What language family do Russians belong to? Origin of the Indo-European languages

The Slavic group of languages is a large branch of the Indo-European languages, since the Slavs are the largest group of people in Europe united by similar speech and culture. They are used by more than 400 million people.

General information

The Slavic group of languages is a branch of the Indo-European languages used in most of the Balkans, parts of Central Europe, and northern Asia. It is most closely related to the Baltic languages (Lithuanian, Latvian and the extinct Old Prussian). The languages belonging to the Slavic group originated from Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine) and spread to the rest of the above territories.

Classification

There are three groups of South Slavic, West Slavic and East Slavic branches.

In contrast to the clearly divergent literary, linguistic boundaries are not always obvious. There are transitional dialects connecting different languages, with the exception of the area where the South Slavs are separated from other Slavs by Romanians, Hungarians and German-speaking Austrians. But even in these isolated areas there are some remnants of the old dialectal continuity (for example, the similarity of Russian and Bulgarian).

Therefore, it should be noted that the traditional classification in terms of three separate branches should not be considered as a true model of historical development. It is more correct to imagine it as a process in which differentiation and reintegration of dialects constantly took place, as a result of which the Slavic group of languages \u200b\u200bhas a striking homogeneity throughout the entire territory of its distribution. For centuries, the paths of different peoples intersected, and their cultures mixed.

Differences

Still, it would be an exaggeration to assume that communication between any two speakers of different Slavic languages is possible without any linguistic difficulties. Many differences in phonetics, grammar and vocabulary can cause misunderstandings even in a simple conversation, not to mention the difficulties in journalistic, technical and artistic speech. Thus, the Russian word "green" is recognizable to all Slavs, but "red" means "beautiful" in other languages. Suknja is “skirt” in Serbo-Croatian, “coat” in Slovene, the similar expression is “cloth” - “dress” in Ukrainian.

Eastern group of Slavic languages

It includes Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. Russian is the native language of almost 160 million people, including many in the countries that were part of the former Soviet Union. Its main dialects are northern, southern and transitional central group. Including the Moscow dialect, on which the literary language is based, belongs to it. In total, about 260 million people speak Russian in the world.

In addition to the "great and mighty", the Eastern Slavic group of languages includes two more major languages.

Ukrainian, which is divided into northern, southwestern, southeastern and Carpathian dialects. The literary form is based on the Kiev-Poltava dialect. More than 37 million people speak Ukrainian in Ukraine and neighboring countries, and more than 350,000 people know the language in Canada and the United States. This is due to the presence of a large ethnic community of immigrants who left the country at the end of the 19th century. The Carpathian dialect, which is also called Carpatho-Russian, is sometimes treated as a separate language.
Belarusian - it is spoken by about seven million people in Belarus. Its main dialects are southwestern, some features of which can be explained by proximity to the Polish lands, and northern. The Minsk dialect, which serves as the basis for the literary language, is located on the border of these two groups.

West Slavic branch

It includes the Polish language and other Lechitic (Kashubian and its extinct variant - Slovenian), Lusatian and Czechoslovak dialects. This Slavic group is also quite common. More than 40 million people speak Polish not only in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe (in particular, in Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Belarus), but also in France, the USA and Canada. It is also divided into several subgroups.

Polish dialects

The main ones are the northwestern, southeastern, Silesian and Mazovian. The Kashubian dialect is considered part of the Pomeranian languages, which, like Polish, are Lechitic. Its speakers live west of Gdansk and on the coast of the Baltic Sea.

The extinct Slovene dialect belonged to the northern group of Kashubian dialects, which differs from the southern one. Another unused Lechitic language is Polab, which was spoken in the 17th and 18th centuries. Slavs living in the region of the Elbe River.

His is Serbal Lusatian, which is still spoken by the inhabitants of Lusatia in East Germany. It has two literary (used in and around Bautzen) and Lower Sorbian (common in Cottbus).

Czechoslovak language group

It includes:

Czech, spoken by about 12 million people in the Czech Republic. His dialects are Bohemian, Moravian and Silesian. The literary language was formed in the 16th century in Central Bohemia on the basis of the Prague dialect.
Slovak, it is used by about 6 million people, most of them are residents of Slovakia. Literary speech was formed on the basis of the dialect of Central Slovakia in the middle of the 19th century. Western Slovak dialects are similar to Moravian and differ from the central and eastern ones, which share common features with Polish and Ukrainian.

South Slavic group of languages

Among the three main ones, it is the smallest in terms of the number of native speakers. But this is an interesting group of Slavic languages, the list of which, as well as their dialects, is very extensive.

They are classified as follows:

1. Eastern subgroup. It includes:

2. Western subgroup:

Serbo-Croatian - about 20 million people use it. The basis for the literary version was the Shtokavian dialect, which is common in most of the Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian and Montenegrin territory.
Slovenian is spoken by more than 2.2 million people in Slovenia and the surrounding areas of Italy and Austria. It shares some common features with Croatian dialects and includes many dialects with great differences between them. In Slovene (in particular its western and northwestern dialects), traces of old connections with the West Slavic languages (Czech and Slovak) can be found.

1. Which group of world languages does Russian belong to?

Russian is one of the largest languages in the world: in terms of the number of speakers, it ranks fifth after Chinese, English, Hindi and Spanish. It belongs to the eastern group of Slavic languages. Among the Slavic languages, Russian is the most common. All Slavic languages show great similarities among themselves, but Belarusian and Ukrainian are closest to the Russian language. Together, these languages form the East Slavic subgroup, which is part of the Slavic group of the Indo-European family.

2. Name the two most characteristic features of the grammatical structure of the Russian language

The first feature that creates the complexity of Russian morphology is the changeability of the word, that is, the grammatical arrangement of words with endings. The endings express the case and number of nouns, the agreement of adjectives, participles and ordinal numbers in phrases, the person and number of present and future tense verbs, the gender and number of past tense verbs.

The second feature of the Russian language is word order. Unlike other languages, the Russian language allows great freedom in word arrangement. The subject can be either before the predicate or after the predicate. Permutations are also allowed for other members of the sentence. Syntactically related words can be separated by other words. Of course, this or that word order is not at all random, but it is not regulated by purely grammatical rules, as in other European languages, where, for example, such word functions as subject and object are distinguished with its help.

3. What do you think is the difficulty of the Russian language for an Englishman?

The main difficulty lies in the change of the word. Russian people, of course, do not notice this, because it is natural and easy for us to say either EARTH, then EARTH, then EARTH - depending on the role of the word in the sentence, on its connection with other words, but for speakers of languages of a different system - it is unusual and difficult. The point, however, is not at all that there is something superfluous in the Russian language, but that those meanings that are conveyed in Russian by changing the form of a word are conveyed in other languages in other ways, for example, using prepositions, or word order, or even a change in the intonation of a word.

