The course offers an in-depth study of the sounds and graphemes of contemporary Russian in order to help students master the essential rules to be autonomous in reading and understanding written and oral texts; it will also offer some tools to carry out an initial morphemic analysis of words, useful for understanding and memorizing words without the use of a dictionary. The study of phonetics and lexicon will be supported, on the one hand, by some basic notions of the history of the Russian language relating to the origins of the Cyrillic alphabet and, on the other, by some essential information on the geo-sociolinguistics of today's Russia.

1. The Cyrillic alphabet: sounds and graphemes

1.1 Origin of the Cyrillic alphabet

1.2 The origins of the Russian literary language

1.3 The theory of diglossia

1.4 The reforms of the Cyrillic alphabet in Russia

1.5 Transliteration systems. Scientific and commercial transliteration

2. Linguistic characters of the standard variety

2.1 The graphic and phonetic system

2. 2 Vowel and consonant phonemes

2.3 Russian vowels and consonants

2.4 Classification of vowels

2.5 The vowel reduction

2.6 Classification of consonants

2.7 Palatalized and non-palatalized consonants

2.8 Voiced and unvoiced consonants

2.9 Muting of consonants

2.10 Sonorization of consonants

2.11 Occlusive consonants

2.12 Fricative consonants

2.13 Affricate consonants

2.14 Indigenous lexicon and loanwords

2.17 Stylistic-functional differentiation of the contemporary Russian literary language

3. Linguistic characters of the substandard variety

3.1 The national Russian language

3.2 The popular language (gorodskoe prostorečie)

4. Geo-sociolinguistic picture of Russia today

4.1 The languages, religions and cultures of the Russian Federation

4.2 Russian as a tool of inter-ethnic communication 4.3 Where Russian is spoken today

5. Word formation

5.1 Roots, suffixes and endings of nouns and verbs

Knowledge and understanding: Students acquire basic notions of phonology, morphology and sociolinguistics and will be able to describe the peculiarities of the Russian language.

Applied knowledge and understanding skills: Ability to perceive and produce both orally and in writing sequences of unfamiliar sounds; ability to autonomously apply the basic rules of Russian orthoepy when reading simple texts; ability to orient oneself in the formation and study of words; ability to recognize and appropriately use the different transliteration systems.

Autonomy of judgment: Students will be able to evaluate measures and interventions of a political nature on the Russian language within the Russian Federation and in the countries of the former USSR.

Communication skills: Students will be able to communicate in Russian at the elementary level

(A1).

Ability to learn: By the end of the course, students will have acquired the tools and basic notions necessary for the study of the contemporary Russian language.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Teaching

Interactive lectures

Innovative teaching methods

Use of the language laboratory

Attendance

Attend the first lesson of the course.

Course books

Cavazza, A. Elementi di lingua e di cultura russa, in Insegnare italiano a stranieri: percorsi operativi, a cura di G. Carloni, Francoangeli, Milano, 2015, pp. 152-166.

Fici Giusti, F., Gebert, L., Signorini S., La lingua russa, La Nuova Italia Scientifica, Roma, 1991, p. 18 nota n. 1.

Garzaniti, M., Gli Slavi, culture e lingue dalle origini ai nostri giorni, Carocci, Roma, 2019, pp. 135-156; 160-168; 175-189, 2a ed.

Kasatkin L., Krysin L., Živov V., Il russo, Scandicci (Firenze) 1995, pp. 3-13; 24-27; 87-100; 155-172; 247-264.

Lasorsa, C., Il russo, Mosca 1983, pp. 7-51.

Mazzitelli, G., Ancora sul problema della traslitterazione dei caratteri cirillici, in “Bollettino AIB”, ISSN 1121-1490, vol.48, n.4 (dic. 2008), pp. 343-357.

Pul’kina, I.M., Breve prontuario della grammatica russa, «Lingua russa», Mosca, 1990, pp. 271-280; 295-299.

Saronne, E.T., Alberti, A., Chi sono gli Slavi?, Bologna 2002, pp. 114-117.

Uspenskij, B.A., Storia della lingua letteraria russa, tr. di N. Marcialis, Bologna 1993, pp. 37-42.

Assessment

Oral and written exams and language test.

The final exam will assess metalinguistic knowledge and language skills at the required level. In particular, assessment will test the following skills: writing (33% of all marks), oral (33%), and metalinguistic knowledge (33%).

The metalinguistic exam (“monographic course”) is a written test. It consists of 30 multiple choice  questions in Italian, principally to assess both acquired knowledge and applied comprehension skills. The use of dictionaries is not permitted during this test. Criteria for the assessment of the test are:

- pertinence and correctness of answers in relation to contents of programme

- ability to apply knowledge to specific cases

- ability to reflect critically on concepts and processes

- knowledge of the metalanguage

Any mark for the “monographic” course below 18/30 is not a pass.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Attendance

 Attend the first lesson or contact the teacher before the end of the course. Follow the diary of classroom lessons on Blended.

Course books

Cavazza, A. Elementi di lingua e di cultura russa, in Insegnare italiano a stranieri: percorsi operativi, a cura di G. Carloni, Francoangeli, Milano, 2015, pp. 152-166.

Fici Giusti, F., Gebert, L., Signorini S., La lingua russa, La Nuova Italia Scientifica, Roma, 1991, p. 18 nota n. 1.

Garzaniti, M., Gli Slavi, culture e lingue dalle origini ai nostri giorni, Carocci, Roma, 2019, pp. 135-156; 160-168; 175-189, 2a ed.

Kasatkin L., Krysin L., Živov V., Il russo, Scandicci (Firenze) 1995, pp. 3-13; 24-27; 87-100; 155-172; 247-264.

Lasorsa, C., Il russo, Mosca 1983, pp. 7-51.

Mazzitelli, G., Ancora sul problema della traslitterazione dei caratteri cirillici, in “Bollettino AIB”, ISSN 1121-1490, vol.48, n.4 (dic. 2008), pp. 343-357.

Pul’kina, I.M., Breve prontuario della grammatica russa, «Lingua russa», Mosca, 1990, pp. 271-280; 295-299.

Saronne, E.T., Alberti, A., Chi sono gli Slavi?, Bologna 2002, pp. 114-117.

Uspenskij, B.A., Storia della lingua letteraria russa, tr. di N. Marcialis, Bologna 1993, pp. 37-42.

Assessment

Oral and written exams and language test.

The final exam will assess metalinguistic knowledge and language skills at the required level. In particular, assessment will test the following skills: writing (33% of all marks), oral (33%), and metalinguistic knowledge (33%).

The metalinguistic exam (“monographic course”) is a written test. It consists of 30 multiple choice  questions in Italian, principally to assess both acquired knowledge and applied comprehension skills. The use of dictionaries is not permitted during this test. Criteria for the assessment of the test are:

- pertinence and correctness of answers in relation to contents of programme

- ability to apply knowledge to specific cases

- ability to reflect critically on concepts and processes

- knowledge of the metalanguage

Any mark for the “monographic” course below 18/30 is not a pass.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.