A) Various Versions
Even though the roots of the Russian language are ancient, it did not really become standardised until the 19th century. One of the people to have the greatest influence 1)on the Russian language was Alexander Pushkin, who, like Shakespeare, is one of the few writers who not only used language but created it and helped to 2)shape a nation.

Although standard Russian is taught 3)across Russia and other Russian-speaking countries, it is not the only form of the language there is. Like most other languages, Russian also has many different dialects. One local dialect that has survived in Russia is called Varguza. Speakers of this dialect live in villages along the 4)coast of the White Sea in the Northwest of Russia. The preservation of this dialect may be 5)due to the fact that these villages are quite isolated from the central, urban areas of Russia and because of the linguistic influences from other cultures that trade along these coasts.

Another interesting dialect of the Russian language is one that has evolved in modern times among native Russian speakers living abroad. This dialect is a 6)blend of English and Russian. It began life as a way of making communication easier between astronauts on the International Space Station but it is increasingly being adopted by 7)other native Russian speakers. In New York you might hear Russian-Americans making appointmyenti (appointments) or referring to the syim karti (sim cards) in their mobile phones. This is a good example of how people adapt language to make it more user-friendly.

B) Outside Influences
Perhaps one of the things that has made the English language today the closest the world has to a lingua franca is its 1) flexibility. The history of Britain is a tale of many 2) invasions, from Anglo Saxons to Vikings and Normans, to name but a few, and they all left a 3) lasting mark on the development of English as it is spoken today. One of the results of this is that English has always 4) readily absorbed words from other languages and this is a process that continues to this day. English has borrowed a very wide variety of foreign words and made them its own. Words like char from Chinese, hoi polloi from Greek and apparatchik from Russian are all words that are commonly used in English.

The language grew not only because Britain was conquered so many times but it also changed because of the British Empire. As the old empire spread the language across the world, it lost control of it too. Whatever part of the world English took root in, as either a native language in places like the US and Australia, or as a second language, the 5) inhabitants changed the way it was used. Each region has its own dialect of the language, which has added new vocabulary and uses its own unique 6) pronunciation or accent. What is fascinating is that these new variations on the language have also influenced how it is spoken in the land it originated in. English is a language that changes continually because of the vast variety of peoples and cultures that use it.