Okannia and akannia in Ukrainian-Russian mixed speech (“surzhyk”) Ukrainian language policy in the 1920s and after 1991: Development stages and present trends
Journal Ukrainian Language – № 2 (82) 2022
UDC 811.161.1’27:811.161.2’27
Jan Patrick Zeler, Dr. Professor at the Chair for Slavic Linguistics, University of Greifswald, Germany
Ernst-Lohmeyer-Platz 3, 17487 Greifswald
Tel.: +49 (0)3834 420 3222
E-mail:jan.zeller@uni-greifswald.de
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6942-7112
Heading: Articles
Language: Еngish
Abstract: The Ukrainian-Russian mixed speech (URMS), also known as “surzhyk”, is a widespread
phenomenon in central areas of Ukraine. Linguistic studies still lack empirical research on the variation of phonic characteristics of URMS and on its connection with the social characteristics of its speakers. Based on a corpus of spoken speech of this non-standard variety with around 340,000-word tokens taken from informal family conversations and open interviews, this article examines the variation in Ukrainian-Russian mixed speech between two prominent phonic features of Ukrainian and Russian — the variation of unstressed /ɔ/ between Ukrainian okannia and Russian akannia. The results confirm that okannia strongly dominates in unstressed vocalism of URMS thus largely corresponding to the standard Ukrainian pattern and differen tiating it from Russian.
phenomenon in central areas of Ukraine. Linguistic studies still lack empirical research on the variation of phonic characteristics of URMS and on its connection with the social characteristics of its speakers. Based on a corpus of spoken speech of this non-standard variety with around 340,000-word tokens taken from informal family conversations and open interviews, this article examines the variation in Ukrainian-Russian mixed speech between two prominent phonic features of Ukrainian and Russian — the variation of unstressed /ɔ/ between Ukrainian okannia and Russian akannia. The results confirm that okannia strongly dominates in unstressed vocalism of URMS thus largely corresponding to the standard Ukrainian pattern and differen tiating it from Russian.
A Generalized Linear Mixed Model shows that the variation between okannia and akannia is influenced by complex dialectal and sociolinguistic differences in the Ukrainian language landscape, sociodemographic characteristics of the speakers, e.g., age and gender, and the speech situation. There are evident correlations between the phonic variation and the lexicalmorpho lo gical affinity of the word form, i.e., whether the word form on the lexical-morpho logical level coin cides with either standard Ukrainian or Russian. The findings make it clear that one-dimensional attempts to clarify language variation in Ukraine are bound to fail.
Keywords: Ukrainian-Russian language contact, dialect contact, language variation, îkannia, akannia
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Bickerton, D. (1975). Dynamics of a creole system. London: Cambridge University Press.
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Hentschel, G., & Reuther, T. (2020). Ukrainisch-russisches und russisch-ukrainisches CodeMixing. Untersuchungen in drei Regionen im Süden der Ukraine. Colloquium: New Philologies, 5(2), 105—132 (in German).
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Kučera, H. (1973). Language variability, rule interdependency, and the grammar of Czech. Linguistic Inquiry, 4, 499—521.
Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Le Page, R. B., & Tabouret-Keller, A. (1985). Acts of identity. Creole-Based approaches to language and ethnicity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Panov, M. V. (1979). Sovremennyі russkiі iazyk. Fonetika. Moscow: Vysshaіa shkola (in Russian).
Pompino-Marschall, B., Steriopolo, E., & Żygis, M. (2017). Ukrainian. Journal of the Internatio nal Phonetic Association, 47(3), 349—357.
R Core Team (2021). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/
Rusanovski³, V. M., Zhovtobriukh, M. A., Gorodenskaia, E. G., & Grishchenko, A. A. (1986).Ukrainskaia grammatika. Kyiv: Naukova Dumka (in Russian).
Schilling-Estes, N. (2002). Investigating stylistic variation. In J. K. Chambers, P. Trudgill, & N. Schilling-Estes (Eds.), The handbook of language variation and change (pp. 375—401). Malden: Blackwell.
