What is the russian word for german

In the Russian language world view, there is a significant difference between one’s citizenship (гражданство, referring to the country) and ethnicity (национальность). For example, Russian may mean either российский or русский. A person may be referred to as россиянин (a citizen of Russia) and as русский (ethnic Russian), being, for example, ethnic Tatar.

So, some countries have a pair of adjectives, one referring to the country itself, and the other to the ethnicity. Returning to the question, германский is the former and немецкий is the latter:

• Германский refers to the country or the territory: германский флаг, советско-германский пакт о ненападении, германские племена (tribes that lived on the territory of modern Germany).

• Немецкий refers to the language, ethnicity, or culture: немецкий язык, немец (ethnicity), немецкая литература.

Германские языки is a slightly complex example: German (немецкий язык) is one of the Germanic languages (германские языки). Германские языки here is a number of languages originally spoken on roughly the territory of modern Germany, as well as the languages descended from those. English, as a matter of the fact, is considered a Germanic language (Английский язык относится к германской языковой группе). Here, немецкий и германский are obviously non-interchangeable.

Kira Lisitskaya (Photo: Legion Media; Vasily Vereshchagin/Tretyakov gallery)

In modern Russian, Germans are not called Germans, but ‘Nemtsy’. And, in ancient Russia, they called almost all Europeans that way.

Inozemtsy (foreigners), chuzhestrantsy (strangers) or simply ‘non-Christians’ — how only foreigners were not called in Russia! But, the most common nickname was ‘Germans’ or, if to be more accurate, ‘Nemtsy’. How come?

How ‘Nemtsy’ appeared 

The first Russian chronicle mentions of ‘Nemtsy’ in Russia belong to the 10th century — so the missionaries of the Pope of Rome were called, who came to offer the Russian prince to accept their Catholic faith. 

Later, there were many different foreigners in Russia, but all of them were often indiscriminately called simply ‘Nemtsy’. This word in the Russian language has origin from the word ‘nemoi’ or literally ‘dumb’, ‘speechless’. And, after all, all those foreigners could not say a word in Russian as if they were dumb. 

Historically, Russia has always had many immigrants from Germany — far more than any other foreigners. From the 12th century, merchants, doctors and craftsmen all came and, in the 16th century, even the German village of ‘Nemetskaya Sloboda’ was founded. The tsars themselves actively recruited professionals and specialists — for example, in military or engineering matters. Peter the Great was even reputed as a Germanophile — among his closest circle were many sons of Germany. So, the nickname ‘nemtsy’ in Russian was reserved for the Germans. 

Russian Empress Catherine the Great was an ethnic German. She allowed Germans to settle in the Russian Volga region (their descendants still live there) — so this is how the concept of ‘Russian Germans’ (or Russkie nemtsy) appeared. 

What else foreigners were called in Russia

Foreigners were called ‘nemtsy’ for simplicity — and, yet, Russians were able to distinguish between representatives of other nations and, at different times in some cases, other nicknames were invented. 

The first foreigners seen by the Slavic tribes inhabiting the territory of ancient Russia were probably the Vikings. According to the most popular historical theory, they were the first rulers of Russia and the founders of the Russian state — allegedly the Slavic tribes themselves called vikings to rule them. They, and in fact, all the Scandinavians in Russia were called Varangians. In addition, the famous trade route from Europe to Byzantium through the waterways of Russia was called ‘From the Varangians to the Greeks’. 

The most massive invasion of foreigners into Russia occurred in the 13th century — the invasion of the Tatar-Mongols. These ‘Basurmans’ and looked completely unfamiliar and professed Islam. Many scholars believe that ‘Basurman’ is a distortion of ‘Muslim’ in Russian (compare words in Russian: basurmanin and musulmanin). This was the name given not only to those who practiced Islam, but also to many other non-believers, especially from Asia.

While most foreigners from Western Europe were densely called ‘nemtsy’, there was an exceptional case of Italians. They were given the nickname ‘Friazin’, ‘Freag’. Presumably, it came from the word ‘franc’. In the 15th century, a large number of Italian architects were invited to Russia — they built the walls and cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin and other fortifications.

Many, having become russified, even received the surname ‘Fryazin’ — Aloysio de Caresano became Alevis Fryazin and, for example, Antonio Gilardi became Anton Fryazin. Diplomat Gian Battista della Volpe, meanwhile, became Ivan Friazin. 

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When taking German lessons or attending a German course, you’ll come across many German words of foreign origin. German, like other languages, borrows words typically from Latin, Greek, English and French. Less well known are Russian words that have made their way into the German language, often through the linguistic development of the part of Germany that lay behind the Iron Curtain.

The word der Kosmonaut is the counterpart to the English term Astronaut.

Kosmo- from Greek kosmos meaning outer space and –naut from Greek Nauta meaning navigator – therefore, Kosmonaut is the one navigating outer space.

Kreml (Kremlin) – meaning fort – is nowadays the epicentre of power in Russia from where Mr Putin pulls the strings. Mammut (mammoth) – meaning tusk from the earth –is usually left when one of these mammals is excavated in the Russian Steppe. We have another German word of Russian origin, die Steppe – meaning treeless and barren land.

Die Troika from Russian tri meaning three – Troika – group of three. Are there any other German words of Russian origin that you know?