Runglish

Runglish, Ruslish, Russlish (russian: рунглиш, руслиш, русслиш), or Russian English, is a term describing a language born out of a mixture of the English and Russian languages. This is a common among Russian speakers who speak English as a second language, and it is mainly spoken in post-Soviet States.

The earliest of these portmanteaues, with the purpose of using it in everyday communication. Runglish is a neologism used to represent at least two different combinations of Russian and English: pidgin and informal latinizations of the Cyrillic alphabet.

Although less widespread than other pidgins and creoles, such as Tok Pisin, Runglish is spoken in a number of English-Russian communities, such as in Southern Australia and most notably the Russian-speaking community of Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, New York. Brighton Beach has been nicknamed ''Little Odessa'' due to its population of Russian-speaking immigrants from Ukraine and Russia. Runglish is considered to be used and spoken by at least 130 million people. This number mainly consists of Russian-speaking immigrants and their descendants.

Origins

History

The appearance of Runglish has been caused by a number of social, scientific and political factors from the 19th to 21st centuries.

One of the multiple causes for the blending of the two languages is the increased immigration of Russian speaking communities to the English-speaking parts of the world, and specifically the United States. The main periods of the immigration are the following:

* The Imperial Russian religious prosecutions (pogroms),
* Russian Revolution,
* Russian Civil War,
* Soviet era repressions
* Post-Soviet period.

The exposure of English to Russian speech and literature continued with the fall of the Soviet Union, as the Iron Curtain had been eliminated, which opened a possibility for international tourism and communication. Additionally important was the expansion of international contacts, the creation of partnerships and alliances in which English was the main language of communication, state computerization, and, most importantly, the introduction of the Internet.

Brighton Beach

In the United States, Runglish is used in a number of Russian communities. Runglish is particularly popular among the Russian-speaking community in Brighton Beach in New York. Brighton Beach, a small area in New York, is rightfully considered the capital of "Russian English". Before the Great Depression, Brighton Beach used to be a fashionable destination. However, as the economic crisis progressed, luxurious life in the southern part of Brooklyn came to an end, and poor immigrants began populating it instead of wealthy European tourists. For a long time, Brighton Beach was considered to be poor, inaccessible and criminal. Soon, Brighton Beach became a home for many immigrants from all over the world, particularly from the USSR. The arrival of Russian-speaking immigrants helped to gradually develop a former disadvantaged neighbourhood into a powerful community with its own infrastructure, lifestyle and language.

The following are the examples of the Runglish words that are widely used on daily basis in Brighton Beach:

* Driving: Драйвить, ''Draivit'' (proper Russian: вести машину/ехать, ''vyesti mashinu/yekhat'')
* Case: Kейс, ''Keis'' (proper Russian: портфель-атташе, ''portfel-attashe,'' also дело, ''delo'' as in ''legal case'')
* Donuts: Донаты, ''Donaty'' (proper Russian: пончики, ''ponchiki'')
* Appointments: Аппойнтменты, ''Appoyntmenty'' (proper Russian: Назначения �а приём ''naznacheniya a priyom')

NASA

The term "Runglish" was popularized by Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev in 2000, describing the way Russian and American cosmonauts spoke on the International Space Station. Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev said: "We say jokingly that we communicate in 'Runglish,' a mixture of Russian and English languages, so that when we are short of words in one language we can use the other, because all the crew members speak both languages well." Ever since, NASA has begun listing Runglish as one of the on-board languages.

In culture

Runglish is widely used in poetry ( Vladimir Mayakovsky "American Russians"), music (Splean " My English-Russian dictionary") and in prose ( Arthur С. Clarke's 1982 novel, 2010: Odyssey Two"). A monthly published periodical called ''Wind—New Zealand Russian'' existed from 1996 to 2003.

