The languages of the Soviet Union consist of hundreds of different languages and dialects from several different language groups. In 1922, it was decreed that all nationalities in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

had the right to education in their own language. The new orthography used the

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, or

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

alphabet, depending on geography and culture. After 1937, all languages that had received new alphabets after 1917 began using the Cyrillic alphabet. This way, it would be easier for linguistic minorities to learn to write both Russian and their native language. Moreover, the

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

and Georgian, as well as the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

Soviet Socialist Republics were the only Soviet republics to maintain their writing systems (

, Georgian and

alphabets respectively).

Language policy

Background

Before the

Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir L ...

, Russian was the official language for the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, with the exception of a few permitted languages in autonomous regions as

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, and the Baltic provinces. Regional languages were discouraged or forbidden, as was the case of Ukrainian between 1876 and 1905. There was no explicit plan to enable non-Russians to learn Russian, and there was no possibility for other ethnic groups to develop their own culture and language. In this period, some individual efforts developed written forms for some of these languages, but they had limited effect and they were focused on missionary activities. In the case of languages with written tradition, as

, Georgian, Turkic languages of Central Asia, and Tajik, their writing system continued being used, but mainly in connection with religious education.

Soviet language policy

In 1914

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

was opposed to the idea of a compulsory or official state language. Equality of all peoples and of all languages was a commitment made by Lenin and his associates before and after the October Revolution. As a result, no single language was designated for official use in the Soviet Union and the existence of the spoken languages of the national minorities was guaranteed. Everyone had the right to use their own language, both in private and public, as well as in correspondence with officials and while giving testimony in court. The USSR was a multilingual state, with around 130 languages spoken natively. Discrimination on the basis of language was illegal under the Soviet Constitution, though the status of its languages differed. However, the Soviet Union faced the problem of unifying the country, and for that reason, Russian was selected as the common language to facilitate communication between members of different ethnic groups. In 1975,

Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982 as well as the fourth chairman of the Presidium ...

said "under developed socialism, when the economies in our country have melted together in a coherent economic complex; when there is a new historical concept—the

Soviet people The Soviet people () were the citizens and nationals of the Soviet Union. This demonym was presented in the ideology of the country as the "new historical unity of peoples of different nationalities" (). Nationality policy in the Soviet Union ...

—it is an objective growth in the Russian language's role as the language of international communications when one builds Communism, in the education of the new man! Together with one's own mother tongue one will speak fluent Russian, which the Soviet people have voluntarily accepted as a common historical heritage and contributes to a further stabilization of the political, economic and spiritual unity of the Soviet people."

Developing writing systems

Few of the languages of the Soviet state had written forms. One of the first priorities of the Soviet state was the creation of writing systems and the development of literacy programs. New or modified writing systems were adopted for over half of the languages spoken in the Union during the early Post-revolutionary years. In some particular cases, preparatory work was required before the creation of an orthography due to the lack of previous linguistic analysis, as in the case of languages of the Far North. When a language already had a writing system, there were attempts for making it more accessible and easier to learn . As part of this policy, in 1918

Russian orthography Russian orthography () is an orthography, orthographic tradition formally considered to encompass spelling ( rus, орфогра́фия, r=orfografiya, p=ɐrfɐˈɡrafʲɪjə) and punctuation ( rus, пунктуа́ция, r=punktuatsiya, p=p ...

was simplified by removing orthographic distinctions without phonetic counterparts. Phonemic or close to phonemic orthographies weren't modified, such as Armenian, Georgian, or Chuvash. Writing systems based on the

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...

caused major problems because they were poorly adapted to indicate phonemic differences that are found in Turkic languages or Northeast Caucasian languages. A first attempt tried to create a simplified form of the Arabic script. However, this task was abandoned. Instead, the Latin alphabet was used for all languages of the Soviet Union without a traditional alphabetical writing system, avoiding the impression that the policy was a

Russification Russification (), Russianisation or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians adopt Russian culture and Russian language either voluntarily or as a result of a deliberate state policy. Russification was at times ...