4. Does the Russian language need foreign words?

The lexical richness of a language is created not only by its own capabilities, but also by borrowing from other languages, since political, economic and cultural ties have always existed and still exist between peoples. The Russian language is no exception. In different historical periods, words from various languages penetrated into the Russian language. There are very ancient borrowings. Speakers may not even be aware of it. For example, “foreign” words are: sugar (Greek), candy (Lat.), August (Lat.), compote (German), jacket (Swedish), lamp (German) and many other familiar words. Starting from the Petrine era, for obvious reasons (“a window to Europe”), borrowings from European languages became more active: German, French, Polish, Italian, and English. At the present time - the end of the 20th - the beginning of the 21st century - the dictionary of a Russian person is replenished with Americanisms, that is, English words that came from the American version of the English language. The flow of borrowing in different historical periods is more or less active, sometimes it becomes stormy, but over time, its activity is lost. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries there were many borrowings from French. Borrowing words from any language, the Russian language adapts them to its system, that is, foreign words are mastered. So, in particular, nouns acquire Russian endings, acquire a sign of gender, some begin to decline.

5. Why do Russian people so often make mistakes when using numerals?

An extremely complex system is represented by Russian numerals. This applies not only to their variability. Number names have different structures and represent different types of declension. Wed one (changes as an adjective), two, three, four (a special type of declension), five (changes as a noun of 3 declensions, but not in numbers), forty, ninety and one hundred have only two forms: in all oblique cases the ending is -a: forty, one hundred. However, if one hundred is part of a compound number, it changes differently, cf. five hundred, five hundred, about five hundred.

At the moment, for example, there is a very noticeable tendency to simplify the declension of numerals: many Russians decline complex numerals only by half: cf. with fifty-three instead of the correct one with fifty-three. The system of declension of numerals is clearly being destroyed, and this is happening before our eyes and with our participation.

6. Name one of the changes in sounds and two changes in morphology known from the history of the Russian language (optional)

The sounding speech of a Russian person in that ancient era, of course, was not recorded by anyone (there were no appropriate technical methods), however, science knows the main processes that have taken place in the Russian language over the centuries, including processes that change the sound structure of the language, his phonetic system. It is known, for example, that in the words forest and day until about the 12th century there were not three sounds, but four, and that different vowels sounded in the first syllable of these two words. No one who speaks Russian today can accurately reproduce them, including phonetic experts. but experts know how they roughly sounded. This is because linguistics has developed methods for the study of ancient languages.

The number of types of declension of nouns has significantly decreased: now, as you know, there are 3 of them, but there were much more - in different periods, a different number. For example, a son and a brother leaned differently for some time. Nouns such as sky and word were declined in a special way (features were preserved in the forms of heaven, words), etc.

Among the cases there was a special case - “vocative”. This case form was received by the appeal: father - father, old man - elder, etc. In the prayers in the Church Slavonic language it sounded: “Our Father”, who art in heaven…, glory to you, Lord, the king of heaven…. The vocative case has been preserved in Russian fairy tales and other works of folklore: Kitty! Brother! Help me out! (Cat, rooster and fox).

The Old Russian verb was significantly different from the modern one: there was not one past tense, but four. - each with its own forms and with its own meaning: aorist, imperfect, perfect and pluperfect. Three tenses were lost, one was preserved - the perfect, but it changed its form beyond recognition: in the annals "The Tale of Bygone Years" we read: "why are you going to sing, you took all the tribute" (why are you going again? - after all, you have already taken all the tribute) - auxiliary verb (thou) fell away, only the participle form with the suffix L remained (here “caught”, i.e. took), which became for us the only form of the past tense of the verb: walked, wrote, etc.

7. In what area of the Russian language system are the changes most noticeable and understandable: in phonetics, in morphology, or in vocabulary. Why?

Different aspects of the language change with varying degrees of activity: vocabulary changes most actively and most noticeably for speakers. Everyone knows the concepts of archaisms / neologisms. The meanings of words and their compatibility change. The phonetic structure and grammatical structure of the language, including Russian, is much more stable, but changes are taking place here too. They are not immediately noticeable, not like changes in the use of words. But specialists, historians of the Russian language, have established very important, profound changes that have taken place in the Russian language over the past 10 centuries. The changes that have taken place over the past two centuries, since the time of Pushkin, are also known - they are not so profound. For example, a certain type of noun. husband. p changed the form of the plural. numbers: in the time of Zhukovsky, Pushkin they said: houses, teachers, bread with an emphasis on the first syllable. The replacement of the ending Ы with an accented A at first occurred only in individual words, then more and more words began to be pronounced this way: teachers, professors, haystacks, workshops, locksmiths. Characteristically, this process is still ongoing and involves more and more words, i.e. you and I, who speak Russian now, are witnesses and participants in this process.

8. What is the essential difference between changes in language and changes in writing?

As you can see, there is a fundamental, fundamental difference between changes in writing (graphics) and changes in language: no king, no ruler can change the language by his will. It is impossible to order speakers not to pronounce any sounds, not to use any cases. Changes in the language occur under the influence of various factors and reflect the internal properties of the language. They occur against the will of the speakers (although, of course, they are created by the speaking community itself). We are not talking about changes in the style of letters, in the number of letters, in spelling rules. The history of language and the history of writing are different stories. Science (the history of the Russian language) has established how the Russian language has changed over the centuries: what changes have occurred in the sound system, in morphology, in syntax and in vocabulary. Development trends are also studied, new phenomena and processes are noted. New trends are born in live speech - oral and written.

9. Is it possible for a language to exist without writing? Argument your answer

In principle, a language can exist without writing (although its possibilities in this case are limited). At the dawn of mankind, there was at first only oral speech. Until now, there are peoples in the world that do not have a written language, but, of course, they have a language. Other proofs of the possibility of language without writing can be cited. For example: without writing, small children speak the language (before studying at school). So, the language existed and exists, first of all, in oral form. But with the development of civilization, it also acquired another form - written. The written form of speech developed on the basis of the oral one and existed, first of all, as its graphic display. In itself, it is a remarkable achievement of the human mind to establish a correspondence between a speech element and a graphic icon.

10. In what other way, besides writing, is it possible in our time to save speech and transmit it over a distance? (There is no direct answer in the textbook)

Speech in our time can be recorded - stored on various audio and video media - discs, cassettes, etc. And later on such media you can transfer it.

