General extralinguistic factors reinforcing specific ideas about the Cheboksary regiolect of the Russian language

Abstract

The study is devoted to the study of the conditions for the formation and functioning of the Cheboksary regiolect of the Russian language, which is distinguished by a number of stable linguistic parameters. The peculiar sound of the speech of the Cheboksary people has developed under the significant substrate influence of the Chuvash language, among the speakers of which there are currently active processes of a linguistic shift in favor of Russian. The work is written in the aspect of sociolinguistics and is based on the author’s long-term observations of the self-esteem of Cheboksary residents and their assessment by visitors. The purpose of the research is to expand the understanding of extralinguistic factors that do not directly affect the specifics of the speech of Cheboksary people, but at the same time enhance the impression of it from outside observers. The article deals with non-linguistic specific features inherent in the capital of the Chuvash Republic, including geographical, climatic, anthropological, technological and other components. Their presence greatly enhances the perception of the sound of the Russian speech of the inhabitants of Cheboksary and its agglomeration as a unique phenomenon of modern Russian culture. In turn, the specific conditions that support the Cheboksary regiolect are the result of a long historical and social process, including the mass migration of the population in the past, the mixing of different ethnic groups among themselves and the formation of modern peoples in their visually fixed physical features, anthropological impact on the ecumene, etc. in relation to the territory of Chuvashia and nearby regions.

Keywords

• Chuvash language
• Russian language
• language contacts
• regional variants of the Russian language
• региональное варьирование русского языка
• русский язык