Old East Slavic[a] (traditionally alsoOld Russian) was a language (or a group of dialects) used by theEast Slavs from the 7th or 8th century to the 13th or 14th century,[4] until it diverged into theRussian andRuthenian languages.[5] Ruthenian eventually evolved into theBelarusian,Rusyn, andUkrainian languages.[6]
The termOld East Slavic is used in reference to the modern family ofEast Slavic languages. However, it is not universally applied.[7] The language is also traditionally known asOld Russian;[8][9][10][11] however, the term may be viewed as anachronistic, because the initial stages of the language which it denotes predate the dialectal divisions marking the nascent distinction between modern East Slavic languages,[12] therefore a number of authors have proposed usingOld East Slavic (orCommon East Slavic) as a more appropriate term.[13][14][15]Old Russian is also used to describe the written language in Russia until the 18th century,[16] when it becameModern Russian, though the early stages of the language is often calledOld East Slavic instead;[17] the period after the common language of theEast Slavs is sometimes distinguished asMiddle Russian,[18] orGreat Russian.[19]
Some scholars have also called the languageOld Rus'ian[20] orOld Rusan,[21]Rusian, or simplyRus,[22][23] although these are the least commonly used forms.[24]
Ukrainian-American linguistGeorge Shevelov used the termCommon Russian orCommon Eastern Slavic to refer to the hypothetical uniform language of the East Slavs.[25]
American SlavistAlexander M. Schenker pointed out that modern terms for the medieval language of the East Slavs varied depending on the political context.[26] He suggested using the neutral termEast Slavic for that language.[27]
Old East Slavic retains all the consonants ofProto-Slavic, with the exception of ť and ď which merged into č and ž respectively.After the 11th century, all consonants becomepalatalized before front vowels.
Map and tree of Balto-Slavic languages, according to Kassian and A. DyboDevelopment of the East Slavic languages[citation needed]
The language was a descendant of theProto-Slavic language and retained many of its features. It developed so-calledpleophony (orpolnoglasie 'full vocalisation'), which came to differentiate the newly evolving East Slavic from other Slavic dialects. For instance, Common Slavic*gȏrdъ 'settlement, town' was reflected as OESl.gorodъ,[28] Common Slavic*melkò 'milk' > OESl.moloko,[29] and Common Slavic*kòrva 'cow' > OESlkorova.[30] Other Slavic dialects differed by resolving the closed-syllable clusters *eRC and *aRC asliquid metathesis (South Slavic andWest Slavic), or by no change at all (see the article onSlavic liquid metathesis and pleophony for a detailed account).
With time, it evolved into several more diversified forms; following the fragmentation of Kievan Rus' after 1100, dialectal differentiation accelerated.[32] The regional languages were distinguishable starting in the 12th or 13th century.[33] Thus different variations evolved of the Russian language in the regions of Novgorod,Moscow, South Russia and meanwhile the Ukrainian language was also formed. Each of these languages preserves much of the Old East Slavic grammar and vocabulary. The Russian language in particular borrows more words fromChurch Slavonic than does Ukrainian.[34]
However, findings by Russian linguistAndrey Zaliznyak suggest that, until the 14th or 15th century, major language differences were not between the regions occupied by modern Belarus, Russia and Ukraine,[35] but rather between the north-west (around modern Velikiy Novgorod and Pskov) and the center (around modern Kyiv, Suzdal, Rostov, Moscow as well as Belarus) of the East Slavic territories.[36] TheOld Novgorodian dialect of that time differed from the central East Slavic dialects as well as from all other Slavic languages much more than in later centuries.[37][38] According to Zaliznyak, the Russian language developed as a convergence of that dialect and the central ones,[39] whereas Ukrainian and Belarusian were continuation of development of the central dialects of the East Slavs.[40]
Also, Russian linguist Sergey Nikolaev, analysing historical development of Slavic dialects' accent system, concluded that a number of other tribes in Kievan Rus' came from different Slavic branches and spoke distant Slavic dialects.[41][page needed]
Another Russian linguist, G. A. Khaburgaev,[42] as well as a number of Ukrainian linguists (Stepan Smal-Stotsky,Ivan Ohienko,George Shevelov, Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov,Olena Kurylo), deny the existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past.[43] According to them, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages.[44]
The political unification of the region into the state calledKievan Rus', from which modernBelarus,Russia andUkraine trace their origins, occurred approximately a century before the adoption ofChristianity in 988 and the establishment of the South SlavicOld Church Slavonic as the liturgical and literary language. Documentation of the Old East Slavic language of this period is scanty, making it difficult at best fully to determine the relationship between the literary language and its spoken dialects.
