Learn the meaning of Runglish
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Intro |
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| Michael: What is Runglish? |
| Saodat: And is it commonly used? |
| Michael: At RussianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following scenario: Alina Alekseeva asks her friend Sasha Li, if she would like to go to the mall with her tomorrow: |
| "Do you want to go shopping tomorrow?" |
| Alina Alekseeva: Хочешь сходить завтра на шоппинг? (Khochesh' skhodit' zavtra na shopping?) |
| Dialogue |
| Алина Алексеева: Хочешь сходить завтра на шоппинг? (Alina Alekseeva: Khochesh' skhodit' zavtra na shopping?) |
| Саша Ли: Да. (Sasha Li: Da.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Алина Алексеева: Хочешь сходить завтра на шоппинг? (Khochesh' skhodit' zavtra na shopping?) |
| Michael: "Do you want to go shopping tomorrow?" |
| Саша Ли: Да. (Da.) |
| Michael: "Yes." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: An estimated 400 million people speak the English language as their native language. Aside from being widely spoken, English is also the most studied language, with at least 500 million who use it as a second language. And even if Russia is not a largely English-speaking country, it has not escaped the phenomenon of using English mixed in with its native language. This development is called, Runglish, or |
| Saodat: рунглиш (runglish) |
| Michael: which is a blend of the words, |
| Saodat: русский (russkiy) |
| Michael: or “Russian,” and English spelled in Cyrillic letters: |
| Saodat: инглиш (inglish). |
| Michael: While the number of people in Russia who are able to speak and understand English has doubled over the years, there are still those who deem this code-switching between Russian and English unacceptable. Some see it as a fun language, while others see it as a threat to their native tongue. Nevertheless, it’s not uncommon to hear Russians say something like, |
| Saodat: На обед будет чикен макнаггетс. (Na obed budet chiken maknaggets.) |
| Michael: or “There are chicken McNuggets for dinner.” Since they’re sold and popularized by one of the biggest fast food chains in Russia, the name |
| Saodat: чикен макнаггетс (chicken maknaggets) |
| Michael: for chicken nuggets became a part of the Russian language and is widely understood by Russian people. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue to better understand how Runglish is used. |
| Do you remember how Alina Alekseeva says "Do you want to go shopping tomorrow?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Saodat: Хочешь сходить завтра на шоппинг? (Khochesh' skhodit' zavtra na shopping?) |
| Michael: The proper way to say “to go shopping” in Russian is |
| Saodat: делать покупки (delat' pokupki) |
| Michael: literally “making purchases.” That said, the English word “shopping” has no direct equivalent in Russian. For a quicker means of communication, some Russians, like Alina here, use the Runglish term instead, which is |
| Saodat: шоппинг (shopping) |
| Michael: It may be pronounced in a Russian accent, but it’s actually the English word “shopping.” This is just one of the ways that Runglish works. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned that Russian speakers tend to adopt English words into their vocabulary. This is also referred to as "Runglish," or |
| Saodat: рунглиш (runglish) |
| Michael: To give you a better understanding of how “Runglish” works, let’s hear some examples of how it’s used. Here’s the first one: |
| Saodat: Я люблю смотреть по телевизору тревел-шоу. (Ya lyublyu smotret’ po televizoru trevel-shou.) |
| Michael: “I like to watch travel-shows on TV.” Here, the word |
| Saodat: тревел-шоу (trevel-shou) |
| Michael: or “travel-shows” is in Runglish. You will know because of the way it is spoken, which is English but with a Russian accent. In Russian, travel show would be |
| Saodat: шоу о путешествиях (shou o pusteshestviyakh), |
| Michael: but it’s rarely used in Russia. Using the Runglish words is in fashion, so most Russian people will relate to these shows as |
| Saodat: тревел-шоу (trevel-shou) |
| Michael: Here’s another one: |
| Saodat: Мои комменты ещё не заапрувили. (Moi kommenty yeshchyo ne zaapruvili.) |
| Michael: This means “My comment has not yet been approved.” In our previous examples, what he had were actual English words spoken with a Russian accent. In this case, we can observe an English word with a Russian suffix attached to it. So, what we have is the word “approved” conjugated in the first person, not in English, but in Russian. Finally, here’s one sentence that’s heavy in Runglish: |
| Saodat: Френдни меня в Фейсбуке или текстни мне, и я тебе пришлю линк. (Frendni menya v Feysbuke ili tekstni mne, i ya tebe prishlyu link.) |
| Michael: This means “Friend me on Facebook or text me and I'll send you a link.” This is an excellent proof of how the Russian language has been heavily influenced by Runglish. Here, we can observe not just one, but four instances of Runglish being used. First, we have the word, |
| Saodat: френдни (frendni) |
| Michael: or “to friend.” In Russian, the proper term for “to friend” is |
| Saodat: добавить в друзья (dobavit’ v druz’ya) |
| Michael: And then we have the word, |
| Saodat: фейсбук (feysbuk) |
| Michael: which is obviously Runglish for “Facebook.” Next, we have the word |
| Saodat: текст (tekst) |
| Michael: which is Runglish for “text.” And, finally, we have the word |
| Saodat: линк (link) |
| Michael: which sounds just like the word “link” in English and is clearly referring to it, in particular. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: The use of Runglish sometimes results in the occurrence of “false friends.” This results in an attempt to avoid lengthy words. For instance, the word, |
| Saodat: Кейс (Keys) |
| Michael: is used as an alternative to |
| Saodat: чемодан (chemodan) |
| Michael: both meaning "case" as in "suitcase." In the same manner, English words are borrowed to indicate the specific type of an item, such as in the word, |
| Saodat: Брекеты (Brekety) |
| Michael: which is borrowed from the English word “brackets.” In Russian, this word is used to refer to “braces,” rather than “brackets,” in general. This word is shorter and quicker to say than the proper Russian term for braces, which is |
| Saodat: Стоматологические скобы (Stomatologicheskiye skoby) |
| Michael: or “Dental braces.” |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: The phenomenon that is known as “Runglish” has been developing so fast that the Russian government considered it as a threat to the point that the government declared 2007 as the “Year of the Russian Language” or |
| Saodat: Год русского языка (God russkogo yazyka) |
| Michael: The declaration was followed by various cultural and educational events designed to make the Russian language more popular. This declaration was in part Russia’s way of preserving the purity of the Russian language and protecting it from fashionable ways of communicating that may affect that purity. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Saodat: Пока! (Poka!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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