Local Identity Representation and Adaptation Strategies in Moscow and St. Petersburg Residents' Speech

Moscow and Saint Petersburg are the largest and most economically developed population centers in Russia. Both cities (and their respective regions) also attract the highest number of migrants from other regions of Russian Federation and foreign countries. This has been the case since the 19th century and through the 20th century as well, while the capital was moved back from Saint Petersburg to Moscow, both cities remained crucially important for the country. Over time, two cities developed distinct identities and the linguistic representation of their respective identities varied. In the next decade, the influx of new residents will likely continue, while both regions will increase their importance in Russia as largest centers of business, culture, education and political power. Previous works addressing the regional differences of Russian language spoken in Moscow and Saint Petersburg focused mostly on phonological and lexical differences. In addition, most of them date back 20-30 years and only one study focuses on adaptation mechanisms of migrants from other regions. There is still much controversy surrounding different variants of Russian language. Some authors believe that regional differences will disappear over time while others suggest that they have already eroded. Several relatively recent studies describe new phenomena, not mentioned by older studies. This study proposes a new, sociolinguistic approach to study local identity and adaptation mechanisms in Russian using a specially developed test as well as interview.