There are references in Byzantine sources to pre-Christian Slavs in European Russia using some form of writing. Despite some suggestive archaeological finds and a corroboration by the tenth-century monkChernorizets Hrabar that ancient Slavs wrote in "strokes and incisions", the exact nature of this system is unknown.
Although theGlagolitic alphabet was briefly introduced, as witnessed by church inscriptions inNovgorod, it was soon entirely superseded byCyrillic.[49][citation needed] The samples ofbirch-bark writing excavated inNovgorod have provided crucial information about the pure tenth-centuryvernacular in North-West Russia, almost entirely free of Church Slavonic influence. It is also known that borrowings and calques fromByzantine Greek began to enter the vernacular at this time, and that simultaneously the literary language in its turn began to be modified towards Eastern Slavic.
The following excerpts illustrate two of the most famous literary monuments.
NOTE: The spelling of the original excerpt has been partly modernized. The translations are best attempts at being literal, not literary.
Повість минулих літ Нестора, чорноризця Феодосієвого монастиря Печерського, звідки пішла Руська земля, і хто в ній почав спершу княжити, як Руська земля постала.
Povistj mynulyx lit Nestora, čornoryzcja Feodosijevoǧo monastyrja Pečersjkoǧo zvidky pišla Rusjka zemlia. i xto v nij počav speršu knjažyty, jak Rusjka zemlja postala.
These are the narratives of bygone years regarding the origin of the land of Rus', the first princes of Kiev, and from what source the land of Rus' had its beginning.
In this usage example of the language, the fall of theyers is in progress or arguably complete: several words end with a consonant, e.g.кнѧжит,knęžit "to rule" <кънѧжити,kǔnęžiti (modern Ukкняжити,knjažyty, Rкняжить,knjažit', Bкняжыць,knjažyc').South Slavic features includeвремѧньнъıх,vremęnǐnyx "bygone" (modern Rминувших,minuvšix, Ukминулих,mynulyx, Bмінулых,minulyx). Correct use ofperfect andaorist:єсть пошла,estǐ pošla "is/has come" (modern Bпайшла,pajšla, Rпошла,pošla, Ukпішла,pišla),нача,nača "began" (modern Ukпочав,počav, Bпачаў,pačaŭ, Rначал,načal) as a development of the old perfect. Note the style of punctuation.
Не лѣпо ли ны бяшетъ братїє, начяти старыми словесы трудныхъ повѣстїй о пълку Игоревѣ, Игоря Святъславлича? Начати же ся тъй пѣсни по былинамъ сего времени, а не по замышленїю Бояню. Боянъ бо вѣщїй, аще кому хотяше пѣснь творити, то растѣкашется мыслію по древу, сѣрымъ вълкомъ по земли, шизымъ орломъ подъ облакы.[57]
Ne lěpo li ny bjašetǔ bratije, načjati starymi slovesy trudnyxǔ pověstij o pǔlku Igorevě, Igorja Svjatǔslaviča? Načati že sja tǔj pěsni po bylinamǔ sego vremeni, a ne po zamyšleniju Bojanju. Bojanǔ bo věščij, ašče komu xotjaše pěsnǐ tvoriti, to rastěkašetsja mysliju po drevu, sěrymǔ vǔlkomǔ po zemli, šizymǔ orlomǔ podǔ oblaky.
English
Would it not be meet, o brothers, for us to begin with the old words the martial telling of the host of Igor, of Igor Sviatoslavlich? And to begin this tale in the way of the true tales of this time, and not in the way of Bojan's inventions. For the wise Bojan, if he wished to devote to someone [his] song, would fly like a squirrel in the trees, like a grey wolf over land, like a bluish eagle beneath the clouds.