11. Is it possible in principle to reform writing? Argument your answer

Yes, it can be changed and even reformed. The letter is not part of the language, but only corresponds to it, serves as its reflection. It is invented by society for practical purposes. With the help of a system of graphic icons, people capture speech, save it and can transmit it over a distance. The letter can be changed at the will of the people, reformed if there is a practical need for this. The history of mankind knows many facts of changing types of writing, that is, ways of graphic transmission of speech. There are fundamental changes, for example, the transition from the hieroglyphic system to the letter system or within the letter system - replacing the Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin one or vice versa. Smaller changes in writing are also known - changes in the style of letters. Even more frequent changes are the elimination of some individual letters from the practice of writing, and the like. An example of writing changes: for the Chukchi language, writing was created only in 1931 on the basis of the Latin alphabet, but already in 1936 the letter was translated into Russian graphics.

12. With what historical event is the emergence of writing in Russia connected? When did it happen?

The emergence of writing in Russia is associated with the official adoption of Christianity in 988.

13. Why is the Slavic alphabet called "Cyrillic"?

Russian alteration of the Greek alfabetos, composed of the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet - alpha and beta - in the Slavic version of az and beeches. It is generally accepted that the names of the Slavic letters were invented by the creator Slavic alphabet Cyril in the ninth century. He wanted the very name of the letter to be not a meaningless complex of sounds, but to have meaning. He called the first letter azъ - in ancient Bulgarian "I", the second - just "letter" (this is what this word looked like in ancient times - bouky), the third - veda (from the ancient Slavic verb vedi - "to know"). If we translate the name of the first three letters of this alphabet into modern Russian, we get "I learned the letter." Slavic alphabet (Cyrillic) was developed by a team of missionary scientists led by the brothers Cyril and Methodius, when the adoption of Christianity by the Slavic peoples required the creation of church texts in their native language. The alphabet quickly spread in the Slavic countries, and in the 10th century it penetrated from Bulgaria to Russia.

14. Name the most famous monuments of Russian writing

Monuments of ancient Russian literature about ancient Russian writing and books: The Tale of Bygone Years, Book of Powers, Daniil Zatochnik, Metropolitan Hilarion, Kirill of Turov, Life of Euphrosyne of Suzdal, etc.

15. What is the significance of "birch bark letters" for the history of Russian writing?

Birch bark documents are both material (archaeological) and written sources; their location is just as important a parameter for history as their content. Letters “give names” to the silent finds of archaeologists: instead of the faceless “estate of a noble Novgorodian” or “traces of a wooden canopy”, we can talk about the “estate of the priest-artist Olisey Petrovich, nicknamed Grechin” and about “traces of a canopy over the premises of the local court of the prince and posadnik” . The same name in letters found on neighboring estates, mentions of princes and other statesmen, mentions of significant sums of money, geographical names - all this says a lot about the history of buildings, their owners, their social status, their connections with other cities and regions.

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Russian is one of the largest languages in the world: in terms of the number of speakers, it ranks fifth after Chinese, English, Hindi and Spanish. It belongs to the eastern group of Slavic languages. Among the Slavic languages, Russian is the most widespread. All Slavic languages show great similarities among themselves, but Belarusian and Ukrainian are closest to the Russian language. Together, these languages form the East Slavic subgroup, which is part of the Slavic group of the Indo-European family.

Name the two most characteristic features of the grammatical structure of the Russian language

What do you think is the difficulty of the Russian language for an Englishman?

Does the Russian language need foreign words?

The lexical richness of a language is created not only by its own capabilities, but also by borrowing from other languages, since political, economic and cultural ties have always existed and still exist between peoples. The Russian language is no exception. In different historical periods, words from various languages penetrated into the Russian language. There are very ancient borrowings. Speakers may not even be aware of it. For example, “foreign” words are: sugar (Greek), candy (Lat.), August (Lat.), compote (German), jacket (Swedish), lamp (German) and many other familiar words. Starting from the Petrine era, for obvious reasons (“a window to Europe”), borrowings from European languages became more active: German, French, Polish, Italian, and English. At the present time - the end of the 20th - the beginning of the 21st century - the dictionary of a Russian person is replenished with Americanisms, that is, English words that came from the American version of the English language. The flow of borrowing in different historical periods is more or less active, sometimes it becomes stormy, but over time, its activity is lost. In the late 18th and early 19th century, there were many borrowings from French. Borrowing words from any language, the Russian language adapts them to its system, that is, foreign words are mastered. So, in particular, nouns acquire Russian endings, acquire a sign of gender, some begin to decline.

Why do Russian people so often make mistakes when using numerals?

An extremely complex system is represented by Russian numerals. This applies not only to their variability. Number names have different structures and represent different types of declension. Wed one (changes as an adjective), two, three, four (a special type of declension), five (changes as a 3rd declension noun, but not in numbers), forty, ninety and one hundred have only two forms: in all oblique cases the ending is -a: forty, one hundred. However, if one hundred is part of a compound number, it changes differently, cf. five hundred, five hundred, about five hundred.

6. Name one of the changes in sounds and two changes in morphology known from the history of the Russian language (optional)

The sounding speech of a Russian person in that ancient era, of course, was not recorded by anyone (there were no appropriate technical methods), however, science knows the main processes that have taken place in the Russian language over the centuries, including processes that change the sound structure of the language, his phonetic system. It is known, for example, that in the words forest and day until about the 12th century there were not three sounds, but four, and that different vowels sounded in the first syllable of these two words. None of those who speak Russian today can accurately reproduce them, including phonetic experts. but experts know how they roughly sounded. This is because linguistics has developed methods for the study of ancient languages.

Among the cases there was a special case - "vocative". This case form was received by the appeal: father - father, old man - elder, etc. In the prayers in the Church Slavonic language it sounded: “Our Father”, who art in heaven…, glory to you, Lord, the king of heaven…. The vocative case has been preserved in Russian fairy tales and other works of folklore: Kitty! Brother! Help me out! (Cat, rooster and fox).

The Old Russian verb was significantly different from the modern one: there was not one past tense, but four. - each with its own forms and meanings: aorist, imperfect, perfect and pluperfect. Three tenses were lost, one was preserved - the perfect, but it changed its form beyond recognition: in the chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years" we read: "why are you going to sing, you took all the tribute" (why are you going again? - after all, you have already taken all the tribute) - auxiliary verb (thou) fell away, only the participle form with the suffix L remained (here “caught”, i.e. took), which became for us the only form of the past tense of the verb: walked, wrote, etc.

