Language records. So which language is richer: Russian or English?

The debate among lovers of Russian literature about which language is richer, Russian or English, continues. However, here’s what’s strange: finding a correct definition of the term “wealth of language” in the literature accessible to the average reader is problematic.

In the Big Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language, for example, it is intelligible
explains what wealth is, in different guises, but in detail about wealth
no language at all. I will define this term as follows: “The richness of language
is determined (mainly, since this is not all) by its following components:
vocabulary (how many words there are in a language), word formation, phraseology, synonymy,
spelling, syntax, capacity, terminology. Let's compare the components of wealth
Vocabulary. There are more than a million words in the English language. English available
dictionaries containing 475 thousand and 600 thousand words; Russian dictionaries record less
than 200 thousand words each.

However, not everything is so simple (grammar, quotes from the original): “In Russian -
feel free to multiply by three. This is not countable because:

a) Russian dictionaries (neither spelling nor explanatory) do not give all
formations from the root of the word - all prefix-suffix twists, and their
there may be several; b) English is less flexible in terms of word formation.
It is difficult to say how much to multiply, just as there is no doubt that the Russian
general vocabulary is richer than English. To further clarify the question about
richness of languages, I will give the following data: Number of native speakers: English -
400-410 million, Russian - about 164 million. Number of English speakers - 600-1200
million, in Russian - about 280 million. “Body movements, antics, landscapes, languor
trees, smells, rain, melting and iridescent shades of nature, everything
tenderly human (strange as it may seem!), as well as everything peasant, rude,
something juicy and obscene comes out in Russian no worse, if not better, than in English... This
the discrepancy reflects the main difference in historical terms between the “green” Russian
literary language and a language as mature as a fig bursting at the seams
English..." (V. Nabokov) Let us now evaluate the vocabulary of languages (thought experiment),
limited only to such areas as science, technology, technology, politics,
jurisprudence, market, art, sports.

I don’t know about you, but I came to the following conclusion: in these areas vocabulary
English is most likely 30-40 percent richer than Russian. Word formation.
The rich word-formation capabilities of the Russian language allow you to create
a huge number of derivative words. In the seventeen-volume Bolshoi Academic
in the dictionary (1960s) there are about 300 only feminine words with the suffix “ushk”.

Synonymy. The Russian language has no equal in quantity and diversity
lexical and phraseological synonyms. Spelling. Famous linguist Max
Müller called English spelling a national disaster. In spelling
Russian language national disaster is not visible, but its reform has long been
is ripe. In particular, you should: - eliminate unnecessary writing difficulties:
continuous and separate writing of adverbs, continuous and hyphenated writing of complex adverbs
adjectives, spelling of some proper names; English syntax
the language is simple. Assessing the quality of syntaxes of Russian and English languages, I would
rated them 4.5 and 3 points respectively. Capacity of languages. Determine capacity
languages are not difficult. When translating the history of the Taliban... English and Russian languages according to
containers are indistinguishable. The Misconception of Brevity...

About terminology systems. The English average term, in my opinion,
more concise and easier to understand than the Russian counterpart. The future of languages "...
The English language will retain its character in a hundred years... The international role of the Russian,
German and French languages are falling. Prospects for the Russian language
do not seem to be the most favorable. Its competitive capabilities are weakened
the following: the demographic disadvantage of the Russian ethnic group...

One can only hope that the situation can change radically with
the coming to power of a new political elite. About 10 people disappear around the world every year.
languages... Representatives of small indigenous peoples, dying, take them away from
ourselves... A single language will absorb the best that has been created by humanity in
English and other world languages. One language, one world government and
general prosperity will become a triumph for the development of intelligence on Earth.

Petr Georgievich Baskov

From the editor. We welcome feedback from readers on this topic.

Prepared by Tatyana Megelbey.

The debate among lovers of Russian literature about which language is richer – Russian or English – continues. However, here’s what’s strange: finding a correct definition of the term “Richness of Language” in the literature accessible to the average reader is problematic. The Big Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language, for example, clearly explains what wealth is in different forms, but is detailed about the wealth of language in general - no, no. I will define this term as follows: “The richness of a language is determined (mainly, since this is not all) by its following components: vocabulary (how many words there are in a language), word formation, phraseology, synonymy, spelling, syntax, capacity, terminology.

