Russian Language In Intercultural Communication During The 17th Century West Siberian Frontier

Abstract

The work highlights the formation of the Russian language in Siberia during the period of its discovery and development by Russian people in the 17th century. It is argued that in order to study the Russian language as a phenomenon of the West Siberian frontier, it is necessary to reconstruct the linguistic situation in the region and identify the features of the Russian language during this period. To this end, the authors use the techniques of historical-cultural, historical-comparative and descriptive methods. They establish the stabilizing role of the Russian language in its functioning in the territorial dialect variant (old-time dialects) and in the folk-literary type of the language. It is determined that the destabilizing factor was the cultural and linguistic influence on the part of the Siberian peoples-autochthons, which primarily affected the manifestation of the Russian language, which acted as a means of interethnic and intercultural communication. The authors state that knowledge about the general patterns and regional features of the development of the Russian language and the languages of the native peoples of Siberia is extremely important for preserving the heritage of these languages and cultures, understanding the historical processes of the language and preserving the connection between generations.

Keywords: Aboriginal languages, folk-literary type of language, old-timers' dialect, Russian in Siberia, West Siberian frontier of the 17th century

Introduction

Lomonosov's idea that the wealth of Russia will grow with Siberia, usually understood only in the material plane, should be extended to the spiritual and linguistic sphere. The concept of "Siberian frontier" (English frontier; literally - the border between the lands, developed and not developed by settlers), adopted in historical, cultural, historical and linguistic studies, denotes the period of the development of Siberian lands. As you know, the Russian people who penetrated the Urals from the Russian North in the 14th – 15th centuries, and possibly earlier, came to Siberia and became part of its permanent population in the period from the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the 18th century. Siberia, in particular Western Siberia, before the arrival of the Russian people was a sparsely populated, but long-inhabited territory. Small in number, scattered across the forest-steppe, taiga and tundra, Siberian indigenous peoples greatly differed in the language, economic structure and level of social development.

Problem Statement

Insufficient knowledge of the Russian language in Siberia during the development of the region was noted by Russianists Chernykh (1953), Inyutina and Shil`nikova (2017), Palagina (2007), Panin (2006) and others.

The work is devoted to the formation of the Russian language in Western Siberia during its discovery and development by the Russian people in the 17th century in the conditions of border coexistence with the indigenous peoples of Siberia. It should be noted that the Russian language as a phenomenon of the Siberian frontier of the 17th century. - a topic studied in Siberian Russian studies to the least degree. In the works of a few scientists, a study of the history of Russian-foreign-language contacts in Siberia is presented (Labunets, 2007; Perekhvalskaya, 2006; Shchitova, 2008).

Research Questions

The article solves the problems of reconstructing the linguistic situation and identifying the features of the Russian language in this region in the 17th century.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of our work is to characterize the Russian language as a phenomenon of the West Siberian frontier, to clarify those of its functional variants that became decisive and significant in interethnic and intercultural communication during this period.

Research Methods

For this, the techniques of historical-cultural, historical-comparative and descriptive methods are used.

Findings

Reconstruction of the intercultural and linguistic situation in Western Siberia in the 17th century

In the northern Trans-Urals there were the Nenets, whom the Russian people called "Samoyeds" or "Samoyad". Their language belongs to the Samoyedic group in the genetic community of the Uralic languages. On the left bank of the Ob there were the lands of the Khanty ("Ostyaks") and Mansi ("Voguls") peoples, belonging to the Ob-Ugric group of Finno-Ugric languages. "Samoyeds" roamed the tundra and were engaged in reindeer herding, and "Ostyaks" and "Voguls" - fishing and hunting.

Along the middle reaches of the Irtysh, in the lower reaches of the rivers Tobol, Tura, Tavda, Iset, Ishim, along the rivers Tara and Om, the Turkic-speaking tribes settled, which were called "Tatars" from the Russian people. They lived by nomadic cattle breeding, if they lived in the forest-steppe and steppe zones, and some tribes were engaged in arable farming.

On the Ob, above the Khanty ("Ostyaks"), there were rare Selkup tribes, also Samoyedians by language. The Russian people called them "Ostyaks", apparently because of the similarity of languages, closeness to the Khanty in their way of life and culture. Even higher up the Ob River with its tributaries, the Turkic-speaking peoples settled, differing in their economic activities and everyday life: Tomsk, Chulym and Kuznetsk Tatars, as well as Teleuts - "White Kalmyks". Their main occupations were hunting, fishing, picking nuts. Blacksmithing was developed among the Shors (Kuznetsk Tatars).

