Russian_language

qas: question: What language sub-family is Russian in?
answers: text: East Slavic

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

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

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

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

question: What kind of language is Ukranian?

question: In what countries is Ukrainian officially spoken?

question: Where is Ukrainian also widely spoken, but not officially?

question: What family does Ukrainian belong to?

question: When was Ukrainian first officially written?
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: question: What kind of phonemes are soft sounds?
answers: text: consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation

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

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

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

question: What kind of phenomes are uncommon words?

question: Where are uncommon words usually found?

question: What feature of the language is an uncommon word considered?

question: What are uncommon words or names considered to be and not usually indicated?

question: What is an uncommon word used to mark?
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: question: What language does Russian descend from?
answers: text: the language used in Kievan Rus'

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

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

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

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

question: What is Ukranian a descendant of that is used in Kievan Rus'?

question: In what countries are Surzhyk and Trasianka spoken interchangeably?

question: In what centuries is it thought that the Surzhyk language disappeared?

question: What is Ukrainian thought to have played a role in forming?

question: What language does Trasianka have similar words with?
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: question: What language does the Russian Orthodox Church use?
answers: text: South Slavic Old Church Slavonic

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

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

question: What church uses mainly the Russian language?

question: What has the Russian Orthodox Church been experiencing in attendance recently?

question: What has the vocabulary of East Slavic been influenced by?

question: How many meanings are there in modern forms of Russian?

question: What has the literary style of East Slavic been influenced by?
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: question: When did Russian language spread to the peasants?
answers: text: the 20th century

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

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

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

question: When did the Soviet government begin only speaking fricative?

question: What kind of education system was used to teach the history of the noble classes to peasants?

question: Who was responsible for formalizing colloquial speech?

question: What nonstandard feature do the noble classes have?

question: In the mid 20th century what  group was the only one that used colloquial speech?
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: question: How much of Estonia is ethnic Russians?
answers: text: 25.5%

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

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

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

question: What percentage of ethnic Russians speak English?

question: How much of the native Estonian population speaks English?

question: What is decreasing among ethnic Russians?

question: What percentage of Russians are between 15 and 19?

question: What has the percentage of 10-14 year olds in Russia fallen to?
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: question: When did Finland join the Russian Empire?
answers: text: 1809

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

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

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

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

question: When did immigrants form the Russian Empire?

question: How many immigrants came to Russia from 1809 to 1918?

question: What was the population of Russia in 1908?

question: What book was written in 1918 by a prominent Russian author?

question: In what year was the World Factbook republished?
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: question: How many Ukrainians speak Russian natively as of 2004?
answers: text: 14,400,000

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

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

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

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

question: How does the World Factbook describe Russian as?

question: How many people worldwide read the World Factbook in 2001?

question: How many school students used the World Factbook in school in Ukraine in 2006?

question: What was the population of Russia in 2001?

question: How many readers does Demoskop Weekly have in Ukraine?
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: question: What pact contained many Russian-speaking countries?
answers: text: Warsaw Pact

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

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

question: What pact was formed by Cuba?

question: What three countries are former satellites of East Germany?

question: Where is Polish no longer mandatory?

question: What is the fluency in Polish in some countries according to the Eurobarometer?
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: question: In which European countries do many Russian immigrants live?
answers: text: The United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Brazil, Norway, and Austria

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

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

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

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

question: In which countries do Spanish immigrants live?

question: When was the census of Norway taken?

question: How many people in Norway speak Russian at home?

question: How many Russian nationals are there in Norway?

question: How many people living in Norway have passports from Latvia and Lithuania?
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: question: What convention recognizes Russian in Armenia?
answers: text: Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

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

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

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

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

question: How many people read Demoskop Weekly in 2004?

question: How much of the population used the World Factbook in school?

question: In what year was the World Factbook first released in Armenia?

question: What was the population of Armenia in 2009?

question: What percentage of the Armenian population writes articles for the World Factbook?
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: question: What convention recognizes Russian in Georgia?
answers: text: Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

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

question: How many Georgians speak Russian actively?
answers: text: 1.7 million

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

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

question: What does Demoskop Weekly cite Russian as being in Ethnologue?

question: What was the population of Georgia in 2006?

question: How much of the population of Georgia had read the World Factbook by 2006?

question: What percentage of the population of Georgia works at home?

question: What status does Ethnologue have in Georgia's government?
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: question: What is the legal status of Russian in Kazakhstan?
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: How many people in Kazakhstan speak Russian natively?
answers: text: 4,200,000

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

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

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

question: According to article 7 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan, what do public employees have the same as the administration?

question: What was the population of Kazakhstan in 2004?

question: What percentage of the population of Kazakhstan was employed in 2006?

question: How many people in Kazakhstan were able to read the World Factbook in 2004?

question: How much of the population aged 15 and above used the World Factbook in school in 2009?
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: question: Where did Russian explorers first reach North America?
answers: text: Alaska

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

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

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

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

question: What did New York buy in the 1700's?

question: When did explorers from North America first reach Russia?

question: What is the term for Jews living in Russia?

question: How many Jews lived in Russia in the 1700's?

question: In what year did Central Asians immigrate to Russia?
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: question: For which mission did NASA astronauts first learn Russian?
answers: text: Apollo-Soyuz

question: When did Apollo-Soyuz fly?
answers: text: 1975

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

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

question: When was the International Space Station launched into space?

question: In what year was the IMF created?

question: What did the UN take part in launching in 1975?

question: What organization supports NASA astronauts?

question: What organization first began taking donations in 1975?
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: question: What is the second-most-popular language online as of 2013?
answers: text: Russian

