DICTIONARIES OF DIFFICULTIES OF THE XIX CENTURY RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AND THE HANDWRITTEN «DICTIONARY OF THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE» BY Ya. GROT (1870s).


2014. № 2 (2), 107-115

Institute for Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract:

The article discusses the handwritten «Dictionary of the Russian language difficulties», on which Ya. K. Grot worked in the 1870s. This handwritten dictionary continues the tradition of creating dictionaries of difficulties that arose in Russia in the 1840s (A. N. Grech, V. Dolopchev). The dictionary has not yet been a subject of scientific interest. It represents a notebook of 63 sheets, where problematic words written alphabetically are supplied with detailed linguistic comments on their etymology, variation in pronunciation, spelling and stress. The text is complemented by press-cuttings on phraseology, etymology of Russian patronyms as well as by examples of grammatical abusage by Russian writers and poets. The handwritten dictionary by Ya. K. Grot indicates that the distinguished linguist was not only one of the originators of theoretical foundations of Russian orthography, but that his scientific activity was closely connected with the study of its practical problems and with continuation of such direction of national lexicography as compiling dictionaries of the Russian language difficulties.