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Key facts about
Origin of : Russian originates from the Slavic languages spoken by the Eastern Slavs living in the area of modern day European Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. These languages merged into Old East Slavic, the commercial language of Kievan Rus' in the 9th century, from which modern day Russian is descended.
Regional differences: Variations are often shown in archaic traits that have disappeared from the standard language, but have been preserved in certain dialects. These variations are found in all aspects of the language; pronunciation, intonation, vocabulary and grammar.
Language family: Indo-European
Native speakers: 150 million worldwide:
Russia (118 million),
Ukraine (14 million),
Belarus (6 million),
Kazakhstan (4 million),
Germany (2 million),
Israel (1 million).
Major dialects: Northern dialects (northern and north-eastern European Russia, from Veliky Novgorod to the Perm and northern Ural regions),
Southern dialects (western and southern parts of European Russia),
Central or Middle dialects (from Pskov to Tver, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, and down to the Lower Volga region).
