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The history proper of the Russian language dates from just before the turn of the second millennium. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages

Note. In the following sections, all examples of vocabulary are given in their modern spelling.

Contents

Historical development

Kievan period and feudal breakup

The 14th-century Novgorodian children were literate enough to send each other birch-bark letters written in the Old Novgorod dialect.
The 14th-century Novgorodian children were literate enough to send each other birch-bark letters written in the Old Novgorod dialect. Veliky Novgorod (Вели́кий Но́вгород is the foremost historic city of North-Western Russia and the administrative center of Novgorod A birch bark document is a document written on pieces of Birch bark. Old Novgorod dialect ( Russian древненовгородский диалект also translated as Old Novgorodian or Ancient Novgorod dialect) is a

Up to the 14th century, ancestors of the modern Russians (who likewise called themselves ruskiye) spoke dialects of a language, usually termed Old Russian but actually common to all the Eastern Slavs. Old East Slavic, also known as Old Russian (древнерусский or Old Ruthenian, was a vernacular literary language used from the 10th to the 14th centuries Old East Slavic, also known as Old Russian (древнерусский or Old Ruthenian, was a vernacular literary language used from the 10th to the 14th centuries The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of Slavic languages, currently spoken in Eastern Europe. That tongue was, next to Old Church Slavonic language, a kind of official language of Kievan Rus. to make sure old Cyrillic letters are displayed properly (For example instead of just Ѣ write Ѣ An official language is a Language that is given a special legal status in a particular Country, State, or other territory Kievan Rus′ (Ки́евская Русь romanised: Kievskaya Rus', rusʲ also written as Kyivan Rus′ (Ки́ївська Русь or Kievan The earliest written record of the language is an amphora found at Gnezdovo and tentatively dated to the mid-10th century. Gnezdovo or Gnyozdovo (Гнёздово is an archeological site located near the village of Gnyozdovo in Smolensk Oblast, Russia Until 15th century Gnezdovo was a part of the independent Smolensk principality. Gnezdovo or Gnyozdovo (Гнёздово is an archeological site located near the village of Gnyozdovo in Smolensk Oblast, Russia Smolensk (Смоленск is a city in western Russia, located on the Dnieper River, the administrative centre of Smolensk Oblast.

For the debate concerning derivation of the words Rus and Russia, see Etymology of Rus and derivatives and Rus' (people). Rus’ (Русь rusʲ Русичи Русы are an ancient people whose name survives in the cognates Russians, Rusyns, and Ruthenians For the general history of the language and Old East Slavic literature, see Old East Slavic language. Old East Slavic, also known as Old Russian (древнерусский or Old Ruthenian, was a vernacular literary language used from the 10th to the 14th centuries

During the pre-Kievan period, the main sources of borrowings were Germanic languages, particularly Gothic and Old Norse. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. Old Norse is the North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age In the Kievan period, however, loanwords and calques entered the vernacular primarily from Old Church Slavonic and from Byzantine Greek:

краткий [ˈkra. to make sure old Cyrillic letters are displayed properly (For example instead of just Ѣ write Ѣ Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly tkʲɪj] ОCS = ESl короткий 'brief'
короткий [kəˈro. tkʲɪj] ESl = CS краткий 'short'
вивлиофика [vʲɪ. vlʲɪˈo. fʲɪ. kə] Gr bibliothḗkē via OCS 'library' (archaic form)
правописание [ˈpra. və. pʲɪˈsa. nʲjə] Gr orthographíā via OCS calque:
OCS правыи [ˈpra. vɨi]=orthós 'correct',
OCS писати [pʲɪˈsa. tʲɪ] =gráphō 'write'		 'spelling, orthography'

After the Mongol invasion of Rus in the 12th century, the vernacular language of the conquered remained firmly Slavic. The Mongol invasion of Rus' was heralded by the Battle of the Kalka River in 1223 between Subutai 's reconnaissance unit and the combined force Altaic borrowings in Russian relate mostly to commerce and the military:

