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Russian

The spoken form of Russian

In the Russian Federation, Russian is by far the largest language of all, spoken as a native language by approximately 80 per cent of the total population.

Besides Russian, there are a number of other languages spoken in Russia. In some cases, these are specific dialects of other languages, such as Plautdietsch (a form of Low German spoken in Siberia) or Yiddish. But others are individual languages of the diverse ethnic groups found in Russia: Ukrainian and Belorussian, Polish and Bulgarian (Slavic), Armenian (Armenian), Georgian (Georgian), Moldavian (Roman), Tajik (Iranian), German (Germanic), Lithuanian and Latvian (Baltic), Gipsy.

While many of the countries of the former Soviet Union are now promoting their local languages rather than Russian, Russian remains widely spoken in these areas and is often used for intercommunication between these countries.

The basis of modern Russian is the dialect of Moscow. It is the official language of the government and administration, but it is also used at length in business and education.

Written Russian

Russian is written using the Cyrillic alphabet. This is used to write six Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Serbian, Macedonian, and Bulgarian), as well as several other languages of Russia and the former Soviet Union, such as Tatar (a Turkic language) and Udmurt. If a company is contemplating doing business with Russia, it may be sufficient to use only the English language. Most people in Russia speak English due among other things to the strong connection between Russia and the United States. However, business is always best conducted in the language of the target audience. If the intention is to reach a broad audience, we advise formulating business correspondence using the language of Moscow. It is the official language of the government and administration, but it is also used at length in business and education. But companies which have a specific target in mind might consider using a native speaker of that particular region.

Viewing the Cyrillic Font

Users often encounter problems when viewing the Cyrillic font on the internet. It is important to ensure that the browser has first been set up so that the computer can easily read the script. Unless this is done, the screen is likely to display a jumbled up of boxes looking like anything but Russian. The reason for this is that most operating systems have been designed to recognise the Roman alphabet. In order to remedy this problem, it may be necessary to configure the computer settings or download a software tailored made for this function. The first suggested step is to log on directly to the relevant provider website.

For those working with windows, there is useful information at: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/itpro
/managing/regionalsup.asp.

For those working with Apple Mac, there is useful information at:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60956

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