Illustrates the sungepics, with typical use of metaphor and simile.
It has been suggested that the phraseрастекаться мыслью по древу (rastekat'sja mysl'ju po drevu, to run in thought upon/over wood), which has become proverbial in modern Russian with the meaning "to speak ornately, at length, excessively," is a misreading of an originalмысію,mysiju (akin toмышь "mouse") from "run like a squirrel/mouse on a tree"; however, the readingмыслью,myslǐju is present in both the manuscript copy of 1790 and the first edition of 1800, and in all subsequent scholarly editions.
The Old East Slavic language developed a certain literature of its own, though much of it (in hand with those of the Slavic languages that were, after all, written down) was influenced as regards style and vocabulary by religious texts written in Church Slavonic.[58] Surviving literary monuments include the legal codeRusskaya Pravda, a corpus ofhagiography andhomily,The Tale of Igor's Campaign, and the earliest surviving manuscript of thePrimary Chronicle – theLaurentian Codex of 1377.[59]
The earliest dated specimen of Old East Slavic (or, rather, ofChurch Slavonic with pronounced East Slavic interference) must be considered the writtenSermon on Law and Grace byHilarion,metropolitan ofKiev.[60] In this work there is a panegyric on PrinceVladimir of Kiev, the hero of so much of East Slavic popular poetry.[61] It is rivalled by another panegyric on Vladimir, written a decade later by Yakov the Monk.[62]
Other 11th-century writers areTheodosius, a monk of theKiev Pechersk Lavra, who wrote on the Latin faith and some Pouchenia or Instructions, andLuka Zhidiata, bishop ofNovgorod, who has left a curious Discourse to the Brethren.[63] From the writings of Theodosius we see that many pagan habits were still in vogue among the people. He finds fault with them for allowing these to continue, and also for their drunkenness; nor do the monks escape his censures.[64] Zhidiata writes in a more vernacular style than many of his contemporaries; he eschews the declamatory tone of the Byzantine authors.[65] And here may be mentioned the many lives of the saints and the Fathers to be found in early East Slavic literature, starting with the two Lives of StsBoris and Gleb, written in the late eleventh century and attributed to Jacob the Monk and toNestor the Chronicler.[66]
With the so-called Primary Chronicle, also attributed to Nestor, begins the long series of the Russian annalists.[67] There is a regular catena of these chronicles, extending with only two breaks to the seventeenth century.[68] Besides the work attributed toNestor the Chronicler, there are the chronicles ofNovgorod,Kiev,Volhynia and many others. Every town of any importance could boast of its annalists,Pskov andSuzdal among others.[69]
In the 12th century, we have the sermons of BishopCyril of Turov, which are attempts to imitate in Old East Slavic the florid Byzantine style.[70] In his sermon onHoly Week,Christianity is represented under the form of spring,Paganism andJudaism under that of winter, and evil thoughts are spoken of as boisterous winds.[71]
There are also the works of early travellers, as the igumenDaniel, who visited theHoly Land at the end of the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth century.[72] A later traveller wasAfanasiy Nikitin, a merchant ofTver, who visitedIndia in 1470. He has left arecord of his adventures, which has been translated into English and published for theHakluyt Society.[73][74]
A curious monument of old Slavonic times is the Pouchenie (“Instruction”), written byVladimir Monomakh for the benefit of his sons.[75] This composition is generally found inserted in the Chronicle of Nestor; it gives a fine picture of the daily life of a Slavonic prince.[76] The Paterik of the Kievan Caves Monastery is a typical medieval collection of stories from the life of monks, featuring devils, angels, ghosts, and miraculous resurrections.[77][78]