товар [tɐˈvar] Turk. Altaic, according to its proponents is a language family that includes 66 Languages ref> Altaic languages spoken by about 348 million people mostly in and around Commerce is a division of trade or production which deals with the exchange of goods and services from producer to final consumer A military is an Organization authorized by its Nation to use force usually including use of Weapons in defending its Country (or by attacking -Altaic 'commercial goods'
лошадь [ˈlo. ʂətʲ] Turk. -Altaic 'horse'

In Russia,Church Slavonic which evolved from Old Church Slavonic remained the literary language until the Petrine age, when its usage shrank drastically to biblical and liturgical texts. Church Slavonic (also Church Slavic, Old Bulgarian) is the Liturgical language of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Macedonian Orthodox to make sure old Cyrillic letters are displayed properly (For example instead of just Ѣ write Ѣ The legal acts and private letters had been, however, already written in pre-Petrine Muscovy in a less formal language, closely reflecting spoken Russian. The first Grammar of Russian Language was written by Vasily Adodurov in the 1740s, and a more influential one, by Mikhail Lomonosov in 1755. Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (Михаи́л Васи́льевич Ломоно́сов () was a Russian Polymath, scientist

The Moscow period (15th–17th centuries)

After the disestablishment of the "Tartar yoke" (татарское иго [tɐˈtar. This article refers to the medieval Turkic state For the Irish rock band see The Golden Horde (band. skə. jə ˈi. gə]) in the late fourteenth century, both the political centre and the predominant dialect in European Russia came to be based in Moscow. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Moscow (Москва́ romanised: Moskvá, IPA: see also other names) is the Capital and the largest city of A scientific consensus exists that Russian and Ruthenian (the predecessor of Belarusian and Ukrainian) had definitely become distinct by this time at the latest (according to some linguists and historians, even earlier). Ruthenian (also The official language in Russia remained a kind of Church Slavonic until the close of the 18th century, but, despite attempts at standardization, as by Meletius Smotrytsky c. Meletius Smotrytsky (Мелетій Смотрицький Meletiy Smotryts’kyy; Belarusian: Мялецій Сматрыцкі Russian: Мелетий  1620, its purity was by then strongly compromised by an incipient secular literature. This article is about literature from Russia For the song by Maxïmo Park, see Our Earthly Pleasures. There was borrowing of vocabulary from Polish, and, through it, from German and other Western European languages. Polish ( język polski, polszczyzna) is the Official language of Poland. At the same time, a number of words of native (according to a general consensus among etymologists of Russian) coinage or adaptation appeared, at times replacing or supplementing the inherited Indo-European/Common Slavonic vocabulary. Proto-Slavic is the Proto-language from which Slavic languages later emerged

глаз [glas] R; relegates (to poetic use only) ComSl око [ˈo. kə] = Lat oculus = E eye 'eye'
куртка [ˈku. rtkə] P kurta, from Lat curtus 'a short jacket'
бархат [ˈba. rxət] G Barchat 'velvet'

Much annalistic, hagiographic, and poetic material survives from the early Muscovite period. Hagiography ( is the study of Saints. A hagiography, from Greek (hağios (ἅγιος "holy" or "saint" and graphē (γραφή Nonetheless, a significant amount of philosophic and secular literature is known to have been destroyed after being proclaimed heretical. Heresy is an introduced change to some system of belief especially a religion that conflicts with the previously established canon of that belief

The material following the election of the Romanov dynasty in 1613 following the Time of Troubles is rather more complete. The House of Romanov (Рома́нов rʌˈmanəf was the second and last imperial Dynasty of Russia, which ruled the country from 1613 to 1917 For the Dungeons & Dragons plotline see Time of Troubles (Forgotten Realms. Modern Russian literature is considered to have begun in the seventeenth century, with the autobiography of Avvakum and a corpus of chronique scandaleuse short stories from Moscow. Avvakum Petrov (Kondratiev (Аввакум Петров (Кондратьев ( November 20, 1620 or 1621 - April 14, 1682) was a

Empire (18th–19th centuries)

The first book printed in the "civil" script, 1708
The first book printed in the "civil" script, 1708

The political reforms of Peter the Great were accompanied by a reform of the alphabet, and achieved their goal of secularization and Westernization. Westernization or occidentalization (from occident, see wiktionary) is a process whereby societies come under or adopt the Western Blocks of specialized vocabulary were adopted from the languages of Western Europe. Western Europe at its most general meaning means 'all the countries in the West of Europe ' Most of the modern naval vocabulary, for example, is of Dutch origin. Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname Latin, French, and German words entered Russian for the intellectual categories of the Age of Enlightenment. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century Greek words already in the language through Church Slavonic were refashioned to reflect post-Renaissance European rather than Byzantine pronunciation. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere By 1800, a significant portion of the gentry spoke French, less often German, on an everyday basis.

