Surzhyk

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Surzhyk (Ukrainian and Russian: суржик, IPA: [ˈsurʒɪk]) is a Ukrainian–Russian pidgin used in certain regions of Ukraine and the neighboring regions of Russia and Moldova. There is no clear definition for what constitutes the pidgin; the term surzhyk is, according to some authors, generally used for "norm-breaking, non-obedience to or non-awareness of the rules of the Ukrainian and Russian standard languages".^[1]

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.^{[citation needed]}