The Yenisei Kirghiz and the tribes of the southern Altai, who had developed nomadic cattle breeding, were also Türkic-speaking; some of them were familiar with agriculture. In the northern foothills of Altai, mostly settled tribes and peoples lived. They were engaged in hunting, collecting pine nuts, hoe farming, blacksmithing.

Historians note that for most of the West Siberian tribes, fur hunting was of particular importance in the economic structure. She was traded, paid tribute (yasak). Siberian peoples in the XVI-XVII centuries differed from each other in the level of social development, but in general they lagged far behind in the economy and culture from the population of Russia, European and Asian countries located to the south. At the end of the 16th century, the only Siberian people who had their own statehood were the Tatars of the "Kuchumov kingdom" (Nikitin, 1990).

Thus, Russian settlers began to develop Siberian territory, settling among the peoples:

  • speaking different languages that are not related to the Russian language and belong to several linguistic families and groups;
  • leading, as a rule, a nomadic way of life and having a way of life that is completely different from that characteristic of the Russian world;
  • not connected by statehood, having a tribal organization of society.

The Russian state quickly became a new and active force in Siberia. The arrival of Russians in Siberia in the 17th century had a significant impact on the entire course of the historical development of the Siberian peoples, redirected linguistic assimilation processes (Bakhrushin, 1955; Kaufman, 1894; Kafka, 1892).

The composition of migrants from the European part of Russia was also not homogeneous in socio-economic, political and linguistic terms. The following went to Siberia:

  • free people: tradesmen ("industrial people"), arable peasants, who made up the flow of voluntary migrants;
  • service people who went beyond the Urals on the order of the tsar: Cossacks, archers, gunners, etc.;
  • exiled people, whom the tsarist government sought to get rid of as a restless, politically unreliable part of the population.

Most scientists share the opinion about the strong interdependence of the state and the free-folk principles in the development of Siberia, which ultimately led to its permanent entry into the Moscow state (Bakhrushin, 1955; Nikitin, 1990; Shunkov, 1946).

The settlers brought the Russian language to Siberia. However, documents of those years mention, especially among exiled people, speakers of other languages of the Indo-European language family: "nemtsy" - so called almost all immigrants from Western European countries; "Lithuania" and "Cherkasy" - natives of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Poles, Belarusians, Ukrainians).

Functional types of the Russian language in Western Siberia in the 17th century

On the basis of the language of early Russian settlers, Siberian dialects were formed, which are usually called old-timers (Grigoryev, 1921; Lamanskiy, 1895). Palagina (2007) identifies four main types of dialects that exist in modern Siberia: old-timers; mixed type; dialects of new settlers (which arose in settlements founded later in the second half of the 17th century); insular dialects. This typology of Siberian dialects is based on the actual linguistic principle. Therefore, “the old-time dialect should be understood as such a dialect of Siberia, which is characterized by a combination of phonetic-grammatical and lexical-phraseological features identified on the basis of the study of the speech of the descendants of the Russian population of Siberia in the 16th-18th centuries and having a common Siberian distribution” (p. 20).

The specificity of the first (old-timers) dialects in the territories of late settlement, according to Filin (1962), consists in a noticeable modification of the maternal dialects of migrants and, in fact, in the creation of new dialects. The talk of the settlers in the subsequent period of the XVIII-XX centuries “remained the same, new dialectal features were usually not formed in them (except for innovations, primarily in vocabulary, arising in a foreign language environment or generally under the influence of other languages)” (p. 26). Thus, the opinion that the old-time dialects, which had the same language material as the mother's dialects four hundred years ago, developed according to the same laws as the European ones, but independently (Russian dialects, 1984, p. 6-33).

The question of the origin of the Siberian first settlers, whose speech was the basis of the Siberian old-timers' dialects, seems extremely difficult and continues to be the subject of discussion. In the historical and linguistic literature, two points of view are known regarding the places of exodus of Siberian settlers: 1) the Siberian population was initially mixed in its dialect composition – position of (Palagina, 2007; Shunkov, 1946; Zakharova, 1977, et al.); 2) the North Russian origin of the first settlers – the opinion of (Chernykh, 1953; Selishchev, 1968, et al.). In our research, we adhere to the first point of view.

