Russian language
{{Infobox Language
|name=Russian
|nativename={{lang|ru|Русский язык}} ''{{transl|ru|ALA|Russkiy yazyk}}''
| pronunciation=[ˈruskʲɪj]
|states=[[Commonwealth of Independent States]], [[Uruguay]] ([[San Javier, Uruguay|San Javier]]), [[Israel]], [[People's republic of China|China]]{{Fact|date=June 2008}} and the [[Baltic States]].
|speakers=primary language: about 164 million <br/>secondary language: 114 million (2006)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://eng.expert.ru/printissues/countries/2006/09/russkiy_yazyk_v_blizhayshem_zarubezhe/|title=How do you say that in Russian?|publisher=[[Expert (Russian magazine)|Expert]]|year=2006|accessdate=2008-02-26}}</ref> <br/>total: 300 - 350 million
|rank=8 (native)
|familycolor=Indo-European
|fam1        = [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]]
|fam2        = [[Satem languages|Satem]]
|fam3        = [[Balto-Slavic languages|Balto-Slavic]]
|fam4        = [[Slavic languages|Slavic]]
|fam5        = [[East slavic languages|East Slavic]]
|script=[[Cyrillic alphabet|Cyrillic]] ([[Russian alphabet|Russian variant]])
|nation={{flag|Belarus}}<br>{{flag|Commonwealth of Independent States}} <small>(''working'')</small><br>{{flag|Georgia}} <small>([[Abkhazia]] and [[South Ossetia]])</small><br>[[Image:Flag of IAEA.svg|22px|border]] [[International Atomic Energy Agency]]<br>{{flag|Kazakhstan}}<br>{{Flag|Kyrgyzstan}}<br>{{flag|Moldova}} <small>([[Gagauzia]] and [[Transnistria]])</small><br>{{flag|Russia}}<br>{{flag|Turkmenistan}}<br>{{flagicon|Ukraine}} [[Crimea]], [[Ukraine]] <small>(''[[de facto]]'')<br>{{UNO}}
|agency=[[Russian Language Institute]]<ref>[http://www.ruslang.ru/ Russian Language Institute]</ref> at the [[Russian Academy of Sciences]]
|iso1=ru|iso2=rus|iso3=rus|map=[[Image:RussianLanguageMap.png|center|250px]]<center><small>Countries of the world where Russian is spoken.
}}

'''Russian''' (<span class="unicode audiolink">[[:Media:Ru-russkiy jizyk.ogg|{{lang|ru|русский язык}}]]</span>&nbsp;<span class="metadata audiolinkinfo"><small>([[Wikipedia:Media help|help]]•[[:Image:Ru-russkiy jizyk.ogg|info]])</small></span>, [[Romanization of Russian|transliteration]]: ''{{transl|ru|ALA|russkiy yazyk}}'', {{IPA-ru|ˈruskʲɪj jɪˈzɨk}}) is the most geographically widespread language of [[Eurasia]], the most widely spoken of the [[Slavic languages]], and the largest [[native language]] in [[Europe]]. Russian belongs to the family of [[Indo-European languages]] and is one of three (or, according to some authorities {{Fact|date=July 2008}}, four) living members of the [[East Slavic languages]], the others being [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] and [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] (and possibly [[Rusyn language|Rusyn]], often considered a dialect of Ukrainian). It is also spoken by the countries of the [[Russophone]].

Written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century onwards. Today Russian is widely used outside [[Russia]]. It is applied as a means of coding and storage of universal knowledge — 60–70% of all world information is published in English and Russian languages.<ref name=lomonosov>[[Moscow State University]], Russian Language Centre - [http://www.rlcentre.com/russian-language-course.shtml Official website]</ref> Over a quarter of the world's scientific literature is published in Russian.<ref name=lomonosov/> Russian is also a necessary accessory of world communications systems (broadcasts, air- and space communication, etc).<ref name=lomonosov/> Due to the status of the [[Soviet Union]] as a [[superpower]], Russian had great political importance in the 20th century. Hence, the language is one of the [[United Nations#Languages|official languages]] of the [[United Nations]].

Russian distinguishes between [[consonant]] [[phoneme]]s with [[palatalization|palatal]] [[secondary articulation]] and those without, the so-called ''soft'' and ''hard'' sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language. Another important aspect is the [[vowel reduction|reduction]] of [[stress (linguistics)|unstressed]] [[vowel]]s, which is somewhat similar to [[Unstressed and reduced vowels in English|that of English]]. Stress, which is unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Timberlake|2004|p=17}}</ref>. 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 doesn't make it obvious: ''замо́к/за́мок'' (lock/castle), ''сто́ящий/стоя́щий'' (worthwhile/standing), ''чудно́/чу́дно'' (this is odd/this is marvellous), ''молоде́ц/мо́лодец'' (attaboy/fine young man), ''узна́ю/узнаю́'' (I shall learn it/I am learning it), ''отреза́ть/отре́зать'' (infinitive for "cut"/perfective for "cut"); to indicate the proper pronouncation of uncommon words, especially personal and family names (''афе́ра, гу́ру, Гарси́а, Оле́ша, Фе́рми''), and to express the stressed word in the sentence (''Ты́ съел печенье?/Ты съе́л печенье?/Ты съел пече́нье?'' - Was it you who eat the cookie?/Did you eat the cookie?/Was the cookie your meal?). Acute accents are mandatory in lexical dictionaries and books intended to be used either by children or foreign readers.

