Language Background and the Speech Community

Being born in Russia, Russian is my native language. According to the Refugee Council, Russian is extensively used as a language for communication of all the Slavic languages. Statistically speaking, most people in the Russian Foundation and other independent federations are speakers of the Russian Language. (Refugee Council, 2008) Moreover, the Russian language is distinguished by the United Nations as one that belongs to the list of six official languages all over the world. (Today Translations, 2008)

To illustrate the far-reaching influence of the Russian language, let us enumerate the countries with major Russian speaking populations, such as Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, not to mention Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Russian is not considered as the official language in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, however it is popularly used in, most especially in business and government communications. Other countries, like Finland for example, also have a Russian speaking population composed of the minority inhabitants. (Infoplease, 2008)

The Russian language does not follow a formal system or rules. It concentrates on the reproduction of sounds and stress that is stated in variation with the attached denotative or connotative meaning of the words in a statement. Russian language, together with the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages have emerged from the Slavonic language that originated from the East. (Today Translations, 2008)

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Since the Russian language is more focused on the phonetic aspect of speaking, the language is primarily based on the Russian alphabet or what historians call the Cyrillic Alphabet. Apparently, the alphabet originated not from Russia, but from Greece. The onset of Greek missions who happened to arrive at Istanbul proliferated the use of the Cyrillic alphabet that is primarily based on the Greek alphabet. Needless to say, the Russian language traces back its influences from Greece. (Orbislingua, 2008)

I belong to a community that upholds discipline within the self and as a citizen of Russian and the maintenance of the good of all the citizens, not just oneself. Just like our political system, everything is organized and judged in our every day life according to what is good for all. Close relationships between others is evident in how we deal with others and our way of welcoming them with affectionate actions and gestures. In addition to this, most of us are cynical and distrustful.

The uniqueness of the Russian language may be traced to the distinct sentence patterns and sounds and stress produced in speaking Russian. The structure of the sentences does not follow a particular rule or pattern, but is dependent on how the speaker wants to say it. For instance, to emphasize an adjective, it goes first in the sentence. On the other hand, if the noun is emphasized in the sentence, then it goes first. (Orbislingua, 2008)

In addition, the use of articles, transitional or connecting phrases and words (such as is, are, a, an, the, etc.), does not really apply in speaking the Russian language. Therefore, if a native Russian speaker attempts to speak in English, then it would be difficult for native Russian speakers to create a complete and a grammatically sound and correct English statement due to certain deficiencies.  Furthermore, most consonants in the Russian language produce sounds that are almost similar to the “s” sound and utilizes the movement of the tongue in speaking. This greatly contributes to the unique nature and phonetic aspect of the use of the Russian Language. (Orbislingua, 2008)

The similarities of the Russian language to the English language, for instance, is evident in the three tenses of English verbs that also applies to the verbs of the Russian language. At times, it also follows the order and structure of the sentences in the English language, however the Russian sentence order and structure is more accommodating to the situation in which two Russian speakers are talking. (Orbislingua, 2008)

References

1. Infoplease. (2008). Languages by Countries. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from HighBeam
2. Orbislingua. (2008). Russian language. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from Orbislingua.com.
3. Website: http://www.orbislingua.com/eaha.htm
4. Refugee Council. (2008). Language background of major refugee groups to UK. Retrieved
5. March 14, 2008, from Refugee Council. Website: http://languages.refugeecouncil.org.uk/top_navigation/Language_profiles.htm
6. Today Translations. (2008). Russian Language History. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from Today

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