Vocabulary
See History of the Russian language for an account of the successive foreign influences on Russian.
The total number of words in Russian is difficult to ascertain because of the ability to agglutinate and create manifold compounds, diminutives, etc. (see Word Formation under Russian grammar). The number of listed words or entries in some of the major dictionaries published during the last two centuries, and the total vocabulary of Alexander Pushkin (who is credited with greatly augmenting and codifying literary Russian), are as follows:
| Work | Year | Words | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academic dictionary, I Ed. | 1789–1794 | 43,257 | Russian and Church Slavonic with some Old Russian vocabulary. |
| Academic dictionary, II Ed | 1806–1822 | 51,388 | Russian and Church Slavonic with some Old Russian vocabulary. |
| Dictionary of Pushkin's language | 1810–1837 | >21,000 | The dictionary of virtually all words from his works was published in 1956–1961. Some consider his works contain 101,105. |
| Academic dictionary, III Ed. | 1847 | 114,749 | Russian and Church Slavonic with Old Russian vocabulary. |
| Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language | 1880–1882 | 195,844 | 44,000 entries lexically grouped; attempt to catalogue the full vernacular language. |
| Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language | 1934–1940 | 85,289 | Current language with some archaisms. |
| Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language | 1950–1965 1991 (2nd ed.) |
120,480 | "Full" 17-volumed dictionary of the "modern" language. The second 20-volumed edition was begun in 1991, but not all volumes were finished until now. |
| Lopatin's dictionary | 1999–2011 | ≈180,000 | Orthographic, current language, several editions |
| Great Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language | 1998–2009 | ≈130,000 | Current language, the dictionary has many subsequent editions from the first one of 1998. |
Note: The above numbers do not properly show the real quantity of words in Russian, as Russian dictionaries do not have a goal to collect all words of the language, but to establish normalized vocabulary of standard neutral style. They do not contain special technical and scientific terms, many lexical derivatives, colloquial and dialectical words, and slang.
Read more about this topic: Russian Language
Famous quotes containing the word vocabulary:
“A new talker will often call her caregiver “mommy,” which makes parents worry that the child is confused about who is who. She isn’t. This is a case of limited vocabulary rather than mixed-up identities. When a child has only one word for the female person who takes care of her, calling both of them “mommy” is understandable.”
—Amy Laura Dombro (20th century)
“My vocabulary dwells deep in my mind and needs paper to wriggle out into the physical zone. Spontaneous eloquence seems to me a miracle. I have rewritten—often several times—every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“The vocabulary of pleasure depends on the imagery of pain.”
—Marina Warner (b. 1946)