Russian_language

context: Russian (ру́сский язы́к, russkiy yazyk, pronounced [ˈruskʲɪj jɪˈzɨk] ( listen)) is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. It is an unofficial but widely-spoken language in Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, and to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics of the Soviet Union and former participants of the Eastern Bloc. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the three living members of the East Slavic languages. Written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century onwards.
qas: answers: text: East Slavic
question: What language sub-family is Russian in?

answers: text: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories
question: Where is Russian an official language?

answers: text: Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia
question: Where is Russian popular but not an official language?

answers: text: three
question: How many living East Slavic languages are there?

answers: text: 10th century
question: When was the earliest writing in Old East Slavonic?

context: 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. Stress, which is unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically though an optional acute accent (знак ударения, znak udareniya) may be used to mark stress, such as to distinguish between homographic words, for example замо́к (zamok, meaning a lock) and за́мок (zamok, meaning a castle), or to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names.
qas: answers: text: consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation
question: What kind of phonemes are soft sounds?

answers: text: optional acute accent
question: What kind of accent can mark stress?

answers: text: homographic words
question: What kind of words can acute accents distinguish?

answers: text: zamok
question: What word means both lock and castle, depending on its accent?

context: Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family. It is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus'. From the point of view of the spoken language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn, the other three languages in the East Slavic group. In many places in eastern and southern Ukraine and throughout Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably, and in certain areas traditional bilingualism resulted in language mixtures, e.g. Surzhyk in eastern Ukraine and Trasianka in Belarus. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is sometimes considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. Also Russian has notable lexical similarities with Bulgarian due to a common Church Slavonic influence on both languages, as well as because of later interaction in the 19th–20th centuries, although Bulgarian grammar differs markedly from Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called "Great Russian" to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called "White Russian" and Ukrainian, then called "Little Russian".
qas: answers: text: the language used in Kievan Rus'
question: What language does Russian descend from?

answers: text: Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn
question: What are Russian's closest relatives?

answers: text: eastern Ukraine
question: Where is Surzhyk used?

answers: text: Belarus
question: Where is Trasianka used?

answers: text: Ukrainian
question: What was 'Little Russian'?

context: The vocabulary (mainly abstract and literary words), principles of word formations, and, to some extent, inflections and literary style of Russian have been also influenced by Church Slavonic, a developed and partly russified form of the South Slavic Old Church Slavonic language used by the Russian Orthodox Church. However, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with many different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language.
qas: answers: text: South Slavic Old Church Slavonic
question: What language does the Russian Orthodox Church use?

answers: text: mainly abstract and literary words
question: What kind of words in Russian have been influenced by Church Slavonic?

answers: text: East Slavic and the Church Slavonic
question: What word forms are used together in some cases?

context: Until the 20th century, the language's spoken form was the language of only the upper noble classes and urban population, as Russian peasants from the countryside continued to speak in their own dialects. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the compulsory education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features (such as fricative [ɣ] in Southern Russian dialects) are still observed in colloquial speech.
qas: answers: text: the 20th century
question: When did Russian language spread to the peasants?

answers: text: the upper noble classes and urban population
question: Who spoke Russian before the 20th century?

answers: text: the mid-20th century
question: When did the Soviets establish required education?

answers: text: fricative
question: What nonstandard feature does Southern Russian use?

context: Ethnic Russians constitute 25.5% of the country's current population and 58.6% of the native Estonian population is also able to speak Russian. In all, 67.8% of Estonia's population can speak Russian. Command of Russian language, however, is rapidly decreasing among younger Estonians (primarily being replaced by the command of English). For example, if 53% of ethnic Estonians between 15 and 19 claim to speak some Russian, then among the 10- to 14-year-old group, command of Russian has fallen to 19% (which is about one-third the percentage of those who claim to have command of English in the same age group).
qas: answers: text: 25.5%
question: How much of Estonia is ethnic Russians?

answers: text: 67.8%
question: How much of Estonia speaks Russian?

answers: text: about one-third
question: What is the ratio of young Estonians who speak Russian relative to those who speak English?

