World Monitor Magazine, #5, Industry World Monitor Magazine, Industrial Overview | Page 34

EXPERT OPINION

RUSSIAN PLI rank : 6 PLI score : 0.244 Language family : Slavic Geographic coverage : Central Asia , East Europe

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Russian is the primary language of Russia , but is also widely spoken in many of the former Soviet states ( and satellite states ), where large Russian diaspora communities also exist . Despite recent economic and political shocks , Russia remains a globally important nation ( nuclear power , UN Security Council permanent member , etc .) and the vast geography of the nation ( and its resource riches ) give it a good foundation to grow ( notwithstanding political issues ).

Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet , in contrast to the other influential European languages which use the Latin script . Soviet legacy has expanded the use of Cyrillic , where it is the form of writing of Kazakh and Mongolian ( amongst others ). Nevertheless , there is a push in some of these nations now to adapt the Latin script , even within Russia .

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Russian is the primary language of Russia , but is also widely spoken in many of the former Soviet states ( and satellite states ), where large Russian diaspora communities also exist . In spite of recent economic and political shocks , Russia remains a globally important nation ( nuclear power , UN German places seventh on the PLI on Japanese is the most isolated of the

Security Council permanent member , etc .) and the vast geography of the nation ( and its resource the strength of the German-speaking top-10 languages . It is spoken in just one riches ) give it a good foundation to grow ( notwithstanding political issues ). economies . Indeed , the per capita wealth country , which is itself an ( isolated ) island Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet , in contrast to the other influential European languages which use of German-speaking nations ($ 47,192 ) is nation . The complexity of the language the Latin script . Soviet legacy has expanded the use of Cyrillic , where it is the form of writing in the Kazakh highest and amongst Mongolian all amongst language other groups places . Nevertheless . ( for most , there foreign is a push learners in some of ) – these it uses nations three But now the to influence adapt the Latin of the script German and even language within Russia . writing systems ( katakana , hiragana and is limited by its small geographic coverage , being spoken ( in large numbers ) only in West Europe . Nevertheless , the prominence of German may rise as post-Brexit EU will see less influence of UK ( and ergo English language ) culture on the Continent . The influence of German is in some ways largely self-imposed , as German speakers seldom ‘ force ’ the language on foreigners ( in contrast to French speakers ). Indeed , in many professional and social settings Germans will switch to English to accommodate even the presence of one non-German speaker in the group . This phenomenon is , in part a consequence of Germany ’ s war past and the occupation of the country by Allied ( especially American ) forces . kanji ) as well as the Latin alphabet for transliterations – has limited the uptake of the language as a second language . Nevertheless , the popularity of Japanese pop culture , especially with respect to anime , has gained it a sizeable number of students studying the language . Declining birth rates and lack of immigration in the country will see a sharp drop in the population of Japan over the next century . Combined with the economic stagnation of the economy , these suggest that the influence of the Japanese language will wane over time . However , as the strength of ( Mandarin ) Chinese grows there may be scope for Japanese to leverage its strength – kanji are Chinese characters used in Japanese ( albeit not necessarily with the same meaning ).