мачта [ˈma. ʨtə] D mast 'mast'
интерес [ɪn. tʲɪˈrʲɛs] G Interesse/Fr intérêt 'interest'
библиотека [bʲɪ. blʲɪ. ɐˈtʲɛ. kə] Gr bibliothḗkē via Fr. bibliothèque 'library' (modern form)

At the same time, there began explicit attempts to fashion a modern literary language as a compromise between Church Slavonic, the native vernacular, and the style of Western Europe. The writers Lomonosov, Derzhavin, and Karamzin made notable efforts in this respect, but, as per the received notion, the final synthesis belongs to Pushkin and his contemporaries in the first third of the nineteenth century. Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (Михаи́л Васи́льевич Ломоно́сов () was a Russian Polymath, scientist Gavriil (Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin (Гаврии́л (Гаври́ла Рома́нович Держа́вин July 14 1743 &ndash July 20 1816 was the greatest Russian poet Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin ( Никола́й Миха́йлович Карамзи́н) (December 1 1766 – June 3 1826 a Russian author credited

During the nineteenth century, the standard language assumed its modern form; literature flourished. Spurred perhaps by the so-called Slavophilism, some Westernisms fashionable during the eighteenth century now passed out of use (for example, виктория [vʲiˈkto. A Slavophile is an intellectual movement originating from 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed upon values and institutions derived from its early history rʲɪ. jə] > победа [pɐˈbʲɛ. də], 'victory'), and formerly vernacular or dialectal strata entered the literature as the "speech of the people". Borrowings of political, scientific and technical terminology continued. By about 1900, commerce and fashion ensured the first wave of mass adoptions from English. Commerce is a division of trade or production which deals with the exchange of goods and services from producer to final consumer Fashion refers to styles of dress (but can also include cuisine literature art architecture and general comportment that are popular in a culture at any given time

социализм [sə. ʦɪ. ɐˈlʲism] Intl/G Sozialismus 'socialism'
конституция [kən. sʲtʲɨ. ˈtu. ʦɨ. jə] Intl/Lat constitutio 'constitution'
антимония [ən. tʲɪˈmo. nʲɪ. jə] Gr antinomíā,
metathesis		 'useless debate, argument or quarrel' (dead bookish term)
митинг [ˈmʲi. tʲɪnk] E 'political rally'
прейскурант [prʲɪjs. kuˈrant] (the original unpalatalized
pronunciation of /pre-/ is still heard)		 G Preiskurant/
Fr prix-courant		 'price list'

Soviet period and beyond (20th century)

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. Many languages have undergone spelling reform, where a deliberate often officially sanctioned or mandated change to spelling takes place Reformed spelling, the new political terminology, and the abandonment of the effusive formulae of politeness characteristic of the pre-Revolutionary upper classes prompted dire statements from members of the emigré intelligentsia that Russian was becoming debased. But the authoritarian nature of the regime, the system of schooling it provided from the 1930s, and not least the often unexpressed yearning among the literati for the former days ensured a fairly static maintenance of Russian into the 1980s. Though the language did evolve, it changed very gradually. Indeed, while literacy became nearly universal, dialectal differentiation declined, especially in the vocabulary: schooling and mass communications ensured a common denominator.

