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{{trope|wppage=Faux Cyrillic}}
[[File:Hcybitpaowynaaa.jpg|link=Firesign Theatre|
Iи a lot of Шesteяи posteяs, yoц see somethiиg that coцld Ьe called [
▲{{quote|'' Richie: It's in Russian.''<br />
▲'' Eddie: You just put the R's the wrong way round?! ''<br />
▲'' Richie: THAT'S WHAT RUSSIAN IS! ''|''[[Bottom]]''}}
▲Iи a lot of Шesteяи posteяs, yoц see somethiиg that coцld Ьe called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faux_Cyrillic "Faux Cyrillic"] -- яeplacing Latiи chaяacteяs Ьy visцally similaя Cyяillic oиes, to make somethiиg [[Foreign Looking Font|look more Russian]]. The peяpetяatoяs igиoяe the fact that these letteяs aяe, iи actцal Яцssiaи, pяoиoциced completely diffeяeиtly fяom the Latiи chaяacteяs they aяe sцpposed to яepяeseиt, шhich яesцlts iи [[Hilarity Ensues|unintended hilarity]] foя memЬeяs of the aцdieиce шho [[Bilingual Bonus|can read Cyrillic script]]. This is Ьecaцse Cyяillic is Ьased oи a comЬiиatioи of Gяeek, Glagolitic aиd soмe Heвяew letteяs (ц and ш), Ьцt dцe to яefoяms Ьy Peteя the Gяeat it has the same Ьasic desigи pяinciples as the Latiи alphaЬet (stяoke thickиess and placemeиt, etc.).
Beloш is a list of popцlaя letteяs цsed шith this tяope, aиd theiя pяopeя Latiи spelliиgs:
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This caи also happeи шith alphabets otheя thaи Cyяillic. Pяobably most commoи iи that case is the цse of the Gяeek letteя sigma (Σ) as aи E oя delta (Δ) oя lamЬda (Λ) as aи A, even thoцgh "E" and "A" aяe actцally peяfectly good Gяeek letteяs themselves. (Sigma, delta aиd lamЬda are actually the analogцes of S, D, aиd L, Яespectively, though delta is a "th" (that's the "th" in "'''th'''en", not "'''th'''in") in modern Greek.)
In a lot of Western posters, you see something that could be called [
Below is a list of popular letters used with this trope, and their proper Latin spellings:
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This can also happen with alphabets other than Cyrillic. Probably most common in that case is the use of the Greek letter sigma (Σ) as an E or delta (Δ) or lambda (Λ) as an A, even though "E" and "A" are actually perfectly good Greek letters themselves. (Sigma, delta, and lambda are actually the analogues of S, D and L, respectively though delta is a "th" (that's the "th" in "'''th'''en", not "'''th'''in") in modern Greek.) Compare [[Heavy Metal Umlaut]] and [[Gratuitous Foreign Language]]
{{examples}}
▲Щ[[Emoticon|(º]]Д[[Emoticon|º)]]Щ
__TOC__
==CyЯillic Єxamples==
=== [[
== [[Advertising]] ==▼
* There's a UK ''insurance ad'' featuring a Backwards R and ''Socialist Realism style art''.
* Aversion: Toys "Я" Us, probably the most famous backwards R in the U.S., is ''not'' an example of this trope. The intent was to imitate the way young children first learn to write the alphabet, with the [[Stylistic Suck|common mistake of writing some of the letters backwards]]. Whenever they print their name in normal writing in a catalogue, on their website or otherwise, they just use a normal R.
* Ron Paul's political campaign was called the RON PAUL REVOLUTION, with the letters EVOL printed backwards, such that, if the entire group of letters was reversed as one, it would become LOVE.<ref>Maybe the person responsible for that was reading [[
** And when Paul's campaign started to tank, someone did the same thing to the letters REVO, so that if this group was reversed, they spelled OVER.
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* Used with tongue firmly planted in cheek at [http://kiotr.net/ Kiotr.net], a fansite devoted to the [[X
** Also inverted in a recent arc on ''[[X
=== [[Film]] ===
* Let's not forget ''[[Borat]]'' and its use of the Cyrillic 'D' character. It ''vaguely'' resembles a Latin 'A'.
