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Razgovornaja rečˈ ‘colloquial speech’ is the term used in Russian linguistics to refer to spontaneous, everyday speech of native speakers of Russian with higher education who are capable of producing texts in the normative kodificirovannyj literaturnyj jazyk (KLJa) ‘codified standard language’ in formal settings. Razgovornaja rečˈ does not fully correspond to ‘vernacular’ since it does not cover prostorečie ‘simple speech’, differing both from it and from the standardized formal language. In this way, native Russian speakers can be divided between …

Prostorečie ‘simple speech’ or gorodskoe prostorečie ‘urban simple speech’ in Russian linguistics refers to nonstandard speech varieties used mostly in oral communication by Russian native speakers who are not well educated and do not have mastery of the kodificirovannyj literaturnyj jazyk ‘codified standard language’ (KLJa). Unlike regional dialects, prostorečie is a superregional urban phenomenon, though it may have certain regional features in different cities (and can gradually replace dialects in rural areas).Historically, the term prostorečie was used in opposi…