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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 phenomenon among Russian speakers with English as a second language, spoken in the post-Soviet States.[1]

The earliest of these portmanteau words is Russlish, dating from 1971. Appearing later are (chronologically): Russglish (1991), Ruglish (1993), Ringlish (1996), Ruslish (1997), Runglish (1998), Rusglish (1999), and Rusinglish (2015).[2]

Runglish is formed by adaptation of English phrases and words into Russian-style by adding affixes, with the purpose of using it in everyday communication.[3] 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.[1] Brighton Beach has been nicknamed Little Odessa due to its population of Russian-speaking immigrants from Ukraine and Russia.[4] Runglish is considered to be used and spoken by at least 130 million people.[5] 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.[3]

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".[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]

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.[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]

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").[11] A monthly published periodical called Wind—New Zealand Russian existed from 1996 to 2003.[12]

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.[13]

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.[14] The language in the novel is a secret, used as boundary separating the teen world from the adult.[14] 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.[15]
• 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 has some specific features:

1. 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);
2. Confusion of languages in phrases like that: забукать номер в отеле (to book – зарезервировать), зачекиниться в аэропорту (to check in – зарегистрироваться);
3. 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)
4. 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.[3]

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

1. Designation of new activities and professions, for example: «мерчендайзер» (merchandiser), «фрилансер» (freelancer), «менеджер» (manager), «супервайзер» (supervisor);
2. Designation of new areas of human knowledge: «блог» (blog), «пиар» (PR), «промоушн» (promotion);
3. Designation of items: «лэптоп» (laptop), «мэйк-ап» (make-up), «постер» (poster), «чипы» (microchips), «чипсы» (potato chips);
4. 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.
5. 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 English name to imply some "western" concept used in its business model.

• "Fix Price" chain of stores can be a prime example of that: the store originally introduced "everything costs X" concept of fixed price.

Runglish as "Russian's flawed English" lish

Another occurrence called out as "Runglish" refers to use of Russian-influenced way for constructing sentences, omitting words and employing literal translations of Russian idioms, as well as using more "official-sounding" style while speaking/writing in English. At certain instances, "Runglish" word is used as a way for describing broken English, influenced with certain traits of words/grammar coming from Russian-speakers.

• Runglish speakers do not make a distinction between closed/open and long/short vowels ("heat" vs "hit"; "port" vs "pot"; "sheep" vs "ship").
• Consonants/soundless at the end of words may be confused ("leave" vs "leaf").
• Absence of certain sounds in Russian phonology causes words to be mispronounced ("thing" pronounced as "sing" etc.).
• Often, "Runglish" speakers do not differentiate а/an, the, and zero article, as articles do not exist in Russian grammar (for example, "beautiful music" genre vs "The Beautiful Music" label).
• Tenses are broken in Runglish, as instead of perfect/continuous/perfect-continuous/simple kinds of tenses, Russian language simply has 3 tenses (past, present, future).
• Sometimes prepositions are misused ("during" instead of "for", "in" instead of "at"/ "оn").
• It is very common among Runglish speakers to misuse double negation ("I didn't do nothing" (instead of "didn't ... anything"); and use wrong tags ("You don't like it, do you?" - Runglish person may ambiguously answer "Yes, I don't /No, I like it").[9]

"Synthetic language" structure of Russian language may make learning English difficult. While English language requires a certain order of words in a sentence, "synthetic" Russian just doesn't have such a requirement. Instead, words in Russian use a big amount of various morphemes, each of which depend on grammatical cases, declensions and past/present/future tenses all at the same time.

Simple past/present/future tenses

"Runglish" includes improper use of "simple" tenses (X did Y), rather than "perfect" ones (X have done Y).

• In Russian, verbs have form -- "imperfect form" or "perfect form". The idea of "perfect" form of a verb is used in Russian language on occasions "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)

Accidental misuse of idioms, different connotations

Many common words and idioms may be lost in translation in between Russian and English.