1. Let’s compare the components of wealth

Vocabulary. The number of words in the English language is more than a million (http://otvet.mail.ru/question/14255634). There are English dictionaries containing 475 thousand and 600 thousand words, Russian dictionaries record less than 200 thousand words each.
However, not everything is so simple (grammar of the quote according to the original): “In Russian, feel free to multiply by three. THIS IS UNCOUNTABLE, because... a) Russian dictionaries (neither spelling nor explanatory) do not provide all forms from the root of the word - all prefix-suffix twists - and there may be several of them; b) English is less flexible in word formation” (http://otvet.mail.ru/question/23026877). It is difficult to say how much to multiply, just as there is no doubt that Russian general vocabulary is richer than English.
To further clarify the issue of the richness of languages, I will provide the following data (http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%..., http://gtmarket.ru/news/2012/07/06/4531, http://info.worldbank.org/etools/kam2/KAM_page5.asp#c64):
Number of native speakers: English: 400-410 million, Russian: about 164 million.
The number of speakers of English is 600-1200 million, Russian – about 280 million.
Information space in English: unprecedented.
The 20th century is the century of American literature, the century of Russian literature is the 19th century.
Nobel Prize laureates in literature: English - 28, Russian -5. In one of the lists of ten writers of the twentieth century who had the greatest influence on the world (http://www.aif.ru/culture/article/30526), I did not see a single Russian writer. Unfortunately, they were not on my similar list either.
Intellectual Development Index: USA – 9, UK – 16, Russia – 43.
Innovation index ranking: UK – 5, USA – 10, Russia – 51.
“At the beginning and even the middle of the 19th century, the world did not even suspect the existence of Russian literature. Derzhavin, Krylov, Pushkin, Gogol were and remain completely unnecessary third-rate voices from the outskirts of the West. The revolution took place in the second half of the century (www.aif.ru/culture/article/30324).
“Body movements, antics, landscapes, languor of trees, smells, rains, melting and iridescent shades of nature, everything tenderly human (oddly enough!), as well as everything peasant, rude, juicy obscene, come out in Russian no worse, if not better than in English; but the subtle understatements so characteristic of English, the new poetry of thought, the instantaneous echo between the most abstract concepts, the swarming of monosyllabic epithets, all this, as well as everything related to technology, fashion, sports, natural sciences and unnatural passions - becomes clumsy, verbose and often disgusting in terms of style and rhythm. This discrepancy reflects the main difference in historical terms between the green Russian literary language and the mature English language, like a fig bursting at the seams: between a brilliant, but not yet sufficiently educated, and sometimes rather tasteless young man, and a venerable genius, combining reserves of motley knowledge with complete freedom of spirit." (Nabokov V. Favorites. Novosibirsk: SP, Interbook, 1991 - 520 p.).
"My head speaks English, my heart speaks Russian, and my ear prefers
French," the writer once said.
Let us now evaluate the vocabulary of languages (a thought experiment), limiting ourselves only to the following areas - science, engineering, technology, politics, jurisprudence, market, art, sports. The most reasonable thing would probably be to admit: in these areas, the English vocabulary is several tens of percent richer than Russian.

Word formation. The rich word-formation capabilities of the Russian language allow you to create a huge number of derivative words. In the seventeen-volume Big Academic Dictionary (1960s), there are about 300 only feminine words with the suffix “ushk”. In the “Spelling Dictionary of the Russian Language” (M., 1985) there are about 3000 words with the prefix “na”. Indeed, in this area, as one lady from the forum put it, “English is not worth competing with Russian.”

Synonymy. “The Russian language has no equal in the number and variety of lexical and phraseological synonyms, which, thanks to their semantic and stylistic differences, make it possible to accurately express the most subtle shades of thoughts and feelings.” English is also not poor in synonyms, but on a noticeably smaller scale.

