The first Total Dictation was written by Novosibirsk in 2004. Then the student club "Glum Club" of the Faculty of Humanities of NSU, headed by the president of the club, Yekaterina Kosykh, proposed the idea of ​​organizing a mass dictation. Only 150 people took part in it.

The first 6 dictations were written in Novosibirsk within the walls of NSU, the texts were borrowed from the works of Russian classics. In 2009, 618 Novosibirsk residents tested their knowledge of the Russian language. Of these, only seven lucky ones received "excellent". 118 people got "good" marks, 254 got "satisfactory" marks, but 239 volunteers were left with two marks. In the name of justice, it should be noted that he proposed an excerpt from the story "Nevsky Prospect" by Gogol, which can hardly be considered correct, because the great Russian writer with Little Russian ethnic roots had too peculiar vocabulary and syntax. He is too far from Chekhov and Bunin.

Internet to help

At the same time, the mobile Internet became publicly available, and it became clear that any text from the classics can be found on the Web and copied right on the dictation. What is possible, the organizers realized when in one of the works that claimed the top five, they found extra sentences that were in the text of the work, but they were not in the text of the dictation offered to the participants. It became necessary to create unique texts that would not be published on the Web until the time of the Total Dictation. The author of the first text written specifically for the TD was the famous writer Boris Strugatsky. His text titled "What is the reason for the decline of the Russian language and is it even there?" 2600 residents of Novosibirsk wrote under dictation. The science fiction text consisted of only 330 words, but the participants in the Total Dictation then set a record for the number of mistakes.

Interest and desire to test their literacy prompts you to take part in the mass action. Photo from pixabay.com

Of the 2600 people who tested their literacy, only 20 received "excellent", 570 - "good", 1000 - "satisfactory". And a thousand people wrote a dictation in the "two". It was then that controversy began around "Total Dictation". Boris Strugatsky, no one argues, the writer was authoritative. But still the text from under the pen of a science fiction writer came out slightly clumsy and boring. For objectivity's sake: Boris Natanovich wrote his best works many years ago in collaboration with his brother, a military translator and editor. Huge controversy then caused the expression "thank God."

“It would be better if it weren't in the text at all, and that's why,” says the Novosibirsk philologist Marina Senatorova. - In Soviet times, the word "god" in school and in all newspapers was written with a small letter in all cases. Nowadays, the word "God" is written with a capital letter in the meaning of one supreme being. In numerous stable combinations that are used outside of direct connection with religion, one should write a lowercase letter: God knows, God is with him, as God wills. However, in some cases, the choice of spelling depends on the context. So, it can be written "thank God" (if the context indicates that the speaker thanks the Lord God) and "thank God" (if it is clear from the context that a common colloquial phrase is used). Total, that is, universal, dictation is written by everyone - including believers. And it’s natural for them to write the word “God” with a capital letter, they perceive this very context this way. They try not to pronounce the name of God in vain. Strugatsky himself, for example, in the text of the dictation wrote "Language" with a capital letter, giving this word an additional meaning. And believers, of which there are many, always attach additional meaning to the word "God". As a result - massive mistakes.

Closely connected with this case is another controversial point in Strugatsky's text: “Bulgakovs, Chekhovs, Tolsty”. Almost every student knows: the proper names of individuals, which have become common nouns, are written with a lowercase letter: philanthropist, ladies' man, gigolo, derzhimorda. However, the spelling with a capital letter is preserved, if the surname, used in a common noun, does not pass into the category of common nouns. Tolstoy, Bulgakov, Chekhov are great writers, and they, of course, represent a certain type of people, but nevertheless their names have by no means lost their individual meaning, and therefore they should have been unambiguously written with a capital letter, unless the author uses them contemptuously, derogatory meaning.

