Ukrainian (Українська)

Ukrainian is an Eastern Slavonic language spoken mainly in Ukraine. In 2016 there were about 30 million speakers of Ukrainian in Ukraine, where it is an official language. There were about 1.1 million Ukrainian speakers in Russia in 2010, and smaller numbers in other countries, particularly in Brazil (500,000), the USA (152,000), Germany (141,000), Italy (120,000) and Moldova (107,000). It is estimated that there are 40 million Ukrainian speakers worldwide.

Ukrainian is closely related to Belarusian and Russian, and is to some extent mutually intelligible with them, especially with Belarusian.

Ukrainian at a glance Native name : українська мова (ukrayins'ka mova) [ʊkrɐˈjinʲsʲkɐ ˈmɔwɐ])

: українська мова (ukrayins'ka mova) [ʊkrɐˈjinʲsʲkɐ ˈmɔwɐ]) Linguistic affliation : Balto-Slavic, Slavic, East Slavic, Ruthenian

: Balto-Slavic, Slavic, East Slavic, Ruthenian Number of speakers : c. 1.3 billion

: c. 1.3 billion Spoken in : Ukraine, Russia, and many other countries

: Ukraine, Russia, and many other countries First written : 10th century

: 10th century Writing system : Cyrillic alphabet

: Cyrillic alphabet Status: official language in Ukraine, Crimea and Transnistria. Recognised minority language in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia

History of Ukrainian

The recorded history of the Ukrainian language began in 988, when the principality of Kyiv / Kiev (Київ) was converted to Christianity. Ukrainian religious material, including translations of the Bible, was written in Old Slavonic, the language used by missionaries to spread Christianity to the Slavic peoples.

In the 13th century, Ukraine became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuanian and Ruthenian, an ancestor of Belarusian and Ukrainian became the main language. The remaining parts of Ukraine were taken over by Poland during the 16th century and Latin and Polish were used for official purposes. Ruthenian began to split into Ukrainian and Belarusian during this period.

The Cossacks later moved into eastern Ukraine and during the 17th century, their leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, invited Russia to help against Polish domination in 1648. During the reign of Catherine the Great, the Cossacks moved to the eastern frontiers of Russia, but Ukraine remained under Russian domination, and the Russians considered the Ukrainian language as little more than a dialect of Russian.

A decree in 1876 banned the printing or importing of Ukrainian books. Inspite of this, there was a revival of Ukrainian poetry and historiography during the 19th century.

Ukraine enjoyed a brief period of independence from 1918 to 1919, then was taken over by the USSR and declared a Soviet Republic. During the Soviet era, Russian was the main language of education and employment and Ukrainian was sidelined.

Ukraine declared independence in 1991. Since then many Ukrainian émigrés have returned to Ukraine, particularly from central Asia and Siberia.

Please note, the capital of Ukraine is written Київ (Kyiv) in Ukrainian, and Киев (Kiev) in Russian. It is usually written Kiev in English, however since 1995 the Ukrainian government has written it Kyiv in legislative and official acts, and this spelling is used by international organisations such as the UN, and international news sources, such as the BBC.

Ukrainian alphabet (українська абетка)

There are a number of systems for transliterating Ukrainian into the Latin alphabet. The system used here is the Ukrainian National transliteration, which is the official system used in Ukraine since 1996. It is used to write personal names in passports, and for geographical names on maps and road signs.

Notes

gh is used in the romanization of зг = zgh, avoiding confusion with ж = zh

The transliterations beginning with y - ye, yi, yu, ya are used at the beginning of a word, as is y for й

Download an alphabet chart for Ukrainian (Excel)

More information about the transliteration of Ukrainian

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Ukrainian

Sample text in Ukrainian

Всі люди народжуються вільними і рівними у своїй гідності та правах. Вони наділені розумом і совістю і повинні діяти у відношенні один до одного в дусі братерства.

Transliteration (Ukrainian National)

Vsi liudy narodzhuiutsia vilnymy i rivnymy u svoiii hidnosti ta pravax. Vony nadileni rozumom i sovistiu i povynni diiaty u vidnoshenni odyn do odnoho v dusi braterstva.

Transliteration (Scholarly)

Vsi ljudy narodžujut'sja vil'nymy i rivnymy u svojij hidnosti ta pravax. Vony nadileni rozumom i sovistju i povynni dijaty u vidnošenni odyn do odnoho v dusi braterstva.

A recording of this text by Anatoli Sakhnik

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Sample videos in Ukrainian

More videos like this

Information about Ukrainian | Phrases | Tower of Babel | Learning materials

European-Ukrainian Latynka

Links

Information about the Ukrainian language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_language

Online Ukrainian lessons

http://www.internetpolyglot.com/lessons-uk-en

http://www.ukrainianlanguage.org.uk/read/

http://www.ielanguages.com/ukrainian.html

http://www.101languages.net/ukrainian/

http://polymath.org/ukrainian.php

http://www.funkyukrainian.com/learnukrainian/vocab/

http://www.studyukrainian.com

Learn Ukrainian with Glossika

Online Ukrainian phrases

http://mylanguages.org/ukrainian_phrases.php

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/european_languages/languages/ukrainian.shtml

http://wikitravel.org/en/Ukrainian_phrasebook

http://www.foreigndocuments.com/phrases_ukrainian.html

http://www.bestofukraine.com/ukrainian.htm

http://www.adoptionknowhow.com/ukraine/phrases

Online Ukrainian dictionaries

http://www.lingvozone.com/LingvoSoft-Online-English-Ukrainian-Dictionary

http://www.freelang.net/online/ukrainian.php

http://www.lexicool.com/dictionaries_ukrainian.asp

https://www.yenotes.com

Online Ukrainian Transliteration and Spell Check

http://ua.translit.cc

Online Ukrainian radio

http://www.nrcu.gov.ua

http://molode.com.ua

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ukrainian/

Online Ukrainian news

http://www.pravda.com.ua

http://www.day.kiev.ua

http://www.grani.kiev.ua

http://postup.brama.com

http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/ukraine.htm

http://www.infoukes.com/organizations/media/

Free Cyrillic fonts

http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_CyrS.html

http://www.fingertipsoft.com/ref/cyrillic/fontlist.html

http://www.typography.com/collections/cyrillic/

http://kodeks.uni-bamberg.de/AKSL/Schrift/RomanCyrillicStd.htm

Slavic languages

Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Kashubian, Knaanic, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Old Church Slavonic, Polish, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Sorbian, Ukrainian, West Polesian

Other languages written with the Cyrillic alphabet

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