Runglish: how a unique dialect of English formed in New York

Runglish is a pseudo-dialect of the English language that is often heard among our immigrants to the United States. And although it seems that it has always existed, this phenomenon is relatively recent, and it originated in New York.

Runglish appeared in the United States in the 1970s, when a wave of mass Russian-speaking emigration began. The southern part of Brooklyn, especially Brighton Beach, has become the epicenter of the mixing of Russian with English, writes Russia Beyond.

“All my life I've heard all sorts of variations of Runglish or Russlish,” admitted Alexander, a former IT software developer who lives in Brooklyn. "As a person who knows both languages, I like this play on words and the mixture of Russian and English in one sentence."

As they say in runglish

Instead of saying “I'm driving,” a Russian in Brooklyn might say “I'm driving,” or use another variation of the English word drive.

“I first heard Runglish when I moved to Brooklyn. The inhabitants of this "little Odessa" created their own language using Russian with a strong Odessa accent and English words. In Brighton, English is considered cool, ”says Katya, who moved to New York from Kazakhstan.

“Later, however, I was told that only people with little education speak both languages ​​at once. In Manhattan, immigrants are expected to have a good knowledge of English and the ability to express themselves competently both orally and in writing. Nowadays I hear less and less that Russians living here mix languages, ”she says.

On the subject: 5 English colloquial phrases that confuse a Russian-speaking person

“Once I said to my friend: 'share your lacy with me [share your location],' and only then I realized how awful it sounded,” Katya admitted. One day her mother called her from Kazakhstan, and Katya puzzled her very much, answering: “Mom, I’m busi, I’ll call you back.”

Russian parents and their English-speaking children

“I do not mix Russian and English, I immediately switch from one to the other if the topic or circumstance requires it,” says Ignat Solzhenitsyn, son of the famous writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Ignat was born in Russia, but grew up in Vermont, and now lives in New York. Eminent parents tried in every possible way to make Ignat speak and write well in Russian.

But this is rather an exception. Outside of Russia, teaching a child Russian takes a lot of time and effort. And now more and more Russian-speaking parents in the United States speak English with their children, and they only partially understand Russian.

In addition, there are times when the English word conveys a thought better, while the Russian seems to be used out of place.

“For example, when it comes to a walk in Brighton Beach, it makes sense to say“ boardwalk ”and not the more familiar“ promenade ”for Russians. Otherwise, it will sound as if you are in a Chekhov play, ”says programmer Alexander.

On the other hand, Alexander believes that when there are wonderful Russian equivalents, the use of English words hurts the ear - for example, if they say "train" instead of "train".

Not only Russian

Civil engineer Lev Mezhburd moved to New York from St. Petersburg in 1989 and has been researching the phenomenon of language mixing for 30 years. Mezhburd notes that many Brighton Beach residents are not ethnic Russians, many came from other post-Soviet countries: Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Uzbekistan, etc.

“The use of words from different languages ​​in one sentence is common for them, because many grew up in multinational post-Soviet communities, where they spoke several languages,” Mezhburd says. "These people had never spoken correct Russian before, and when they arrived in the United States, they brought their own version of the Russian language with them, and in addition to that, they began to be just as flexible in learning English."

Hidden runglish, or Find its signs in your speech

Sometimes you can speak English and not understand it, because it even hides in pronunciation. It is given out by three components, writes “Translation journal".

Pronunciation

A common mistake is pronunciation of the sound [æ] as our "e". Americans don't understand at all how bad can be confused with bed. And among Russians, this confusion is in the order of things, and no one is worried about this. It's the same with long vowels. Our people see no reason to pull [i:], because you can pronounce [i]. Therefore, Russians often do not sleep, but slip (slip-sleep). We are accustomed to deafening consonants - here [dup] means "oak". So it turns out in English instead of a notebook, a spanking (pat-pad). Now comes the fun part: why do we need interdental sounds? We say [sri] where necessary [θri:] and calmly continue to conquer America.

On the subject: 20 interesting and useful phrases in English

Vocabulary

Our man will easily call the girl handsome (handsome), although they only say that about men. Or the big toe - finger when you need toe. And family in the mouth of a Russian often means "surname".

Grammar

Russians can safely combine English words into sentences without using correct grammatical schemes.

“I wasn't in Spain for 2 years” is a misnomer of tenses. This is the expression of a person who no longer exists. Not very nice, is it? Don't use it. "Money are my" - does not cause anything but emotion. Do not forget that the British have money in the singular, and this form of appropriation is not used.

“I haven't seen nobody,” someone says. While the Americans raise their eyebrows in surprise. Well, they do not understand double negation or the expression "yes no", which is familiar to us. Therefore, it is correct to say: “I haven't seen anybody”.