Girls are better than text

“For many years I knew about Total Dictation and knew the people who wrote it,” says the Novosibirsk writer Alexander Dukhnov. - "Just wondering"; “I want to test my literacy”; “Just hang out,” is the answer I’m most understandable. The spirit of the flash mob hovers over the Total dictation - to gather in the wrong place and collectively do something ridiculous. Dictation for pleasure - what could be more ridiculous? I am an honest man, and besides, I have nothing to hide. I have a "troika" in Russian, which has an attraction in the direction of a completely indecent assessment. Somehow my friends and I came to the national economy to write and subsequently laugh at the results and at each other. Here, along the way, a large number of pretty students were found. The dictation itself seemed to me rather boring in content. The author Zakhar Prilepin was constantly screwing in some kind of light bulbs in the entrance, trying to start with himself the restructuring of the collective consciousness. And so it’s quite a decent event. The girls turned out to be better than the text.

Every year the number of participants The total dictation is growing. Photo from pixabay.com

In 2011, Dmitry Bykov became the author of the text for the Total Dictation. He, like Strugatsky, will share his thoughts on the state of the language. Bykov specially came to Novosibirsk. Then the action went beyond Novosibirsk: people in eleven Russian regions and even a few people in the United States took part in it. In Novosibirsk, 2695 people wrote the dictation, 47 of them received "excellent". However, the most widespread mark was still the "two": more than half of the participants could not satisfactorily cope with the writing of the text proposed by Bykov.

- Then the controversy was caused by the writing of the expression "Moscow University", and it is partly the fault of the author, - continues the philologist Marina Senatorova. - Text for a literacy test should not contain controversial options, and this is just such a case. It was clear from the context that we were talking about Moscow State University: therefore, a capital letter was needed. But nowadays there are a lot of universities, people of different ages and everyday experience write the dictation, they test their knowledge of grammar exclusively: this means that the text must be impeccable from this point of view. Assuming that we are talking about one of the many Moscow universities, a lowercase letter is required.

According to Bykov, he composed the text of the dictation in 20-30 minutes, which is funny, but hardly arouses the respect of responsible and self-critical people. It would be necessary to be more careful.

On six continents

In 2014, the text for "Total Dictation" was written by the Ural prose writer Alexei Ivanov. He owns a huge volume of Russian vocabulary, is sincerely fascinated by the history of his native land. At the same time, Konstantin Khabensky, Andrei Makarevich, Maxim Krongauz, Andrei Konstantinov, Natalya Krachkovskaya, Seva Novgorodtsev and other popular personalities acted as "dictators".

In 2014, "Total Dictation" was written on six continents, in 352 cities, in 47 countries of the near and far abroad. 64 thousand Russian speakers decided to test their literacy, which is more than two times more than in 2013. The northernmost point of the dictation was Dixon on Taimyr, and the southernmost was the Vostok Antarctic scientific station. The westernmost point was San Jose (California, USA), and the easternmost was Auckland (New Zealand). A member of the crew of the International Space Station, pilot-cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, took part in the action - after all, the dictation was written on Cosmonautics Day. Bishkek, Talin, Pavlodar and Riga became the leaders in terms of the number of participants among foreign cities.

Literacy and reading are in vogue today. Photo from pixabay.com

About 2 thousand out of 64 thousand people coped well with the dictation: this is just over 3%. The "fives" received 2% of the participants in the action. The organizers believe that the improvement in the result was associated, firstly, with the high literary quality of the then text of the dictation, and secondly, with the work of free courses "Russian on Fridays", which were attended by more than fifteen thousand people in many cities.

In Novosibirsk, 4509 people passed the dictation, including 196 excellent students, that is, 4.3 percent, which is much higher than the general level. Common mistakes have traditionally been the spelling of "n" and "nn" in suffixes, the prefixes "pre-" and "pri-". Most of the mistakes were made in the words "platform", "semaphore", "front garden", "accordion" and "ragged".

The phrase "Chusovskaya station" also caused difficulty - should the word "Chusovskaya" be written with a capital or small letter? In Ivanov's text, "Chusovskaya station" is written with a small letter, because in this case it is not a composite name: the old station has not been there for a long time, and it is not known what it was officially called. Here - just an adjective, formed from a geographical name of the type "Neva banks", "Don Cossacks", "Moscow streets".

