About a hundred years ago in Russian, as in other European languages, abbreviated words - abbreviations, which are a kind of "coupling" of phrases, began to be widely used. If earlier, since the time of Ancient Rome, there were such abbreviations, then only in writing, for example, Latin etc. from et caetera, Russian, etc. from and so on. Since the beginning of the XX century, they began not only to write them in abbreviated form, but also to pronounce them. In other words, the graphic abbreviations were supplemented with lexical ones, that is, similar to words. And this made it possible for the well-known scientist D. I. Alekseev, one of the authors of a very complete dictionary of the Soviet era, which has not lost its relevance today (Alekseev D. M. Gozman I. G., Sakharov G. V. Dictionary of Abbreviations of the Russian language, Moscow, 1983), to assert that abbreviation has become a separate way of word formation.

Over the past century, the structure of pronounced abbreviations in Russian has gone through three stages. At first, they had a random, disordered structure ( ugro - criminal investigation, educational program-literacy elimination). In the 40-80s of the XX century, strictly fixed parts of words that are repeated in a variety of abbreviations, usually ending in a consonant sound, became widespread: min (ministry), trans (transport), strom (construction machine), district executive committee (district executive committee); at the same time, initial abbreviations such as Scientific research institute (scientific research institute) were fixed.-research institute). KVN in marking TV sets, etc.

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As a result of the use of sounds, letters, and syllables in recent decades, we construct abbreviations of at least three types:

- consisting of the first sounds or letters of words that are included in the phrase-so-called acronyms: DBDDIPS (a database management system for documentary information and search engines), as well as syllabic abbreviations like demoross (a supporter of the Democratic Russia movement);

- abbreviations of any structure that resemble the words of the Russian language when pronounced: tokamak (the name of a nuclear installation consisting of parts of the words: current, camera, magnetic coil); homeless (a person without a specific place of residence); the name of the newspaper for employment RUS (work, study, service). The Moscow terminologist V. P. Danilenko aptly called such abbreviations "wordoids": both not a word, and as it were a word;

- abbreviations that completely match the sound of the word: SADKO (a system of automated dialogue and collective learning created in the computing center of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation). Since the form of these acronym abbreviations is explained and motivated both by the word combination on the basis of which they are formed, and by the word with which they sound identical, they were called words with double motivation or acronyms-homonyms. The form of such abbreviations is often specially adapted to the sound of words, which sometimes creates a comic effect: bich (a former intelligent person), BARS (a Large English-Russian dictionary).

Currently, the process of creating wordoids and words with double motivation has become almost universal, and not only in Russian. For comparison, the English abbreviation of this type, coined in Japan: the documentary system HUNDRED-Hiroshima University New Document Retrieval And Dissemination, this name coincides in form with the English word hundred (hundred).

The appearance and active use of word forms and words with dual motivation was a natural reaction to the mass-produced, long, unpronounceable abbreviations that were created in the Soviet era. Try to pronounce VNIIHSSR (All-Union Research Institute of Chemical Plant Protection Products), but the new Traffic Police (State Road Safety Inspectorate), which is criticized at different levels, is no better. And if it was necessary to construct acronyms consisting of many consonantal letters, then most often these letters were pronounced as they are called in the Russian alphabet, or some of the elements of the acronym were pronounced as letters, and some as sounds, so that sound-letter abbreviations were obtained: CSKA (Central Sports Club of the Army; read tse-es-ka ).

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I must say that for the sake of euphony, the elements of abbreviations were read like the names of Russian letters, almost from the very beginning of the development of this method of word formation: a social revolutionary is a social revolutionary, and a cadet is a member of the constitutional democratic party (the first decade of the XX century). But then such formations were just as disordered as other "fragments" of words in abbreviations like glavkoverkh (supreme commander). It is interesting that foreign-language abbreviations, including international acronyms that came from French, Spanish, Italian and other languages, were read and still are read by sounds, as in international practice: French F. A. I.-Federation Aeronautique Internationale-pronounced in Russian FAI; German. DIN-Deutsche Industrienorme - German standard, pronounced DIN in Russian. If they consist of consonants, they are most often read using the names of Latin letters: Polish. PPS - Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, pronounced in Russian Pe-pe-es. In some cases, international abbreviations are translated by the words that make up them, and then they are read like ordinary Russian abbreviations: English UNO, French. ONU, Russian. UN - The United Nations Organization.

