Language biographies of Suržyk speakers in the South of Ukraine:

The paper is devoted to the study of Ukrainian-Russian Mixed Speech, commonly called Suržyk. We explore connections between the Suržyk speakers’ biographies and their current linguistic repertoires, based on the analysis of 33 in-depth interviews recorded between late 2020 and early 2022 in three regions (Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Odesa) in the South of Ukraine. We analyse the development of linguistic repertoire since childhood to school to post-secondary education, and provide a case study of a 19-year-old Suržyk speaker as an illustration.