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While reading Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, I noticed something is off in Mannie's speech pattern. But I can't really put my finger on all these oddities as I am not a native English speaker. I mean, I spotted the occasional Russian loanwords (Stilyagi, gospodin, da), but there are more deviations in comparison to Professor de la Paz and Wyoming Knott.

What deviations to standard English does he use in grammar?

I do not want to know where they come from or a why but merely the pattern that converts standard English to Mannie.

one of the best illustrations:

I said, "Eggs getting cold. Can't we eliminate me after breakfast?"

"An excellent thought," agreed Prof. "Manuel, could you spare your old teacher a liter of water to make himself more presentable?"

"All you want, in there. Don't drag or you'll get what littlest pig got.

Mannie omitted: Are after eggs in the first sentence of the first line, is in the first sentence of the third line in front of in there, the between what and littest.

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    Are you asking for a whole list of the influences on how he talks? The moon is a penal colony, so people from all over the earth have been shipped there so his speech could be influenced by practically every earth culture.
    – Todd Wilcox
    Commented Jun 30, 2018 at 9:06

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Mannie's speech pattern seems to be heavily influenced by Russian grammar. He usually omits articles and redundant possessive pronouns.

These are not actual quotes, but things he might say:

"I opened door" instead of "I opened the door". "I raised hand" instead of "I raised my hand".

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    This would be improved with actual quotes.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jun 30, 2018 at 12:37
  • I am very close to many Russian people and can confirm this. It's not just one or two quotes, it's consistent throughout entire book. You can open up book to any random page and find examples.
    – Wildcard
    Commented Mar 16 at 10:39

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