The words grenadier and Musketeer are found mainly in literary works related to the distant past. At the same time, it is not always clear how to read long-written, for example, well-known lines from the immortal "Woe from Wit" by A. S. Griboyedov:
"[Khlestova:] You've been here before... in the regiment... in that... in the Grenadier corps?
[Skalozub: In His Highness's, you mean, Novozemlyansk Musketry."
As we can see, the adjectives Grenadier and Musketeer rhyme, but if you follow the recommendations of modern orthoepic reference books, you should pronounce Grenadier, but: musketeer (Orthoepic Dictionary of the Russian language. Pronunciation, stress, grammatical forms. Moscow, 1983; for more information, see: Vorontsova V. L. Pronunciation of the word Musketeer / / Russian speech. 1970. N 1). The explanation lies in the history of the words themselves.
page 109
The noun musketeer historically correlates with the name of the weapon musket: "a warrior armed with a musket" (Dictionary of the Russian language of the XI-XVII centuries, Moscow, 1982. Issue 9). Dictionaries of the XVIII-XIX centuries note other borrowings: musketeer, musketeer, musketeer, musketeer, reflecting the forms presented in different European languages: French mousquetaire( old, mousquetier), German Musketierer (old. Musqutierer), etc. (Fasmer M. Etymological Dictionary of the Russian language, Moscow, 1987, vol. III).
A curious picture is presented by the distribution of borrowed variants in the Russian language of the XVIII century, while dictionaries focus on the competition of musketeer-mushkater forms, translations give preference to the musketeer form due to the influence of French vocalism: "... this was fun, used by the young men of the family and royal Musketeers "(Mercier A. S. Picture of Paris. Trans. St. Petersburg, 1786); "the servants of the hotel showed much more respect for him than for the two Musceters who were sitting there in a corner" (Letters of Persia. Works of G. Montesk ...
Read more