The 1964 proposed reform was related to the orthography. Russian orthography (правописание ˈpravəpʲɪˈsanʲjə is formally considered to encompass Spelling (орфография jə and Punctuation (пунктуация In that year the Orthographic commission of the Institute of the Russian language (Academy of Sciences of the USSR), headed by Viktor Vinogradov, apart from the withdrawal of some spelling exceptions, suggested to:

The reform however failed to be accomplished. In Phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken Consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short Consonant. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation In Grammar, a suffix (also postfix, ending) is an Affix which is placed at the end of a word En (Н н is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. It represents the consonant /n/ unless followed by ь or any of the Palatalizing vowels when it represents /nʲ/ In Linguistics, a participle (from Latin participium, a Calque of Greek μετοχη "partaking" is a derivative of a non-finite A hyphen ( -) is a Punctuation mark It is used for both Words to join and to separate Syllables It is often confused with the dashes In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another In Set theory, an ordinal number, or just ordinal, is the Order type of a Well-ordered set. In Linguistics, the term particle is a word lacking a strict definition but has the function of changing the relation of the parts of the sentence to one another and is therefore In Grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice

Political circumstances and the undoubted accomplishments of the superpower in military, scientific, and technological matters (especially cosmonautics), gave Russian a world-wide if occasionally grudging prestige, most strongly felt during the middle third of the twentieth century.

большевик [bəlʲ. ʂɐˈvʲik] R 'Bolshevik' (lit. 'adherent of the maximum programme',
after the events of the 1903 Party congress,
also taken as 'person of the majority'. )
Комсомол [kəm. sɐˈmol] Abbreviated agglutination:
Коммунистический Союз Молодёжи
[kə. mə. nʲɪˈsʲtʲi. ʨɪ. skʲɪj sɐˈjuz mə. lɐˈdʲo. ʐɨ]		 'Communist Youth League'
рабфак [rɐpˈfak] Abbreviated agglutination:
рабочий факультет
[rɐˈbo. ʨɪj fə. kulʲˈtʲɛt]		 lit. 'faculty for workers' (special preparatory courses of colleges and universities for workers)

The collapse of 1990–91 loosened the shackles. In the face of economic uncertainties and difficulties within the educational system, the language changed rapidly. Fashion for ways and things Western prompted a wave of adoptions, mostly from English, and sometimes for words with exact native equivalents. At the same time, the growing public presence of the Russian Orthodox Church and public debate about the history of the nation gave new impetus to the most archaic Church Slavonic stratum of the language, and introduced or reintroduced words and concepts that replicate the linguistic models of the earliest period. See also Eastern Orthodox Church Structure and organization The Slavic Orthodox Church is organized in a hierarchical structure

младостарчество [mlə. dɐˈstar. ʨɪ. stvə] R/CS, agglutination:
CS младый [ˈmla. dɨj] =
R молодой [mə. lɐˈdoj] 'young',
R/CS старец [ˈsta. rʲɪʦ] = 'old man with spriritual wisdom'		 term applied (in condemnation) by the Russian Orthodox Church to the phenomenon of immature newly-ordained priests assuming an unwarranted excessive control over the private life of the members of the congregation. See also Eastern Orthodox Church Structure and organization The Slavic Orthodox Church is organized in a hierarchical structure
дистрибьютор [dʲɪ. strʲɪˈbʲju. tər] E 'distributor' (in marketing)
юсфульный [ˈjus. fəlʲ. nɨj] E 'useful' (live fashionable slang)

Russian today is a tongue in great flux. The new words entering the language and the emerging new styles of expression have, naturally, not been received with universal appreciation.

Examples

The following excerpts illustrate (very briefly) the development of the literary language. They have been chosen because they are to this day presented in Russian schools and universities as illuminations of linguistic and social history.

NOTE. The spelling has been partly modernized. The translations attempt to be as literal as possible; they are not literary.

Primary Chronicle

Graphic of the text (if your browser's font is missing some characters), click to enlarge
Graphic of the text (if your browser's font is missing some characters), click to enlarge

c. The Primary Chronicle (ѣѣтъ Пóвесть временны́х лет Povest' vremennykh let; Пóвість врéм'яних літ Povist' vremjanykh 1110, from the Laurentian Codex, 1377

Се повѣсти времѧньных лѣт ‧ ѿкуду єсть пошла руская земѧ ‧ кто въ києвѣ нача первѣє кнѧжит ‧ и ѿкуду руская землѧ стала єсть.
These [are] the tales of the bygone years, whence is come the Russian land, who first began to rule at Kiev, and whence the Russian land has come about.

