Ukrainian (in Ukrainian: украї́нська мо́ва,
ukrayins'ka mova, ) is a language of the
East Slavic subgroupThe East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of Slavic languages, currently spoken in Eastern Europe. It is the group with the largest numbers of speakers, far out-numbering the Western and Southern Slavic groups...
of the
Slavic languagesThe Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
. It is the
official state languageAn official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other territory. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
of
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
. Written Ukrainian uses the
Cyrillic alphabetThe Cyrillic script writing system isan alphabet developed in the First Bulgarian Empire, and used in the Slavic national languages of Russian, Bulgarian, Belarusian, Rusyn, Serbian, Macedonian, and Ukrainian, and in the non-Slavic languages of Moldovan, Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Tuvan, and...
.
The Ukrainian language traces its origins to the Old Slavic language of the early medieval state of
Kievan Rus'Kievan Rus , usually written simply Kievan Rus and sometimes Kyivan Rus, was a medieval state which existed from approximately 880 to the middle of the 13th century...
. In its earlier stages it was known as
RuthenianRuthenian may refer to:*Ruthenia, a name applied to various parts of Eastern Europe/Ukrainians*Ruthenians, a historic ethnic group/Ukrainians...
. Ukrainian is a lineal descendant of the colloquial language used in Kievan Rus (10th–13th century).
The language has persisted despite several periods of bans, discouragement or both throughout centuries as it has always maintained a sufficient base among the people of Ukraine, its folklore songs,
itinerant musiciansA Kobzar was an itinerant Ukrainian bard. Kobzars were often blind, and became predominantly so by the 1800's. Kobzar literally means ‘kobza player’, a Ukrainian stringed instrument of the lute family, and more broadly — a performer of the musical material associated with the kobzar tradition.The...
, and prominent authors.
Perspective
It is accepted that before the eighteenth century the precursor to the modern literary Ukrainian language was a vernacular language used mostly by peasants and petits bourgeois as no traces of earlier literary works could be found. It existed along with Church Slavonic, a literary language of
religionA religion is a system of human thought which usually includes a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, deity or deities, or ultimate truth...
that evolved from the
Old SlavonicOld Church Slavonic, also known as Old Bulgarian, or Old Macedonian, was the first literary Slavic language, based on the old Slavic dialect of the Thessalonica region, employed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who used it for translation of the Bible and...
.
The earliest literary work in the modern Ukrianian language was recorded in 1798 when
Ivan KotlyarevskyIvan Petrovych Kotlyarevsky , was a Ukrainian writer, poet and playwright, regarded as the pioneer of modern Ukrainian literature.- Biography :...
published his epic poem,
Eneyida, a
burlesqueBurlesque is a genre of entertainment also known as Travesty. Prior to Burlesque becoming associated with striptease, it was a form of musical and theatrical parody in which an opera or piece of classical theatre is adapted in a broad, often risqué style very different from that for which it was...
in Ukrainian, based on
VirgilPublius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works—the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the Aeneid—although several minor poems are also attributed to him.The son of a farmer, Virgil came to be...
's
AeneidThe Aeneid is a Latin epic poem written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is written in dactylic hexameter...
. His book was published in vernacular Ukrainian in a satirical way to avoid being censored, and is the earliest known Ukrainian published book to survive through Imperial and, later, Soviet policies on the Ukrainian language.
Origin
It is believed that up to the 14th century, ancestors of the modern Ukrainians spoke dialects of the language known collectively as Old East Slavic (today known as
Ruthenian languageRuthenian is a term used for the varieties of Eastern Slavonic spoken in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later in the East Slavic territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth....
), also spoken by other
East SlavsThe East Slavs are a Slavic ethnic group, the speakers of East Slavic languages. Formerly the main population of the medieval state of Kievan Rus, by the seventeenth century they evolved into the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian peoples.-Sources:...
of Kievan Rus. That mainly spoken tongue was used alongside
Old Church SlavonicOld Church Slavonic, also known as Old Bulgarian, or Old Macedonian, was the first literary Slavic language, based on the old Slavic dialect of the Thessalonica region, employed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who used it for translation of the Bible and...
, the literary language of all Slavs. The earliest written record of the language is an amphora found at
GnezdovoGnezdovo or Gnyozdovo is an archeological site located near the village of Gnyozdovo in Smolensk Oblast, Russia. The site contains extensive remains of a Slavic-Varangian settlement that flourished in the 10th century as a major trade station on the trade route from the Varangians to the...
and tentatively dated to the mid-
10th centuryThe 10th century is the period from 901 to 1000 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian/Common Era.The tenth century is usually regarded as a low point in European history. In China it was also a period of political upheaval. In the Muslim World, however, it was a cultural zenith,...
. Until the 15th century
GnezdovoGnezdovo or Gnyozdovo is an archeological site located near the village of Gnyozdovo in Smolensk Oblast, Russia. The site contains extensive remains of a Slavic-Varangian settlement that flourished in the 10th century as a major trade station on the trade route from the Varangians to the...
was a part of the independent
SmolenskSmolensk is a Russian city and the administrative centre of Smolensk Oblast, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...
principality.