Some researchers of the XIX century believed that the literary language began to spread in Siberia only from the end of the 17th century. Historical and linguistic facts do not allow agreeing with this opinion. Let us dwell on such of them as the development of urban affairs, the spread of Orthodox Christian religion, the development of Russian and Church Slavonic writing in the region.

The accession of the Siberian territory to Russia took place simultaneously with its economic development. These were two sides of the process of transforming Siberia into an integral part of the Russian state. The city, considered as a social phenomenon, arose in most of the Siberian lands with the beginning of Russian colonization. Several important tasks were assigned to Siberian cities and forts: to ensure the defense of the region, to manage it, to collect taxes (yasak) from the population. In addition, they were supposed to serve as a place of trade, industrial production, a transport hub, and a center for the spread of the Orthodox faith and culture. During the XVII century Russian people erected in Siberia (reaching the shores of the Pacific Ocean) about 150 fortifications. 20 of them became the district centers of Western Siberia at that time: Tyumen, Tobolsk, Pelym, Berezov, Surgut, Tara, Narym, Verkhoturye, Turinsk, Mangazeya, Tomsk, Ketsk. Kuznetsk fortress, built in 1618, became until the 18th century a Russian outpost in the south of Western Siberia and protected the lands inhabited and mastered by the Russian people from the raids of nomads. Historians associate with this event the completion of the first stage of the accession of Siberia to Russia, the incorporation of the West Siberian lands into the Moscow state (Nikitin, 1990, p. 17).

The arrival of the Russian people to Siberia was also marked by the arrival of Orthodox Christian religion in this land. The sign of the Russian presence in the new lands became not only log cabins of huts, but also log cabins of churches. In fortress "ostrogs" and cities, churches, then cathedrals, towered above the rest of the buildings along with the fortress walls. Monasteries also appeared in Siberia in the 17th century (Belikov, 1898). Historians and philologists are unanimous in assessing the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in Siberia: "... the clergy occupied a leading position in public life, not yielding it almost until the very end of the 18th century." It acted "as the creator of a new ideology" (Romodanovskaya, 2002, p. 17).

The role of the church in the development of the folk-literary type of the Russian language and the creation of Siberian literature is very important, which led to their special tradition and "Church Slavicization." These are the features that distinguished them from the general Russian literary traditions.

Siberian literature, understood as Russian literature, created in this region, originates from the works included in the Siberian chronicles, the story "skazka" of Siberian explorers, "Life of Vasily Mangazeya", "Stories about the cities of Tara and Tyumen", etc. (Romodanovskaya, 2002, p. 11). The earliest work of Siberian literature is the Esipovskaya Chronicle (1636). It was created by clerk Savva Esipov during the reign of Archbishop Cyprian of Siberia and Tobolsk.

When describing the linguistic situation of the West Siberian frontier of the 17th century, it should be noted the cultural and linguistic influence on the Russian language from the languages of the Siberian peoples-autochthons. It can be generally defined as destabilizing. But it was implemented in different ways in different regions and affected "primarily the manifestation of the Russian language, which acted as an interethnic means of communication" (Panin, 2006, p. 134).

Conclusion

So, Siberia during the period of its development was a place of coexistence and interaction of various languages (Samoyed, Finno-Ugric, Turkic, Indo-European), different lifestyles and cultures (nomadic cattle breeding and reindeer husbandry, fishing and hunting, gathering and hoe farming, blacksmithing).

The Russian language in Western Siberia functioned in a territorial-dialectal variant and a folk-literary type of language and had a written fixation in business documents, chronicles and literary works from the beginning of the 17th century. Due to this, in the linguistic situation of the West Siberian frontier, he played the role of a stabilizing factor, overcoming the destabilizing cultural and linguistic influence on the part of the indigenous Siberian peoples.

The most important methodological basis of historical linguistics is the interdependence of the links between the history of the language and the history of the people, the bearer of this language. The Russian language, which develops in the course of the historical development of the people, plays a significant role in the formation and unification of a community living in one territory.

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Publication Date

02 December 2021

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978-1-80296-117-1

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European Publisher

Volume

118

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Linguistics, cognitive linguistics, education technology, linguistic conceptology, translation

Cite this article as:

Inyutina, L., & Shilnikova, T. (2021). Russian Language In Intercultural Communication During The 17th Century West Siberian Frontier. In O. Kolmakova, O. Boginskaya, & S. Grichin (Eds.), Language and Technology in the Interdisciplinary Paradigm, vol 118. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 83-89). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2021.12.12