We add that in 2018 it will take place on Saturday, April 14, and will start at 15.00 Novosibirsk time. ... By the way, you should hurry up with registration - the number of places at some venues is limited.

2004 - Leo Tolstoy, "War and Peace".

2005 - Alexander Beck, Volokolamskoe Highway.

2006 - Ivan Sokolov-Mikitov, "Taimyr Lake".

2007 - Vasil Bykov, Sotnikov.

2008 - Rudyard Kipling, Naulaka: A Story of East and West.

2009 - Nikolai Gogol, Nevsky Prospect.

2010 - Boris Strugatsky.

2011 - Dmitry Bykov.

2012 - Zakhar Prilepin.

2013 - Dina Rubina.

2014 - Alexey Ivanov.

2015 - Evgeny Vodolazkin.

2016 - Andrey Usachev.

2017 - Leonid Yuzefovich.

Instead of the usual "akanya", Muscovites began to "okat": "orena", "ozart", "departure"

Getting an adult to sit down at a desk again and remember the rules of the Russian language is not an easy task. But this is precisely one of the goals of the Total Dictation educational campaign. This year, the most competent flash mob of the country took place on April 16 on all continents of the planet, under the water of Lake Urozero in Karelia and on board a Novosibirsk-Moscow plane. In the capital, about 16 thousand people sat down at their desks. The MK correspondent also took part in checking the country's most ambitious dictation.

... On Sunday, April 17, in the sunny classrooms of the Russian State Humanitarian University, it was unusually crowded: hundreds of students and teachers came to check the Total Dictation. Together with them, they gathered to give marks at two more sites: at the Higher School of Economics and at the Moscow City Pedagogical University. At the forefront of dictionary battles are philologists, journalists, historians, teachers, students and even schoolchildren.

“In total, 600 people are checking the dictation this year,” says Maria Rovinskaya, organizer of the Total Dictation in Moscow. - In particular, we have invited the honors of last year's dictation - people in whom we are sure. The most difficult part was developing a set of instructions for the reviewers. In some cases, we are more loyal than the school system: we do not take into account stylistic and lexical errors, incorrect hyphenation.

The funniest part of the dictation is the slightly ridiculous and non-standard mistakes of the participants (by the way, there were surprisingly few of them). In my personal top of misconceptions and missteps, the unfortunate Greeks occupy the first place - in the text dedicated to Ancient Greece, this word was encountered more than once. And "Ellens" and "Eilens", and even respectfully "Hellenes" - the ancient Greeks cheated beyond recognition.

There are also mistakes that were clearly made either by small participants in the dictation, or by those for whom Russian is not native: "chitoby" and "chito", "botalia", "every year", "orena", "ozart" and "departures" ...

As the organizers told us, the text of this year is neither more complicated nor simpler than the texts of previous years. It's just different - there are many names in it (Ancient Greece, Olympia, Olympia, Hellas, Olympic Games). Writing exactly these words could raise questions - and did.

The rating system in Total Dictation is strict: to qualify for the "top five", you can make only one punctuation mistake. Those who manage to puzzle the examiners with nine or more incidents receive "deuces". In any case, all controversial options are always decided in favor of the writer. As the organizers themselves say, the "troika" is a very worthy assessment in the Total Dictation.

“There is such a thing as variability of norms,” Vladimir Pakhomov, a member of the expert commission of the Total Dictation and the editor-in-chief of one of the portals, told MK. - Last year, for example, there was a proposal with 57 options for the placement of punctuation marks, each of which does not contradict the rules. And even if the decision of the writer does not coincide with the author's text, this option can also be correct if it complies with the norms.

Total dictation is not only an hour alone with a captivating text, but also a kind of global study of the language. Linguists are interested in how it develops.

“Last year, for example, only every fifth person did not make a mistake in the word“ half-turn ”- only 20% of those who wrote,” recalls Vladimir. - And here the question arises: if four out of five native speakers, not the last two, are mistaken, then maybe this is a reason for linguists to think: "Isn't it possible to revise the rule?"

