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Surzhyk (Ukrainian and Russian language: суржик, , ) is a mixture between Ukrainian and Russian language languages, used in certain regions of Ukraine and the neighboring regions of Russia and Moldova.
The vocabulary mix of each of its constituent languages (Ukrainian and Russian) varies greatly from locality to locality, or sometimes even from person to person, depending on the degree of education, personal experience, rural or urban residence, the geographical origin of the interlocutors, etc. The percentage of Russian words and phonetic influences tends to be greatest in the east and south and in the vicinity of big Russian-speaking cities. It is commonly spoken in most of eastern Ukraine's rural areas, with the exception of the large metropolitan areas of Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Luhansk, where the majority of the population uses standard Russian. In rural areas of western Ukraine, the language spoken contains fewer Russian elements than in central and eastern Ukraine but has nonetheless been influenced by Russian.
According to Bilaniuk (2005), "Any perceived mixing of different languages may merit the label "surzhyk", and perceptions vary depending on individuals' linguistic backgrounds. The term can refer to a high degree of code-switching by bilinguals or to a linguistic code in which the elements of the two languages are inextricably fused. Thus the definition of "surzhyk" as a whole remains primarily ideological, although we can list the influences and forms that fall under this umbrella term". She distinguished five categories of surzhyk:
More generally, "surzhyk" can refer to any mixed language, not necessarily including Ukrainian or Russian. For example, colloquial Ukrainian which is spoken in western Ukraine is often called incorrectly a Polish-Ukrainian surzhyk due to its loanwords which don't occur in standard Ukrainian, while in Moldova one may hear the Russian-Romanian pidgin. When used by non-Ukrainian speaking people of Ukraine, the word is most commonly used to refer to a mix of Ukrainian with another language, not necessarily Russian. When used in Russia, the word almost always specifically refers to a Ukrainian-Russian language mix. It differs from both Ukrainian and spoken "Ukrainian Russian", although it is impossible to draw a clear line between them and surzhyk.
One problem in analysing the linguistic status of Ukraine is that there is a tendency for code-switching errors to exist across the entire spectrum of languages. In other words, those who identify themselves as Russian-speaking or Ukrainian-speaking can often be found blending the two languages to some degree. Only a few of these individuals were found to acknowledge the non-standardness of the use of either or both languages, or the fact that they were actually blending Russian and Ukrainian in their speech at all.
In 1721, the Russian Tsar Peter the Great prohibited the publication of books in Ukraine, except for Russian-language religious works, and decreed that Ukrainian books and records were to be burned. In 1786, it was decreed that services in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church were to be conducted using only the Russian pronunciation of Old Church Slavonic, and not the Ukrainian pronunciation. Decrees in 1863, 1876, and 1881 prohibited the publication and importation of Ukrainian books, as well as the public use of the Ukrainian language in general. The Russian regime of the day viewed the use of Ukrainian as evidence of political opposition and harshly suppressed it.
The speaking of pure Ukrainian (i.e. a language without elements of Russian), was for the most part avoided by the urban intelligentsia, because the Ukrainian language was associated with provincialism and nationalism. At this point, the majority of Ukrainians found it easy to become competent in Russian. The association of the Ukrainian language with a rural lifestyle or narrow-minded nationalism encouraged more Ukrainians to adopt Russian as their language of choice. Such decisions led to an increased prevalence of Surzhyk in everyday speech and the further dilution of the Ukrainian language.
The use of the Ukrainian language in theatre and music was also banned, and it had to be translated into other languages. Education in the Ukrainian language also suffered similarly, with ethnically Ukrainian teachers being replaced with ethnic Russians. In the early 20th century, children were punished for speaking Ukrainian to one another in school, and people sometimes lost their jobs for speaking it.
The Kingdom of Hungary's rule in western Ukraine in the late 18th and 19th centuries was also linguistically oppressive. For example, in Zakarpattia, Hungarian was the only language permitted by the regime, so Ukrainian was excluded from institutions like schools. Even so, language policies here were not as restrictive as those applied in eastern Ukraine by the Tsarist regime of Russia.
From the 1930s onwards, the Russian language exerted significant influence on Ukrainian, and the regime of Joseph Stalin began to actively suppress the Ukrainian language, but it remained overwhelmingly the main language of education. Along with many of the other languages spoken in the Soviet Union, Ukrainian was viewed as a challenge to centralised power and the linguistic unification of the Soviet people. Terminology and wording similar or identical to Russian were emphasized in dictionaries, grammar books, and the official guidance issued to editors and publishers. This resulted in a generally more Russianised Ukrainian than had existed prior to the Soviet Union. After Ukraine became independent, this outcome would eventually generate disagreement regarding the question of what constitutes pure Ukrainian.
