☼ Concept Map

Русский ┃ Russian ▢𓏺｜appendage｜___｜20260628185154-01-•

Russian…
русский язык1…
Pronunciation[ˈruskʲɪj jɪˈzɨk]
Native toRussia, other areas of the Russian-speaking world
SpeakersL1: 145 million (2026)2
L2: 65.2 million (2026)2
Total: 210 million (2026)2
Language familyIndo-European • Balto-Slavic
• Slavic
• East Slavic
• Russian
Early formsProto-Indo-European • Proto-Balto-Slavic
• Proto-Slavic
• Old Russian
• Middle Russian
Writing systemCyrillic (Russian alphabet)
Russian Braille
Official status…
Official language in5 UN member states •
• Russia (state) 3
• Belarus (co-official) 4
• Kazakhstan (co-official) 5

• Kyrgyzstan (co-official) 6
• Tajikistan (as inter-ethnic language designated by the constitution) 7
Official on regional level •
• Moldova :
• Gagauzia (co-official) 8
• Left Bank of the Dniester (co-official) 9
• Ukraine :
• Autonomous Republic of Crimea (co-official) 10
States with limited recognition •
• Abkhazia 11 (co-official) 12
• South Ossetia 11 (co-official) 13
• Transnistria (state) 14
Organizations • United Nations :
• IAEA
• ICAO
• UNESCO
• WHO CIS
EAEU
CSTO
SCO
OSCE
ATS
ISO
Recognised minority
language in		List • Armenia 15
China 16 17
Czech Republic 18
Moldova 19
Romania 20
Slovakia 15
Ukraine 21
Regulated byV.V. Vinogradov Russian Language Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences22
Language codes…
ISO 639-1ru
ISO 639-2rus
ISO 639-3rus
Glottologruss1263
Linguasphere53-AAA-ea < 53-AAA-e
(varieties: 53-AAA-eaa to 53-AAA-eat)
Majority of Russian speakers Minority of Russian speakers…

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. On the history of using “русский” (“russkiy”) and “российский” (“rossiyskiy”) as the Russian adjectives denoting “Russian”, see: Oleg Trubachyov. 2005. Русский – Российский. История, динамика, идеология двух атрибутов нации (pp. 216–227). В поисках единства. Взгляд филолога на проблему истоков Руси., 2005. РУССКИЙ – РОССИЙСКИЙ (in Russian). Archived from the original on 18 February 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2014.. On the 1830s change in the Russian name of the Russian language and its causes, see: Tomasz Kamusella. 2012. The Change of the Name of the Russian Language in Russian from Rossiiskii to Russkii: Did Politics Have Anything to Do with It? (pp. 73–96). Acta Slavica Iaponica. Vol 32, “The Change of the Name of the Russian Language in Russian from Rossiiskii to Russkii: Did Politics Have Anything to Do with It?” (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 May 2013. Retrieved 7 January 2013. ↩

  2. Russian language at Ethnologue (28th ed., 2025) ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. “Article 68. Constitution of the Russian Federation”. Constitution.ru. Archived from the original on 6 June 2013. Retrieved 18 June 2013. ↩

  4. “Article 17. Constitution of the Republic of Belarus”. President.gov.by. 11 May 1998. Archived from the original on 2 May 2007. Retrieved 18 June 2013. ↩

  5. Nazarbaev, N. (4 December 2005). “Article 7. Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan”. Constcouncil.kz. Archived from the original on 20 October 2007. Retrieved 18 June 2013. ↩

  6. “Официальный сайт Правительства КР”. Gov.kg. Archived from the original on 22 December 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2020. ↩

  7. “КОНСТИТУЦИЯ РЕСПУБЛИКИ ТАДЖИКИСТАН” [Constitution of the Republic of Tajikistan]. prokuratura.tj. Parliament of Tajikistan. Archived from the original on 24 February 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2020. ↩

  8. “Article 16. Legal code of Gagauzia (Gagauz-Yeri)”. Gagauzia.md. 5 August 2008. Archived from the original on 13 May 2013. Retrieved 18 June 2013. ↩

  9. Law № 173 from 22.07.2005: “About main notes about special legal status of settlements of left bank of the Dniester (Transnistria)” - Article 6: in Romanian Archived 15 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine; in Russian Archived 15 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine. ↩

  10. The status of Crimea and of the city of Sevastopol is under dispute between Russia and Ukraine since March 2014; Ukraine and the majority of the international community consider Crimea to be an autonomous republic of Ukraine and Sevastopol to be one of Ukraine’s cities with special status, whereas Russia, on the other hand, considers Crimea to be a federal subject of Russia and Sevastopol to be one of Russia’s three federal cities ↩

  11. Abkhazia and South Ossetia are only partially recognized countries. ↩ ↩2

  12. “Конституция Республики Абхазия”. 18 January 2009. Archived from the original on 18 January 2009. Retrieved 16 February 2020. ↩

  13. “КОНСТИТУЦИЯ РЕСПУБЛИКИ ЮЖНАЯ ОСЕТИЯ” [Constitution of the Republic of South Ossetia]. 11 August 2009. Archived from the original on 11 August 2009. Retrieved 5 April 2021. ↩

  14. “Law of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic on the Functioning of Languages on the Territory of the Moldavian SSR”. U.S. English Foundation Research. 2016. Archived from the original on 21 September 2016. ↩

  15. “List of declarations made with respect to treaty No. 148 (Status as of: 21/9/2011)”. Council of Europe. Archived from the original on 22 May 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2012. ↩ ↩2

  16. Ethnic Groups and Religious department, Fujian Provincial Government (13 September 2022). “少数民族的语言文字有哪些？”. fujian.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 28 October 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2022. 我国已正式使用和经国家批准推行的少数民族文字有19种，它们是…俄罗斯文… ↩

  17. Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (27 August 2021). “中国语言文字概况（2021年版）”. moe.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 4 January 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2023…属于印欧语系的是属斯拉夫语族的俄语… ↩

  18. “National Minorities Policy of the Government of the Czech Republic”. Vlada.cz. Archived from the original on 7 June 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2012. ↩

  19. “Președintele CCM: Constituția nu conferă limbii ruse un statut deosebit de cel al altor limbi minoritare”. Deschide.md. Archived from the original on 29 January 2021. Retrieved 22 January 2021. ↩

  20. “Romania: Languages of Romania”. Ethnologue.com. 19 February 1999. Archived from the original on 31 January 2013. Retrieved 28 January 2016. ↩

  21. Article 10 Archived 21 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine of the Constitution says: “The state language of Ukraine is the Ukrainian language. The State ensures the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of social life throughout the entire territory of Ukraine. In Ukraine, the free development, use and protection of Russian, and other languages of national minorities of Ukraine, is guaranteed.” ↩

  22. “Russian Language Institute”. Ruslang.ru. Archived from the original on 19 July 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2010. ↩