Английская Википедия:Faux Cyrillic
Faux Cyrillic, pseudo-Cyrillic, pseudo-Russian[1] or faux Russian typography is the use of Cyrillic letters in Latin text, usually to evoke the Soviet Union or Russia, though it may be used in other contexts as well. It is a common Western trope used in book covers, film titles, comic book lettering, artwork for computer games, or product packaging[2][3] which are set in or wish to evoke Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, or Russia. A typeface designed to emulate Cyrillic is classed as a mimicry typeface.
Letters are substituted regardless of phonetic matching. For example, R and N in RUSSIAN may be replaced with Cyrillic Я ("ya") and И ("i") to form the faux-cyrillic "ЯUSSIAИ" . Other examples include the use of Ш for W, Ц for U, Я/Г for R/backwards and upside-down L, Ф for O, Д for A, Б, Ь, or Ъ for B/b, З, Э, or Ё for E, Ч or У for Y. Outside the Russian alphabet, Џ (from Serbian) can act as a substitute for U, Ғ (from Turkic languages) for F, Ә (from Turkic languages, Abkhaz, Dungan, Itelmen, Kalmyk and Kurdish) or Є (from Ukrainian) for E, Ө (from Turkic, Mongolic and Uralic languages) for O, Һ (from Turkic and Mongolic languages and Kildin Sámi) for H, and Ћ (Serbian) for Th. A reversed ☭ (written as ☭) is also sometimes used for G.[4] A common substitution is $ for S.Шаблон:Citation needed Further variants include an inverted K (ꓘ), which is not used in any alphabet except Fraser.
This effect is usually restricted to text set in all caps, because Cyrillic letter-forms do not match well with lower case Latin letters. In Cyrillic typography, most upright lower case letters resemble smaller upper case letters, unlike the more distinctive forms of Latin-alphabet type. Cursive Cyrillic upper and lower case letters are more differentiated. Most Cyrillic letter-forms were derived from the Greek alphabet in the 9th century, but the modern forms have more closely resembled those in the Latin alphabet since Peter the Great's civil script reform of 1708.
Many versions of Tetris, including those by Atari/Tengen and Spectrum Holobyte, used faux Cyrillic to spell the name as TETЯIS to emphasize the game's Russian origins.
The mockumentary film Borat used faux Cyrillic to stylize its title as BORДT (in Russian the name would be spelt БОРАТ).
Characters
| Cyrillic letter | Latin look-alike | Actual pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| Б | B, G, S, numeral 5, numeral 6 | Шаблон:IPAslink as in boy |
| В | B, ß | Шаблон:IPAslink as in vault, Шаблон:IPAslink as in wind (Ukrainian) |
| Г | T, lowercase r, vertically mirrored L, Greek Γ | Шаблон:IPAslink as in goat, Шаблон:IPAblink~Шаблон:IPAblink similar to hill (Belarusian, Ukrainian) |
| Д | A, O | Шаблон:IPAslink as in door |
| Ж | X, asterisk, backwards and forwards K | Шаблон:IPAslink similar to treasure |
| З | E, numeral 3 | Шаблон:IPAslink as in zoo |
| И | backwards N | Шаблон:IPAslink as in tree or Шаблон:IPAblink as in him (Ukrainian) |
| Й | N, Ñ, Ň | Шаблон:IPAslink as in you |
| К | K | Шаблон:IPAslink as in car |
| Л | A, N, JI, JΠ, Greek Λ | Шаблон:IPAslink as in love or Шаблон:IPAblink as in coal |
| Н | H | Шаблон:IPAslink as in nose |
| П | N, H (lowercase n, h), Greek Π | Шаблон:IPAslink as in spot |
| Р | P | Шаблон:IPAslink as in rope (trilled) |
| С | C | Шаблон:IPAslink as in soup |
| У | lowercase Y | Шаблон:IPAslink as in rule |
| Ф | I, O, Q, Ø, numeral 0, Greek Φ | Шаблон:IPAslink as in fawn |
| Х | X | Шаблон:IPAslink as in Scottish English loch |
| Ц | U, vertically flipped L connected | Шаблон:IPAslink as in cats |
| Ч | Y, U, numeral 4 | Шаблон:IPAslink similar to check |
| Ш | W, rotated E, upside down M | Шаблон:IPAslink similar to shrunk |
| Щ | W, rotated E, vertically flipped L connected | Шаблон:IPAslink similar to wish sheep (Russian), Шаблон:IPA as in fresh cheese (Ukrainian and Rusyn), Шаблон:IPA as in schtick (Bulgarian) |
| Ы | bI, vertically flipped P, letter L, numeral 61 | Шаблон:IPAslink similar to roses in some dialects |
| Ь | lowercase b, vertically flipped P | indicates the palatalization of the previous consonant, as in union as opposed to unite |
| Э | E, backwards C, numeral 3, Pan-Nigerian letter Ǝ | Шаблон:IPAslink as in echo |
| Ю | IO, I-O, numeral 10 | Шаблон:IPA as in you |
| Я | backwards R | Шаблон:IPA as in yard |
The letters А, В, Е, Ѕ*, І*, Ј*, К, М, Н, О, Р, С, Т, Ү*, У, Ғ*, Ѵ*, and Х (*used in other Cyrillic alphabets or from Church Slavonic) are strongly homoglyphic or related to Latin letters, depending on intended sound values to the point that their substitution may not be noticed, unlike those listed above. If compatibility issues arise that limit mixing of scripts, these can be used with faux Cyrillic letters in lieu of their Latin counterparts.
See also
- Homoglyph
- IDN homograph attack
- Volapük encoding vice versa of Faux Cyrillic, i.e. encoding of Cyrillic letter with ASCII characters by using faux-Latin homoglyph characters
- Translit, Russian Chat Alphabet, Informal romanizations of Russian
- Foreign branding
- Heavy metal umlaut for a similar practice in the field of heavy metal
- Leet for a similar manner of replacing Latin letters with other glyphs that resemble them
- Mimicry/Ethnic Typefaces
- Samples of simulation typefaces
- Transformation of text
- UL Recognized Mark (left-italic ЯU)
References
External links
- The Backwards R - Explains in greater detail with examples.
- ҒДԞЄ ЯЦSSЇДИ GЄЙЭЯДҐФЯ - A Faux Cyrillic generator that uses lookalikes to replace Latin letters.
- ↑ Jen Chen, "Sweater Hip Check", The Pitch (Kansas City), February 15, 2007 online
- ↑ "American Perceptions of Vodka Shaken, Not Stirred: An Analysis of the Importance of Vodka’s Foreign Branding Cues and Country-of-Origin Information", Jon Kurland, October 26, 2004 full text
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
- ↑ A reversed hammer and sickle is used for the word-finishing Gs on the poster for The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, as can be seen here.
