The paper discusses the characteristics of the lexical-semantic system of the island German
dialects prevailing in the Altai. The analysis is made on the basis of surveys and records of spontaneous
oral speech of dialect. The lexical-semantic system of the island German dialects represented
on the territory of the Altai region is characterized by considerable originality, as it contains
a lot of lexical units that differ from the standard and original dialects. The lexical-semantic
level of language structure was formed not only under the influence of intra-language patterns but
also as a result of interaction and mixing of various German dialects, with the speakers being
in close proximity to each other and influenced by the Russian language. It is shown that the island
German dialects include common German vocabulary, the dialect performing the function
of identification of group membership, neoplasms and borrowings that appeared in the period
when the Germans lived in Russia. The overall development of the island dialects is determined
by two opposite trends: the island dialects are characterized by the preservation of old elements
of the language being out of use in the territory of the source linguistic community and by a large
permeability due to the influence of the foreign environment. It explains lexical variation and the
emergence of a number of distinctive features in the lexical and semantic system of the dialects
considered and further alignment within the language Islands continued as a result of mixing related
subsystems and the influence of a distant (native) Russian language.
A large part of the vocabulary of the island German dialects is represented by dialectal lexical
items differing in their form and/or semantics from the words of the German literary language.
The differences in lexical-semantic terms are associated with the presence of lexical contrasts
accumulating the peculiarities of the plane of expression and the plane of content. There are different
lexical items in each of the dialects with which to express a single semantic communion,
and common lexical units of the dialects concerned have differences in volume of the meaning.
Existing for a long time in a foreign environment German dialects show the penetration of foreign
elements in the dialect system.
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