==Classification==
Russian is a [[Slavic languages|Slavic language]] in the [[Indo-European Languages|Indo-European family]]. From the point of view of the [[spoken language]], its closest relatives are [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] and [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], the other two national languages in the [[East Slavic languages|East Slavic]] group. In many places in eastern [[Ukraine]] and [[Belarus]], these languages are spoken interchangeably, and in certain areas traditional bilingualism resulted in language mixture, e.g. [[Surzhyk]] in eastern Ukraine and [[Trasianka]] in Belarus. An East Slavic [[Old Novgorod dialect]], although vanished during the fifteenth or sixteenth century, is sometimes considered to have played a significant role in formation of the modern Russian language. 

The vocabulary (mainly abstract and literary words), principles of word formation, and, to some extent, inflections and literary style of Russian have been also influenced by [[Church Slavonic language|Church Slavonic]], a developed and partly adopted form of the [[South Slavic languages|South Slavic]] [[Old Church Slavonic]] language used by the [[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 languages|East Slavic]] and the [[Church Slavonic]] forms are in use, with slightly different meanings. ''For details, see [[Russian phonology]] and [[History of the Russian language]].''

Russian phonology and syntax (especially in northern dialects) have also been influenced to some extent by the numerous Finnic languages of the [[Finno-Ugric languages|Finno-Ugric subfamily]]: [[Merya language|Merya]], [[Moksha language|Moksha]], [[Muromian language|Muromian]], the language of the [[Meshchera]], [[Veps language|Veps]], et cetera. These languages, some of them now extinct, used to be spoken in the center and in the north of what is now the European part of Russia. They came in contact with Eastern Slavic as far back as the early Middle Ages and eventually served as substratum for the modern Russian language. The Russian dialects spoken north, north-east and north-west of [[Moscow]] have a considerable number of words of Finno-Ugric origin.<ref>{{cite web|title=Academic credit|publisher=Вопросы языкознания. - М., № 5. - С. 18–28| year = 1982 | url=http://www.philology.ru/linguistics2/filin-82.htm|accessdate= 2006-04-29}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Academic credit|publisher=Прибалтийско-финский компонент в русском слове |url=http://www.ksu.ru/f10/publications/konf/articles_1_1.php?id=5&num=17000000|accessdate= 2006-04-29}}</ref> Over the course of centuries, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have also been influenced by Turkic/Caucasian/Central Asian languages, as well as Western/Central European languages such as [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Latin]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[German language|German]], [[French language|French]], and [[English language|English]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911 | url=http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Russian_Language}}</ref>

According to the [[Defense Language Institute]] in [[Monterey, California]], Russian is classified as a level III language in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers,<ref>{{cite web|title=Academic credit|publisher=Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center|url=http://www.dliflc.edu/academics/academic_affairs/dli_catalog/acadcred.htm|accessdate= 2006-04-20}}</ref> requiring approximately 780 hours of immersion instruction to achieve intermediate fluency. 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 as well as due to its critical role in American world policy.

==Geographic distribution==
Russian is primarily spoken in [[Russia]] and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics of the [[Soviet Union|USSR]].  Until [[1917]], it was the sole official language of the [[Russian Empire]].{{Fact|date=July 2007}}<!--dubious -- maybe in Russia itself, but certainly not in the other parts of the empire, Poland or Grand Duchy of Finland--> 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. Following the break-up of [[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 intercourse throughout the region has continued. 

In [[Latvia]], notably, its official recognition and legality in the classroom have been a topic of considerable debate in a country where more than one-third of the population is Russian-speaking, consisting mostly of post-[[World War II]] immigrants from Russia and other parts of the former [[USSR]] (Belarus, Ukraine).{{Fact|date=July 2007}} Similarly, in [[Estonia]], the Soviet-era immigrants and their Russian-speaking descendants constitute 25,6% of the country's current population and 58,6% of the native Estonian population is also able to speak Russian.<ref>{{cite web|title=Statistics Estonia|language=English|url=http://pub.stat.ee/px-web.2001/Dialog/varval.asp?ma=PC226&ti=POPULATION+BY+ETHNIC+NATIONALITY%2C+COMMAND+OF+FOREIGN+LANGUAGES+AND+CITIZENSHIP&path=../I_Databas/Population_census/08Ethnic_nationality._Mother_tongue._Command_of_foreign_languages/&lang=1|accessdate= 2007-10-23}}</ref> In all, 67,8% of Estonia's population can speak Russian.

In [[Kazakhstan]] and [[Kyrgyzstan]], Russian remains a co-official language with [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]] and [[Kyrgyz language|Kyrgyz]] respectively. Large Russian-speaking communities still exist in northern Kazakhstan, and ethnic Russians comprise 25.6 % of Kazakhstan's population.<ref>[http://prosites-kazakhembus.homestead.com/042007.html Kazakhstan's News Bulletin, April 20, 2007]</ref>

A much smaller Russian-speaking minority in [[Lithuania]] has represented less than 1/10 of the country's overall population. Nevertheless more than half of the population of the [[Baltic states]] are able to hold a conversation in Russian and almost all have at least some familiarity with the most basic spoken and written phrases.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} The Russian control of [[Finland]] in 1809–1918, however, has left few Russian speakers in Finland. There are 33,400 Russian speakers in Finland, amounting to 0.6% of the population. 5000 (0.1%) of them are late 19th century and 20th century immigrants, and the rest are recent immigrants, who have arrived in the 90's and later.

[[Image:Urinal in Ben Gurion airport.jpg|thumb|325px|left|Sign above a [[urinal]] in an [[Israel]]i international airport. Translated into four languages spoken in Israel: [[English language|English]], [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], Russian (with one spelling error), and [[Arabic language|Arabic]].]]

