Russian language

Russian
russkiy yazyk
русский язык[1]
Pronunciation	[ˈruskʲɪj jɪˈzɨk] (listen)
Native to	Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other neighbouring Post-Soviet states
Native speakers	150 million (2010)[2] 260 million (L1 plus L2 speakers) (2012)[3]
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic East Slavic Russian
Early form	Old East Slavic
Writing system	Cyrillic (Russian alphabet) Russian Braille
Official status
Official language in	12 states  Russia (state)[4]  Belarus (state)[5]  Kazakhstan (official)[6]  Kyrgyzstan (official)[7]  Tajikistan (inter-ethnic communication)[8]  Canada: Alberta (official as in websites) Manitoba (official as in metropolitan areas) Saskatchewan (official in all the province)  Moldova: Gagauzia (official)[9] Partially recognized states:  Abkhazia[10](official)[11]  South Ossetia[10](state)[12] Unrecognised states:  Transnistria (official)[13] Former states:  Soviet Union (De facto, official since 1990; defunct state)[14] Organizations:  United Nations IAEA ICAO UNESCO WHO CIS Warsaw Pact (defunct) EAEC CSTO CMEA (defunct) GUAM[15] SCO OSCE ATS ISO
Recognised minority language in	List  Romania (regional and minority) A number of municipalities in Tulcea County and Constanța County[source?]  Ukraine (minority)[16][17] Autonomous Republic of Crimea[18] Dnipropetrovsk Oblast[source?] Donetsk Oblast[19] Kharkiv Oblast[20] Kherson Oblast[source?] Luhansk Oblast[source?] Mykolaiv Oblast[21] Odessa Oblast[22] Zaporizhia Oblast[19]  Israel  Azerbaijan  Armenia[23]  Poland[23]  Czech Republic[24]  Slovakia[23]  Latvia  Moldova[source?]  Uzbekistan[25][26][27][28]  Australia  New Zealand
Regulated by	Russian Language Institute[29] 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 (varieties: 53-AAA-eaa to 53-AAA-eat)
Countries where Russian is an official language (dark blue) or spoken as a first or second language by greater than 30% of the population (teal)

Russian (Russian: русский язык, transliteration: russkiy yaz'ik) is a Slavic language. It is the main language spoken in Russia. It is also spoken by many people in other parts of the former Soviet Union, such as in Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania, Turkmenistan and Estonia.

Russian, like other Slavic languages, is an Indo-European language. Russian is one of the three main East Slavic languages; the others are Ukrainian and Belarusian. More people speak Russian than any other Slavic language.

Written Russian does not use the Latin alphabet that English and the West Slavic languages do - some people do however, learn to write it in Latin letters. It mostly uses the Cyrillic alphabet, whose letters, like those of Latin, came from Greek, but are different from them. The other East Slavic languages and some of the South Slavic languages use the Cyrillic alphabet as well.

Russian is an official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, along with English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Chinese.

1. ↑ On the history of using "русский" ("russkij") and "российский" ("rossijskij") as the Russian adjectives denoting "Russian", see: Oleg Trubachyov. 2005. Русский – Российский. История, динамика, идеология двух атрибутов нации (pp 216–227). В поисках единства. Взгляд филолога на проблему истоков Руси., 2005. "РУССКИЙ - РОССИЙСКИЙ". Archived from the original on 2014-02-18. Retrieved 2014-01-25. . 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 73–96). Acta Slavica Iaponica. Vol 32, "The Change of the Name of the Russian Language in Russian from Rossiiskii to Russkii: Did Politics Have Anything to Do with It?" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2013-05-18. Retrieved 2013-01-07.
2. ↑ "Världens 100 största språk 2010" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2010), in Nationalencyklopedin
3. ↑ Russian language. Archived 2015-05-10 at the Wayback Machine University of Leicester. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
4. ↑ "Article 68. Constitution of the Russian Federation". Constitution.ru. Archived from the original on 2013-06-06. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
5. ↑ "Article 17. Constitution of the Republic of Belarus". President.gov.by. 1998-05-11. Archived from the original on 2007-05-02. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
6. ↑ N. Nazarbaev (2005-12-04). "Article 7. Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan". Constcouncil.kz. Archived from the original on 2007-10-20. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
7. ↑ (in Russian) Статья 10. Конституция Кыргызской Республики Archived 2012-12-22 at the Wayback Machine
8. ↑ "Article 2. Constitution of Tajikistan". Unpan1.un.org. Archived from the original on 2017-05-25. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
9. ↑ "Article 16. Legal code of Gagauzia (Gagauz-Yeri)". Gagauzia.md. 2008-08-05. Archived from the original on 2013-05-13. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} Abkhazia and South Ossetia are only partially recognized countries
11. ↑ (in Russian) Статья 6. Конституция Республики Абхазия
12. ↑ (in Russian) Статья 4. Конституция Республики Южная Осетия
13. ↑ "Article 12. Constitution of the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica". Mfa-pmr.org. Archived from the original on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
14. ↑ Constitution and Fundamental Law of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1977: Section II, Chapter 6, Article 36
15. ↑ "Charter of Organization for democracy and economic development – GUAM – GUAM". guam-organization.org. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05.
16. ↑ "Law "On Principles of State Language Policy", Article 7". Zakon2.rada.gov.ua. Archived from the original on 2013-06-16. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
17. ↑ The Constitution of Ukraine. Article 10.
18. ↑ 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.
19. ↑ ^{19.0 19.1} "Русский язык стал региональным в Севастополе, Донецкой и Запорожской обл". RosBusinessConsulting. 16 August 2012. Archived from the original on 18 August 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
20. ↑ "Русскому языку на Харьковщине предоставили статус регионального" Archived 2012-12-22 at the Wayback Machine. Ukrinform (in Russian)
21. ↑ "Николаевский облсовет сделал русский язык региональным" Archived 2012-09-09 at the Wayback Machine. Новости Донбасса (in Russian)
22. ↑ Одеська державна адміністрація (2013-06-01). "Про заходи щодо імплементації положень Закону України "Про засади державної мовної політики" на території Одеської області". Oblrada.odessa.gov.ua. Archived from the original on 2013-12-12. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
23. ↑ ^{23.0 23.1 23.2} "List of declarations made with respect to treaty No. 148 (Status as of: 21/9/2011)". Council of Europe. Archived from the original on 2012-05-22. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
24. ↑ "National Minorities Policy of the Government of the Czech Republic". Vlada.cz. Archived from the original on 2012-06-07. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
25. ↑ Юрий Подпоренко (2001). "Бесправен, но востребован. Русский язык в Узбекистане". Дружба Народов. Archived from the original on 2016-05-13. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
26. ↑ Шухрат Хуррамов (2015-09-11). "Почему русский язык нужен узбекам?". 365info.kz. Archived from the original on 2016-07-01. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
27. ↑ Евгений Абдуллаев (2009). "Русский язык: жизнь после смерти. Язык, политика и общество в современном Узбекистане". Неприкосновенный запас. Archived from the original on 2016-06-23. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
28. ↑ А. Е. Пьянов. "СТАТУС РУССКОГО ЯЗЫКА В СТРАНАХ СНГ". 2011. Archived from the original on 2016-05-28. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
29. ↑ "Russian Language Institute". Ruslang.ru. Archived from the original on 2010-07-19. Retrieved 2010-05-16.