Language/Multiple-languages/Culture/What-are-the-differences-between-Ukrainian-and-Russian

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Differences between the Ukrainian and Russian languages?
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In Ukraine, the two widely spoken languages, Ukrainian and Russian, often spark curiosity about their differences and similarities. Both belonging to the same Slavic linguistic family, they exhibit grammatical, phonetical, and alphabetical distinctions. As you dive into this lesson on the differences between Ukrainian and Russian, you might also find it helpful to explore other related resources, such as Multiple-languages Culture - Listening material with transcript, Websites with Multilingual Articles, and Calendar and Clock to further enhance your understanding of multiple languages and their cultural aspects. Enjoy your linguistic journey! 🌍📚

History[edit | edit source]

Russian, Ukrainian and Belarus have all three the same root language: the old Ruthenian belongs to the East Slavic languages. From the IX - X century, these languages were separated and began to develop independently.

  • The Russian nation was formed around the Kyev and Moscow regions and expanded with the growing sphere of Russian influence. That is why today, the Russian language, dominates the Eurasian continent and is an official language in international organizations and is spoken around the world, and includes many words of non-Slavic origin.
  • The Ukrainian nation is more recent having formed as a result of political changes and decisions in the traditional Russian region.

Unlike the Russian which has been in touch with many cultures and has thus been influenced linguistically, Ukrainian retained more localized roots of Ruthenian, and borrowed words come mainly from other Slavic dialects.

Differences[edit | edit source]

Foreign students who come to study in Ukraine say that Ukrainian is much closer to European languages. One can find in Ukrainian many words borrowed from Indo-European languages which are considered "hidden words". Why hidden? Just because the Ukrainians think that these are purely Ukrainian words and do not know the origins of a particular word. For example, the Ukrainian word for "bed" is "ліжко" (pronounced like "lijko") comes from the French word "lit" which also means "bed". Interpreters emphasize that it is easier to make the French or English-Ukrainian translation than French or English-Russian. Most of the time, it is not easy to really explain the difference between Ukrainian and Russian. Sometimes Ukrainian just mixed the two languages and we have been seeing the birth of a new "language" called "Surjik", an intermediate mixture between Russian and Ukrainian.

Today, the Ukrainian language is considered the official language of the country. It is taught in school, all official documents are in Ukrainian, and 95% of media disseminate information in Ukrainian.

Examples[edit | edit source]

How are you?[edit | edit source]

  • Ukrainian: Як ся маєш? / Як справи?
  • Russian: Как дела?

Good night![edit | edit source]

  • Ukrainian: Добраніч!
  • Russian: Спокойной ночи!

Mom[edit | edit source]

  • Ukrainian: Мамо!
  • Russian: Мамa!

Who are you?[edit | edit source]

  • Ukrainian: Ти хто? / Хто ти?
  • Russian: Ты кто? / Кто ты?

I am a student[edit | edit source]

  • Ukrainian: Я студент.
  • Russian: Я студент.

When is it ready?[edit | edit source]

Please note: that all possible permutations are valid and have different context-specific meaning.

  • Ukrainian: Коли буде готово? / Коли готове буде? / Готове буде коли? / Готово коли буде? / Буде коли готово?
  • Russian: Когда будет готово? / Когда готово будет? / Готово будет когда? / Готово когда будет? / Будет когда готово?

References[edit | edit source]

Links[edit | edit source]

Ukrainian Vocabulary[edit | edit source]

Ask questions[edit | edit source]

Videos[edit | edit source]

Other Lessons[edit | edit source]

Contributors

Vincent, Maintenance script and PabloWang


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