Literature

A small subplot in Arthur C. Clarke's novel '' 2010: Odyssey Two'' concerned the crew of a Russo-American spaceship, who attempted to break down boredom with a ''Stamp Out Russlish!!'' campaign. As the story went, both crews were fully fluent in each other's languages, to the point that they found themselves crossing over languages in mid-conversation, or even simply speaking the other language even when there was no-one who had it as their native tongue present. Robert Heinlein’s novel '' The Moon is a Harsh Mistress'' is written in the heavily Russian-influenced English (much Russian vocabulary, some Russian grammar) of a joint Australian/Russian penal colony on the Moon.

A Clockwork Orange

The 1962 novel ''A Clockwork Orange'' by Anthony Burgess is partially written in a Russian-influenced argot called " Nadsat", which takes its name from the Russian suffix that is equivalent to '-teen' in English. The language in the novel is a secret, used as boundary separating the teen world from the adult. There are multiple examples of the words used by teenagers in the novel:

* droog - друг - friend;
* ooko - ухо - ear;
* oomny - умный - smart;
* oozhassny - ужасный - horrible/awful;
* oozy - цепь (узы) - chain/bond;
* osoosh - осушать/вытирать - drain/wipe;
* otchkies – очки - glasses.
* korova - корова - cow
* moloko - молоко - milk

Even though "Nadsat" is a fictional constructed language that is very different from Runglish, it exemplifies a common usage of a slang combining the English and Russian languages.

Examples

Word formation in Runglish have some specific features:

# Hybrids, i.e. words formed by joining the foreign roots of Russian suffixes, prefixes and endings, for example: юзать (to use - использовать), зафрендить (to befriend), пофиксить (to fix - исправить), пошерить (to share – делиться), прочекапить (to check up - проверить);
# Confusion of languages in phrases like that: забукать номер в отеле (to book – зарезервировать), зачекиниться в аэропорту (to check in – зарегистрироваться);
# Loan translation or calque, i.e. a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation. For example: аккаунт (account - учетная запись), брифинг (briefing – информационное совещание), трафик (traffic – дорожное движение), спичрайтер (speechwriter – составитель текстовых речей), мануал (User's manual - инструкция по применению), адаптер (adapter – переходник), коннектор (connector – соединитель, ''soyedinitel''), cплиттер (splitter – разветвитель, ''razvetvitel'')
# Borrowing of English language abbreviation: АСАП (ASAP – “as soon as possible” - как можно быстрее), ИМХО (IMHO – “in my humble opinion” – по моему скромному мнению), бтв (BTW – "by the way" – если что), ЛЭД (LED – light-emitting diode; in Russian: светодиод, ''svyetodiod'') etc.

Linguists have highlighted the following spheres, where Runglish is actively used:

# Designation of new activities and professions, for example: «мерчендайзер» (merchandiser), «фрилансер» (freelancer), «менеджер» (manager), «супервайзер» (supervisor);
# Designation of new areas of human knowledge: «блог» (blog), «пиар» (PR), «промоушн» (promotion);
# Designation of items: «лэптоп» (laptop), «мэйк-ап» (make-up), «постер» (poster), «чипы» (microchips), «чипсы» ( potato chips);
# Designation of musical genres: «транс» (trance), «фолк» (folk), «рэп» (rap), «эмбиент» (ambient), «ар-эн-би» (R'n'B), «фьюжн» (fusion jazz), «лаунж» (lounge music), «дип хаус» (deep house). Dmitry Kuplinov uses word «музяка» ("''muzak''-ah") for the background music in his streams.
# Designation of terms to give them prestige: «джоб-оффер» (job offer), «клиент» (client), «кейс» (case), «Джейсэм» (GSM), «cаттелит» (satellite, as in "satellite city");

Some Russian brands use an English name to imply some "western" concept used in its business model.
* "Fix Price" chain of stores are a prime example of that: the store originally introduced the "everything costs X" concept of fixed price.

Runglish as Russians' lish

Runglish has some peculiarities which distinguish it from regular English. That's because Russian language is a synthetic language: words in Russian use various morphemes, which depend on grammatical cases, declensions and some other traits; while, as a rule of thumb, every letter in Russian has its own only sound.

