In the near future, if two Muscovites go for a biznes-lanch, they could be fined. If they then order a gamburger, they could be fined again. And if they get out their smartfon to check their Feisbuk, there could be serious trouble.
This, at least, is the future envisaged by a new law that would introduce fines for the inappropriate use of foreign loan words in Russian. The draft law was suggested by a group of MPs from the Liberal Democrat party, a nationalist force in parliament. The party is often responsible for scandalous or outlandish initiatives in parliament.
The law has been redrafted over the past year and will be examined by the Duma early next month, after being approved this week by the parliament’s culture committee. It proposes fines starting from 2000 roubles for individuals, rising to 50,000 roubles for legal entities using foreign words in public.
The law proposes fines for those who “use foreign words and expressions which do not meet the norms of literary Russian and which have commonly used equivalents in literary Russian”.
“We are sick of these Americanisms and Anglicisms,” said the party’s leader, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, when first proposing the law in 2013. “We will make a list of words that are forbidden from use when there are normal Russian words... It should be on the table of every journalist, television and radio presenter, teacher, professor and writer.”
Dmitry Gudkov, one of the few anti-Kremlin MPs remaining in parliament, told a Russian newspaper that he would not support the bill, and said that lawmakers were currently engaged in a “championship of idiotism” to see who could suggest the most ridiculous laws.
“We are not the first people to have this kind of initiative,” said the deputy head of the Duma’s committee on culture, Vladimir Bortko, Russian agencies reported. “The French were the first, as they were worried about Anglicisms and the disappearance of the great French language. I respect the French, but no more than I respect my own country and language — the language of Tolstoy, Pushkin and so on.” Mr. Bortko added that it was important not to go over the top with the law.
The French recommendations carry no legal weight, and it is unclear who would be responsible for detecting and fining the inappropriate use of foreign words in Russia.
Eagle-eyed etymologists, however, noted that none of the words in the Liberalnaya Demokraticheskaya Partiya are of Slavic origin, so publishing the name of the party proposing the law could be enough to receive a fine.
Talking of which, the Russian for “fine” is shtraf — from the German word strafe. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2014
