“Agorot” and “Butylka”: an isolated dialect of the Russian language was found in Alaska

American linguists Mira Bergelson, Andrei Kibrik and Wayne Lehman discovered and described relic dialect of the Russian language in the village of Ninilchik (Ninilchik) in Alaska.

Lehman himself is from this village, located on the eastern shore of Cook Bay, and does not know Russian, but he turned his attention to the disappearing language and cultural phenomenon of his small homeland and decided to draw attention to him.

After several expeditions, the scientists described the phonetics of the Ninilchik dialect, developed practical spelling (they do not know the speakers of the dialect based on Latin - Cyrillic) and compiled a dictionary, and also described a number of grammatical features and collected a collection of audio and video recordings.

Based on their work Bergelson and Kibrik read a lecture at the Moscow club "Art'eria".

The settlement of Ninilchik in 1847 was founded by employees of a Russian-American company who often married Aleutsk and Eskimos. When Alaska took over 20 years, the majority of the Russian settlers left America, but many remained.

An Orthodox church operated in Ninilchik, and with it a school. Isolation contributed to the preservation of the language. After 1917, the school stopped working, and in the 30s, the American school was opened. Now there are no more than 20 people who, to varying degrees, own a Ninilchik dialect, they are all not younger than 75 years.

The local language is also unique in that its speakers for at least 100 have not been in any way in contact with the Russian people themselves. In this regard, the dialect has a number of features.

The neuter gender of nouns has been lost in the dialect. The feminine gender has also been partially lost, for example: “my daughter has come”, “red currant”, “Yevonai’s mother was watching television all night” (“watching TV”). Researchers believe that this trait did not appear as a result of the collapse of the language, but was characteristic of the version of Russian that was used in the 19th century among Russians and Alaskan Creoles.

More than 70% of the words of the Ninilchik dialect are ordinary Russian words “agorot”, “butilka”, “babachka”, “chotka” (“auntie”), “ostraf”, “bear”, “skaska”. Some Russian words in Ninilchik have been preserved with a changed meaning: “gang” (“chamber pot”), “bashka” (“skull”), “croup” (“rice”). Words that were found in the Russian language of the XNUMXth century have also been preserved: “strush” (“plane”), “vishka” (“second floor”), “chukhnya” (“Finn”), “chikhotka” (“tuberculosis”).

Many words denote occupations and objects specific to the residents of Ninilchik: “crumbs” - pieces of natural coal that are thrown out by the sea and used for heating, “gazolinka” - a metal boat with a motor, “cage” - a design from nets for salmon fishing, “darog” - a barrier in the way of migratory salmon, which directs the fish to the cage.

There are a number of old borrowings from the English language: “invilop” (“envelope”), “rababutsi” (“rubber boots” from “rubber boots”). Some English borrowings are decorated with Russian suffixes: “gaznik” (“gasoline can”), “babycasing” (“child”).

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