Runglish

 

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.^[3]

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".^[6] 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.^[7] 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.^[6]

 

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 [на приём], naznacheniya [na priyom])^[8]

 

The term "Runglish" was popularized by Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev in 2000, describing the way Russian and American cosmonauts spoke on the International Space Station.^[9] 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.^[10]

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").^[9] A monthly published periodical called Wind—New Zealand Russian existed from 1996 to 2003.^[11]

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.^[12]

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.^[13] The language in the novel is a secret, used as boundary separating the teen world from the adult.^[13] 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.^[14]
• korova - корова - cow (found in the movie version)
• moloko+ - молоко плюс - milk plus (found in the movie version)

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.

Word formation in Runglish have some specific features:

1. 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)
2. Borrowing of English abbreviations "as if those were words": 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.
3. Confusion of languages in phrases like that: забукать номер в отеле (to book – зарезервировать), зачекиниться в аэропорту (to check in – зарегистрироваться);
4. 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);^[3]

Linguists have highlighted the following spheres, where Runglish is actively used:^[7]

1. Designation of new activities and professions, e.g. «мерчендайзер» (merchandiser), «фрилансер» (freelancer), «менеджер» (manager), «супервайзер» (supervisor), «ютубер» (YouTuber);
2. Designation of new areas of human knowledge: «блог» (blog), «пиар» (PR), «промоушн» (promotion);
3. Designation of items: «лэптоп»/«ноутбук» (laptop), «мэйкап» (make-up), «постер» (poster), «чипы» (microchips), «чипсы» (potato chips); «Джейсэм» (GSM cell-phone network)
4. Designation of terms to give them prestige: «джоб-оффер» ("job offer"), «cателлит» ("satellite", as in "satellite city");
5. 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).

Some Russian brands use an English name to imply some "Western", Occidental concept used.

• "Fix Price" convenience stores are a prime example of this logic. The store chain initially introduced the "everything costs X rubles" concept of fixed price (similar to the "Everything 99 cents" stores or the "Dollar tree").

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 mispronunciations (examples: "thing" vs "sing"; "then" vs "zen")
• "Runglish" fail to differentiate articles (а or an vs the vs zero article), as articles aren't used in Russian grammar.
• Tenses are broken in the lish, as instead of 12 tenses (3 simple tenses, 3 continuous tenses, 3 perfect tenses, 3 perfect-continuous tenses), Russian language only has 3 tenses (past, present, future).
  • Russian language has "forms" instead. A verb in Russian has either perfective or imperfective aspect. Still, it is challenging for a Russian to master the difference between a simple tense and its perfect tense counterpart.
• Some prepositions are mixed up in Runglish ("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").^[9]
• 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".
• The pronunciation of the letter R varies between many languages, and Russian is no exception: in Russian, the typical sound would be alveolar trill (like in Italian, Spanish or traditional Scottish English). Conversely, English "R" may be hard to interpret for a Russian as "r" and not a "v/w" sound if any ("horn" vs "hone").

Words "bat"/"bad"/"bet"/"bed" are especially difficult for native Russian speakers to tell apart. Those words would be transliterated as бэт, бэд, бет, бед respectively.

• A/E letters and D/T letters can be confusing for a Russian. The "T" sound in English sounds softer, compared to the Russian way to say "T"; while 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 "карта" and "стандарт".
• The [ 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 transliterate "and" the same way they transliterate "end": "Энд".
  • Instead most words with "-ia", are transliterated as "-ия". Older example: malaria and малярия, recent example: Costa Concordia was immediately transliterated as Коста Конкордия.
  • There is no strict "A with [Æ] sound in English word" gives "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.
  • Only the English words that end with "-ar" or "-arity", are introduced into Russian with "-яр" or "-ярность" respectively. This goes to the words like "singularity" and "polarity", which can be found in Russian as "сингулярность" and "полярность" respectively.

Incidentally, there are "krem" and "lin" words in Runglish. Both words illustrate the issues with "-ea-".