Linguists continue to parse the dictation in parts: the second online broadcast was conducted by the chairman of the Expert Council, head of the department of general and Russian linguistics of NSU Natalya Koshkaryova, the correspondent of Sib.fm learned from Natalia Koshkareva on April 12.

The second part of the text "City and River" by Leonid Yuzefovich was written by residents of Novosibirsk. It is dedicated to Perm and Kama.

“The text of 2017 is consonant with the inhabitants of Novosibirsk, which also stands on the great Siberian river. We could write the fourth part of the dictation entitled “Novosibirsk. Ob ". Residents of Novosibirsk wrote the text very well: the number of excellent students has increased significantly. This is probably more than in all previous years combined, "Natalya Koshkaryova told Sib.fm about the preliminary results.

In 2016, there were 102 excellent students. The increase in the number of "fives" was influenced by the regular training of participants in the action in face-to-face and online courses. In addition, in 2017, the organizers of the action for the first time spoke in advance about the nine words that will be encountered in the dictation.

“For example, the word“ sterlet ”, in which the largest number of mistakes was made, was“ revealed ”before the start of the dictation, and everyone who is interested in holding the action could remember its spelling,” added the chairman of the expert council.

Natalya Koshkareva named the saddest mistake in the second part of the Total Dictation: it was no coincidence that it was Eva Dalaskina who made it (a fictional character who, since 2015, the members of the Expert Council have considered mistakes made, "mishearing").

“Instead of separately writing 'the streets were called BY the temples that stood on them' (that is, the names of the streets were given in accordance with the names of the temples that were on them), Eva Dalaskina wrote a combination of the preposition 'by' with the participle of 'standing' together. Eva Dalaskina managed to have churches “stood” on these streets for some time, ”the expert commented.

According to Natalia Koshkareva, the rules that will first need to be prepared for the 2018 dictation will be clear when the new text appears. But there are the most common mistakes: merged and separate spelling NOT with words of different parts of speech, one and two H, punctuation marks in a complex sentence, especially in cases where two marks must be put at the same time, each on the basis of its own rule. This is the case that was discussed during the analysis online.

“The colon is placed after the generalizing word“ second (streets) ”in front of a number of homogeneous members“ Siberian, Solikamskaya, Verkhoturskaya ”. The colon is a strong sign, it absorbs other signs that happen to be next to it. Therefore, it is easiest to put a colon in this case, ”the linguist explained.

A dash is also a valid sign for homogeneous terms with a generalization word. He could also be put in this sentence, but the dash does not absorb the signs that should stand in front of him. That is why the subordinate clause "where the roads following from them led" in this case had to be separated by commas on both sides.

“The confluence of characters often causes errors, so it is better to follow the reference options. With a generalizing word that stands in front of a number of homogeneous members, such a reference sign is the colon, ”advised Natalya Koshkaryova.

On the page with the record of the online parsing of the dictation there are tables and matrices where 30 options are allowed, and all are correct, so the question of the limits of variability often arises.

“In fact, there is no variation. Each sign conveys its own meaning. They put a colon - they wanted to emphasize a reason or an explanation. Separated the parts of the non-union complex sentence with commas, which means they just listed the events. The choice of signs is not arbitrary and not accidental, it depends on the meanings and nuances that the writer wants to convey, "explained Natalya Koshkareva and gave an example.

"I will not call you () you will be offended" - without punctuation marks it is impossible to determine the relationship between the parts.

“Dash: Resentment is a consequence of the fact that I did not call. Colon: Potential resentment is the reason why I am not calling you. Maybe I'll have to tell you something unpleasant, ”the linguist showed the significance of the signs and meaning of the text.

Recall that the first online analysis of the third part of the Total Dictation was the editor of "Gramota.ru" Vladimir Pakhomov.

Experts who checked the "Total Dictation" in Moscow were very surprised and amused by the unusual mistakes that the participants in the test made, reports "Moskovsky Komsomolets". So, in the works, the inspectors often met the words: "botalia", "orena", "ozart", "departures".

