Russian Language
Russian is a Slavic language primarily spoken in Russia and surrounding countries in Central and Eastern Europe. It evolved from Proto-Slavic, the ancestral language of all Slavic languages, and has undergone significant changes over two millennia, incorporating elements from various languages. Today, over 250 million people communicate in Russian, making it a prominent language globally.
Historically, Russian developed from Old Russian, which emerged in the first century and was influenced by languages such as Byzantine Greek and Old Norse. A key milestone in its formation was the creation of the Cyrillic alphabet by the Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Methodius, which allowed for the translation of religious texts into Slavic.
In the late 1300s, Middle Russian emerged, which incorporated elements from Greek, Polish, and German. The language continued to modernize and adapt, especially during the 1800s as it absorbed influences from French and Latin, and more recently, English. Today, Russian serves as an official language in several countries, including Belarus and Kazakhstan, and is recognized as one of the six official languages of the United Nations, reflecting its ongoing geopolitical significance.
Russian Language
Russian is a Slavic language most commonly spoken in Russia and in nearby central and eastern European countries. It is one of many languages born out of Proto-Slavic, the ancient lingual base of all contemporary Slavic languages. Modern Russian developed in stages over two thousand years, incorporating elements of many other existing languages while continually evolving from its earlier forms. Today more than 250 million people around the world speak Russian.
History and Classification
Some academics assert that Russian and the majority of the other Slavic languages such as Ukrainian and Polish developed out of Old Church Slavonic, while others claim that Old Church Slavonic was not a base language but rather a dialect of an existing Slavic language. In either case, the Slavic language family arose slowly in ancient times. In what is now central and eastern Europe, the peoples who became known as the Slavs initially spoke their own form of Proto-Indo-European, the earliest known base of all modern European languages, spoken from about 4500 to 2500 B.C.E.
As each group of Proto-Indo-European speakers spread across Europe and Asia, they gradually formed their own dialects of the common continental language. After enough time, these dialects had become so localized and specific to their speakers that each truly became its own new language, almost indistinguishable from others that had grown out of the same Proto-Indo-European. The earliest form of the Slavic languages is now known as Proto-Slavic, or Common Slavic.
In the early years of the first century C.E., various speakers of Proto-Slavic dispersed into their own regions of central and eastern Europe. Here the language-formation processes occurred again, with each isolated community slowly developing its own unique variation of the once universal Slavic. The eventual results of these splits were the earliest forms of the modern Slavic languages known today. Czech and Polish, for example, were spoken in the western Slavic regions; Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian in the south; and Russian, the antiquated form now called Old Russian, in the east.
Old Russian would be spoken continuously from the first century to the 1300s C.E. This language also branched out into its own dialects, such as Old East Slavic and Old Ruthenian. Old Russian was also influenced and modified by a number of other language elements that medieval Russians encountered as they traveled throughout Europe. Speakers of Old Russian borrowed from languages that included Byzantine Greek; Gothic, an ancient language of the Germanic Goth tribes; and the Old Norse languages of Scandinavia.
A major event in the formation of the modern Russian language was the codification of what became known as the Cyrillic alphabet, a Slavic written language created by followers of the Byzantine missionary brothers Cyril and Methodius. The brothers had traveled to eastern Europe to teach the Slavs the Bible and convert them to Christianity. However, finding that the Russian people had not created a written form of Old Russian and could not read the Christian writings in Greek, Cyril and Methodius set about inventing an entirely new alphabet for the Slavs.
The brothers' original alphabet is known as the Glagolitic, or the Slavic alphabet. It was codified specifically so that the Bible and other Christian records could be translated from Greek to Slavic. Cyril and Methodius died in the 800s C.E., but their followers continued to refine their alphabet after their deaths. In the First Bulgarian Empire in the 900s C.E., these followers developed the Cyrillic alphabet from the Glagolitic. The Cyrillic alphabet contained twenty-four letters from the Greek alphabet on which it was based and an additional nineteen letters representing unique Slavic language components.
The Middle Russian language emerged in the late 1300s, when the Russian people deposed their Mongol rulers and established their new capital in Moscow. Over the next four hundred years, the people added components of Greek, Polish, and German to Russian to form new language hybrids that persisted until the early modern period of the 1800s.
At that time, the Russian language began modernizing itself to become friendlier to western European culture. It shed some of its Byzantine Greek elements while adding linguistics from French and Latin. Throughout the 1900s, modern Russian became even more westernized as it picked up English influences to compete with the United States. Today, as Russia is a major actor in international affairs, the Russian language remains relevant on the global stage.
Geographic Distribution and Modern Usage
In the twenty-first century, more than 250 million people worldwide speak Russian. The majority of speakers are located in Eurasia, the single landmass composed of continental Europe and Asia, where Russia is located. However, Russian is not only spoken in the Russian Federation; it is also the official language of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, and is spoken prominently in Ukraine.
The diffusion of the Russian language among these and many other nations in the region is due to the countries' historical dominance by Russia. The most notable example of this is the reign of the Soviet Union, lasting from 1917 to 1991. During these years, this Communist incarnation of Russia forcibly controlled many of the smaller surrounding countries in eastern Europe. Today, as one of the six official languages of the United Nations, Russian continues to enjoy a significant place among world languages.
Bibliography
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