Early language; Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian not yet fully differentiated. Fall of the yers in progress or arguably complete (several words end with a consonant; кнѧжит 'to rule' < кънѧжити, modern княжить). The letter Yer or Jer ( Ъ, ъ) of the Cyrillic alphabet is known as the hard sign (твёрдый знак znak in the modern South-western (incipient Ukrainian) features include времѧньнъıх 'bygone'; modern R временных). Ukrainian (in Ukrainian украї́нська мо́ва ukrayins'ka mova,) is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. Correct use of perfect and aorist: єсть пошла 'is/has come' (modern R пошла), нача 'began' (modern R начал as a development of the old perfect tense. The perfect aspect is variously considered either an aspect or tense which calls a listener's attention to the consequences generated by an action rather than the ) Note the style of punctuation.

Song of Igor

Graphic of the text (if your browser's font is missing some characters), click to enlarge
Graphic of the text (if your browser's font is missing some characters), click to enlarge

Слово о пълку Игоревѣ. The Tale of Igor's Campaign ( Old East Slavic: Слово о плъку Игоревѣ Slovo o plŭku Igorevě; Слово о полку Ігоревім c. 1200(?), from the Catherine manuscript, c. 1790.

Не лѣпо ли ны бяшетъ братіе, начати старыми словесы трудныхъ повѣстій о полку Игоревѣ, Игоря Святъ славича? Начатижеся тъ пѣсни по былинамъ сего времени, а не по замышленію Бояню. Боянъ бо вѣщій, аще кому хотяше пѣснѣ творити, то растекашется мысію по древу, сѣрымъ волкомъ по земли, шизымъ орломъ подъ облакы.
Would it not be meet, o brothers, for us to begin with the old words the difficult telling of the host of Igor, Igor Sviatoslavich? And to begin in the way of the true tales of this time, and not in the way of Boyan's inventions. For the wise Boyan, if he wished to devote to someone [his] song, would wander like a squirrel over a tree, like a grey wolf over land, like a bluish eagle beneath the clouds.

Illustrates the sung epics. An epic is a lengthy Narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation Yers generally given full voicing, unlike in the first printed edition of 1800, which was copied from the same destroyed prototype as the Catherine manuscript. Typical use of metaphor and simile. The misquote растекаться мыслью по древу ('to effuse/pour out one's thought upon/over wood'; a product of an old and habitual misreading of the word мысію, 'squirrel-like' as мыслію, 'thought-like', and a change in the meaning of the word течь) has become proverbial in the meaning 'to speak ornately, at length, excessively'.

Avvakum's autobiography

1672–73. Avvakum Petrov (Kondratiev (Аввакум Петров (Кондратьев ( November 20, 1620 or 1621 - April 14, 1682) was a Modernized spelling.

Таже послали меня в Сибирь с женою и детьми. И колико дорогою нужды бысть, тово всево много говорить, разве малая часть помянуть. Протопопица младенца родила; больную в телеге и повезли до Тобольска; три тысящи верст недель с тринадцеть волокли телегами и водою и саньми половину пути.

And then they sent me to Siberia with my wife and children. Whatever hardship there was on the way, there's too much to say it all, but maybe a small part to be mentioned. [My wife] (lit, the archpriest's wife) gave birth to a baby; and we carted her, sick, all the way to Tobolsk; for three thousand versts, around thirteen weeks in all, we dragged [her] by cart, and by water, and in a sleigh half of the way.

Pure seventeenth-century central Russian vernacular. Phonetic spelling (тово всево 'it all, all of that', modern того всего). A few archaisms still used (aorist in the perfective aspect бысть 'was'). Note the way of transport to exile.

