The Russian Ethnic Russians in Former Soviet Republics Speak isn’t Muscovite but Isn’t Wrong Either, Linguist Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 7 – The Russian language has always varied regionally and internationally despite the Soviet-imposed tradition of insisting that only the Muscovite variant is correct, Russian linguist Irina Levontina says; and the Russian Russians use beyond the ring road and beyond the country’s borders isn’t wrong just different.

            That is something many in the Russian capital don’t want to admit or even allow, the senior specialist at the Moscow Institute of the Russian Language at the Russian Academy of Sciences says; but given the speed of change because of  the new electronic media, this diversity is going to become ever greater (currenttime.tv/a/russian-language-outside-russia/29982837.html).

            That makes arguments about which preposition to use in the case of Ukraine – "в" or "на" – foolish, Levontina says.  There may be rules for officials, but people will use the one they are most comfortable with now and in the future just as in the past. In her view, despite the dogmatism inherited from Soviet times, "в" (“in”) will win out.

            Pluralism is the nature of language, especially now, the scholar says; and “grammatic and educated speakers of Russian live not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg. They live in Yekaterinburg, they live in Irkutsk, and they speak not as we speak in Moscow.” Abroad the situation is even more diverse.

            Levontina says that “in the near future will arise the notion that there is a Russian in the form of its variant which is present in the metropolis and there is a Russian, for example, in its Ukrainian variant.”  That is because the Russian language those in Ukraine will be “a different Russian,” one not the same as in Moscow or the same as in Yekaterinburg.”

            “We already understand that the German language in Austria is not the same as the ones in Germany or Switzerland. Not only are the dialects different, but the bearers of the literary language speak a little differently.” That understanding will ultimately spread to Russian linguists as they escape the dogmatism of the Soviet past.