ON THIS TOPIC

According to experts, such mistakes could have been made either by very small participants in the dictation, or by those for whom Russian is not their native language. One of the most common mistakes was the misspelling of the word "Hellenes" - in the text dedicated to Ancient Greece. So, many participants wrote "Ellens", "Eilens", and even respectfully "Hellenes", changing the ancient Greeks beyond recognition. However, experts note that, fortunately, there were few such mistakes.

The rating system of "Total Dictation" is strict: to qualify for the "top five", you can make only one punctuation mistake. Those who have found nine or more errors receive "deuces". However, all controversial spellings of words are always decided in favor of the writer. According to the organizers of the event, even the "troika" is a very worthy assessment in this case.

"Total dictation" is an annual educational event for everyone. The purpose of the event is to give everyone an opportunity to test their knowledge and arouse interest in improving literacy.

- When you saw the text, did you mark potentially dangerous moments for yourself? What words did it immediately become clear: mistakes would be made in them?

“Some of our expectations were confirmed, while others, to our great joy, were not. For example, we expected many mistakes in the word "art", but those who wrote Total Dictation practically did not have them. This suggests that this word is well mastered within the framework of the school course of the Russian language. I emphasize that we do not draw conclusions "in general", not "on average", but only on the basis of the work of the participants of the action, and this is the most competent and active part of the nation.

The next word is “subsequently”, in which there were mistakes, but still their number was not catastrophic, which also shows a good level of mastering vocabulary words at school.

- There were words with a hyphen, they usually cause difficulties.

- Yes, it turned out to be difficult, for example, the word in ancient Egyptian, since for its correct spelling, one must simultaneously remember about three rules. The first rule is hyphenated adverbs with a prefix on- and the suffix -and... I think that in words like in turkish there would be practically no mistakes, since the structure of this word is transparent: from the adjective Turkish adverb formed in turkish using the prefix on- and suffix -and.

This rule is known so well that it is extended to other phenomena. For example, in the same text of the Total Dictation, the word simpler, which many wrote with a hyphen, most likely by analogy with the rule for adverbs. But simpler is a comparative form adjective (simple – simpler – simpler), therefore the rule for it adverbs does not apply. Prefix in a word simpler denotes a weak degree of manifestation of a sign and is written together.

The second rule to remember for the correct spelling of the word in ancient Egyptian, Is a rule of continuous writing of adjectives formed from phrases based on a subordinate connection. Adverb in ancient Egyptian derived from the adjective ancient egyptian, and it, in turn, from the name of the state Ancient Egypt, which is a phrase built on the basis of a subordinate relationship: Egypt(which?) - Ancient(word Ancient depends on the word Egypt, obeys him). Such adjectives are written together, as opposed to adjectives such as black and white or meat and milk, formed on the basis of a compositional connection that presupposes equality of concepts (cf. black and white, meat and dairy).

And, finally, the third rule: spelling of adjectives formed from proper nouns, with an uppercase or lowercase letter. Adjective ancient egypt sc ui written with a lowercase letter, since it contains a suffix -sk-... Wed with adjectives Shaft in , Mish in , which are also derived from proper names, but are written with a capital letter, because they include another suffix - -in.

Each of these rules separately is well known, but the application of their complex is difficult.

- Just like a concatenation of punctuation marks?

- Indeed, most of the errors appear in those places where it is necessary to put two signs at the same time, for example, a comma and a dash, while each of the signs must be put according to its own rule. These difficulties are associated with the need to simultaneously apply two or three rules, and such cases are practically not practiced in school grammar, since at school you need to have time to learn at least a core of the rules, and there is no time left for their various combinations.

The combination of different rules, in general, is self-evident, you just need to remember that the confluence of two signs is possible, despite the fact that it often frightens the writers, they often ask the question: "Can two signs stand side by side at the same time?" Yes, they can, and even should, since each of them is responsible for his own sphere. In the first part of this year's Total Dictation, there was such an example: ... Sophocles decided to attract actors who could play his works - this is how the theater appeared... In it, it was necessary to put a comma before the dash, closing the subordinate clause who could play his works, and a dash - according to the rule of a non-union complex sentence, the second part of which begins with a demonstrative pronoun So.

