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Russian Language
*** Shopping-Tip: Russian Language
{{Infobox Language
|name=Russian
|nativename=руÑ?Ñ?кий Ñ?зык ''russkiy yazyk''
|states=
Russia, countries formerly part of
Soviet Union,
United States,
Israel and
East Asia.
|speakers=primary language: about 145 million
secondary language: 110 million (1999 WA, 2000 WCD)
|rank=8 (native)
|familycolor=Indo-European
|fam2=
Balto-Slavic languages Balto-Slavic
|fam3=
Slavic languages Slavic
|fam4=
East Slavic languages East Slavic
|script=
Cyrillic alphabet
|nation=
Russia,
Belarus,
Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan,
United Nations,
Crimea (
Ukraine),
Abkhazia (
Georgia (country) Georgia),
Transnistria (
Republic of Moldova Moldova)
|agency=
Russian Academy of Sciences
|iso1=ru|iso2=rus|iso3=rus|map=
Image:RussianLanguageMap.png center|300pxCountries of the world where Russian is spoken.}}
'''Russian''' (Russian: руÑ?Ñ?кий Ñ?зык, ''russkiy yazyk'', {{IPA|['ru.skʲɪj jɪ.'zɨk]}} {{Audio|Ru-russkiy jizyk.ogg|listen}}) is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia and the most widespread of the
Slavic languages.
Russian belongs to the family of
Indo-European languages. Within the Slavic family, Russian is one of three members of the
East Slavic languages East Slavic group, the other two being
Belarusian language Belarusian and
Ukrainian language Ukrainian.
Written examples of East Slavonic are attested from the
10th century onwards. While Russian preserves much of East Slavonic synthetic-inflexional structure and a
Common Slavonic word base, modern Russian exhibits a large stock of borrowed international vocabulary for politics, science, and technology. A language of great political importance in the
20th century, Russian is one of the official languages of the
United Nations.
'''NOTE'''. Russian is written in a non-Latin script. All examples below are in the Cyrillic alphabet, with transcriptions in International Phonetic Alphabet IPA.
Classification
Russian is a
Slavic language in the Indo-European family. From the point of view of the
spoken language, its closest relatives are
Belarusian and
Ukrainian, the other two national languages in the
East Slavic languages East Slavic group. In many places in
Ukraine and
Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably.
The basic vocabulary, principles of word-formation, and, to some extent, inflexions and literary style of Russian have been heavily influenced by
Church Slavonic language Church Slavonic, a developed and partly adopted form of the
South Slavic languages South Slavic Old Church Slavonic language used by the
Russian Orthodox Church. Many words in modern literary Russian are closer in form to the modern
Bulgarian language than to
Ukrainian or
Belarusian. However, the
East Slavic forms have tended to remain in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the
East Slavic and the
Church Slavonic forms are in use, with slightly different meanings. For details, see
Russian phonetics#Historical Sound Changes Historical Sound Changes and
History of the Russian language.
Outside the Slavic languages, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have been greatly influenced by
Greek language Greek,
Latin,
French language French,
German language German, and
English language English.
According to the
Defense Language Institute in
Monterey, California, Russian is classified as a level III language in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers, requiring approximately 780 hours of immersion instruction to achieve intermediate fluency. It is also regarded by the
United States Intelligence Community as a "hard target" language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers as well as due to its critical role in American foreign policy.
Geographic distribution
Russian is primarily spoken in
Russia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics of the
Soviet Union USSR. Until
1917, it was the sole official language of the
Russian Empire. During the Soviet period, the policy toward the languages of the various other ethnic groups fluctuated in practice. Though each of the constituent republics had its own official language, the unifying role and superior status was reserved for Russian. Following the break-up of
1991, several of the newly independent states have encouraged their native languages, which has partly reversed the privileged status of Russian, though its role as the language of post-Soviet national intercourse throughout the region has continued.
In
Latvia, notably, its official recognition and legality in the classroom have been a topic of considerable debate in a country where more than one-third of the population is Russian-speaking, consisting mostly of post-
World War II immigrants from Russia and other parts of the former
USSR (Belarus, Ukraine). Similarly, in
Estonia, the Soviet-era immigrants and their Russian-speaking descendants constitute about one quarter of the country's current population.