Lay of Igor's Campaign narrates the expedition ofIgor Svyatoslavich, the prince of Novgorod-Seversk, against theCumans.[79] It is neitherepic nor a poem but is written in rhythmic prose. An interesting aspect of the text is its mix ofChristianity and ancientSlavic religion. Igor's wife Yaroslavna famously invokes natural forces from the walls ofPutyvl. Christian motifs present along with depersonalised pagan gods in the form of artistic images.[80] Another aspect, which sets the book apart from contemporary Western epics, are its numerous and vivid descriptions of nature, and the role which nature plays in human lives. Of the whole bulk of the Old East Slavic literature, the Lay is the only work familiar to every educated Russian or Ukrainian. Its brooding flow of images, murkymetaphors, and ever-changing rhythm have not been successfully rendered into English yet. Indeed, the meanings of many words found in it have not been satisfactorily explained by scholars.[81]
TheZadonshchina is a sort of prose poem much in the style of The Tale of Igor's Campaign, and the resemblance of the latter to this piece furnishes an additional proof of its genuineness.[82] This account of theBattle of Kulikovo, which was gained byDmitry Donskoy over theMongols in 1380, has come down in three important versions.[83][84]
The early laws of Rus' present many features of interest, such as the Russkaya Pravda ofYaroslav the Wise, which is preserved in the chronicle of Novgorod; the date is between 1018 and 1072.[85][86][87]
^Shevelov 1984, section 1: "Chronologically, Common Russian is considered by some to have existed from the 7th or 8th century to the 13th or 14th century (Aleksei Sobolevsky, Vatroslav Jagić, Fedot Filin, et al) and by others only to the 10th or 11th century (Oleksander Potebnia, Ahatanhel Krymsky, and, in part, Leonid Bulakhovsky)".
^Krause & Slocum 2013, section 1: "…a more appropriate term for the language is Old East Slavic. Unfortunately, in addition to being cumbersome, this terminology is not universally applied even within modern scholarship".
^Krause & Slocum 2013, section 1: "The title Old Russian serves to denote the language of the earliest documents of the eastern branch of the Slavic family of languages".
^Langston 2018, p. 1405: "The language of the oldest texts from the period of Kievan Rus' is often referred to loosely as Old Russian".
^Schenker 1995, p. 74: "In the pre-Petrine period, the language of literary texts was Church Slavonic in its East Slavic recension, which together with the language of subliterary documents is commonly referred to as Old Russian. This term, however, may be viewed as anachronistic, for at that time East Slavic had not yet diverged into Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarussian".
^Krause & Slocum 2013, section 1: "Thus Old Russian serves as a common parent to all three of the major East Slavic languages, and as such a more appropriate term for the language is Old East Slavic".
^Magocsi 2010, p. 73: "For the longest time, English-language writings did not distinguish the nameRus' fromRussia, with the result that in descriptions of the pre-fourteenth-century Kievan realm the conceptually distorted formulationKievan Russia was used. In recent years, however, the correct termsRus' andKievan Rus' have appeared more frequently in English-language scholarly publications, although the corresponding adjectiveRus'/Rusyn has been avoided in favor of either the incorrect termRussian or the correct but visually confusing termRus'ian/Rusian".
^Langston 2018, p. 1405: "…but these documents are mostly Church Slavic with varying degrees of influence from the vernacular, and the local features that they exhibit are better characterized as Common East Slavic in most instances".
^Vinokur 1971, pp. 19–20, "For the period after the 14th century, however, the term 'Russian language' is equivalent to the term 'Great-Russian' and distinguishes the Russian language in the modern sense from the languages of the Ukraine and Belorussia".
^Krause & Slocum 2013, section 1: "…some scholars employ the term Rusian for Old Russian. This is perhaps the most convenient of all the terms, but lamentably it is also the least commonly used".
^Shevelov 1984, section 1: "Common Russian (also called Common Eastern Slavic). The name of the hypothetical uniform language of the Eastern Slavs, which presumably arose after the disintegration of Common Slavic and which itself later disintegrated to form three new languages: Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian".
^Schenker 1995, p. 74: "Depending on the local political situation the termsOld Russian,Old Ukrainian, andOld Belarussian have been applied to essentially the same body of texts".
^Schenker 1995, p. 74: "It seems more appropriate, therefore, to use the general and neutral termEast Slavic and indicate its dialectical varieties".
