View source for Russian

'''Russian''' (Russian: русский язык, ''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]].

<small>'''NOTE'''. Russian is written in a non-Latin script. All examples below are in the [[Cyrillic]] alphabet, with transcriptions in [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]].</small>

==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]].

==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]], [[Yugoslavia]], and [[Czechoslovakia]]. 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.

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 [[website]]s regularly publish material in Russian.

Sizeable Russian-speaking communities also exist in [[North America]] (especially in large urban centers of the [[US]] and [[Canada]] such as [[New York City, New York|New York]], [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]], [[San Francisco]], [[Toronto]], [[Miami, Florida|Miami]], and [[Chicago, Illinois|Chicago]]). 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",<br>''Language Monthly'',<br>3: 12-18, 1997, ISSN 1369-9733||160,000,000||8||285,000,000||5
|-
|World Almanac (1999)||145,000,000||8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(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. "булошная" (''buloshnaya'' - bakery) instead of "булочная" (''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|/ɡ/}} 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|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'' (''Диалектологический атлас русского языка'' {{IPA|/dʲəʌˈlʲektəlʌˈɡʲiʨəskʲəj ˈatləs ˈruskəvə jəzɨˈka/}}), was published in 3 folio volumes 1986-1989, after four decades of preparatory work.

The ''standard language'' is based on 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]].
* [[Runglish]]: Russian-English pidgin.

==Writing system==

===Alphabet===
[[Image:Meletius Smotrisky Cyrillic Alphabet.PNG|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)|А]]<br>{{IPA|/a/}}||[[Be (Cyrillic)|Б]]<br>{{IPA|/b/}}||[[Ve (Cyrillic)|В]]<br>{{IPA|/v/}}||[[Ge (Cyrillic)|Г]]<br>{{IPA|/ɡ/}}||[[De (Cyrillic)|Д]]<br>{{IPA|/d/}}||[[Ye (Cyrillic)|Е]]<br>{{IPA|/jɛ/}}||[[Yo (Cyrillic)|Ё]]<br>{{IPA|/jo/}}||[[Zhe (Cyrillic)|Ж]]<br>{{IPA|/ʐ/}}||[[Ze (Cyrillic)|З]]<br>{{IPA|/z/}}||[[I (Cyrillic)|И]]<br>{{IPA|/i/}}||[[Short I|Й]]<br>{{IPA|/j/}}
|-
|[[Ka (Cyrillic)|К]]<br>{{IPA|/k/}}||[[El (Cyrillic)|Л]]<br>{{IPA|/l/}}||[[Em (Cyrillic)|М]]<br>{{IPA|/m/}}||[[En (Cyrillic)|Н]]<br>{{IPA|/n/}}||[[O (Cyrillic)|О]]<br>{{IPA|/o/}}||[[Pe (Cyrillic)|П]]<br>{{IPA|/p/}}||[[Er (Cyrillic)|Р]]<br>{{IPA|/r/}}||[[Es (Cyrillic)|С]]<br>{{IPA|/s/}}||[[Te (Cyrillic)|Т]]<br>{{IPA|/t/}}||[[U (Cyrillic)|У]]<br>{{IPA|/u/}}||[[Ef (Cyrillic)|Ф]]<br>{{IPA|/f/}}
|-
|[[Kha (Cyrillic)|Х]]<br>{{IPA|/x/}}||[[Tse (Cyrillic)|Ц]]<br>{{IPA|/ʦ/}}||[[Che (Cyrillic)|Ч]]<br>{{IPA|/ʨ/}}||[[Sha|Ш]]<br>{{IPA|/ʂ/}}||[[Shcha|Щ]] <br>{{IPA|/ɕː/}}||[[Hard sign|Ъ]]<br>{{IPA|/◌ˠ/}}||[[Yery|Ы]]<br> {{IPA|/ɨ/}}||[[Soft sign|Ь]]<br>{{IPA|/◌ʲ/}}||[[E (Cyrillic)|Э]]<br>{{IPA|/ɛ/}}||[[Yu (Cyrillic)|Ю]]<br>{{IPA|/ju/}}||[[Ya (letter)|Я]]<br>{{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 [[Yer|yers]] '''ъ''' and '''ь''' were originally pronounced as ''ultra-short'' or ''reduced'' {{IPA|/ŭ/}}, {{IPA|/ĭ/}}.

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]].

