LOL, ЛОЛ, AND ЛОЛ: HOW ONE ABBREVIATION TRAVELLED FROM ENGLISH INTO RUSSIAN

The development of digital communication has created new ways for languages to interact. One of the clearest examples is the English internet abbreviation LOL (laughing out loud), which has been adopted and adapted in Russian as лол. This article examines the linguistic movement of LOL from English into Russian and focuses on three aspects: its origin and function in English digital communication, its graphic and phonetic adaptation in Russian, and its further development within Russian Internet slang. The study uses a qualitative comparative approach based on linguistic literature and examples of Internet usage. The analysis shows that лол was not simply transferred from one language to another. In Russian, the borrowed form became an independent slang unit capable of functioning as a noun, adjective, and verb and of producing new derivatives. Thus, the history of LOL demonstrates how a short digital abbreviation can become a productive element of another language.