answers: text: 58.6%
question: How much of Estonia's native Estonians speaks Russian?

context: As the Grand Duchy of Finland was part of the Russian Empire from 1809 to 1918, a number of Russian speakers have remained in Finland. There are 33,400 Russian-speaking Finns, amounting to 0.6% of the population. Five thousand (0.1%) of them are late 19th century and 20th century immigrants or their descendants, and the remaining majority are recent immigrants who moved there in the 1990s and later.[citation needed] Russian is spoken by 1.4% of the population of Finland according to a 2014 estimate from the World Factbook.
qas: answers: text: 1809
question: When did Finland join the Russian Empire?

answers: text: 1918
question: When did Finland leave the Russian Empire?

answers: text: 0.6%
question: What percent of Finns speak Russian?

answers: text: 33,400
question: How many Finns speak Russian?

answers: text: Five thousand
question: How many Russian-speaking Finns are descended from early immigrants?

context: In Ukraine, Russian is seen as a language of inter-ethnic communication, and a minority language, under the 1996 Constitution of Ukraine. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 14,400,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 29 million active speakers. 65% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 38% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. Russian is spoken by 29.6% of the population according to a 2001 estimate from the World Factbook. 20% of school students receive their education primarily in Russian.
qas: answers: text: 14,400,000
question: How many Ukrainians speak Russian natively as of 2004?

answers: text: 29 million
question: How many Ukrainians speak Russian actively as of 2004?

answers: text: 65%
question: What percent of Ukraine is fluent in Russian as of 2006?

answers: text: 38%
question: What percent of Ukraine use Russian as their main language as of 2006?

answers: text: minority language, under the 1996 Constitution of Ukraine
question: What is Russian's legal status in Ukraine?

context: In the 20th century, Russian was mandatorily taught in the schools of the members of the old Warsaw Pact and in other countries that used to be satellites of the USSR. In particular, these countries include Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Albania, former East Germany and Cuba. However, younger generations are usually not fluent in it, because Russian is no longer mandatory in the school system. According to the Eurobarometer 2005 survey, though, fluency in Russian remains fairly high (20–40%) in some countries, in particular those where the people speak a Slavic language and thereby have an edge in learning Russian (namely, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Bulgaria).
qas: answers: text: Warsaw Pact
question: What pact contained many Russian-speaking countries?

answers: text: Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Albania, former East Germany and Cuba
question: Where was Russian schooling mandatory in the 20th century?

answers: text: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Bulgaria
question: Which countries speak other Slavic languages?

context: Significant Russian-speaking groups also exist in Western Europe. These have been fed by several waves of immigrants since the beginning of the 20th century, each with its own flavor of language. The United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Brazil, Norway, and Austria have significant Russian-speaking communities. According to the 2011 Census of Ireland, there were 21,639 people in the nation who use Russian as a home language. However, of this only 13% were Russian nationals. 20% held Irish citizenship, while 27% and 14% were holding the passports of Latvia and Lithuania respectively.
qas: answers: text: The United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Brazil, Norway, and Austria
question: In which European countries do many Russian immigrants live?

answers: text: 13%
question: How much of Ireland's Russian speakers are Russian citizens?

answers: text: 21,639
question: How many people in Ireland speak Russian?

answers: text: 20%
question: How much of Ireland's Russian speakers are Irish citizens?

answers: text: 27%
question: How much of Ireland's Russian speakers are Latvian citizens?

context: In Armenia Russian has no official status, but it's recognised as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 15,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 1 million active speakers. 30% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 2% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. Russian is spoken by 1.4% of the population according to a 2009 estimate from the World Factbook.
qas: answers: text: Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
question: What convention recognizes Russian in Armenia?

answers: text: 15,000
question: How many Armenians speak Russian natively?

answers: text: 1 million
question: How many Armenians speak Russian actively?

answers: text: 30%
question: What percent of Armenia speaks Russian?

answers: text: 2%
question: What percent of Armenia uses Russian as their main language?