attempt. Written forms were developed for several languages with a very small number of speakers, such as the Finno-Ugric languages Karelian, Veps, and the Sámi languages. However, many of these writing systems had a short life. In the case of Itelmen, its writing system never was put into practical use. Other languages that received their writing systems during the 1920s and early 1930s kept using them, such as Nanai,

Nivkh Nivkh or Amuric or Gilyak may refer to: * Nivkh people (''Nivkhs'') or Gilyak people (''Gilyaks'') * Nivkh languages or Gilyak languages * Gilyak class gunboat, ''Gilyak'' class gunboat, such as the Russian gunboat Korietz#Second gunboat, second R ...

, Koryak, Chukchi,

Khanty The Khanty (), also known in older literature as Ostyaks (), are a Ugric Indigenous people, living in Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, a region historically known as " Yugra" in Russia, together with the Mansi. In the autonomous okrug, the K ...

, and

Mansi Mansi may refer to: * Mansi people, an Indigenous people of Russia ** Mansi language *Mansi (name), given name and surname *Mansi Junction railway station * Mansi Township, Myanmar ** Mansi, Myanmar, a town in the Kachin State of Myanmar (Burma) * ...

Distribution and status

The main

East Slavic languages The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of the Slavic languages, distinct from the West Slavic languages, West and South Slavic languages. East Slavic languages are currently spoken natively throughout Eastern Europe, ...

(

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, Belarusian and Ukrainian) dominated in the European part of the Soviet Union. In the

region Uralic

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

and the Baltic languages of Lithuanian and Latvian, were used next to Russian, while Moldovan (the only official

Romance language The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

in the union) was used in the southwest region. In the Caucasus alongside Russian there were

, Azerbaijani and Georgian. In Central Asia there was Kazakh, Uzbek, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, and Tajik. Which are all Turkic with the exception of Tajik, which is an

Iranian language The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian language ...

. Although the USSR did not have a ''de jure'' official language over most of its history (until 1990),In early 20th century, there had been a discussion over the need to introduce Russian as the official language of

. The dominant view among

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

s at that time was that there is no need for state language. See: "Нужен ли обязательный государственный язык?" by

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

(1914). Staying with the Lenin's view, not state language was declared in the Soviet state.
In 1990 the Russian language was declared as the official language of

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and the constituent republics had rights to declare additional state languages within their jurisdictions. See Article 4 of th
Law on Languages of Nations of USSR.

was defined as the ''language of interethnic communication'' (). It was however the ''de facto'' official language.Bernard Comrie, ''The Languages of the Soviet Union'', page 31, the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1981. For its role and influence in the USSR, see

. On a second level were the languages of the other 14

Union Republics In the Soviet Union, a Union Republic () or unofficially a Republic of the USSR was a Federated state, constituent federated political entity with a List of forms of government, system of government called a Soviet republic (system of governm ...

. In line with their ''de jure'' status in a federal state, they had a small formal role at the Union level (being e.g. present in the Coat of arms of the USSR and its

banknotes A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commer ...

) and as the main language of its republic. Their effective weight, however, varied with the republic (from strong in places like in

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

to weak in places like in Byelorussia), or even inside it. Of these fourteen languages, two are often considered varieties of other languages: Tajik of Persian, and Moldovan of Romanian. Strongly promoted use of

in many republics however, combined with lack of contact, led to the separate development of the literary languages. Some of the former Soviet republics, now independent states, continue to use the Cyrillic alphabet at present (such as

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...

and the unrecognized

Transnistria Transnistria, officially known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic and locally as Pridnestrovie, is a Landlocked country, landlocked Transnistria conflict#International recognition of Transnistria, breakaway state internationally recogn ...