In the twentieth century, Russian was widely taught in the schools of the members of the old [[Warsaw Pact]] and in other [[Communist state|countries]] that used to be allies of the USSR. In particular, these countries include [[Poland]], [[Bulgaria]], the [[Czech Republic]], [[Slovakia]], [[Hungary]], [[Romania]], [[Albania]] and [[Cuba]]. However, younger generations are usually not fluent in it, because Russian is no longer mandatory in the school system. It is currently the most widely-taught foreign language in [[Mongolia]].<ref>''New York Times: For Mongolians, E Is for English, F Is for Future.'' February 15 2005</ref>

Russian is also spoken in [[Israel]] by at least 750,000 ethnic [[Jew]]ish immigrants from the former [[Soviet Union]] (1999 census). The Israeli [[Mass media|press]] and [[website]]s regularly publish material in Russian. 

Sizable Russian-speaking communities also exist in [[North America]], especially in large urban centers of the [[United States|U.S.]] and [[Canada]] such as [[New York City]], [[Philadelphia]], [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]], [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]], [[San Francisco]], [[Seattle]], [[Toronto]], [[Baltimore]], [[Miami, Florida|Miami]], [[Chicago]], [[Denver]], and the [[Cleveland, Ohio|Cleveland]] suburb of [[Richmond Heights, Ohio|Richmond Heights]]. In the former two, Russian-speaking groups total over half a million. In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, and live in their self-sufficient neighborhoods (especially the generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early sixties). Only about a quarter of them are ethnic Russians, however. Before the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], the overwhelming majority of [[Russophone]]s in North America were Russian-speaking [[Jews]]. Afterwards the influx from the countries of the former [[Soviet Union]] changed the statistics somewhat. According to the [[United States 2000 Census]], Russian is the primary language spoken in the homes of over 700,000 individuals living in the United States.

Significant Russian-speaking groups also exist in [[Western Europe]]. These have been fed by several waves of immigrants since the beginning of the twentieth century, each with its own flavor of language. [[Germany]], the [[United Kingdom]], [[Spain]], [[France]], [[Italy]], [[Belgium]], [[Greece]], [[Brazil]], [[Norway]], [[Austria]], and [[Turkey]] have significant Russian-speaking communities totaling 3 million people.

Two thirds of them are actually Russian-speaking descendants of [[German people|Germans]], [[Greeks]], [[Jews]], [[Armenians]], or [[Ukrainians]] who either repatriated after the [[USSR]] collapsed or are just looking for temporary employment.

Recent estimates of the total number of speakers of Russian:

{|class="wikitable" style="width: 620px; margin: auto" align=center cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0
|-
!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&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(2005)||275,000,000||5 
|-
|SIL (2000 WCD)||145,000,000||8||255,000,000||5–6 (tied with [[Arabic language|Arabic]])
|-
|CIA World Factbook (2005)||160,000,000||8||
|}

===Official status===
Russian is the official language of [[Russia]]. It is also an official language of [[Belarus]], [[Kazakhstan]], [[Kyrgyzstan]], an unofficial but widely spoken language in [[Ukraine]] and the de facto official language of the [[List of unrecognized countries|unrecognized]] of [[Transnistria]], [[South Ossetia]] and [[Abkhazia]]. Russian is one of the [[United Nations#Languages|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 as well as many of the former Soviet republics.

97% of the public school students of Russia, 75% in Belarus, 41% in Kazakhstan, 25% in [[Ukraine]], 23% in Kyrgyzstan, 21% in [[Moldova]], 7% in [[Azerbaijan]], 5% in [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] and 2% in [[Armenia]] and [[Tajikistan]] receive their education only or mostly in Russian. Although the corresponding percentage of ethnic Russians is 78% in [[Russia]], 10% in [[Belarus]], 26% in [[Kazakhstan]], 17% in [[Ukraine]], 9% in [[Kyrgyzstan]], 6% in [[Republic of Moldova|Moldova]], 2% in [[Azerbaijan]], 1.5% in [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] and less than 1% in both [[Armenia]] and [[Tajikistan]].

Russian-language schooling is also available in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, but due to education reforms, a number of subjects taught in Russian are reduced at the high school level.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} The language has a co-official status alongside [[Moldovan language|Moldovan]] in the autonomies of [[Gagauzia]] and [[Transnistria]] in [[Moldova]], and in seven [[Romania]]n [[Commune in Romania|communes]] in [[Tulcea County|Tulcea]] and [[Constanţa County|Constanţa]] counties. In these localities, Russian-speaking [[Lipovans]], who are a recognized ethnic minority, make up more than 20% of the population. Thus, according to Romania's minority rights law, education, signage, and access to public administration and the justice system are provided in Russian alongside Romanian. In the [[Crimea|Autonomous Republic of Crimea]] in Ukraine, Russian is an officially recognized language alongside with [[Crimean Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]], but in reality, is the only language used by the government, thus being a ''[[de facto]]'' official language.

===Dialects===
Despite leveling after 1900, especially in matters of vocabulary, a number of dialects exist in Russia. Some linguists divide the dialects of the Russian language 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 and Southern, with Moscow lying in the Central region. [[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.

