Runglish

Runglish, Rusinglish, Ruglish, Russlish, etc., (Russian: русинглиш / рунглиш, rusinglish / runglish), refer to English heavily influenced by the Russian language, a phenomenon not uncommon 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]

The term "Runglish" was popularized in 2000 as a name for one of the languages aboard the International Space Station. Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalyov 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." NASA has since begun listing Runglish as one of the on-board languages.[3] 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.[4]

In literature

Some notable novels have foreshadowed the development of Runglish. 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. Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange has a famous form of Runglish called Nadsat. (See: Concordance: A Clockwork Orange) Less famously (but also in science fiction), 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.

Official resistance

The Russian government declared 2007 to be the "Year of the Russian Language". It has been claimed that this was in part to give support to what is seen as proper Russian against such influences as the spread of English and Runglish.[5] Yuri Prokhorov, the head of the Russian State Institute of Foreign Languages, stated that "Young people always develop fashionable ways of communicating. (But) it is Russian words used incorrectly that damages the purity of the language, not the introduction of foreign words."[5]

Examples

Basic borrowing of words

Whenever Russian speakers borrow an English word, they would adapt it to 33-letter Russian alphabet, sometimes altering some sounds.

Therefore, whenever a word with diphthong in Russian, its diphthong gets replaced with a Russian vowel.

Borrowing English words over existing Russian ones

The following examples of the Runglish "lish" are related to Brighton Beach speak, rather than the array of borrowed words used in Russia.

  1. Driving: Драйвить, Draivit (Proper Russian: вести машину/ехать)
  2. Case: кейс, Keis (Proper Russian: случай)
  3. Donuts: Донаты, Donaty (Proper Russian: пончики)
  4. Appointments: Аппойнтменты, Appoyntmenty (Proper Russian: Назначения [на приём])
  5. Sliced Cheese: Наслайсаный чиз, Naslaysaniy chiz (Proper Russian: Нарезанный сыр)
  6. To merge branches: Смержить бранчи, Smerzhit' branchi (Proper Russian: Совместить ветки)
  7. To manage: Сменеджить, Smenedzhit' (Proper Russian: Справиться)
  8. I sent you message with attached request: Я засендил тебе месседж с приаттаченым реквестом (Ya zasendil tebe messedzh s priattachenym rekvestom) (Proper Russian: Я отправил тебе письмо/сообщение с прикреплённым запросом)

Borrowing of basic words due to some specific reason

Sometimes, however, words get borrowed to indicate the specific type of the item, to avoid lengthy adjectives. In fact, sometimes, even word "кейс" or "донат" can refer to something different than "case" or "doughnut":

  1. Кейс (borrowed "Case" as in "Briefcase"): refers "protective briefcase" made of aluminum (a trope in XX century); (proper Russian: "Защитный чемодан"). Reason to borrow the word: "Zashitnyj" would be mistaken for another "защитный", the certain shade of green color.
  2. Донаты, Donaty (borrowed and shortened "Donations", used in MMORPG slang for pay-to-win system or paid, purchaseable items). Normal Russian word "взнос", Vznos may also mean "payment" as in pay-to-play subscription.
  3. Тайм-менеджмент (borrowed "Time Management"): literal Russian "[умение] управлять временем" would sound like "sci-fi"-ish "time manipulation" rather than "time management"; and "[умение] распоряжаться временем" would lose the implication of abilities to manage personal time.
  4. Е-мэйл (borrowed "E-mail", but as a noun for any message/address); also, "мыло" (miilo, Russian for "soap") is used as informal for "e-mail". Proper Russian would be lengthy "Электронное письмо" or cryptic "Э-письмо".
  5. Каршеринг (borrowed "Car Sharing [service]") - in Russian, direct phrase "деление автомобилей" would be desinformative, since it would refer to "breaking apart" cars/"breaking down" cars/"sharing" cars/"dividing" cars/"time sharing" car use and even "splitting" cars (as if a car would be "shared" in parts between parties).
  6. Брекеты (Borrowed "brackets"): refers to dental brackets for teeth correction, not brackets in general (proper Russian would be Стоматологические скобы).

Runglish as a name for "Russian's flawed English"

Another practice, misnomered as "Runglish", implies use of Russian 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.

"Synthetic language" structure of Russian language may make learning English norms more difficult: while English language requires a certain order of words in a sentence, "synthetic" Russian just doesn't have such a requirememt; instead, it relies on a certain system of suffixes and endings for almost all words used instead.

