History of the Russian language

Carlos V used to say that you have to “speak Spanish with God, French with friends, German with enemies, and Italian with women.” And what about the Russian? We tell you the history of the Russian language !

The Russian language family

Russian belongs to the Slavic group, which in turn belongs to the Indo-European language group. Among the Slavic languages, there is Russian, but also the:

• Polish,
• Bulgarian,
• Ukrainian,
• Serbo-Croatian,
• Czech,
• Belarusian,
• Slovak,
• Slovenian,
• And Macedonian.

The Slavic group can be divided into three subgroups. Russian belongs to the East Slavic languages  along with Belarusian and Ukrainian.

The origins of Russian

The beginnings of Russian writing, which will become Modern Russian, date from the  late 10th century,  after the region’s conversion to Christianity.

Originally, it was Liturgical Slavonic, also called “Old Slav” or “Old Bulgarian.” As with most modern languages, differences appeared between written and spoken language. Then came the phonological and morphological simplifications.

Old Slavic remained the literary language until the end of the 17th century. With the reign of Tsar Peter I the Great, the old Slavic disappeared  in favor of the modern Russian  we know. Technological, scientific, cultural and political concepts made it necessary to create a new written language. This language borrows from Old Slavic, but also from the vernacular and Western languages.

If you want to learn basic Russian , don’t hesitate to contact our teachers.