A much smaller Russian-speaking minority in
Lithuania has largely been assimilated during the decade of independence and currently represent less than 1/10 of the country's overall population.
In the twentieth century it was widely taught in the schools of the members of the old
Warsaw Pact and in other
Communist state countries that used to be satellites of the USSR, especially in
Poland,
Bulgaria, the
Czech Republic, Slovakia,
Hungary, and
Romania. Russian is also fairly common in the states that once comprised
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Yugoslavia. However, younger generations are usually not fluent in it, because Russian is no longer mandatory in the school system. It was, and still is, to a lesser extent, widely taught in Asian countries such as
Laos,
Vietnam and
Mongolia due to Soviet influence, and is still used as a
lingua franca in
Afghanistan by various tribes. It was also taught as the mandatory foreign language requisite in the
People's Republic of China before the
Sino-Soviet Split.
Russian is also spoken in
Israel by at least 750,000 ethnic
Jew Jewish immigrants from the former
Soviet Union (1999 census). The Israeli
Mass media press and
websites regularly publish material in Russian.
Sizeable Russian-speaking communities also exist in
North America, especially in large urban centers of the
United States U.S. and
Canada such as
New York City,
Los Angeles, California Los Angeles,
San Francisco,
Toronto,
Miami, Florida Miami,
Chicago, Illinois Chicago, and the
Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland suburb of
Richmond Heights, Ohio Richmond Heights. In the first two of them, Russian-speaking groups total over half a million. In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, and live in their self-sufficient neighborhoods (especially the generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early sixties). It is important to note, however, that only about a quarter of them are ethnic Russians.
Before the
dissolution of the Soviet Union, the overwhelming majority were Russian-speaking
Jews. Afterwards the influx from the countries of the former
Soviet Union changed the statistics somewhat. According to the
United States 2000 Census, Russian was reported as language spoken at home by 1.50% of population, or about 4.2 million, placing it as #10 language in the
United States.
Significant Russian-speaking groups also exist in Western Europe. These have been fed by several waves of immigrants since the beginning of the twentieth century, each with its own flavour of language.
Germany,
Britain,
Spain,
France,
Italy,
Belgium, and
Greece have significant Russian-speaking communities totaling 3 million people.
Two thirds of them are actually Russian-speaking descendants of
German people Germans,
Greeks,
Jews,
Armenians, or
Ukrainians who either repatriated after the
USSR collapsed or are just looking for temporary employment. But many are well-off Russian families acquiring property and getting education.
Earlier, the descendants of the Russian émigrés tended to lose the tongue of their ancestors by the third generation. Now, when the border is more open, Russian is likely to survive longer, especially when many of the emigrants visit their homelands at least once a year and also have access to Russian websites and TV channels.
Recent estimates of the total number of speakers of Russian:
{| align=center cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0 border=0
|-
!Source||Native speakers||Native Rank||Total speakers||Total rank
|-
|G. Weber, "Top Languages",
''Language Monthly'',
3: 12-18, 1997, ISSN 1369-9733||160,000,000||8||285,000,000||5
|-
|World Almanac (1999)||145,000,000||8 (2005)||275,000,000||5
|-
|SIL (2000 WCD)||145,000,000||8||255,000,000||5-6 (tied with Arabic)
|-
|CIA World Factbook (2005)||160,000,000||8||
|}
Official status
Russian is the official language of
Russia, and an official language of
Belarus,
Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea (
Ukraine) and the
List of unrecognized countries unrecognized Moldovan Republic of Transnistria. It is one of the six official languages of the
United Nations.
Education in Russian is still a popular choice for many of the both native and RSL (Russian as a second language) speakers in Russia and many of the former Soviet republics.
97% of the public school students of Russia, 75% in Belarus, 41% in Kazakhstan, 24% in
Ukraine, 23% in Kyrgyzstan, 21% in
Moldova, 7% in
Azerbaijan, 5% in
Georgia (country) Georgia received their education only or mostly in Russian, although the corresponding percentage of ethnic Russians was 80% in
Russia, 11% in
Belarus, 27% in
Kazakhstan, 17% in
Ukraine, 9% in
Kyrgyzstan, 6% in
Moldova, 2% in
Azerbaijan, 1.5% in
Georgia (country) Georgia.