^Derksen 2008, p. 178: "*gȏrdъ m. o (c) 'fortification, town' … E Ru. górod 'town, city', Gsg. góroda; Bel. hórad 'town, city', Gsg. hórada; Ukr. hórod 'town, city', Gsg. hóroda".
^Derksen 2008, p. 307: "*melkò n. o (b) 'milk' … E Ru. molokó".
^Derksen 2008, p. 236: "*kòrva f. ā (a) 'cow' … E Ru. koróva".
^Lunt 2001, p. 184: "the Late Common Slavic of c1000 CE had four regional variants or macro dialects: NorthWest, SouthWest, SouthEast, NorthEast. . . . by c1150 . . . [East Slavic] was still a single language, with the weakest of local variations".
^Lotha et al. 2022, section 1: "Ukrainian is a lineal descendant of the colloquial language used in Kievan Rus (10th–13th century). It is written in a form of the Cyrillic alphabet and is closely related to Russian and Belarusian, from which it was indistinguishable until the 12th or 13th century".
^Lotha et al. 2022, section 2: "Like Belarusian, the Ukrainian language contains a large number of words borrowed from Polish, but it has fewer borrowings from Church Slavonic than does Russian".
^Zaliznyak 2012, section 111: "…ростовско-суздальско-рязанская языковая зона от киевско-черниговской ничем существенным в древности не отличалась. Различия возникли позднее, они датируются сравнительно недавним, по лингвистическим меркам, временем, начиная с XIV–XV вв […the Rostov-Suzdal-Ryazan language area did not significantly differ from the Kiev-Chernigov one. Distinctions emerged later, in a relatively recent, by linguistic standards, time, starting from the 14th–15th centuries]".
^Zaliznyak 2012, section 88: "Северо-запад — это была территория Новгорода и Пскова, а остальная часть, которую можно назвать центральной, или центрально-восточной, или центрально-восточно-южной, включала одновременно территорию будущей Украины, значительную часть территории будущей Великороссии и территории Белоруссии … Существовал древненовгородский диалект в северо-западной части и некоторая более нам известная классическая форма древнерусского языка, объединявшая в равной степени Киев, Суздаль, Ростов, будущую Москву и территорию Белоруссии [The territory of Novgorod and Pskov was in the north-west, while the remaining part, which could either be called central, or central-eastern, or central-eastern-southern, comprised the territory of the future Ukraine, a substantial part of the future Great Russia, and the territory of Belarus … The Old Novgorodian dialect existed in the north-western part, while a somewhat more well-known classical variety of the Old Russian language united equally Kiev, Suzdal, Rostov, the future Moscow and the territory of Belarus]".
^Zaliznyak 2012, section 82: "…черты новгородского диалекта, отличавшие его от других диалектов Древней Руси, ярче всего выражены не в позднее время, когда, казалось бы, они могли уже постепенно развиться, а в самый древний период […features of the Novgorodian dialect, which made it different from the other dialects of the Old Rus', were most pronounced not in later times, when they seemingly could have evolved, but in the oldest period]".
^Zaliznyak 2012, section 92: "…северо-западная группа восточных славян представляет собой ветвь, которую следует считать отдельной уже на уровне праславянства […north-western group of the East Slavs is a branch that should be regarded as separate already in the Proto-Slavic period]".
^Zaliznyak 2012, section 94: "…великорусская территория оказалась состоящей из двух частей, примерно одинаковых по значимости: северо-западная (новгородско-псковская) и центрально-восточная (Ростов, Суздаль, Владимир, Москва, Рязань) […the Great Russian territory happened to include two parts of approximately equal importance: the north-western one (Novgorod-Pskov) and the central-eastern-southern one (Rostov, Suzdal, Vladimir, Moscow, Ryazan)]".
^Zaliznyak 2012, section 94: "…нынешняя Украина и Белоруссия — наследники центрально-восточно-южной зоны восточного славянства, более сходной в языковом отношении с западным и южным славянством […today's Ukraine and Belarus are successors of the central-eastern-southern area of the East Slavs, more linguistically similar to the West and South Slavs]".