When English - American words and phrases from the field of economics, the latest sports, computer technology and advertising technology flooded into the Russian language, it was time to master English abbreviations of all kinds. Initially, when abbreviations included in the listed areas were isolated, unusual English acronyms were read incorrectly as combinations of Russian or Latin letters. So, in the dictionary of abbreviations cited above, the name of the American broadcasting company Columbia Broadcasting System-CBS is presented in the form of KBS, although it is pronounced in English by CBS and should also be read in Russian. Equally, the combination of the letters WC ( vi-si instead of double u-si )was incorrectly pronounced from water closet-toilet, restroom. But as the number of people who speak English fairly well increased in Russia, the process of mastering such abbreviations went in two directions.

On the one hand, in Russian, as well as in German, French, Italian, Danish, Polish, and Czech texts that use both Cyrillic and Latin (Latin script), English - American abbreviations have appeared as intersperses, which are written in Latin letters and pronounced respectively by sounds or by English letters, as in the case of the Russian language. in the source language. This is, for example, a family of names associated with the World Wide Web on the Internet (World Wide Web), namely: Web-page, Web-server, Web-technology, as well as WWW-page, etc. Similarly, it is a group of word combinations with the audio abbreviation VIP-very important

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person, naming a wide variety of "important" people: VIP guest, VIP star, VIP box, VIP event, and even an illiterate VIP. Along with them, sound-letter abbreviations are used: CD-ROM (compact disc-real only memory). Such interspersions in the oral and written speech of politicians, businessmen, scientists, engineers, and television employees are now numbered in dozens.

On the other hand, English-American abbreviations began to be written in the press and in special literature, and then in works of art in Russian letters, but with a reflection of their sound appearance in the source language. The most common is the letter abbreviation PR from the English PR-Public Relations. This acronym causes the greatest controversy among both journalists and linguists, primarily because its meaning is not clear to everyone (why not "public relations", but "public relations" - originally "public relations department" in the media and industrial enterprises). In addition, it is not clear how to write it in Russian.

V. V. Lopatin, editor - in-chief of the new text of the Spelling Dictionary, suggested that the PR form should be fixed for an understandable reason: this abbreviation sounds similar to many Russian words: fire, bazaar, commodity. Answering several questions from visitors of the Russian Language portal on the Internet (website www.gramota.ru; email address: spravka@gramota.ru), the portal staff recommends using only this form and do not recommend writing "public relations" or "public relations" (as a manifestation of foppishness, we would say). And in one of the most complete dictionaries of the latest vocabulary - in the Explanatory Dictionary of the modern Russian Language: Language changes of the late XX century. Edited by G. I. Sklyarevskaya, Moscow, 2001-the words are given: PR, prit, PR campaign, PR person, PR person (which is recognized as colloquial, but, in fact, is more common than PR person ), PR person; however, the dictionary also records the words taken from the recent press: PR, PR agency, PR-promotion, PR-business, PR-campaign. In the field of a living language, it is difficult to make predictions, but we can still assume that the first option - PR-will be fixed, and the combination of PR with the words action, etc.will disappear as redundant.

The constant growth in the number of borrowed abbreviations pronounced by the names of English letters, but written in Russian letters, makes us think this way. There are especially many of them in the field of electronic technology. This is also CDI (from compact disc), which completely coincides in sound with the Russian word sidi. This is also pi-si (from personal computer), which resembles the Russian words visi, carry and which, having become the object of many jokes, has entered with various additions into computer jargon. This is also a dee-wee-dee (from digital versatile disc), which is similar to the real-time

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godi or bring. This is a DJ in the entertainment industry (there is a variant of DJ, from disc jockey), a wordoid similar to lackey, Eremey. Spelled out, as in English, and the names of agencies are written in Russian letters: "CN-Em" and "BBC", along with readable, almost as in English, sound abbreviations such as NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), which is pronounced like Russian words nasha, Masha, etc.

Summing up, we can say that a new page has opened in Russian word formation: a wide borrowing of not only words and phrases, but also abbreviations from the English language in their almost original sound (fixed in Russian letters). It is important to emphasize that this process is a continuation of the living trends in abbreviation that were active in the Russian language throughout the 20th century. And whether it will expand depends on many factors, including non-linguistic ones. In any case, as is usually the case in original languages, and this includes the Russian language, those phenomena that serve to enrich and flourish the language are preserved and developed.

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