Runglish
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Runglish, Ruglish or Russlish (Russian: Рунглийский язык), is a neologism increasingly used to denote at least three different interferences of Russian and English languages: pidgin, spoken manner,[citation needed] and informal latinizations of the Cyrillic alphabet.[citation needed]
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[edit] Pidgin
As a term for describing the Russian-English pidgin language,[verification needed] it was popularized in 2000, when the language aboard the International Space Station was described as "Runglish". Although less widespread than other pidgins and creoles, such as Tok Pisin, Runglish is spoken in a number of English-Russian communities, most notably the Russian-speaking community of Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, New York.[verification needed] Arthur C. Clarke's novel 2010: Odyssey Two had a micro-plot involving a similarly named phenomenon, Russlish. Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange has one called Nadsat. (See: Concordance: A Clockwork Orange)
[edit] Spoken manner
"Runglish" is also used informally to describe the variety of English spoken by native Russian speakers. Distinctive features of Runglish may be noticed in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar, and in all cases reflect the respective features of Russian being applied to English, not unlike many other languages, e.g. German.
[edit] Transliteration
Since the term "Runglish" entered circulation, it has been increasingly used to denote what was earlier known as Volapuk encoding: the rendering of Russian-language texts using the Latin alphabet.[citation needed]
[edit] Russlish in 2010: Odyssey Two
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.
Use of "Russlish" in space has been realized to some extent on the International Space Station. Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalyov said in October of 2000: "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."
[edit] Humor
The following joke vividly illustrates some of the grammatical issues presented above. It is patterned on the famous dialog from Casablanca.
Two gentlemen have the following conversation in Trafalgar Square:
"Excuse me, which watch?" "Near six watch." "Such much?" "For whom how..." "MGIMO finished?" "Ask!..."
While incoherent for someone without good knowledge of Russian, this exchange is immediately understood by native Russian speakers; each sentence is merely a direct ("word-for-word") translation into English while keeping Russian grammatical structure intact.
[edit] References
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