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Language

Russian

ROO-skee yi-ZIK

Also Known As русский язык (russkiy yazyk)

Slavic Languages

Russian is an East Slavic language and the most widely spoken Slavic language, serving as the primary language of Russia and a widely used second language across much of the former Soviet Union. It is written in a Cyrillic alphabet distinct in some letterforms from Bulgarian, reflecting reforms carried out under Peter the Great and again after the 1917 revolution.

Facts

ISO 639-3 Code

ru 3

Speaker Count

154,000,000 3

Figure is for first-language speakers. Ethnologues total figure including second-language speakers across the former Soviet Union runs well over 250 million; sources differ on how many former-Soviet second-language speakers to count as fluent.

Status

Living 3

Attested From (Year)

from 901 4

Region

Russia and the wider Russian-speaking world: former Soviet republics, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia; diaspora communities in North America and Israel 2

Classification

Language Kind

Safe 1

Official Status

Official Language 2

Connections

Ancestor Of

Central Russian Dialects

Source Wikipedia: Central Russian Dialects

Northern Russian dialect

The Northern Russian dialect group is one of the two principal geographic dialect divisions of Russian.

Source Wikipedia: Russian Dialects

Southern Russian dialect

The Southern Russian dialect group is one of the two principal geographic dialect divisions of Russian.

Source Wikipedia: Russian Dialects

Associated With

This source names Bulgarian directly: "distinct in some letterforms from Bulgarian, reflecting reforms carried out under Peter the Great and again after the 1917 revolution."

Source The Cambridge Encyclopedia of LanguageDavid Crystal (editor)

Source Fundamentals of LanguageRoman Jakobson And Morris Halle

In Family

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Source The Cambridge Encyclopedia of LanguageDavid Crystal (editor)

Written In

Cyrillic Script

Source Omniglot: The Online Encyclopedia of Writing Systems and Languages

In the Other Atlases

Cases Where Used

Also in Divinity Atlas: used in this subject.

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Also in Divinity Atlas: used in this subject.

Antarctic Treaty

Also in History Atlas: used in this subject.

Charter of the United Nations

Also in History Atlas: used in this subject.

German Instrument of Surrender

Also in History Atlas: used in this subject.

Also in History Atlas: used in this subject.

Lacy-Zarubin Agreement

Also in History Atlas: used in this subject.

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

Also in History Atlas: used in this subject.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

Also in History Atlas: used in this subject.

Outer Space Treaty

Also in History Atlas: used in this subject.

Paris Agreement

Also in History Atlas: used in this subject.

Also in History Atlas: used in this subject.

Treaty of Aigun

Also in History Atlas: used in this subject.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Also in History Atlas: used in this subject.

Treaty of Tlatelolco

Also in History Atlas: used in this subject.

Treaty of Turkmenchay

Also in History Atlas: used in this subject.

Source Treaty of Turkmenchay, WikipediaLead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia article

Quote, Lead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia article

It was second of the series of treaties (the first was the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan and the last, the 1881 Treaty of Akhal) signed between Qajar Iran and Imperial Russia that forced Iran to cede or recognize Russian influence over the territories that formerly were part of Iran.

Also in Society and Culture Atlas: used in this subject.

Original Language Of

The Government Inspector

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

The Lady with the Dog

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

The Master and Margarita

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

The Nose (Gogol)

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

The Twelve Chairs

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

The Winter Queen

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

The Young Guard

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Yevgeny Zamyatin

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Showing 51 to 64 of 64 in Original Language Of, page 2 of 2.

Found In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Sources

1. Glottolog: Russian (Glottolog languoid russ1263)

GlottologEndangerment, AES status

Quote, Endangerment, AES status

AES status: not endangered

View the Source

2. Wikipedia: Russian Language

Wikipedia

infobox
русский (russkiy)
lead section
the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia
Pronunciation
[ˈruskʲɪj jɪˈzɨk]
Official status, Russian entity page
It has remained an official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, has constitutional status as the language of inter-ethnic communication in Tajikistan, and is still used as a lingua franca in Ukraine, Moldova, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and to a lesser extent in the Baltic states and Israel.

View the Source

3. Ethnologue: Languages of the World

SIL International, 2024View the Source

4. Omniglot: Russian language, alphabet and pronunciation

OmniglotLanguage at a glance

Quote, Language at a glance

First written : 10th century AD

View the Source

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language

David Crystal (editor), Cambridge University Press, 2010

Omniglot: The Online Encyclopedia of Writing Systems and Languages

Written In: Cyrillic ScriptView the Source

Fundamentals of Language

Roman Jakobson And Morris Halle, 1956Associated With: Roman Jakobson

Encyclopaedia Britannica

In Family: East SlavicView the Source

Wikipedia: Russian Dialects

Wikimedia Foundation

Ancestor Of: Southern Russian dialect, Article text
Southern, in the western and southern parts of European Russia; this has various types of vowel reduction and fricative /ɣ/; this group makes up a dialect continuum with Belarusian, although it differs significantly from the Ukrainian dialects to the further south, sharing only a few isoglosses (namely the fricative pronunciation of Proto-Slavic *g).
Ancestor Of: Northern Russian dialect, Article text
Depending on the presence or the absence of vowel reduction (akanye and/or ikanye) and the pronunciation of Proto-Slavic *g, Russian is divided into two main dialectical divisions and the intermediate one: Northern, in the northern and north-eastern parts of European Russia, from Veliky Novgorod to the Perm and northern Ural regions; this has no or little vowel reduction in unstressed positions and stop /ɡ/.

View the Source

Wikipedia: Central Russian Dialects

Wikimedia FoundationAncestor Of: Central Russian Dialects, Lead sentence

Quote, Ancestor Of: Central Russian Dialects, Lead sentence

Russian: Среднерусские говоры) is one of the main groups of Russian dialects.

View the Source

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