7. In what area of the Russian language system are the changes most noticeable and understandable: in phonetics, in morphology, or in vocabulary. Why?

8. What is the essential difference between changes in language and changes in writing?

9. Is it possible for a language to exist without writing? Argument your answer

10. In what other way, besides writing, is it possible in our time to save speech and transmit it over a distance? (There is no direct answer in the textbook)

Speech in our time can be recorded - stored on various audio and video media - discs, cassettes, etc. And later on such media you can transfer it.

11. Is it possible in principle to reform writing? Argument your answer

Yes, it can be changed and even reformed. The letter is not part of the language, but only corresponds to it, serves as its reflection. It is invented by society for practical purposes. With the help of a system of graphic icons, people capture speech, save it and can transmit it over a distance. The letter can be changed at the will of the people, reformed if there is a practical need for this. The history of mankind knows many facts of changing types of writing, that is, ways of graphic transmission of speech. There are fundamental changes, for example, the transition from the hieroglyphic system to the alphabetic or within the alphabetic system - the replacement of Cyrillic with Latin or vice versa. Smaller changes in writing are also known - changes in the style of letters. Even more frequent changes are the elimination of some individual letters from the practice of writing, and the like. An example of writing changes: for the Chukchi language, writing was created only in 1931 on the basis of the Latin alphabet, but already in 1936 the letter was translated into Russian graphics.

12. With what historical event is the emergence of writing in Russia connected? When did it happen?

The emergence of writing in Russia is associated with the official adoption of Christianity in 988.

13. Why is the Slavic alphabet called "Cyrillic"?

Russian alteration of the Greek alfabetos, composed of the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet - alpha and beta - in the Slavic version of az and beeches. It is generally accepted that the names of the Slavic letters were invented by the creator Slavic alphabet Cyril in the ninth century. He wanted the very name of the letter to be not a meaningless complex of sounds, but to have meaning. He called the first letter azъ - in ancient Bulgarian “I”, the second - just “letter” (this is what this word looked like in ancient times - bouky), the third - veda (from the ancient Slavic verb vedi - “to know”). If we translate the name of the first three letters of this alphabet into modern Russian, we get "I learned the letter." Slavic alphabet (Cyrillic) was developed by a team of missionary scientists led by the brothers Cyril and Methodius, when the adoption of Christianity by the Slavic peoples required the creation of church texts in their native language. The alphabet quickly spread in the Slavic countries, and in the 10th century it penetrated from Bulgaria to Russia.

14. Name the most famous monuments of Russian writing

15. What is the significance of "birch bark letters" for the history of Russian writing?

Modern Russian is the language of the 19th–21st centuries. Literary language is language in its normalized, exemplary variety.

The roots of the Russian language go deep to Indo-European family of languages, one of the largest (there are language families: Semitic, Finno-Ugric, Turkic, etc.), whose common language was the Proto-Indo-European language (Sanskrit). The Indo-European family includes the Indian, Iranian, Baltic, Germanic, Romanesque, Celtic, Greek, Albanian, Armenian and Slavic families.

The Russian language belongs to the Slavic group of the Indo-European family of languages. Within the Slavic group, in turn, three groups-branches are distinguished: eastern (Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian languages), southern (Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene languages) and western (Upper Lusatian-Serbian, lower Luzhatian-Serbian, Polish, Slovak languages). and Czech). All Slavic languages are related to each other, which is due to their origin from one common source: the Proto-Slavic language. Let us give just one of many illustrations of the vocabulary closeness and commonality of these languages: naked (goal), thick (thick) - the Russian language; golium. thick (Ukrainian), goals, thick (Belarusian), goal, guest (Bulgarian), goal, thick (Serbo-Croatian), gol, gost (Slovenian), holy, husty (Czech, Slovak).

The Proto-Slavic language broke up inVI– VIIcenturies. n. e., and this was the beginning of the formation of three Slavic language groups and then separate Slavic languages. All Eastern Slavs originally constituted one people, whose language is called Old Russian or Old East Slavonic. Until the 14th century, the ancestors of Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians constituted a single people who spoke the Old Russian language (numerous facts of similarity in the field of vocabulary, phraseology, grammatical and phonetic structure testify to the proximity of these languages, for example: embrace (Russian), ohopit (Ukrainian), Abkhapits (Belarusian); pondered heavily (Russian), deeply thoughtful (Ukrainian), I think hard (Belarusian).) Approximately in the XIV-XV centuries. from a single ancient Russian nationality, the Belarusian, Russian (or Great Russian) and Ukrainian nationalities are formed. Accordingly, three languages are formed: Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian. From the middle of the XVII century. begins in the first half of the 19th century. the formation of the national Russian language ends. The development of the language occurs, according to I. I. Sreznevsky, “among the people” and, when writing appears, “in the book”. The language "in the people" and the language "in the book" (i.e., colloquial and literary) are interconnected, but they also have their own characteristics (they will be discussed later).

The first bookish, literary language of the Slavs was the Old Slavonic language - this is the conditional name for the language of the oldest Slavic translations of liturgical books from Greek, made in the second half of the 9th century. Constantine (Cyril) and Methodius and their disciples. It is only written language. The Old Church Slavonic language became the common literary language of the Slavs of the Middle Ages. This is one of the oldest bookish languages (it is assumed that the basis of the Old Slavonic language is the South Slavic dialects: Bulgarian and Macedonian). Thus, Old Church Slavonic was basically a South Slavic language. In 863, Cyril and Methodius brought the first books in the Slavic language, written in Cyrillic, intended for worship and enlightenment of the Slavs (before Cyrillic, the Slavs had a Glagolitic alphabet, which had 38 letters). Thus, the Cyrillic alphabet was formed on the basis of the Glagolitic alphabet. Later, non-translated works were written in this language, and not only church ones. At that time, all Slavic languages were very close to each other, and the Old Slavonic language was well understood by all Slavs, including the Eastern ones. When, in connection with the spread of Christianity in Russia, liturgical books were required, such books appeared in the Old Church Slavonic language. They were quite understandable, there was no need to translate them, they were simply rewritten.

During correspondence, the original Old Slavonic forms were not consistently maintained, they were mixed with East Slavic forms. Those. the Old Slavonic language gradually absorbed local linguistic features, acquiring, as it were, a “local connotation”. This is how the language was formed, which, unlike Old Church Slavonic, was called Church Slavonic language of the Russian edition (or Russian edition). It was used in church Christian worship throughout the subsequent course of Russian history, interacted with the Russian language, being exposed to its ever greater influence, and itself influenced the Russian literary language.