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%;"
| &nbsp;
! colspan="2" | [[Bilabial consonant|Bilabial]]
! colspan="2" | [[Labiodental consonant|Labio<br>dental]]
! colspan="2" | [[Dental consonant|Dental]] &<br>[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! colspan="2" | [[Postalveolar consonant|Post-<br>alveolar]]
! [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! colspan="2" | [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
|-
! style="font-size: 80%; text-align: left;" | [[Stop consonant|Plosives]]
| {{IPA|p<br>pʲ}}
| {{IPA|b<br>bʲ}}
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
| {{IPA|t<br>tʲ}}
| {{IPA|d<br>dʲ}}
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
|
| {{IPA|k}}
| {{IPA|ɡ}}
|-
! style="font-size: 80%; text-align: left;" | [[Affricate consonant|Affricates]]
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
| {{IPA|ʦ<br>&nbsp;}}
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|&nbsp;<br>ʨ}}
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
|-
! style="font-size: 80%; text-align: left;" | [[Fricative consonant|Fricatives]]
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
| {{IPA|f<br>fʲ}}
| {{IPA|v<br>vʲ}}
| {{IPA|s<br>sʲ}}
| {{IPA|z<br>zʲ}}
| {{IPA|ʂ<br>ɕ}}
| {{IPA|ʐ<br>ʑ}}
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|x}}
| &nbsp;
|-
! style="font-size: 80%; text-align: left;" | [[Nasal consonant|Nasals]]
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|m<br>mʲ}}
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|n<br>nʲ}}
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
|-
! style="font-size: 80%; text-align: left;" | [[Flap consonant|Trills]]
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|r<br>rʲ}}
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
|-
! style="font-size: 80%; text-align: left;" | [[Approximant consonant|Approximants]]
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|ɫ<br>lʲ}}
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
| {{IPA|j}}
| colspan="2" | &nbsp;
|}

Russian is notable for its distinction based on [[palatalization]] of most of the consonants. While /k/, /g/, /x/ do have palatalized [[allophone]]s {{IPA|[kʲ, gʲ, xʲ]}}, only {{IPA|/kʲ/}} might be considered a phoneme, though it is marginal and generally not considered distinctive. Palatalization means that the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant. In the case of {{IPA|/tʲ/ and /dʲ/}}, the tongue is raised enough to produce slight frication (affricate sounds). {{IPA|/t, d, ʦ, s, z, n and r/)}} are [[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 ''русский'', 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 ''руский'' 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" (''артистическая ругань'' {{IPA|/ər.t&#690;&#618;.&#712;s&#690;t&#690;i.&#680;ə.skə.jə &#712;ru.ɡən&#690;/}}) 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" (''трёхэтажный мат'' {{IPA|/&#712;tr&#690;o.x&#603;&#712;ta.ʐnəj &#712;mat/}}).

===Proverbs and sayings ===
''Main article'': '''''[[Russian proverbs]], [[Russian sayings]]'''''

Russian language is replete with many hundreds of proverbs (''пословица'' {{IPA|/p&#652;.'slo.v&#690;i.&#678;ə/}}) and sayings  (''поговоркa'' {{IPA|/pə.ɡ&#652;.'vo.rkə/}}). 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.&nbsp;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===

* Жуковская Л.П., отв. ред. Древнерусский литературный язык и его отношение к старославянскому. М., «Наука», 1987.
* Иванов В.В. Историческая грамматика русского языка. М., «Просвещение», 1990.
* Михельсон Т.Н. Рассказы русских летописей XV&ndash;XVII веков. М., 1978.
* Цыганенко Г.П. Этимологический словарь русского языка, Киев, 1970.
* Шанский Н.М., Иванов В.В., Шанская Т.В. Краткий этимологический словарь русского языка. М. 1961. 
* Шицгал А., Русский гражданский шрифт, М., «Исскуство», 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]] <!-- let it live here while non-empty -->
*[[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]]

==External links==
{{commonscat|Russian language}}
{{wiktionarycat|type=with '''Russian language''' origins|category=Russian derivations}}
{{wiktionarypar|Russian}}
{{InterWiki|code=ru}}
{{Wikibookspar||Russian}}
* [http://www.russianlessons.net/ Free online Russian lessons]
* [http://www.masterrussian.com/ Russian language lessons, dictionaries, alphabet, pronunciation, grammar.]
* [http://www.speakrus.ru/dict/ Free downloadable vocabularies of the Russian language]
* [http://RusWin.net Cyrillization of PCs (Russian)]
* [http://www.masterrussian.net/ Russian Langauge Forum]
* [http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/query.cgi?root=/usr/local/share/starling/morpho&morpho=1&basename=\usr\local\share\starling\morpho\vasmer\vasmer Vasmer's Etymological Dictionary of Russian language]
* [http://www.gramota.ru "GRAMOTA". An educational/reference site on the Russian language, supported by the Russian government. (In Russian)]
* [http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/language/ Reference Grammar]
* [http://www.andaman.org/book/reprints/weber/rep-weber.htm G. Weber, "Top Languages"]
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=rus SIL Ethnologue Report for Russian]
* [http://dmoz.org/Science/Social_Sciences/Linguistics/Languages/Natural/Indo-European/Slavic/Russian/ ODP Russian Language category]
* [http://www.orlandorussians.com/ Russian Language Groups in America]
* [http://www.russki-mat.net/ Multilingual Russian slang dictionaries]
* [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Russian-english/  Russian English Dictionary] from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition
* [http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tanooshka/tanooshka-bin.zip?download Free Open Source Software for Learning Russian]

{{wikipedia}} [[Wikipedia:Russian language]]

[[Category:Slavic natlangs]]