), while others have opted to use the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

instead (such as

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

and

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

). The Autonomous republics of the Soviet Union and other subdivision of the USSR lacked even this ''de jure'' autonomy, and their languages had virtually no presence at the national level (and often, not even in the urban areas of the republic itself). They were, however, present in education (although often only at lower grades). Some smaller languages with very dwindling small communities, like Livonian, were neglected, and weren't present either in education or in publishing. Several languages of the non-

titular nation The titular nation is the single dominant ethnic group in a particular state, typically after which the state was named. The term was first used by Maurice Barrès in the late 19th century. Soviet Union The notion was used in the Soviet Union to ...

s, like

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

or Polish, though having sizeable populations, and in some cases being present in education and publishing, were not considered to be Soviet languages. On the other hand, Finnish, although not generally considered a language of the USSR, was an official language in the Karelian ASSR and its predecessor the

Karelo-Finnish SSR The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (Karelo-Finnish SSR), also called Soviet Karelia or simply known as Karelia, was a republic of the Soviet Union. It existed from 31 March 1940 until it was made part of the Russian SFSR on 16 July 1956 ...

. Also

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

and Romani were considered Soviet languages.

Indo-European Languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

* Slavic ** East Slavic ***

*** Ruthenian **** Ukrainian **** Belarusian **** Rusyn *** Mixed **** Surzyk **** Transianka ** West Slavic *** Lechitic **** Polish *** Czech-Slovak **** Slovak ** South Slavic ***

Eastern South Slavic The Eastern South Slavic dialects form the eastern subgroup of the South Slavic languages. They are spoken mostly in Bulgaria and North Macedonia, and adjacent areas in the neighbouring countries. They form the so-called Balkan Slavic linguistic ...

**** Bulgarian *

** East Baltic *** Latvian **** Latgalian *** Lithuanian **** Samogitian * Germanic ** North Germanic *** East Scandinavian **** Swedish *****

Estonian Swedish Estonian Swedish (; ) are the eastern varieties of the Swedish language that were until the mid-20th century spoken in the ''Aiboland'', the coastal areas and islands of western and northern Estonia which had been inhabited since the Middle Age ...

******

Gammalsvenska (locally ; literally "Old Swedish") is an Estonian Swedish dialect spoken in the neighborhood of Gammalsvenskby in Zmiivka, Ukraine. Its use has declined since the end of World War II, and most remaining speakers are older residents of Gamma ...

*** West Scandinavian **** Norwegian **

West Germanic The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic languages, Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic languages, North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages, East Germ ...

***

North Sea Germanic North Sea Germanic, also known as Ingvaeonic ( ), is a subgrouping of West Germanic languages that consists of Old Frisian, Old English language, Old English, and Old Saxon, and their descendants. These languages share a number of commonalitie ...

****

Low German Low German is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language variety, language spoken mainly in Northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. The dialect of Plautdietsch is also spoken in the Russian Mennonite diaspora worldwide. "Low" ...

*****

Plautdietsch Plautdietsch () or Mennonite Low German is a Low Prussian dialect of East Low German with Dutch influence that developed in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Vistula delta area of Royal Prussia. The word ''Plautdietsch'' translates to "fl ...

***

Elbe Germanic Elbe Germanic, also called Irminonic or Erminonic, is a proposed subgrouping of West Germanic languages introduced by the German linguist Friedrich Maurer (1898–1984) in his book, ''Nordgermanen und Alemanen'', to describe the West Germanic d ...

****

High German The High German languages (, i.e. ''High German dialects''), or simply High German ( ) – not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called "High German" – comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Ben ...

*****

Rhine Franconian __NOTOC__ Rhenish Franconian or Rhine Franconian ( ) is a dialect chain of West Central German. It comprises the varieties of German spoken across the western regions of the states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, northwest Baden-Württember ...

******

Volga German The Volga Germans (, ; ) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov and close to Ukraine nearer to the south. Recruited as immigrants to Russia in th ...

*****

(Mixed) ****** Eastern Yiddish * Romance ** Eastern Romance *** Romanian **** Moldovan **

Italo-Dalmatian The Italo-Dalmatian languages, or Central Romance languages, are a group of Romance languages spoken in Italy, Corsica (France), and formerly in Dalmatia (Croatia). Italo-Dalmatian can be split into:Hammarström, Harald & Forkel, Robert & Haspe ...