However, the Old Church Slavonic language, even before its transformation into the Church Slavonic language of the Russian version, played a big role in the formation of the Old Russian literary language, the prerequisites for the formation of which arose even before the spread of Old Slavonic writing in Russia. Thus, the Old Russian language had rich traditions of use in oral folk art, in historical legends, in various kinds of public speeches (“embassy speeches”, appeals of princes and governors to the people, to soldiers, speeches at veches, at princely congresses), in formulas like this called customary law, etc. The appearance of Old Slavonic books in Ancient Russia was the external impetus that gave rise to the powerful internal development of Old Russian literary literature and its language. Old Slavonic texts served as models for the Old Russian scribes, guided by which they successfully carried out the literary processing of their native language. At the same time, the Old Church Slavonic language was not perceived as a foreign language, but was perceived as a bookish, processed language. Old Slavonic samples were important, first of all, for mastering the methods of linguistic organization of a literary (bookish) text.

Since the original Old Church Slavonic texts were translations from Greek, the features of the Greek language were reflected in the Old Church Slavonic language, especially in vocabulary and syntax. And through the medium of the Old Slavonic language, these features were reflected in Old Russian. But there were also various direct contacts between Russians and Greeks, made in Ancient Russia and translations from Greek, which contributed to the literary processing of the Russian language. This gave Pushkin reason to say that the ancient Greek language saved the language of Russian literature from the slow improvements of time.

Thus, the circumstances of the formation of the Old Russian literary language were peculiar, and its composition is complex. According to V.V. Vinogradov, the process of formation of the Old Russian literary language was determined by the interaction and unification of four (albeit unequal) components: 1) the Old Church Slavonic language; 2) business, state-legal and diplomatic speech, which developed in the pre-literate era; 3) the language of folklore and 4) folk-dialect elements. The unifying and regulating role first belonged to the Old Church Slavonic language. The actual composition and nature of the interaction of all these components depended on the genre of writing and literature.

The spoken language (language "in the people") develops faster than the literary language (language "in the book"). Therefore, "the vernacular dialect had to be separated from the bookish one." The discrepancy between the spoken and literary language became especially noticeable by the 17th century, by the beginning of the formation of the Russian nation. Archpriest Avvakum contrasted "his natural Russian language", "vernacular" with bookish "eloquence", "philosophical verses". Writers of the 18th century constantly emphasized the difference between the then colloquial "live use" and the old literary language, which was assigned the name "Slavonic". This was the general name for the language of old books, mostly religious (“we have the Slavic language of the church,” wrote V. K. Trediakovsky). The “Slavonic language” correlated with the Russian language as the language of the past (“the Slavonic language in this century is very obscure in our country” - the statement of the same Trediakovsky) with the modern language. In the XVIII - early XIX century. the expression "Slavic-Russian (or Slavic-Russian) language" was also used. This name emphasized the continuity of the new literary Russian language in relation to the old "Slavonic" ("Slavonic"). In this sense, Pushkin speaks of the Slavic-Russian language as the material of literature.

In the pre-Pushkin and Pushkin times, the “common and book dialect” (i.e., colloquial and literary language) entered the stage of decisive convergence, as a result of which that set of linguistic means began to take shape, that “element” that was given to the writers of the early 19th century. as material of literature. Pushkin expanded and approved the rights of the folk language in literature, showing at the same time that the literary language "should not renounce what it has acquired over the centuries," that is, it must not break with the book tradition. Pushkin discovered and made available to the public new techniques and ways of using literary material. (cm.: Gorshkov AI All the richness, strength and flexibility of our language. A. S. Pushkin in the history of the Russian language. - M., 1992), created samples of new language usage in all genres of fiction and in critical-journalistic and scientific-historical prose, and the Russian literary language entered the modern period of its history.

Forms of language existence.

The national language as a heritage of the people exists in several forms. Among the variety of varieties of use (or, as they say, forms of existence) of the language, there are two main. These varieties are usually called colloquial language usage and literary the use of language, and more often just colloquial ("folk", "living") language and literary ("bookish", "written") language. The very fact of the existence of these two main varieties of linguistic usage is quite obvious, but the nature of the difference (opposition, contrast) and the nature of the relationship between the spoken and literary language in science are explained ambiguously.

To the main question that arises in this case - what is the basis, what is the root of the differences between the spoken language and the literary language? - in our science, L.V. Shcherba answered most convincingly and at the same time simply. Explaining the concept of "literary language" and comparing the literary language with the spoken language for this purpose, he pointed out that the basis of the spoken language is an unprepared dialogue, and the basis of the literary language is a prepared monologue. Dialogue is a chain of replicas. The exchange of remarks takes place naturally, naturally, without preliminary deliberation (meaning, of course, dialogue in the process of everyday communication between people, and not dialogue in a play or prose work). A monologue, on the contrary, requires preparation, strict sequence, thoughtful organization of language material. Shcherba emphasized that the monologue must be specially studied and that every monologue is a literary work in its infancy.

The main sphere of the use of the spoken language is direct "unofficial", "everyday" communication. Conversational communication, as a rule, is direct, contact and, therefore, largely depends on the situation. In contact communication, gesture and facial expressions play an important role, while many elements that are clear from the situation may not be expressed or named in the message. Since the spoken language is spoken orally, the role of intonation is great in it.

Spoken language is successfully studied at all tiers of the language system, but its detailed description is not included in our task. Here we will only indicate the main common features of the spoken language, due to its dialogic nature, unpreparedness, reliance on an extralinguistic situation, contact of communication, use of gestures and facial expressions, and oral form of expression.

As a characteristic feature of the spoken language, scientists note "linear flow without the possibility of going back." Of course, the replica can be, for example, this: Well, I went to school, and on the way I saw Petya, and then Vanya ... Although no, first Vanya, and then Petya. The speaker seems to have "returned back", but from the point of view of linguistic usage, what is said is said. The word has already been spoken. No wonder they say: "The word is not a sparrow, it will fly out - you will not catch it." Another thing is literary use, a prepared monologue in writing - there you can “go back” as much as you like, redo what is written before presenting it to the reader (addressee).

