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. It is applied as a means of coding and storage of universal knowledge — 60–70% of all world information is published in English and Russian languages.[3] Over a quarter of the world's scientific literature is published in Russian.[3] Russian is also a necessary accessory of world communications systems (broadcasts, air- and space communication, etc).[3] 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, which is unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically[4]. According to the Institute of Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an optional acute accent (знак ударения) may, and sometimes should, be used to mark stress. For example, it is used to distinguish between otherwise identical words, especially when context doesn't make it obvious: замо́к/за́мок (lock/castle), сто́ящий/стоя́щий (worthwhile/standing), чудно́/чу́дно (this is odd/this is marvellous), молоде́ц/мо́лодец (attaboy/fine young man), узна́ю/узнаю́ (I shall learn it/I am learning it), отреза́ть/отре́зать (infinitive for "cut"/perfective for "cut"); to indicate the proper pronouncation of uncommon words, especially personal and family names (афе́ра, гу́ру, Гарси́а, Оле́ша, Фе́рми), and to express the stressed word in the sentence. Acute accents are mandatory in lexical dictionaries and books intended to be used either by children or foreign readers.