***

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

Albanoid Albanoid or Albanic is a branch or subfamily of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European (IE) languages, of which Albanian language varieties are the only surviving representatives. In current classifications of the IE language family, Albania ...

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

* Hellenic **

Pontic Greek Pontic Greek (, ; or ''Romeika'') is a variety of Modern Greek indigenous to the Pontus region on the southern shores of the Black Sea, northeastern Anatolia, and the Eastern Turkish and Caucasus region. An endangered Greek language variety ...

Mariupol Greek Mariupol Greek (natively known as ()), also known as Crimean Greek and Tauro-Romaic (from , " Romaic"; ), is a Greek variety spoken by the ethnic Greeks living along the northern coast of the Sea of Azov, in southeastern Ukraine; the communit ...

Eastern Armenian Eastern Armenian () is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Western Armenian. The two standards form a pluricentric language. Eastern Armenian is spoken in Armenia, Russia, as well as Georgia, and by the Armeni ...

*** Zok **

Western Armenian Western Armenian ( ) is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Eastern Armenian. It is based mainly on the Istanbul Armenian dialect, as opposed to Eastern Armenian, which is mainly based on the Yerevan Arme ...

*** Homshetsi ** Lomavren (Mixed) *

Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...

** West Iranian *** Southwestern **** Persian ***** Tajik ****** Bukharian (Mixed) ***** Tat ****** Juhuri (Mixed) ***** Persian Kowli (Mixed) *** Northwestern **** Caspian ***** Talysh **** Kurdish *****

Kurmanji Kurmanji (, ), also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northernmost of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Syria and the Caucasus and Khorasan regions. It is the ...

** East Iranian ***

Scythian The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC fr ...

**** Ossetian ***** Iron Ossetian ***** Digor Ossetian **** Yaughnobi **** Wakhi ***

Sanglechi Sanglechi is a Pamiri language spoken in villages in the Zebak District of Afghanistan: Dashte Rubat, Esketul, Faruq, Flaxmadek, Sar-Sanglech, and Takya. It is also spoken in Tajikistan, where it is called Sanglich. The name comes from the Sangl ...

– Ishkashimi ****

**** Ishkashimi *** Shughni– Yazghulami **** Shugni **** Yazghulami **** Rushani **** Bartangi **** Khufi * Indo-Aryan ** Central Indo-Aryan *** Domari **** Garachi ***

Western Hindi The Western Hindi languages, are a branch of the Indo-Aryan language family spoken chiefly in Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, in Northwest and Central India. The Western Hindi languages evolved from Saur ...

**** Parya ** Romani ***

Balkan Romani Balkan Roma, Balkaniko Romanes, or Balkan Gypsy is a specific non- Vlax dialect of the Romani language, spoken by groups within the Balkans, which include countries such as Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, North Macedonia, ...

**** Crimean Kyrymitika Romani **** Ursari Romani *** Baltic Romani **** Estonian Čuxny Romani **** Latvian Lettish Romani **** North Russian Romani **** Lithuanian Romani **** Belarusian Romani *** Vlax Romani **** Ukrainian Vlax Romani **** Russian Kalderaš Romani Northwest Caucasian Language Family * Abaza-Abkhaz ** Abaza ** Abkhaz * Ubykh-Circassian ** Ubykh † ** Circassian *** Kabardian *** Adyghe

Kartvelian Languages The Kartvelian languages ( ; ka, ქართველური ენები, tr; also known as South Caucasian or Kartvelic languages Boeder (2002), p. 3) are a language family indigenous to the South Caucasus and spoken primarily in Geor ...

* Svan * Karto-Zan ** Georgian *** Judeo-Georgian ** Zan *** Laz *** Mingrelian

Northeast Caucasian Languages The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Nakh-Daghestani or Vainakh-Daghestani, or sometimes Caspian languages (from the Caspian Sea, in contrast to ''Pontic languages'' for the Northwest Caucasian languages), is a langu ...

