In the May issue of Iskra #2042 (Castlegar, British Columbia), Petro (Peter) Hlookoff writes that after the tragic loss of Alex Harshenin in 1977, 'nobody' is defending the Doukhobor dialect in the English language.
Dr. Gunter Schaarschmidt |
Not so. Dr. Gunter Schaarschmidt (Professor Emeritus, University of Victoria, BC) has for the past several years been studying and defending the Doukhobor-Russian language dialect.
In my opinion, the so-called 'Doukhobor dialect' is interesting as a minor artifact of life, but the real future is in learning Standard Russian, one of the important international languages of the world.
Though Koozma complains that Canadian "Doukhoborese" is backward, he often uses it. Examples: shishliki instead of shashlik (barbecued meat), oreshki instead of khvorost (angel wings pastry), Koozma instead of Kuzma (standard transliteration), notche instead of nochi, zapoi (drinking a lot (of tea)) instead of obrucheniye or pomolvka (engagement), ...
- 2012 — Russian Language History in Canada. Doukhoboor Internal and External Migrations: Effect on language development and structure, (Chapter 10, pages 235-260) in Russian Language Studies in North America: New Perspectives from Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, edited by Veronika Makarova. London: Anthem Press, 2012.
- 2009 — English for Doukhobors: 110 Years of Russian-English Contact in Canada, Doukhobor Heritage website.
- 2006 — Language Shift and Text Types: Reconfiguring the Ritual Language of Doukhobor Russians in Canada, TRANS Internet-Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften | Internet journal for cultural studies.
- 2005 — Four norms - one culture: Doukhobor Russian in Canada, In R. Muhr (Ed.). Standardvariationen und Sprachideologien in verschiedenen Sprachkulturen der Welt (pp. 137-150) (Standard variations and language ideologies in different language cultures around the world). Wien: Peter Lang Verlag.
- Doukhobor Russian, Wikipedia
In my opinion, the so-called 'Doukhobor dialect' is interesting as a minor artifact of life, but the real future is in learning Standard Russian, one of the important international languages of the world.
Though Koozma complains that Canadian "Doukhoborese" is backward, he often uses it. Examples: shishliki instead of shashlik (barbecued meat), oreshki instead of khvorost (angel wings pastry), Koozma instead of Kuzma (standard transliteration), notche instead of nochi, zapoi (drinking a lot (of tea)) instead of obrucheniye or pomolvka (engagement), ...
More: Questions and Answers, Comments