The Incredible Russian Language

Maria Aksyonova is well known as the author and publisher of the “Avanta+ Encyclopedia for Children,” as well as the author and host of the popular television show “Do Russians Know Russian?” She is an academic of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RAEN), a recipient of the President of the Russian Federation’s prize in the field of education. Speaking in our native language feels as natural to us as breathing. But how well do we really know Russian? Stories about the origins of words are more fascinating than any novel and more mysterious than any detective story. Here are amazing adventures of words: Why is the press “yellow,” and the market “a flea market”? How did the word “lipovyy” come to mean “fake”? Why did a crow—the bird that certainly won’t miss its own and may even grab someone else’s—become a symbol of foolishness? And is youth slang good or bad? “To dress” or “to put on”? “To go” or “to go out”? “To eat” or “to have a meal”? We endlessly correct and nudge each other. Yet still: what’s right to say? What mistakes do we “catch” most often from radio and television broadcasts? And what errors did even Pushkin work on? It’s hard to speak Russian perfectly. Even the most literate people make mistakes. The main thing is to try to correct them, to grasp the logic of the language, to be curious about its history, and to endlessly enjoy its beauty.