* Runglish speakers hardly make any distinction between closed/open and long/short vowels (examples: "heat" vs "hit"; "port" vs "pot").
* Consonants/soundless at the end of words may be confused ("leave" vs "leaf").
* Absence of "θ" and "ð" in Russian phonology causes words to be mispronounced (examples: "''th''ing" vs "sing", "then" vs "zen")
* "Runglish" fail to differentiate articles (''а''/''an'' vs ''the'' vs zero article), as articles do not exist in Russian grammar.
* Tenses are broken in Runglish, as instead of 12 tenses (simple tenses, continuous tenses, perfect tenses, perfect-continuous tenses), Russian language only has 3 (past, present, future).
** Russian language has "forms" instead: either perfective or imperfective aspect.
* Sometimes prepositions are misused ("during" vs "for", "in" vs "at"/"оn").
* It is very common for Runglish speakers to misuse double negation ("I didn't do ''nothing''" (instead of "I didn't do anything"); and use wrong tags ("You don't like it, do you?" - Runglisher may ambiguously answer "Yes, I don't" / "No, I like it").
* G and J may be confused in Runglish speech: programmers in Russia would often pronounce " Git" as "Jit", confusing it with another "JIT" - Just-in-time compilation technology. Another example: GSM abbreviation in Runglish sounds as "Jay Sam".

Transliteration-related speech issues

The pronunciation of the letter R varies between many languages, and Russian is no exception: in Russian, the typical sound would be close to the "Japanese "R" sound, or "burst-like R" (to English ears, with a hint of "D") as in drilling noises. Conversely, English "R" may be hard to interpret for a Russian as "r" and not a "v/w" sound if any ("horny" vs "honey").

Words "bat"/"bad"/"bet"/"bed" are especially difficult for Runglishers to tell apart.
* A/E letters and D/T letters can be confusing for a Russian.
* The "T" sound in English sounds softer, compared to Russian way to say "T"; but it's the other way round for "D". Therefore, "d" and "t" may be confused in Runglish. In fact, words like "card" and "standard" can be found in Russian as "карта" and "стандарт".
* The Æ ">Æ.html" ;"title="Æ">Æ diphthong (as in "bad" or "bat") can be a problem. While Russian language has "Я" letter with its sound, close to "æ"; the letter is almost never used to transcribe that sound. Russians unironically transliterate "and" the same way they transliterate "end": " Энд"
** There is no strict "A with �sound in English word ---> Э with "eh" in the resulting word" rule, though. In some words (e.g. "caliber"/"calorie"/"bar"/"plastic"/"card"/"standard"/"bank"), Russian language replaces the "Æ"-like sounds with " cyrillic А" letter and " ɐ" sound.
** Instead, most words with "-ia", are transliterated as "- и я". Older example: malaria and ''малярия'', recent example: Costa Concordia was immideately transliterated as ''Коста Конкордия''.

Incidentally, there are "krem" and "lin" words in Runglish. Both words illustrate the issues with pronunciation of "-ea-".
* Words "cream" and "cram" are homophones in Runglish: ''Крем'', "krem" word may refer both to creamy goods and (sometimes) to crammed second-hand clothing.
* Meanwhile, word "lean" is borrowed as ''Лин'', "lin": term "Lean Philosophy" would be translated to Russian as ''Философия Лин''. In this phrase, word "Lin" sounds like an oriental name to a Russian, rather than an occidental noun.

Simple past/present/future tenses

Runglish has improper use of simple tenses (''X did Y'') in place of "perfect" ones (''X have done Y'').
* In Russian language verbs have "forms" instead; "imperfect form" (imperfective aspect) or "perfect form" (perfective aspect). The idea of "perfect" form of a verb is used in Russian language on situations "simple" tenses in English cover (I did X = Я ''сделал'' Х); while any "imperfect" verb would be often used in situations English speaker would use "continuous" form (I was doing X = Я делал Х)

Misused negation

* " We don't need no education" line implies misused double negation (additional "no" in place of "any"). Meanwhile, in Runglish, the second "no" may mean of some kind of "additional negating". In fact, that phrase would translate as «Нам не нужно никакого образования» into Russian.