The spelling of the English language does not correspond to the modern spoken language of the British, Americans and other native speakers. Many letters are not pronounced when reading, and, conversely, many pronounced sounds do not have graphic equivalents. Renowned linguist Max Müller called English spelling a “national disaster.” This “disaster” is a consequence of the fact that the English language has not been reformed for several centuries, while the language of any developed nation changes significantly in half a century.
The national disaster is not visible in the orthography of the Russian language, but its reform (simple, not radical) is long overdue. In particular, it is necessary to eliminate unjustified writing difficulties: continuous and separate spelling of adverbs, continuous and hyphenated spelling of complex adjectives, spelling of some proper names;
- create a new reference dictionary and reference rules.
- introduce new clear rules to eliminate subjectivity when assessing written examination papers in the Russian language.

The syntax of English is simple and allows many liberties. For example, in many cases you can omit commas and omit conjunctions. In Russian (as in German) such liberties are completely unacceptable. Assessing the quality of the syntaxes of the Russian and English languages, I would give them 4-4.5 and 3 points, respectively.

Capacity of languages. Determining the capacity of languages is not difficult: correctly translate a dozen articles from Russian into English and count the number of letters and numbers in them. When translating the history of the Taliban, the following result was obtained, Russian/English: 15181/16239. When translating the chapter “Bulldozer” from Pelevin’s story “Zombification” – 1469/1576 letters, English and Russian languages by capacity
indistinguishable. The misconception about the brevity of English, which many teachers of this language are guilty of, may be explained by not knowing that in addition to ordinary English, a simplified version is also widely used.

About terminology systems. I will focus only on multicomponent terms. A multicomponent English term, on average, contains fewer characters and is easier to understand than its Russian counterpart - shorter words, fewer function words and a standard structure. The word being defined is usually in the first position to the right, and all defining words are to the left of it. Moreover, the latter are not grammatically consistent (with rare exceptions), but are simply listed. Because of this, complex sentences in English do not lose their visibility, while the Russian equivalent often seriously strains the reader.
Of course, similar constructions of terms are used in the Russian language (walk the city, Moscow River, etc.), but seeing at least three or four defining words on the left is a rare case. Meanwhile, this is the easiest way to improve the terminological functionality of the Russian language. I will give a few examples from the media (OrgPage.ru): ANGARA LIGHTS NEWSPAPER, EAST SIBERIAN NEWSPAPER, ALL ANNOUNCEMENTS IRKUTSK NEWSPAPER, SIBERIA-EAST ALL-RUSSIA MEDICAL MAGAZINE. To increase the readability of a complex term, I think it is reasonable to connect the words with a hyphen: ANGARSKIE-FLIGHTS-NEWSPAPER, EAST-SIBERIAN-NEWS-NEWSPAPER, ALL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-IRKUTSK-NEWSPAPER, SIBERIA-VOSTOK-ALL-RUSSIA MEDICAL-JOURNAL.

2. The future of languages
“...English in a hundred years will retain its status as the most important language of international communication. This state of affairs will be facilitated not only by the global role of the largest and largest English-speaking countries..., but also by the specific linguistic advantages of the structure of the English language, making it quite simple to master it at an elementary level (http://russiancouncil.ru/inner/).
The international role of Russian, German and French is declining. The prospects for the Russian language do not seem to be the most favorable. Its competitive capabilities are weakened by the following (ibid.):
- demographic disadvantage of the Russian ethnic group;
- the willingness of the younger generation to use other languages;
- the currently unfavorable image of Russia in the world;
- difficult to study at an elementary level.
We can only hope that the situation can radically change with the coming to power of a new political elite.
About 10 languages disappear around the world every year.
– representatives of small indigenous peoples, when dying, take them with them. The languages of numerous peoples are gradually moving closer together, but whether there will ever be one language is still in the fog. The optimists say (and I think they say correctly): one language is economically beneficial and this will ultimately be the decisive factor. All previous languages will be preserved only in records and language reservations. A single language will absorb the best that has been created by humanity in English and other world languages. One language, one World Government and universal prosperity will be the triumph of the development of intelligence on Earth.
28.11.2014

The Englishman said: “England is a country of great conquerors, sailors and travelers who spread the glory of its language to all corners of the world. The English language – the language of Shakespeare, Dickens, Byron – is undoubtedly the best language in the world.”