Dialects
Despite levelling after
1900, especially in matters of vocabulary, a large number of dialects exist in Russia. Some linguists divide the dialects of the Russian language into two primary regional groupings, "Northern" and "Southern", with
Moscow lying on the zone of transition between the two. Others divide the language into three groupings, Northern, Central and Southern, with
Moscow lying in the Central region.
Dialectology within Russia recognizes dozens of smaller-scale variants.
The dialects often show distinct and non-standard features of pronunciation and intonation, vocabulary, and grammar. Some of these are relics of ancient usage now completely discarded by the standard language. Also cf.
Moscow pronunciation of "-чн-", e.g. "булошнаÑ?" (''buloshnaya'' - bakery) instead of "булочнаÑ?" (''bulochnaya'').
The northern dialects typically pronounce unstressed {{IPA|/o/}} clearly (the phenomenon called okanye ''оканье''); the southern palatalize the final {{IPA|/t/}} and
aspirate the {{IPA|/É¡/}} into {{IPA|/h/}}. It should be noted that some of these features are also present in modern
Ukrainian, indicating a linguistic continuum or strong influence one way or the other.
Among the first to study Russian dialects was
Mikhail Lomonosov Lomonosov in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth,
Vladimir Dal compiled the first dictionary that included dialectal vocabulary. Detailed mapping of Russian dialects began at the turn of the twentieth century. In modern times, the monumental ''Dialectological Atlas of the Russian Language'' (''ДиалектологичеÑ?кий атлаÑ? руÑ?Ñ?кого Ñ?зыка'' {{IPA|/dʲəʌˈlʲektÉ™lʌˈɡʲiʨəskʲəj ˈatlÉ™s ˈruskÉ™vÉ™ jÉ™zɨˈka/}}), was published in 3 folio volumes 1986-1989, after four decades of preparatory work.
The ''standard language'' is based on (but not identical to) the Moscow dialect.
Derived languages
*
Fenia or
Fenka, a criminal
lingo of ancient origin, with Russian grammar, but with distinct vocabulary.
*
Surzhyk is a Ukrainian-Russian pidgin spoken in some rural areas of Ukraine
*
Trasianka is a Belarusian-Russian mix (sort of
pidgin) used by a large portion of the rural population in
Belarus.
*
Russenorsk is an extinct
pidgin language with Russian vocabulary and
Norwegian language Norwegian grammar, used for communication between
Russians and
Norwegians in
Svalbard and
Kola Peninsula.
*
Qwela: Russian-German pidgin.
*
Runglish: Russian-English pidgin.
Writing system
Alphabet
Image:Meletius Smotrisky Cyrillic Alphabet.PNG Meletius_Smotrytsky.html" title="Meaning of thumb thumb|[[Meletius Smotrytsky presented the Cyrillic alphabet in this
1619 publication describing the "Slavonic" language..html" title="Meaning of [[Meletius Smotrytsky">thumb|[[Meletius Smotrytsky presented the Cyrillic alphabet in this
1619 publication describing the "Slavonic" language.">[[Meletius Smotrytsky">thumb|[[Meletius Smotrytsky presented the Cyrillic alphabet in this
1619 publication describing the "Slavonic" language.
{{main|Russian alphabet}}
Russian is written using a modified version of the
Cyrillic Cyrillic (кириллица) alphabet, consisting of 33 letters.