context: In Georgia Russian has no official status, but it's recognised as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 130,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 1.7 million active speakers. 27% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 1% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. Russian is the language of 9% of the population according to the World Factook. Ethnologue cites Russian as the country's de facto working language.
qas: answers: text: 1.7 million
question: How many Georgians speak Russian actively?

answers: text: Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
question: What convention recognizes Russian in Georgia?

answers: text: 130,000
question: How many Georgians speak Russian natively?

answers: text: 27%
question: What percent of Georgia is fluent in Russian?

answers: text: 1%
question: What percent of Georgia use Russian as their main language?

context: In Kazakhstan Russian is not a state language, but according to article 7 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan its usage enjoys equal status to that of the Kazakh language in state and local administration. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 4,200,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 10 million active speakers. 63% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 46% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. According to a 2001 estimate from the World Factbook, 95% of the population can speak Russian. Large Russian-speaking communities still exist in northern Kazakhstan, and ethnic Russians comprise 25.6% of Kazakhstan's population. The 2009 census reported that 10,309,500 people, or 84.8% of the population aged 15 and above, could read and write well in Russian, as well as understand the spoken language.
qas: answers: text: according to article 7 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan its usage enjoys equal status to that of the Kazakh language in state and local administration
question: What is the legal status of Russian in Kazakhstan?

answers: text: 63%
question: What percent of people in Kazakhstan speak Russian fluently?

answers: text: 4,200,000
question: How many people in Kazakhstan speak Russian natively?

answers: text: 10 million
question: How many people in Kazakhstan speak Russian actively?

answers: text: 46%
question: What percent of people in Kazakhstan use Russian as their main language?

context: The language was first introduced in North America when Russian explorers voyaged into Alaska and claimed it for Russia during the 1700s. Although most colonists left after the United States bought the land in 1867, a handful stayed and preserved the Russian language in this region to this day, although only a few elderly speakers of this unique dialect are left. Sizable Russian-speaking communities also exist in North America, especially in large urban centers of the U.S. and Canada, such as New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, Nashville, San Francisco, Seattle, Spokane, Toronto, Baltimore, Miami, Chicago, Denver and Cleveland. In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, and live in ethnic enclaves (especially the generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early 1960s). Only about 25% of them are ethnic Russians, however. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the overwhelming majority of Russophones in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn in New York City were Russian-speaking Jews. Afterward, the influx from the countries of the former Soviet Union changed the statistics somewhat, with ethnic Russians and Ukrainians immigrating along with some more Russian Jews and Central Asians. According to the United States Census, in 2007 Russian was the primary language spoken in the homes of over 850,000 individuals living in the United States.
qas: answers: text: Alaska
question: Where did Russian explorers first reach North America?

answers: text: 1700s
question: When did Russian explorers first reach North America?

answers: text: 1867
question: When did the US buy Alaska?

answers: text: about 25%
question: What portion of Russian-speaking Americans are ethnic Russians?

answers: text: Russophones
question: What is the term for Russian-speaking people?

context: Russian is one of the official languages (or has similar status and interpretation must be provided into Russian) of the United Nations, International Atomic Energy Agency, World Health Organization, International Civil Aviation Organization, UNESCO, World Intellectual Property Organization, International Telecommunication Union, World Meteorological Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development, International Criminal Court, International Monetary Fund, International Olympic Committee, Universal Postal Union, World Bank, Commonwealth of Independent States, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Eurasian Economic Community, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Antarctic Treaty Secretariat, International Organization for Standardization, GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, International Mathematical Olympiad. The Russian language is also one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station - NASA astronauts who serve alongside Russian cosmonauts usually take Russian language courses. This practice goes back to the Apollo-Soyuz mission, which first flew in 1975.
qas: answers: text: 1975
question: When did Apollo-Soyuz fly?

answers: text: Apollo-Soyuz
question: For which mission did NASA astronauts first learn Russian?

answers: text: International Mathematical Olympiad
question: What math competition has Russian as an official language?

answers: text: cosmonauts
question: What are Russian astronauts called?

