Eastern European Englishes
Ina Shashkova, Nikelwa Theileis,
Melanie Höhr, Ina Strasser
English as a Global Lingua
Franca
English as a Global Lingua Franca
Quiz: Where do the following
people come from?





Croatia
Slovakia
Poland
Russia
Romania
English as a Global Lingua Franca
A Brief Look at English in
Eastern Europe.
 Till the 19th Century, the teaching of English was
restricted mainly to places which traded with Britain.
 True competition with French and German started in the
1880s
 Till World War 2, English little taught in Eastern Europe
where German and French were firmly established
 End of Stalinist period saw the re-introduction of English,
requirement that Russian be learnt abandoned in the
1990s.
 English as teaching language in primary and secondary
education is frequent in East Europe
English as a Global Lingua Franca
 Even company languages are influenced by it; e.g. Alcatel,
Aventis etc. - English seen as “working language”
 E.U and European Commission officials:
63% French
33% English
 In contact with member state experts in:
Oral communication: 22% French 31% English
Written comm.:
6% French 59% English
 Haller (2001): No one listens to what you say if you do
not speak English because English is the language of
power and, by speaking another language, you show you
have no power.
 What gives English its function therefore is not so much
its utilitarian function as the prestige attached to it and
the social role attributed to it.
English as a Global Lingua Franca
Sample Sentences
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
I’d rather drink Coca-Cola than Sprite
How do you do? I'm good - It’s kind that you ask.
Why do you think Caroline cried last night?
The dog went mad. What a freak. He’s so jealous.
Can you put this back into the basket?
I have my focus on this certain area!
He used to be my little boy. That’s so curious.
Wait! Bob is taking a shower.
Freeze! You are so mean.
I don’t really think this is easy.
Not at all. Lucky one.
It’s a strange questionnaire.
Quite good, actually.
Could you please read out chapter three, verse thirteen?
That’s extraordinary.
The zebra is black and white.
English as a Global Lingua Franca
Sample Sentences
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
I’d rather drink Coca-Cola than Sprite
How do you do? I'm good - It’s kind that you ask.
Why do you think Caroline cried last night?
The dog went mad. What a freak. He’s so jealous.
Can you put this back into the basket?
I have my focus on this certain area!
He used to be my little boy. That’s so curious.
Wait! Bob is taking a shower.
Freeze! You are so mean.
I don’t really think this is easy.
Not at all. Lucky one.
It’s a strange questionnaire.
Quite good, actually.
Could you please read out chapter three, verse thirteen?
That’s extraordinary.
The zebra is black and white.
English as a Global Lingua Franca
CocaCola
Freeze!
think
actually
extraordi
nary
Sample
AE
cаυcΛ
cаυlΛ
fθi:z
θınk
æktƒαli:
ekstra:č:
deri:
Russian1
coca:cola
:
fri:se
tınk
a:ktu:æl
e
ekstraoα
denær:i:
Russian2
caυla
fri:z
θınk
æktƒeli:
ekstrač:d
enæli:
Russian3
coca:cola
:
fri:s
θınk
æktƒυ:li:
ekstraord
enα:ri:
Russian4
coca:cola
:
fri:s
θınk
æktuæli:
ekstra:č:
deri:
Russian5
coca:cola
:
fri:z
sınk
æktƒuli:
ekstra:č:
deri
English as a Global Lingua Franca
Type of English in Russia
Russian native speakers naturally speak Russian English instead of
English, the variety being quite widely spread (about 100–150
million speakers).
 It is basically closer to British than American English (since the
majority of Russian mother-tongue speakers live in Europe).
British pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and
punctuation are educational standards in Russian schools and
universities
 Runglish (Ruglish, Russlish), is a neologism increasingly used
to denote different interferences of Russian and English
languages. It has distinctive pronunciation, vocabulary, and
grammar
English as a Global Lingua Franca
Russian English
Pronunciation
Selected phonological features
Segmentals: vowels





Consonants
Inability to distinguish and produce
pure
English vowel qualities -> a lack of
corresponding vowels -> 6 oral
vowels -> implemented to realize 12
English vowels
Short and long vowels (hit and heat)
are not distinguished.
Open and close vowels (pan and pen)
are not distinguished.
The diphthongs /aɪ/, /eɪ/, and/ɔɪ/ sound
with the consonant [j] sound instead of
the short /ɪ/. E.g. “high” sounds like
[haj], rather than [haɪ].
/i:/, /ɪ/, and /j/ sounds make the
preceding consonants palatalized.




