Russian Etymological Dictionary (Russian Studies)

This book will be fascinating not only for students of Russian or other Slavic languages, but for Indo-Europeanists in general. Some of the Indo-European etymological works I've seen are sadly deficient in Slavic or other eastern I-E languages, tending to dwell on Celtic, Germanic, Romance, Hellenic, etc. This book fills the gap.

The list of included words is fairly comprehensive, and the entries list cognates in the usual suspects: Latin, Greek, Gothic, Lithuanian, Sanskrit. But the work is sufficiently thoroughly researched to include reference to languages as unexpected as Tadzhik and Old Polish. Most of the entries show the historical development of the word from its earliest attested form (the date is indicated), as well as a handful of related words.

I've had Russian in my life for at least 15 years, having earned a degree in Russian and Slavic, lived in Russia for a year, married a Russian, and raised bilingual Russian/English sons, but I was in for many surprises. For instance, although I knew that Russian had a significant Turkic and Gothic influence, I had no idea until I read this book how many of the commonly used, ordinary words which I had always assumed to be native Slavic words, were in fact derived from these two sources.

Also, although I knew that Slavic and Baltic are sometimes considered to be in a close relative position within Indo-European, I was surprised and intrigued to see the number and close similarity between so many Russian and Lithuanian forms.

The book contains an interesting introduction which categorizes the borrowings by source and time frame. The Iranian loans, for example, occurred from about 700 BC to 200 AD, when Iranian peoples dominated the steppes of the Ukraine. Greek loans peaked during the period of greatest commercial and cultural contact with Byzantium, from the 10th to the 15th centuries; just to give a few examples.

A fascinating and worthwhile book.

The etymological dictionary is excellent. All stress marks are provided. Roots are easy to find. The words are divided into SUBJECT order, which makes them easy to find. I can look up one word and get 5, 6 or 7 more in my vocabulary--it's that good!

Keep it for reference; read it for kicks!