context: In March 2013 it was announced that Russian is now the second-most used language on the Internet after English. People use the Russian language on 5.9% of all websites, slightly ahead of German and far behind English (54.7%). Russian is used not only on 89.8% of .ru sites, but also on 88.7% of sites with the former Soviet Union domain .su. The websites of former Soviet Union nations also use high levels of Russian: 79.0% in Ukraine, 86.9% in Belarus, 84.0% in Kazakhstan, 79.6% in Uzbekistan, 75.9% in Kyrgyzstan and 81.8% in Tajikistan. However, Russian is the sixth-most used language on the top 1,000 sites, behind English, Chinese, French, German and Japanese.
qas: answers: text: Russian
question: What is the second-most-popular language online as of 2013?

answers: text: 54.7%
question: What percent of all websites are in English?

answers: text: 5.9%
question: What percent of all websites are in Russian?

answers: text: 89.8%
question: What percent of all .ru websites are in Russian?

answers: text: 79.0%
question: What percent of Ukraine's websites are in Russian?

context: Despite leveling after 1900, especially in matters of vocabulary and phonetics, a number of dialects still exist in Russia. Some linguists divide the dialects of Russian into two primary regional groupings, "Northern" and "Southern", with Moscow lying on the zone of transition between the two. Others divide the language into three groupings, Northern, Central (or Middle) and Southern, with Moscow lying in the Central region. All dialects also divided in two main chronological categories: the dialects of primary formation (the territory of the Eastern Rus' or Muscovy, roughly consists of the modern Central and Northwestern Federal districts); and secondary formation (other territory). Dialectology within Russia recognizes dozens of smaller-scale variants. The dialects often show distinct and non-standard features of pronunciation and intonation, vocabulary and grammar. Some of these are relics of ancient usage now completely discarded by the standard language.
qas: answers: text: "Northern" and "Southern"
question: What two regions do some linguists divide Russian into?

answers: text: Northern, Central (or Middle) and Southern
question: What three regions do some linguists divide Russian into?

answers: text: non-standard features of pronunciation and intonation, vocabulary and grammar
question: What distinguishes Russian dialects?

context: The Northern Russian dialects and those spoken along the Volga River typically pronounce unstressed /o/ clearly (the phenomenon called okanye/оканье). Besides the absence of vowel reduction, some dialects have high or diphthongal /e~i̯ɛ/ in the place of Proto-Slavic *ě and /o~u̯ɔ/ in stressed closed syllables (as in Ukrainian) instead of Standard Russian /e/ and /o/. An interesting morphological feature is a post-posed definite article -to, -ta, -te similarly to that existing in Bulgarian and Macedonian.
qas: answers: text: pronounce unstressed /o/ clearly
question: What is okanye?

answers: text: post-posed definite article -to, -ta, -te
question: What articles are similar to Bulgarian?

answers: text: absence of vowel reduction
question: What do some Russian dialects do about vowels?

answers: text: Northern Russian
question: What region of dialects is the Volga River area in?

context: In the Southern Russian dialects, instances of unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable are not reduced to [ɪ] (as occurs in the Moscow dialect), being instead pronounced [a] in such positions (e.g. несли is pronounced [nʲaˈslʲi], not [nʲɪsˈlʲi]) – this is called yakanye/яканье. Consonants include a fricative /ɣ/, a semivowel /w~u̯/ and /x~xv~xw/, whereas the Standard and Northern dialects have the consonants /ɡ/, /v/, and final /l/ and /f/, respectively. The morphology features a palatalized final /tʲ/ in 3rd person forms of verbs (this is unpalatalized in the Standard and Northern dialects). Some of these features such as akanye/yakanye, a debuccalized or lenited /ɡ/, a semivowel /w~u̯/ and palatalized final /tʲ/ in 3rd person forms of verbs are also present in modern Belarusian and some dialects of Ukrainian (Eastern Polesian), indicating a linguistic continuum.
qas: answers: text: unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable
question: What is pronounced [ɪ] in Moscow's dialect?

answers: text: unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable
question: What is pronounced [a] in Southern Russian?

answers: text: modern Belarusian and some dialects of Ukrainian (Eastern Polesian)
question: What does Southern Russian have a linguistic continuum with?