The [[northern Russian dialects]] and those spoken along the [[Volga River]] typically pronounce unstressed {{IPA|/o/}} clearly (the phenomenon called [[vowel reduction in Russian#Back vowels|okanye]]/оканье). East of Moscow, particularly in [[Ryazan Region]], unstressed {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/a/}} following [[palatalization|palatalized]] consonants and preceding a stressed syllable are not reduced to {{IPA|[ɪ]}} (like in the Moscow dialect), being instead pronounced as {{IPA|/a/}} in such positions (e.g. несл'''и''' is pronounced as {{IPA|[nʲasˈlʲi]}}, not as {{IPA|[nʲɪsˈlʲi]}})  - this is called [[yakanye]]/ яканье;<ref>{{cite web|title=The Language of the Russian Village|language=Russian|url=http://www.gramota.ru/book/village/map13.html|accessdate= 2006-07-04}}</ref> many southern dialects have a palatalized final {{IPA|/tʲ/}} in 3rd person forms of verbs (this is unpalatalized in the standard dialect) and a fricative {{IPA|[ɣ]}} where the standard dialect has {{IPA|[g]}}.{{Fact|date=January 2008}} However, in certain areas south of Moscow, e.g. in and around [[Tula, Russia|Tula]], {{IPA|/g/}} is pronounced as in the Moscow and northern dialects unless it precedes a voiceless plosive or a pause. In this position {{IPA|/g/}} is lenited and devoiced to the fricative {{IPA|[x]}}, e.g. друг {{IPA|[drux]}} (in Moscow's dialect, only Бог {{IPA|[box]}}, лёгкий {{IPA|[lʲɵxʲkʲɪj]}}, мягкий {{IPA|[ˈmʲæxʲkʲɪj]}} and some derivatives follow this rule). Some of these features (e.g. a [[debuccalization|debuccalized]] or [[lenition|lenited]] {{IPA|/g/}} and palatalized final {{IPA|/tʲ/}} in 3rd person forms of verbs) are also present in modern [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], indicating either a linguistic continuum or strong influence one way or the other.

The city of [[Veliky Novgorod]] has historically displayed a feature called chokanye/tsokanye (чоканье/цоканье), where {{IPA|/ʨ/}} and {{IPA|/ʦ/}} were confused (this is thought to be due to influence from [[Finnish language|Finnish]],{{Fact|date=July 2007}} which doesn't distinguish these sounds). So, '''ц'''апля ("heron") has been recorded as 'чапля'. Also, the second palatalization of [[Velar consonant|velar]]s did not occur there, so the so-called '''ě²''' (from the Proto-Slavonic diphthong *ai) did not cause {{IPA|/k, g, x/}} to shift to {{IPA|/ʦ, ʣ, s/}}; therefore where [[Standard Russian]] has '''ц'''епь ("chain"), the form '''к'''епь {{IPA|[kʲepʲ]}} is attested in earlier texts.

Among the first to study Russian dialects was [[Mikhail Lomonosov|Lomonosov]] in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth, [[Vladimir Dal]] compiled the first dictionary that included dialectal vocabulary. Detailed mapping of Russian dialects began at the turn of the twentieth century. In modern times, the monumental ''Dialectological Atlas of the Russian Language'' (''Диалектологический атлас русского языка'' {{IPA|[dʲɪɐˌlʲɛktəlɐˈgʲiʨɪskʲɪj ˈatləs ˈruskəvə jɪzɨˈka]}}), was published in 3 folio volumes 1986–1989, after four decades of preparatory work.

The ''standard language'' is based on (but not identical to) the Moscow dialect.{{Fact|date=July 2007}}

===Derived languages===
* [[Balachka]] a dialect, spoken primarily by [[Cossacks]], in the regions of Don, [[Kuban]] and [[Terek]].
* [[Fenya]], a criminal [[argot]] of ancient origin, with Russian grammar, but with distinct vocabulary.
* [[Nadsat]], the fictional language spoken in '[[A Clockwork Orange]]' uses a lot of Russian words and Russian slang.
* [[Surzhyk]] is a language with Russian and Ukrainian features, spoken in some areas of Ukraine
* [[Trasianka]] is a language with Russian and Belarusian features used by a large portion of the rural population in [[Belarus]].
* [[Quelia]], a pseudo pidgin of German and Russian.
* [[Runglish]], 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 and/or syntax.
* [[Russenorsk language|Russenorsk]] is an extinct [[pidgin]] language with mostly Russian vocabulary and mostly [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] grammar, used for communication between [[Russians]] and [[Norway|Norwegian]] traders in the Pomor trade in [[Finnmark]] and the [[Kola Peninsula]].

==Writing system==
===Alphabet===
[[Image:Azbuka 1574 by Ivan Fyodorov.jpg|left|thumb|A page from Azbuka ([[Alphabet book]]), the first Russian textbook. Printed by [[Ivan Fyodorov (printer)|Ivan Fyodorov]] in 1574. This page features the [[Cyrillic alphabet]].]]
{{main|Russian alphabet}}
Russian is written using a modified version of the [[Cyrillic alphabet|Cyrillic (кириллица)]] alphabet. The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters.  The following table gives their upper case forms, along with [[help:IPA|IPA]] values for each letter's typical sound:

{| align=center cellpadding=4 style="text-align:center;"
|-
|[[A (Cyrillic)|А]]<br/>{{IPA|/a/}}||[[Be (Cyrillic)|Б]]<br/>{{IPA|/b/}}||[[Ve (Cyrillic)|В]]<br/>{{IPA|/v/}}||[[Ge (Cyrillic)|Г]]<br/>{{IPA|/g/}}||[[De (Cyrillic)|Д]]<br/>{{IPA|/d/}}||[[Ye (Cyrillic)|Е]]<br/>{{IPA|/je/}}||[[Yo (Cyrillic)|Ё]]<br/>{{IPA|/jo/}}||[[Zhe (Cyrillic)|Ж]]<br/>{{IPA|/ʐ/}}||[[Ze (Cyrillic)|З]]<br/>{{IPA|/z/}}||[[I (Cyrillic)|И]]<br/>{{IPA|/i/}}||[[Short I|Й]]<br/>{{IPA|/j/}}
|-
|[[Ka (Cyrillic)|К]]<br/>{{IPA|/k/}}||[[El (Cyrillic)|Л]]<br/>{{IPA|/l/}}||[[Em (Cyrillic)|М]]<br/>{{IPA|/m/}}||[[En (Cyrillic)|Н]]<br/>{{IPA|/n/}}||[[O (Cyrillic)|О]]<br/>{{IPA|/o/}}||[[Pe (Cyrillic)|П]]<br/>{{IPA|/p/}}||[[Er (Cyrillic)|Р]]<br/>{{IPA|/r/}}||[[Es (Cyrillic)|С]]<br/>{{IPA|/s/}}||[[Te (Cyrillic)|Т]]<br/>{{IPA|/t/}}||[[U (Cyrillic)|У]]<br/>{{IPA|/u/}}||[[Ef (Cyrillic)|Ф]]<br/>{{IPA|/f/}}
|-
|[[Kha|Х]]<br/>{{IPA|/h/}}||[[Tse (Cyrillic)|Ц]]<br/>{{IPA|/t͡s/}}||[[Che (Cyrillic)|Ч]]<br/>{{IPA|/t͡ɕ/}}||[[Sha|Ш]]<br/>{{IPA|/ʂ/}}||[[Shcha (Cyrillic)|Щ]] <br/>{{IPA|/ɕɕ/}}||[[Yer|Ъ]]<br/>{{IPA|/-/}}||[[Yery|Ы]]<br/> {{IPA|[ɨ]}}||[[Soft sign|Ь]]<br/>{{IPA|/◌ʲ/}}||[[E (Cyrillic)|Э]]<br/>{{IPA|/e/}}||[[Yu (Cyrillic)|Ю]]<br/>{{IPA|/ju/}}||[[Ya (Cyrillic)|Я]]<br/>{{IPA|/ja/}}
|}
Older letters of the Russian alphabet include <{{Unicode |ѣ}}>, which merged to <е> ({{IPA|/e/}}); <і> and <{{Unicode |ѵ}}>, which both merged to <и>({{IPA|/i/}}); <{{Unicode |ѳ}}>, which merged to <ф> ({{IPA|/f/}});  and <{{Unicode|ѧ}}>, which merged to <я> ({{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 [[yer]]s <ъ> and <ь> originally indicated the pronunciation of ''ultra-short'' or ''reduced'' {{IPA|/ŭ/}}, {{IPA|/ĭ/}}.
 
The Russian alphabet has many systems of [[character encoding]]. [[KOI8-R]] was designed by the government and was intended to serve as the standard encoding. This encoding is still used in UNIX-like operating systems. Nevertheless, the spread of [[MS-DOS]] and [[Microsoft Windows]] created  chaos and ended by establishing different encodings as de-facto standards. For communication purposes, a number of conversion applications were developed. \ "[[iconv]]" is an example that is supported by most versions of [[Linux]], [[Macintosh]] and some other [[operating system]]s.
Most implementations (especially old ones) of the character encoding for the Russian language are aimed at simultaneous use of English and Russian characters only and do not include support for any other language. Certain hopes for a unification 
of the character encoding for the Russian alphabet are related to the [[Unicode|Unicode standard]], specifically designed for peaceful coexistence
of various languages, including even [[dead language]]s. [[Unicode]] also supports the letters of the 
[[Early Cyrillic alphabet]], which have many similarities with the [[Greek alphabet]].
{{see|Romanization of Russian|Informal romanizations of Russian}}

===Orthography===
{{main|Russian orthography}}

Russian spelling is reasonably phonemic in practice. It is in fact a balance among phonemics, morphology, etymology, and grammar; and, like that of most living languages, has its share of inconsistencies and controversial points. A number of rigid [[spelling rule]]s introduced between the 1880s and 1910s have been responsible for the latter whilst trying to eliminate the former.

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 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries reformulated on the French and German models.

==Sounds==
{{main|Russian phonology}}

The phonological system of Russian is inherited from [[Common Slavonic]], but underwent considerable modification in the early historical period, before being largely settled by about 1400. 

The language possesses five vowels, which are written with different letters depending on whether or not the preceding consonant is [[palatalization|palatalized]]. The consonants typically come in plain vs. palatalized pairs, which are traditionally called ''hard'' and ''soft.'' (The ''hard'' consonants are often [[velarization|velarized]], especially before back vowels, although in some dialects the velarization is limited to hard {{IPA|/l/}}). 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]]. (See also: [[vowel reduction in Russian]].)

The Russian [[syllable]] structure can be quite complex with both initial and final consonant clusters of up to 4 consecutive sounds. Using a formula with V standing for the nucleus (vowel) and C for each consonant the structure can be described as follows: 

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

Clusters of four consonants are not very common, however, especially within a morpheme.

===Consonants===
{| border="2" cellpadding="5" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; line-height: 1.2em; border-collapse: collapse; text-align: center; font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Grande; font-size: 100%; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid;"
|- style="font-size: 90%;"
| colspan=2|&nbsp;
! [[Bilabial consonant|Bilabial]]
! [[Labiodental consonant|Labio-<br/>dental]]
! [[Dental consonant|Dental]] & <br/> [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! [[Postalveolar consonant|Post-<br/>alveolar]]
! [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
|-
! rowspan=2 style="font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"|[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
|style="font-size: 80%;" |hard
| {{IPA|/m/}}
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|/n/}}
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|-
|style="font-size: 80%;" |soft 
|{{IPA|/mʲ/}}
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|/nʲ/}}
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|-
! rowspan=2 style="font-size: 90%; text-align: left;" | [[Stop consonant|Plosive]]
|style="font-size: 80%;" | hard
| {{IPA|/p/}} &nbsp; {{IPA|/b/}}
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|/t/}} &nbsp; {{IPA|/d/}}
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|/k/}} &nbsp; {{IPA|/g/}}
|-
|style="font-size: 80%;" | soft
| {{IPA|/pʲ/}} &nbsp; {{IPA|/bʲ/}}
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|/tʲ/}} &nbsp; {{IPA|/dʲ/}}
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|/kʲ/*}} &nbsp; {{IPA|[gʲ]}}
|-
! rowspan=2 style="font-size: 90%; text-align: left;" | [[Affricate consonant|Affricate]]
|style="font-size: 80%;" |hard
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|{{IPA|/ʦ/}}&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
| &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|-
|style="font-size: 80%;" |soft
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
|{{IPA|/tɕ/}}&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|-
! rowspan=2 style="font-size: 90%; text-align: left;" | [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
|style="font-size: 80%;" |hard
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|/f/}} &nbsp; {{IPA|/v/}}
| {{IPA|/s/}} &nbsp; {{IPA|/z/}}
| {{IPA|/ʂ/}} &nbsp; {{IPA|/ʐ/}}
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|/x/}} &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;
|-
|style="font-size: 80%;" |soft
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|/fʲ/}} &nbsp; {{IPA|/vʲ/}}
| {{IPA|/sʲ/}} &nbsp; {{IPA|/zʲ/}}
| {{IPA|/ɕː/}}* &nbsp; {{IPA|/ʑː/}}*
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|[xʲ]}} &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;
|-
! rowspan=2 style="font-size: 90%; text-align: left;" | [[Trill consonant|Trill]]
|style="font-size: 80%;" |hard
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|/r/}}
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|-
|style="font-size: 80%;" |soft
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|/rʲ/}}
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|-

! rowspan=2 style="font-size: 90%; text-align: left;" | [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
|style="font-size: 80%;" |hard
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|/l/}}
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|-
|style="font-size: 80%;" | soft
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|/lʲ/}}
| &nbsp;
| {{IPA|/j/}}
| &nbsp;
|}

Russian is notable for its distinction based on [[palatalization]] of most of the consonants. While {{IPA|/k/, /g/, /x/}} do have palatalized [[allophone]]s {{IPA|[kʲ, gʲ, xʲ]}}, only {{IPA|/kʲ/}} might be considered a phoneme, though it is marginal and generally not considered distinctive (the only native [[minimal pair]] which argues for {{IPA|/kʲ/}} to be a separate phoneme is "это ткёт"/"этот кот"). 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 /dʲ/}}, the tongue is raised enough to produce slight frication (affricate sounds). These sounds: {{IPA|/t, d, ʦ, s, z, n and rʲ/}} are [[dental consonant|dental]], that is pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the teeth rather than against the [[alveolar ridge]].

==Grammar==
{{main|Russian grammar}}
{{Expand-section|date=June 2008}}

Russian has preserved an [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] [[Synthetic language|synthetic]]-[[inflection]]al structure, although considerable leveling has taken place.

Russian grammar encompasses
* a highly [[Synthetic language|synthetic]] '''morphology'''
* a '''syntax''' that, for the literary language, is the conscious fusion of three elements:{{Fact|date=July 2007}}
** a polished [[vernacular]] foundation;
** a [[Church Slavonic language|Church Slavonic]] inheritance;
** a [[Western Europe]]an style.

The spoken language has been influenced by the literary one, but continues to preserve characteristic forms. The dialects show various non-standard grammatical features,{{Fact|date=July 2007}} some of which are archaisms or descendants of old forms since discarded by the literary language.

==Vocabulary==
[[Image:1694 Russian ABC book page.GIF|thumb|This page from an "ABC" book printed in Moscow in 1694 shows the letter '''П'''.]]

See [[History of the Russian language]] for an account of the successive foreign influences on the Russian language.

The total number of words in Russian is difficult to reckon because of the ability to agglutinate and create manifold compounds, diminutives, etc. (see [[Russian grammar#Word Formation|Word Formation]] under [[Russian grammar]]).

The number of listed words or entries in some of the major dictionaries published during the last two centuries, and the total vocabulary of [[Pushkin]] (who is credited with greatly augmenting and codifying literary Russian), are as follows:

{|class="wikitable" align="center" cellpadding="4" style="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
|-
|Pushkin opus||1810–1837||21,197||-
|-
|Academic dictionary, III Ed.||1847||114,749||Russian and Church Slavonic with Old Russian vocabulary
|-
|[[Dahl's dictionary]]||1880–1882||195,844||44,000 entries lexically grouped; attempt to catalogue the full vernacular language, includes some properly Ukrainian and Belarusian words
|-
|[[Ushakov's dictionary]]||1934–1940||85,289||Current language with some archaisms
|-
|[[Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language|Academic dictionary]]||1950–1965||120,480||full dictionary of the "Modern language"
|-
|[[Ozhegov's dictionary]]||1950s–1960s||61,458||More or less then-current language
|-
|[[Lopatin's dictionary]]||2000||c.160,000||Orthographic, current language
|}

(As a historical aside, [[Vladimir Ivanovich Dal|Dahl]] was, in the second half of the nineteenth century, still insisting that the proper spelling of the adjective '''русский''', which was at that time applied uniformly to all the Orthodox Eastern Slavic subjects of the Empire, as well as to its one official language, be spelled '''руский''' with one s, in accordance with ancient tradition and what he termed the "spirit of the language". He was contradicted by the philologist Grot, who distinctly heard the s lengthened or doubled).

=== Proverbs and sayings ===
{{main|Russian proverbs|Russian sayings}}
The Russian language is replete with many hundreds of proverbs ('''пословица''' {{IPA|[pɐˈslo.vʲɪ.ʦə]}}) and sayings ('''поговоркa''' {{IPA|[pə.gɐˈvo.rkə]}}). These were already tabulated by the seventeenth century, and collected and studied in the nineteenth and twentieth, with the folk-tales being an especially fertile source.

