Surzhyk

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Surzhyk (#redirect , originally meaning ‘flour or bread made from mixed grains’, e.g., wheat with rye), is currently the mixed language or sociolect used by fifteen to twenty percent of the population of Ukraine. It is a mixture of Ukrainian substratum with Russian superstratum. Normally Russian vocabulary is combined with Ukrainian grammar and pronunciation.

The vocabulary usage of either of the languages varies greatly with location, or sometimes even from person to person, depending on the level of education, personal experiences, rural or urban setting, origin of his interlocutors etc. The percentage of Russian words and phonetic influences tends to gradually increase in the east and south and around big Russian-speaking cities. It is commonly spoken in most of Ukraine's rural areas, with the exception of the large metropolitan areas of Donetsk, Kharkiv, Luhansk, and especially Crimea, where the majority of population uses language close to standard Russian. In rural areas of western Ukraine, the language spoken contains fewer Russian elements than in central and eastern Ukraine but has nonetheless been influenced by Russian.

The ancient common origin and more recent divergence of Russian and Ukrainian makes it difficult to establish the degree of mixing in a vernacular of this sort.

Surzhyk is often used for comical effect in arts. See, for example, the short plays by Les Poderviansky [link].

In Belarus, there is a similar phenomenon called Trasianka, which combines Belarusian with Russian.

Surzhyk as an ethnopolitical issue

About 90%-95% of Ukrainian speaking population actually speaks one of the many forms of Surzhyk ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}. The Russian mix is especially widespread in the east and south of the country, though frowned upon by the western population, which ironically does not speak unadulterated Ukrainian either, but rather a mixture of Ukrainian and Polish. In Soviet times Ukrainian was ubiquitously oppressed and thus a sizable portion of its speakers lost full command of it, especially the younger, Russified generation.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the definition of canonical Ukrainian became somewhat of a controversy, with different regions or scholar groups struggling to establish their versions countrywide. This matter is a hot issue for many Ukrainians and some members of the population display scorn for their fellow countrymen speaking different dialects, which is often mutual. Some universities, colleges, and other educational facilities tend to have a strict semiofficial language policy.

Several years ago the journalists close to the pro-Russian United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine suggested to formalize the Surzhyk and local Russian as a "Ukrainian dialect of Russian language" and grant it with the official status, but the idea received no understanding.

Surzhyk

Surzhyk as an ethnopolitical issue

See also