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 by Russians as "канцелярит" [6](kan-tsee-lya-rit), basically, language people from offices would "get infected with".
    • Phrase "ration food", implying strict saving of food, however, won't directly translate into Russian; similar-sounding word "рацион" (rah-tsee-on) normally means "animal's diet" instead. Mixup of such words (due to influence of Continental European languages) can 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 refer to constant use of words people not working in offices (say, farmers/village dwellers wouldn't be required to ever face, but factory workers would face such words in news and slogans).

Simple tense overuse

This "Runglish" style" may include improper use of "simple" tenses (X did Y), rather than "perfect" one (X have done Y).

  • A possible difficulty to grasp the concepts of "perfect" tense is, 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); all while "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.

A rather known anecdote of accidental, unintended idiom use is "Let('s) me speak from my heart in English, Лец ми спик фром май харт ин инглиш" phrase:[7]

  1. "From my heart" phrase may be misinterpreted as "by heart" idiom, reference to memorisation of some text "as is" to quote it; while it was supposed to refer to "speaking from own heart" idea.
  2. "Let's" is short for "let us"; however, "давайте", which normally means the same in Russian, is also used as a synonym for "Let me", without 1st person plural "us".

Another case of words with a similar meaning, yet different connotation is "Что насчёт" beginning of a sentence, the equivalent of "What about": "Что насчёт"/"Как насчёт" is often used in "what do you think about" neutral sense; or "how about"'s synonym; but the "what about you" connotation, is rare for "Что насчёт". Instead of "what about you", for explicit tu quoque/whataboutery connotation of "reverting the blame", Russian language utilizes "Сам ты!" или "Сам такой!" phrases, which literally can be translated "[One]self, you" or "[One]self, such".

  • "Насчёт", however, isn't an exact equivalent of "about", and is supposed to mean "on the (ac)count" (of something).
  • To be exact, a single-letter word "О" is used for "about" in Russian; but "Что о"/Что об" beginning of a sentence is rare in Russian.
  • Also, for example, any software's "About" section has to be translated as "О программе" (About the program).

Since anything similar to the diphthongs, or the silent "e" in words like "dice" or "prone" ar the are exceptionally rare in Russian words (with the exception of Ь (soft sign) and Ъ (hard sign), with the latter acting as a kind of separator inside a word); it may be challenging to learn proper pronunciation since the very idea of silencing "usual" letters may feel foreign to a person from Russia.

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 not just for accent reasons, but due to bad transliteration of English words into Russian (hence causing a situation when "lish"-speaking person may get English speech unintentionally flawed):

  • The "ae" (the diphthong, the sound indicated with [... Æ ...] in IPA transcriptions) can be an issue: despite there is a letter for sound, similar to Æ (which is, as if it were "ae" in Russian accent", the letter Я); Russians tend to transliterate "A" letter, once it stands for an "Æ"(as in "and", "apple", "rap", "bat", "bad") not as "Я", the said letter with sound close to the Æ sound, not even as Russian "A" (with "open "ah" sound only) 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)
    • There is no strict "A with [Æ] sound in original word ---> Э in the resulting word" rule: in words like "fact", Russian transliteration uses "open "Ah" (which, however, a false friend; if "fact" is used in English "as known" by a Russian, it may be misinterpreted by native English speaker as f***ed profanity).
    • At least one case of transliterating "A" as "Я" does exist: the word "Singularity"[8] is spelled as "Сингулярность".
  • The "T" sound in English sounds soft, compared to Russian way to say "T" (as in examples "Bed" vs "Bet" listed, letter "t" not always would be recognized).

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 "Brrr" onomaethopea, or "drilling" noises. Conversely, English "R" may be hard to interpret for a Russian as "r" and not a "v/w" sound.

References
  1. Lambert, James. 2018. A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity. English World-wide, 39(1): 14, 17. DOI: 10.1075/eww.38.3.04lam
  2. Lambert, James. 2018. A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity. English World-wide, 39(1): 30. DOI: 10.1075/eww.38.3.04lam
  3. "The Expedition One Crew". spaceflight.nasa.gov.
  4. Feuer, Alan (14 June 2005). "For the Thirsty Runglish Speaker: Try an Ized Cyawfeh". New York Times. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
  5. Blomfield, Adrian (12 September 2007). "English invades Russian language". London: Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
  6. Examples of use, provided by Posmotre.li
  7. see YouTube video
  8. which does have the "Æ" sound
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