RUSSIAN LOANWORDS IN KOREAN AND KOREAN LOANWORDS IN RUSSIAN

This article examines Russian loanwords in Korean and Korean loanwords in Russian. Both Korean and Russian languages borrow very few words from each other, but the reasons are different. North Korea sticks to the principle of linguistic purism, and its previous Russian loanwords have been constantly substituted with newly invented Korean neologisms or other etymologically primary loanwords. The North Korean lexicon includes Russian loanwords, most of which are academic and professional jargons, Russian cultural terms, and Soviet terms. South Korea, which was situated on the other side of the Iron Curtain in the 20th century, has a very short history of cultural contact with Russia. Most Russian loanwords are exotic and contextually restricted cultural terms, while only few Russian loanwords borrowed before and during the Korean War have taken root in the South Korean lexical system. On the other hand, the Russian language did not borrow words from Korean for a long time due to the lack of need and prestige of Korean in Russia, and Russian academic dictionaries contain almost no headwords with Korean etymology. However, the recent global rise of Korean culture has brought many Korean words into the Russian online space. Most newly borrowed Korean words are exotic cultural terms and still in a low level of localization in the Russian lexicon. North Korean language situation is not going to change easily, and the substantial growth of Korean loanwords in Russian and Russian loanwords in the South Korean lexicon totally depends on extralinguistic factors such as cultural, economic and political relations between two countries.