** This troper involuntarily spluttered "Voyadt?" at the titles in the cinema.
* The opening credits of ''[[
* ''[[The Hunt for Red October]]'' displays this, including a mislabeling of the sub itself.
* Some of the signs in [[Repo!
* The History Channel's documentary [http://www.newvideo.com/wp-content/uploads/boxart-hires-flat/AAE70894-06.jpg Russia: Land of the Tsars.]{{Dead link}}
=== [[Literature]] ===
* "Yevgeny" is not an usual transliteration of this name, and maybe isn't proper, but when the writer who translated [[
** It's may be unusual, but it's ''official''. Welcome to the world of [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|bureaucracy]], my friend.
** It is official, because that is how the name is actually pronounced. The reason why it seems counterintuitive to most Russian-speakers is, as explained on the "Russian language" [[Useful Notes]] page, that the "ye" syllable is a single letter in Russian, and that letter is identical in appearance to the Latin "E". That is why [[Spell My Name
=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===
* The 1997 version of ''Where In Time Is [[Carmen Sandiego]]?'' includes a scene where you meet Yuri Gagarin. The rocket carrying him has the letters CCCP on it, and your helpful friend indicates that it's an acronym... ''in English''. The instruction book for the game includes a section detailing all the historical inaccuracies introduced to the game in order to make it easier to understand and tells what it ''really'' stands for. (Isn't this game supposed to be educational, though?)
* In an episode of ''[[MacGyver]]'' we see a bottle labeled in Cyrillic: it's supposed to say "Etil Alkogol" ( = "Ethyl Alcohol"); what it actually says is "Ztil Alkogop". If it was supposed to be Russian, then it should've said "Etilovyj spirt".
* From an episode of ''[[Bottom]]'', where Eddie mocks the unconvincing nature of the fake birthday cards Richie sends himself every year:
{{quote|
'''Richie:''' It's in Russian!
'''Eddie:''' You just put the R's the wrong way round!
'''Richie:''' That's what Russian is! }}
* The [[Discovery Channel]] program ''Wild Russia'' uses backwards R's when displaying the title.
=== Meta ===
* [[
=== [[Music]] ===
* [[Type O Negative]]'s latest (and final, due to [[Author Existence Failure]]) album ''Dead Again'' has all of the lyrics and liner notes written in Faux Cyrillic ''for absolutely no good reason at all'' (there is a picture of Rasputin on the cover, but other than that...). Just as an example, the band's name and album title are written as "TЧРЕ O ИЭGАТIѴЭ : DЭДD ДGДIИ," which— because Cyrillic doesn't have a letter shaped like "D" or "G"; "I" replaces "И" in Ukrainian and "Ѵ" is an archaic letter translatable as either "i" or "v" depending on the context— would read "-CHRYE O IE-ATIVE : -ED- D-DII."
* The band ¡Forward, Russia! are in love with this trope.
* So are the [[Leningrad Cowboys]] a.k.a. Lɘиiиɢяad Cowʙoys who aren't even from Russia. The covers of their album ''Happy Together'' and their ''Total Balalaika Show'' live video take this [[Up to Eleven]] by mimicking a Pravda frontpage complete with a font which borrows a lot from the Cyrillic and Greek alphabets plus some mirrored or upside-down letters and the German ß (sharp s) in lieu of the capital B. Only "Pravda" itself is written in real Cyrillic.
* The Welsh band [[Manic Street Preachers]] had all of the R's backwards for their album
* [[Franz Ferdinand]] did this very consciously in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haW_ruZ_Be8 the video for "This Fire"] off their self-titled first album. That whole album they were going for a Soviet Constructivist look, which goes remarkably well with their sound.
* The [[Firesign Theatre]]'s LP ''How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All'', with its "All Hail Marx and Lennon" poster, as seen above.
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* [[Nine Inch Nails]] is often written as ИIИE IИCH ИAILS in different media.
* DJ Vadim's name is usually written with a Д for the A and an inverted Щ for the M.
