Global English-related Digraphia and Roman-Cyrillic Biscriptal Practices

This paper deals with the new sociolinguistic phenomenon of global English-related digraphia, or the use of the Roman script, commonly associated with English, to represent local languages alongside the native scripts. In non-English speaking communities, script alternation does not always coincide with language alternation; speakers of local languages creatively broker the resources provided by the Roman alphabet, without necessarily switching into English. The paper aims to investigate Roman-Cyrillic biscriptal practices, such as script-switching (nonce transliteration), script-mixing (grapho-hybridization) and script-ambiguation (bivalent graphic forms), the factors contributing to Roman-Cyrillic script manipulation and the socio-pragmatic purposes of its use in modern Russia are.