Of all the languages of Russia, Russian, the most widely spoken language, is the only official language at the national level. There are 25 other official languages, which are used in different regions of Russia. These languages include; Ossetic, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Buryat, Kalmyk, Chechen, Ingush, Abaza, Adyghe, Tsakhur, Lezgian, Cherkess, Kabardian, Altai, Bashkir, Chuvash, Crimean Tatar, Karachay-Balkar, Khakas, Nogai, Tatar, Tuvan, Yakut, Erzya, Komi, Hill Mari, Meadow Mari, Karelian, Moksha, Veps, Ingrian, Ludian, and Udmurt. There are over 100 minority languages spoken in Russia today.
Official languages Although Russian is the only official language of Russia at the federal level, there are several other officially recognized languages within Russia's various constituencies – article 68 of the Constitution of Russia only allows the various republics of Russia to establish official languages other than Russian. This is a list of the languages that are recognized as official in constitutions of the republics of Russia, as well as the number of native speakers according mostly to the 2010 census or more recent ones:
LanguageLanguage familyFederal subject(s)Speakers in RussiaSourceTatar Turkic 4,280,718 (2010 Census) Chechen Northeast Caucasian 1,354,705 (2010 census) Bashkir Turkic 1,152,404 (2010 census) see also regional lawUkrainian Indo-European (Slavic) 1,129,838 (2010 census) Chuvash Turkic 1,042,989 (2010 census) Avar Northeast Caucasian 715,297 (2010 census) Kabardian (East Circassian) Northwest Caucasian 590,000 (2010 census) Hill Mari, Meadow Mari Uralic 470,000 (2012) OssetianIndo-European (Iranian) 451,431 (2010 census) Yakut Turkic 450,140 (2010 census) KumykTurkic426,212 (2010 census)Lezgi Northeast Caucasian 402,173 (2010 census)Ingush Northeast Caucasian 305,868 (2010 census) Udmurt Uralic 324,338 (2010 census) Karachay-Balkar Turkic 305,364 (2010 census) Crimean Tatar Turkic 308,000 (2010 census) 228,000 (2019) Tuvan Turkic 280,000 (2010) Buryat Mongolic 265,000 (2010 census) Komi-Zyrian Uralic 160,000 (2010 census) Moksha Uralic 130,000 (2010 census) Adyghe Northwest Caucasian 128,000 (2015) Azerbaijani Turkic 116,907 (2020–2021 census)Nogai Turkic 87,119 (2010 census)Kalmyk Mongolic 80,546 (2010 census) Altai Turkic 55,720 (2010 census) Abaza Northwest Caucasian 37,831 (2010 census – 2014)Erzya Uralic 36,726 (2010 census) Khakas Turkic 43,000 (2010 census)KarelianUralicaround 14,000 (2020–2021 census)
Dagestan's constitution defines "Russian and the languages of the peoples of Dagestan" as the state languages. 14 of these languages (including Russian) are literary written languages; therefore they are commonly considered to be the official languages of Dagestan. These are, besides Russian, the following: Aghul, Avar, Azerbaijani, Chechen, Dargwa, Kumyk, Lak, Lezgian, Nogai, Rutul, Tabasaran, Tat and Tsakhur. All of these, except Russian, Chechen and Nogai, are official only in Dagestan and in no other Russian republic. In the project of the "Law on the Languages of the Republic of Dagestan", 32 languages are listed; however, this law project never came to life.
Karelia is the only republic of Russia with Russian as the only official language. However, there exists the special law about state support and protection of the Karelian, Vepsian and Finnish languages in the republic.Закон Республики Карелия «О государственной поддержке карельского, вепсского и финского языков в Республике Карелия»
Other recognized languages
The Government of the Republic of Bashkortostan adopted the "Law on the Languages of Nations", which is one of the regional laws aimed at protecting and preserving minority languages.Law of the Republic of Bashkortostan "On the languages of the peoples of the Republic of Bashkortostan» № 216-W on February 15, 1999 (as amended up until 2010)) and amendments of 2014 Gabdrafikov I. The law "On the Languages of the peoples of the Republic of Bashkortostan" is adopted // Бюллетень Сети этнологического мониторинга и раннего предупреждения конфликтов, No. 23, 1999Десять лет назад принят Закон "О языках народов Республики Башкортостан" :ru:Башинформ 2009 In Bashkortostan, the equality of the languages is recognized. Equality is a combination of the rights of peoples and people to preserve and fully develop their native language, and freedom of choice and use of the language of communication. The writing of names of geographical objects and the inscription, road and other signs along with the state language of Bashkortostan can be done in the languages of Bashkortostan in the territories where they are concentrated. Similar laws were adopted in Mari El, Tatarstan, Udmurtia, Khakassia and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.