==History and examples==
{{main|History of the Russian language}}
{{seealso|Reforms of Russian orthography}}

The history of Russian language may be divided into the following periods.{{Who|date=July 2007}}
* [[History of the Russian language#Kievan period and feudal breakup|Kievan period and feudal breakup]]
* [[History of the Russian language#The Tatar yoke and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania|The Tatar yoke and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania]]
* [[History of the Russian language#The Moscovite period (15th–17th centuries)|The Moscovite period (15th–17th centuries)]]
* [[History of the Russian language#Empire (18th–19th centuries)|Empire (18th–19th centuries)]]
* [[History of the Russian language#Soviet period and beyond (20th century)|Soviet period and beyond (20th century)]]

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 [[Slavic peoples|Slavs]], speaking a closely related group of dialects. The political unification of this region into [[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 [[Old Church Slavonic]] as the liturgical and official language. Borrowings and [[calque]]s from Byzantine [[Greek language|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.

Dialectal differentiation accelerated after the breakup of [[Kievan Rus]] in approximately 1100. On the territories of modern [[Belarus]] and [[Ukraine]] emerged [[Ruthenian language|Ruthenian]] and in modern [[Russia]] [[History of the Russian language|medieval Russian]]. They definitely became distinct in 13th century by the time of division of that land between the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]] on the west and independent Novgorod Feudal Republic plus small duchies which were vassals of the Tatars on the east.

The official language in Moscow and Novgorod, and later, in the growing Moscow Rus’, was [[Church Slavonic]] which evolved from [[Old Church Slavonic]] and remained [[Diglossia|the literary language]] until the Petrine age, when its usage shrank drastically to biblical and liturgical texts. Russian developed under a strong influence of the Church Slavonic until the close of the seventeenth century; the influence reversed afterwards leading to corruption of liturgical texts.

The political reforms of [[Peter I of Russia|Peter the Great]] 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 language|French]], less often [[German language|German]], on an everyday basis. Many Russian novels of the 19th century, e.g. Lev Tolstoy’s "War and Peace", contain entire paragraphs and even pages in French with no translation given, with an assumption that educated readers won't need one. 

The modern literary language is usually considered to date from the time of [[Aleksandr Pushkin]] in the first third of the nineteenth century. Pushkin revolutionized Russian literature by rejecting archaic grammar and vocabulary (so called "высокий 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 only few words used by Pushkin became archaic or changed meaning. On the other hand, many expressions used by Russian writers of the early 19th century, in particular Pushkin, [[Lermontov]], [[Gogol]], Griboiädov, became proverbs or sayings which can be frequently found even in the modern Russian colloquial speech. 

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

The political upheavals of the early twentieth 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 cosmonautics), gave Russian a world-wide prestige, especially during the middle third of the twentieth century.{{Fact|date=July 2007}}

==See also==
=== Language description ===
* [[Russian alphabet]]
* [[Russian grammar]]
* [[Russian orthography]]
* [[Russian phonology]]
* [[History of the Russian language]]
* [[List of Russian language topics]]

=== Related languages ===
* [[East Slavic languages]]
* [[Slavic languages]]
* [[Church Slavonic language]]
* [[Great Russian language]]
* [[Old Church Slavonic]]
* [[Old Russian language]]

===Other===
*[[List of English words of Russian origin]]
*[[Russian literature]]
*[[Russian humour]]
*[[Russian proverbs]]
*[[Reforms of Russian orthography]]
*[[Romanization of Russian]]
*[[Volapuk encoding]]
*[[Non-native pronunciations of English#Russian|Non-native pronunciations of English]]
*[[Runglish]]
*[[Computer russification]]

==References==

{{reflist}}

The following serve as references for both this article and the related articles listed below that describe the Russian language:

===In English===
* {{cite book|author=[[Comrie, Bernard]], Gerald Stone, Maria Polinsky|title=The Russian Language in the Twentieth Century|edition=2nd ed.|location=Oxford|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1996|id=019824066X|}}
* {{citation
|last=Timberlake
|first=Alan
|title=A Reference Grammar of Russian
|location=Cambridge, UK
|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]
|year=2004
|id=0521772923
}}
* {{cite book|title= Introduction to the Phonological History of the Slavic Languages|author=Carleton, T.R.|year=1991|publisher=Slavica Press|location= Columbus, Ohio |}}
* {{cite book|author=Cubberley, P.|title=Russian: A Linguistic Introduction|edition=1st ed.|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2002|}}
* {{cite book|title= Sound Pattern of Russian|author= [[Morris Halle|Halle, Morris]]|year=1959|
publisher= MIT Press|}}
* {{cite book|title= The Sounds of the World's Languages|author= [[Peter Ladefoged|Ladefoged, Peter]] and [[Ian Maddieson|Maddieson, Ian]]|year=1996|publisher= Blackwell Publishers |}}
* {{cite book|author=Matthews, W.K.|title=Russian Historical Grammar|location=London|publisher=University of London, Athlone Press|year=1960}}
* {{cite book|author=Stender-Petersen, A.|title=Anthology of old Russian literature|location=New York|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=1954|}}
* {{cite book|author=Wade, Terrence|title=A Comprehensive Russian Grammar|edition=2nd ed.|location=Oxford|publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]]|year=2000|id=0631207570|}}

===In Russian===
* Востриков О.В., Финно-угорский субстрат в русском языке: Учебное пособие по спецкурсу.- Свердловск, 1990. – 99c. – В надзаг.: Уральский гос. ун-т им. А. М. Горького.
* 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.
* Михельсон Т.Н. Рассказы русских летописей XV&ndash;XVII веков. М., 1978.?
* Новиков Л.А. Современный русский язык: для высшей школы.- Москва: Лань, 2003. 
* Филин Ф. П., [http://www.philology.ru/linguistics2/filin-82.htm О словарном составе языка Великорусского народа]; Вопросы языкознания. - М., 1982, № 5. - С. 18–28
* Цыганенко Г.П. Этимологический словарь русского языка, Киев, 1970.
* Шанский Н.М., Иванов В.В., Шанская Т.В. Краткий этимологический словарь русского языка. М. 1961. 
* Шицгал А., Русский гражданский шрифт, М., «Исскуство», 1958, 2-e изд. 1983.

