Alaskan Russian

For the extinct Aleut-Russian language formerly spoken by Alaskan Creoles, see Mednyj Aleut language.

Alaskan Russian, known locally as Old Russian, is a dialect of Russian, influenced by Eskimo–Aleut languages, spoken in what is now the U.S. state Alaska since the Russian colonial period. Today it is prevalent on Kodiak Island and in Ninilchik (Kenai Peninsula), Alaska; it has been isolated from other varieties of Russian for over a century.^[1]

Alaskan Russian
Old Russian
The flag of Alaska.
Native to	Alaska
Region	Kodiak Island (Afognak), Ninilchik
Ethnicity	Alaskan Creoles
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic East Slavic Russian Alaskan Russian
Dialects	Kodiak Ninilchik
Writing system	Cyrillic, Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	kodi1252  Kodiak Creole Russian nini1236  Ninilchik
ELP	Kodiak Russian Creole
IETF	ru-u-sd-usak

Dialects

Kodiak Russian was natively spoken on Afognak Strait until the Great Alaskan earthquake and tsunami of 1964. It is now moribund, spoken by only a handful of elderly people, and is virtually undocumented.^[2]

Ninilchik Russian is better studied and more vibrant; it developed from the Russian colonial settlement of Ninilchik in 1847.^[3][4]

Vocabulary

Ninilchik Russian vocabulary is clearly Russian with a few borrowings from English and Alaskan native languages.

Ninilchik, Alaska.

Below are some examples of Alaskan Russian from the village of Ninilchik. All of them are identical to modern Russian, except from two words from the last one:^[4]

Éta moy dom. 'This is my house'. (Modern Russian: Это мой дом.)

Aná óchin krasíwaya. 'She is very pretty'. (Она очень красивая.)

Aná nas lúbit. 'She loves us'. (Она нас любит.)

Éta moy mush. 'This is my husband'. (Это мой муж.)

Bózhi moy! 'My God!' (Боже мой!)

On moy brat. 'He is my brother'. (Он мой брат.)

U miné nimnóshka Rúskay krof. 'I have a little Russian blood'. (У меня немного русской крови.)