Originally published in 1953, this book examines the historical growth of Russian from the 11th century to its modern form. Matthews includes an anthology of texts reflective of this evolution accompanied by an English translation on the facing page. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in linguistics or philology.
Preface; Part I. The Structure of Russian: 1. Introduction; 2. Sounds; 3. Words and forms; 4. Sentences; 5. Dialects; Part II. The Development of Russian: 6. Conjecture and record; 7. The Kijev and Tartar periods (eleventh to the fourteenth centuries); 8. The Moscow period (fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries); 9. The eighteenth century; 10. The nineteenth century and after; 11. The post-revolutionary period; Part III. Specimens: A selection of passages from Russian literature with English versions; Classified bibliography; Index.