• For example, "Let's me speak from my heart in English" feels "Runglish" since it accidentally refers to "learn by heart" idea of remembering something.
• Word "Соблюдай" means "follow [rule]" in Russian. "Runglish" translator may put "Observe" ("Наблюдай", a word with the same root in Russian) instead.

Misused negation

• "We don't need no education" line implies misused double negation. Meanwhile, in Russian, the second "no" would be OK. Instead of double negation, there would be "additional negating" that would be supposed to repeat, to "fortify" the initial negation's intensity: «Нам не нужно никакого образования».

Common speech-related issues

The pronunciation of the letter R varies between many languages, and Russian is no exception: in Russian it is pronounced closer to the "Japanese "R" sound, or "burst-like" (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.

The sounds of A/E letters and D/T letters (in such English words as "bat"/"bad"/"bet"/"bed" especially) can be confusing for a Russian. Due to bad transliteration of English words into Russian (hence causing a situation when "Runglish"-speaking person may get English speech unintentionally flawed) confusion may occur:

• The "T" sound in English sounds soft, compared to Russian way to say "T", so "d" and "t" may be confused (as in examples "Bed" vs "Bet" listed, letter "t" not always would be recognized); words like "card" and "standard" can be found in Russian as "карта" and"стандарт".
• The [ Æ ] diphthong (the sound indicated with [... Æ ...] in transcriptions of "bad" or "bat") can be a problem. Even though there is a letter for sound, similar to Æ (which is, as if it were "ae" in Russian accent", the letter Я); Russian language tends to replace "A"-for-Æ-diphthong (as in "and", "apple", "rap, "bat", "bad") neither with "Я", the said letter with sound somewhat resembling the Æ sound; nor even as Russian "A" (with "open "ah") for the similar look, but as "Э" letter, a letter with "eh"-like sound, despite the abundance of "e" letters with "eh", "э"-like sounds ("энд", "эппл", "рэп", "бэт", "бэд" are the commons of transliteration; and "John Doe and Jane Doe Co." would be "Джон Доу энд Джейн Доу Ко."; confusing "and" with "end")
  • There is no strict "A with [Æ] sound in English word ---> Э with "eh" in the resulting word" rule, however. In words like "caliber"/"calorie"/"bar"/"plastic"/"card"/"standard"/"bank"/"fact", Russian language uses "open "Ah" (the latter, however, is a false friend: if "fact" is used in English "as remebered" by a Russian, it may be misinterpreted by native English speaker as f***ed profanity).
  • The practice of transliterating of "a" as "я" does exist in Russian nonetheless: most names with "-ia", are transliterated as "-ия"; recent example: Costa Concordia was immideately transliterated as Коста Конкордия.

As for words' roots, the "Singularity" neologism[16] is spelled in Russian as "Сингулярность"; also, in case of word "malaria", the second "a" is transliterated as "я": "малярия"

G and J may be confused in Runglish speech:

• Abbreviation GSM is used in Russian speech in Runglish way: instead of spelling separate letters G. S. M., Russians would say it as "джейсэм" (pronounced as "jay-sam").
• Programmers in Russia would often pronounce "Git" as "Jit", confusing it with another "JIT" - "Just In Time" code compilation technology.

Silent letters and historically defined spelling

In Russian language, the idea of "silent letters" (like the silent "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 "usual" letters may feel foreign to a person from Russia.

In Russian, it's vanishingly rare to mix "usual" 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;

Words like "flood" are borrowed by Russian netizens as "флуд", "flud", by the look of the spelling.

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" [17](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.[3] 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.[7] Today, Runglish can be often see in various articles and news headlines of official media - «Снегопад в России: травмы, пробки и блэкаут»[18] ("Snowstorm in Russia: injuries, traffic, and blackout"; «Снеговики, волки, сасквочи. Предшественники сочинских маскотов»[19] ("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.[20]

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".[21]

In 2006, Vladimir Putin signed the decree "On holding a year of the Russian language".[22] 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.[23]

References

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