- What mistakes were unexpected for you? I read that in the dictation, a gag was manifested in a strange way: departures, orena, ozart ...

- Such mistakes, in my opinion, are a logical continuation of one of the main "rules" of Russian spelling - "write not what you hear." True, in this case it is impossible to apply the continuation of this rule: if you doubt what you need to write, check it, put it under stress. This rule applies to native Russian words, and words arena, excitement, athlete borrowed from other languages, they are not required to obey the rules of the Russian language.

The rule of checked vowels at the root of a word is the most frequent rule in all texts without exception: to spell a word correctly nep O stop, you need to put the corresponding vowel in the position under stress - etc O one hundred... In words athlete, arena, excitement This, of course, is impossible to do, since in these borrowed words the vowels are unverifiable, but just in case, those who write, apparently, are reinsured and write “not what they hear”.

There are always a lot of mistakes in borrowed words, since the spelling of these words must be memorized, they are not subject to the rules of the Russian language, which are intuitive to everyone. And if they are rare in the practice of every writer, then there is simply no opportunity to remember them, especially if they are not specially worked out at school, if they do not belong to the category of words that are usually taken into the framework for memorization.

An annoying mistake was the spelling of the names of states. Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt when some participants of the action wrote the first word with a lowercase letter. Many were outraged that this was a "not quite spelling" mistake, but in fact it was a spelling mistake: the spelling of such words is governed by the spelling rule of the names of states. No one, probably, will dispute the spelling of the names of modern states, such as the Russian Federation, United States of America, United Arab Emirates and others, where each word is capitalized. The names of ancient states are no different from the names of modern states. It is doubly annoying to meet such mistakes, since the history of ancient states is studied at school in sufficient detail, it would seem that this knowledge should form an integral part of the elementary educational standard of every school graduate.

And this is where the question arises about the scope of the concept of "literate person": how does the modern understanding of "literacy" differ from that fixed in dictionaries? In dictionaries, the word "literate" is defined only as "able to read and write." But this ability today in our country does not surprise anyone, all of us, without exception, can read and write, since the law on general secondary education provides this opportunity. This began to be perceived as a natural state of affairs, therefore, in the minds of a modern person, the concept of "literate" began to be filled with meanings not reflected in dictionaries. “Literate” is a person who not only knows how to read and write, but who does it without mistakes, at a high level, recognizing the subtle shades of meanings inherent in texts, and having a broad outlook.

- I once wrote a column called. It is about the fact that many native speakers are very aggressive towards those who make mistakes. Every now and then they propose to put everyone in prison, or even shoot for confusion with put on-put on, For example. Why do you think people react so painfully to mistakes?

- First of all, there is no need to write about it so often, such phenomena are spontaneous, isolated, not such people form the atmosphere of universal hatred, but the journalists who exaggerate these phenomena. There are many more people who really care about literacy: these are, first of all, school teachers, these are many, many journalists and philologists, leading relevant programs on TV, radio, in magazine and newspaper columns. It is better to write about them, their contribution is much more significant and positive than a separate surge of aggression, which, most likely, is a continuation of the individual's disappointment in life in general, in all its manifestations.

These are just unhappy people who are afraid to throw out their aggression on other people, because they will surely be rebuffed, they don’t get into a fight, they just swear on the Internet, most often anonymously, splashing out the harmfulness of their character into a language that cannot answer them in any way , but he does not need it, since he is great and mighty and will not suffer from such attacks.

- I do not agree with you about aggression: unfortunately, this is not a separate outburst, but a constant phenomenon. Vladimir Pakhomov, editor-in-chief of Gramota.ru, confirms this, he constantly receives letters with requests to shoot for coffee neuter and so on. They write exactly that: shoot, plant.

That's why I wrote a column to get people to look at themselves from the outside.