context: Among the first to study Russian dialects was Lomonosov in the 18th century. In the 19th, Vladimir Dal compiled the first dictionary that included dialectal vocabulary. Detailed mapping of Russian dialects began at the turn of the 20th century. In modern times, the monumental Dialectological Atlas of the Russian Language (Диалектологический атлас русского языка [dʲɪɐˌlʲɛktəlɐˈɡʲitɕɪskʲɪj ˈatləs ˈruskəvə jɪzɨˈka]), was published in three folio volumes 1986–1989, after four decades of preparatory work.
qas: answers: text: Vladimir Dal
question: Who made the first dialectal Russian dictionary?

answers: text: 19th
question: In what century was the first dialectal Russian dictionary published?

answers: text: 18th century
question: When did Lomonosov study Russian dialects?

answers: text: turn of the 20th century
question: When were detailed maps of Russian dialects created?

answers: text: four decades
question: How long did it take to compile the Dialectological Atlas of the Russian Language?

context: Older letters of the Russian alphabet include ⟨ѣ⟩, which merged to ⟨е⟩ (/je/ or /ʲe/); ⟨і⟩ and ⟨ѵ⟩, which both merged to ⟨и⟩ (/i/); ⟨ѳ⟩, which merged to ⟨ф⟩ (/f/); ⟨ѫ⟩, which merged to ⟨у⟩ (/u/); ⟨ѭ⟩, which merged to ⟨ю⟩ (/ju/ or /ʲu/); and ⟨ѧ/⟨ѩ⟩⟩, which later were graphically reshaped into ⟨я⟩ and merged phonetically to /ja/ or /ʲa/. While these older letters have been abandoned at one time or another, they may be used in this and related articles. The yers ⟨ъ⟩ and ⟨ь⟩ originally indicated the pronunciation of ultra-short or reduced /ŭ/, /ĭ/.
qas: answers: text: ⟨е⟩
question: What did the old letter ⟨ѣ⟩ become?

answers: text: ⟨и⟩
question: What did the old letters ⟨і⟩ and ⟨ѵ⟩ become?

answers: text: ⟨ф⟩
question: What did the old letter ⟨ѳ⟩ become?

answers: text: ⟨у⟩
question: What did the old letter ⟨ѫ⟩ become?

answers: text: ⟨ю⟩
question: What did the old letter ⟨ѭ⟩ become?

context: Because of many technical restrictions in computing and also because of the unavailability of Cyrillic keyboards abroad, Russian is often transliterated using the Latin alphabet. For example, мороз ('frost') is transliterated moroz, and мышь ('mouse'), mysh or myš'. Once commonly used by the majority of those living outside Russia, transliteration is being used less frequently by Russian-speaking typists in favor of the extension of Unicode character encoding, which fully incorporates the Russian alphabet. Free programs leveraging this Unicode extension are available which allow users to type Russian characters, even on Western 'QWERTY' keyboards.
qas: answers: text: мороз
question: What is 'moroz' a transliteration of?

answers: text: мышь
question: What is 'mysh' a transliteration of?

answers: text: frost
question: What does 'moroz' mean?

answers: text: Unicode character encoding,
question: What font technology has reduced the need for transliteration?

answers: text: mouse
question: What does 'mysh' mean?

context: The Russian alphabet has many systems of character encoding. KOI8-R was designed by the Soviet government and was intended to serve as the standard encoding. This encoding was and still is widely used in UNIX-like operating systems. Nevertheless, the spread of MS-DOS and OS/2 (IBM866), traditional Macintosh (ISO/IEC 8859-5) and Microsoft Windows (CP1251) created chaos and ended by establishing different encodings as de facto standards, with Windows-1251 becoming a de facto standard in Russian Internet and e-mail communication during the period of roughly 1995–2005.
qas: answers: text: the Soviet government
question: Who created KOI8-R encoding?

answers: text: Microsoft Windows
question: What system used CP1251 encoding?

answers: text: MS-DOS and OS/2
question: What systems used IBM866 encoding?

answers: text: ISO/IEC 8859-5
question: What encoding did early Macs use?

answers: text: 1995–2005
question: In what years was CP1251 encoding used in most Russian online usage?

