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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]
More generally, "surzhyk" can refer to any mixed language, not necessarily including Ukrainian or Russian. For example, colloquial Ukrainian which is spoken in western Ukraine is often called incorrectly a Polish-Ukrainian surzhyk due to its loanwords which don't occur in standard Ukrainian,[citation needed] while in Moldova one may hear the Russian-Romanian pidgin.[citation needed] When used by non-Ukrainian speaking people of Ukraine, the word is most commonly used to refer to a mix of Ukrainian with another language, not necessarily Russian. When used in Russia, the word almost always specifically refers to a Ukrainian-Russian language mix. It differs from both Ukrainian and spoken "Ukrainian Russian", although it is impossible to draw a clear line between them and surzhyk.[citation needed]
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]