Standard Russian · Moskovskoye
The Moscow-area standard of Russian. The reference variety in education, broadcasting, and most second-language teaching.
Saint Petersburg Russian
Also known as: Petersburg pronunciation
The traditional educated speech of Saint Petersburg. Distinct from Moscow Russian in clearer enunciation of unstressed vowels and a number of lexical preferences.
Shareable facts
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Frequently asked questions
What language is Saint Petersburg Russian?
Saint Petersburg Russian is a dialect of the Russian language.
Where is Saint Petersburg Russian spoken?
Saint Petersburg Russian is primarily spoken in Russia.
Which region is Saint Petersburg Russian associated with?
Saint Petersburg Russian is part of the Europe region on DialectAtlas.
Is Saint Petersburg Russian known by other names?
Yes — Saint Petersburg Russian is also referred to as Petersburg pronunciation.
What are the other dialects of Russian?
Russian also includes Moscow Russian, Northern Russian, Southern Russian, Pomor Russian, Volga Russian, Ural Russian, Siberian Russian, Far Eastern Russian, Kazakhstani Russian. Each variety has its own vocabulary, pronunciation, and cultural context.
Other Russian dialects
See on the atlas →The northern Russian dialect group around Vologda and Arkhangelsk. Preserves okanye (clear /o/ in unstressed positions) lost in standard varieties.
The southern Russian dialect group spanning Voronezh, Rostov, and the broader steppe. Marked by fricative /ɣ/ and a distinct verb-ending system.
Pomorsky govor
The Russian of the Pomor coastal communities along the White Sea. A North Russian variety with a distinct lexicon shaped by maritime life, fishing, and contact with Karelian and Saami.
Vladimir-Volga dialects · Middle Russian
The Central Russian dialects of the middle Volga, around Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir. A transitional zone between the Northern and Southern dialect groups.
Uralsky govor
The Russian of the Ural region around Yekaterinburg and Perm. Mixes Northern and Central Russian features with contact influence from local Finno-Ugric and Turkic languages.
Sibirskie govory
The Russian varieties of Western and Central Siberia, descended from northern-Russian settlers. Distinguished by retained okanye, a conservative lexicon, and contact features from indigenous Siberian languages.
Dalnevostochny govor
The Russian of the Russian Far East around Vladivostok and Khabarovsk. The youngest major regional variety, formed through 19th- and 20th-century settlement; close to standard Russian with regional vocabulary tied to Pacific life.
The Russian of Kazakhstan, used by ethnic Russians and as a second language by many Kazakhs. Based on standard Russian but with regional vocabulary, code-switching, and Kazakh contact features.
Nearby dialects
See on the atlas →300 km away
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301 km away
The Swedish of Finland's Swedish-speaking minority, co-official with Finnish. More conservative than Standard Swedish in pronunciation, retaining several older features.
301 km away
A Finnic Uralic language and an official language of Finland and the EU. Famous for its agglutinative grammar and vowel harmony, with a rich oral tradition recorded in the Kalevala.
318 km away
A Finnic Uralic language and the official language of Estonia. Closely related to Finnish but distinct in vocabulary and a partially restructured case system.
362 km away
A Northern Romani variety spoken by the Finnish Kale in Finland and, through twentieth-century migration, in Sweden. It shows heavy structural and phonological influence from Finnish, including consonant gradation, and is one of the most distinctive Northern Romani dialects. Intergenerational transmission has weakened markedly.
528 km away
A Finnic Uralic language of the Livonian Coast of Courland, Latvia. The last fluent native speaker died in 2013, but an active revival sustains a small community of second-language speakers, supported by the University of Latvia Livonian Institute. Notable for its stød-like broken tone, rare among Uralic languages.