- It seems to me that Total dictation is a much more widespread phenomenon than individual aggressive antics. I think that the popularity of the action lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of people perceive language as an absolute value, as a way of cultural self-identification that ensures a comfortable existence: this is a guarantee that you are correctly understood, that your communicative intentions are correctly recognized in the community, that is, in the end, the opportunity to maintain the purity of the native language, perhaps thereby even demonstrate their patriotism.

– What mistakes are you yourself intolerant of?

- I am tolerant of any mistakes, even swear words (not to be confused with foul language as a form of offensive behavior!), Because many of them are a continuation of the system, exist as part of the language in all its diversity.

The question is what counts as a "mistake." If the notorious "rings" and "coffee" are neuter, then these are not mistakes, but a reflection of the laws inherent in the language system itself. They are recognized as "mistakes" by people who try to normalize the possible areas of use of certain words or forms, they hang evaluative labels on them: this is "high", this is "low", this is "permissible in the speech of an educated person", but this is not. There are no mistakes in the language itself, there are violations of the rules established by people, but such violations also occur in road traffic. There, for some mistakes, the rights are taken away, and for mistakes in the spelling of words, they do not even charge a fine.

- How literate are today's students? And are they interested in the language?

- Students are the most literate part of our society. To enter a university, they must not only pass the USE in the Russian language, but get a score in accordance with the high bar set by universities.

And the fact that they are certainly interested in the language is proved by the Total Dictation. After all, this is a student, not a philological action: it was invented by students, carried out by students, philologists only support them. This interest in the language flares up all over the world, on all continents, because it is the students who, completely voluntarily and unselfishly, on the best spring days, when they can do something completely different, organize the Total Dictation, its test, and the test is not just a one-time an event when you can come, have fun and leave, and this is painstaking, many-day work, very stressful, since it needs to be carried out in a very short time and in very large volumes. Nobody forces them, nothing but love for their native language, their activity is not motivated. What more could you want from today's youth? Participation in the Total Dictation brings me to a state of euphoria: literacy is what our students are now interested in on a massive scale.

- Why is dictation a fun, exciting flash mob for the participants of your action, and one of the most boring genres for schoolchildren in the classroom? How to make Russian lessons in schools interesting?

- If dictation was such a boring occupation in schools, no one would have gone to a dictation with the frightening name “Total”. This means that it was not so bad to do it at school, since people still write dictations with joy.

It all depends on the personality of the teacher: one and the same thing can be told in a boring and uninteresting way, or it can be exciting and incendiary, while it does not matter at all what the story is about. This means that most teachers still conduct dictations in such a way that they want to write them over and over again. If such a large number of people are so anxious about their native language, it means that they took this love out of school. Otherwise, where does this relation come from? Total dictation only picked up this love, and it was formed at school.

- This time the Total Dictation was written on all six continents. Usually the Russian language of those who have not lived in Russia for a long time is special, it differs from ours. Accordingly, people make mistakes because they do not use the language as often as we do. Where were there more mistakes - in Russia or abroad?

- We NEVER compare ANYONE with each other. This is the condition for the Total Dictation: the action is voluntary and anonymous. Anonymity extends to continents as well.

- Not everyone likes the words "total" and "dictator". What do you think, during the time that the action has existed, did you manage to somehow "whitewash" these words?

- There is nothing wrong with these words, they do not need any kind of "whitening". They are not liked by those who do not know the meaning of the word "total" ("universal") and confuse it with the word "totalitarian". The majority, however, understand these comic nominations and react adequately to them.

Maybe someone is suspicious of such words, because they forgets that this is a fun youth action. Novosibirsk people generally love to play with words. So, we have another event called "Monstration". Someone might think that some "monsters" are taking part in it, but in fact it is the same fun youth entertainment that takes place on May 1 like nostalgia for the Soviet May Day demonstrations, and it gathers young people who go to a holiday with slogans like “My brother is forced to eat porridge. Freedom for children! " If you are afraid of everything, then such a slogan may seem dangerous.

