Main trends in Russian consonant doubling in loan words

The article focuses on the double consonants in words borrowed by Standard Russian at various stages of its evolution. The incorporation is taking place gradually, the spelling being varied. It has been observed that if a word was borrowed at the very beginning of 18th century or earlier, the double consonant of the original form is often lost. On the contrary, during a later period the double consonant of a loan is retained. Variations in the spelling of loan words normally reflect the differences in rendering the original forms in different foreign languages. Besides, the orthography of earlier borrowings could change, not infrequently the lost doubling in the original being restored and standardized. The middle of the 20th century shows a stronger tendency for consonant doubling in loans and the process involves even those words which originally had no double consonants at all. The retention of double consonants and the appearance of new groups of the kind in orthography is indissolubly connected with orthoepy and results in the prolongation of consonants, which very often does not conform with the present orthoepic norm.