Great Russian language (Russian: Великорусскій языкъ/Великорусский язык, ''Velikorusskij jazyk'') is a name given in the 19th century to the

Russian language Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the First language, native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European langua ...

as opposed to the other two major

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

: Belarusian ("White Russian") and

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

("Little Russian"). For instance,

Vladimir Dal Vladimir Ivanovich Dal ( rus, Влади́мир Ива́нович Даль, p=vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr ɨˈvanəvʲɪdʑ ˈdalʲ; November 22, 1801 – October 4, 1872) was a noted Russian-language lexicographer, polyglot, Turkologist, and founding me ...

's monumental dictionary of the Russian language is titled ''

Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language The ''Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language'' (russian: link=no, Толко́вый слова́рь живо́го великору́сского языка́), commonly known as ''Dal's Explanatory Dictionary'' (russian: � ...

''. In 19th-century

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

, many scholars did not distinguish between the

spoken within the borders of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. The East Slavic languages were claimed to be mutually intelligible, a position since called into question. The Great Russian or just Russian language was formed in the

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...

in the northern Russian principalities under heavy influence of

Church Slavonic Church Slavonic (, , literally "Church-Slavonic language"), also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic or New Church Slavic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzeg ...

. As compared to the Great Russian, other Eastern Slavonic languages were termed one-dimensionalТрубецкой, Н. C. Общеславянский элемент в русской культуре
/ref> because they lacked the stratum of ''high speech'' derived from the Church Slavonic. For political reasons, the literary Russian language evolved under the significant influence of the

Moscow dialect The Moscow dialect or Moscow accent ( rus, Московское произношение, Moskovskoye proiznosheniye, mɐˈskofskəjə prəɪznɐˈʂenʲɪɪ), sometimes Central Russian, is the spoken Russian language variety used in Moscow – o ...

Sources

References

Russian language {{Russia-stub ru:Великорусский язык