* Lak * Khinalug * Avar-Andic ** Avar ** Andic *** Andi (Qwannab) *** Akhvakh–Tindi **** Akhvakh **** Karata–Tindi ***** Karata (Kirdi) ***** Botlikh–Tindi ****** Botlikh ****** Godoberi ****** Chamalal ****** Bagvalal–Tindi ******* Bagvalal ******* Tindi * Tsezic ** Tsez–Hinukh *** Tsez *** Hinukh ** Bezhta–Hunzib–Khwarshi *** Bezhta *** Hunzib *** Khwarshi * Nakh **

Bats Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

** Vainakh *** Chechen *** Ingush * Lezgic ** Archi ** Samur *** West Samur **** Tsakhur **** Rutul *** East Samur **** Udi **** Lezgian **** Aghul **** Tabasaran *** South Samur **** Kryts **** Budukh * Dargin ** Chirag ** Kubachi ** North-Central Dargwa *** Megeb *** North Dargwa **** Cudaxar **** Gapshin-Butrin **** Kadarskij **** Muirin ***** Dejbuk ***** Xarbuk **** Nuclear North Dargwa ***** Aqusha-Uraxi ****** Akusha ****** Uraxa ***** Mugin ***** Murego-Gubden ***** Upper Mulebki ** South Dargwa *** Kajtak *** Southwestern Dargwa **** Amuzgu-Shiri **** Sanzhi-Icari ***** Icari ***** Sanzhi **** Sirhwa-Tanty **** Upper-Vurqri ***** Amux ***** Khuduts ***** Qunqi

Uralic Languages The Uralic languages ( ), sometimes called the Uralian languages ( ), are spoken predominantly in Europe and North Asia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. Other languages with speakers ab ...

* Ugric **

*** Northern Khanty *** Southern Khanty † *** Eastern Khanty **

*** Southern Mansi † *** Core Mansi **** Northern Mansi **** Eastern Mansi † **** Western Mansi † ** Hungarian * Samoyedic ** Nganasan ** Core-Samoyedic *** Enets-Nenets **** Enets ***** Tundra Enets ***** Forest Enets **** Nenets ***** Tundra Nenets ***** Forest Nenets *** Kamas-Selkup **** Selkup ***** Taz (Northern Selkup) ***** Tym (Central Selkup) ***** Ket (Southern Selkup) **** Kamas † * Finno-Permic ** Permic *** Udmurt *** Komi-Zyran *** Komi-Yazva *** Komi-Permyak ** Balto-Finnic *** Northern Balto-Finnic **** Veps **** Old Karelian ***** Ingrian ***** Ludic ***** Karelian ****** Livvi-Karelian **** Finnish ***** Eastern Dialects ******

Savo Finnish The Savo dialects (also called Savonian dialects or Savo Finnish) () are forms of the Finnish language spoken in Savo and other parts of Eastern Finland. Finnish dialects are grouped broadly into Eastern and Western varieties; Savo dialects are o ...

****** Ingrian Finnish ****** Siberian Finnish **** Mixed ***** Siberian Ingrian Finnish *** Southern Balto-Finnic **** Votic **** Livonian ****

...

***** North Estonian ****** Standard Estonian ***** South Estonian ****** Võro ****** Seto ** Sámi *** Mainland Sámi **** Akkala Sámi † ****

Skolt Sámi Skolt Sámi (, , ; or , , ) is a Sámi languages, Sámi language that is spoken by the Skolts, with approximately 300 speakers in Finland, mainly in Sevettijärvi and approximately 20–30 speakers of the (Notozero) dialect in an area surround ...

*** Peninsular Sámi **** Kildin Sámi **** Ter Sámi ** Mari *** Eastern Mari **** Eastern Proper Mari **** Meadow Mari *** Western Mari **** Northwestern Mari **** Hill Mari ** Mordvinic *** Erzya ***

Moksha ''Moksha'' (; , '), also called ''vimoksha'', ''vimukti'', and ''mukti'', is a term in Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism for various forms of emancipation, liberation, '' nirvana'', or release. In its soteriological and eschatologic ...