• Words "cream" and "cram" are homonyms 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": corporate terms like "Lean Thinking" would be translated to Russian as Мышление Лин. As result, the "lean" word is presented as an Oriental name, rather than an Occidental noun.

Trademark example: Marlboro brand is known in Russia as "Мальборо" without the "r" (and with a soundless "softness sign"). On the contrary, a would-be letter-for-letter "Марлборо" transliteration (with aforementioned alveolar trill from Cyrillic "р") would have an extra syllable.

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)

"We don't need no education" line implies possible misused double negation (the additional "no" in place of "any"). Yet in Runglish, the "no" would be felt as an "additional" negation, ruining the play on words.

• Compare to Russian: «Нам не нужно никакого образования».

Thing is, Russian language lacks a short word, similar to English "any". Russian has similes "какого-либо" or "какого бы то ни было" - phrases, which are closer to "whichever".

In Russian language, words don't normally have "regular" letters for voiceless sounds (like the "e" in words like "dice" or "prone"); it may be challenging to learn proper pronunciation since the very idea of "silencing" letters may feel foreign to a person from Russia. The exception of designated letters Ь (soft sign) and Ъ (hard sign)) only confirmates the general rule, as these two letters are straight-up "soundless", "signs" and serve special roles.

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. Normally, Russians only use Й letter next to a vowel to form anything similar to a diphthong.

A basic example: the double "O" between "L" and "D" as in "flood" or "blood" as opposed to the double "O" as in "book", "crook", "zoomer", "doomer" or "boomer".

• Russian netizens use word "flood" as "флуд" (transcribes as "flud")

A complex example: Borscht word (with "sch" + "t" due to borrowing the word from Yiddish (באָרשט), and not from a Slavic language directly).

The lish may fail to feel neutral to native English speakers, since many words, widely used in Russian in regular talk, can be perceived as official-styled: say, along with "Беречь еду" ("to save food") phrase, Russians would use "Экономить еду" (to "economy" food). However, the "рацион" word in Russian is not similar to English "rations" noun or English "to ration" verb; it is closer to a "diet" noun.

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" ^[15](kan-tsee-lya-rit), basically, language people from offices would "get infected with". Runglishers use word "observe" instead of "follow" regarding adhering to rules sometimes. This is related to a similarity in Russian: "Соблюдай" (Sobludai) word for adhering to rules has the same root as "Наблюдай" (Nabludai), which indeed means observing.

• The very word "канцелярия" refers to chancery workers (e.g. office workers) in general rather than chancellors only. Therefore, the "канцелярит" joke term may be loosely translated as "office worker's soreness" or "office-itis".

 

With increased globalization after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, English has made its way into the languages used in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and other former Soviet states. Runglish is used to talk about politics, economics, and other areas of modern life, often appearing in Russian-language news articles and headlines.^[16][a] English is considered more prestigious, and English loanwords may be used to demonstrate one's level of education and involvement in the global community.^[18]

Young people are major contributors to the popularization of Runglish. Anglicisms аre an essential part of the youth vocabulary, and are becoming increasingly fixed within the language.^[19] Despite this, some Russians feel that it is important to preserve the framework of rules of the Russian language.^[19]

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".^[20]

In 2006, Vladimir Putin signed the decree "On holding a year of the Russian language".^[21] 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.^[22]

In the 21st century, words for basic items are often borrowed from English even when corresponding words already exist in Russian. The English word "hoodie" is copied by Russian clothing shops as "худи" despite there being a Russian word for the same item: "tolstovka" or "tolstovka s kapushonom". Another example is a piece of clothing to wear around one's neck: there is the word "manishka" in Russian, yet modern resellers of imported clothing use the English word "snood" instead, making it hard to find a "manishka" in a Russian online store.

In some cases English borrowings are gaining popularity over older loanwords from other Western European languages. For example, the English word "sandwich" competes with the German word "butterbrot" in Russian: an open sandwich would normally be a "бутерброд" in Russian, unless it is a small one, a canapé ("канапе").

• Renglish
• Spanglish — hybrid language of Spanish and English.