Silent letters and historically defined spelling

In Russian language, the letters with voiceless sounds (like the "e" in words like "dice" or "prone") is exceptionally rare (with the exception of ''designated'' "soundless" letters Ь (soft sign) and Ъ (hard sign)); it may be challenging to learn proper pronunciation since the very idea of "silencing" letters may feel foreign to a person from Russia.

In Russian, it's vanishingly rare to mix letters to represent one complex sound, where 2 "usual" letters form a double-tone, let alone 3-4 letters would be used for 1 sound; a combination of those may look misleading to a Russian. A basic example: Borscht spelling (with "sch" plus silent "t") may be such a word; in Russian Cyrillic, the same word is ''борщ'';

Overly "official" vocabulary

Such a lish may fail to feel neutral and clear to western English speakers, since many words, widely used in Russian in day-to-day chat, can be perceived as official-styled, and may sound like a show-off attempt.

* Say, along with "Беречь еду" ("to save food") phrase, Russians would use "''Экономить'' еду" (to "''economy''" food) in same exact meaning.

Such day-to-day use of "officially sounding" borrowed words instead of words native for Russian language is often called out by Russians as "канцелярит" (''kan-tsee-lya-rit''), basically, language people from offices would "get infected with".

Different meanings of similar "official-sounding" words

Meanwhile, phrase "To ration food" (strict saving of food) won't directly translate into Russian; similar-sounding word "рацион" (pronounced ''rah-tsee-on'') normally means "one's regular diet" instead. Mixup of such words (due to influence of Continental European languages) may also be called out as "runglish".

* The very word "канцелярия" refers to accounting and office clerks who make internal reports, rather than chancellors. Therefore, "канцелярит" may be loosely translated as "''clerk's soreness''" or "''clerk''-itis''"; and the word refers to a specific style of speech, with use of words people not working in offices wouldn't use much.

Runglish in Russia

With the increase in globalization after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, English has made its way into the language used in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other ex-soviet states. Runglish is used everyday when talking about politics, economics and other fields of modern life. For many people, English seems more prestigious and therefore the mixing of words help to indicate the level of education and involvement in the world community where English is dominant. Today, Runglish can be often see in various articles and news headlines of official media - «Снегопад в России: травмы, пробки и блэкаут» ("Snowstorm in Russia: injuries, traffic, and blackout"; «Снеговики, волки, сасквочи. Предшественники сочинских маскотов» ("Snowmen, wolves, and sasquatches. Predecessors of Sochi Olympics mascots").

Young people, who are known for their creativity, also are big contributors to the popularization of Runglish. The use of anglicisms has been on the rise in recent years, and is now an essential part of the youth's vocabulary.

Criticism

The opinions of linguists on the effects of Runglish are divided. Whether some argue that incorporation of foreign words into Russian language enriches it and broadens the culture, others claim that "the large-scale penetration of English is destroying the system of the Russian language, its identity and culture".

In 2006, Vladimir Putin signed the decree "On holding a year of the Russian language". Following that, 2007 had been declared the "Year of the Russian Language" in Russia and abroad, in order to promote the importance and beauty of Russian and limit the usage of foreign words. The rector of A. Pushkin State Institute of the Russian Language Yuri Prokhorov admitted that it was impossible to stop the tendency of the widespread use of foreign terms. However, he believed that the bigger issue was that a large number of Russians could not use their own language correctly.

References

{{Russian language

English-based pidgins and creoles
Russian-based pidgins and creoles
Macaronic forms of English
Russian-American culture
Russian-Australian culture
Russian-Canadian culture
Russian-New Zealand culture