The Life of a Foreign Traveler in Russia According to Johann Arnold Brand’s Dictionary-Phrasebook, 1673

Abstract

The article provides for an overview of foreigners’ encounter with the Russian language in the 16th — early 18th centuries; it analyzes, for this purpose, the German-Russian dictionary-phrasebook from the diary “Journey through Brandenburg, Prussia, Courland, Livonia, Pskov, Veliky Novgorod, Tver and Moscow” by Johann Arnold Brand. The phrasebook “Some Muscovite words and expressions that may be useful to travelers”, compiled by Brand on the way from Pskov to Moscow, contains the names of body parts, clothing, household accessories, dishes and drinks, food products, interior items, transport, utensils, writing tools in Russian transliteration with the translation into German. It also includes ready-made speech structures for communicating with fellow travelers, coachmen, owners and staff of the inns, for disposing of servants and property. The analysis of the phrasebook made it possible to recreate the everyday realities of the life of the Brandenburg Embassy on the road, and situations of lexical exchange. The authors provide a commented version of the literal reading of words and expressions in Russian. The independent study of the local language in Russia by foreign travelers was the most effective way to overcome the communication barrier and improve living conditions when traveling to the borderlands. The source under study may be of interest to both historians of the frontier and specialists in material culture and linguistics.