The History and Style of the Russian Language

Russian is the native tongue of the country of Russia. More than 150 million people throughout the world speak Russian as their first language. Many of these live in Russia, though the language is also spoken in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania and Estonia. It is an unusual language with an interesting history. Knowing something of the language’s history and style is important if you want to learn to speak Russian.

The Beginnings

The earliest written record of Russian is an amphora (a tall jar), which was found in Gnezdovo. It is estimated that it was made around the 10^th century. This style of Russian vanishes just a few hundred years later. The Russian language as we know it today has a fascinating history that dates back to the 14^th century when the ancestors of today’s Russians spoke with various dialects of an old East Slavic language.

Classification

Russian is a Slavic language which is part of the Indo-European family. As a spoken language its nearest relatives would be Belarusian and Ukrainian. The style and vocabulary of modern Russian were heavily influenced by Church Slavonic – the liturgical language of the Russian Orthodox Church. Over the course of more recent centuries, Modern day Russian has also been greatly influenced by Central and Western European languages such as Polish, German, Dutch, as well as Greek and Latin.

Difficulty

Russian does have something of a reputation for being difficult to learn, though it is not as difficult as some languages; Chinese or Arabic for example. Its classification in terms of learning difficulty is a level III language. For native English speakers it requires an average of 780 hours of immersion instruction to develop intermediate fluency skills. 

The Cyrillic Alphabet

The Russian alphabet originated in the 9^th century and contains Cyrillic characters. It was created by two Greek missionaries - Methodius and Cyril. The brothers based the alphabet on the Greek. The Cyrillic alphabet is often  intimidating to people who wish to learn Russian, but though it differs from the English alphabet in many obvious respects, it is not too difficult to learn. Some of the letters do look and sound similar to English letters. The Russian alphabet can usually be learned within a week.

Russian Literature

Learning the Russian language can open the door to a whole new area of literature. Many famous great works of literature were penned by Russian authors. Here are just a few of the most well-known:

·         War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

·         Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

·         A Sportsman’s Sketches by Ivan Turgenev

·         The Overcoat  by Nikolai Gogol

Reading Russian literature in its original tongue allows you to capture a closer understanding to that which the author intended than reading an English translation permits. 

Benefits of Learning Russian

There are many other benefits to learning Russian as well as being able to explore the country’s fantastic literature. If you are planning to take a vacation to Russia, understanding and speaking even the most rudimentary Russian will be of benefit. It will not only help you get by on a daily basis form purchasing food to traveling, it will also enable you to learn and understand more about modern Russia, its culture and its people. If you are planning a business trip to Russian, learning the language is essential. There are a number of lucrative business opportunities available in Russia and speaking the native language will indicate your seriousness and professionalism.

Sources

http://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/ling450ch/reports/russian.html

http://learningrussian.net/russianlanguage/#ixzz1ve3xXHHB