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Voiced and voiceless consonants
are not distinguished in final
position (leave and leaf).
Aspirated consonants are not
generally aspirated.
There is no /w/ in Russian and
speakers typically substitute [v]
Russian /r/ is an alveolar trill.
This may carry over into English
Absence of dental fricatives
/ð/ and /θ/ sounds in Russian
phonology
English as a Global Lingua Franca
Runglish Grammar and
Syntax
Grammar
 There is no distinction between a, the, and zero article.
 Simple tenses are used instead of Perfect and Continuous
tenses.
 Different prepositions may be used (during instead of for, at or
in, with the help of instead of by means of, in instead of at or
on etc).
 Inappropriate use of “he”/“she” when referring to animals or
inanimate objects
Syntax
 Use of multiple negation (I didn’t do nothing).
 Wrong tags are used (‘Didn’t you know that?’ ‘Yes, I didn’t’).
English as a Global Lingua Franca
Questionnaire
Structure of interviewed people
 Total number: 15
 Russian: 7
 Polish: 4
 Lithuania, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania: 1




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Students living in Germany: 9
Exchange students: 3
Students not living in Germany: 2
Non-academic/ weak social background: 1
Age: 19 - 33
English as a Global Lingua Franca
Croatia
Lithuania
Poland
Poland
Poland
Poland
Romania
Russia
Russia
Russia
Russia
Russia
Russia
Russia
Slovakia
Age
26
23
23
23
23
23
20
30
28
23
33
19
22
21
23
1980
1983
1983
1983
1983
1983
1986
1976
1978
1983
1973
1987
1984
1985
1983
Age of learning English Year of starting Years of learning English
7
1987
11
9
1992
10
20
2003
3
12
1995
8
7
1990
15
11
1994
12
5
1991
16
28
2004
1,5
22
2000
4
16
1999
4
10
1983
6
12
1999
6
13
1997
9
7
1992
14
12
1998
11
English as a Global Lingua Franca
Some Results of the
questionnaire
 Regional differences in the influence of English (eg.
Russia: Moscow vs. Siberia)
 English is presented on TV, radio and in advertisements
(eg. Background music, slogans, some English expressions – eg. Happy
hour, subtitled films, news, broadcast)
 More and more English loan words
(Economics – corporation,
manager; IT- hardware; food- hot dog, continental breakfast; otherbus, bank, live, show, film, concert...)
 Weaknesses mainly in vocabulary (66,7%)
English as a Global Lingua Franca
English as a Global Lingua Franca
All interviewed people find that English is a
good Lingua Franca
English as a Global Lingua Franca
English in Russia

Although English in Russia has the status of a foreign language with
a restricted functional range, it has already expanded into
educational, business, and cross cultural domains.

The symbolic function of modernity and prestige is manifested in
the use of English first of all in advertising, commercials, and brand
names.

In TV commercials code switching and code mixing are a dominant
feature, as 76 percent use English or an English Russian mix.

A correspondence exists between the type of product, and the
language choice for the brand name: names of the Western
products are presented totally in English, while Russian goods
employ both languages in naming and labeling.
English as a Global Lingua Franca
Convergence of English in
Russian TV Commercials
The following attention-getters are written totally in English and targeted to uppermiddle-class Russians who are expected to be educated and proficient in English:
 (1) I love my body (Ad for Nivea)
 (2) Fa Freshness Control (Ad for deo Fa)
In body-copies and slogans a bilingual mix is often used when English is embedded in
the Russian syntactic structures:
 (3) Novyi Ford Mondeo prizvan byt’ pervym.
 ‘New Ford Mondeo is determined to be first.’
In the TV commercial for the chocolate bar Snickers, the mixing of English and
Russian results in their blending, when the English root penetrates into the
morphological structure of the Russian verb.
 Snikers-ni!
 ‘Have Snickers!’
Some slogans in Russian TV commercials can be word-for-word translations from
English; thus, an American slogan for candy ‘‘M&Ms’’ has the exact
correspondence in Russian:
 (4) M&M’s taet vo rtu a ne v rukah.

‘M&Ms melt in mouth, not in hands.’
English as a Global Lingua Franca
English definitely
fulfills socio-psychological
functions
The English usage in commercials is
explained by functional, social, and
psychological reasons: English serves as
an external code to attract the attention
of the customers, as a source of crosscultural creativity and as a marker of
Westernization, internationalism,
modernization, innovation, and prestige.
English as a Global Lingua Franca
Sources
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runglis
h
 http://psychcentral.com/psypsych/
Runglish
 http://openencyclopedia.com/Runglish
English as a Global Lingua Franca