Special vocabulary of Lifliandskaia ekonomiia by M. Lomonosov in comparison with Stratagema oeconomicum by S. Gubert

Abstract

Stratagema oeconomicum by S. Gubert (1645) is one of the first German-language instructions on farming in the historical region of Livonia. In 1747, M. Lomonosov translated Gubert’s book into Russian under the title Lifljandskaia Ekonomiia (‘Economy of Livonia’). This translation was an adaptation of the original German text (which is characterized by the abundance of words denoting objects common in a rural area) to the geographical and sociocultural conditions of 18th century Russia. In general, Lomonosov’s translation is close to the original. Nevertheless, a comparison of the two texts reveals a number of differences in lexical semantics and style. To convey the meaning of German words into the Russian text, Lomonosov used general language as well as dialect vocabulary, possibly referring to knowledge from his own life experience. In some cases, he also constructed new words by transliterating German terms. Sometimes, in fragments containing long sequences of terms, their order was changed or one or more terms were eliminated from the list. The eliminated terms, as a rule, denote objects that were less significant in the context of agriculture in the European part of Russia, or duplicate words and expressions mentioned earlier in the text. This strategy follows the tradition that existed in Russia since the time of Peter the Great, allowing for an abridged translation. The study of special vocabulary in Lifljandskaia Ekonomiia in connection with the original German text reveals a number of facts that can be taken into account when preparing the reprint of Lomonosov’s works.