Foreign language vocabulary in the Russian island dialect of Azerbaijan

This paper deals with the Russian dialect functioning outside of the metropolis. The object of the study was Azerbaijani words, which were borrowed from Russian immigrants who came to Azerbaijan in the first half of the 19th century. The Russian island dialect of Azerbaijan formed from different dialects of the Russian language and gained a number of common features that allow to present it as a group of south great Russian dialect in the foreign language environment. It is called an island dialect because it does not form a solid, compact area and is scattered over the territory of Azerbaijan. It is important to note that the study of the dialects of separate Russian villages in the territory of Azerbaijan began in the 1950s. Publication of the Dictionary of the Russian Island Dialect of Azerbaijan in 2005 gave an opportunity to study the levels of this unique linguistic phenomenon in general, trace various manifestations of interlanguage and interdialect contacts. The main feature of the Russian island dialect is that from its appearing in this area it was in close contact with foreign language environment. The result of this was the influence of the environment of the Azerbaijani language on the Russian dialect, penetration of a significant number of Azerbaijan words in the Russian vocabulary. The collected materials were distributed into groups according to their lexical-semantic meanings: words denoting names of a person (family, job, different features), names of body parts, clothing, shoes, dishes, pots and pans, household items, home and its parts, building materials, outbuildings, oven, cooking, food, berries, fruits, vegetables, words denoting herding, agriculture, tools, fisheries, vegetation, animals and reptiles, birds and insects, geographical terminology and abstract notions. As a result of the study of the foreign language vocabulary these words can be divided into the following groups according to their degree of assimilation: 1) words, completely assimilated by the Russian island dialect; they follow grammatical rules of the Russian language in inflections and word-formation, form new forms with Russian word forming affixes, participate in the formation of paremiological units; 2) words having foreign-language sound effect features at the same time included in the grammatical system of the Russian dialect and subordinate to the relevant rules of inflections; 3) words devoid of inflections, but participating in the formation of new words that take Russian affixes; 4) words with no inflections not participating in the formation of new words. The result of the study was 460 Azerbaijani words found to have been borrowed by the Russian island dialect.

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