Article

Name: Double consonant spelling regulation in borrowed words in Russian spelling improvement and standardization projects of 1930–1956

Authors: S. V. Naumenko

Kansk Teachers’ Training College, Kansk, Russian Federation

In the section Linguistics

Abstract: The paper deals with traditionally problematic and not fully settled issues of Russian spelling – the spelling of double consonants in borrowed words. The peculiarities of regulation of the spelling concerned in the number of normative sources of the 18–20 centuries are specified. The author considers the views of some linguists on possible reasons for this variable writing and proposals for eliminating the diversity that is characteristic of spelling practice both before and after the 1917th – 1918th spelling reform. A detailed analysis is made of the materials of eleven projects of Russian spelling improvement and standardization, which were elaborated by spelling commissions in the period from 1930 to 1956. The paper provides a description of normative settings of the projects that differ in character and content: prescriptive, built in the form of a traditional spelling rule-explanation and the recommendation to the writer to refer directly to the dictionary. Common views on approaches, validity and expedi- ency of normative principles considered in the context of spelling discussion of 1964 and the subsequent discussion of this issue are revealed. Consideration is given to the formulation of the double consonant spelling rule in loanwords in the complete academic reference book (2006), and examples of variable spelling from modern practice are provided. The source base of the research, along with explanatory, spelling dictionaries and draft rules, were unpublished archival documents of the Russian Academy of Science.

Keywords: spelling, borrowed words, double consonants, variability, post reform projects of reforming and improvement of orthography in 1917–1918

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