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Balachka (Russian and Ukrainian: балачка) is a the name given collectively to dialects of Ukrainian and Russian that are spoken in the traditional Cossack regions of Russia such as the Kuban, Stavropol and Don areas. Although it is perceived as a separate language by some Cossacks and one author, most academics consider Balachka to be separate dialects of the Ukrainian or Russian languages.

Balachka does not appear as a language on any of the language codes used by linguists.

Balachka varies considerably from one region to the other. For example in the Mountanous regions of the Northern Caucasus, such as Karachayevo-Cherkessia and Stavropolye, contain many borrowed Circassian (mostly Adyge and Cherkess) volcabulary, and also demonstrate a strong Caucasus accents. As such local dialects are usually grouped and from there collective terms such as the Don Balachka (Донская), Kuban Balachka (Кубанская), Mountain Balachka (Горская) arise.

Formation

Don Balachka

The earliest examples of Balachka formed during the 14th century, when the then independent Don Cossack Host settled by the Cossacks was known to have a unique dialect different from Moscow, Don Cossack balachkas are known for their soft sounds, for example идти idti (to walk) is said as итить itit'.

Kuban-Black Sea Balachka

The most famous of Balachka 's, the Kuban-Black Sea Balachka, originally came with the Black Sea Cossacks when they left Ukraine and settled in the Kuban in 1792. It is thought that this was where the term Balachka was introduced into the Russian language, which in Ukrainian means "to babble". The standard Russian literary language taught was quite different from the local language, in which the Cossacks Balakayut. The term was used initially to discourage them from using it. Viktor Zakharchenko states that the Kuban Balachka had differed substantially from the standard Ukrainian language.

Mountain Balachka

Mountain Balachka differes unique because of the introduction of various Circassian terms that came into use particularly in the modern Adygeya

Modern Usage

It is not known how widespread the use of Balachka is. Education and strict requirements of the Russian Academy of Sciences mean that local press such as TV and radio adhere to standard Russian, with a notable exception for historical films (particularly those involving Cossacks) and Folk music groups and ensembles, such as the Kuban Cossack Chorus sing Black Sea Cossack songs in Balachka.

As a result there has been a gradual erosion of authentic dialects and accents, with unique terms being slowly replaced by standard Russian ones. This is particularly noticeable in the younger generations. At the same time, the recent re-awakening of the Cossacks was often done with enthusiasm to old traditions. It is thus not surprising that many Cossacks use vocabulary from Balachka (or some of its elements) in their speech to punctuate their Cossack heritage and/or affiliation.

Political aspects

Political aspects have played a direct role in the classification of the Kuban Balachka. Although this Balachka was initially officially classified as a dialect of the Little Russian language (the official term for the Ukrainian language) , and some Ukrainian sources actively support the idea of Balachka being an offspur of the Ukrainian language such as Surzhyk , this has been contested by Russian linguistic research, and many of the Kuban Cossacks themselves, who point out that already by the 1860s there was already a separate dialect that morphed Ukrainian and Russian together..

See also

• Ukrainians in Kuban
• Surzhyk - the use of Russian words on a Ukrainian grammar matrix.
• Russenorsk - a pidgin language that combines elements of Russian and Norwegian
• Diglossia - a situation of parallel usage of two closely-related languages, one of which is generally used by the government and in formal texts, and the other one is usually the spoken informally

References

1. James B. Minahan 2000 Greenwood Press One Europe, Many Nations: A Historical Dictionary of European National Groups, Kuban Cossacks p. 384 ISBN 0313309841 Retrieved 10 December 2007
2. ^ Viktor Zakharchenko, Folk songs of the Kuban, 1997 Retrieved 07 November 2007] Cite error: The named reference "Zakharchenko" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
3. L.V. Barykina Development of the Cossack military colonisation on the Caucasus line 1790-1860s, 16.01.2007 Hosted at Heku.ru Retrieved November 07, 2007
4. Demoscope.ru, 1897 census results for the Kuban Oblast
5. This is exactly the idea that Ukrainocentric editors of wikipedia try to push into wikipedia, see the debate on the article's talk page
6. Literaturnaya Rossiya, Flag of the Kuban by N.Litvinov, 06.07.2001, Retrieved 07 November 2007

External Links

• The Importance of Knowing Your Local Vernacular, Serghei G. Nikolayev
• Dialect map of Ukrainian language
• Dialect map of Russian language

• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from January 2008
• Russian language varieties and styles
• Ukrainian dialects
• Russian dialects
• Ukrainian language