What is the Russian Language
Russian (русский язык, transliteration: russkiy yazyk, Russian
pronunciation: [ˈruskʲɪj jɪˈzɨk]) is the most geographically widespread
language of

Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the
largest native language in Europe. Russian belongs to the family of
Indo-European languages and is one of three (or, according to some
authorities[citation needed], four) living members of the East Slavic
languages, the others being Belarusian and Ukrainian (and possibly Rusyn,
often considered a dialect of Ukrainian). It is also spoken by the countries
of the Russophone.
Written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century
onwards. Today Russian is widely used outside Russia. Over a quarter of the
world's scientific literature is published in Russian. It is also applied as
a means of coding and storage of universal knowledge — 60–70% of all world
information is published in English and Russian languages. Russian also is a
necessary accessory of world communications systems (broadcasts, air- and
space communication, etc). Due to the status of the Soviet Union as a
superpower, Russian had great political importance in the 20th century.
Hence, the language is one of the official languages of the United Nations.
Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary
articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This
distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of
the most distinguishing features of the language. Another important aspect
is the reduction of unstressed vowels, which is somewhat similar to that of
English. Stress in Russian is neither indicated orthographically, nor
governed by phonological rules.