* In the Romanian band TNT's video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl9VIW5HHqM "Vodka, Vodka"] has the words "Vodka Дямач" in the around a red star in the back throughout the video. This is a good example, because the sound for the actual Russian word for armies, армий, is basically like the English word army (though it refers to the plural in Russian), and even the singular word for army, армия (armiya) would be easily recognizable for English-speakers as referring to an army, whereas Дямч would sound like Dyamch (that is, if the word "army" is being used at all instead of "land forces". Of course, given the Soviet-styled emblem, "army" makes a lot of sense [[Reds
** Also, the TИT in the middle of the emblem, for the band's name, TNT. TИT said out loud would basically sound like the word for what a dog mother uses to feed her puppies.
* The [[Bemani]] J-pop band TЁЯRA ("Tyoyara").
* The Finnish [[Doom Metal]] band Курск, although their name is correct Cyrillic for Kursk, uses faux Cyrillic text on their website.
* The cover for [[
=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* The game supplement ''[[GURPS]] Russia'' features the TS and D characters for U and A respectively, [http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/Russia/img/cover_lg.jpg plus several others]. For a [[
** This [[
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* The logo for the computer game ''DEFCON'', which would actually be "DEFCOI" if the backwards N was read properly.
* ''[[
** A [https://web.archive.org/web/20131123144133/http://popchartlab.com/products/every-piece-in-its-place faux propaganda poster] featuring ''Tetris'' also invoked this with backwards R's and N's and the Cyrillic letter "er" for the p in "place".
* ''Republic: The Revolution'' in addition to [[Speaking Simlish|speaking pseudo-Russian]] has all in-game signs and posters ''written'' in pseudo-Cyrillic. It also uses other symbols, such as the German "ß".
* The ''[[Iron Grip]]: The Oppression'' [[Game Mod]] had a typical backwards R in its promotional logo.
*
** Shnat [[Gratuitous Hungarian|Siya?]]
* [[Singularity]] heavily used this trope, including in its logo. Almost excused, when they started using real Russian at the end credits.
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* The fourth game in the ''[[Deception]]'' series, ''[[Trapt]]'', spells the title on the cover art as ''TЯAPT'' purely for cosmetic reasons, to achieve a mirrored look that the P partially fudges.
=== [[Web Original]] ===
* The USSR speaks like this in [http://angusmcleod.deviantart.com/art/World-War-Two-Simple-Version-73625561 World War Two: Simple Version]. It's dropped in [http://angusmcleod.deviantart.com/art/Cold-War-Simple-Version-189698383 Cold War: Simple Version] because the author was sick of it.
** That comic strip also has USSR say the line "ZД ЯОDIИU" which is clearly meant to be "за родину" ([[Captain Obvious|a bit of]] [[Gratuitous Russian]])
*** Zd yaodieeu?
* Parodied in ''[[SF Debris]]'' when Chuck comments on the U.S.S. ''Tsiolkovsky''`s Cyrillic dedication plaque and, noting a letter that looks like 3 (the Russian Z), accuses Russia of being so poor they have to use numbers when they run out of letters. In a [[Genius Bonus]] he later subtly reveals he knows what it really means by spelling the word 'spaz' out loud as 'S, P, A, three!'
* There is actually a web page that will give you fake Cyrillic. https://web.archive.org/web/20090724002526/http://www.theworldofstuff.com/other/cyrillic.html
* Generally text on most images posted [http://ru-klukva-ru.livejournal.com/?skip=70&tag=%D0%B9%29%20pYS%D0%A1kN%20%D0%AF3bIk here] is either "KNPNVVNUA" or meaningless groups of cyrillic characters generated via [[Blind Idiot Translation|recursive or copy-paste "translations"]].
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* In ''[[Anastasia]]'', the train's speedometer reads SPEEФОШЕТЕЯ ("speefosheteya").
** Or, if you want to be really nitpicky, sreyefosheteya.
* ''Batman: Assault on Arkham'' had KGBeast riding a motorcycle with full sidecar of "[http://ru-klukva-ru.livejournal.com/1449554.html бензN]".
