Russian Migration Translator

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About the Russian Language

Russian is the official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories throughout Eurasia (particularity in Eastern Europe, the Baltics, the Caucasus, and Central Asia). It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Latvia, Moldova, Ukraine and to a lesser extent, the other post-Soviet states.

Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages.

Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. Almost every consonant has a hard or a soft counterpart, and the distinction is a prominent feature of the language. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Stress, which is unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically though an optional acute accent may be used to mark stress, such as to distinguish between homographic words, for example замо́к (zamók, meaning a lock) and за́мок (zámok, meaning a castle), or to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names.

Russian is a rather homogeneous language, in terms of dialectal variation, due to the early political centralization under Moscow's rule, compulsory education, mass migration from rural to urban areas in the 20th century, as well as other factors. The standard language is used in written and spoken form almost everywhere in the country, from Kaliningrad and Saint Petersburg in the West to Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the East, the enormous distance between notwithstanding.