Faux Cyrillic

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Faux Cyrillic, pseudo-Cyrillic, pseudo-Russian^[1] or faux Russian typography is the use of Cyrillic letters in Latin text to evoke the Soviet Union or Russia. For example, R and N in RUSSIAN may be replaced by Cyrillic Я and И, giving "ЯUSSIAИ". Other examples include Ш for W, Ц for U, Г for r, Ф for O, Д for A, and Ч or У for Y.

This effect is usually restricted to text set in all caps, because Cyrillic letter-forms don't match well with lower case Latin letters.^[2]

This is a common Western trope used in book covers, film titles, comic book lettering, artwork for computer games, or product packaging^[3][4] which are set in or wish to evoke Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, or the Russian Federation. An early example was the logo for Norman Jewison's film The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming; more are listed below.

Not all examples of typography with mirror-imaged Latin characters are Faux Cyrillic. For example, Toys "R" Us (Toys "Я" Us) and Korn use a backwards letter R (similar to Cyrillic Ya, Я), in the former to embody childlike innocence, in the latter to evoke an ironically grim crudeness. The "NIИ" wordmark of Nine Inch Nails uses a reversed capital N to create a formalistic symmetry.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Examples of use

[edit] Cinema

• Poster art in the film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. The title of the film on movie posters is spelled BORДT.
• "KRЦМ" for Viktor Krum’s last name (should be Крум), as spelled on a card mosaic held by a cheering crowd at the Quidditch World Cup, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film).
• The film Red Heat (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Belushi), of which a great part takes place in Soviet Russia and concerns a partnership between a Russian and an American officer, has faux Cyrillic in its end credits.^[5]
• The poster for international releases of the Russian film Night Watch features a faux Cyrillic transliteration of the original Russian title Ночной дозор/Nochnoi dozor: "ИOCHИOI DOZOR". This graphic effect reinforces at a glance the film's Russian origin and serves as a guide to pronunciation of the original title for English speakers. It does not, however, represent a meaningful phrase in Russian.
• The end credits in Enemy at the Gates is written in faux Cyrillic to further represent its plot following Russian sniper Vasily Zaytsev during the Battle of Stalingrad.

[edit] Popular music

• PAUL McCARTИEЧ, Paul McCartney's name as it appeared on the cover artwork for the album CHOBA B CCCP
• LЭИIИGЯAD COWBOYS, a Finnish, but "fake Russian" band, spelled with varying amounts of faux Cyrillic (Actual Cyrillic: Ленинград).
• The poster in the scene on the cover of Firesign Theatre's album How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All reads "ДLL HДIL" (Groucho) "MДRX" (John) "LЗИИФЙ".
• Frank Zappa's "I don't wanna get drafted" single features the text IБ ТНIБ ТЯIP ЯEДГГУ ИEСEББДЯУ ? (IS THIS TRIP REALLY NECESSARY ?)
• Franz Ferdinand's music video for "This Fire" features "И"s instead of "N"s as well as the phrases "БГЗAKING NЗШЖ" (Breaking News) and "РHEИOМЗИД" (Phenomena) on a Russian news station.
• The British indie rock band ¡FФЯWДЯD, RUSSIД! use both faux Cyrillic and decorative inverted exclamation points to add the effect of foreignness in their wordmark.
• The gothic/doom metal band Type O Negative's 2007 album 'Dead Again' features Faux Cyrillic writing for both the band's name (ТЧРЭ О ИЭGДТІVЭ)and the album title (DЭДD ДGДІИ).

[edit] Videogames

• The videogame TETЯIS (Actual Cyrillic: Тетрис)
• In Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, the backdrop of the level briefings is a book which is written in Cyrillic; but the language is actually English. The letter che (ч) is used to write the letter H.
• The PC game Republic: The Revolution contains many examples of Faux Cyrillic during gameplay.
• The game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 has Faux Cyrillic as part of the title.
• The PC game DEFCON has Faux Cyrillic as part of its title on the logo (И is used to write N).

[edit] Other

• APPAЯATCHIK, a fanzine (Actual Cyrillic: аппаратчик)
• In Copenhagen (in Denmark) you can buy shirts with the names of parts of Copenhagen. (ИФЯЯЕРОЯТ, СНЯІЅТІАИІА, КФЬЕИНАVИ etc. Here Ф corresponds to Ø.)
• The website Exquisite Corpse uses it in their letterhead (i.e. CФЯPZe).
• The early seasons of the television series Mission: Impossible used faux Cyrillic signs to indicate an "Iron Curtain" location.
• The Airfix model kit of the standard Russian launch vehicle included a decal for the display base, bearing faux Cyrillic designations for the Sputnik, Vostok and Soyuz programs, and for the USSR itself, even though the correct Cyrillic spellings (Спутник, Восток, Союз and СССР) are all fairly common knowledge in the West, and particularly among those with an interest in space exploration.
• The Khachaturian CD Piano Concerto; Dance Suite; Waltz; Polka ^[6] features an egregious example of Faux Cyrillic, including upper-case lambdas and a lower-case upsilon (both recognizably from the Greek alphabet) and a reversed i kratkoe (nonexistent in Cyrillic).
• In the Nicktoon El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, the opening card of the episode El Tigre, el Jefe, which literally translates as "El Tigre, the chief", is written in faux Cyrillic (EL TIБЯE EL JEFE) because, in this episode, Manny, the main character, decides to help his schoolmates to the point of unknowingly establishing a Stalinist-like dictatorship at the school.

[edit] Russian attitude

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The inscriptions using faux Cyrillic are usually perceived by native Russian language speakers as being somewhat stupid and disrespectful towards Russian language and other languages using Cyrillic script. While being used by Western media in the context of actions taking place in Russia, faux Cyrillic prompts the feeling of an arrogant attitude towards Russia and a superficial, inattentive and distorted depiction of Russian culture.

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] See also

• Foreign branding
• Heavy metal umlaut for a similar practice in the field of heavy metal
• Volapük encoding, Translit, Russian Chat Alphabet, Informal romanizations of Russian
• Leet for a similar manner of replacing Latin letters with other glyphs that resemble them
• IDN homograph attack

[edit] External links

• Fake Cyrillic Generator - Converts Latin text to faux Cyrillic.
• Russian Mimic - Also converts Latin text to faux Cyrillic (supports upper and lower case)