This
map shows the regions of the world where common Russian
is commonly spoken (red circle).
Although this language is the one most American students think
of when they think of Russia, linguists often use the
term "Great
Russian" to distinguish this language from "White
Russian" (Belarusian)
and "Little Russian" (Ukrainian),
two other languages common in the area. Great Russian is in
the
South Slavic family of languages; it descends from the Slavic
sub-branch of the Balto-Slavic branches of Indo-European.
Russian
is most closely related to Belarusian
and Ukrainian. It is
found in the East Slavic sub-branch of the Balto-Slavic languages
of Indo-European. About 200 million speakers of Russian exist
today.
| Daniel M. Short originally created this
map and the other Indo-European language charts for his website at http://www.danshort.com/.
I reproduce these images here with the author's permission, but they are
copyrighted by Daniel Short as of 2002. These charts should not be reproduced
or reused without Mr. Short's approval. You may contact him at danshort@gte.net
for more information. These images are not public domain. |