Turkic Languages The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic langua ...

* Oghuric ** Chuvash * Common Turkic ** Oghuz *** Eastern Oghuz **** Turkmen *** Western Oghuz **** Turkish ***** Meskhetian Turkish **** Azerbaijani **** Gagauz **** Karapapakh † ** Kipchak *** Kipchak-Bulgar **** Bashkir **** Tatar *** Kipchak-Cuman **** Crimean Tatar ****

Karachay-Balkar Karachay–Balkar (, ), often referred to as the "mountaineer language" (, ) by its speakers, is a Turkic language spoken by the Karachays and Balkars in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay–Cherkessia, European Russia, as well as by an immigra ...

**** Kumyk **** Karaim **** Krymchak **** Urum *** Kipchak-Nogai ****

Dobrujan Tatar Dobrujan Tatar is the Tatar language of Romania. It includes Kipchak dialects, but today there is no longer a sharp distinction between the dialects and it is mostly seen as one language. This language belongs to the Kipchak Turkic languages, ...

**** Kazakh **** Karakalpak **** Nogai *** Kipchak-Kyrgyz **** Kyrgyz **** Southern Altai **** Fergana Kipchak † ** Karluk *** Western Karluk **** Uzbek *** Eastern Karluk ****

Uyghur Uyghur may refer to: * Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia (West China) ** Uyghur language, a Turkic language spoken primarily by the Uyghurs *** Old Uyghur language, a different Turkic language spoken in the Uyghur K ...

**** Ili Turki *** Old Karluk **** Chagatai † ** Siberian Turkic *** Northern Siberian **** Yakut **** Dolgan *** Southern Siberian **** Chulym **** Sayan ***** Tuvan ***** Tofa ***** Soyot *****

Dukhan Dukhan () is a city in the western municipality of Al-Shahaniya, Qatar. It is approximately west of the capital, Doha. Dukhan is administered by Qatar's state oil agency QatarEnergy and is the site of the first oil discovery in Qatar. It was pr ...

**** Yenisei ***** Khakas ***** Kumandin ***** Northern Altai ***** Chelkan ***** Tubalar ***** Shor

Mongolic Languages The Mongolic languages are a language family spoken by the Mongolic peoples in North Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe mostly in Mongolia and surrounding areas and in Kalmykia and Buryatia. The best-known member of this languag ...

* Central Mongolic ** Mongolian **

Khamnigan Mongol Khamnigan (Khamnigan: ) is a Mongolic language spoken by the Hamnigan people east of Lake Baikal. Usage The Hamnigan, Khamnigan people, called the ''Horse Tungusic peoples, Tungus'' or ''Steppe Tungus'', are natively bilingual, speaking both a M ...

** Buryat ** Oirat *** Kalmyk

Afro-Asiatic Languages The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of th ...

* Semitic ** West Semitic *** Central Semitic ****

*****

Central Asian Arabic Central Asian Arabic or Jugari Arabic () refers to a set of four closely-related varieties of Arabic currently facing extinction and spoken predominantly by Arab communities living in portions of Central Asia. These varieties are Bactrian (or ...

****** Bukharian Central Asian Arabic ****** Kashkadarian Central Asian Arabic ****

Northwest Semitic Northwest Semitic is a division of the Semitic languages comprising the indigenous languages of the Levant. It emerged from Proto-Semitic language, Proto-Semitic in the Early Bronze Age. It is first attested in proper names identified as Amorite l ...

*****

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

****** Neo-Aramaic ******* Suret ******* Bohtan Neo-Aramaic ******* Urmian Judeo-Neo-Aramaic Tungustic Languages * Southern Tungustic ** Nanaic *** Nanai *** Uilta *** Ulch * Northern Tungustic ** Udegheic *** Oroch *** Udege ** Ewenic *** Even *** Evenki *** Negidal *** Kili

Chukotko-Kamchatkan Languages The Chukotko-Kamchatkan or Chukchi–Kamchatkan languages are a Language families and languages, language family of extreme northeastern Siberia. Its speakers traditionally were indigenous hunter-gatherers and reindeer-herders. Chukotko-Kamchatk ...