“Nothing like that,” said the German, “Our language is the language of science and physics, medicine and technology. The language of Kant and Hegel, the language in which the best work of world poetry is written – Goethe’s Faust.”

“You are both wrong,” the Italian entered into the argument, “Think, the whole world, all of humanity loves music, songs, romances, operas! What language are the best love romances and brilliant operas in? In the language of sunny Italy!

The Russian was silent for a long time, listened modestly and finally said: “Of course, I could also say, like each of you, that the Russian language - the language of Pushkin, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Chekhov - is superior to all the languages of the world. But I won't follow your path. Tell me, could you compose a short story in your languages with a plot, with a consistent development of the plot, so that all the words in the story begin with the same letter?”

This greatly puzzled the interlocutors and all three said: “No, this is impossible in our languages.” Then the Russian replies: “But in our language this is quite possible, and I will now prove it to you. Name any letter." The German replied: “It’s all the same. The letter "P", for example."

“Great, here’s a story for you with this letter,” answered the Russian.

Pyotr Petrovich Petukhov, lieutenant of the fifty-fifth Podolsk Infantry Regiment, received a letter by mail full of pleasant wishes. “Come,” wrote the lovely Polina Pavlovna Perepelkina, “we’ll talk, dream, dance, take a walk, visit a half-forgotten, half-overgrown pond, go fishing. Come, Pyotr Petrovich, to stay as soon as possible.”

Petukhov liked the proposal. I figured: I’ll come. I grabbed a half-worn field cloak and thought: this will come in handy.

The train arrived after noon. Pyotr Petrovich was received by Polina Pavlovna’s most respected father, Pavel Panteleimonovich. “Please, Pyotr Petrovich, sit down more comfortably,” said dad. A bald nephew came up and introduced himself: “Porfiry Platonovich Polikarpov. Please, please."

The lovely Polina appeared. A transparent Persian scarf covered her full shoulders. We talked, joked, and invited us to lunch. They served dumplings, pilaf, pickles, liver, pate, pies, cake, half a liter of orange juice. We had a hearty lunch. Pyotr Petrovich felt pleasantly satiated.

After eating, after a hearty snack, Polina Pavlovna invited Pyotr Petrovich to take a walk in the park. In front of the park stretched a half-forgotten, half-overgrown pond. We went sailing. After swimming in the pond we went for a walk in the park.

“Let’s sit down,” suggested Polina Pavlovna. Sit down. Polina Pavlovna moved closer. We sat and were silent. The first kiss sounded. Pyotr Petrovich got tired, offered to lie down, laid out his half-worn field raincoat, and thought: it would come in handy. We lay down, rolled around, fell in love. “Pyotr Petrovich is a prankster, a scoundrel,” Polina Pavlovna said habitually.

“Let’s get married, let’s get married!” whispered the bald nephew. “Let’s get married, let’s get married,” the father approached in a deep voice. Pyotr Petrovich turned pale, staggered, then ran away. As I ran, I thought:
“Polina Petrovna is a wonderful part, I’m really excited about it.”

The prospect of receiving a beautiful estate flashed before Pyotr Petrovich. I hastened to send an offer. Polina Pavlovna accepted the proposal and later got married. Friends came to congratulate us and brought gifts. Handing over the package, they said: “Wonderful couple.”

The interlocutors, linguists, having heard the story, were forced to admit that the Russian language is the best and richest language in the world.

October 24, 2013

Many people are interested in linguistics. They read interesting books by L. Uspensky and look for the answer to the question, what is the richest language on our planet? You should try to answer their question.

For a long time, philologists have been struggling with the question: which language of the world is the most lexically rich? In what language could a person most accurately and elegantly express what is in his soul? It is difficult to answer this question right away, because everyone will consider their native language to be the richest. In the English language there are a lot of proverbs related to rain, in German you can express abstract concepts very accurately, and the French language helps you accurately express even the most florid epithets. The Japanese language is traditionally divided into two parallel dialects - feminine and masculine, Norwegian - into Bokmål and modern Norwegian, and what can we say about the Russian language - it has thousands of dialects.

Unfortunately, the Guinness Book of Records chose Greek and not Russian as the leader in the number of words. Using a special program, it was possible to calculate that there are more than 5 million words in the Greek language (for comparison, there are about 1.3 million words in English).

