A DIACHRONIC ANALYSIS OF MONETARY UNITS IN GREAT BRITAIN, RUSSIA AND THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
A DIACHRONIC ANALYSIS OF MONETARY UNITS IN GREAT BRITAIN, RUSSIA AND THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

Summary/Abstract: The present article is devoted to a diachronic analysis of monetary units inEnglish, Russian and Moldovan linguacultures. The author highlights the genesis and thedevelopment of money in Great Britain, Russia and the Republic of Moldova. The research is carriedout on the creation of the terms related to money in these countries. As a part of the study, it has beendiscovered that the historical development of monetary units in the three linguacultures has certaincommon characteristics: initially using coins of the Byzantine Empire such as “bezant” and“millearences” before the emergence of local money, numerous borrowings, in particular, from theLatin language as well as the design of money. The article also provides the etymology of basic unitsof currency such as the “pound sterling” and “penny” in English, the “ruble” and “kopeck” inRussian and the “leu” and “ban” in Romanian. The main motives for assigning names to monetaryunits are the image, colour, material or precious metal, and a political leader’s name. The imageengraved on coins is the most common reason for nominating them. The concluding part of the articledeals with similar and different features of monetary units in the three linguacultures. Apart from itseconomic function, money has always been an important social, psychological, philosophical andlinguistic category. As a universal means of payment, it is among the earliest notions implyingemotionless precision and accuracy in handling. Analyzed from an attitudinal point of view, moneyhas always evoked differing and conflicting emotions in people, lying at the bottom of numerouscrimes throughout centuries. Old chronicles, ancient and modern judicial documents, and a greatdeal of literary and publicist works serve as the source of emotional assessment of the presence orabsence of material or moral well-being measured with the help of money. The corpus of moneyrelated lexical units differs in richness from nation to nation, being influenced by past events, socialbeliefs, and dominant ideology. The relevance of the theme is conditioned by the process of globalintegration in the modern world and a growing interest in the ethno-cultural issues

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