About Russian Language
According to Wikipedia.org, Russian is a popular East Slavic language. It is widely spoken in Russia and Eastern Europe. This is a part of the Indo-European language family and is among the four living East Slavic languages. Russian is the official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Interestingly widely spoken in Ukraine, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and many other Baltic states. Russian is spoken by over 258 million speakers all over the world. It is written in the Cyrillic script. You can easily distinguish between consonant phonemes with palatal articulation. It has a combination of soft and hard sounds. This distinction is a prominent feature of Russian. Another aspect is the reduction of vowels that are not stressed. Some homographic words include замо́к (zamók – a 'lock') and за́мок (zámok – a 'castle'). You may not be able to indicate the pronunciation of uncommon words.
About Shona Language
According to Wikipedia.org, Shona is a Bantu language and is spoken by the Shona people of Zimbabwe. The language was codified by the colonial government and became popular during the 1950s. According to Ethnologue, the language was spoken in the Zezuru, Korekore, and Karanga dialects. It is spoken by 7.5 million people. Shona has Manyika and Ndau dialects and is spoken by 1,025,000 and 2,380,000 people. It is called Shona and is similar to the Ndau (Eastern Shona) and Karanga (Western Shona). Shona is a written standard language and became popular in the early 20th century. In the 1920s, the Rhodesian administration offered schoolbooks and other materials in Shona. The first novel in Shona was published in 1957. It is taught in the schools and has literature in the monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. The Standard Shona has a specific dialect and is spoken by the Karanga people of Masvingo Province. Shona dialects are taught in local schools.