The following table gives their upper case forms, along with
International Phonetic Alphabet IPA values for each letter's typical sound:
{| align=center cellpadding=4 style="text-align:center;"
|-
|
A (Cyrillic) Ð?{{IPA|/a/}}||
Be (Cyrillic) Б{{IPA|/b/}}||
Ve (Cyrillic) Ð’{{IPA|/v/}}||
Ge (Cyrillic) Г{{IPA|/ɡ/}}||
De (Cyrillic) Д{{IPA|/d/}}||
Ye (Cyrillic) Е{{IPA|/jɛ/}}||
Yo (Cyrillic) Ð?{{IPA|/jo/}}||
Zhe (Cyrillic) Ж{{IPA|/Ê?/}}||
Ze (Cyrillic) З{{IPA|/z/}}||
I (Cyrillic) И{{IPA|/i/}}||
Short I Й{{IPA|/j/}}
|-
|
Ka (Cyrillic) К{{IPA|/k/}}||
El (Cyrillic) Л{{IPA|/l/}}||
Em (Cyrillic) М{{IPA|/m/}}||
En (Cyrillic) Ð?{{IPA|/n/}}||
O (Cyrillic) О{{IPA|/o/}}||
Pe (Cyrillic) П{{IPA|/p/}}||
Er (Cyrillic) Ð {{IPA|/r/}}||
Es (Cyrillic) С{{IPA|/s/}}||
Te (Cyrillic) Т{{IPA|/t/}}||
U (Cyrillic) У{{IPA|/u/}}||
Ef (Cyrillic) Ф{{IPA|/f/}}
|-
|
Kha (Cyrillic) Х{{IPA|/x/}}||
Tse (Cyrillic) Ц{{IPA|/ʦ/}}||
Che (Cyrillic) Ч{{IPA|/ʨ/}}||
Sha Ш{{IPA|/ʂ/}}||
Shcha Щ {{IPA|/É•Ë?/}}||
Hard sign Ъ{{IPA|/â—ŒË /}}||
Yery Ы {{IPA|/ɨ/}}||
Soft sign Ь{{IPA|/◌ʲ/}}||
E (Cyrillic) Ð{{IPA|/É›/}}||
Yu (Cyrillic) Ю{{IPA|/ju/}}||
Ya (letter) Я{{IPA|/ja/}}
|}
Old letters that have been abolished at one time or another but occur in this and related articles include {{Unicode |'''ѣ'''}} {{IPA|/ie/}} or {{IPA|/e/}}, '''і''' {{IPA|/i/}}, and {{Unicode |'''ѧ'''}} {{IPA|/ja/}}. The
yers '''ÑŠ''' and '''ÑŒ''' were originally pronounced as ''ultra-short'' or ''reduced'' {{IPA|/Å/}}, {{IPA|/Ä/}}.
For information on an informal approach on transliterating Russian into English, see the article
Romanization of Russian Transliteration of Russian into English.
Orthography
{{main|Russian orthography}}
Russian spelling is reasonably phonetic in practice. It is in fact a balance among phonetics, morphology, etymology, and grammar; and, like that of most living languages, has its share of inconsistencies and controversial points.
The current spelling follows the major reform of 1918, and the final codification of 1956. An update proposed in the late 1990's has met a hostile reception, and has not been formally adopted.
The punctuation, originally based on Byzantine Greek, was in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries reformulated on the French and German models.
Sounds
{{main|Russian phonology}}
The phonological system of Russian is inherited from
Common Slavonic, but underwent considerable modification in the early historical period, before being largely settled by about 1400.
The language possesses five vowels, which are written with different letters depending on whether or not the preceding consonant is
palatalization palatalized. The consonants typically come in plain vs. palatalized pairs, which are traditionally called ''hard'' and ''soft.'' (The 'hard' consonants are often
velarization velarized, some dialects only velarize /l/ in such positions). The standard language, based on the Moscow dialect, possesses heavy stress and moderate variation in pitch. Stressed vowels are somewhat lengthened, while unstressed vowels (except {{IPA|/u/}}) tend to be reduced to an unclear
schwa. (See also:
akanie.)
The Russian
syllable structure can be quite complex with both initial and final consonant clusters of up to 4 consecutive sounds. Using a formula with V standing for the nucleus (vowel) and C for each consonant the structure can be described as follows:
(C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)
Consonants
{| border="2" cellpadding="5" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; line-height: 1.2em; border-collapse: collapse; text-align: center; font-family: Doulos SIL, GentiumAlt, Lucida Sans Unicode, Gentium, Code2000, Chrysanthi Unicode, TITUS Cyberbit Basic, Bitstream Cyberbit, Bitstream Vera, Arial Unicode MS, Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro, Lucida Grande; font-family /**/:inherit; font-size: 110%; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid;"
|- style="font-size: 80%;"
|
! colspan="2" |
Bilabial consonant Bilabial
! colspan="2" |
Labiodental consonant Labio
dental
! colspan="2" |
Dental consonant Dental &
Alveolar consonant Alveolar
! colspan="2" |
Postalveolar consonant Post-
alveolar
!
