Russian is the most widely spoken language in Europe. It created many wonderful literary works that are included in the golden fund of human culture. It is also one of the working languages of the UN, along with English, French, Chinese, Arabic and Spanish. And how did the Russian language appear?
Instruction manual
1
During the existence of Ancient Russia, its inhabitants spoke different East Slavic dialects, which were very different from the modern norms of the Russian language. Then, after the baptism of Russia at the end of the 10th century, the so-called Church Slavonic language, used in worship, began to exert a great influence on colloquial speech. For a long time, it was used as the official written language. The first monument of Old Russian literature written in Church Slavonic is considered to be the Novgorod Codex, which dates back to the beginning of the 11th century.
2
The inhabitants of ancient Russia adopted many words from the peoples with whom they had to contact - for example, from the Greeks (Byzantines) who brought Christianity, nomadic peoples of Turkic origin, as well as Scandinavians (Varangians).
3
Gradually, on the territory of the ancient Russian principalities, two main groups of dialects began to take shape: the northern and southern dialects. They were distinguished by some characteristic features. So, for example, for the northern dialect, "okanie" is noteworthy, and for the southern dialect, "okanie" is noteworthy. An intermediate option between these main groups was Central Russian dialects. It was to the Central Russian dialects that Moscow belonged.
4
As Moscow became the center of Russian lands, the Moscow dialect became more widespread, crowding out other dialects. After getting rid of the Mongol-Tatar yoke, and especially after the Moscow Grand Dukes adopted the tsar’s title, it began to be considered the official state language. In the XVI – XVII centuries. Russian was replenished with many new words of Latin, Polish and German origin.
5
In the era of Peter the Great, a reform of the Russian language was carried out with the aim of making it simpler and more accessible for learning. In addition, at the same time, the language was enriched with many new words that came from Holland, Germany and France. And under Catherine II, at the end of the 18th century, the new letter "ё" entered the Russian alphabet.
6
After the October Revolution of 1917, the final version of the Russian alphabet, consisting of 33 letters, was formed. In addition, as a result of the rapid development of the media, mass literacy and large-scale population migration, the official Russian language almost completely supplanted many dialects from circulation.
