Russian language
East Slavic language / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Russian[lower-alpha 5] is an East Slavic language, spoken primarily in Russia. It is the native language of the Russians and belongs to the Indo-European language family. It is one of four living East Slavic languages,[lower-alpha 6] and is also a part of the larger Balto-Slavic languages. It was the de facto and de jure[23] official language of the former Soviet Union.[24] Russian has remained an official language in independent Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and is still commonly used as a lingua franca in Ukraine, Moldova, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and to a lesser extent in the Baltic states and Israel.[25][26][27][28]
Russian | |
---|---|
русский язык[lower-alpha 1] | |
Pronunciation | [ˈruskʲɪi̯ jɪˈzɨk] ⓘ |
Native to | Russia, other areas of the Russian-speaking world |
Native speakers | L1: 150 million (2020 census)[1] L2: 110 million (2020 census)[1] |
Early forms | |
Cyrillic (Russian alphabet) Russian Braille | |
Official status | |
Official language in |
As inter-ethnic language but with no official status, or as official on regional level
|
Recognised minority language in | |
Regulated by | Russian Language Institute[21] at the Russian Academy of Sciences |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | ru |
ISO 639-2 | rus |
ISO 639-3 | rus |
Glottolog | russ1263 |
Linguasphere | 53-AAA-ea < 53-AAA-e |
Russian is a majority language Russian is a minority language |
Russian has over 258 million total speakers worldwide.[29] It is the most spoken native language in Europe,[30] the most spoken Slavic language,[31] as well as the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia.[31] 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.[32] Russian is one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station,[33] one of the six official languages of the United Nations,[34] as well as the fourth most widely used language on the Internet.[35]
Russian is written using the Russian alphabet of the Cyrillic script; it distinguishes between consonant phonemes 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,[36] though an optional acute accent may be used to mark stress – such as to distinguish between homographic words (e.g. замо́к [zamók, 'lock'] and за́мок [zámok, 'castle']), or to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names.