context: 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 does not make it obvious: замо́к/за́мок (lock/castle), сто́ящий/стоя́щий (worthwhile/standing), чудно́/чу́дно (this is odd/this is marvelous), молоде́ц/мо́лодец (attaboy/fine young man), узна́ю/узнаю́ (I shall learn it/I recognize it), отреза́ть/отре́зать (to be cutting/to have cut); to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words, especially personal and family names (афе́ра, гу́ру, Гарси́я, Оле́ша, Фе́рми), and to show which is the stressed word in a sentence (Ты́ съел печенье?/Ты съе́л печенье?/Ты съел пече́нье? – Was it you who ate the cookie?/Did you eat the cookie?/Was it the cookie that you ate?). Stress marks are mandatory in lexical dictionaries and books for children or Russian learners.
qas: answers: text: Russian Academy of Sciences
question: What organization is the Institute of Russian Language part of?

answers: text: stress
question: What can optional acute accents indicate?

answers: text: castle
question: What is distinguished from 'lock' only by an accent, in Russian?

answers: text: this is marvelous
question: What is distinguished from 'this is odd' only by an accent, in Russian?

answers: text: standing
question: What is distinguished from 'wothwhile' only by an accent, in Russian?

context: The language possesses five vowels (or six, under the St. Petersburg Phonological School), which are written with different letters depending on whether or not the preceding consonant is palatalized. The consonants typically come in plain vs. palatalized pairs, which are traditionally called hard and soft. (The hard consonants are often velarized, especially before front vowels, as in Irish). The standard language, based on the Moscow dialect, possesses heavy stress and moderate variation in pitch. Stressed vowels are somewhat lengthened, while unstressed vowels tend to be reduced to near-close vowels or an unclear schwa. (See also: vowel reduction in Russian.)
qas: answers: text: St. Petersburg Phonological School
question: Who says Russian has 6 vowels?

answers: text: depending on whether or not the preceding consonant is palatalized
question: When are Russian vowels written differently?

answers: text: Moscow dialect
question: What dialect is standard Russian based on?

answers: text: Irish
question: What language does Russian treat hard consonants similar to?

answers: text: reduced to near-close vowels or an unclear schwa
question: What is done to unstressed vowels?

context: Russian is notable for its distinction based on palatalization of most of the consonants. While /k/, /ɡ/, /x/ do have palatalized allophones [kʲ, ɡʲ, xʲ], only /kʲ/ might be considered a phoneme, though it is marginal and generally not considered distinctive (the only native minimal pair which argues for /kʲ/ to be a separate phoneme is "это ткёт" ([ˈɛtə tkʲɵt], 'it weaves')/"этот кот" ([ˈɛtət kot], 'this cat')). Palatalization means that the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant. In the case of /tʲ/ and /dʲ/, the tongue is raised enough to produce slight frication (affricate sounds). These sounds: /t, d, ts, s, z, n and rʲ/ are dental, that is pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the teeth rather than against the alveolar ridge.
qas: answers: text: a phoneme
question: What might /kʲ/ be considered?

answers: text: the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant
question: What is palatalization?

answers: text: with the tip of the tongue against the teeth rather than against the alveolar ridge
question: How are 'dental' sounds pronounced?

context: Judging by the historical records, by approximately 1000 AD the predominant ethnic group over much of modern European Russia, Ukraine and Belarus was the Eastern branch of the Slavs, speaking a closely related group of dialects. The political unification of this region into Kievan Rus' in about 880, from which modern Russia, Ukraine and Belarus trace their origins, established Old East Slavic as a literary and commercial language. It was soon followed by the adoption of Christianity in 988 and the introduction of the South Slavic Old Church Slavonic as the liturgical and official language. Borrowings and calques from Byzantine Greek began to enter the Old East Slavic and spoken dialects at this time, which in their turn modified the Old Church Slavonic as well.
qas: answers: text: approximately 1000 AD
question: When did Eastern Slavs become the dominant group in the area of Ukraine?

answers: text: about 880
question: When was Kievan Rus' formed?

