The Global Russian Language repository is an educational resource that provides free access to recorded speech samples produced by a variety of Russian-language speakers.
While created as a tool for language educators and learners, this resource also provides potential research opportunities for linguists, pedagogues, and specialists on the relationship of language and culture. The site features participant readings and narrations of a given text, along with prompts for interested researchers to request access to an additional text and participant responses to linguistic background questionnaires.
In its approach, this project attempts to document the idea that Russian, like other post-colonial languages, showcases a multiplicity of usages that draw into question the notion of a centralized standard. With thirty-eight current participants, the project does not provide a comprehensive sample of speakers or responses, but contributes to decoupling the relationship between nation and language and to clarifying aspects of post-colonial language usage such as vehicular languages, language “ownership,” and language and identity.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to the following people for their support of this project:
Dr. Maria Shardakova, Dr. Russell Valentino, Dr. Malgorzata Cavar, Dr. Sarah Phillips, Mark Trotter, Dr. Nazareth Pantaloni III, Dr. Andrew D. Asher, Dr. Xiaojing Kou, Rebecca Ramsey, Dr. Sasha Spektor, Dr. Katie Sardinha, and Philip Semnicky.