier joints, however, provide a Shvedskiy stol, or 'Swedish table', a sort of smorgasbord. (RGSPb, 2004, p.345).
Resume
Summing up, the xenonymic layer of lexis is being constantly in the process of formation. The selection of proper xenonymic variants requires much time. The linguists should carefully investigate the occasional xenonyms, such as the "Russian table", not throwing away any case of use, even if the term seems to be very strange. In fact we deal with the neologisms of the language. The main lexicographical criterion the linguists have to bear in mind is the stable use of a word in the language. It is said in the preface to thelst edition of The Bolshoi Anglo-Russky Slovar' by Prof. I.R.Galperin: "the dictionary should give an idea about the potential opportunities of forming
new words by registering the most true-to-life and productive models of word derivation. Therefore, occasional "one-day" words and meanings have to find their own place in encyclopedic dictionaries as well as in linguistic dictionaries, not talking about the special dictionaries of neologisms." (Большой англо-русский словарь, 1979, с.10). The culinary topic is a specialized object of Russia-Culture-Oriented English, where we can find such occasional and productive words more frequently than in any other subject of interlinguoculturology. We must underline the fact that most of the culinary xenonymic Russianisms have an occasional structure and usage. The author's choice of a xenonymic variant depends on his or her cultural background and the depth of the Russian culture's knowledge. It also depends of the travel guide's style and the individual peculiarities of the author's writings.
References
1. Bolshoi Anglo-Russky Slovar' (The English-Russian Dictionary) in 2 vol. (Moscow: Russky yazyk,1979).
2. D.Goldstein, A Taste of Russia: a Cookbook of Russian Hospitality (Montpelier: Russian Information Services, inc., 1999).
3. D. Richardson, The Rough Guide to Saint-Petersburg (London: Rough Guides Ltd., 2004).
4. Fodor's Moscow and St.Petersburg, (New York: Fodor's Travel Publications, 1999).
5. I.Aidukovich, About the scientific project "Russianisms in South Slavic and Western Slavic languages according to the qualificators in lexicographical resources of Russian sociolinguistics. The 1st International Congress of the Russian language researchers: "The Russian language - historical heritage and the present". The collection of theses (Moscow, 2001), in Russian.
6. O.A. Leontovich, Russkiye i Amerikantsy: paradoksy mezhkul'turnogo obscheniya (The Russians and The Americans: the paradoxes of inter-cultural communication) (Moscow: Gnozis, 2005), in Russian.
7. Russia & Belarus (London: Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd., 2006).
8. The Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition, online version December 2011 accessed from http://www.oed.com/.
9. Thomas Cook pocket guides: Moscow (London: Thomas Cook Publishing, 2010).
10. VV.Kabakchi, Osnovy angloyazychnoi mezhkul'turnoi kommunikatsii (Fundamentals of English Intercultural Communication) (St Petersburg: RGPU, 1998), in Russian.
11. V.V. Kabakchi, The Dictionary of Russia (2500 cultural terms). English-English Dictionary of Russian cultural terminology. (St Petersburg: Publishing House "Soyuz", 2002).
12. VV.Kabakchi, Angloyazychnoe opisanie russkoi kul'tury. Russian Culture Through English (Moscow: Akademiya, 2009), in Russian.
Abbreviations:
OED - Oxford English Dictionary RGSPb- The Rough Guide to Saint-Petersburg ThCPG - Thomas Cook Pocket Guides
Кулинарные русизмы
в англоязычных путеводителях по России
КА. Егорова
Псковский государственный университет Россия, 180000, Псков, пл. Ленина, 2
Данная статья посвящена ксенонимам-русизмам, изучением которых занимается интерлингвокультурология, сравнительно молодая лингвистическая дисциплина, исследующая вопросы вторичной культурной ориентации языка. В статье рассматривается русская кулинарная ксенонимическая лексика, встречающаяся в современных аутентичных англоязычных путеводителях по России.
Ключевые слова: интерлингвокультурология, аутентичный текст, вторичная культурная ориентация языка, английский язык межкультурного общения, ориентированный в область русской культуры (АЯМО (РК)), кулинарные ксенонимы-русизмы, заимствование ксенонимическое, кальки лексические и семантические, ксенонимические межкультурные аналоги, гибридные ксенонимы, описательные обороты.
Научная специальность: 10.00.00 - филологические науки.
