“And we will save you, the Russian language, the great Russian word ...” - these are the words of the poetess Anna Akhmatova, which have not lost their relevance for several decades. The prosperity of national culture directly depends on the attitude of the people to their history. Russian language has come a long way. Today, thinking about what the international significance of the Russian language is, just look at the statistics. More than 250 million speakers of it from all countries of the world - a figure more than impressive.
Temporary boundaries of the concept of “modern Russian language”
Speaking about the modernity of a phenomenon, it is fair to reflect on when this modernity begins. Philologists expressed three points of view on the concept of "modern Russian language." So, it starts:
- Since the time of A.S. Pushkin. The great Russian poet, according to researchers, gave Russia a version of the literary Russian language, which everyone still uses, despite the presence in the vocabulary of Alexander Sergeyevich of historicisms and archaisms.
- After the victory of the October Revolution. Until 1917, the alphabet and features of writing in the Russian language were significantly different from the current ones. A striking example of this is the letter "er" ("b") at the end of some words, which is now called a solid sign.
- After the collapse of the USSR. In the past two decades, the Russian language began to change, due to the rapidity of technological progress. This was also facilitated by international contacts - the vocabulary of one country was used in another. The value of the modern Russian language is great for the world community, so linguists are working hard for its development.
Spread around the world
The Russian language has become the mother tongue for many people living in Russia, in the CIS countries and abroad, and occupies the eighth place in this aspect. In terms of the number of speakers, he was among the five most common: 260 million people can freely think and speak on it. It is second only to English (1.5 billion), Chinese (1.4 billion), Hindi (600 million), Spanish (500 million) and Arabic (350 million). A visual map demonstrates the international significance of the Russian language, since it is spoken in the countries of Eastern Europe, the Baltic States and the Caucasus, Finland, Germany, China, Mongolia, the USA and Australia. In Russia, it is owned by 99.5% of the total population. This is a fairly convincing figure compared to other states.
Russian language in the regions
The reason for the formation of dialects and sociolects often becomes a large area of distribution of a dialect. So, on the basis of Russian, the following mixed and derivative languages arose: surzhik (Ukraine), trasianka (Belarus), Russenorsk (Kola Peninsula) and many others. Dialects are typical for small areas. In different settlements, vocabulary can vary significantly.
Abroad (Germany, USA, Israel) entire Russian-speaking quarters are being formed, some of which exist quite in isolation from the rest. This happens when the number of immigrants from Russia becomes sufficient to form a kind of community. Thanks to this, the interest of foreign citizens in the culture of the CIS countries is growing. The value of the Russian language in the lives of Germans, Americans, and British is significantly increasing.
Day of Remembrance
At the initiative of UNESCO, humanity has been given the opportunity to preserve the tangible and intangible heritage of many peoples. So, every year on February 21, International Mother Language Day is celebrated for five years. It is such events that allow us to think about the significance of the heritage of our own people and merit on the world stage.
For Russians, the birthday of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin became closer 5 years ago, when June 6 was proclaimed the Day of the Russian Language. This is due to the invaluable contribution of the writer to the development of culture. The international significance of the Russian language is recognized in many fraternal states, so this day is celebrated in schools and universities of the CIS countries. In the UN General Assembly building, the celebration is accompanied by informative lectures, movie screenings, and contests for readers.
Russian language in international cooperation
It is now becoming difficult to find a unified means of communication for 250 countries. Each citizen is honored by the cultural heritage of his state and prefers to speak exclusively in his own language. For the world community, this complexity was eradicated with the assertion of the so-called world languages, which include Russian. Today it is a means of communications on television, airlines, and in trade. Of course, the great importance of the Russian language is due to the fact that it is spoken by millions of people from different points from around the world. Each intelligent person will be honored to quote the great thoughts of Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy and other leading Russian writers.
The international significance of the Russian language in numbers
There are about 2000 nationalities in the world, each of which seeks to use native speech in everyday life. For many people, Russian has become the second most important language for several reasons. After the collapse of the USSR, residents of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus did not abandon the Russian language as an official one, therefore, numerous television and radio broadcasts and negotiations are being conducted there. In the fields of international communication, it is used by scientists, diplomats, politicians.
Russian, along with English, French, Chinese, Arabic and Spanish, is one of the six official languages of the UN. This means that political figures from Russia have the opportunity to freely express their thoughts at international conferences. The global significance of the Russian language in the world is also explained by the fact that it occupies the fifth place in the number of people who own it.
Russian lexicography
Words of any dialect are recorded in dictionaries, which are built taking into account the use of their foreign citizens. The value of the Russian language in the world is so great that people of all countries enthusiastically learn all its subtleties, learn the meaning of new words and expressions from dictionaries, which can be divided into encyclopedic and linguistic. The most important are explanatory dictionaries, the first of which was published at the end of the 18th century in six volumes. Of course, from year to year such publications are updated. The dictionary of living Great Russian language is of great value, the first version of which was published in 1863, and in 2013 a school one-volume edition was published. Thinking about the importance of the Russian language, it is worth paying attention to the works of linguistic scientists, thanks to which the language is improved and flourishes. Multi-volume dictionaries allow you to study all the features of phonetics and orthoepy both to the native citizens of Russia and to foreigners.