Šumarova, N. (2014). Der Suryk im System nah verwandter Zweisprachigkeit. Soziolinguistischer und linguistischer Aspekt. In G. Hentschel, O. Taranenko, & S. Zaprudski (Eds.), Trasjanka und Suryk — gemischte weißrussisch-russische und ukrainisch-russische Rede. Sprachlicher Inzest in Weißrussland und der Ukraine? (pp. 307—326). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang (in German).
Taranenko, O. (2013). Variantnist’ vs. stabil’nist’ u strukturi ukra¿ns’ko-rosiis’koho “surzhyku.” Sukupnist’ idiolektiv vs. sotsiolekt. In G. Hentschel (Ed.), Variation und Stabilität in Kontaktvarietäten. Beobachtungen zu gemischten Formen der Rede in Weißrussland, der Ukraine und Schlesien (pp. 27—61). Oldenburg: BIS (in Ukrainian).
Timberlake, A. (2004). A reference grammar of Russian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Trub, V. M. (2000). Iavyshche “surzhyku” iak forma prostorichchia v sytuatsiї dvomovnosti. Movoznavstvo, 1, 46—58 (in Ukrainian).
Trudgill, P. (1986). Dialects in contact. Oxford: Blackwell. Voss, Ch. (2008a). Slawische Kreolsprachen — Mythos und Realität. In S. Kempgen, K. Guts chmidt, U. Jekutsch, & L. Udolph (Eds.), Deutsche Beiträge zum 14. Internationalen Slavistenkongress Ohrid 2008 (pp. 357—369). Munich: Sagner (in German).
Voss, Ch. (2008b). Zur Konzeptualisierung sprachlicher Hybridität in der Slawia. “Was ser polnisch” in Schlesien und “Suryk” in der Ukraine. In A. Nagórko, S. Heyl, & E. Graf (Eds.), Sprache und Gesellschaft. Festschrift für Wolfgang Gladrow (pp. 543—557). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang (in German).
Watt, D., & Milroy, L. (1999). Patterns of variation and change in three Newcastle vowels. Is this dialect levelling? In P. Foulkes & G. J. Docherty (Eds.), Urban voices. Accent studies in the British Isles (pp. 25—46). London: Arnold.
Wickham, H. (2019). stringr: Simple, consistent wrappers for common string operations. R package version 1.4.0. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=stringr
Yanushevskaya, I., & Bunčić, D. (2015). Russian. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 45(2), 221—228.
Zeller, J. P. (2018). Zum ukrainisch-russischen Sprachkontakt: Phonische Variation im ukrainischen ‘Suryk’ im Vergleich mit der weißrussischen ‘Trasjanka’. In S. Kempgen, M. Win gender, & L. Udolph (Eds.), Deutsche Beiträge zum 16. Internationalen Slavis tenkongress Belgrad 2018 (pp. 365—374). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz (in German).
Zeller, J. P., Taranenko, O., & Hentschel, G. (2019). Language and religion in central Ukraine. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2019(260), 105—130.
Zhylko, F. T. (1966). Narysy z dialektolohiї ukraїns’koї movy. Kyiv: Radians’ka shkola (in Ukrainian).
Auer, P. (1986). Konversationelle Standard/Dialekt-Kontinua (Code-Shifting). Deutsche Sprache, 14, 97—124 (in German).
Auer, P. (1997). Co-occurrence restrictions between linguistic variables. A case for social dialec tology, phonological theory and variation studies. In F. Hinskens, R. van Hout, & L. Wet zels (Eds.), Variation, change, and phonological theory (pp. 71—102). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Auer, P. (2005). Europe’s sociolinguistic unity, or: A typology of European dialect/standard constellations. In N. Delbecque, J. van de Auwera, & D. Geeraerts (Eds.), Perspectives on variation. Sociolinguistic, historical, comparative (pp. 7—42). Berlin: De Gruyter.
Avanesov, R. I. (1956). Fonetika sovremennogo russkogo literaturnogo iazyka. Moscow: Izdatel´stvo Moskovskogo universiteta (in Russian).