Palatal consonant Palatal
! colspan="2" |
Velar consonant Velar
|-
! style="font-size: 80%; text-align: left;" |
Stop consonant Plosives
| {{IPA|p
pʲ}}
| {{IPA|b
bʲ}}
| colspan="2" |
| {{IPA|t
tʲ}}
| {{IPA|d
dʲ}}
| colspan="2" |
|
| {{IPA|k}}
| {{IPA|É¡}}
|-
! style="font-size: 80%; text-align: left;" |
Affricate consonant Affricates
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| {{IPA|ʦ
}}
|
| {{IPA|
ʨ}}
|
|
| colspan="2" |
|-
! style="font-size: 80%; text-align: left;" |
Fricative consonant Fricatives
| colspan="2" |
| {{IPA|f
fʲ}}
| {{IPA|v
vʲ}}
| {{IPA|s
sʲ}}
| {{IPA|z
zʲ}}
| {{IPA|Ê‚
É•}}
| {{IPA|Ê?
Ê‘}}
|
| {{IPA|x}}
|
|-
! style="font-size: 80%; text-align: left;" |
Nasal consonant Nasals
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|m
mʲ}}
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|n
nʲ}}
| colspan="2" |
|
| colspan="2" |
|-
! style="font-size: 80%; text-align: left;" |
Flap consonant Trills
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|r
rʲ}}
| colspan="2" |
|
| colspan="2" |
|-
! style="font-size: 80%; text-align: left;" |
Approximant consonant Approximants
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|É«
lʲ}}
| colspan="2" |
| {{IPA|j}}
| colspan="2" |
|}
Russian is notable for its distinction based on
palatalization of most of the consonants. While /k/, /g/, /x/ do have palatalized
allophones {{IPA.html">dental consonant
dental, that is pronounced with the tongue against the teeth rather than against the
alveolar ridge.
Grammar
{{main|Russian grammar}}
Russian has preserved an
Indo-European Synthetic language synthetic-
inflection inflexional structure, although considerable levelling has taken place.
Russian grammar encompasses
* a highly
Synthetic language synthetic '''morphology'''
* a '''syntax''' that, for the literary language, is the conscious fusion of three elements:
** a polished
vernacular foundation;
** a
Church Slavonic language Church Slavonic inheritance;
** a
Western Europe Western European style.
The spoken language has been influenced by the literary, but continues to preserve characteristic forms. The dialects show various non-standard grammatical features, some of which are archaisms or descendants of old forms since discarded by the literary language.
Vocabulary
Image:1694 Russian ABC book page.GIF thumb|This page from an "ABC" book printed in Moscow in 1694 shows the letter '''П'''.
See
History of the Russian language for an account of the successive foreign influences on the Russian language.
The total number of words in Russian is difficult to reckon because of the ability to agglutinate and create manifold compounds, diminutives, etc. (see
Russian grammar#Word Formation Word Formation under
Russian grammar).
The number of listed words or entries in some of the major dictionaries published during the last two centuries, and the total vocabulary of
Pushkin (who is credited with greatly augmenting and codifying literary Russian), are as follows:
{| align="center" cellpadding="4" style="text-align:left"
|-
! Work||Year||Words||Notes
|-
|Academic dictionary, I Ed.||1789-1794||43,257||Russian and Church Slavonic with some Old Russian vocabulary
|-
|Academic dictionary, II Ed||1806-1822||51,388||Russian and Church Slavonic with some Old Russian vocabulary
|-
|Pushkin opus||1810-1837||21,197||-
|-
|Academic dictionary, III Ed.||1847||114,749||Russian and Church Slavonic with Old Russian vocabulary
|-
|Dahl's dictionary||1880-1882||195,844||44,000 entries lexically grouped; attempt to catalogue the full vernacular language, includes some properly Ukrainian and Belarusian words
|-
|Ushakov's dictionary||1934-1940||85,289||Current language with some archaisms
|-
|Academic dictionary||1950-1965||120,480||full dictionary of the "Modern language"
|-
|Ozhegov's dictionary||1991||61,458||More or less then-current language
|-
|Lopatin's dictionary||2000||c.160,000||Orthographic, current language
|}
Philologists have estimated that the language today may contain as many as 350,000 to 500,000 words.