==External links==
{{sisterlinks|Russian language|Russian derivation}}
{{InterWiki|code=ru}}
{{Wiktionarylang|code=ru|page=Заглавная страница}}
{{wikt|Appendix:Russian Swadesh list|Russian Swadesh list}}
=== Dictionaries ===
* [http://learnrussianlanguage.net/dictionary English to Russian dictionary with stresses]
* 
* [http://www.russianlessons.net/dictionary/dictionary.php English to Russian Dictionary]
* [http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/query.cgi?root=/usr/local/share/starling/morpho&morpho=1&basename=\usr\local\share\starling\morpho\vasmer\vasmer Vasmer's Etymological Dictionary of Russian language]

=== Other resources ===
* [http://dmoz.org/Science/Social_Sciences/Linguistics/Languages/Natural/Indo-European/Slavic/Russian/ ODP Russian Language category]

{{Russian language}}
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[[af:Russies]]
[[ang:Russisc sprǣc]]
[[ar:لغة روسية]]
[[an:Idioma ruso]]
[[frp:Russo]]
[[ast:Rusu]]
[[av:ГIурус мацI]]
[[az:Rus dili]]
[[bn:রুশ ভাষা]]
[[ba:Урыҫ теле]]
[[be:Руская мова]]
[[be-x-old:Расейская мова]]
[[bcl:Ruso]]
[[bs:Ruski jezik]]
[[br:Rusianeg]]
[[bg:Руски език]]
[[ca:Rus]]
[[cv:Вырăс чĕлхи]]
[[cs:Ruština]]
[[cy:Rwseg]]
[[da:Russisk (sprog)]]
[[de:Russische Sprache]]
[[dv:ރޫސީ]]
[[dsb:Rusojska rěc]]
[[et:Vene keel]]
[[el:Ρωσική γλώσσα]]
[[eml:Ross]]
[[myv:Рузонь кель]]
[[es:Idioma ruso]]
[[eo:Rusa lingvo]]
[[eu:Errusiera]]
[[fa:زبان روسی]]
[[fr:Russe]]
[[fy:Russysk]]
[[ga:Rúisis]]
[[gv:Rooshish]]
[[gd:Ruiseis]]
[[gl:Lingua rusa]]
[[got:𐍂𐌿𐍃𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌶𐌳𐌰]]
[[zh-classical:俄語]]
[[ko:러시아어]]
[[hy:Ռուսերեն]]
[[hi:रूसी भाषा]]
[[hsb:Rušćina]]
[[hr:Ruski jezik]]
[[io:Rusiana linguo]]
[[id:Bahasa Rusia]]
[[os:Уырыссаг æвзаг]]
[[zu:IsiRashiya]]
[[is:Rússneska]]
[[it:Lingua russa]]
[[he:רוסית]]
[[jv:Basa Rusia]]
[[ka:რუსული ენა]]
[[kk:Орыс тілі]]
[[kw:Russek]]
[[sw:Kirusi]]
[[kv:Роч кыв]]
[[ku:Zimanê rûsî]]
[[lad:Idioma ruso]]
[[lbe:Оьрус маз]]
[[la:Lingua Russica]]
[[lv:Krievu valoda]]
[[lb:Russesch]]
[[lt:Rusų kalba]]
[[lij:Lengua russa]]
[[li:Rössisch]]
[[hu:Orosz nyelv]]
[[mk:Руски јазик]]
[[ms:Bahasa Rusia]]
[[mdf:Рузонь кяль]]
[[mn:Орос хэл]]
[[nah:Ruxitlahtōlli]]
[[nl:Russisch]]
[[nds-nl:Russisch]]
[[ne:रूसी भाषा]]
[[ja:ロシア語]]
[[no:Russisk]]
[[nn:Russisk språk]]
[[nrm:Russe]]
[[oc:Rus]]
[[uz:Rus tili]]
[[pms:Lenga russa]]
[[nds:Russ’sche Spraak]]
[[pl:Język rosyjski]]
[[pt:Língua russa]]
[[crh:Rus tili]]
[[ro:Limba rusă]]
[[rmy:Rusikani chhib]]
[[rm:Lingua russa]]
[[qu:Rusu simi]]
[[ru:Русский язык]]
[[sah:Нуучча тыла]]
[[se:Ruoššagiella]]
[[sco:Roushie leid]]
[[sq:Gjuha ruse]]
[[simple:Russian language]]
[[sk:Ruština]]
[[cu:Роу́сьскъ ѩꙁꙑ́къ]]
[[sl:Ruščina]]
[[szl:Rusko godka]]
[[sr:Руски језик]]
[[sh:Ruski jezik]]
[[fi:Venäjän kieli]]
[[sv:Ryska]]
[[tl:Wikang Ruso]]
[[ta:ரஷ்ய மொழி]]
[[tt:Рус теле]]
[[th:ภาษารัสเซีย]]
[[vi:Tiếng Nga]]
[[tg:Забони Русӣ]]
[[tpi:Tok Rasia]]
[[tr:Rusça]]
[[tk:Rusça]]
[[uk:Російська мова]]
[[wuu:俄文]]
[[yi:רוסיש]]
[[bat-smg:Rosu kalba]]
[[zh:俄语]]