Of all the languages of Russia, Russian is the only official language. 27 different languages are considered official languages in various regions of Russia, along with Russian. There are over 100 minority languages spoken in Russia today.[2]
[edit] History
Russian was the sole official language of the Russian Empire which existed until 1917. During the Soviet period, the policy toward the languages of the various other ethnic groups fluctuated in practice. The state helped develop alphabets and grammar for various languages across the country that had previously been lacking a written form. Though each of the constituent republics had its own official language, the unifying role and superior status was reserved for Russian.
Russian lost its status in many of the new republics that arose following the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union. In Russia, however, the dominating status of the Russian language continued. Today, 97% of the public school students of Russia receive their education only or mostly in Russian, even though Russia is made up of approximately 80% ethnic Russians.
[edit] Official languages
Although Russian is the only federally official language of the Russian Federation, there are several other officially recognized languages within Russia's various constituencies – Constitution of Russia only allows the republics to establish official languages other than Russian. This is a list of languages that are official only in certain parts of Russia (the language family in which the language belongs is given in parentheses).
- Abaza (Northwest Caucasian; in the
Karachay–Cherkess Republic)[3]
- Adyghe (Northwest Caucasian; in the
Republic of Adygea)
- Altay (Turkic; in the
Altai Republic)
- Lezgi (Northeast Caucasian); and Azerbaijani (Turkic in the
Republic of Dagestan)
- Avar (Northeast Caucasian); and Azerbaijani (Turkic in the Republic of Dagestan)
- Bashkir (Turkic; in the
Republic of Bashkortostan)
- Buryat (Mongolic; in Agin-Buryat Okrug and the
Buryat Republic)
- Chechen (Northeast Caucasian; in the
Chechen Republic)
- Chuvash (Turkic; in the
Chuvash Republic)
- Erzya (Uralic; in the
Republic of Mordovia)
- Ingush (Northeast Caucasian; in the
Republic of Ingushetia)
- Kabardian (Northwest Caucasian; in the
Kabardino-Balkar Republic and Karachay–Cherkess Republic[3])
- Kalmyk (Mongolic; in the
Republic of Kalmykia)
- Karachay-Balkar (Turkic; in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic and Karachay–Cherkess Republic[3])
- Khakas (Turkic; in the
Republic of Khakassia)
- Komi-Zyrian (Uralic; in the
Komi Republic)
- Mansi (Uralic; in
Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug)
- Mari (Uralic; in the
Mari El Republic)
- Moksha (Uralic; in the Republic of Mordovia)
- Nogai (Turkic; in the Karachay–Cherkess Republic)[3]
- Ossetic (Iranian; in the
Republic of North Ossetia–Alania)
- Tatar (Turkic; in the
Republic of Tatarstan)
- Tuvаn (Turkic; in the
Tuva Republic)
- Udmurt (Uralic; in the
Udmurt Republic)
- Yakut (Turkic; in the
Sakha Republic)
[edit] Unofficial languages
There are numerous migrant workers from former USSR republics and other countries living in Russia.
[edit] Endangered languages in Russia
There are many endangered languages in Russia. Some are considered to be near extinction and put on the list of endangered languages in Russia, and some may have gone extinct since data was last reported. On the other hand, some languages may survive even with few speakers.
Some languages have doubtful data, like Serbian whose information in the Ethnologue is based on the 1959 census.
[edit] Languages near extinction
Most numbers are according to Michael Krauss, 1995. Given the time that has passed, languages with extremely few speakers might be extinct today. As of 1997, Kerek and Yugh have now become extinct.
[edit] Other endangered languages
[edit] Languages
See list of languages of Russia.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External references
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