(As a historical aside,
Vladimir Ivanovich Dal Dahl was, in the second half of the nineteenth century, still insisting that the proper spelling of the adjective ''руÑ?Ñ?кий'', which was at that time applied uniformly to all the Orthodox Eastern Slavic subjects of the Empire, as well as to its one official language, be spelled ''руÑ?кий'' with one s, in accordance with ancient tradition and what he termed the "spirit of the language". He was contradicted by the philologist Grot, who distinctly heard the s lengthened or doubled).
The language of abuse and invective
''Main article'': '''''
Mat (language)'''''
Apparently, the ability to curse effectively has always been recognized as a form of art not only in certain quarters of society, but even by the more conservative-minded literati. For example, as far back as in the nineteenth-century naval yarns of
Staniukovich, "artistic invective" (''артиÑ?тичеÑ?каÑ? ругань'' {{IPA|/É™r.tʲɪ.ˈsʲtʲi.ʨÉ™.skÉ™.jÉ™ ˈru.É¡É™nʲ/}}) keeps coming out of the sailors' mouths, though it is never spelled out.
The ability to agglutinate has produced the so-called "three-decker curse" (''трёхÑ?тажный мат'' {{IPA|/ˈtrʲo.xɛˈta.Ê?nÉ™j ˈmat/}}).
Proverbs and sayings
''Main article'': '''''
Russian proverbs,
Russian sayings'''''
Russian language is replete with many hundreds of proverbs (''поÑ?ловица'' {{IPA|/pʌ.'slo.vʲi.ʦÉ™/}}) and sayings (''поговоркa'' {{IPA|/pÉ™.É¡ʌ.'vo.rkÉ™/}}). These were already tabulated by the seventeenth century, and collected and studied in the nineteenth and twentieth, with the folk-tales being an especially fertile source.
History and examples
{{main|History of the Russian language}}
''See also'':
Reforms of Russian orthography
The history of Russian language may be divided into the following periods.
*
History of Russian language#Origins Origins
*
History of Russian language#The Kievan period (9th-11th centuries) The Kievan period (9th-11th centuries)
*
History of Russian language#Feudal breakup (12th-14th centuries) Feudal breakup (12th-14th centuries)
*
History of Russian language#The Moscovite period (15th-17th centuries) The Moscovite period (15th-17th centuries)
*
History of Russian language#Empire (18th-19th centuries) Empire (18th-19th centuries)
*
History of Russian language#Soviet period and beyond (20th century) Soviet period and beyond (20th century)
''See also:''
*
History of Russian language#Examples Examples of literary language (12-20th century)
Judging by the historical records, by approximately 1000 AD the predominant ethnic group over much of modern European
Russia,
Ukraine, and
Belarus was the Eastern branch of the
Slavs, speaking a closely related group of dialects. The political unification of this region into
Kievan Rus, from which both modern Russia and Ukraine trace their origins, was soon followed by the adoption of
Christianity in 988-9 and the establishment of
Old Church Slavonic as the liturgical and literary language. Borrowings and calques from Byzantine
Greek language Greek began to enter the vernacular at this time, and simultaneously the literary language began to be modified in its turn to become more nearly Eastern Slavic.
Dialectal differentiation accelerated after the breakup of Kievan Rus' in approximately 1100, and the Mongol conquest of the thirteenth century. After the disestablishment of the "Tartar yoke" in the late fourteenth century, both the political centre and the predominant dialect in European Russia came to be based in
Moscow. There is some consensus that Russian and Ukrainian can be considered distinct languages from this period ''at the latest''. The official language remained a kind of Church Slavonic until the close of the seventeenth century, but, despite attempts at standardization, as by
Meletius Smotrytsky c. 1620, its purity was by then strongly compromised by an incipient secular literature.
The political reforms of
Peter I of Russia Peter the Great were accompanied by a reform of the alphabet, and achieved their goal of secularization and Westernization. Blocks of specialized vocabulary were adopted from the languages of Western Europe. By
1800, a significant portion of the gentry spoke
French language French, less often
German language German, on an everyday basis. The modern literary language is usually considered to date from the time of
Alexander Pushkin in the first third of the nineteenth century.
{{Listen|filename=Ru-Zimniy vecher.ogg|title=Winter Evening|description=Reading of excerpt of Pushkin's "Winter Evening" (Зимний вечер), 1825.|format=
Ogg}}
The political upheavals of the early twentieth century and the wholesale changes of political ideology gave written Russian its modern appearance after the spelling reform of 1918. Political circumstances and Soviet accomplishments in military, scientific, and technological matters (especially cosmonautics), gave Russian a world-wide if occasionally grudging prestige, especially during the middle third of the twentieth century.