=== [[Real Life]] ===
* The pre-reform orthography for Cuengh (pronounced "Shweng", but more commonly known by the Chinese name Zhuang), a language spoken in Guangxi, China, used a combination of the Latin alphabet, IPA symbols, and Cyrillic and pseudo-Cyrillic letters, including five "tone letters" whose shapes are based on Arabic numerals. The result looks a lot like mock Cyrillic. For example, Cuengh was written as "Cueŋƅ" and the full official name of Guangxi was written as "Gvaŋзsiƅ Bouчcueŋƅ Sɯcigiƅ."
** Other [[Real Life]] example: The [
* Inverted with [
* Avoided by post-1993 Russian license plates, which use only the letters common to the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets.
* Since so many early Soviet consumer electronics were direct ripoffs of Western designs, Russian-language pocket calculators (most notably the programmable [
* [[Nightmare Fuel/Vanity Plate|The VID mask]]; according to Wikipedia, the actual Russian spelling of "VID" is not "BИD". As we know and as [[There Is No Such Thing As Notability|even Wikipedia noted]], that's not exactly what that logo is famous for.▼
===
▲* [[Nightmare Fuel/Vanity Plate|The VID mask]]; according to Wikipedia, the actual Russian spelling of "VID" is not "BИD". As we know and as [[There Is No Such Thing
==
* In ''[[The Books of Magic]]'', Ancient Greeks talk like this "IN THΣ LДNDS ΘF ΘLIVΣ ДND LДURΣL, WHΣRΣ THΣ GΘDS WДLK". [[David Langford]] [http://www.ansible.co.uk/cc/cc41.html was scathing] about this, and especially [[Roger Zelazny]]'s admiration for it in the introduction:
{{quote|
* Another [[Vertigo Comics]] book has a logo that reads ''GRΣΣK STRΣΣT''.
=== [[Film]] ===
* The poster for ''[[
** Also an unrelated TV series, ''[[Greek]]'' has done the exact same thing.
* The [[Elektra (
* [[Airplane!|Airplane II: The Sequel]]'s "[[Гrаηѕсεηδεη Гаζ]] аіr".
=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===
* The ''[[
=== [[Music]] ===
* [[
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* The ''[[Half Life]]'' logo uses the Greek letter lambda instead of an A. Funnily-enough, the lambda represents "L", so it would be read as "HLLF LIFE".
** This isn't actually a reference directly to the Greek letter, but rather its use in science to represent the radioactivity decay constant.
** It ''could'' also be a reference to the Lambda Complex.
=== [[Web Original]] ===
* ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' uses Ξ (Xi) in place of "e" for the title card of ''Reconstruction''. The series has AIs named after Greek letters throughout, but none of the ones mentioned are named Xi.
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* ''[[The Amazing World of Gumball]]'' in the episode "The Refund" attempts to do an Asian version with a [[Fictional Video Game]] titled something similar to "Cyberground 丹太丁丁乚モ<ref>BATTLE</ref> II", somewhat beyond a mere [[Foreign Looking Font]]. Unsurprisingly, nonsense when taken at face value.
=== [[Real Life]] ===
* Similarly, [http://www.zazzle.com/master_beta_greek_frat_masterbate_funny_t_shirt-235698216737186780 you] [http://images0.cafepress.com/product/61059350v4_225x225_Front.jpg can] find a number of frat-themed t-shirts out there which use Greek letters this way.
** Bssg? Mdstxrbstl? How do you ever pronounce those?
*** The latter might be similar to "[[The Unpronounceable|Mxyzptlk]]"...
** ''[[Coach Random]]'' has its protagonists suggesting starting a frat called "Beer". Another suggests calling it "Beta Sigma Sigma R."
** [http://tshirtgroove.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/does-this-shirt-make-me-look-frat-tshirt.jpg Dthss thphs shphrt mlks ms lththk grlt?]
* The Saturn Aura's emblem also uses lambdas in place of A.
** The film-within-a-show "Aquaman" (in ''[[Entourage]]'') did the same thing. But is that trying to look foreign, or just stylish?
** South Korean car manufacturer Kia has done the same thing on its logo since at least 1994, though it may be unintentional. English speakers who are passingly familiar with Greek characters tend to read it as "KIL".
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Title Tropes]]
[[Category:The Backwards R]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Backwards R, The}}
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