Alexandr Pushkin

From "Winter Evening" (Зимний вечер), 1825. Modern spelling. listen (help·info)

Буря мглою небо кроет,
Вихри снежные крутя;
То, как зверь, она завоет,
То заплачет, как дитя,
То по кровле обветшалой
Вдруг соломой зашумит,
То, как путник запоздалый,
К нам в окошко застучит.
Tempest covers sky in haze[s],
Twisting gales full of snow;
Like a beast begins to howl,
A cry, as if a child, it will let go,
On the worn-out roof it will clamour
Suddenly upon the thatch,
Or as though a traveller tardy
Starts to knock upon our hatch. (lit. , window)

Modern Russian is sometimes said to begin with Pushkin, in the sense that the old "high style" Church Slavonic and vernacular Russian are so closely fused that it is difficult to identify whether any given word or phrase stems from the one or the other. Church Slavonic (also Church Slavic, Old Bulgarian) is the Liturgical language of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Macedonian Orthodox

Fyodor Dostoevsky

From Crime and Punishment (Преступление и наказание), 1866. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский, sometimes transliterated Dostoyevsky, Dostoievsky, Crime and Punishment (Преступление и наказание is a Novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky that Modern spelling.

В начале июля, в чрезвычайно жаркое время, под вечер, один молодой человек вышел из своей каморки, которую нанимал от жильцов в С-м переулке, на улицу и медленно, как бы в нерешимости, отправился к К-ну мосту.
In early July, during a spell of extraordinary heat, towards evening, a young man went out from his garret, which he sublet in S—— Lane, [entered] the street, and slowly, as though in [the grip of] indecision, began to make his way to K—— Bridge.

Nineteenth century prose. No archaisms. "European" syntax.

Fundamental laws of the Russian Empire

Основные законы Российской Империи (Constitution of the Russian Empire), 1906. The Russian Empire ( Pre-reform Russian: Pоссійская Имперія Modern Russian: Российская Империя translit: Rossiyskaya Modern spelling.

Императору Всероссийскому принадлежит Верховная Самодержавная Власть. Повиноваться власти Его не только за страх, но и за совесть Сам Бог повелевает.
To the Emperor of all Russia belongs the Supreme Autocratic Power. To obey His power, not merely in fear but also in conscience, God Himself does ordain.

Illustrates the categorical nature of thought and expression in the official circles of the Russian Empire. Exemplifies the syntactic distribution of emphasis.

Mikhail Bulgakov

From The Master and Margarita (Мастер и Маргарита), 1930–40

Вы всегда были горячим проповедником той теории, что по отрезании головы жизнь в человеке прекращается, он превращается в золу и уходит в небытие. Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov (Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков, Kiev &ndash March 10, 1940, Moscow) was a Russian The Master and Margarita (Мастер и Маргарита is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, woven about the premise of a visit by the Devil to the Мне приятно сообщить вам, в присутствии моих гостей, хотя они и служат доказательством совсем другой теории, о том, что ваша теория и солидна и остроумна. Впрочем, ведь все теории стоят одна другой. Есть среди них и такая, согласно которой каждому будет дано по его вере. Да сбудется же это!

You have always been a passionate proponent of the theory that upon decapitation human life comes to an end, the human being transforms into ashes, and passes into oblivion. I am pleased to inform you, in the presence of my guests, though they serve as a proof for another theory altogether, that your theory is both well-grounded and ingenious. Mind you, all theories are worth one another. Among them is one, according to which every one shall receive in line with his faith. May that come to be!

An example of highly educated modern speech (this excerpt is spoken by Woland). See Russian humor for the essential other end of the spectrum. Russian humour gains much of its wit from the great flexibility and richness of the Russian language, allowing for plays on words and unexpected associations

Literature

See also

External links

Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages Old East Slavic, also known as Old Russian (древнерусский or Old Ruthenian, was a vernacular literary language used from the 10th to the 14th centuries The modern Russian alphabet is a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet. Russian grammar encompasses a highly synthetic morphology a syntax that for the literary language is the conscious fusion of three elements Russian orthography (правописание ˈpravəpʲɪˈsanʲjə is formally considered to encompass Spelling (орфография jə and Punctuation (пунктуация The Old Russian language adopted the Cyrillic alphabet, approximately during the tenth century and at about the same time as the introduction of Eastern Christianity See also Russian language For assistance in making phonetic transcriptions of Russian for Wikipedia articles see HelpIPA for Russian This article discusses
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