Three new words have been added to the orthographic dictionary of the Russian Language Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IRL RAS) and to the website of the “Academos” dictionary.
The words “kopter”, “photo-video stabilization” and “post office” appeared.
The dictionary contains standards for writing more than 200 thousand language units – it includes not only words, but also initial parts of words and proper names. The dictionary is regularly supported by IRL experts.
In September 2022, 151 new words were added to the spelling dictionary, including “shawarma” and “resolved”. Additionally, the new vocabulary list included the relatively recent words “vaxers”, “boomers”, “google” and “pokerface”.
On February 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the state language law regulating the use of foreign words. According to the novelties, when using the Russian language as a state language, it is unacceptable to use foreign words, except for those that do not have widely used analogues in the Russian language, which will be recorded in standard dictionaries.
On February 16, the head of the State Duma Committee on Culture Elena Yampolskaya told RIA Novosti that the issue of replacing foreign words when using Russian as a state language will be relevant until 2025, when normative dictionaries appear.
“What is valuable in the draft law is that from 2025 – the norm of deferred action – will be dictionaries, reference books and grammar references … This is a very serious work for large scientific teams, and therefore 2025 is being laid off, said the deputy.
On March 2, the head of the Gramota.ru portal Konstantin Derevyanko told socialbites.ca that a unified digital platform for the Russian language will soon appear in Russia. The site he manages will be the foundation of this platform.
“In Russia, a single Russian-language digital platform will be created, which will combine all available resources in this area and become a tool for coordinating authorities in the implementation of state language policy. This platform will be based on developments on the resource Gramota.ru. Derevyanko is currently the most authoritative source on the Russian language – its target audience is about 20 million people from more than a hundred countries.
He also noted that the members of the Russian Language Council, subordinate to the President of the Russian Federation, would like to introduce a compulsory language exam in the country for graduates of all Russian universities.
“Council members also made a proposal to hold a final exam in the Russian language at all universities of the country. The Council under the President of the Russian Federation also categorically opposes the decision of the Ministry of Science of the Russian Federation to abolish the compulsory Russian language exam for applicants to engineering universities and technical specialties. [Это] it contradicts the task of promoting the language culture in the country,” said Konstantin Derevyanko.
Finally, due to the “disastrous decline in speech culture” among the younger generation, authorities are planning to introduce special education dictionaries containing language norms and vocabulary in “all subject areas” to schools.
“In the near future, major basic dictionaries should be actively replenished with new vocabulary, industry vocabulary in IT, advertising and other fields. Government regulation will be prepared soon. We hope this happens in the next few months. Then we will discuss what words got there and why, ”the expert summarized.