answers: text: modern Russia, Ukraine and Belarus
question: What countries did Kievan Rus' become?

answers: text: Old East Slavic
question: What was the main language in Kievan Rus'?

answers: text: 988
question: When did Kievan Rus' adopt Christianity?

context: The political reforms of Peter the Great (Пётр Вели́кий, Pyótr Velíkiy) were accompanied by a reform of the alphabet, and achieved their goal of secularization and Westernization. Blocks of specialized vocabulary were adopted from the languages of Western Europe. By 1800, a significant portion of the gentry spoke French daily, and German sometimes. Many Russian novels of the 19th century, e.g. Leo Tolstoy's (Лев Толсто́й) War and Peace, contain entire paragraphs and even pages in French with no translation given, with an assumption that educated readers would not need one.
qas: answers: text: the languages of Western Europe
question: Where did Russian get specialized vocabulary from?

answers: text: French
question: What second language was common among Russian nobles by 1800?

answers: text: German
question: What third language was common among Russian nobles by 1800?

answers: text: Leo Tolstoy
question: Who wrote 'War and Peace'?

answers: text: French
question: What language often appeared in Russian novels without translation?

context: The modern literary language is usually considered to date from the time of Alexander Pushkin (Алекса́ндр Пу́шкин) in the first third of the 19th century. Pushkin revolutionized Russian literature by rejecting archaic grammar and vocabulary (so-called "высо́кий стиль" — "high style") in favor of grammar and vocabulary found in the spoken language of the time. Even modern readers of younger age may only experience slight difficulties understanding some words in Pushkin's texts, since relatively few words used by Pushkin have become archaic or changed meaning. In fact, many expressions used by Russian writers of the early 19th century, in particular Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov (Михаи́л Ле́рмонтов), Nikolai Gogol (Никола́й Го́голь), Aleksander Griboyedov (Алекса́ндр Грибое́дов), became proverbs or sayings which can be frequently found even in modern Russian colloquial speech.
qas: answers: text: Alexander Pushkin
question: Who revolutionized modern Russian?

answers: text: archaic grammar and vocabulary
question: What did Pushkin reject from older Russian?

answers: text: archaic grammar and vocabulary
question: What was 'high style'?

answers: text: became proverbs or sayings which can be frequently found even in modern Russian colloquial speech
question: What happened to some expressions in Pushkin's writing?

context: During the Soviet period, the policy toward the languages of the various other ethnic groups fluctuated in practice. Though each of the constituent republics had its own official language, the unifying role and superior status was reserved for Russian, although it was declared the official language only in 1990. Following the break-up of the USSR in 1991, several of the newly independent states have encouraged their native languages, which has partly reversed the privileged status of Russian, though its role as the language of post-Soviet national discourse throughout the region has continued.
qas: answers: text: 1991
question: When did the USSR dissolve?

answers: text: 1990
question: When did the USSR make Russian the official language?

answers: text: the unifying role and superior status
question: What unofficial status did Russian have in the USSR before 1990?

context: According to figures published in 2006 in the journal "Demoskop Weekly" research deputy director of Research Center for Sociological Research of the Ministry of Education and Science (Russia) Arefyev A. L., the Russian language is gradually losing its position in the world in general, and in Russia in particular. In 2012, A. L. Arefyev published a new study "Russian language at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries", in which he confirmed his conclusion about the trend of further weakening of the Russian language in all regions of the world (findings published in 2013 in the journal "Demoskop Weekly"). In the countries of the former Soviet Union the Russian language is gradually being replaced by local languages. Currently the number speakers of Russian language in the world depends on the number of Russians in the world (as the main sources distribution Russian language) and total population Russia (where Russian is an official language).
qas: answers: text: Ministry of Education and Science (Russia)
question: What department is the Research Center for Sociological Research part of?

answers: text: A. L. Arefyev
question: Who wrote "Russian language at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries"?

answers: text: 2012
question: When was "Russian language at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries" published?

answers: text: In the countries of the former Soviet Union the Russian language is gradually being replaced by local languages.
question: What does Arefyev say is happening to Russian?