Baayen, R. H. (2008). Analyzing linguistic data. A practical introduction to statistics using R. Camb ridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bates, D., Maechler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1—48.
Bickerton, D. (1975). Dynamics of a creole system. London: Cambridge University Press.
Bondarko, L. V., & Verbitskaia, L. A. (Eds.). (1987). Interferentsiia zvukovykh sistem. Leningrad: Izdatel´stvo Leningradskogo Universiteta (in Russian).
Chertorizhskaia, T. K. (Ed.). (1988). Ukrainsko-Russkoe dvuiazychie. Sotsiolingvisticheski³ aspekt. Kyiv: Naukova Dumka (in Russian).
Del Gaudio, S. (2010). On the nature of suryk. A double perspective. Munich: Sagner (in English).
Del Gaudio, S. (2011). O variativnosti russkogo iazyka na Ukraine. Izvestiia Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk. Seriia Literatury i Iazyka, 70(2), 28—36 (in Russian).
Del Gaudio, S. (2017). An introduction to Ukrainian dialectology. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Del Gaudio, S. (2020). Language situation in the district of Ripky (Černihiv, Ukraine). Russian Linguistics, 44, 177—201.
Hentschel, G. (2014). “Trasjanka” und “Suryk” — zum Mischen von Sprachen in Weißrussland und der Ukraine. Einführung in die Thematik und Ausblick auf den Band. In G. Hentschel, O. Taranenko, & S. Zaprudski (Eds.), Trasjanka und Suryk — gemischte weißrussischrussische und ukrainisch-russische Rede. Sprachlicher Inzest in Weißrussland und der Ukraine? (pp. 1—26). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang (in German).
Hentschel, G. (2018). Die weißrussische ‘Trasjanka’ und der ukrainische ‘Suryk’. Grundlegende quantitativ-qualitative soziolinguistische Ähnlichkeiten und Unterschiede. In S. Kempgen, M. Wingender, & L. Udolph (Eds.), Deutsche Beiträge zum 16. Internationalen Slavistenkongress Belgrad 2018 (pp. 127—138). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz (in German).
Hentschel, G., & Reuther, T. (2020). Ukrainisch-russisches und russisch-ukrainisches CodeMixing. Untersuchungen in drei Regionen im Süden der Ukraine. Colloquium: New Philologies, 5(2), 105—132 (in German).
Hentschel, G., & Taranenko, O. (2015). Die Sprachenlandschaft der zentralen Ukraine: Ukrainisch, Russisch, ‘Suryk’. Verwendung — Kompetenz — nationale Positionierung. Die Welt der Slaven, 60(2), 248—275 (in German).
Hentschel, G., & Zeller, J. P. (2012). Gemischte Rede, gemischter Diskurs, Sprechertypen. Weißrussisch, Russisch und gemischte Rede in der Kommunikation weißrussischer Familien. Wiener Slawistischer Almanach, 70, 127—155 (in German).
Hentschel, G., & Zeller, J. P. (2017). Aspekte der Sprachverwendung in zentralen Regionen der Ukraine. Wiener Slawistischer Almanach, 79, 37—60 (in German).
Hryshchenko, A. P., Mats’ko, L. I., Pliushch, M. Ia., Tots’ka, N. I., & Uzdyhan, I. M. (2002). Suchasna ukra¿ns’ka literaturna mova. Kyiv: Vyshcha shkola (in Ukrainian).
Kasatkin, L. L. (2006). Sovremennyi russkii iazyk. Fonetika. Moscow: Akademiia (in Russian).
Kerswill, P. (2007). Koineization and accommodation. In J. K. Chambers, P. Trudgill, & N. Schilling-Estes (Eds.), The handbook of language variation and change (pp. 669—702). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
Kochetov, A. (2006). The role of social factors in the dynamics of sound change. A case study of a Russian dialect. Language Variation and Change, 18(1), 99—119.
Kučera, H. (1973). Language variability, rule interdependency, and the grammar of Czech. Linguistic Inquiry, 4, 499—521.
Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Le Page, R. B., & Tabouret-Keller, A. (1985). Acts of identity. Creole-Based approaches to language and ethnicity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Panov, M. V. (1979). Sovremennyі russkiі iazyk. Fonetika. Moscow: Vysshaіa shkola (in Russian).
Pompino-Marschall, B., Steriopolo, E., & Żygis, M. (2017). Ukrainian. Journal of the Internatio nal Phonetic Association, 47(3), 349—357.
R Core Team (2021). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/
Rusanovski³, V. M., Zhovtobriukh, M. A., Gorodenskaia, E. G., & Grishchenko, A. A. (1986).Ukrainskaia grammatika. Kyiv: Naukova Dumka (in Russian).
Schilling-Estes, N. (2002). Investigating stylistic variation. In J. K. Chambers, P. Trudgill, & N. Schilling-Estes (Eds.), The handbook of language variation and change (pp. 375—401). Malden: Blackwell.
Šumarova, N. (2014). Der Suryk im System nah verwandter Zweisprachigkeit. Soziolinguistischer und linguistischer Aspekt. In G. Hentschel, O. Taranenko, & S. Zaprudski (Eds.), Trasjanka und Suryk — gemischte weißrussisch-russische und ukrainisch-russische Rede. Sprachlicher Inzest in Weißrussland und der Ukraine? (pp. 307—326). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang (in German).
Taranenko, O. (2013). Variantnist’ vs. stabil’nist’ u strukturi ukra¿ns’ko-rosiis’koho “surzhyku.” Sukupnist’ idiolektiv vs. sotsiolekt. In G. Hentschel (Ed.), Variation und Stabilität in Kontaktvarietäten. Beobachtungen zu gemischten Formen der Rede in Weißrussland, der Ukraine und Schlesien (pp. 27—61). Oldenburg: BIS (in Ukrainian).
Timberlake, A. (2004). A reference grammar of Russian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Trub, V. M. (2000). Iavyshche “surzhyku” iak forma prostorichchia v sytuatsiї dvomovnosti. Movoznavstvo, 1, 46—58 (in Ukrainian).
Trudgill, P. (1986). Dialects in contact. Oxford: Blackwell. Voss, Ch. (2008a). Slawische Kreolsprachen — Mythos und Realität. In S. Kempgen, K. Guts chmidt, U. Jekutsch, & L. Udolph (Eds.), Deutsche Beiträge zum 14. Internationalen Slavistenkongress Ohrid 2008 (pp. 357—369). Munich: Sagner (in German).
Voss, Ch. (2008b). Zur Konzeptualisierung sprachlicher Hybridität in der Slawia. “Was ser polnisch” in Schlesien und “Suryk” in der Ukraine. In A. Nagórko, S. Heyl, & E. Graf (Eds.), Sprache und Gesellschaft. Festschrift für Wolfgang Gladrow (pp. 543—557). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang (in German).
Watt, D., & Milroy, L. (1999). Patterns of variation and change in three Newcastle vowels. Is this dialect levelling? In P. Foulkes & G. J. Docherty (Eds.), Urban voices. Accent studies in the British Isles (pp. 25—46). London: Arnold.
Wickham, H. (2019). stringr: Simple, consistent wrappers for common string operations. R package version 1.4.0. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=stringr
Yanushevskaya, I., & Bunčić, D. (2015). Russian. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 45(2), 221—228.
Zeller, J. P. (2018). Zum ukrainisch-russischen Sprachkontakt: Phonische Variation im ukrainischen ‘Suryk’ im Vergleich mit der weißrussischen ‘Trasjanka’. In S. Kempgen, M. Win gender, & L. Udolph (Eds.), Deutsche Beiträge zum 16. Internationalen Slavis tenkongress Belgrad 2018 (pp. 365—374). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz (in German).
Zeller, J. P., Taranenko, O., & Hentschel, G. (2019). Language and religion in central Ukraine. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2019(260), 105—130.
Zhylko, F. T. (1966). Narysy z dialektolohiї ukraїns’koї movy. Kyiv: Radians’ka shkola (in Ukrainian).