^Vinokur 1971, p. 27: "There are no extant Old Russian manuscripts written entirely in Glagolitic. There are however Russian Cyrillic manuscripts in which isolated words and lines in Glagolitic occur".
^LUL, section 1: "Повість минулих літ Нестора, чорноризця Феодосієвого монастиря Печерського, звідки пішла Руська земля, і хто в ній почав спершу княжити, як Руська земля постала".
^Karotki 2004, p. 4: "Вось аповесці мінулых гадоў: адкуль пайшла руская зямля, хто ў Кіеве першым пачаў княжыць, і адкуль руская зямля паўстала".
^Cross & Sherbowitz-Wetzor 1953, p. 51: "These are the narratives of bygone years regarding the origin of the land of Rus', the first princes of Kiev, and from what source the land of Rus' had its beginning".
^Franklin, Simon & Shepard, Jonathan (1996). The Emergence of Rus 750-1200. Longman. pp 197-201. ISBN 9780582069459. Available online athttps://www.academia.edu/ (search “Emergence of Rus Franklin Shepard”) [accessed 2025-10-29].
^Franklin, Simon & Shepard, Jonathan (1996). The Emergence of Rus 750-1200. Longman. pp. 210–212. ISBN 9780582069459. Available online athttps://www.academia.edu/ (search “Emergence of Rus Franklin Shepard”) [accessed 2025-10-29].
^Franklin, Simon & Shepard, Jonathan (1996). The Emergence of Rus 750-1200. Longman. pp. 223–225. ISBN 9780582069459. Available online athttps://www.academia.edu/ (search “Emergence of Rus Franklin Shepard”) [accessed 2025-10-29].
^Cross, Samuel Hazzard & Sherbowitz-Wetzor, Olgerd P. (trans.) (1953). The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text. Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America. pp. vii–ix. Available athttps://archive.org/details/the-russian-primary-chronicle [accessed 2025-10-29].
^Franklin, Simon & Shepard, Jonathan (1996). The Emergence of Rus 750–1200. Longman. pp. 227–229. ISBN 9780582069459. Available online athttps://www.academia.edu/ (search “Emergence of Rus Franklin Shepard”) [accessed 2025-10-29].
^Nikitin, Afanasiy (1914). The Journey Beyond Three Seas (Voyage of Afanasy Nikitin). Translated by C. E. Yate. London: Hakluyt Society. Available athttps://archive.org/details/journeybeyondthr00nika [accessed 2025-10-29].
^Cross, Samuel Hazzard & Sherbowitz-Wetzor, Olgerd P. (trans.) (1953). The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text. Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America. pp. 202–205. Available athttps://archive.org/details/the-russian-primary-chronicle [accessed 2025-10-29].
^Poppe, Andrzej (1967). “The Paterik of the Kievan Caves Monastery and Its Byzantine Sources.” Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 153–167. Available athttps://www.jstor.org/stable/41036174 [accessed 2025-10-29].
^Zenkovsky, Serge A. (ed.) (1963). Medieval Russia’s Epics, Chronicles, and Tales. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. pp. 97–110. Available athttps://archive.org/details/medievalrussiase00zenk [accessed 2025-10-29].
^Klein, Laura (1990). “The Enigma of The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” Slavic Review, Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 1–17. Cambridge University Press. Available athttps://www.jstor.org/stable/2500613 [accessed 2025-10-29].
^Halperin, Charles J. (1987). Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact on Medieval Russian History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 95–97. Available athttps://archive.org/details/russiagoldenhord0000halp [accessed 2025-10-29].
^Zenkovsky, Serge A. (ed.) (1963). Medieval Russia’s Epics, Chronicles, and Tales. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. pp. 201–208. Available athttps://archive.org/details/medievalrussiase00zenk [accessed 2025-10-29].
^Franklin, Simon & Shepard, Jonathan (1996). The Emergence of Rus 750–1200. Longman. pp. 233–235. ISBN 9780582069459. Available online athttps://www.academia.edu/ (search “Emergence of Rus Franklin Shepard”) [accessed 2025-10-29].
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