So the word "dictator" - it arose simply because the language does not have a special name for a person dictating a text to a large number of ... whom? How to name the participants of this action - "dictated", "dictators", "dictators"? We still do not have a word for those who write the text of the Total Dictation under dictation. At school, schoolchildren write dictation, but who within the framework of Total Dictation? Maybe these are "totalitarians"? It would be nice to give this word a less threatening meaning.

- If we talk about dictators, then I have come across a funny version of “dictun”. But he is, of course, comic.

- The word "dictator" within the framework of our action has acquired a new meaning: "the one who reads the text of the Total Dictation", although it has not "softened" its meaning: the text must be written down word for word, without deviating from the original version. This is probably also a form of diktat, since a free retelling does not count as the text of the Total Dictation.

Perhaps, over time, this meaning of the word "dictator" will be included in the dictionaries, along with its original meaning: "an unlimited ruler temporarily elected by the people to pacify internal unrest or to fight an external enemy; personally, upon passing the need, resigning from himself and giving an account to the people in all his actions ... " (Complete dictionary of foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language. Popov M., 1907)... In my opinion, this word has a very good meaning. Unfortunately, its second meaning has become more active - "also, in general, a person who arbitrarily and arbitrarily disposes of something, is not authorized by anyone and neglects the orders and desires of his peers."

But it depends on us which words we use most often and in what meanings. And we are afraid not of the words themselves, but of those phenomena that we associate with them. But these are temporary associations that arose at a certain stage in the historical development of our state, and in Ancient Rome, I think, no one was afraid of this word. The fears of the era of totalitarianism will be forgotten, and with them the meanings of many words will be perceived as completely neutral.

- With what words would you reassure those who believe that we have all become completely illiterate, and the language is dying?

- My main specialty is field linguistics, I study the languages ​​of the peoples of Siberia, many of which are endangered, so I observe situations when it is believed that this or that language is about to disappear, but it turns out that even those languages ​​in which says 200 people, they just don't give up.

For example, 25 years ago I worked with one informant in a small Khanty village (Khanty is a Finno-Ugric people living in the lower reaches of the Ob). She had a daughter, then a young girl, about whom her mother said that there was a problem, she did not know her native language at all, and then we did not even consider the possibility of working with this girl, since we doubted that reliable information could be obtained from her. And so I arrived in the same village 25 years later, that informant of ours was no longer alive, we met with her daughter, and it turned out that she is the most full-fledged native speaker of her native language!

Against the background of representatives of the older generation, it may seem that young people both speak the wrong way and think the wrong way, but when the older generation leaves, it turns out that traditions are successfully passed on, maybe something is lost, but the language is also enriched. In addition, knowledge accumulates with age, and the linguistic competence of an elderly person and a young person cannot be compared. For example, I graduated from school with a “four” in the Russian language certificate. But I received a philological education, and the level of my literacy, of course, increased, but it took a lot of years and a lot of work. Therefore, it is premature to blame young people for anything.

I compare myself in my student years and students today. And the comparison is not in my favor. Today's students are definitely more educated and have a much broader outlook: many of them have already seen the world, read a lot of things that I did not even suspect in my student years. I entered the university in 1980. We did not know emigre literature; "The Master and Margarita", the Strugatskikhs or Solzhenitsyn were read (and even then only those who could get them with great difficulty) in samizdat, in blind "fifths" copies, under the strictest secrecy these copies, read literally to the holes, printed on tissue paper. Nowadays, completely different skills and abilities are in demand, many of which my peers have never mastered.

Of course, we may decide not to speak Russian, or some catastrophic circumstances will force us to abandon it. But can we suddenly switch to any other language en masse? Imagine: starting tomorrow, you have to speak some other language. Is it possible?

Even people who have lived abroad for many years cannot get rid of an accent, the combination of words always betrays a foreigner, these are all traces of our native language, from which it is not so easy to get rid of, even if we try very hard, we cannot just throw off our mother tongue and dress up in the prestigious attire of any other language. These are such deep mechanisms that can disappear only when there is not a single person physically left on the entire globe who would speak Russian. But for this, cataclysms of a universal scale must occur. Let's hope that they will not threaten us in the foreseeable and very distant future.