Showing posts with label dialect. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dialect. Show all posts

Sunday, 1 July 2012

Canadian Doukhobor Russian Dialect

A chapter about the Canadian Doukhobor Russian dialect is at the end of Dr. Makarova's book published June 1, 2012:

Schaarschmidt, Gunter. "Russian Language History in Canada. Doukhobor 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. ISBN: 9780857287847.

See previews at Google Books, Amazon.com and Anthem Press.

From the Introduction, page xvii:

"The history of the Doukhobor language in Canada is examined in the concluding chapter by Gunter Schaarschmidt. The chapter also outlines some of the specific features of Canadian Doukhobor Russian. In particular, the author illustrates an interplay between the colloquial and ritual functional styles in Doukhobor Russian. The unique features of Doukhobor Russian are explained by its largely oral traditon, relative geological isolation, deliberate resistance to the influence of Canadian English, and the influence of Ukrainian, dating mainly to the first generation of settlers in the province of Saskatchewan. This study is the first major work introducing the language history and structure of Doukhobor Russian."

Saturday, 21 May 2011

Q43: Is 'Doukhobor Dialect' Defended?

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.
A search of Google Books shows much documentation of "Doukhobor Russian."

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), ...

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