Linguistic Biographies & Communities of Language of Russian Speakers in Great Britain

In migration, language undergoes crucial changes. Not only are the linguistic practices of migrants reshaped in the new environment, but migrant displacement has a major effect on the way language users see and talk about language as such, especially in relation to linguistic varieties they encounter or acquire as part of their migrant experiences. Migrants’ transforming attitudes to language also interfere with other, non-linguistic areas of their lives – family relationships, career pathways, networking with fellow migrants, and daily interactions with the host environment. The way a layperson considers ‘their’ language in relation to the language of ‘others’ plays a crucial role in their identity construction – both as a factor and a domain for expression. The sociolinguistic context of a new culture is a defining factor in the transformation of one’s metalinguistic thinking. This thesis focuses on post-Soviet Russian-speaking migrants in the UK and explores their linguistic practices, language attitudes and discourses on language(s) as a key factor in their cultural integration in the host society. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork (in-depth semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and the discourse analysis of printed and online documents) conducted between 2011 and 2014, principally in the North-East of England. The central argument of the thesis is that the cultural phenomenon of ‘Russophonism’ (russkoiazychie) presents a dynamic model which functions in two ways. Firstly, it is a frame to express shared meanings of belonging to the post-Soviet domain, through which individual linguistic identities and community practices are expressed. Russophonism also influences migrants’ on-going relationship with and views of their home countries and the FSU context in general. Secondly, migrants’ understanding of Russophonism is a flexible tool to interpret current migrant experiences and to create new meanings of what being a migrant in the UK implies both for their personal life trajectories and for their self-presentation as a group

'Cash me ousside': a citizen sociolinguistic analysis of online metalinguistic commentary

This study examines online metalinguistic commentary related to an Internet meme (i.e., “Cash me ousside/howbow dah”), in order to explore Internet users’ language ideologies. The meme, and its related YouTube metacommentary, places at its center a “non-standard” utterance produced by a young teenage girl on a U.S. television talk show, which went viral. Drawing on citizen sociolinguistics – a means to explore how everyday citizens make sense of the world of language around them – the study offers an analysis of metalinguistic evaluations made by YouTube commenters about this particular utterance and its speaker. Our findings reveal that the teenager’s sociolinguistically ambiguous manner of speaking is perceived as indexing multiple social categories including race, region, education, and class-linked imagined “spaces” (e.g., ghetto, hood, the streets) – and that these categories overlap in complex, and not always predictable, configurations. Our analysis also highlights how evaluations regarding the authenticity and intelligibility of the speaker’s performance interact with several of the aforementioned social categories

The Language Of Protest, Belonging And Exclusion: Russian Anti-Election Campaigns in Europe (2011-2012)

This article focuses on specific protest language formed during the row of anti-election activities of 2011-2012, which were performed by Russian migrants currently residing in London, Berlin and Barcelona. The phenomenon is analysed from three standpoints (its linguistic variability and potential creativity, symbolic repertoire and communicative purpose) and provides a vivid example of how the processes of inclusion and exclusion – here expressed through activities of these groups within the wider context of Russian protest movements – influence the self-identification of Russian migrants regarding their homeland and former compatriots, other Russian communities worldwide and new host environments of Western Europe

Interplay between A-to-I Editing and Splicing of RNA: A Potential Point of Application for Cancer Therapy

Adenosine-to-inosine RNA editing is a system of post-transcriptional modification widely distributed in metazoans which is catalyzed by ADAR enzymes and occurs mostly in double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) before splicing. This type of RNA editing changes the genetic code, as inosine generally pairs with cytosine in contrast to adenosine, and this expectably modulates RNA splicing. We review the interconnections between RNA editing and splicing in the context of human cancer. The editing of transcripts may have various effects on splicing, and resultant alternatively spliced isoforms may be either tumor-suppressive or oncogenic. Dysregulated RNA splicing in cancer often causes the release of excess amounts of dsRNA into cytosol, where specific dsRNA sensors provoke antiviral-like responses, including type I interferon signaling. These responses may arrest cell division, causing apoptosis and, externally, stimulate antitumor immunity. Thus, small-molecule spliceosome inhibitors have been shown to facilitate the antiviral-like signaling and are considered to be potential cancer therapies. In turn, a cytoplasmic isoform of ADAR can deaminate dsRNA in cytosol, thereby decreasing its levels and diminishing antitumor innate immunity. We propose that complete or partial inhibition of ADAR may enhance the proapoptotic and cytotoxic effects of splicing inhibitors and that it may be considered a promising addition to cancer therapies targeting RNA splicing

Adenosine-to-Inosine RNA Editing in Mouse and Human Brain Proteomes.

Proteogenomics is based on the use of customized genome or RNA sequencing databases for interrogation of shotgun proteomics data in search for proteome-level evidence of genome variations or RNA editing. In this work, we identified the products of adenosine-to-inosine RNA editing in human and murine brain proteomes using publicly available brain proteome LC-MS/MS datasets and an RNA editome database compiled from several sources. After filtering of false-positive results, 20 and 37 sites of editing in proteins belonging to 14 and 32 genes were identified for murine and human brain proteomes, respectively. Eight sites of editing identified with high spectral counts overlapped between human and mouse brain samples. Some of these sites were previously reported using orthogonal methods, such as NMDA glutamate receptors, CYFIP2, coatomer alpha, etc. Also, differential editing between neurons and microglia was demonstrated in this work for some of the proteins from primary murine brain cell cultures. Because many edited sites are still not characterized functionally at the protein level, our results provide a necessary background for their further analysis in normal and diseased cells and tissues using targeted proteomic approaches