Further, in the spoken language, “incomplete formation of structures” is noted, mainly on the phonetic and syntactic tiers. In phonetics, this is the loss of individual sounds or combinations of sounds, as a result of which there is an “incomplete” pronunciation of words like Marivanna, hello, shyisyat etc. instead of Maria Ivanovna, hello, sixty etc. In syntax, this is the “incompleteness” of sentences, omission, omission of certain components of the statement, otherwise - ellipsis (gr. elleipsis - omission, defect). Ellipsis is very characteristic of spoken language. When buying movie tickets, we don't usually say Give me, please, two tickets for a show at sixteen o'clock, but we say Two for sixteen. We don't usually ask Where are you going (going, going)? What happened to you (happening)?, but we ask Where are you going? What's wrong with you? In spoken language, predicates denoting movement or speech are often omitted: Why are you so late? Are you going straight home after work or to football? Are you on the subway?–We are on a trolleybus; I'm not talking about that; You are shorter Are you seriously? Etc.

For colloquial syntax, a special word order and special types of connection between parts of a complex sentence are also typical, for example: Masha was enrolled in an English school; The train was announced to arrive on time; Kettle, I think she said she put it on etc.

The most important varieties spoken language are territorial and social dialects, vernacular and "common" spoken language.

Territorial dialect(gr. dialektos - conversation, dialect, adverb) - a kind of language that is characterized, in addition to the features inherent in the whole language, also by some specific features at all tiers of the language system and is used as a means of direct communication in a certain limited area.

Territorial dialects have features that either bring them together, or, conversely, distinguish them from each other. According to these features, modern Russian dialects are combined into two dialects: North Great Russian and South Great Russian, between which there is a band of Middle Great Russian (or transitional) dialects. Approximately in the middle of this strip is Moscow, to the west of Moscow in this strip are Tver, Pskov, Novgorod, to the east - Vladimir, Ivanovo, Murom, Nizhny Novgorod. The band of transitional dialects is not wide; Yaroslavl and Kostroma are already on the territory of the North Great Russian dialect, and Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, Smolensk are on the territory of the South Great Russian dialect. Siberian dialects developed on the basis of various dialects of the European part of Russia. Initially, Siberia was settled by people from the northern regions, so the so-called old-timer Siberian dialects are mostly northern. Dialects with a southern Russian basis in Siberia are of a later origin.

The Northern Great Russian dialect is characterized by three main sound features: “okany” (i.e., the difference in pronunciation of unstressed [o] and [a], for example palm–catch), pronunciation [g] stop plosive (city, horns) and solid pronunciation [t] in the endings of the 3rd person of the present tense of verbs (going, going).

The South Great Russian dialect is characterized by “akan” (i.e., indistinguishability in the pronunciation of unstressed [o] and [a]: palm, lavish), pronunciation of [g] fricative [y] (lat. fricare - to rub; fricative consonants are formed by friction of air in a narrow gap between contiguous organs of speech, fricative [y] pronounced like [x], but louder: freak, roua) and soft pronunciation [t "] in the endings of the 3rd person of the present tense of verbs (go, go). There are also lexical differences: in the north they say horse, rooster, hut, grip, ladle, sourdough, yell, harrow- in the south respectively horse, kochet, hut, rou "ach, korets, deja, plow, scurry.

The Middle Great Russian dialects are characterized by the pronunciation of the stop [r], which coincides with one of the signs of the North Great Russian dialect, and at the same time “akan”, which coincides with one of the signs of the South Great Russian dialect. In the endings of the 3rd person of the present tense of verbs, in part of the Middle Great Russian dialects [t] is hard, and in part - soft [t"].

The named signs are only the most important common signs by which two dialects and transitional dialects of the Russian language are distinguished. Each individual dialect (dialect) has its own numerous features. Dialects and their grouping are studied by a special science - dialectology.

Starting from the XVIII century. territorial dialects with a special artistic purpose are displayed in works of literature, mainly when transmitting the speech of characters. Of course, for artistic purposes it is not required to reproduce the dialect in all its details, as it is done in scientific records, but the writer is required to have a deep knowledge of the local dialect and an aesthetically justified depiction of its most characteristic features.

In connection with the development of education and the spread of the media, especially radio and television, the territorial dialects are under the powerful influence of the literary language. And although the complete disappearance of territorial dialects is still very far away, they are increasingly losing their originality. There is such a phenomenon as a semi-dialect - a kind of language, which is a territorial dialect with a significant proportion of elements of the literary language. The carriers of semi-dialects are mainly representatives of the younger generation.

Along with territorial dialects, there are social dialects. The social dialect, as the name itself shows, is characteristic not for a certain territory, but for a certain social community of people. If territorial dialects have differences at all tiers of the language system, then social dialects differ from each other and from the national language only in the field of vocabulary and phraseology. Jargon and slang stand out as part of social (they also speak socio-professional) dialects.

Jargon(fr. jargon) is produced and used in groups of people united by profession, occupation, common interests, hobbies, etc. These groups are, as they say, relatively open, i.e. not seeking to isolate themselves from other people. Accordingly, jargon (schoolchildren, students, athletes, hunters, fishermen, dog lovers, etc.) is not a means of isolating its carriers from the "uninitiated", but only reflects the specifics of occupations, hobbies, habits, outlook on life, etc. .a certain circle of people. One of the early and clearly defined jargons in Russian society was bureaucratic jargon. N. V. Gogol was a great connoisseur of this jargon and a master of its depiction in literature. Here is a small example from Dead Souls:

(...) A new governor-general was appointed to the province, an event that, as you know, put officials in an alarming state: there will be bulkheads, scoldings, whippings and all sorts of official stews that the boss treats his subordinates to! "Well,–the officials thought–if he only finds out, simply, that there are some stupid rumors in their city, but for this alone it can boil not for life, but for death itself.

Gogol's work also reflects other social and professional jargons. For example, Petrovich's language in "The Overcoat" is filled with expressions typical of the tailor's profession: No, you can’t fix it: a thin wardrobe !; The case is completely rotten, touch with a needle–and here it is crawling; Yes, there is nothing to put patches on, there is nothing to strengthen it for, the support is painfully great; If you put a marten on the collar, and put on a hood with a silk lining, it will go in two hundred; It will even be possible, as the fashion has gone, the collar will be fastened with silver paws under the applique.

The above meaning of the word jargon accepted in science, is terminological. But the word jargon has another, non-terminological meaning: a rough, vulgar variety of language use containing irregular and distorted forms.

