Russian language

Classification

Russian is a Slavic language in the Indo-European family.

Related Topics:
Slavic - Indo-European

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From the point of view of the spoken language, its closest relatives are Belarusian and Ukrainian, the other two national languages in the East Slavic group. In many places in Ukraine and Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably.

Related Topics:
Belarusian - Ukrainian - East Slavic

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The basic vocabulary, principles of word-formation, and, to some extent, inflexions and literary style of Russian have been influenced by Church Slavonic, a developed and partly adopted form of the South Slavic Old Church Slavonic language used by the Russian Orthodox Church. Many words in modern literary Russian are closer in form to the modern Bulgarian language than to Ukrainian or Belarusian. However, the East Slavic forms have tended to remain in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with slightly different meanings. For details, see Historical Sound Changes and History of the Russian language.

Related Topics:
Church Slavonic - South Slavic - Old Church Slavonic - Russian Orthodox Church - Bulgarian language - Historical Sound Changes - History of the Russian language

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Outside the Slavic languages, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have been greatly influenced by Greek, Latin, French, German, and English.

Related Topics:
Greek - Latin - French - German - English

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