Balachka (; ) is the traditional language of the Kuban Cossacks. It is spoken in the Kuban region of southern Russia, particularly in present-day Krasnodar Krai. It developed among the Black Sea Cossacks who were resettled to the region in the late 18th century from territories of the former Zaporizhian Sich.
Balachka is an East Slavic language spoken in southern Russia which has significant Ukrainian influence. Its phonetics, vocabulary and certain grammatical features reflect a mixture of southern Russian dialectal forms and elements associated with central and eastern Ukrainian speech.
Historically, Balachka functioned as the everyday spoken language of Kuban Cossack stanitsas. It was used for day to day communications, oral traditions, folk songs, proverbs and local storytelling.
In the 20th century, De-Cossackization and Soviet language policy led to the predominance of Standard Russian language in education, administration and media. As a result, Balachka declined in everyday usage although it still remains in use in rural areas and in the preservation of Kuban Cossack cultural heritage.
The most significant instance of the dialect is in the Kuban region with the language being spoken by the Black Sea Cossacks who moved to there in 1792.
The Kuban Cossack Chorus artistic director Viktor Zakharchenko points to the local folk songs dating to early and mid-19th century, where those that originated in the Kuban would have their own unique literary flavour and differ from those in standard Russian and Ukrainian.
During the 1897 Russian census it was classified as a dialect of Little Russian (the Imperial-era Russian name for Ukrainian) language rather than Great Russian (Russian).
In modern times the everyday usage of Balachka is declining.
It is not known how widespread the use of Balachka is. Education and strict requirements of the Russian Academy of Sciences mean that local press such as TV and radio adhere to standard Russian, with a notable exception for historical films (particularly those involving Cossacks) and Folk music groups and ensembles, such as the Kuban Cossack Chorus.
As a result, there has been a gradual erosion in the use of authentic dialects and accents, with unique terms being slowly replaced by standard Russian ones. This is particularly noticeable in the younger generations. At the same time, beginning in the early 1990s, the re-awakening of the Cossacks movement was often done with rekindling of old traditions. It is thus not surprising that many Cossacks use Balachka (or some of its elements) in their speech to punctuate their Cossack heritage and/or affiliation.
As of 2010 the everyday usage of Balachka is declining. Some attempts are being made by local communities to preserve the dialect. It was proposed to teach Balachka in the schools and universities of Krasnodar Krai by students and teachers of Kuban State University. This attempts found no support from the federal administration.
Political aspects have played a direct role in the classification of the Kuban Balachka. Although this Balachka was initially officially classified as a dialect of the Little Russian language (the official term in pre-revolutionary Russia for the Ukrainian language), and some Ukrainian sources actively support the idea of Balachka being a dialect of the Ukrainian language, this is being contested by some Russian linguistic research, and some of the Kuban Cossacks themselves, who point out that already by the 1860s there was a separate dialect that morphed out of Ukrainian and Russian.
There 3 varieties of Balachka: Kuban, Don and Mountainous subdialects. The most widespread variety is Kuban subdialect which was originally used by the Cossacks of Black Sea Host.
Examples of Balachka written in accordance to Russian and Ukrainian orthographies with translation in English.
The latter text is written by Ivan Varavva. The same text in standard Ukrainian and Russian: