| Odesan Russian | |
|---|---|
| Region | Odesa |
| Ethnicity | Various |
Early forms | |
| Cyrillic script (Russian alphabet) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| IETF | ru-u-sd-ua51 |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Odesan Russian (Russian:Одесский язык,romanized: Odessky yazyk,lit. 'Odesan language') is a regionaldialect of theRussian language spoken in and around the city ofOdesa, Ukraine. Influenced heavily byYiddish,Bulgarian,Turkic andUkrainian, the Odesan dialect has been variously described by linguists as aKoiné language, aJewish language, or amixed language.[1] It is a staple ofOdesan culture, appearing in the works ofIsaac Babel andMark Bernes, and is also a source of parts of thefenya criminal jargon.
Odesan Russian emerged amidst theRussification ofOdesa during the early 19th century, replacing the previously dominant influence ofFrench andItalian languages.[2] Other important languages in the early development of Odesan Russian wereGreek and theTurkic languages. Less distant languages, however, became the primary sources for the Odesan dialect;Ukrainian andYiddish served as the primary non-Russian influences on the Odesan dialect, withPolish as a less important, but still notable influence.[3]
With the advent ofWorld War II, Odesa's Jewish population was largely killed inthe Holocaust. Further declines were brought on as a result of the1970s Soviet Union aliyah and migration to Odesa from other parts of Ukraine, and today Odesan Russian as it was historically spoken remains most common in theBrighton Beach neighbourhood ofBrooklyn,New York City. It may also be spoken in Israel.[4] Modern Odesan Russian, while retaining aspects from historical speech, has largely evolved in a different form. The differences have been vast enough for various Odesites and linguists to declare that the dialect is extinct in Ukraine.[5] Other Odesite authors, however, have disagreed with this claim.[6]
Odesan Russian is influenced partially bySouthern Russian dialects, which useAkanye extensively. Another part of the Odesan dialect owing to the influence of Southern Russian is the usage of avoiced velar fricative/ɣ/, rather than thevoiced velar plosive/ɡ/ found in standard Russian.[7]
An important part of the Odesan dialect is the importance ofintonation in determining the meaning of a word.[1] For example, the phraseтаки да (taki da) can either be used to mean yes or no depending on the intonation used.[6] The overall intonation of a sentence is a distinctive feature: it is of rese-fall type, typical of Yiddish speech and may sound as a sing-song or emotional for a Russian ear, used to a relatively flat intonation in a regular conversation.[8]: 297
Gestures are also significant in the Odesan dialect, being used to emphasise a point or show direction.[1][9][10]
A kind ofshibboleth for Odesan speech is the particle which translates the word "what". In low-register Ukrainian and Russian it isшо "sho" (literary Ukrainian: що (shcho), Russian: что (chto)), while an Odessite will pronounce шё (shyo).[8]: 297
The vocabulary of Odesan Russian includes significant differences from other forms of Russian, owing to the influence of Ukrainian and Yiddish, among other languages. Some notable vocabulary changes in Odesan Russian include:
Another aspect of Odesan Russian is its differing and relatively liberal grammar rules compared to standard Russian. For example, the termза (za) is used as a preposition similar to "about" (as in "tell me about yourself") in the dialect, rather than the standard Russianо (o). This, along with the usage ofс (s) in lieu ofнад (nad) in the meaning of "at", as in "I am laughing at you", is credited to Ukrainian influence by linguist Robert A. Rothstein. The dialect is notable for the frequent misuse ofgrammatical cases, owing in part to the relative simplicity of grammatical casesin Yiddish compared to Russian.[16]
A staple of Odesan Jewish speech is the affirmative particle таки, most commonly in expressions таки да (taki da, 'actually, yes') and таки нет (actually, no), but may emphasize any verb, not necessarily necessarily (Ви таки будете купить этих птичек? Will you anyway to buy these birdies?). In regular Russian the particle 'taki' is mostly used in the compound wordвсё-таки. The Odesan Jewish usage of "taki" is probably influenced byYiddish:טאַקע,romanized: take, 'indeed'. This staple is the punch in the one-liner"Иванов, несмотря на фамилию, таки да", "Ivanov, despite the surname,taki da."[17] (This joke capitalizes on the fact that due to anti-Semitism in Russian Empire and Soviet Union some Jews took Russian surnames.)
The Odesan dialect has come to be seen as a symbol of Odesa in popular culture, reaching its literary peak in the early 20th century. Authors such asIsaac Babel popularised the dialect, as well as Odesa as a whole, throughout theRussian-speaking world with works likeOdessa Stories (1931),[18][19] and the dialect later became known for its position in Soviet music, with singers includingMark Bernes.[20]
The Odesan dialect has also established its presence in Russian criminal jargon, orfenya. Certain terms, such asПоймать халтуру (Poymat khalturu, meaning to rob the house of a deceased individual or to find additional income in non-criminal slang) have entered public lexicon,[21] while others, likeксива (ksiva, or "documents"), have entered into non-Odesan fenya.[13]