However, as one popular saying goes, “Russians don’t give up.” NKR linguists created a special program that was able to most objectively calculate the number of words in our language. It turned out that the Russian language is eight times richer than the Greek language. More than 40 million words (40 megawords) were counted in the national corpus of the Russian language. But this is not the limit: in connection with the development of our language, scientists are already planning the creation of a dictionary of 200 megawords, which would include absolutely all words, both modern and ancient, and dialectal, and fictitious, and even obscene.

Sometimes, when discussing the Russian language as one of the richest, one remembers an anecdote about how representatives of four European nationalities, including Russian, met. And he proposed to his friends a bet that only in the Russian language can one compose a story from words starting with the same letter. And he succeeded: Pyotr Petrovich Petukhov, lieutenant of the Podolsk Fifty-fifth Infantry Regiment, received a letter by mail full of wishes, and pleasant ones at that. Petukhov liked Praskovya Petrovna Perepelkina’s invitation...” and so on.

However, many see Chinese as the richest language in the world. There was even a competition “The Richest Language”, which was held in 2003 in the USA, and where the winner was the Chinese language. However, professional linguists believe that this is not so. The Chinese language is characterized by a rich grammatical basis rather than a lexical one.

Many scientists consider the richest languages to be the little-known dialects of the Indians, as well as various African tribes. The Chippewa Indian language has more than 6,000 verb forms, and the Haida Indian language has more than 70 prefixes. The Eskimo language is also distinguished by its grammatical richness - it has more than 60 present tense forms! That is why the Eskimo language is difficult to teach to a European person who is accustomed to a maximum of 16 forms of different tenses.

Another rich language is Tabasaran, which has more than forty-eight noun cases. If we judge the richness of a language by the number of letters in the alphabet, then the Khmer language is in the lead, with 73 letters in its alphabet. The Ubykh language has the most consonant sounds - 85; among the ready-made ones there are 8 variations of the sound “g”.

But to us Russians, of course, our native language will seem richer than others. The Russian language does not have a colossal number of letters, consonants and vowels, or intricate grammatical forms. But there is an incredible lexical wealth that allows you to most accurately express every thought and put it in a beautiful form. This is precisely what helped many famous Russian classics create their works - an inexhaustible vocabulary fund of the Russian language. And in order for this wealth to increase every year, one should treat the language with care, preserve old and little-used words, draw new ones from other languages and create neologisms.

Without linguistic expertise, it is difficult to answer the question of which language is the richest. In fact, for every native speaker, his native language is the most beautiful and rich, and this is completely natural.

At one of the symposia, four linguists met: an Englishman, a German, an Italian and a Russian. The conversation turned to languages. They began to argue, whose language is more beautiful, better, richer, and to which language does the future belong?

“Great, here’s a story for you with this letter,” answered the Russian.

Pyotr Petrovich Petukhov, lieutenant of the fifty-fifth Podolsk Infantry Regiment, received a letter by mail full of pleasant wishes. “Come,” wrote the lovely Polina Pavlovna Perepelkina, “let’s talk, dream, dance, take a walk, visit a half-forgotten, half-overgrown pond, go fishing. Come, Pyotr Petrovich, to stay as soon as possible.”

Petukhov liked the proposal. I figured: I’ll come. I grabbed a half-worn field cloak and thought: this will come in handy.

“Let’s sit down,” suggested Polina Pavlovna. Sit down. Polina Pavlovna moved closer. We sat and were silent. The first kiss sounded. Pyotr Petrovich got tired, offered to lie down, laid out his half-washed field cloak, and thought: this would come in handy. We lay down, rolled around, fell in love. “Pyotr Petrovich is a prankster, a scoundrel,” Polina Pavlovna said habitually.

“Let’s get married, let’s get married!” whispered the bald nephew. “Let’s get married, let’s get married,” the father approached in a deep voice. Pyotr Petrovich turned pale, staggered, then ran away. As I ran, I thought: “Polina Petrovna is a wonderful match, I’m really excited.”

The interlocutors, linguists, having heard the story, were forced to admit that the Russian language is the best and richest language in the world.