Alaskan Russian | |
Also Known As: | Old Russian |
State: | Alaska |
Region: | Kodiak Island (Afognak), Ninilchik |
Date: | 2016 |
Familycolor: | Indo-European |
Fam2: | Balto-Slavic |
Fam3: | Slavic |
Fam4: | East Slavic |
Fam5: | Russian |
Script: | Cyrillic, Latin |
Isoexception: | dialect |
Glotto: | kodi1252 |
Glottoname: | Kodiak Creole Russian |
Elp: | 2090 |
Elpname: | Kodiak Russian Creole |
Ietf: | ru-u-sd-usak |
Alaskan Russian, known locally as Old Russian, is a dialect of Russian, influenced by Eskimo–Aleut languages, spoken by Alaskan Creoles. Today it is prevalent on Kodiak Island and in Ninilchik (Kenai Peninsula), Alaska; it has been isolated from other varieties of Russian for over a century.[1]
Kodiak Russian, was natively spoken on Afognak Strait until the Great Alaskan earthquake and tsunami of 1964. It is now moribund, spoken by only a handful of elderly people, and is virtually undocumented.[2]
Ninilchik Russian is better studied and more vibrant; it developed from the Russian colonial settlement of Ninilchik in 1847.[3] [4]
Ninilchik Russian vocabulary is clearly Russian with a few borrowings from English and Alaskan native languages.
Here are some examples of Alaskan Russian from the village of Ninilchik:
Russian: Éta moy dom. 'This is my house'. (Modern Russian: Это мой дом.)
Russian: Aná óchin krasíwaya. 'She is very pretty'. (Она очень красивая.)
Russian: Aná nas lúbit. 'She loves us'. (Она нас любит.)
Russian: Éta moy mush. 'This is my husband'. (Это мой муж.)
Russian: Bózhi moy! 'My God!' (Боже мой!)
Russian: On moy brat. 'He is my brother'. (Он мой брат.)
Russian: U miné nimnóshka Rúskay krof. 'I have a little Russian blood'. (У меня немного русской крови.)