* Chukotkan ** Chukchi ** Koryak ** Alyutor ** Kerek † * Kamchatkan ** Itelmen ** Eastern Kamchadal †

Eskaleut Languages The Eskaleut ( ), Eskimo–Aleut or Inuit–Yupik–Unangan languages are a language family native to the northern portions of the North American continent, and a small part of northeastern Asia. Languages in the family are indigenous to parts of ...

Aleut Aleuts ( ; (west) or (east) ) are the Indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleuts and the islands are politically divided between the US state of Alaska ...

* Eskimoan ** Sirenik † ** Yupik *** Central Siberian Yupik *** Naukan Yupik

Sino-Tibetan Languages Sino-Tibetan (also referred to as Trans-Himalayan) is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. Around 1.4 billion people speak a Sino-Tibetan language. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 ...

* Sinitic ** Chinese ***

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

****

Central Plains Mandarin Central Plains Mandarin, or ''Zhongyuan'' Mandarin (), is a variety of Mandarin Chinese spoken in the central and southern parts of Shaanxi, Henan, southwestern part of Shanxi, southern part of Gansu, far southern part of Hebei, northern Anhui, n ...

***** Dungan ****

Northeastern Mandarin Northeastern Mandarin ( or / ''Dōngběiguānhuà'' "Northeast Mandarin") is the subgroup of Mandarin varieties spoken in Northeast China with the exception of the Liaodong Peninsula and few enclaves along Amur and Ussuri rivers. The classifica ...

***** Taz

Dravidian Languages The Dravidian languages are a language family, family of languages spoken by 250 million people, primarily in South India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan, with pockets elsewhere in South Asia. The most commonly spoken Dravidian l ...

* Northern ** Brahui

Koreanic Languages Koreanic is a small language family consisting of the Korean and Jeju languages. The latter is often described as a dialect of Korean but is mutually unintelligible with mainland Korean varieties. Alexander Vovin suggested that the Yukjin dial ...

** Northern *** Northeast **** Koryo-Mar

Yukaghir Languages The Yukaghir languages ( or ; also ''Yukagir, Jukagir'') are a small family of two closely related languages—Tundra and Kolyma Yukaghir—spoken by the Yukaghir in the Russian Far East living in the basin of the Kolyma River. At the 2002 Ru ...

* Tundra Yukaghir * Forrest Yukaghir

Yeniseian Languages The Yeniseian languages ( ; sometimes known as Yeniseic, Yeniseyan, or Yenisei-Ostyak;" Ostyak" is a concept of areal rather than genetic linguistics. In addition to the Yeniseian languages it also includes the Uralic languages of Khanty and ...

* Ketic ** Ket Ainuic Languages * Kuril Ainu † * Sakhalin Ainu † Amuric Languages * Nivkh Proper * Nighvng ** East Sakhalin ** South Sakhalin

Distribution of Russian in 1989

References

Sources

Bernard Comrie Bernard Sterling Comrie, (; born 23 May 1947) is a British linguist. Comrie is a specialist in linguistic typology, linguistic universals and on Caucasian languages. Personal life Early life and education Comrie was born in Sunderland, Eng ...

. ''The Languages of the Soviet Union.''

CUP A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

1981. (hb), (pb) * E. Glyn Lewis. ''Multilingualism in the Soviet Union: Aspects of Language Policy and Its Implementation''.

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

Mouton Publishers Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German academic publishing, scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. History The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Friedrich ...

, 1971. * Языки народов СССР. 1967.

Москва Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

: Наука 5т.

External links

by Mark Dickens {{DEFAULTSORT:Languages Of The Soviet Union Culture of the Soviet Union Language policy in Russia

Language policy

Background

Soviet language policy

Developing writing systems

Distribution and status

Distribution of Russian in 1989

See also

References

Sources

Further reading

External links