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

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

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

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

question: What is Japanese on the internet after English?

question: What percentage of sites with the .su domain use English?

question: How many websites in Ukraine use English?

question: What percentage of websites in Tajikistan use English?

question: In March 2013 how many people used Japanese on all websites?
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: question: What two regions do some linguists divide Russian into?
answers: text: "Northern" and "Southern"

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

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

question: What two groupings are linguists divided into?

question: What does Muscovy lie on between the two divisions?

question: How many ancient relics were found in Moscow after 1900?

question: How many categories of ancient relics are there?

question: Why were ancient relics lying in the central region of Russia?
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: question: What is okanye?
answers: text: pronounce unstressed /o/ clearly

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

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

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

question: Along what river is Macedonian spoken?

question: How does Macedonian pronounce unstressed o?

question: What do some Macedonian dialects do with vowels?

question: In okanye what does Macedonian have in place of -to, -ta, -te?

question: What dialects are spoken in Macedonia?
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: question: What is pronounced [a] in Southern Russian?
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 does Southern Russian have a linguistic continuum with?
answers: text: modern Belarusian and some dialects of Ukrainian (Eastern Polesian)

question: What is called yakanye in Standard and Northern dialects?

question: What do Standard dialects have a linguistic continuum with?

question: In a semivowel what is unpalatalized?

question: What consonants are included in Belarusian?

question: What do consonants include in Ukranian?
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: question: Who made the first dialectal Russian dictionary?
answers: text: Vladimir Dal

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

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

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

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

question: What was created by Lomonosov at the turn of the 20th century?

question: How many volumes of the first dictionary were published in the 18th century?

question: How long did it take for the first dictionary to be published?

question: What kind of vocabulary did Lomonosov create in the 19th century?

question: When did Lomonosov map Russian dialects?
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: question: What did the old letter ⟨ѣ⟩ become?
answers: text: ⟨е⟩

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

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

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

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

question: What  did the ja or a originally indicate the pronunciation of?

question: What did the r become?

question: What did the h become phonetically?

question: The ja or a indicated the pronunciation of a reduced what?

question: What was ja merged into?
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: question: What is 'moroz' a transliteration of?
answers: text: мороз

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

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

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

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

question: What kind of restrictions are there on Russian speaking typists?

question: What coding was created in Russia?

question: What alphabet is used to transliterate English?

question: What language was the QWERTY keyboard first programmed to be used in?

question: What extension fully incorporates the Latin alphabet?
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: question: Who created KOI8-R encoding?
answers: text: the Soviet government

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

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

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

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

question: When was KO18-R designed by Microsoft?

question: During what period was MS-DOS created?

question: What adverse event did the creation of K018-R create?

question: How did the chaos created by the K018-R end?

question: What did K018-R become a defacto standard in?
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: question: What organization is the Institute of Russian Language part of?
answers: text: Russian Academy of Sciences

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

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

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

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

question: What organization writes books for Russian learners?

question: What should be used to teach Russian learners according to the Russian Academy of Sciences?

question: What do children feel when they are learning Russian?

question: Where is context mandatory for children and Russian learners?

question: Where can a Russian learner usually find uncommon words?
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: question: Who says Russian has 6 vowels?
answers: text: St. Petersburg Phonological School

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

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

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

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

question: How many classes are there at the St. Petersburg Phonological School?

question: When are Irish vowels written differently?

question: What pairs do vowels come in, in Irish?

question: What kind of stress is there in the Irish language?

question: What is the variation in pitch in Irish?
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: question: What might /kʲ/ be considered?
answers: text: a phoneme

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

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

question: What might r be considered?

question: G is considered marginal but not considered what?

question: What is the only minimal pair that shows g is a separate phoneme?

question: What does allophone mean?

question: What does the tongue produce with g and x?
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: question: When did Eastern Slavs become the dominant group in the area of Ukraine?
answers: text: approximately 1000 AD

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

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

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

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

question: What group of dialects did Christians speak in 1000 AD?

question: When was Byzantine Greek formed?

question: When were historic records first kept?

question: What commercial language was adopted by Christians in 880?

question: What countries trace their origins to Greece?
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: question: Where did Russian get specialized vocabulary from?
answers: text: the languages of Western Europe

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

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

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

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

question: In what year did Peter the Great come to power?

question: What did Peter the Great write in 1800?

question: What was Peter the Great's goal for writing War and Peace?

question: How many Germans immigrated to France in 1800?

question: What did Tolstoy write to reform Germany?
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: question: Who revolutionized modern Russian?
answers: text: Alexander Pushkin

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

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

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

question: What dates from the time of Lermontov?

question: How did Lermontov revolutionize Russian literature?

question: What did Lermontov favor instead of archaic grammar and vocabulary?

question: What kind of difficulties did Gogol have when reading Lermontov's texts?

question: How many words used by Lermontov have become archaic?
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: question: When did the USSR dissolve?
answers: text: 1991

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

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

question: What was declared the official language of constituent republics in 1991?

question: What policy fluctuated in practice in 1991?

question: In what year did other ethnic groups discourage native language?

question: In what year did constituent republics not have an official language?

question: What was the national discourse about in 1990?
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: question: What department is the Research Center for Sociological Research part of?
answers: text: Ministry of Education and Science (Russia)

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

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

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

question: What study was published in 2006?

question: In what year did A. L. Arefyev work for Demoskop Weekly?

question: What are local languages losing in general?

question: What department is Demoskop Weekly a part of in Russia?

question: What has A. L. Arefyev's position been at Demoskop Weekly since 2012?
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).