Since the collapse of 1990-91, fashion for ways and things Western, economic uncertainties and difficulties within the educational system have made for inevitable rapid change in the language. Russian today is a tongue in great flux.
References
The following serve as references for both this article and the related articles listed below that describe the Russian language:
In English
* {{cite book|title= Introduction to the Phonological History of the Slavic Languages|author=Carleton, T.R.|year=1991|publisher=Slavica Press|location= Columbus, Ohio |}}
* {{cite book|author=Comrie, B., G. Stone, M. Polinsky|title=The Russian Language in the Twentieth Century|edition=2nd ed.|location=Oxford|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1996|}}
*{{cite book|title= The Sounds of the World's Languages|author=
Peter Ladefoged Ladefoged, Peter and
Ian Maddieson Maddieson, Ian|year=1996|publisher= Blackwell Publishers |}}
* {{cite book|author=Matthews, W.K.|title=Russian Historical Grammar|location=London|publisher=University of London, Athlone Press|year=1960}}
* {{cite book|author=Stender-Petersen, A.|title=Anthology of old Russian literature|location=New York|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=1954|}}
In Russian
* ЖуковÑ?каÑ? Л.П., отв. ред. ДревнеруÑ?Ñ?кий литературный Ñ?зык и его отношение к Ñ?тароÑ?лавÑ?нÑ?кому. Ðœ., «Ð?аука», 1987.
* Иванов Ð’.Ð’. ИÑ?торичеÑ?каÑ? грамматика руÑ?Ñ?кого Ñ?зыка. Ðœ., «ПроÑ?вещение», 1990.
* МихельÑ?он Т.Ð?. РаÑ?Ñ?казы руÑ?Ñ?ких летопиÑ?ей XV–XVII веков. Ðœ., 1978.
* Цыганенко Г.П. ÐтимологичеÑ?кий Ñ?ловарь руÑ?Ñ?кого Ñ?зыка, Киев, 1970.
* ШанÑ?кий Ð?.Ðœ., Иванов Ð’.Ð’., ШанÑ?каÑ? Т.Ð’. Краткий Ñ?тимологичеÑ?кий Ñ?ловарь руÑ?Ñ?кого Ñ?зыка. Ðœ. 1961.
* Шицгал Ð?., РуÑ?Ñ?кий гражданÑ?кий шрифт, Ðœ., «ИÑ?Ñ?куÑ?тво», 1958, 2-e изд. 1983.
Many further references are listed in the books above.
See also
Language description
*
Russian alphabet
*
Russian grammar
*
Russian orthography
*
Russian phonology
*
History of the Russian language
Related languages
*
East Slavic languages
*
Church Slavonic language
*
Great Russian language
*
Old Church Slavonic
*
Old Russian language
Other
*
List of Russian language topics
*
List of English words of Russian origin
*
Russian literature
*
Russian humour
*
Russian proverbs
*
Reforms of Russian orthography
*
Transliteration of Russian into English
*
Volapuk encoding
*
Non-native pronunciations of English#Russian Non-native pronunciations of English
*
List of commonly confused homonyms#Russian List of commonly confused homonyms in Russian
*
Common phrases in different languages
*
Runglish
*
Russian Swadesh list Swadesh list of Russian words
External links
{{commonscat|Russian language}}
{{wiktionarycat|type=with '''Russian language''' origins|category=Russian derivations}}
{{InterWiki|code=ru}}
{{Wikibookspar||Russian}}
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Free online Russian lessons
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Free downloadable vocabularies of the Russian language
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Cyrillization of PCs (Russian)
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Russian Language Groups in America
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Vasmer's Etymological Dictionary of Russian language
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"GRAMOTA". An educational/reference site on the Russian language, supported by the Russian government. (In Russian)
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Reference Grammar
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G. Weber, "Top Languages"
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SIL Ethnologue Report for Russian
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ODP Russian Language category
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Russian Language Groups in America
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Multilingual Russian slang dictionaries
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Russian English Dictionary from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition
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Free Open Source Software for Learning Russian
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