Interslavic Borrowings-Polonisms in Russian Office Language of the 17th Century

Abstract

The article tackles the problem of the new Russian literary language formation in the 17-18th centuries and points out some factors having influenced it. They are as follows: the role of office language in that process and the influence of the Polish language, which manifested through the office language at that period. The main emphasis is put on the analysis of the history of such lexemes: okazanje ('evidence, witness, confirmation'), okop ('trench'), okopatisia ('open trenches and hide from enemies in them'), pobuditel ('a person who encourages somebody to do something'), podushchenje ('the act of encouraging'), postoronnij ('stranger, foreigner'). The listed lexemes are found in the documents of the ambassador's order in the 17th century and they prove the intra-Slavic derivatives in the Russian written language of the 16-17th centuries to be inter-Slavic lexical borrowings-polonisms.