Argo(fr. argot), in contrast to jargon, is the property of closed social groups striving for isolation. Argo is intended to serve as one of the means of this isolation, therefore, it is characterized by conventionality, artificiality, which should ensure the secrecy, secrecy of communication. Argo is typical primarily for the social lower classes of society and the underworld. In this environment, the names “criminal music”, “blat”, “fenya” arose and exist. Methods of verbal communication accepted in a certain environment and incomprehensible to the rest of society are also called conditional or secret languages. The secret language of wandering merchants of the past is known - ofen. Like any social dialect, slang differs from the common language only in vocabulary, and common words are often used, but in a different meaning. This can be illustrated by an excerpt from a letter from one prisoner: When the balans were chasing into the pullmans, because of one hose, the bogons smoked. In the flayer, the shamovka was normal, mandra and loose-leaf were always in the garage. They used a Georgian broom to tar, they had both married crap and a joint. Here roam- load, pullman- railway carriage, balance sheet- log, hose- fool, lazy play a fool- break, hurt bogons- legs, knackery– surgical department in the hospital, mandra- bread, groceries, looseness- tea, garage- bedside table, bungle- brew Georgian broom- low-grade tea, tar- strong tea, chifir, dope married- hashish with tobacco, joint- a cigarette with hashish. With external exoticism, the vocabulary of slang is essentially not rich.

Like other varieties of spoken language, slang is used in fiction for a more vivid image of the described environment, for the linguistic characterization of characters.

Along with the words “jargon” and “slang”, which are French in origin, the word “slang” (sleng) borrowed from English has recently become widespread. It should be noted that in the use of the words "jargon", "argo", "slang" as terms there is no strict consistency and unambiguity, just as there are no sharp boundaries between the phenomena denoted by these words.

If territorial and socio-professional dialects are associated with one way or another limited groups of people, then vernacular has wider and less defined boundaries of use and is characterized mainly by emotional coloring. Initially, it was simple speech (including literary) that was called vernacular, in contrast to eloquence - speech emphatically refined, complicated, decorated. Precisely in this sense, Archpriest Avvakum called the language of his works colloquial. But today the word has a different meaning. Scholars define vernacular as a casual and somewhat rough, "reduced" variety of colloquial use of language. Common speech is also called words, expressions and grammatical forms that are characteristic of this variety and have a shade of swagger, rudeness (b lamba, butch, flirtatious, really, excitedly, wobble, uncouth man, he pulled his sleeve etc.). For vernacular, certain features of territorial dialects are not indicative; it is characteristic mainly of urban residents. Therefore, it is called mass (i.e., not closed within any one category of people) urban speech, mass urban language. In literature, vernacular is used for the linguistic characterization of characters, and in the author's language - as a means of special expressiveness (irony, playful or negative assessment, etc.). For example:

Pyotr Matveyevich suddenly noticed that the windows of the school were lit up rather unnaturally for such an evening time: every single one was bright. Usually at this time–well, one is there, two are burning, where they saw on the violin, or they strum on the piano, or else–they open their mouths, and through the glass it is not audible what kind of song is pouring out of it.

The highest form of the national Russian language is literary language. The main sphere of use of the literary language is literature, literature in the broad sense (that is, literature is not only fiction, but also journalistic, scientific, official business) and provided, "official" communication.

The main properties of the literary language are due to its monological basis. It is thanks to the peculiarities of monologue use that such defining qualities of the literary language as processing and normalization are developed (i.e., the presence of norms - the rules of language use, conscious, recognized and protected by society). In addition to processing and normalization, the literary language is also characterized by general distribution, universality (i.e., mandatory for all members of a given national team, in contrast to a dialect that is used only in a territorially or socially limited group of people), multifunctionality, universality (i.e., the use in various spheres of life), stylistic differentiation (i.e., the presence of a number of styles) and a tendency towards stability, stability. All these signs do not appear suddenly and in their entirety, but are developed gradually, in the process of using the language in literature. At the first stages of the development of book literature, the main feature of the literary language, which distinguishes it from the spoken language, was the monologue organization.

Signs of a literary language:

written fixation of oral speech: the presence of writing affects the nature of the literary language, enriching its expressive means and expanding the scope of application;

normalization;

obligatory nature of norms and their codification;

branched functional-stylistic system;

dialectical unity of book and colloquial speech;

close connection with the language of fiction

The Russian literary language has two main forms of existence: oral and written.

oral form is the primary and only form of existence of a language that does not have a written language. For colloquial varieties of the literary language, it is the main one, while book the language functions both in written and oral form (report - oral form, lecture - written). At the same time, with the development of electronic forms of communication, the written form of colloquial speech is becoming more widespread.

The oral form of the language is characterized by the fact that it is irreversible, not subject to editing, does not provide an opportunity for reflection, return to the expressed. Oral speech without additional support (video sequence, direct communication, etc.) is perceived more difficult than written, it is quickly forgotten. Therefore, large volumes of oral texts are undesirable, as well as long periods and complex constructions in them.

Written form is secondary, later in time of occurrence. Thus, fiction exists mainly in written form, although it is also realized in oral form (for example, artistic reading, theatrical performances, any reading aloud). Folklore, on the contrary, has an oral form of existence as a primary one, records of oral folk art (songs, fairy tales, anecdotes) are a secondary form of its implementation.

A distinctive advantage of written speech is the possibility of its additional polishing, repeated reference to the text, accumulation of vocabulary, which means the possibility of creating texts of any volume. At the same time, the lack of sound and visual, i.e. visual support imposes special obligations on the written text to compensate for the information that is transmitted in oral communication by non-linguistic means.

In the modern language, the connection between stylistic phenomena and the form of text implementation is weakening - only oral or only written. New traditions of text perception are being formed: listeners are equally annoyed by “reading from a piece of paper” and the excessive looseness of a lecturer or speaker who speaks without a summary or handout, which is seen more as unpreparedness than as freedom of possession of the material.

Within the framework of the literary language, two main functional areas are distinguished: bookstore and colloquial speech. Each of them is subject to its own system of norms. The main purpose of the literary language is to serve means of communication its carriers, the main means of expressing national culture, therefore, over time, independent varieties formed in it, called functional styles and conditioned by the sphere of public life they serve. In other words, the functional and stylistic stratification of the literary language is determined by the social need specialize linguistic means, to organize them in a special way in order to ensure the speech communication of native speakers of the literary language in each of the spheres of human activity

So, National language is the common language of the whole nation, covering all spheres of speech activity of people. It is heterogeneous, since it contains all varieties of language - territorial and social dialects, vernacular, jargon, literary language. The highest form of the national language is literary- the language is standardized, serving the cultural needs of the people; the language of fiction, science, press, radio, theater, government agencies. The concept of "culture of speech" is closely connected with the concept of "literary language": one concept implies another. The culture of speech arises along with the formation and development of the literary language. One of the main tasks of the culture of speech is the preservation and improvement of the literary language.

Conclusion.

