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In old Russian the word фрязин ([fr'az'in], apostrophe means a soft consonant) was used to denote a westerner. Although the word is not used any more, it is kept as part of some place names, such as a town Фрязино.

I wonder if it is connected to the Thai farang which is also used to denote a westerner.

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  • Shouldn't the transcription be fr'jaz'?
    – Alenanno
    Feb 1, 2013 at 9:04
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    @Alenanno there is no j-sound in this word, you are free to use any transcription you prefer. Russian usually doen not neet transcription, because pronunciation is determined by the spelling.
    – Anixx
    Feb 1, 2013 at 9:13
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    @Alenanno no, it's "ja" (iotified) only word-initially, after vowels and after soft and hard signs, otherwise it's "a", similar to the letters e, ё and ю
    – Anixx
    Feb 1, 2013 at 9:46
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    ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D1%80%D1%8F%D0%B7%D0%B8%D0%BD
    – Alex B.
    Feb 1, 2013 at 16:47
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    Well pronunciation is determined by spelling as long as the speller never writes "e" for "ё" and you don't consider it important when the speaker mixes up a few "а" and "о" sounds or doesn't know which syllable to put the stress on. Well-known shibboleths for native Russian speakers to spot foreigners speaking Russian.
    – hippietrail
    Feb 4, 2013 at 2:28

2 Answers 2

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Surprisingly, it appears they are related, cognate to Frank.

The Wikipedia article that Alex B. linked gives an etymology for the Russian фря́зин /ˈfrʲa.zʲin/. It derives from the older form фрѧ́зин /ˈfrɛ̃.zʲin/ (following loss of nasality of ѧ and a spelling reform). This is a sound-changed version of /ˈfrɛ̃ɡʲin/ by progressive palatalization; this derives from Frank + /ʲin/, a suffix for ethnonyms.

The Thai ฝรั่ง [faràŋ] is reportedly also derived from Frank, via Arabic, Persian, or Sanskrit (various forms like Farangi, Faranj). Cognate terms were used by Middle Eastern traders to refer to the Catholic Western Europeans. Southeast Asian languages have numerous borrowings along that route, so this etymology is plausible. See also Wikipedia's list of cognate terms, which includes similar terms in many nearby languages (Indic languages, Malay, Cambodian). It also appears in Star Trek.

(Not related to English foreign, which is coincidentally similar.)

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    Interesting! A similar thing occurred in the Tupi language, where the word peró was coined to designate the Portuguese. The word comes from the archaic form of "Pedro" (cognate of "Peter").
    – Otavio Macedo
    Feb 2, 2013 at 0:24
  • And gringo is believed to come from griego, "Greek".
    – Colin Fine
    Nov 30, 2020 at 12:05
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I think that it must be noted that words фрязь means different thing that word фрязин does. According to wiktionary, фрязь means deviation from traditional iconographical painting while фрязин is derived from франкин as it was noticed in the answer of user "Mechanical snail". Also in wikipedia's article linked there is not word фрязь but фряг.

A derivation of фрязь from фрязин can be assumed from this article where it is noticed that фрязь appeared under the influence of artists from Europe. Those artists might be called фряги so icons made in their style might be called фрязь.

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