Foreign Language Vocabulary in the A. P. Chekhov’s Letters

The letters by A. P. Chekhov are analyzed as an important source of studying foreign language neology in the Russian language (speech) of the second half of the XIX century. The terms foreign-system and intersystem vocabulary used in modern linguistics are considered, as well as criteria that allow to affirm incorporation of a foreign-language word into the lexical system of the recipient language. Foreign-system units illustrate the beginning or prehistory of the process of borrowing of some words. They are either fully transmitted by Latin script or partially recoded; most often they are used in letters from abroad and associated with descriptions of European life. Intersystem lexemes are transcoded graphically and phonetically (using transcription or transliteration) and morphologically, but they are not included in the system of the Russian literary language. At the same time, they are of interest because they were quite frequent in speech and had word-forming and semantic potential (for example, insipid — insipidnyi — insipidno). Epistolary texts also reflect foreign language borrowings of the second half of the XIX century, including substantive, verbal, and adjectival vocabulary. Often such borrowings become the subject of metalanguage refl ections, which makes it possible to assess the time of a word’s appearance in the Russian language, the features of its semantic adaptation and pragmatic characteristics.