The Russian language is one of the international and world languages that are used in communication between the peoples of different states. The first and main function of such languages is to communicate in them within a certain ethnic group, they are native (mother) languages for the people who make up this ethnic group. The intermediary function of international communication for such languages is secondary. It must be said that the composition of international languages has changed over time. In the ancient world and in the Middle Ages, international languages were not so much international as regional (for example, among the peoples of the Far East, such a language was ancient Chinese - wenyan; in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Hellenistic era - ancient Greek; in the Roman Empire - Latin; in the Near and Middle East with the spread of Islam - Arabic). Modern international languages have gone beyond the boundaries of their regions and become world (global) languages, forming the so-called "club of world languages". These are the most prestigious and generally recognized languages. They are widely promoted, studied for a variety of purposes: as foreign languages in schools, for tourism, for reading special literature, for communication. The number of such languages does not go beyond Miller's "magic number" 7 +2. Sometimes the “world language club” is identified with the official and working languages of the UN (their number is 6: English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, French.)

In terms of prevalence, the Russian language ranks fifth after Chinese (over 1 billion people), English (420 million people), Hindi and Urdu (320 million people) and Spanish (300 million people). On the globe, about 250 million people speak Russian. Russian is the national language of the Russian people. Russian is the state language for 145 million 600 thousand people inhabiting the Russian Federation. It should also be borne in mind that, according to 1999 data from Carnegie Foundation specialists studying the problems of migration in the territory of the former USSR, about 22 million Russian people now live in the CIS and Baltic countries. In addition, 61 million 300 thousand people belonging to various nationalities named Russian as their second language, which they are fluent in. As stated in Article 68 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Russian is the state language of Russia. At the same time, the Russian language is used in communication not only by those people for whom it is their native language. The need of any multinational country for one, and sometimes several state languages, is obvious: in parallel with the languages of individual regions, there must also be a single language that is understandable to employees of state institutions and citizens throughout the state. It is in this capacity that the Russian language is used in the highest bodies of state power and administration of Russia, in official office work and correspondence of Russian institutions and enterprises, as well as in television and radio programs intended for the entire territory of the country. It, as a state language, is studied in secondary and higher educational institutions of Russia.

Many of the republics that are part of the Russian Federation have their own state languages. However, official letters and documents sent outside such republics, in order for them to be understandable to the addressees, must be written in the state language of all Russia, i.e. in Russian. However, the use of the Russian language on the territory of the Russian Federation is not limited to official spheres: it has historically developed that, when communicating with each other, representatives of different nationalities living in Russia often speak Russian. The Russian language is also widely used outside of Russia. First of all, it is a fairly convenient means for interethnic communication among the inhabitants of the former Soviet Union, for example, Moldovans and Ukrainians, Georgians and Armenians, Uzbeks and Tajiks. In addition, representatives of different peoples outside the CIS often resort to his help. The Russian language is widely used in the work of international conferences and organizations. It is one of the six official and working languages of the United Nations (the other official and working languages of the UN are English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese and French). Languages widely used as a means of international communication are called world languages. The Russian language is one of the world languages. The Russian language has made a valuable contribution to the development of world civilization. Russian culture, science and living ties with neighboring states and peoples - this is what primarily predetermined interest in the Russian language in the past.

Russia has seen a lot before shaping its culture, rebuilding majestic cities and creating a mighty Russian language. Before becoming what it is today, the Russian language went through many metamorphoses, overcame barriers and obstacles. The history of how the Russian language originated is quite rich. But there are key points, thanks to which it is possible to consider in detail, but briefly, all the nuances of the formation and development of the Russian language.

The first steps

The history of the emergence of the Russian language began before our era. In the II - I millennium BC, the Proto-Slavic dialect appeared from the Indo-European language family, and in the I millennium AD. e. it became a Proto-Slavic language. Proto-Slavic language in the VI-VII centuries. n. e. split into three branches: western, eastern and southern. The East Slavic branch includes the Old Russian language, which was spoken in Kievan Rus. During the formation of Kievan Rus, the Russian language was the main means of communication for many principalities.

Since the time of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, wars with the Lithuanian principality, there have been changes in the language. In the XIV-XV centuries. Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian languages appeared. The Old Russian language disappeared, a more modern northeastern dialect began to form, which can be considered the forefather of modern Russian.

Where did the Russian language come from? The correct answer is Kievan Rus, after the collapse of which a more modern Russian language began to form. From the beginning of the 15th century to the end of the 17th century, the Russian language was formed quite quickly. The center of development is Moscow, where the modern dialect was born. There were many dialects outside the city, but the Moscow dialect became the main one. Clear word endings appear, cases are formed, spelling develops, words change by gender, case and number.

Dawn

At the end of the 17th century, the history of the development of the Russian language is undergoing a period of complete formation. Writing develops, new words, rules, modern church language appear, in which religious literature is written. In the 19th century, the ecclesiastical language was clearly distinguished from the literary one, which was used by all the inhabitants of Muscovite Russia. The language is becoming even more modern, similar to today. A lot of literature written in the new Russian language is being published.

With the development of military, technical, scientific and political spheres of activity in the Russian language, modern terminology appears, words that are taken from foreign languages (French, German). The vocabulary changes a little, it becomes saturated with French words. Since the language began to be "clogged" with foreign words and speech patterns, the question arose of giving the Russian language the status of a national language. Until Peter I decided to give the status of the Russian state to Moscow Russia, there were disputes over the national status of the Russian language. The emperor assigned a new name to the state, issued a decree on the adoption of the Russian language as a national language.

At the beginning of the 20th century, when the scientific field of activity was actively developing, English-language words began to be used, which were tightly intertwined with the Russian language, becoming inseparable from it. The church, as well as many politicians in the period of the 18th-20th centuries, fought for the preservation of the pure Russian-Slovenian language as a national one. But the study of foreign speech has made its mark: a fashion has developed for words of foreign origin.

Modern Russian

Since the appearance of the Russian language, it has undergone many metamorphoses from the basics to a modern rich and rich language with complex rules and a huge vocabulary. History shows that the Russian language was formed gradually, but purposefully. In the mid-twenties, the peak of popularity and development of the Russian language began in many countries of the world. In the seventies, almost all the main educational institutions of the world were engaged in the study of Russian. The number of countries that mastered the Russian language exceeded 90. The language is undergoing its ascent, acquiring new rules, and being brought to perfection. Learning the language, drawing up rules, exceptions, finding new examples to this day continues to take shape. The Slavic language with an admixture of foreign words became modern Russian and the national language of all Russia. It is also one of the main ones in some countries of the former Soviet Union.

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