| Astrakhan Russian | |
| States: | Russia |
| Region: | Astrakhan Oblast |
| Speakers: | 1,014,065[1] |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Fam2: | Balto-Slavic |
| Fam3: | Slavic |
| Fam4: | East Slavic |
| Fam5: | Russian |
| Isoexception: | dialect |
| Ietf: | ru-u-sd-ruast |
Astrakhan Russian (Russian: Астраханский русский) is an umbrella term for the regional varieties of the Russian language spoken in Astrakhan Oblast, a federal subject of Russia. Astrakhan Oblast is one of the most diverse parts of the country in terms of ethnic groups and languages. The major groups are ethnic Russians (61% of the population), Kazakhs (17%) and Tatars (7%), but many others are also present and influence the shared local identity, culture and language varieties.
Being a regional rather than linguistic unity, Astrakhan Russian is a term for a broad group of dialects varying between speakers depending on their ethnicity, native language, age, education, occupation, location within the region and other social factors. Nevertheless, they share certain traits and can be grouped into a few categories.
The main divide is that between Russians and people of other ethnic groups, as the speech of the latter is influenced by the vernacular languages of their communities. Astrakhan Russian as spoken by Kazakh people is noticeably influenced by the Kazakh language on most levels, and this is not limited to native Kazakh speakers. It is not uncommon for people of minority background to grow up in an ethnically and linguistically diverse town or city in the region speaking only Russian, but their Russian typically still has traces of their heritage language.
One of the things that unite Astrakhan Russian speakers of all ethnic backgrounds is a group of local words that do not exist in standard Russian and other Russian dialects or have different meanings in them. In many cases these words originate from Turkic languages. Here are some examples: