View source for Social:Russian language

{{short description|East Slavic language}}
{{pp-move}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Russian
| states           = {{wipe|Russia}}, other areas of the Russian-speaking world
| nativename       = {{lang|ru|русский язык}}{{efn|On the history of using "русский" ("''russkiy''") and "российский" ("''rossiyskiy''") as the Russian adjectives denoting "Russian", see: Oleg Trubachyov. 2005. Русский&nbsp;– Российский. История, динамика, идеология двух атрибутов нации (pp. 216–227). В поисках единства. Взгляд филолога на проблему истоков Руси., 2005. {{cite web|url=http://krotov.info/libr_min/19_t/ru/bachev.htm|access-date=January 25, 2014|language=ru|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140218214456/http://krotov.info/libr_min/19_t/ru/bachev.htm|archive-date=February 18, 2014|script-title=ru:РУССКИЙ – РОССИЙСКИЙ}}. On the 1830s change in the Russian name of the Russian language and its causes, see: Tomasz Kamusella. 2012. The Change of the Name of the Russian Language in Russian from Rossiiskii to Russkii: Did Politics Have Anything to Do with It? (pp.&nbsp;73–96). ''Acta Slavica Iaponica''. Vol 32, {{cite web|url=http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/publictn/acta/32/04Kamusella.pdf|title=The Change of the Name of the Russian Language in Russian from Rossiiskii to Russkii: Did Politics Have Anything to Do with It?|access-date=January 7, 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130518165147/http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/publictn/acta/32/04Kamusella.pdf|archive-date=May 18, 2013}}}}<br/>
| pronunciation    = {{IPA-ru|ˈruskʲɪi̯ jɪˈzɨk||Ru-russkiy jizyk.ogg}}
| region           = 
| ethnicity        = 
| speakers         = L1: {{Significant figures|146.9|2}} million
| date             = 2020 census
| ref              = e26
| speakers2        = L2: {{Significant figures|107.9|2}} million (2020 census)<ref name=e26/>
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = Balto-Slavic
| fam3             = [[Social:Slavic languages|Slavic]]
| fam4             = [[Social:East Slavic languages|East Slavic]]
| ancestor         = [[Social:Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]]
| ancestor2        = [[Social:Proto-Balto-Slavic language|Proto-Balto-Slavic]]
| ancestor3        = [[Social:Proto-Slavic language|Proto-Slavic]]
| ancestor4        = Old East Slavic
| script           = [[Social:Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]] ([[Social:Russian alphabet|Russian alphabet]])<br/>Russian Braille
| nation           = {{Collapsible list |titlestyle=font-weight:normal; background:transparent; text-align:left;|title=5 UN member states|
|
*{{flag|Russia}} <small>(state)</small><ref name=RusConst>{{cite web |url=http://www.constitution.ru/en/10003000-01.htm |title=Article 68. Constitution of the Russian Federation |website=Constitution.ru |access-date=June 18, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606071041/http://www.constitution.ru/en/10003000-01.htm |archive-date=June 6, 2013}}</ref>
*{{flag|Belarus}} <small>(co-official)</small><ref name=Belarus>{{cite web |url=http://president.gov.by/en/press19329.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070502115338/http://president.gov.by/en/press19329.html|archive-date=May 2, 2007 |title=Article 17. Constitution of the Republic of Belarus |website=President.gov.by |date=May 11, 1998 |access-date=June 18, 2013}}</ref>
*{{flag|Kazakhstan}} <small>(co-official)</small><ref name=Kazakhstan>{{cite web |first=N. |last=Nazarbaev
|url=http://www.constcouncil.kz/eng/norpb/constrk/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071020060732/http://www.constcouncil.kz/eng/norpb/constrk/ |archive-date=October 20, 2007 |title=Article 7. Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan |website=Constcouncil.kz |date=December 4, 2005 |access-date=June 18, 2013}}</ref><br/>
*{{flag|Kyrgyzstan}} <small>(co-official)</small><ref name=Kyrgyzstan>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.kg/ky|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222125830/http://www.gov.kg/?page_id=263|url-status=dead|title=Официальный сайт Правительства КР|archive-date=December 22, 2012|website=Gov.kg|access-date=February 16, 2020}}</ref>
*{{flag|Tajikistan}} <small>(as inter-ethnic language designated by the constitution)</small><ref>{{cite web |title=КОНСТИТУЦИЯ РЕСПУБЛИКИ ТАДЖИКИСТАН |url=http://prokuratura.tj/ru/legislation/the-constitution-of-the-republic-of-tajikistan.html |website=prokuratura.tj |publisher=Parliament of Tajikistan |access-date=January 9, 2020 |archive-date=February 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224035434/http://prokuratura.tj/ru/legislation/the-constitution-of-the-republic-of-tajikistan.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
}}

<br />{{Collapsible list |titlestyle=font-weight:normal; background:transparent; text-align:left;|title=As inter-ethnic language but with no official status, or as official on regional level|
*{{flag|Uzbekistan}}{{efn|Under the laws of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Russian language is not offered any status in terms of official language. The provisions only state that "Under request of citizens the text of document compiled by state notary or person acting as a notary shall be issued on Russian and if possible on other acceptable language" {{cite web |url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b4d328.html |title=Uzbekistan: Law "On Official Language" |access-date=November 13, 2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190508060700/https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b4d328.html |archive-date=May 8, 2019}}}} <small>(as inter-ethnic language despite having no ''de jure'' status)</small><ref name="AA">{{cite web |author=Юрий Подпоренко |title=Бесправен, но востребован. Русский язык в Узбекистане |url=http://mytashkent.uz/2015/04/27/bespraven-no-vostrebovan-russkij-yazyk-v-uzbekistane/ |year=2001 |publisher=Дружба Народов |access-date=May 27, 2016 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513012627/http://mytashkent.uz/2015/04/27/bespraven-no-vostrebovan-russkij-yazyk-v-uzbekistane/ |archive-date=May 13, 2016}}</ref><ref name="Шухрат Хуррамов">{{cite web|author=Шухрат Хуррамов|title=Почему русский язык нужен узбекам? |url=http://365info.kz/2015/09/russkij-yazyk-v-uzbekistane/|date=September 11, 2015 |website=365info.kz |access-date=May 27, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701175737/http://365info.kz/2015/09/russkij-yazyk-v-uzbekistane/ |archive-date=July 1, 2016}}</ref><ref name="AB">{{cite web |author=Евгений Абдуллаев |title=Русский язык: жизнь после смерти. Язык, политика и общество в современном Узбекистане |url=http://magazines.russ.ru/nz/2009/4/ab21.html |year=2009 |publisher=Неприкосновенный запас |access-date=May 27, 2016|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623201807/http://magazines.russ.ru/nz/2009/4/ab21.html|archive-date=June 23, 2016}}</ref>
*{{flag|Moldova}}:
** {{flag|Gagauzia}} <small>(co-official)</small><ref name=Gagauzia>{{cite web |url=http://www.gagauzia.md/pageview.php?l=en&idc=389&id=240 |title=Article 16. Legal code of Gagauzia (Gagauz-Yeri) |website=Gagauzia.md |date=August 5, 2008 |access-date=June 18, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513170728/http://www.gagauzia.md/pageview.php?l=en&idc=389&id=240 |archive-date=May 13, 2013}}</ref>
** Left Bank of the Dniester <small>(co-official)</small>
*{{flag|Ukraine}}:
** {{flag|Autonomous Republic of Crimea}}{{efn|The status of Crimea and of the city of Sevastopol is under dispute between Russia and Ukraine since March 2014; Ukraine and the majority of the international community consider Crimea to be an autonomous republic of Ukraine and Sevastopol to be one of Ukraine's cities with special status, whereas Russia, on the other hand, considers Crimea to be a federal subject of Russia and Sevastopol to be one of Russia's three federal cities}}}}

<br />{{Collapsible list |titlestyle=font-weight:normal; background:transparent; text-align:left;|title=Partially recognized states|

*{{flag|Abkhazia}}{{efn|Abkhazia and South Ossetia are only partially recognized countries.|name=AbkhaziaSouthOssetia}} <small>(co-official)</small><ref name=Abkhazia>{{Cite web|url=http://www.abkhaziagov.org/ru/state/sovereignty|title=Конституция Республики Абхазия|date=January 18, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090118213155/http://www.abkhaziagov.org/ru/state/sovereignty|access-date=February 16, 2020|archive-date=January 18, 2009}}</ref>
*{{flag|South Ossetia}}{{efn|name=AbkhaziaSouthOssetia}} <small>(co-official)</small><ref name=Ossetia>{{cite web |url=http://cominf.org/node/1127818105 |date=August 11, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090811021536/http://cominf.org/node/1127818105 |title=КОНСТИТУЦИЯ РЕСПУБЛИКИ ЮЖНАЯ ОСЕТИЯ |trans-title=Constitution of the Republic of South Ossetia |access-date=April 5, 2021 |archive-date=August 11, 2009}}</ref>
*{{flag|Transnistria}} <small>(state)</small><ref name="Law of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic on the Functioning of Languages on the Territory of the Moldavian SSR">{{cite web |url=http://usefoundation.org/view/436 |title=Law of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic on the Functioning of Languages on the Territory of the Moldavian SSR |publisher=U.S. English Foundation Research |date=2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160921034927/http://usefoundation.org/view/436 |archive-date=September 21, 2016 }}</ref>}}

<br />{{Collapsible list |titlestyle=font-weight:normal; background:transparent; text-align:left;|title=Organizations|
{{flag|United Nations}}:
* [[Organization:International Atomic Energy Agency|IAEA]]
* ICAO
* [[Organization:UNESCO|UNESCO]]
* [[Organization:World Health Organization|WHO]]
CIS<br/>
[[Finance:Eurasian Economic Union|EAEU]]<br/>
CSTO<br/>
SCO<br/>
[[Organization:Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe|OSCE]]<br/>
ATS<br/>
[[Organization:International Organization for Standardization|ISO]]}}
| minority         = {{collapsible list|
{{flag|Romania}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=RO |title=Romania : Languages of Romania |website=Ethnologue.com |date=February 19, 1999 |access-date=2016-01-28 |archive-date=January 31, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130131170434/http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=RO |url-status=live }}</ref><br/>
{{flag|Armenia}}<ref name=No148>{{cite web |url=http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/ListeDeclarations.asp?NT=148&CM=8&DF=23/01/05&CL=ENG&VL=1 |title=List of declarations made with respect to treaty No. 148 (Status as of: 21/9/2011) |publisher=Council of Europe |access-date=May 22, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120522083136/http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/ListeDeclarations.asp?NT=148&CM=8&DF=23%2F01%2F05&CL=ENG&VL=1 |archive-date=May 22, 2012}}</ref><br/>
{{flag|Czech Republic}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vlada.cz/en/pracovni-a-poradni-organy-vlady/rnm/historie-a-soucasnost-rady-en-16666/ |title=National Minorities Policy of the Government of the Czech Republic |publisher=Vlada.cz |access-date=May 22, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120607051111/http://www.vlada.cz/en/pracovni-a-poradni-organy-vlady/rnm/historie-a-soucasnost-rady-en-16666/ |archive-date=June 7, 2012}}</ref><br/>
{{flag|Slovakia}}<ref name=No148/><br/>
{{flag|Moldova}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://deschide.md/ro/stiri/politic/78929/Pre%C8%99edintele-CCM-Constitu%C8%9Bia-nu-confer%C4%83-limbii-ruse-un-statut-deosebit-de-cel-al-altor-limbi-minoritare.htm |title=Președintele CCM: Constituția nu conferă limbii ruse un statut deosebit de cel al altor limbi minoritare |publisher=Deschide.md |access-date=January 22, 2021 |archive-date=January 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129050215/https://deschide.md/ro/stiri/politic/78929/Pre%C8%99edintele-CCM-Constitu%C8%9Bia-nu-confer%C4%83-limbii-ruse-un-statut-deosebit-de-cel-al-altor-limbi-minoritare.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><br/>
{{flag|Ukraine}}<ref name="UAConstitution">[http://www.rada.gov.ua/const/conengl.htm#r1 Article 10] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521190059/http://www.rada.gov.ua/const/conengl.htm |date=May 21, 2011}} of the Constitution says: "The state language of Ukraine is the Ukrainian language. The State ensures the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of social life throughout the entire territory of Ukraine. In Ukraine, the free development, use and protection of Russian, and other languages of national minorities of Ukraine, is guaranteed."</ref><br/>
{{flag|China}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fujian.gov.cn/hdjl/hdjlzsk/mzzjt/mz/202209/t20220913_5991001.htm|title=少数民族的语言文字有哪些？|language=zh|website=fujian.gov.cn|date=13 September 2022|access-date=28 October 2022|author=Ethnic Groups and Religious department, Fujian Provincial Government|archive-date=October 28, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221028081421/http://fujian.gov.cn/hdjl/hdjlzsk/mzzjt/mz/202209/t20220913_5991001.htm|url-status=live|quote="我国已正式使用和经国家批准推行的少数民族文字有19种，它们是...俄罗斯文..."}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_sjzl/wenzi/202108/t20210827_554992.html|title=中国语言文字概况（2021年版）|language=zh|website=moe.gov.cn|date=27 August 2021|access-date=18 December 2023|author=Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China|quote="...属于印欧语系的是属斯拉夫语族的俄语..."|archive-date=January 4, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240104031557/http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_sjzl/wenzi/202108/t20210827_554992.html|url-status=live}}</ref><br/>
}}
| agency           = [[Organization:Russian Language Institute|Russian Language Institute]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ruslang.ru/agens.php?id=aims |title=Russian Language Institute |website=Ruslang.ru |access-date=May 16, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100719234135/http://www.ruslang.ru/agens.php?id=aims |archive-date=July 19, 2010}}</ref> at the Russian Academy of Sciences
| iso1             = ru
| iso2             = rus
| iso3             = rus
| lingua           = 53-AAA-ea < [[Social:East Slavic languages|53-AAA-e]]<br/>(varieties: 53-AAA-eaa to 53-AAA-eat)
| image            = 
| map              = GeographicalExtentOfRussianLanguage.png
| mapsize          = 
| mapcaption       = {{Legend inline|#0080ff|Russian is a majority language}}<br />
{{Legend inline|#88c4ff|Russian is a minority language}}<br />
{{Legend inline|#4488ca|Russian is a spoken language}}<br />
| notice           = [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]
| glotto           = russ1263
| glottorefname    = Russian
| map2             = 
| mapcaption2      = 
}}

'''Russian'''{{Efn|{{lang-rus|Русский язык|Russkiy jazyk|ˈruskʲɪj jɪˈzɨk}}}} is an [[Social:East Slavic languages|East Slavic language]], spoken primarily in {{wipe|Russia}}. It is the [[Social:First language|native language]] of the Russians and belongs to the [[Social:Indo-European languages|Indo-European language family]]. It is one of four living East Slavic languages,{{efn|Including [[Social:Rusyn language|Rusyn]], which is sometimes classified as a [[Social:Dialect|dialect]] of [[Social:Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] in Ukraine.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Magocsi|first=Paul Robert|title=Language and National Survival|volume=44|number=1|journal=Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas|publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag|pages=83–85|date=1996|jstor=41049661}}</ref>}} and is also a part of the larger Balto-Slavic languages. It was the ''de facto'' and ''de jure''<ref name=":1">Since 1990</ref> official language of the former [[Place:Soviet Union|Soviet Union]].<ref name="USSR">Constitution and Fundamental Law of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1977: Section II, Chapter 6, Article 36</ref> Russian has remained an official language in independent {{wipe|Russia}}, {{wipe|Belarus}}, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, and is still commonly used as a lingua franca in {{wipe|Ukraine}}, Moldova, the [[Earth:Caucasus|Caucasus]], [[Place:Central Asia|Central Asia]], and to a lesser extent in the [[Place:Baltic states|Baltic states]] and Israel.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/109228/russian-language-enjoying-boost-postsoviet-states.aspx|title=Russian Language Enjoying a Boost in Post-Soviet States|publisher=Gallup |date=August 1, 2008|access-date=May 16, 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100518073110/http://www.gallup.com/poll/109228/Russian-Language-Enjoying-Boost-PostSoviet-States.aspx|archive-date=May 18, 2010}}</ref><ref name="demoscope">{{cite journal|last=Арефьев|first=Александр|script-title=ru:Падение статуса русского языка на постсоветском пространстве|journal=Демоскоп Weekly|year=2006|issue=251|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2006/0251/tema01.php|language=ru|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130308114703/http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2006/0251/tema01.php|archive-date=March 8, 2013}}</ref>{{sfn|Spolsky|Shohamy|1999|p=236}}{{sfn|Isurin|2011|p=13}} It is also one of the six official languages of {{wipe|United Nations}}.<ref>{{cite web | last=| first=| title=Official Languages | publisher=United Nations | url=https://www.un.org/en/our-work/official-languages | access-date=2024-01-05| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105190533/https://www.un.org/en/our-work/official-languages| archive-date=2024-01-05}}</ref>

[[File:WIKITONGUES- Amir speaking Russian and Hebrew.webm|thumb|Amir, a speaker of Russian and Hebrew]]

Russian has over 258 million total speakers worldwide.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/rus|title=Russian|publisher=Ethnologue|access-date=August 10, 2020|archive-date=February 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210223132915/https://www.ethnologue.com/language/rus|url-status=live}}</ref> It is the most spoken [[Social:Slavic languages|Slavic language]],<ref name="language"/> and the most spoken [[Social:First language|native language]] in Europe,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tandem.net/10-most-spoken-languages-europe|title=The 10 Most Spoken Languages in Europe|work=[[Software:Tandem (app)|Tandem]]|date=September 12, 2019|access-date=May 31, 2021|archive-date=June 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602215325/https://www.tandem.net/10-most-spoken-languages-europe|url-status=live}}</ref> as well as the most geographically widespread language of [[Earth:Eurasia|Eurasia]].<ref name="language">{{cite web|url=https://learn.utoronto.ca/programs-courses/languages-and-translation/language-learning/russian|title=Russian|publisher=[[Organization:University of Toronto|University of Toronto]]|quote="Russian is the most widespread of the Slavic languages and the largest native language in Europe. Of great political importance, it is one of the official languages of the United Nations – making it a natural area of study for those interested in geopolitics."|access-date=July 9, 2021|archive-date=June 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190628022427/https://learn.utoronto.ca/programs-courses/languages-and-translation/language-learning/russian|url-status=live}}</ref> It is the world's seventh-most spoken language by number of native speakers, and the world's ninth-most spoken language by total number of speakers.<ref>{{cite web |title=The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages |url=http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm |website=Saint Ignatius High School |access-date=February 17, 2012 |location=Cleveland, Ohio |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927062910/http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm |archive-date=September 27, 2011}}</ref> Russian is one of two official languages aboard the [[Astronomy:International Space Station|International Space Station]],<ref>{{cite web|last=Wakata|first=Koichi|url=https://global.jaxa.jp/article/special/expedition/wakata01_e.html|title=My Long Mission in Space|publisher=[[Organization:JAXA|JAXA]]|quote="The official languages on the ISS are English and Russian, and when I was speaking with the Flight Control Room at JAXA's Tsukuba Space Center during ISS systems and payload operations, I was required to speak in either English or Russian."|access-date=July 18, 2021|archive-date=April 26, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140426232353/https://global.jaxa.jp/article/special/expedition/wakata01_e.html|url-status=live}}</ref> as well as one of the six official languages of the United Nations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/en/our-work/official-languages|title=Official Languages|publisher=United Nations|quote="There are six official languages of the UN. These are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. The correct interpretation and translation of these six languages, in both spoken and written form, is very important to the work of the Organization, because this enables clear and concise communication on issues of global importance."|access-date=July 16, 2021|archive-date=July 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713075145/https://www.un.org/en/our-work/official-languages|url-status=live}}</ref>

Russian is written using the [[Social:Russian alphabet|Russian alphabet]] of the [[Social:Cyrillic script|Cyrillic script]]; it distinguishes between consonant [[Social:Phoneme|phoneme]]s with palatal secondary articulation and those without—the so-called "soft" and "hard" sounds. Almost every consonant has a hard or soft counterpart, and the distinction is a prominent feature of the language. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Stress, which is often unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically,{{sfn|Timberlake|2004|p=17}} though an optional acute accent may be used to mark stress – such as to distinguish between homographic words (e.g. {{lang|ru|замо́к}} [{{Lang|ru-latn|zamók}}, 'lock'] and {{lang|ru|за́мок}} [{{Lang|ru-latn|zámok}}, 'castle']), or to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names.

== Classification ==
Russian is an East Slavic language of the wider [[Social:Indo-European languages|Indo-European family]]. It is a descendant of Old East Slavic, a language used in [[Place:Kievan Rus'|Kievan Rus']], which was a loose conglomerate of East Slavic tribes from the late 9th to the mid-13th centuries. From the point of view of [[Social:Spoken language|spoken language]], its closest relatives are [[Social:Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], [[Social:Belarusian language|Belarusian]], and [[Social:Rusyn language|Rusyn]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Most similar languages to Russian |url=http://www.ezglot.com/most-similar-languages.php?l=rus |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525141518/http://www.ezglot.com/most-similar-languages.php?l=rus |archive-date=May 25, 2017}}</ref> the other three languages in the East Slavic branch. In many places in eastern and southern Ukraine and throughout Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably, and in certain areas traditional bilingualism resulted in language mixtures such as Surzhyk in eastern Ukraine and Trasianka in Belarus. An East Slavic [[Social:Old Novgorod dialect|Old Novgorod dialect]], although it vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is sometimes considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. Also, Russian has notable lexical similarities with [[Social:Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] due to a common Church Slavonic influence on both languages, but because of later interaction in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bulgarian grammar differs markedly from Russian.{{sfn|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|pp=477–478, 480}} In the 19th century (in Russia until 1917), the language was often called "Great Russian" to distinguish it from [[Social:Belarusian language|Belarusian]], which was then called "White Russian", and [[Social:Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], then called "Little Russian" in the Russian Empire.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

The vocabulary (mainly abstract and literary words), principles of [[Social:Word formation|word formation]]s, and, to some extent, inflections and literary style of Russian have been also influenced by Church Slavonic, a developed and partly Russified form of the South Slavic [[Social:Old Church Slavonic|Old Church Slavonic]] language used by the [[Religion:Russian Orthodox Church|Russian Orthodox Church]]. However, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively 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 many different meanings.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Over the course of centuries, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have also been influenced by Western and Central European languages such as Greek, [[Social:Latin|Latin]], [[Social:Polish language|Polish]], [[Social:Dutch language|Dutch]], German, French, Italian, and English,<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Russian Language |first=Ellis Hovell |last=Minns |volume=23 |pages=912–914}}</ref> and to a lesser extent the languages to the south and the east: [[Social:Uralic languages|Uralic]], [[Social:Turkic languages|Turkic]],<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Turkic Languages of Central Asia: Problems of Planned Culture Contact by Stefan Wurm |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=392–394 |jstor=610442 |last=Waterson |first=Natalie |year=1955 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X00111954}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/491-0102/491-0102-GOUSKOVA-0-0.PDF |title=Falling Sonoroty Onsets, Loanwords, and Syllable contact |access-date=May 4, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150505092913/http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/491-0102/491-0102-GOUSKOVA-0-0.PDF |archive-date=May 5, 2015}}</ref> [[Social:Persian language|Persian]],<ref>{{cite web |author1=Aliyeh Kord Zafaranlu Kambuziya |author2=Eftekhar Sadat Hashemi |url=http://roa.rutgers.edu/content/article/files/1317_hashemi_1.pdf|title=Russian Loanword Adoptation in Persian; Optimal Approach |website=roa.rutgers.edu |year=2010 |access-date=May 4, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150505092721/http://roa.rutgers.edu/content/article/files/1317_hashemi_1.pdf |archive-date=May 5, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Iraj Bashiri |url=https://www.academia.edu/10442551|title=Russian Loanwords in Persian and Tajiki Language |website=academia.edu |year=1990|access-date=May 4, 2015|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160530193133/http://www.academia.edu/10442551/Russian_Loanwords_in_Persian_and_Tajiki_Languages |archive-date=May 30, 2016}}</ref> [[Social:Arabic|Arabic]], and [[Social:Hebrew language|Hebrew]].<ref>Colin Baker, Sylvia Prys Jones [https://books.google.com/books?id=YgtSqB9oqDIC&dq=russian+loanwords+in+hebrew&pg=PA219 ''Encyclopedia of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320151848/https://books.google.com/books?id=YgtSqB9oqDIC&pg=PA219&dq=russian+loanwords+in+hebrew&hl=nl&sa=X&ei=Y75GVbmtKomuUe25gbAJ&ved=0CEEQ6AEwAw |date=March 20, 2018}} pp 219 Multilingual Matters, 1998 {{ISBN|1-85359-362-1}}</ref>

According to the [[Organization:Defense Language Institute|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 1,100 hours of immersion instruction to achieve intermediate fluency.<ref>{{cite web|last=Thompson|first=Irene|title=Language Learning Difficulty|url=http://aboutworldlanguages.com/language-difficulty|url-status=live|archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20140527094808/http://aboutworldlanguages.com/language-difficulty|archive-date=May 27, 2014|access-date=May 25, 2014|website=mustgo}}</ref> 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 and its critical role in U.S. world policy.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

== Standard Russian ==
	
Feudal divisions and conflicts created obstacles between the Russian principalities before and especially during Mongol rule. This strengthened dialectal differences, and for a while, prevented the emergence of a standardized national language. The formation of the unified and centralized Russian state in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the gradual re-emergence of a common political, economic, and cultural space created the need for a common standard language. The initial impulse for standardization came from the government bureaucracy for the lack of a reliable tool of communication in administrative, legal, and judicial affairs became an obvious practical problem. The earliest attempts at standardizing Russian were made based on the so-called Moscow official or chancery language, during the 15th to 17th centuries.<ref name=":0"/> Since then, the trend of language policy in Russia has been standardization in both the restricted sense of reducing dialectical barriers between ethnic Russians, and the broader sense of expanding the use of Russian alongside or in favour of other languages.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|last=Kadochnikov|first=Denis V.|title=Languages, Regional Conflicts and Economic Development: Russia|date=2016|url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-1-137-32505-1_20|work=The Palgrave Handbook of Economics and Language|pages=538–580|editor-last=Ginsburgh|editor-first=Victor|place=London|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-1-137-32505-1_20|isbn=978-1-349-67307-0|access-date=2021-02-16|editor2-last=Weber|editor2-first=Shlomo|archive-date=January 22, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240122222530/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-137-32505-1_20|url-status=live}}</ref>

The current standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the ''modern Russian literary language'' ({{lang|ru|современный русский литературный язык}} – "sovremenny russky literaturny yazyk"). It arose at the beginning of the 18th century with the modernization reforms of the Russian state under the rule of Peter the Great and developed from the Moscow (Middle or Central Russian) dialect substratum under the influence of some of the previous century's Russian chancery language.<ref name=":0" />

[[Biography:Mikhail Lomonosov|Mikhail Lomonosov]] compiled the first book of Russian grammar aimed at standardization in 1755. The [[Organization:Russian Academy|Russian Academy]]'s first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared in 1783. In the 18th and late 19th centuries, a period known as the "Golden Age" of Russian Literature, the grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation of the Russian language in a standardized literary form emerged.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Prior to the Bolshevik Revolution, the spoken form of the Russian language was that of the nobility and the urban bourgeoisie. Russian peasants, the great majority of the population, continued to speak in their own dialects. However, the peasants' speech was never systematically studied, as it was generally regarded by philologists as simply a source of folklore and an object of curiosity.<ref>Nakhimovsky,&nbsp;A.&nbsp;D.&nbsp;(2019).&nbsp;''The Language of Russian Peasants in the Twentieth Century: A Linguistic Analysis and Oral History''.&nbsp;United Kingdom:&nbsp;Lexington Books. (Chapter 1)</ref> This was acknowledged by the noted Russian dialectologist Nikolai Karinsky, who toward the end of his life wrote: "Scholars of Russian dialects mostly studied phonetics and morphology. Some scholars and collectors compiled local dictionaries. We have almost no studies of lexical material or the syntax of Russian dialects."<ref>Nakhimovsky,&nbsp;A.&nbsp;D.&nbsp;(2019).&nbsp;''The Language of Russian Peasants in the Twentieth Century: A Linguistic Analysis and Oral History''.&nbsp;United Kingdom:&nbsp;Lexington Books. (p.2)</ref>

After 1917, Marxist linguists had no interest in the multiplicity of peasant dialects and regarded their language as a relic of the rapidly disappearing past that was not worthy of scholarly attention. Nakhimovsky quotes the Soviet academicians A.M Ivanov and L.P Yakubinsky, writing in 1930:

<blockquote>The language of peasants has a motley diversity inherited from feudalism. On its way to becoming proletariat peasantry brings to the factory and the industrial plant their local peasant dialects with their phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary, and the very process of recruiting workers from peasants and the mobility of the worker population generate another process: the liquidation of peasant inheritance by way of leveling the particulars of local dialects. On the ruins of peasant multilingual, in the context of developing heavy industry, a qualitatively new entity can be said to emerge—the general language of the working class... capitalism has the tendency of creating the general urban language of a given society.<ref>''Ibid.''(p.3)</ref></blockquote>

By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the compulsory education system that was established by the Soviet government.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}} Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features (such as fricative {{IPA|[ɣ]}} in Southern Russian dialects) are still observed in colloquial speech.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

== Geographic distribution ==
[[File:Ruština ve světě.svg|thumb|Hemisphere view of countries where Russian is an official language and countries where it is spoken as a first or second language by at least 30% of the population but is not an official language]]
[[File:Russian ex-USSR 2004.PNG|thumb|upright=1.8|Competence of Russian in countries of the former Soviet Union (except Russia), 2004]]

In 2010, there were 259.8 million speakers of Russian in the world: in Russia – 137.5 million, in the CIS and Baltic countries – 93.7 million, in Eastern Europe – 12.9 million, Western Europe – 7.3 million, Asia – 2.7 million, in the Middle East and North Africa – 1.3 million, Sub-Saharan Africa – 0.1 million, Latin America – 0.2 million, U.S., {{wipe|Canada}}, Australia, and [[Earth:New Zealand|New Zealand]] – 4.1 million speakers. Therefore, the Russian language is the seventh-largest in the world by the number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, [[Social:Hindi|Hindi]]-Urdu, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Portuguese.<ref name="demoscope.ru">{{cite web|title=Демографические изменения – не на пользу русскому языку|url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2013/0571/tema02.php|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140805090035/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2013/0571/tema02.php|archive-date=August 5, 2014|access-date=April 23, 2014|publisher=Demoscope.ru|language=ru}}</ref><ref name="Ethnologue-rating-2018">{{cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size|title=Statistical Summaries. Summary by language size. Language size|date=February 21, 2018|editor=Lewis, M. Paul|editor2=Gary F. Simons|editor3=Charles D. Fennig|work=[[Social:Ethnologue|Ethnologue: Languages of the World]]|edition=21st|location=Dallas|publisher=[[Organization:SIL International|SIL International]]|language=en|access-date=January 6, 2019|archive-date=December 26, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226040016/https://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Арефьев А. Л. Сжимающееся русскоязычие">{{cite web|author=Арефьев А. Л.|date=October 31, 2013|title=Сжимающееся русскоязычие. Демографические изменения — не на пользу русскому языку|url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2013/0571/tema02.php|work=Демоскоп Weekly|language=ru|number=571–572|access-date=January 23, 2014|archive-date=August 5, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140805090035/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2013/0571/tema02.php|url-status=live}}</ref>

Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a popular choice for both Russian as a second language (RSL) and native speakers in Russia, and in many former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics.<ref name=gallup2008>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/112270/Russias-Language-Could-Ticket-Migrants.aspx |title=Russia's Language Could Be Ticket in for Migrants |date=November 28, 2008 |publisher=Gallup |access-date=May 26, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140928191526/http://www.gallup.com/poll/112270/russias-language-could-ticket-migrants.aspx |archive-date=September 28, 2014}}</ref>

=== Europe ===
[[File:BelarusHomeLanguages2009.PNG|thumb|right|Languages spoken at home in Belarus (according to the 2009 Belarusian census) (green — Belarusian, blue — Russian) (by raion)]]
[[File:Russophone population in Estonia.png|thumb|right|Percentage of Russian speakers in Estonia (according to the 2000 Estonian census)]]
[[File:Use of Russian language at home in Latvia (2011).svg|thumb|200px|Percentage of Russian speakers in different regions of Latvia (according to the {{Interlanguage link|2011 Latvian census|lt=2011 census|lv|2011. gada tautas skaitīšana Latvijā}})]]
[[File:Ukraine census 2001 Russian.svg|thumb|right|Percentage of people in Ukraine with Russian as their native language (according to the 2001 Ukrainian census) (by region)]]
In {{wipe|Belarus}}, Russian is a second state language alongside Belarusian per the Constitution of Belarus.<ref name="fundeh1"/> 77% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 67% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.<ref name="demoscope329">{{cite web|title=Русскоязычие распространено не только там, где живут русские|url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2008/0329/tema03.php|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161023011719/http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2008/0329/tema03.php|archive-date=October 23, 2016|website=demoscope.ru|language=ru}}</ref> According to the 2019 Belarusian census, out of 9,413,446 inhabitants of the country, 5,094,928 (54.1% of the total population) named Belarusian as their native language, with 61.2% of ethnic Belarusians and 54.5% of ethnic Poles declaring Belarusian as their native language. In everyday life in the Belarusian society the Russian language prevails, so according to the 2019 census 6,718,557 people (71.4% of the total population) stated that they speak Russian at home, for ethnic Belarusians this share is 61.4%, for Russians — 97.2%, for Ukrainians — 89.0%, for Poles — 52.4%, and for Jews — 96.6%; 2,447,764 people (26.0% of the total population) stated that the language they usually speak at home is Belarusian, among ethnic Belarusians this share is 28.5%; the highest share of those who speak Belarusian at home is among ethnic Poles — 46.0%.<ref>{{cite web |title = Общая численность населения, численность населения по возрасту и полу, состоянию в браке, уровню образования, национальностям, языку, источникам средств к существованию по Республике Беларусь |url = https://belstat.gov.by/upload/iblock/471/471b4693ab545e3c40d206338ff4ec9e.pdf |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20201004235333/https://www.belstat.gov.by/upload/iblock/471/471b4693ab545e3c40d206338ff4ec9e.pdf |archivedate = 2020-10-04 |url-status= live |access-date = 2020-10-06 }}</ref>

In Estonia Russian is spoken by 29.6% of the population according to a 2011 estimate from the World Factbook,<ref name=bookoffact/> and is officially considered a foreign language.<ref name="fundeh1"/> School education in the Russian language is a very contentious point in Estonian politics and as of 2022 the parliament has approved to close up all Russian language schools and kindergartens by the school year. The transition to only Estonian language schools/kindergartens will start in the school year.<ref>{{Cite web|last=ERR|date=December 12, 2022|title=Riigikogu kiitis heaks eestikeelsele õppele ülemineku|url=https://www.err.ee/1608817708/riigikogu-kiitis-heaks-eestikeelsele-oppele-ulemineku|access-date=February 2, 2023|archive-date=February 2, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202094203/https://www.err.ee/1608817708/riigikogu-kiitis-heaks-eestikeelsele-oppele-ulemineku|url-status=live}}</ref>

In Latvia, Russian is officially considered a foreign language.<ref name="fundeh1"/> 55% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 26% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.<ref name="demoscope329"/> On February 18, 2012, Latvia held a constitutional referendum on whether to adopt Russian as a second official language.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://web.cvk.lv/pub/public/28361.html/|title=Referendum on the Draft Law 'Amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia'|publisher=Central Election Commission of Latvia|year=2012|access-date=May 2, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120502013728/http://web.cvk.lv/pub/public/28361.html|archive-date=May 2, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> According to the Central Election Commission, 74.8% voted against, 24.9% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.1%.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tn2012.cvk.lv/|title=Results of the referendum on the Draft Law 'Amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia'|language=lv|publisher=Central Election Commission of Latvia|year=2012|access-date=May 2, 2012|archive-date=April 15, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415075014/http://www.tn2012.cvk.lv/|url-status=live}}</ref> Starting in 2019, instruction in Russian will be gradually discontinued in private colleges and universities in Latvia, and in general instruction in Latvian public high schools.<ref>{{cite news |title=Latvia pushes majority language in schools, leaving parents miffed |url=https://www.dw.com/en/latvia-pushes-majority-language-in-schools-leaving-parents-miffed/a-45385830 |agency=Deutsche Welle |date=September 8, 2018 |access-date=August 7, 2019 |archive-date=January 23, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123223709/https://www.dw.com/en/latvia-pushes-majority-language-in-schools-leaving-parents-miffed/a-45385830 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Moscow threatens sanctions against Latvia over removal of Russian from secondary schools |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/03/moscow-threatens-sanctions-against-latvia-removal-russian-secondary/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/03/moscow-threatens-sanctions-against-latvia-removal-russian-secondary/ |archive-date=2022-01-10 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=April 3, 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref> On 29 September 2022, Saeima passed in the final reading amendments that state that all schools and kindergartens in the country are to transition to education in [[Social:Latvian language|Latvian]]. From 2025, all children will be taught in Latvian only.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bnn-news.com/latvia-to-gradually-transition-to-education-only-in-official-language-238962|title=Latvia to gradually transition to education only in official language|date=September 29, 2022|access-date=November 21, 2023|archive-date=December 5, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231205153814/https://bnn-news.com/latvia-to-gradually-transition-to-education-only-in-official-language-238962|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sheremet |first=Anhelina |date=13 May 2022 |title=In Latvia, from 2025, all children will be taught in Latvian only |url=https://babel.ua/en/news/78675-in-latvia-from-2025-all-children-will-be-taught-in-latvian-only |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231121114406/https://babel.ua/en/news/78675-in-latvia-from-2025-all-children-will-be-taught-in-latvian-only |archive-date=Nov 21, 2023 |website=Бабель}}</ref> On 28 September 2023, Latvian deputies approved The National Security Concept, according to which from January 1, 2026, all content created by Latvian public media (including LSM) should be only in Latvian or a language that "belongs to the European cultural space". The financing of Russian-language content by the state will cease, which the concept says create a "unified information space". However, one inevitable consequence would be the closure of public media broadcasts in Russian on LTV and Latvian Radio, as well as the closure of LSM's Russian-language service.<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 28, 2023 |title=Saeima approves updated National Security concept for Latvia |url=https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/defense/28.09.2023-saeima-approves-updated-national-security-concept-for-latvia.a525735/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231121114206/https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/defense/28.09.2023-saeima-approves-updated-national-security-concept-for-latvia.a525735/ |archive-date=Nov 21, 2023 |website=Eng.LSM.lv}}</ref>

In Lithuania, Russian has no official or legal status, but the use of the language has some presence in certain areas. A large part of the population, especially the older generations, can speak Russian as a foreign language.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://in.mfa.lt/in/en/news/statistics-lithuania-785-of-lithuanians-speak-at-least-one-foreign-language|title=Statistics Lithuania: 78.5% of Lithuanians speak at least one foreign language &#124; News |website= Ministry of Foreign Affairs |date=Sep 27, 2013 |access-date=December 28, 2020|archive-date=January 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210106145651/https://in.mfa.lt/in/en/news/statistics-lithuania-785-of-lithuanians-speak-at-least-one-foreign-language|url-status=dead}}</ref> However, English has replaced Russian as ''lingua franca'' in Lithuania and around 80% of young people speak English as their first foreign language.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://investlithuania.com/news/employees-fluent-in-three-languages-its-the-norm-in-lithuania/|title=Employees fluent in three languages – it's the norm in Lithuania |publisher=Outsourcing&More |date=September 26, 2018 |first1=Rūta |last1=Labalaukytė |website=Invest Lithuania |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231019201722/https://investlithuania.com/news/employees-fluent-in-three-languages-its-the-norm-in-lithuania/ |archive-date= Oct 19, 2023 }}</ref> In contrast to the other two Baltic states, Lithuania has a relatively small Russian-speaking minority (5.0% as of 2008).<ref name="andrlik">{{cite web|title=Ethnic and Language Policy of the Republic of Lithuania: Basis and Practice |first1=Jan |last1=Andrlík|url=http://alppi.eu/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Andrlik_2009.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403213425/http://alppi.eu/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Andrlik_2009.pdf|archive-date=April 3, 2016}}</ref> According to the 2011 Lithuanian census, Russian was the native language for 7.2% of the population.<ref>Statistics Lithuania census 2011: {{cite web |url=https://osp.stat.gov.lt/documents/10180/217110/Gyv_kalba_tikyba.pdf |title=Gyventojai pagal tautybę, gimtąją kalbą ir tikybą |website=Oficialiosios statistikos portalas |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404074611/https://osp.stat.gov.lt/documents/10180/217110/Gyv_kalba_tikyba.pdf |archive-date= Apr 4, 2023 }}</ref>

In Moldova, Russian was considered to be the language of interethnic communication under a Soviet-era law.<ref name="fundeh1"/> On 21 January 2021, the Constitutional Court of Moldova declared the law unconstitutional and deprived Russian of the status of the language of interethnic communication.<ref>{{Cite web |date=Jan 1, 2021 |title=The Court examined the constitutionality of the Law on the Usage of Languages Spoken on the Territory of the Republic of Moldova |url=https://www.constcourt.md/libview.php?l=en&idc=7&id=2067&t=/Media/News/The-Court-examined-the-constitutionality-of-the-Law-on-the-Usage-of-Languages-Spoken-on-the-Territory-of-the-Republic-of-Moldova |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211022191049/https://www.constcourt.md/libview.php?l=en&idc=7&id=2067&t=/Media/News/The-Court-examined-the-constitutionality-of-the-Law-on-the-Usage-of-Languages-Spoken-on-the-Territory-of-the-Republic-of-Moldova |archive-date=Oct 22, 2021 |website=Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Tanas |first=Alexander |date=2021-01-21 |title=Moldovan court overturns special status for Russian language |language=en-US |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-moldova-language-idUSKBN29Q2J0/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231121095432/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-moldova-language-idUSKBN29Q2J0/ |archive-date= Nov 21, 2023 }}</ref> 50% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 19% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.<ref name="demoscope329"/> According to the 2014 Moldovan census, Russians accounted for 4.1% of Moldova's population, 9.4% of the population declared Russian as their native language, and 14.5% said they usually spoke Russian.<ref>{{Cite web |date=Mar 31, 2017 |title=The Population of the Republic of Moldova at the time of the Census was 2 998 235 |url=https://statistica.gov.md/en/the-population-of-the-republic-of-moldova-at-the-time-12_896.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231121100936/https://statistica.gov.md/en/the-population-of-the-republic-of-moldova-at-the-time-12_896.html |archive-date=Nov 21, 2023 |website=National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova}}</ref>

According to the 2010 census in Russia, Russian language skills were indicated by 138 million people (99.4% of the respondents), while according to the 2002 census – 142.6 million people (99.2% of the respondents).<ref>{{cite web|date=November 8, 2011|title=Демоскоп Weekly. Об итогах Всероссийской переписи населения 2010 года. Сообщение Росстата|url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2011/0491/perep01.php|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018055149/http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2011/0491/perep01.php|archive-date=October 18, 2014|access-date=April 23, 2014|publisher=Demoscope.ru|language=ru}}</ref>

In {{wipe|Ukraine}}, Russian is a significant minority language. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 14,400,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 29 million active speakers.<ref name="demoscope251">{{cite web|title=Падение статуса русского языка на постсоветском пространстве|url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2006/0251/tema01.php|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161025204352/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2006/0251/tema01.php|archive-date=October 25, 2016|website=demoscope.ru|language=ru}}</ref> 65% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 38% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.<ref name="demoscope329"/> On September 5, 2017, Ukraine's Parliament passed a [[Social:Ukrainization#2017 law "On Education"|new education law]] which requires all schools to teach at least partially in Ukrainian, with provisions while allow indigenous languages and languages of national minorities to be used alongside the national language.<ref>{{cite web |title=New education law becomes effective in Ukraine |url=https://www.unian.info/society/2159231-new-education-law-becomes-effective-in-ukraine.html |website=www.unian.info |access-date=22 March 2023 |language=en |archive-date=June 27, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627202400/https://www.unian.info/society/2159231-new-education-law-becomes-effective-in-ukraine.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The law faced criticism from officials in Russia and Hungary.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ukraine defends education reform as Hungary promises 'pain' |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/ukraine-defends-education-reform-as-hungary-promises-pain-1.3235916 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=September 27, 2017 |access-date=August 7, 2019 |archive-date=March 24, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324150210/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/ukraine-defends-education-reform-as-hungary-promises-pain-1.3235916 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Ukrainian Language Bill Facing Barrage Of Criticism From Minorities, Foreign Capitals |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-language-legislation-minority-languages-russia-hungary-romania/28753925.html |work=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |date=September 24, 2017 |access-date=August 7, 2019 |archive-date=March 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331162824/https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-language-legislation-minority-languages-russia-hungary-romania/28753925.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The 2019 Law of Ukraine "On protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language" gives priority to the [[Social:Ukrainian language|Ukrainian language]] in more than 30 spheres of public life: in particular in public administration, media, education, science, culture, advertising, services. The law does not regulate private communication.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2704-19#Text|title=Про забезпечення функціонування української мови як державної|website=Офіційний вебпортал парламенту України|access-date=November 21, 2023|archive-date=May 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200502182619/https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2704-19#Text|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=May 16, 2019|title=Кому варто боятися закону про мову?|url=http://language-policy.info/2019/05/komu-varto-boyatysya-zakonu-pro-movu/|access-date=2022-05-14|website=Портал мовної політики|language=uk|archive-date=May 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518152707/http://language-policy.info/2019/05/komu-varto-boyatysya-zakonu-pro-movu/|url-status=live}}</ref> A poll conducted in March 2022 by RATING in the territory controlled by Ukraine found that 83% of the respondents believe that Ukrainian should be the only state language of Ukraine. This opinion dominates in all macro-regions, age and language groups. On the other hand, before the war, almost a quarter of Ukrainians were in favour of granting Russian the status of the state language, while after the beginning of Russia's invasion the support for the idea dropped to just 7%. In peacetime, the idea of raising the status of Russian was traditionally supported by residents of the south and east. But even in these regions, only a third of the respondents were in favour, and after Russia's full-scale invasion, their number dropped by almost half.<ref>{{cite web |title=Шосте загальнонаціональне опитування: мовне питання в Україні (19 березня 2022) |url=https://ratinggroup.ua/research/ukraine/language_issue_in_ukraine_march_19th_2022.html |access-date=27 August 2023 |language=uk |archive-date=August 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230824150442/https://ratinggroup.ua/research/ukraine/language_issue_in_ukraine_march_19th_2022.html |url-status=live }}</ref> According to the survey carried out by RATING in August 2023 in the territory controlled by Ukraine and among the refugees, almost 60% of the polled usually speak Ukrainian at home, about 30% – Ukrainian and Russian, only 9% – Russian. Since March 2022, the use of Russian in everyday life has been noticeably decreasing. For 82% of respondents, Ukrainian is their mother tongue, and for 16%, Russian is their mother tongue. IDPs and refugees living abroad are more likely to use both languages for communication or speak Russian. Nevertheless, more than 70% of IDPs and refugees consider Ukrainian to be their native language.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://ratinggroup.ua/files/ratinggroup/reg_files/rating_independence_august_2023.pdf |title=Соціологічне дослідження до Дня Незалежності УЯВЛЕННЯ ПРО ПАТРІОТИЗМ ТА МАЙБУТНЄ УКРАЇНИ |access-date=November 21, 2023 |archive-date=December 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231227002638/https://ratinggroup.ua/files/ratinggroup/reg_files/rating_independence_august_2023.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the 20th century, Russian was a mandatory language taught in the schools of the members of the old [[Organization:Warsaw Pact|Warsaw Pact]] and in other [[Social:Communist state|countries]] that used to be satellites of the USSR. According to the Eurobarometer 2005 survey,<ref>{{cite web|year=2006|title=Europeans and their Languages|url=http://ec.europa.eu/education/languages/pdf/doc631_en.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090521033643/http://ec.europa.eu/education/languages/pdf/doc631_en.pdf|archive-date=May 21, 2009|website=europa.eu}}</ref> fluency in Russian remains fairly high (20–40%) in some countries, in particular former Warsaw Pact countries.

Significant Russian-speaking groups also exist in Western Europe. These have been fed by several waves of immigrants since the beginning of the 20th century, each with its own flavor of language. The United Kingdom, Germany, {{wipe|Finland}}, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Greece, {{wipe|Norway}}, and Austria have significant Russian-speaking communities.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

=== Asia ===
In [[Place:Armenia|Armenia]], Russian has no official status, but it is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.<ref name="fundeh1"/> 30% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 2% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.<ref name="demoscope329"/>

In [[Place:Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan]], Russian has no official status, but is a ''lingua franca'' of the country.<ref name="fundeh1">{{cite web |url=http://www.fundeh.org/files/publications/90/vedenie_obshchee_sostoyanie_russkogo_yazyka.pdf |title=Введение |access-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304122143/http://www.fundeh.org/files/publications/90/vedenie_obshchee_sostoyanie_russkogo_yazyka.pdf |archive-date=March 4, 2016}}</ref> 26% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 5% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.<ref name="demoscope329"/>

In {{wipe|China}}, Russian has no official status, but it is spoken by the small Russian communities in the northeastern Heilongjiang and the northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Russian was also the main foreign language taught in school in China between 1949 and 1964.

In [[Place:Georgia (country)|Georgia]], Russian has no official status, but it is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.<ref name="fundeh1"/> Russian is the language of 9% of the population according to the World Factbook.<ref>[https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/georgia/ Georgia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204222544/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/georgia/ |date=February 4, 2021 }}. ''The World Factbook''. Central Intelligence Agency.</ref> Ethnologue cites Russian as the country's de facto working language.<ref name="ethn">{{Ethnologue21|rus|Russian}}</ref>

In Kazakhstan, Russian is not a state language, but according to article 7 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan its usage enjoys equal status to that of the [[Social:Kazakh language|Kazakh language]] in state and local administration.<ref name="fundeh1"/> The 2009 census reported that 10,309,500 people, or 84.8% of the population aged 15 and above, could read and write well in Russian, and understand the spoken language.<ref name=kazcensus>{{cite web |title=Results of the 2009 National Population Census of the Republic of Kazakhstan |url=http://liportal.giz.de/fileadmin/user_upload/oeffentlich/Kasachstan/40_gesellschaft/Kaz2009_Analytical_report.pdf |publisher=Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit |access-date=October 31, 2015 }}{{Dead link|date=May 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In October 2023, Kazakhstan drafted a media law aimed at increasing the use of the Kazakh language over Russian, the law stipulates that the share of the state language on television and radio should increase from 50% to 70%, at a rate of 5% per year, starting in 2025.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Kazakhstan drafts media law to increase use of Kazakh language over Russian|agency=Agence France-Presse|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/06/kazakhstan-drafts-media-law-to-increase-use-of-kazakh-language-over-russian|website=The Guardian|id=0261-3077|date=2023-10-06|accessdate=2023-10-28|language=en-GB|archive-date=October 28, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231028002220/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/06/kazakhstan-drafts-media-law-to-increase-use-of-kazakh-language-over-russian|url-status=live}}</ref>

In Kyrgyzstan, Russian is a co-official language per article 5 of the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan.<ref name="fundeh1"/> The 2009 census states that 482,200 people speak Russian as a native language, or 8.99% of the population.<ref name=kyrcen>{{cite web|title=Population And Housing Census Of The Kyrgyz Republic Of 2009 |url=http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sources/census/2010_phc/Kyrgyzstan/A5-2PopulationAndHousingCensusOfTheKyrgyzRepublicOf2009.pdf |publisher=UN Stats |access-date=November 1, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120710092216/http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sources/census/2010_PHC/Kyrgyzstan/A5-2PopulationAndHousingCensusOfTheKyrgyzRepublicOf2009.pdf |archive-date=July 10, 2012}}</ref> Additionally, 1,854,700 residents of Kyrgyzstan aged 15 and above fluently speak Russian as a second language, or 49.6% of the population in the age group.<ref name=kyrcen/>

In Tajikistan, Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication under the Constitution of Tajikistan and is permitted in official documentation.<ref name="fundeh1"/> 28% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 7% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work.<ref name="demoscope329"/> The World Factbook notes that Russian is widely used in government and business.<ref name="bookoffact">{{cite web |title=Languages |url=https://www.hannasles.com/languages/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523002924/https://www.hannasles.com/russian-translation-services/ |archive-date=May 23, 2022 |access-date=April 26, 2015 |publisher=The World Factbook}}</ref>

In Turkmenistan, Russian lost its status as the official ''lingua franca'' in 1996.<ref name="fundeh1"/> Among 12%<ref name=bookoffact/> of the population who grew up in the Soviet era can speak Russian, other generations of citizens that do not have any knowledge of Russian. Primary and secondary education by Russian is almost non-existent.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bekmurzaev |first1=Nurbek |title=Russian Language Status in Central Asian Countries |date=February 28, 2019 |url=https://cabar.asia/en/russian-language-status-in-central-asian-countries |publisher=Central Asian Bureau for Analytical Reporting |access-date=June 22, 2022 |archive-date=September 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920173149/https://cabar.asia/en/russian-language-status-in-central-asian-countries |url-status=live }}</ref> Nevertheless, the Turkmen state press and newspaper Neytralny Turkmenistan regularly publish material version in Russian-language, and there are schools like Joint Turkmen-Russian Secondary School.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

In Uzbekistan, Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication.<ref name="AA"/><ref name="Шухрат Хуррамов"/><ref name="AB"/> It has some official roles, being permitted in official documentation and is the ''lingua franca'' of the country and the language of the elite.<ref name="fundeh1"/><ref name=UZB>{{cite web |title=Law on Official Language |url=https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/eoir/legacy/2013/11/08/Law_on_official_language.pdf |publisher=Government of Uzbekistan |access-date=December 2, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170129231323/https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/eoir/legacy/2013/11/08/Law_on_official_language.pdf |archive-date=January 29, 2017}}</ref> Russian is spoken by 14.2% of the population according to an undated estimate from the World Factbook.<ref name=bookoffact/>

In 2005, Russian was the most widely taught foreign language in Mongolia,<ref>{{cite news |first=James |last=Brooke |newspaper={{wipe|The New York Times}} |title=For Mongolians, E Is for English, F Is for Future |date=February 15, 2005 |access-date=May 16, 2009 |url=https://nytimes.com/2005/02/15/international/asia/15mongolia.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614225411/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/15/international/asia/15mongolia.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all |archive-date=June 14, 2011}}</ref> and was compulsory in Year 7 onward as a second foreign language in 2006.<ref name="auto">{{cite news|date=September 21, 2006|script-title=ru:Русский язык в Монголии стал обязательным|language=ru|trans-title=Russian language has become compulsory in Mongolia|agency=New Region|url=http://www.nr2.ru/83966.html|url-status=dead|access-date=May 16, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081009170315/http://www.nr2.ru/83966.html|archive-date=October 9, 2008}}</ref>

Around 1.5&nbsp;million Israelis spoke Russian as of 2017.<ref>[http://www.forbes.ru/finansy-i-investicii/340519-rossiysko-izrailskie-ekonomicheskie-svyazi-ne-tolko-neft-na К визиту Нетаньяху: что Россия может получить от экономики Израиля] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170313125416/http://www.forbes.ru/finansy-i-investicii/340519-rossiysko-izrailskie-ekonomicheskie-svyazi-ne-tolko-neft-na |date=March 13, 2017}} Алексей Голубович, Forbes Russia, March 9, 2017</ref> The Israeli [[Social:Mass media|press]] and websites regularly publish material in Russian and there are Russian newspapers, television stations, schools, and social media outlets based in the country.<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/russians-in-israel|title= Russians in Israel|access-date= July 11, 2019|archive-date= July 11, 2019|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190711133459/https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/russians-in-israel/|url-status= live}}</ref> There is an Israeli TV channel mainly broadcasting in Russian with Israel Plus. See also Russian language in Israel.

Russian is also spoken as a second language by a small number of people in Afghanistan.<ref>Awde and Sarwan, 2003</ref>

In Vietnam, Russian has been added in the elementary curriculum along with Chinese and Japanese and were named as "first foreign languages" for Vietnamese students to learn, on equal footing with English.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/vietnam-to-add-chinese-russian-to-elementary-school-curriculum-3470743.html |title=Vietnam to add Chinese, Russian to elementary school curriculum |date=September 20, 2016 |access-date=July 12, 2019 |archive-date=July 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712121639/https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/vietnam-to-add-chinese-russian-to-elementary-school-curriculum-3470743.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== North America ===
The Russian language was first introduced in North America when Russian explorers voyaged into [[Earth:Alaska|Alaska]] and claimed it for Russia during the 18th century. Although most Russian colonists left after the United States bought the land in 1867, a handful stayed and preserved the Russian language in this region to this day, although only a few elderly speakers of this unique dialect are left.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://languagehat.com/ninilchik/ |title=Ninilchik |publisher=languagehat.com |date=January 1, 2009 |access-date=June 18, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107112220/http://languagehat.com/ninilchik/ |archive-date=January 7, 2014}}</ref> In Nikolaevsk, Alaska, Russian is more spoken than English. Sizable Russian-speaking communities also exist in North America, especially in large urban centers of the US and Canada, such as New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, Nashville, San Francisco, Seattle, Spokane, Toronto, Calgary, Baltimore, Miami, Chicago, Denver, and Cleveland. In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, and live in [[Social:Ethnic enclave|ethnic enclave]]s (especially the generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early 1960s). Only about 25% of them are ethnic Russians, however. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the overwhelming majority of Russophones in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn in New York City were Russian-speaking Jews. Afterward, the influx from the countries of the former [[Place:Soviet Union|Soviet Union]] changed the statistics somewhat, with ethnic Russians and Ukrainians immigrating along with some more Russian Jews and Central Asians. According to the United States Census, in 2007 Russian was the primary language spoken in the homes of over 850,000 individuals living in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|title=Language Use in the United States: 2007, census.gov|url=https://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/acs/ACS-12.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130614060228/http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/acs/ACS-12.pdf|archive-date=June 14, 2013|access-date=June 18, 2013}}</ref>

In the second half of the 20th century, Russian was the most popular foreign language in Cuba. Besides being taught at universities and schools, there were also educational programs on the radio and TV. An estimated 200,000 people speak the Russian language in Cuba, on the account that more than 23,000 Cubans who took higher studies in the former Soviet Union and later in Russia, and another important group of people who studied at military schools and technologists.{{Citation needed|date=November 2020}}

== As an international language ==

Russian is one of the official languages (or has similar status and interpretation must be provided into Russian) of the following:

{{div col}}
* {{wipe|United Nations}}
* [[Organization:International Atomic Energy Agency|International Atomic Energy Agency]]
* [[Organization:World Health Organization|World Health Organization]]
* International Civil Aviation Organization
* [[Organization:UNESCO|UNESCO]]
* [[Organization:World Intellectual Property Organization|World Intellectual Property Organization]]
* [[Organization:International Telecommunication Union|International Telecommunication Union]]
* [[Organization:World Meteorological Organization|World Meteorological Organization]]
* Food and Agriculture Organization
* International Fund for Agricultural Development
* International Criminal Court
* International Olympic Committee
* [[Organization:Universal Postal Union|Universal Postal Union]]
* [[Organization:World Bank|World Bank]]
* Commonwealth of Independent States
* [[Organization:Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe|Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe]]
* Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
* [[Social:Eurasian Economic Community|Eurasian Economic Community]]
* Collective Security Treaty Organization
* Antarctic Treaty Secretariat
* [[Organization:International Organization for Standardization|International Organization for Standardization]]
* International Mathematical Olympiad
{{div col end}}

The Russian language is also one of two official languages aboard the [[Astronomy:International Space Station|International Space Station]] – [[Organization:NASA|NASA]] astronauts who serve alongside Russian cosmonauts usually take Russian language courses. This practice goes back to the [[Engineering:Apollo–Soyuz|Apollo–Soyuz]] mission, which first flew in 1975.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

In March 2013, Russian was found to be the second-most used language on websites after English. Russian was the language of 5.9% of all websites, slightly ahead of German and far behind English (54.7%). Russian was used not only on 89.8% of .ru sites, but also on 88.7% of sites with the former Soviet Union domain .su. Websites in former Soviet Union member states also used high levels of Russian: 79.0% in Ukraine, 86.9% in Belarus, 84.0% in Kazakhstan, 79.6% in Uzbekistan, 75.9% in Kyrgyzstan and 81.8% in Tajikistan. However, Russian was the sixth-most used language on the top 1,000 sites, behind English, Chinese, French, German, and Japanese.<ref>{{cite web|title=Russian is now the second most used language on the web|url=http://w3techs.com/blog/entry/russian_is_now_the_second_most_used_language_on_the_web|work=W3Techs|publisher=Q-Success|access-date=June 17, 2013|author=Matthias Gelbmann|date=March 19, 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6GrRWRdLY?url=http://w3techs.com/blog/entry/russian_is_now_the_second_most_used_language_on_the_web|archive-date=May 24, 2013}}</ref>

== Dialects ==

[[File:Dialects of Russian language-ru.png|thumb|upright=1.35|
Russian dialects in 1915
{{col-begin}}
{{col-break}}
Northern dialects
{{legend|#587942|1. Arkhangelsk dialect}}
{{legend|#3E7D6D|2. Olonets dialect}}
{{legend|#45AD96|3. Novgorod dialect}}
{{legend|#69A74B|4. Viatka dialect}}
{{legend|#61C57A|5. Vladimir dialect}}
{{col-break}}
Central dialects
{{legend|#F587C1|6. Moscow dialect}}
{{legend|#D172A2|7. [[Place:Tver|Tver]] dialect}}
Southern dialects
{{legend|#FF9B06|8. Orel (Don) dialect}}
{{legend|#FF7D26|9. Ryazan dialect}}
{{legend|#FFAA71|10. Tula dialect}}
{{legend|#F2D273|11. Smolensk dialect}}
Other
{{legend|#40956C|12. Northern Russian dialect with [[Social:Belarusian language|Belarusian]] influences}}
{{legend|#ECBD00|13. {{ill|Slobozhan dialect|lt=Slobozhan|uk|Слобожанський говір}} and {{ill|Steppe dialect|lt=Steppe|uk|Степовий говір}} dialects of [[Social:Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]}}
{{legend|#FFD93E|14. Steppe dialect of Ukrainian with Russian influences (Balachka)}}
{{col-end}}]]

Russian is a rather homogeneous language, in dialectal variation, due to the early political centralization under Moscow's rule, compulsory education, mass migration from rural to urban areas in the 20th century, and other factors. The standard language is used in written and spoken form almost everywhere in the country, from Kaliningrad and Saint Petersburg in the West to Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the East, the enormous distance between notwithstanding.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Despite [[Social:Dialect levelling|leveling]] after 1900, especially in matters of vocabulary and phonetics, a number of dialects still exist in Russia. Some linguists divide the dialects of Russian 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 (or Middle), and Southern, with Moscow lying in the Central region.<ref>David Dalby. 1999–2000. ''The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities''. Linguasphere Press. Pg. 442.</ref>{{sfn|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|pp=521–526}} All dialects are also divided into two main chronological categories: the dialects of ''primary formation'' (the territory of the Grand Duchy of Moscow roughly consists of the modern Central and Northwestern Federal districts) and ''secondary formation'' (other territories where Russian was brought by migrants from primary formation territories or adopted by the local population). 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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

The Northern Russian dialects and those spoken along the Volga River typically pronounce unstressed {{IPA|/o/}} clearly, a phenomenon called okanye ({{lang|ru|оканье}}).{{sfn|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|pp=521–526}} Besides the absence of vowel reduction, some dialects have high or diphthongal {{IPA|/e⁓i̯ɛ/}} in place of {{proto|slavic|ě}} and {{IPA|/o⁓u̯ɔ/}} in stressed closed syllables (as in Ukrainian) instead of Standard Russian {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/o/}}.{{sfn|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|pp=521–526}} Another Northern dialectal morphological feature is a post-posed definite article ''-to'', ''-ta'', ''-te'' similarly to that existing in Bulgarian and Macedonian.{{sfn|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|pp=521–526}}

In the Southern Russian dialects, instances of unstressed {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/a/}} following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable are not reduced to {{IPA|[ɪ]}} (as occurs in the Moscow dialect), being instead pronounced {{IPA|[a]}} in such positions (e.g. {{wikt-lang|ru|несл'''и'''}} is pronounced {{IPA|[nʲaˈslʲi]}}, not {{IPA|[nʲɪsˈlʲi]}}) – this is called yakanye ({{lang|ru|яканье}}).{{sfn|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|pp=521–526}}<ref>{{cite web|title=The Language of the Russian Village|language=ru|url=http://www.gramota.ru/book/village/map13.html|access-date=November 10, 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120607225323/http://gramota.ru/book/village/map13.html|archive-date=June 7, 2012}}</ref> Consonants include a fricative {{IPA|/ɣ/|cat=no}}, a semivowel {{IPA|/w⁓u̯/|cat=no}} and {{IPA|/x⁓xv⁓xw/}}, whereas the Standard and Northern dialects have the consonants {{IPA|/ɡ/}}, {{IPA|/v/}}, and final {{IPA|/l/}} and {{IPA|/f/}}, respectively.{{sfn|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|pp=521–526}} The morphology features a palatalized final {{IPA|/tʲ/}} in 3rd person forms of verbs (this is unpalatalized in the Standard and Northern dialects).{{sfn|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|pp=521–526}}<ref>{{cite web|title=The Language of the Russian Village|language=ru|url=http://www.gramota.ru/book/village/map14.html|access-date=November 10, 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212213519/http://www.gramota.ru/book/village/map14.html|archive-date=February 12, 2012}}</ref> Some of these features such as akanye and yakanye, a debuccalized or lenited {{IPA|/ɡ/}}, a semivowel {{IPA|/w⁓u̯/|cat=no}} and palatalized final {{IPA|/tʲ/}} in 3rd person forms of verbs are also present in modern [[Social:Belarusian language|Belarusian]] and some dialects of [[Social:Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] (Eastern Polesian), indicating a linguistic continuum.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

The city of [[Social:Old Novgorod dialect|Veliky Novgorod]] has historically displayed a feature called chokanye or tsokanye ({{lang|ru|чоканье}} or {{lang|ru|цоканье}}), in which {{IPA|/tɕ/}} and {{IPA|/ts/}} were switched or merged. So, {{wikt-lang|ru|'''ц'''апля}} (tsaplya, 'heron') has been recorded as {{lang|ru|чапля}} (chaplya). Also, the second palatalization of velars did not occur there, so the so-called '''ě²''' (from the [[Social:Proto-Slavic|Proto-Slavic]] diphthong *ai) did not cause {{IPA|/k, ɡ, x/}} to shift to {{IPA|/ts, dz, s/}}; therefore, where Standard Russian has {{wikt-lang|ru|'''ц'''епь}} ('chain'), the form {{lang|ru|'''к'''епь}} {{IPA|[kʲepʲ]}} is attested in earlier texts.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Among the first to study Russian dialects was [[Biography:Mikhail Lomonosov|Lomonosov]] in the 18th century. In the 19th, Vladimir Dal compiled the first dictionary that included dialectal vocabulary. Detailed mapping of Russian dialects began at the turn of the 20th century. In modern times, the monumental ''Dialectological Atlas of the Russian Language'' ({{lang|ru|Диалектологический атлас русского языка}} – ''Dialektologichesky atlas russkogo yazyka''), was published in three folio volumes 1986–1989, after four decades of preparatory work.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

== Comparison with other Slavic languages ==
During the [[Social:Proto-Slavic language|Proto-Slavic]] (Common Slavic) times all Slavs spoke one mutually intelligible language or group of dialects.<ref>Context and the Lexicon in the Development of Russian Aspect, By Neil Bermel, p 16</ref> There is a high degree of [[Social:Mutual intelligibility|mutual intelligibility]] between Russian, [[Social:Belarusian language|Belarusian]] and [[Social:Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], and a moderate degree of it in all modern Slavic languages, at least at the conversational level.<ref>Sussex & Cubberley, p. 3.</ref><ref>[https://www.ezglot.com/most-similar-languages.php?l=rus Similar languages to Russian] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225055107/https://www.ezglot.com/most-similar-languages.php?l=rus |date=February 25, 2021 }}, EZ Glot</ref>

== Derived languages ==
* Balachka, a Ukrainian dialect spoken in Krasnodar region, Don, Kuban, and Terek, brought by relocated Cossacks in 1793 and is based on the so-called "southwest Russian" dialect (Ukrainian dialect). During the Russification of the aforementioned regions in the 1920s to 1950s, it was replaced by the Russian language.
* [[Social:Esperanto etymology|Esperanto]] has some words of Russian and Slavic origin and some features of its grammar could be derived from Russian.<ref name="Kiselman">{{cite journal |url=http://www2.math.uu.se/~kiselman/pau2008.pdf |journal=Prace Komisji Spraw Europejskich PAU |volume=II |pages=39–56 |editor=Andrzej Pelczar |location=Krakow |publisher=Polska Akademia Umieje ̨tno ́sci |date=2008 |author=Christer Kiselman |title=Esperanto: its origins and early history |language=en |access-date=October 4, 2022 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304222655/http://www2.math.uu.se/~kiselman/pau2008.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* Fenya, a criminal [[Social:Argot|argot]] of ancient origin, with Russian grammar, but with distinct vocabulary
* [[Lojban]], Russian is one of its six source languages, weighed for the number of Russian speakers in 1985.<ref name="Lojban">{{cite book |last1=Cowan |first1=John Woldemar |title=The Shape Of Words To Come: Lojban Morphology - The Lojban Reference Grammar |url=https://lojban.github.io/cll/4/14/ |via=lojban.github.io |access-date=4 October 2022 |language=en |date=1997 |publisher=Logical Language |isbn=0-9660283-0-9 |archive-date=November 12, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112115705/http://lojban.github.io/cll/4/14/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Social:Medny Aleut language|Medny Aleut language]], an extinct mixed language that was spoken on Bering Island and is characterized by its Aleut nouns and Russian verbs
* [[Social:Padonkaffsky jargon|Padonkaffsky jargon]], a slang language developed by padonki of Runet
* Quelia, a macaronic language with Russian-derived basic structure and part of the [[Social:Lexicon|lexicon]] (mainly nouns and verbs) borrowed from German
* Runglish, a Russian-English pidgin. This word is also used by English speakers to describe the way in which Russians attempt to speak English using Russian morphology or syntax.
* Russenorsk, an extinct [[Social:Pidgin|pidgin]] language with mostly Russian vocabulary and mostly [[Social:Norwegian language|Norwegian]] grammar, used for communication between Russians and Norwegian traders in the Pomor trade in [[Place:Finnmark|Finnmark]] and the Kola Peninsula
*Surzhyk, a range of mixed (macaronic) sociolects of Ukrainian and Russian languages used in certain regions of Ukraine and adjacent lands.
* Trasianka, a heavily russified variety of [[Social:Belarusian language|Belarusian]] used by a large portion of the rural population in Belarus
* Taimyr Pidgin Russian, spoken by the Nganasan on the Taimyr Peninsula

== Alphabet ==

[[File:Azbuka 1574 by Ivan Fyodorov.png|thumb|A page from Azbuka (Alphabet book), the first East Slavic printed textbook. Printed by Ivan Fyodorov in 1574 in Lviv. This page features the Cyrillic script.]]

Russian is written using a [[Social:Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]] alphabet. The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The following table gives their forms, along with IPA values for each letter's typical sound:

{| cellpadding="4" style="margin:auto; text-align:center;"
|-
|{{lang|ru|А}}а<br/>{{IPA|/a/}}||{{lang|ru|Б}}б<br/>{{IPA|/b/}}||{{lang|ru|В}}в<br/>{{IPA|/v/}}||{{lang|ru|Г}}г<br/>{{IPA|/ɡ/}}||{{lang|ru|Д}}д<br/>{{IPA|/d/}}||{{lang|ru|Е}}е<br/>{{IPA|/je/}}||{{lang|ru|Ё}}ё<br/>{{IPA|/jo/}}||{{lang|ru|Ж}}ж<br/>{{IPA|/ʐ/}}||{{lang|ru|З}}з<br/>{{IPA|/z/}}||{{lang|ru|И}}и<br/>{{IPA|/i/}}||{{lang|ru|Й}}й<br/>{{IPA|/j/}}
|-
|{{lang|ru|К}}к<br/>{{IPA|/k/}}||{{lang|ru|Л}}л<br/>{{IPA|/l/}}||{{lang|ru|М}}м<br/>{{IPA|/m/}}||{{lang|ru|Н}}н<br/>{{IPA|/n/}}||{{lang|ru|О}}о<br/>{{IPA|/o/}}||{{lang|ru|П}}п<br/>{{IPA|/p/}}||{{lang|ru|Р}}р<br/>{{IPA|/r/}}||{{lang|ru|С}}с<br/>{{IPA|/s/}}||{{lang|ru|Т}}т<br/>{{IPA|/t/}}||{{lang|ru|У}}у<br/>{{IPA|/u/}}||{{lang|ru|Ф}}ф<br/>{{IPA|/f/}}
|-
|{{lang|ru|Х}}х<br/>{{IPA|/x/<!-- do not change it to "kh", the symbol between slashes is not transliteration, this is phonemic transcription in IPA! -->}}||{{lang|ru|Ц}}ц<br/>{{IPA|/ts/}}||{{lang|ru|Ч}}ч<br/>{{IPA|/tɕ/}}||{{lang|ru|Ш}}ш<br/>{{IPA|/ʂ/}}||{{lang|ru|Щ}}щ<br/>{{IPA|/ɕː/}}||{{lang|ru|Ъ}}ъ<br/>{{IPA|/-/}}||{{lang|ru|Ы}}ы<br/> {{IPA|/ɨ/}}||{{lang|ru|Ь}}ь<br/>{{IPA|/ʲ/}}||{{lang|ru|Э}}э<br/>{{IPA|/e/}}||{{lang|ru|Ю}}ю<br/>{{IPA|/ju/}}||{{lang|ru|Я}}я<br/>{{IPA|/ja/}}
|}

Older letters of the Russian alphabet include {{Angle bracket|{{lang|orv|ѣ}}}}, which merged to {{Angle bracket|{{lang|ru|е}}}} ({{IPA|/je/}} or {{IPA|/ʲe/}}); {{Angle bracket|{{lang|orv|і}}}} and {{Angle bracket|{{lang|orv|ѵ}}}}, which both merged to {{Angle bracket|{{lang|ru|и}}}} ({{IPA|/i/}}); {{Angle bracket|{{lang|orv|ѳ}}}}, which merged to {{Angle bracket|{{lang|ru|ф}}}} ({{IPA|/f/}}); {{Angle bracket|{{lang|orv|ѫ}}}}, which merged to {{Angle bracket|{{lang|ru|у}}}} ({{IPA|/u/}}); {{Angle bracket|{{lang|orv|ѭ}}}}, which merged to {{Angle bracket|{{lang|ru|ю}}}} ({{IPA|/ju/}} or {{IPA|/ʲu/}}); and {{Angle bracket|{{lang|orv|ѧ}}}} and {{Angle bracket|{{lang|orv|ѩ}}}}, which later were graphically reshaped into {{Angle bracket|{{lang|ru|я}}}} and merged phonetically to {{IPA|/ja/}} or {{IPA|/ʲa/}}. While these older letters have been abandoned at one time or another, they may be used in this and related articles. The yers {{Angle bracket|{{lang|ru|ъ}}}} and {{Angle bracket|{{lang|ru|ь}}}} originally indicated the pronunciation of ''ultra-short'' or ''reduced'' {{IPA|/ŭ/}}, {{IPA|/ĭ/}}.

=== Transliteration ===

Because of many technical restrictions in computing and also because of the unavailability of Cyrillic keyboards abroad, Russian is often transliterated using the Latin alphabet. For example, {{wikt-lang|ru|мороз}} ('frost') is transliterated ''moroz'', and {{wikt-lang|ru|мышь}} ('mouse'), ''mysh'' or ''myš'''. Once commonly used by the majority of those living outside Russia, transliteration is being used less frequently by Russian-speaking typists in favor of the extension of Unicode [[Character encoding|character encoding]], which fully incorporates the Russian alphabet. Free programs are available offering this [[Unicode]] extension, which allow users to type Russian characters, even on Western 'QWERTY' keyboards.<ref>{{cite web |last=Caloni |first=Wanderley |title=RusKey: mapping the Russian keyboard layout into the Latin alphabets |url=http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/11940/RusKey-mapping-the-Russian-keyboard-layout-into-th |date=February 15, 2007 |access-date=January 28, 2011 |publisher=The Code Project |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120301121842/http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/11940/RusKey-mapping-the-Russian-keyboard-layout-into-th |archive-date=March 1, 2012}}</ref>

=== Computing ===
The Russian alphabet has many systems of [[Character encoding|character encoding]]. [[KOI8-R]] was designed by the Soviet government and was intended to serve as the standard encoding. This encoding was and still is widely used in UNIX-like operating systems. Nevertheless, the spread of [[Software:MS-DOS|MS-DOS]] and OS/2 (IBM866), [[Software:Classic Mac OS|Classic Mac OS]] (ISO/IEC 8859-5) and [[Software:Microsoft Windows|Microsoft Windows]] (CP1251) meant the proliferation of many different encodings as de facto standards, with Windows-1251 becoming a [[Engineering:De facto standard|de facto standard]] in Russian Internet and e-mail communication during the period of roughly 1995–2005.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

All the obsolete 8-bit encodings are rarely used in the communication protocols and text-exchange data formats, having been mostly replaced with [[UTF-8]]. A number of encoding conversion applications were developed. "[[Software:Iconv|iconv]]" is an example that is supported by most versions of [[Software:Linux|Linux]], [[Software:MacOS|macOS]] and some other [[Operating system|operating system]]s; but converters are rarely needed unless accessing texts created more than a few years ago.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

In addition to the modern Russian alphabet, Unicode (and thus UTF-8) encodes the [[Social:Early Cyrillic alphabet|Early Cyrillic alphabet]] (which is very similar to the Greek alphabet), and all other Slavic and non-Slavic but Cyrillic-based alphabets.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

=== Orthography ===

The current spelling follows the major reform of 1918, and the final codification of 1956. An update proposed in the late 1990s has met a hostile reception, and has not been formally adopted. The punctuation, originally based on Byzantine Greek, was in the 17th and 18th centuries reformulated on the French and German models.{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}}

According to the Institute of Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an optional acute accent ({{lang|ru|знак ударения}}) may, and sometimes should, be used to mark stress. For example, it is used to distinguish between otherwise identical words, especially when context does not make it obvious: {{lang|ru|замо́к}} (''zamók'' – "lock") – {{lang|ru|за́мок}} (''zámok'' – "castle"), {{lang|ru|сто́ящий}} (''stóyashchy'' – "worthwhile") – {{lang|ru|стоя́щий}} (''stoyáshchy'' – "standing"), {{lang|ru|чудно́}} (''chudnó'' – "this is odd") – {{lang|ru|чу́дно}} (''chúdno'' – "this is marvellous"), {{lang|ru|молоде́ц}} (''molodéts'' – "well done!") – {{lang|ru|мо́лодец}} (''mólodets'' – "fine young man"), {{lang|ru|узна́ю}} (''uznáyu'' – "I shall learn it") – {{lang|ru|узнаю́}} (''uznayú'' – "I recognize it"), {{lang|ru|отреза́ть}} (''otrezát'' – "to be cutting") – {{lang|ru|отре́зать}} (''otrézat'' – "to have cut"); to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words, especially personal and family names, like {{lang|ru|афе́ра}} (''aféra'', "scandal, affair"), {{lang|ru|гу́ру}} (''gúru'', "guru"), {{lang|ru|Гарси́я}} (''García''), {{lang|ru|Оле́ша}} (''Olésha''), {{lang|ru|Фе́рми}} (''Fermi''), and to show which is the stressed word in a sentence, for example {{lang|ru|Ты́ съел печенье?}} (''Tý syel pechenye?'' – "Was it ''you'' who ate the cookie?") – {{lang|ru|Ты съе́л печенье?}} (''Ty syél pechenye?'' – "Did you ''eat'' the cookie?) – {{lang|ru|Ты съел пече́нье?}} (''Ty syel pechénye?'' "Was it the ''cookie'' you ate?"). Stress marks are mandatory in lexical dictionaries and books for children or Russian learners.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

== Phonology ==

The phonological system of Russian is inherited from Common Slavonic; it underwent considerable modification in the early historical period before being largely settled around the year 1400.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

The language possesses five vowels (or six, under the St.{{nbsp}}Petersburg Phonological School), which are written with different letters depending on whether the preceding consonant is palatalized. The consonants typically come in plain vs. palatalized pairs, which are traditionally called ''hard'' and ''soft.'' The hard consonants are often velarized, especially before front vowels, as in Irish and Marshallese. The standard language, based on the Moscow dialect, possesses heavy stress and moderate variation in pitch. Stressed vowels are somewhat lengthened, while unstressed vowels tend to be reduced to near-close vowels or an unclear schwa.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

The Russian syllable structure can be quite complex, with both initial and final consonant clusters of up to four consecutive sounds. Using a formula with V standing for the nucleus (vowel) and C for each consonant, the maximal structure can be described as follows:

(C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)

However, Russian has a constraint on syllabification such that syllables cannot span multiple [[Social:Morpheme|morpheme]]s.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Clusters of four consonants are not very common, especially within a morpheme. Some examples are: {{wikt-lang|ru|взгляд}} ({{IPA-ru|vzglʲat|}} ''vzglyad'', 'glance'), {{wikt-lang|ru|государств}} ({{IPA-ru|gəsʊˈdarstf|}} ''gosudarstv'', 'of the states'), {{wikt-lang|ru|строительств}} ({{IPA-ru|strɐˈitʲɪlʲstf|}} ''stroitelstv'', 'of the constructions').{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

=== Consonants ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|- style="font-size: 90%;"
|+ Consonant phonemes
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" | Labial
! colspan="2" | Alveolar<br/>/Dental
! colspan="2" | Post-<br/>alveolar
! rowspan="2" | Palatal
! colspan="2" | Velar
|-
! <small>plain</small>
! <small>pal.</small>
! <small>plain</small>
! <small>pal.</small>
! <small>plain</small>
! <small>pal.</small>
! <small>plain</small>
! <small>pal.</small>
|-
! colspan="2" | Nasal
| {{IPA link|m}}
| {{IPA|mʲ}}
| {{IPA link|n}}
| {{IPA|nʲ}}
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | Stop
!<small>voiceless</small>
| {{IPA link|p}}
| {{IPA|pʲ}}
| {{IPA link|t}}
| {{IPA|tʲ}}
|
|
|
| {{IPA link|k}}
| ({{IPA|kʲ}})
|-
!<small>voiced</small>
|{{IPA link|b}}
|{{IPA|bʲ}}
|{{IPA link|d}}
|{{IPA|dʲ}}
|
|
|
|{{IPA link|ɡ}}
|({{IPA|ɡʲ}})
|-
! colspan="2" | Affricate
|
|
| {{IPA link|ts}}
|({{IPA|tsʲ}})
|
| {{IPA link|tɕ}}
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | Fricative
!<small>voiceless</small>
| {{IPA link|f}}
| {{IPA|fʲ}}
| {{IPA link|s}}
| {{IPA|sʲ}}
| {{IPA link|ʂ}}
| {{IPA link|ɕ}}ː
|
| {{IPA link|x}}
| ({{IPA|xʲ}})
|-
!<small>voiced</small>
|{{IPA link|v}}
|{{IPA|vʲ}}
| {{IPA link|z}}
| {{IPA|zʲ}}
|{{IPA link|ʐ}}
|({{IPA link|ʑ}}ː)
|
|({{IPA link|ɣ}})
|({{IPA|ɣʲ}})
|-
! colspan="2" | Approximant
|
|
| {{IPA link|ɫ}}
| {{IPA|lʲ}}
|
|
|{{IPA link|j}}
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Trill
|
|
|{{IPA link|r}}
|{{IPA|rʲ}}
|
|
|
|
|
|}

Russian is notable for its distinction based on palatalization of most of its consonants. While {{IPA|/ts, k, ɡ, x/}} do have true palatalized allophones {{IPA|[tsʲ, kʲ, ɡʲ, xʲ]}}, only {{IPA|/kʲ/}} might be considered a phoneme, though it is marginal and generally not considered distinctive. The only native minimal pair that argues for {{IPA|/kʲ/}} being a separate phoneme is {{lang|ru|это {{wikt-lang|ru|ткать|ткёт}}}} ({{IPA|[ˈɛtə tkʲɵt]}} ''eto tkyot'' – "it weaves"){{spaced en dash}} {{lang|ru|этот {{wikt-lang|ru|кот}}}} ({{IPA|[ˈɛtət kot]}}, ''etot kot'' – "this cat"). The phoneme /{{IPA|ts}}/ is generally considered to be always hard; however, loan words such as [[Place:Zürich|Цюрих]] and some other neologisms contain /{{IPA|tsʲ}}/ through the word-building processes (e.g. фрицёнок, шпицята). 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 {{IPA|/dʲ/}}, the tongue is raised enough to produce slight frication (affricate sounds; cf. Belarusian ць, дзь, or Polish ć, dź). The sounds {{IPA|/t, d, ts, s, z, n, rʲ/}} are dental, that is, pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the teeth rather than against the [[Medicine:Alveolar ridge|alveolar ridge]]. According to some linguists, the "plain" consonants are velarized as in [[Social:Irish language|Irish]], something which is most noticeable when it involves a labial before a hard vowel, such as мы, {{IPA|/mˠiː/}}, "we" , or бэ, {{IPA|/bˠɛ/}}, "the letter Б".

=== Vowels ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; float: left; margin-right: 1em;"
!
! Front
! Central
! Back
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | Close
| style="font-size:90%" | {{IPA link|i}}
| style="font-size:90%" | ({{IPA link|ɨ}})
| style="font-size:90%" | {{IPA link|u}}
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | Mid
| style="font-size:90%" | {{IPA link|e̞|e}}
|
| style="font-size:90%" | {{IPA link|o̞|o}}
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | Open
|
| style="font-size:90%" | {{IPA link|ä|a}}
|
|}

[[File:Russian vowel chart.svg|thumb|Russian vowel chart by {{Harvcoltxt|Trofimov|Jones|1923|p=55}}]]

Russian has five or six vowels in stressed syllables, {{IPA|/i, u, e, o, a/}}, and in some analyses {{IPA|/ɨ/}}, but in most cases these vowels have merged to only two to four vowels when unstressed: {{IPA|/i, u, a/}} (or {{IPA|/ɨ, u, a/}}) after hard consonants and {{IPA|/i, u/}} after soft ones. These vowels have several allophones, which are displayed on the diagram to the right.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-01-27 |title=Russian Vowels: All the Rules You Need to Know {{!}} FluentU Russian Blog |url=https://www.fluentu.com/blog/russian/russian-vowels/ |access-date=2023-11-28 |website=FluentU Russian |language=en-US |archive-date=January 4, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240104031432/https://www.fluentu.com/blog/russian/russian-vowels/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Ordin, Mikhail. (2011). Palatalization and Intrinsic Prosodic Vowel Features in Russian. Language and speech. 54. 547-68. 10.1177/0023830911404962.</ref>

== Grammar ==


Russian has preserved an [[Social:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] [[Social:Synthetic language|synthetic]]-[[Social:Inflection|inflection]]al structure, although considerable leveling has occurred.
Russian grammar encompasses:

* a highly [[Social:Fusional language|fusional]] '''morphology'''
* a '''syntax''' that, for the literary language, is the conscious fusion of three elements:<ref name="rbthdialects">{{Cite web|url=https://www.rbth.com/education/328851-dialects-russian-language/amp|title=Can Russians from different parts of the country understand each other?|website=www.rbth.com|access-date=February 16, 2020|archive-date=March 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200313070741/https://www.rbth.com/education/328851-dialects-russian-language/amp|url-status=live}}</ref>
** a polished [[Social:Vernacular|vernacular]] foundation;{{clarify|What is this supposed to mean?|date=August 2014}}
** a Church Slavonic inheritance;
** a Western European style.{{clarify|What is this supposed to mean?|date=August 2014}}

The spoken language has been influenced by the literary one but continues to preserve characteristic forms. The dialects show various non-standard grammatical features,<ref name="rbthdialects"/> some of which are archaisms or descendants of old forms since discarded by the literary language.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

In terms of actual grammar, there are three tenses in Russian{{spaced en dash}} past, present, and future{{spaced en dash}} and each verb has two aspects (perfective and imperfective). Russian nouns each have a gender{{spaced en dash}} either feminine, masculine, or neuter, chiefly indicated by spelling at the end of the word. Words change depending on both their gender and function in the sentence. Russian has six cases: Nominative (for the grammatical subject), Accusative (for direct objects), Dative (for indirect objects), Genitive (to indicate possession or relation), Instrumental (to indicate 'with' or 'by means of'), and Prepositional (used after the locative prepositions в "in", на "on", о "about", при "in the presence of"). Verbs of motion in Russian{{spaced en dash}} such as 'go', 'walk', 'run', 'swim', and 'fly'{{spaced en dash}} use the imperfective or perfective form to indicate a single or return trip, and also use a multitude of [[Social:Prefix|prefix]]es to add shades of meaning to the verb. Such verbs also take on different forms to distinguish between concrete and abstract motion.<ref name="Nesset">{{cite journal|last=Nesset|first=Tore|title=Path and Manner: An Image-Schematic Approach to Russian Verbs of Motion|journal=Scando-Slavica|date=2008|volume=54|issue=1|pages=135–158|doi=10.1080/00806760802494232|s2cid=123427088}}</ref>

== Vocabulary ==
[[File:Karion Istomin's alphabet P.jpg|thumb|This page from an "ABC" book printed in Moscow in 1694 shows the letter '''П'''.]]

The number of listed words or entries in some of the major dictionaries published during the past two centuries, are as follows:<ref>[http://www.gramota.ru/slovari/types/17_26 ''What types of dictionaries exist?''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120117151535/http://www.gramota.ru/slovari/types/17_26 |date=January 17, 2012}} from www.gramota.ru {{in lang|ru}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://yarus.asu.edu.ru/?id=426|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112125045/http://www.yarus.aspu.ru/?id=426|url-status=dead|title={section.caption}|archive-date=January 12, 2012|website=yarus.asu.edu.ru|access-date=February 16, 2020}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto; 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.
|-
|Academic dictionary, III Ed.||1847||114,749||Russian and Church Slavonic with Old Russian vocabulary.
|-
|''Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language'' (Dahl's)||1880–1882||195,844||44,000 entries lexically grouped; attempt to catalogue the full vernacular language. Contains many dialectal, local, and obsolete words.
|-
|''Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language'' (Ushakov's)||1934–1940||85,289||Current language with some archaisms.
|-
|Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language (Ozhegov's)||1950–1965<br/>1991&nbsp;(2nd&nbsp;ed.)
||120,480||"Full" 17-volumed dictionary of the contemporary language. The second 20-volumed edition was begun in 1991, but not all volumes have been finished.
|-
<!-- odd name, how is it called in Russian? |Dictionary and Culture of Russian Speech||1950s–1960s||61,458||More or less than-current language.
|- -->
|Lopatin's dictionary||1999–2013||≈200,000||Orthographic, current language, several editions
|-
|Great Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language||1998–2009||≈130,000||Current language, the dictionary has many subsequent editions from the first one of 1998.
|-
|}

== History and literary language ==

No single periodization is universally accepted, but the history of the Russian language is sometimes divided into the following periods:<ref>{{cite book |author=Лопатин В. В., Улуханов И. С. |chapter=Восточнославянские языки. Русский язык |title=Языки мира. Славянские языки |location=М. |year=2005 |publisher=Academia |pages=448–450 |isbn=978-5-87444-216-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Development of Tense and Aspect Systems |date=2022 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |location=Amsterdam/Philadelphia |isbn=9789027257444 |pages=12}}</ref><ref name="Matthews">{{cite book |last1=Matthews |first1=W. K. |title=The structure and development of Russian |date=2013 |location=Cambridge |isbn=9781107619395 |pages=112–113 |edition=First paperback |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref>
* Old Russian or Old East Slavic (until the 14th or 15th century)
* Middle Russian (14th or 15th century until the 17th or 18th century)
* Modern Russian (17th century or 18th century to the present)

The history of the Russian language is also divided into ''Old Russian'' from the 11th to 17th centuries, followed by ''Modern Russian''.<ref name="Matthews"/>

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 [[Place:Kievan Rus'|Kievan Rus']] in about 880, from which modern Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus trace their origins, established Old East Slavic as a literary and commercial language. It was soon followed by the adoption of Christianity in 988 and the introduction of the South Slavic [[Social:Old Church Slavonic|Old Church Slavonic]] as the liturgical and official language. Borrowings and [[Social:Calque|calque]]s from Byzantine Greek began to enter the Old East Slavic and spoken dialects at this time, which in their turn modified the Old Church Slavonic as well.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

[[File:Ostromir Gospel 1.jpg|thumb|left|The Ostromir Gospels of 1056 is the second oldest East Slavic book known, one of many medieval illuminated manuscripts preserved in the Russian National Library.]]
Dialectal differentiation accelerated after the breakup of Kievan Rus' in approximately 1100. On the territories of modern Belarus and Ukraine emerged [[Social:Ruthenian language|Ruthenian]] and in modern Russia medieval Russian. They became distinct since the 13th&nbsp;century, i.e. following the division of the land between the [[Place:Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Grand Duchy of Lithuania]] and the Poland in the west and independent Novgorod and Pskov feudal republics plus numerous small duchies (which came to be vassals of the Tatars) in the east.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

The official language in Moscow and Novgorod, and later, in the growing Muscovy, was Church Slavonic, which evolved from Old Church Slavonic and remained [[Social:Diglossia|the literary language]] for centuries, until the Petrine age, when its usage became limited to biblical and liturgical texts. Russian developed under a strong influence of Church Slavonic until the close of the 17th&nbsp;century; afterward the influence reversed, leading to corruption of liturgical texts.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

The political reforms of Peter the Great (Пётр Вели́кий, ''Pyótr Velíky'') 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 daily, and German sometimes. Many Russian novels of the 19th&nbsp;century, e.g. [[Biography:Leo Tolstoy|Leo Tolstoy]]'s (Лев Толсто́й) ''War and Peace'', contain entire paragraphs and even pages in French with no translation given, with an assumption that educated readers would not need one.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

The modern literary language is usually considered to date from the time of Alexander Pushkin ({{lang|ru|Алекса́ндр Пу́шкин}}) in the first third of the 19th&nbsp;century. Pushkin revolutionized Russian literature by rejecting archaic grammar and vocabulary (so-called {{lang|ru|высо́кий стиль}} — "high style") in favor of grammar and vocabulary found in the spoken language of the time. Even modern readers of younger age may only experience slight difficulties understanding some words in Pushkin's texts, since relatively few words used by Pushkin have become archaic or changed meaning. In fact, many expressions used by Russian writers of the early 19th&nbsp;century, in particular Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov ({{lang|ru|Михаи́л Ле́рмонтов}}), Nikolai Gogol ({{lang|ru|Никола́й Го́голь}}), Aleksander Griboyedov ({{lang|ru|Алекса́ндр Грибое́дов}}), became proverbs or sayings which can be frequently found even in modern Russian colloquial speech.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

{{Listen|filename=Ru-Zimniy vecher.ogg|title=Winter Evening|description=Reading of excerpt of Pushkin's "Winter Evening" (Зимний вечер), 1825.|format=[[Software:Ogg|Ogg]]}}

{|
! Russian text || Pronunciation || Transliteration || English Translation
|-
| {{lang|ru|'''Зи́мний ве́чер'''}} || {{IPA-ru|ˈzʲimnʲɪj ˈvʲetɕɪr|}} || '''''Zímnij véčer''''' || '''Winter evening'''
|-
| {{lang|ru|Бу́ря мгло́ю не́бо кро́ет,}} || {{IPA-ru|ˈburʲə ˈmɡɫoju ˈnʲɛbə ˈkroɪt|}} || ''Búrja mglóju nébo krójet,'' || The storm covers the sky with a haze
|-
| {{lang|ru|Ви́хри сне́жные крутя́;}} || {{IPA-ru|ˈvʲixrʲɪ ˈsʲnʲɛʐnɨɪ krʊˈtʲa|}} || ''Víhri snéžnyje krutjá,'' || As it swirls heaps of snow in the air.
|-
| {{lang|ru|То, как зверь, она́ заво́ет,}} || {{IPA-ru|ˈto kaɡ zvʲerʲ ɐˈna zɐˈvoɪt|}} || ''To, kak zveŕ, oná zavójet,'' || At times, it howls like a beast,
|-
| {{lang|ru|То запла́чет, как дитя́,}} || {{IPA-ru|ˈto zɐˈpɫatɕɪt, kaɡ dʲɪˈtʲa|}} || ''To zapláčet, kak ditjá,'' || And then cries like a child;
|-
| {{lang|ru|То по кро́вле обветша́лой}} || {{IPA-ru|ˈto pɐˈkrovlʲɪ ɐbvʲɪtˈʂaɫəj|}} || ''To po króvle obvetšáloj'' || At times, on top of the threadbare roof,
|-
| {{lang|ru|Вдруг соло́мой зашуми́т,}} || {{IPA-ru|ˈvdruk sɐˈɫoməj zəʂʊˈmʲit|}} || ''Vdrug solómoj zašumít,'' || It suddenly rustles straw,
|-
| {{lang|ru|То, как пу́тник запозда́лый,}} || {{IPA-ru|ˈto ˈkak ˈputʲnʲɪɡ zəpɐˈzdaɫɨj|}} || ''To, kak pútnik zapozdályj'' || And then, like a late traveller,
|-
| {{lang|ru|К нам в око́шко застучи́т.}} || {{IPA-ru|ˈknam vɐˈkoʂkə zəstʊˈtɕit|}} || ''K nam v okóško zastučít.'' || It knocks upon our window.
|}

:

The political upheavals of the early 20th 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 [[Biography:Cosmonaut|cosmonaut]]ics), gave Russian a worldwide prestige, especially during the mid-20th century.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

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, although it was declared the official language only in 1990.<ref>[http://legal-ussr.narod.ru/data01/tex10935.htm "Закон СССР от 24 April 1990 О языках народов СССР"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508201331/http://legal-ussr.narod.ru/data01/tex10935.htm |date=May 8, 2016}} (The 1990 USSR Law about the Languages of the USSR) {{in lang|ru}}</ref> Following the break-up of the USSR in 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 discourse throughout the region has continued.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

The Russian language in the world declined after 1991 due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and decrease in the number of Russians in the world and diminution of the total population in Russia (where Russian is an official language), however {{Clarify|reason=The decline, decrease, or diminution; or all three?|date=October 2022|text=this}} has since been reversed.<ref name="demoscope.ru"/><ref name=autogenerated20130215-1/><ref name="Mof.gov.cy">{{cite web |date=May 23, 2012 |title=журнал "Демоскоп". Где есть потребность в изучении русского языка |url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2008/0329/tema04.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130405005201/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2008/0329/tema04.php |archive-date=April 5, 2013 |access-date=June 18, 2013 |website=Mof.gov.cy |language=ru}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Recent estimates of the total number of speakers of Russian
! 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 (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 ||||
|}

According to figures published in 2006 in the journal "Demoskop Weekly" research deputy director of Research Center for Sociological Research of the Ministry of Education and Science (Russia) Arefyev A. L.,<ref>{{cite web |last=Арефьев |first=А. Л |script-title=ru:Сведения об авторе |url=http://www.socioprognoz.ru/index.php?page_id=80&id=2 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511073946/http://www.socioprognoz.ru/index.php?page_id=80&id=2 |archive-date=May 11, 2013 |access-date=June 18, 2013 |publisher=Socioprognoz.ru |language=ru}}</ref> the Russian language is gradually losing its position in the world in general, and in Russia in particular.<ref name="autogenerated20130215-1">{{cite web |last=Арефьев |first=А. |script-title=ru:Меньше россиян — меньше русскоговорящих|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2006/0251/tema04.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130308114712/http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2006/0251/tema04.php |archive-date=March 8, 2013 |access-date=June 18, 2013 |publisher=Demoscope.ru |language=ru}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Арефьев |first=А. |script-title=ru:В странах Азии, Африки и Латинской Америки наш язык стремительно утрачивает свою роль |url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2006/0251/tema03.php|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130308100454/http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2006/0251/tema03.php|archive-date=March 8, 2013 |access-date=June 18, 2013 |publisher=Demoscope.ru |language=ru}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated2">{{cite web |last=Арефьев |first=А. |script-title=ru:Будет ли русский в числе мировых языков в будущем? |url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2006/0251/tema05.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512104646/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2006/0251/tema05.php |archive-date=May 12, 2013 |access-date=June 18, 2013 |publisher=Demoscope.ru |language=ru}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Арефьев|first=А.|script-title=ru:Падение статуса русского языка на постсоветском пространстве |url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2006/0251/tema01.php|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130308114703/http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2006/0251/tema01.php |archive-date=March 8, 2013 |access-date=June 18, 2013 |publisher=Demoscope.ru |language=ru}}</ref> In 2012, A. L. Arefyev published a new study "Russian language at the turn of the 20th–21st centuries", in which he confirmed his conclusion about the trend of weakening of the Russian language after the Soviet Union's collapse in various regions of the world (findings published in 2013 in the journal "Demoskop Weekly").<ref name="demoscope.ru"/><ref>{{cite web |script-title=ru:Все меньше школьников обучаются на русском языке |url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2013/0571/tema03.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140805082906/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2013/0571/tema03.php |archive-date=August 5, 2014 |access-date=April 23, 2014 |publisher=Demoscope.ru |language=ru}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |script-title=ru:Русский Язык На Рубеже Xx-Ххi Веков |url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2013/0571/biblio01.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201203021/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2013/0571/biblio01.php |archive-date=February 1, 2014 |access-date=April 23, 2014 |publisher=Demoscope.ru |language=ru}}</ref><ref name=autogenerated20130213-1>[http://www.civisbook.ru/files/File/russkij_yazyk.pdf Русский язык на рубеже XX-XXI веков] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615042230/http://www.civisbook.ru/files/File/russkij_yazyk.pdf |date=June 15, 2013}} — М.: Центр социального прогнозирования и маркетинга, 2012. — 482 стр.</ref> In the countries of the former [[Place:Soviet Union|Soviet Union]] the Russian language was being replaced or used in conjunction with local languages.<ref name="demoscope.ru"/><ref>{{cite web |script-title=ru:журнал "Демоскоп". Русский язык — советский язык? |url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2008/0329/tema01.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130402125223/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2008/0329/tema01.php |archive-date=April 2, 2013 |access-date=June 18, 2013 |website=Demoscope.ru |language=ru}}</ref> Currently, the number of speakers of Russian in the world depends on the number of Russians in the world and total population in Russia.<ref name="demoscope.ru"/><ref name=autogenerated20130215-1/><ref name="Mof.gov.cy"/>

{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
|+ The changing proportion of Russian speakers in the world<br />(assessment Aref'eva 2012)<ref name="demoscope.ru"/><ref name=autogenerated20130213-1/>{{rp|387}}
|- style=vertical-align:bottom
! Year || worldwide<br />population,<br /><br />billion || population<br />Russian Empire,<br />Soviet Union and<br />Russian Federation,<br /><br />million || share in world<br />population,<br /><br />% || total number<br />of speakers<br />of Russian,<br /><br />million || share in world<br />population,<br /><br />%
|-
| 1900 || 1.650 || 138.0 ||&nbsp; 8.4 || 105 || 6.4
|-
| 1914 || 1.782 || 182.2 ||&nbsp; 10.2 || 140 || 7.9
|-
| 1940 || 2.342 || 205.0 ||&nbsp; 8.8 || 200 || 7.6
|-
| 1980 || 4.434 || 265.0 ||&nbsp; 6.0 || 280 || 6.3
|-
| 1990 || 5.263 || 286.0 ||&nbsp; 5.4 || 312 || 5.9
|-
| 2004 || 6.400 || 146.0 ||&nbsp; 2.3 || 278 || 4.3
|-
| 2010 || 6.820 || 142.7 ||&nbsp; 2.1 || 260 || 3.8
|-
| 2020 || 7.794 || 147.3 ||&nbsp; 1.8 || 256 || 3.3
|}

== Sample text ==
Article 1 of the ''[[Philosophy:Universal Declaration of Human Rights|Universal Declaration of Human Rights]]'' in Russian:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Russian (Russky) |url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/human-rights/universal-declaration/translations/russian |access-date=December 6, 2023 |archive-date=December 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207181634/https://www.ohchr.org/en/human-rights/universal-declaration/translations/russian |url-status=live }}</ref><blockquote>Все люди рождаются свободными и равными в своем достоинстве и правах. Они наделены разумом и совестью и должны поступать в отношении друг друга в духе братства.</blockquote>The [[Social:Romanization of Russian|romanization]] of the text into Latin alphabet:<blockquote>''Vse lyudi rozhdayutsya svobodnymi i ravnymi v svoyem dostoinstve i pravakh. Oni nadeleny razumom i sovest'yu i dolzhny postupat' v otnoshenii drug druga v dukhe bratstva.''</blockquote>Article 1 of the ''Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' in English:<ref>{{cite news |last1=Nations |first1=United |title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights |newspaper=United Nations |url=https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights |access-date=December 6, 2023 |archive-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316050452/https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights |url-status=live }}</ref><blockquote>All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.</blockquote>

== See also ==
* List of English words of Russian origin
* List of Russian language topics
* List of countries and territories where Russian is an official language
* [[Computer Russification]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
; In English
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |title=Introduction to the Phonological History of the Slavic Languages |last=Carleton |first=T. R. |year=1991 |publisher=Slavica Press |location=Columbus, Ohio |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Comrie |first1=Bernard S. |last2=Stone |first2=Gerald |last3=Polinsky |first3=Maria |title=The Russian Language in the Twentieth Century |edition=2nd |location=Oxford, England |publisher=[[Organization:Oxford University Press|Oxford University Press]] |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-19-824066-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/russianlanguagei00comr |ref=none }}
* {{cite book |last=Cubberley |first=P. |title=Russian: A Linguistic Introduction|edition=1st|location=Cambridge, England |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-521-79641-5 |ref=none}}
* [https://www.academia.edu/33192973/THE_RUSSIAN_GENITIVE_OF_NEGATION_AND_ITS_JAPANESE_COUNTERPART Iliev, Iv. The Russian Genitive of Negation and Its Japanese Counterpart. International Journal of Russian Stidies. 1, 2018 (In Print)]
* {{cite book |last=Isurin |first=Ludmila |date=2011 |title=Russian Diaspora Culture, Identity, and Language Change |location=Berlin |publisher=Walter de Gruyter, Inc. |isbn=9781934078457}}
* O'Brien, M.A., New English–Russian and Russian–English Dictionary (New Orthography), New York, The Language Library 1944, Dover Publications.
*{{cite book|last=Shohamy|first=Elana|title=Language policy: hidden agendas and new approaches|year=2006|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=9780415328647 |ref=none}}
*{{cite book|last1=Spolsky|first1=Bernard|title=The languages of Israel: policy, ideology, and practice|year=1999|publisher=Multilingual Matters|location=Clevedon, UK|isbn=9781853594519 |last2=Shohamy |first2=Elana }}
* {{cite book
| last1=Sussex
| first1=Roland
| last2=Cubberley |first2=Paul
| title=The Slavic languages
| publisher={{wipe|Cambridge University Press}}
| year=2006
| location=Cambridge, England
| isbn=978-0-521-22315-7
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Timberlake
|first=Alan
|title=A Reference Grammar of Russian
|location=New York, NY
|publisher={{wipe|Cambridge University Press}}
|year=2004
|isbn=978-0-521-77292-1
|url=http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/european-language-and-linguistics/reference-grammar-russian?format=HB
|access-date=May 6, 2015
|archive-date=September 7, 2014
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907175751/http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/european-language-and-linguistics/reference-grammar-russian?format=HB
|url-status=live
}}
* {{cite book
| last=Timberlake
| first=Alan
| chapter=Russian
| title=The Slavonic languages
| publisher=Routledge
| editor1-last=Comrie
| editor1-first=Bernard
| editor2-last=Corbett
| editor2-first=Greville G.
| year=1993
| location=London, England; New York, NY
| pages=827–886
| isbn=978-0-415-04755-5
| ref=none
}}
* {{cite book
| last1=Trofimov
| first1=Michael V.
| last2=Jones
| first2=Daniel
| title=The Pronunciation of Russian
| series=Cambridge primers of pronunciation
| place=Cambridge
| publisher=University Press
| date=1923
}}
* {{cite book |last=Wade |first=Terence |year=2000 |editor-last=Holman |editor-first=Michael |title=A Comprehensive Russian Grammar |edition=2nd |location=Oxford, England |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |isbn=978-0-631-20757-3 |ref=none}}
{{refend}}

{{col-2}}
; In Russian
{{refbegin}}
* [http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2013/0571/tema02.php журнал «Демоскоп Weekly» № 571 – 572 14 – 31 октября 2013. А. Арефьев. Тема номера: сжимающееся русскоязычие. Демографические изменения - не на пользу русскому языку] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140805090035/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2013/0571/tema02.php |date=August 5, 2014 }}
* [http://www.civisbook.ru/files/File/russkij_yazyk.pdf Русский язык на рубеже XX-XXI веков] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615042230/http://www.civisbook.ru/files/File/russkij_yazyk.pdf |date=June 15, 2013 }} — М.: Центр социального прогнозирования и маркетинга, 2012. — 482 стр. Аннотация книги в [http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2013/0571/biblio01.php РУССКИЙ ЯЗЫК НА РУБЕЖЕ XX-XXI ВЕКОВ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201203021/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2013/0571/biblio01.php |date=February 1, 2014 }}
* [http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2008/0329/tema04.php журнал «Демоскоп Weekly» № 329 – 330 14 – 27 апреля 2008. К. Гаврилов. Е. Козиевская. Е. Яценко. Тема номера: русский язык на постсоветских просторах. Где есть потребность в изучении русского языка] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130405005201/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2008/0329/tema04.php |date=April 5, 2013 }}
* [http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2006/0251/tema05.php журнал «Демоскоп Weekly» № 251 – 252 19 июня – 20 августа 2006. А. Арефьев. Тема номера: сколько людей говорят и будут говорить по-русски? Будет ли русский в числе мировых языков в будущем?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512104646/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2006/0251/tema05.php |date=May 12, 2013 }}
* 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.
* Новиков Л. А. Современный русский язык: для высшей школы. — М.: Лань, 2003.
* Филин Ф. П. [http://www.philology.ru/linguistics2/filin-82.htm О словарном составе языка Великорусского народа.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080130042407/http://www.philology.ru/linguistics2/filin-82.htm |date=January 30, 2008 }} // Вопросы языкознания. — М., 1982, No. 5. — С. 18—28
{{refend}}
{{col-end}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
* [https://russianenthusiast.com/ Russian Enthusiast] - Prominent Russian language resource for English speakers
* [http://www.ruscorpora.ru/ Национальный корпус русского языка] National Corpus of the Russian Language {{in lang|ru}}
* [http://www.ruslang.ru/ Russian Language Institute] Language regulator of the Russian language {{in lang|ru}}

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