Words and other Ukrainian-language speech forms that are similar to those of Russian were emphasised. In addition, many Russian words or terms replaced their Ukrainian equivalents and were then modified by Ukrainian grammar and phonetics. The following table contains a few examples of how the Ukrainian language was changed during the Soviet era.Karavans'kyi, Sviatoslav. Sektrey Ukrayins'koyi Movy. Kyiv: Kobza, 1994.
| Колишній (Kolyshniy) | Бувший (Buvshyy) | Бывший (Byvshiy) | Former |
| Прибутки (Prybutky) | Доходи (Dokhody) | Доходы (Dokhody) | Revenues |
| Відтак, відтоді (Vidtak, vidtodi) | З тих пір (Z tykh pir) | С тех пор (S tyekh por) | Since then |
Members of the cultural elite who promoted local languages were later purged from positions of authority during the reign of Stalin, as part of an effort to strengthen the cohesion of the Soviet Union and promote Russian as the official language of the Soviet Union.
Additionally, many Protestants who emigrated to the United States as refugees early in Ukraine’s independence still use antiquated forms of Surzhyk from their respective regions, having missed the language revitalization occurring since Ukraine gained independence. As a result of this migration in the 1990s, Ukrainian protestants in the US tend to use Surzhyk more heavily than speakers in Ukraine, and occasionally note difficulty understanding Ukrainian vocabulary that they were not exposed to during the Soviet era.
Linguists began to engage in debates over the 'correct' way to speak Ukrainian, because the Soviet language policies had had a profound effect on the Ukrainian language. On the one hand, some linguists argue that Ukrainian should only use the forms that existed prior to the Soviet Union, while others argue that the current forms, which emerged from the Soviet language policy, are more up-to-date and more familiar to the Ukrainians of today, and would therefore be better at meeting contemporary needs.
| ласкавий (laskavyi) | kind, good | ласковый (laskovyi) | tender, gentle |
| господа (hospoda) | dwelling | господа (gospoda) | gentlemen, sirs |
| красний (krasnyi) | beautiful | красный (krasnyi) | red |
| дитина (dytyna) | infant | детина (detina) | enormous person (stalwart lad) |
| час (chas) | time | час (chas) | hour |
| чоловік (cholovik) | man, male person, husband | человек (chelovek) | person, human |
| гарбуз (harbuz) | pumpkin | арбуз (arbuz) | watermelon |
| краватка (kravatka) | tie | кроватка (krovatka) | little bed |
| качка (kachka) | duck | качка (kachka) | rocking motion |
| мир (myr) | peace (only) | мир (mir) | the world; peace |
| світ (svit) | the world | свет (svet) | light (also 'the world', chiefly in set expressions) |
| корисний (korysnyi) | useful | корыстный (korystnyi) | selfish |
| вродливий (vrodlyvyi) | beautiful, handsome | уродливый (urodlivyy) | ugly, hideous |
| неділя (nedilya) | Sunday | неделя (nedelya) | week |
The prevalence of Surzhyk is greatest in the countryside. In the cities, people tend to speak more standard forms of Ukrainian or Russian. This contrasts with the more rural inhabitants, who lack the prestige associated with the educational and technological advantages that people in the cities have. However, in spite of the differences that exist between the rural and urban varieties of the spoken language, many visitors find that they have trouble communicating with the local population of Ukraine when they follow guidebooks published abroad. This is because these books tend to focus on either pure Russian or pure Ukrainian and disregard the hybrid form.
The speaking of Surzhyk instead of Russian or Ukrainian is viewed negatively by nationalist language activists. Because it is neither one nor the other, they regard Surzhyk as a threat to the uniqueness of Ukrainian culture. On the other hand, since the 2013–2014 Revolution of Dignity and beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War, and especially since the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, large groups of Ukrainians who were raised speaking and writing Russian have been making the conscious choice of linguistic conversion to Ukrainian. Individuals in this process find themselves mixing both languages on occasion (called "Neo-Surzhyk" by some researchers), and while striving to learn "proper" Ukrainian, many of them have been reclaiming Surzhyk as a positive, necessary first step in their transition away from Russian towards Ukrainian.
Whereas traditional views mostly negatively evaluate Surzhyk as "impure" or a "corruption" of either Ukrainian or Russian, this Neo-Surzhyk by native Russian speakers switching to Ukrainian is perceived as "better than Russian", and as part of the Ukrainian language, or at least part of the journey towards standard Ukrainian. Since 2022, the emergence of such a new Surzhyk has been observed in cities such as Odesa, which has been a cultural and ethnolinguistic crossroads since its foundation in 1792, and used to be overwhelmingly Russian-speaking. But Odesa's residents (including many internally displaced people from southern and eastern Ukraine) have been consciously increasingly taking Ukrainian courses, and introducing more forms of Ukrainian into their everyday language usage for patriotic purposes, without necessarily abandoning Russian altogether yet.
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