The federal law "On the Languages of the Peoples of the Russian Federation", adopted in 1991, allows the federal subjects to establish additionally official languages in the areas where minority groups live. The following 15 languages benefit from various degrees of recognition in various regions under this law: Buryat in the Agin-Buryat Okrug Chukchi in Sakha Dolgan in Sakha Even in Sakha Evenki in Sakha Finnish in Karelia Karelian in Karelia Kazakh in Altai Khanty in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Komi-Permyak in the Komi-Permyak Okrug Mansi in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug Nenets in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Selkup in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Veps in Karelia The Yukaghir languages in Sakha
Migrant languages
As a result of mass migration to Russia from the former republics of the Soviet Union, especially from the Caucasus and Central Asia, many non-indigenous languages are spoken by migrant workers. For example, in 2014, 2.4 million Uzbek citizens and 1.2 million Tajik citizens entered Russia.
Endangered languages in Russia
There are many endangered languages in Russia. Some are considered to be near extinction and put on the list of endangered languages in Russia, and some may have gone extinct since data was last reported. On the other hand, some languages may survive even with few speakers.
Some languages have doubtful data, like Serbian whose information in the Ethnologue is based on the 1959 census.
Languages near extinction
Most numbers are according to Michael Krauss (1995). Given the time that has passed, languages with extremely few speakers might be extinct today. Since 1994, Kerek, Aleut (in Russia), Medny Aleut, Akkala Sami, Oroch and Yugh have become extinct.
Enets (70) Ingrian (100) Negidal Orok (30–82) Sami, Ter (2) Tofalar (25–30) Udege (100) Votic (8, 60 non-native) Ket (20 speakers) (2019) Yukaghir, Northern (30–150) Yukaghir, Southern (10–50) Yupik (550-900)
Foreign languages
According to the various studies made in 2005–2008 by Levada Center, 15% of Russians know a foreign language. From those who claim knowledge of at least one language: +"Can speak freely": English 80% German 16% French 4% Turkish 2% Others 9%From 1775 respondents aged 15-29, November 2006
+"Know enough to read newspapers": English 44% German 15% Ukrainian, Belarusian and other Slavic languages 19% Other European languages 10% All others 29%From 2100 respondents of every age, January 2005
Knowledge of at least one foreign language is common among younger and middle-aged people. Among those aged 18–24, 38% can read and "translate with a dictionary", 11% can freely read and speak. Among those aged 25–39, these numbers are 26% and 4% respectively.
Knowledge of a foreign language varies among social groups. It is most appreciable (15-18%) in big cities with 100,000 or more inhabitants, while in Moscow it rises up to 35%. People with higher education and high economic and social status are more likely to know a foreign language.
The new study by Levada-Center in April 2014 reveals such numbers: + Can speak freely at least one language: English 11% German 2% Spanish 2% Ukrainian 1% French <1% Chinese <1% Others 2% Can speak a foreign language but with difficulty 13% Do not speak a foreign Language at all 70%From 1602 respondents from 16 and older, April 2014
The age and social profiling are the same: knowledge of a foreign language is predominant among the young or middle-aged population, those with a high level of education and high social status, and those who live in big cities.
In 2015, a survey taken in all federal subjects of Russia showed that 70% of Russians could not speak a foreign language. Almost 30% could speak English, 6% could speak German, 1% could speak French, 1% could speak Spanish, 1% could speak Arabic and 0.5% could speak another language.Percentage of Russian who speak English double to 30 Language % of speakers in Russia (2003) % of speakers in Russia (2015) Change (%) English 16 30 14 German 7 6 1 French 1 1
English Source: Knowledge Percentage Can speak English to a degree 30% Can read and translate using a dictionary 20% Can understand colloquial language 7% Can speak very fluently 3%
History In the 18th and 19th centuries, French was a common language among upper class Russians. The impetus came from Peter the Great's orientation of Russia towards Europe and accelerated after the French Revolution. After the Russians fought France in the Napoleonic Wars, Russia became less inclined towards French.
Languages of education
Every year, the Ministry of Education and Science publishes statistics on the languages used in schools. In 2014/2015 the absolute majority (13.1 million or 96%) of 13.7 million Russian students used Russian as a medium of education. Around 1.6 million or 12% students studied their (non-Russian) native language as a subject. The most studied languages are Tatar, Chechen and Chuvash with 347,000, 253,000 and 107,000 students respectively.
The most studied foreign languages in 2013/2014 were as follows: LanguageStudents (in thousands)English11,194.2German1,070.5French297.8Spanish20.1Chinese14.9Arabic3.4Italian2.9Others21.7
See also Demography of Russia List of languages of Russia Languages of the Caucasus Russian Academy of Sciences, the language regulator in Russia
References
Further reading Offord, Derek, Lara Ryazanova-Clarke, Vladislav Rjéoutski, and Gesine Argent. French and Russian in Imperial Russia: Language Use among the Russian Elite. Edinburgh University Press, 2015. Available at JSTOR.
External links
Languages of European Russia (Ethnologue) Languages of Asian Russia (Ethnologue) Minority languages of Russia on the Net project, which aims at presenting the languages of Russia to the Web and at facilitating their usage on the Web (most information is in Russian; it provides scientific references on each individual language as well as links to online language descriptions, educational and scientific institutions related to the language, resources on computer-processing of the language and some sites written in this language) Population by mother tongue and districts in 50 Governorates of the European Russia in 1897 "The History of the French Language in Russia." University of Bristol