Faux Cyrillic

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Graphic designers sometimes employ faux Cyrillic typography to give a Soviet or Russian feel to text, by replacing Latin letters with Cyrillic letters resembling them in appearance. A simple way to accomplish this is to replace capital letters R and N with Cyrillic Я and И for some "ЯUSSIAИ flavor". 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.[1]

Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See Help:IPA for a pronunciation key.

This is a common Western trope used in book covers, film titles, comic book lettering, and artwork for computer games 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 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.

Contents

[edit] Faux Cyrillic characters

LEИIИGЯAD Cowboy
LEИIИGЯAD Cowboy
Cyrillic letter Latin look-alike Actual Russian pronunciation
Б G, S /b/ as in "boy"
В B /v/ as in "vase"
Г r, L /g/ as in "goat"
Д A /d/ as in "day"
Ж X /ʒ/ as in "treasure"
З E /z/ as in "zoo"
И N /i/ as in "machine"
У Y /u/ as in "rule"
Ф O /f/ as in "fox"
Ц U /ʦ/ as in "cats"
Ч Y /ʧ/ as in "check"
Ш W /ʃ/ as in "ship"
Э E /ɛ/ as in "echo"
Я R /ja/ as in "yard"

[edit] Examples of faux Cyrillic

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  • The videogame TETЯIS (Actual Cyrillic: Тетрис)
  • APPAЯATCHIK, a fanzine (Actual Cyrillic: аппаратчик)
  • 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).
  • 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.
  • Using Latin alphabet letters C and P in form of "CCCP" to refer abbreviation of "Союз Советских Социалистических Республик" (USSR) as they look the same as С and Р, the Cyrillic equivalents of letters S and R, which makes the abbreviation: (transliterated) Soyuz Sovyetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik.
  • "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 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) "MДЯЖ" (John) "LЗИИФЙ".
  • In the computer game Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, the backdrop of the level briefings is a book which is written in real Cyrillic; but the language is actually English. The letter che (ч) is used to write the letter H.
  • 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).
  • 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 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.
  • 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 [2] 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).
  • The poster for international releases of the Russian film Night Watch (NIGHT ШATCH) 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 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).
  • The PC game Republic: The Revolution contains many examples of Faux Cyrillic during gameplay.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ 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. Cyrillic letter-forms are originally derived from tenth-century Greek manuscript, but the modern forms more closely resemble Latin since Peter the Great's civil script reform of 1708.
  2. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Khachaturian-Piano-Concerto-Dance-Suite/dp/B0000030WK Amazon.com

[edit] See also

[edit] External links