Ukrainian traces its roots through the mid-fourteenth century
Ruthenian languageRuthenian is a term used for the varieties of Eastern Slavonic spoken in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later in the East Slavic territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth....
, a chancellery language of the
Grand Duchy of LithuaniaThe Grand Duchy of Lithuania was an Eastern and Central European state from the 12th /13th century until 1795. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the pagan Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija...
, back to the early written evidences of tenth-century
Kievan Rus'Kievan Rus , usually written simply Kievan Rus and sometimes Kyivan Rus, was a medieval state which existed from approximately 880 to the middle of the 13th century...
. One of the key difficulties in tracing the origin of the Ukrainian language more precisely is that until the end of the 18th century the written language used in Ukraine was quite different from the spoken one. Also the language was constantly persecuted as the territory of
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
was divided mainly between
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
For this reason, there is no direct data on the origin of the Ukrainian language. One has to rely on indirect methods: analysis of typical mistakes in old manuscripts, comparison of linguistic data with historical, anthropological, archaeological ones, etc. Because of the difficulty of the question, several theories of the origin of Ukrainian language exist. Some early theories have been proven wrong by modern linguistics (yet are still often cited), while others are still being discussed in the academic community.
Direct written evidence of Ukrainian language existence dates back to the late 16th century. The language itself must have formed earlier, but there are differing opinions as to the exact circumstances and time-frame of its creation.
It is known that between 9th and 13th century, many areas of modern Ukraine,
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
and parts of Russia were united in a common entity now referred to as Kievan Rus'. Surviving documents from the Kievan Rus' period are written in either
Old East SlavicOld East Slavic, also known as Old Russian was a vernacular literary language used in 10th-15th centuries by East Slavs in the Kievan Rus' and states which evolved after the collapse of the Kievan Rus'...
or
Old Church SlavonicOld Church Slavonic, also known as Old Bulgarian, or Old Macedonian, was the first literary Slavic language, based on the old Slavic dialect of the Thessalonica region, employed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who used it for translation of the Bible and...
language or their mixture. Old East Slavic had different dialects in different earldoms of Kievan Rus. These languages are considerably different from both modern Ukrainian and Russian (but similar enough to allow considerable comprehension of the 11th-century texts by an educated Ukrainian or Russian reader).
In 13th century, eastern parts of Rus' (including Moscow) came under Tatar yoke until their unification under the Tsardom of Muscovy, whereas in the south-western areas (including
KievKiev or Kyiv , is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300...
) were incorporated into the
Grand Duchy of LithuaniaThe Grand Duchy of Lithuania was an Eastern and Central European state from the 12th /13th century until 1795. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the pagan Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija...
. For the following four centuries, the language of the two regions evolved in relative isolation from each other. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Old Slavic became the language of the chancellery and gradually evolved into the Ruthenian language. By the 1569
Union of LublinThe Union of Lublin replaced the personal union of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with a real union and an elective monarchy, since Sigismund II Augustus, the last of the Jagiellons, remained childless after three marriages...
that formed the
Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthThe Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was formed by the union of the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1569. The new Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th-century Europe....
, a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from Lithuanian rule to Polish administration, resulting in cultural
Polonization Polonization is the acquisition or imposition of elements of Polish culture, in particular, Polish language, as experienced in some historic periods by non-Polish populations of territories controlled or substantially influenced by Poland.-Piast Poland:...
and visible attempts to colonize Ukraine by the Polish nobility. Many Ukrainian nobles learned the Polish language and adopted Catholicism during that period. Lower classes were less affected as literacy was common only in the upper class and clergy. The latter were also under significant Polish pressure after the
Union with the Catholic ChurchUnion of Brest or Union of Brześć refers to the 1595-1596 decision of the Church of Rus', the "Metropolia of Kiev-Halych and all Rus'", to break relations with the Patriarch of Constantinople and place themselves under the Pope of Rome, in order to avoid the domination of the newly established...
. Most of the educational system was gradually Polonized. In Ruthenia the language of administrative documents gradually shifted towards Polish. By the 16th century the peculiar official language was formed: a mixture of Old Church Slavonic, Ruthenian and Polish with the influence of the latter gradually increasing. Documents soon took on many Polish characteristics superimposed on Ruthenian phonetics. Much of the influence of Polish on Ukrainian has been attributed to this period.
By the mid 17th century, the linguistic divergence between the Ukrainian and Russian languages was so acute that there was a need for translators during negotiations for the
Treaty of PereyaslavThe Treaty of Pereyaslav was concluded in 1654 in the Ukrainian city of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi , at a meeting between the Cossacks of the Zaporizhian Host and Tsar Alexey I of Tsardom of Russia, during the Khmelnytsky rebellion...
, between
Bohdan KhmelnytskyBohdan Zynoviy Mykhailovych Khmelnytsky was a hetman of the Zaporozhian Cossack Hetmanate of Ukraine...
, head of the
Zaporozhian HostThe Zaporozhian Cossacks were Cossacks who lived in Zaporozhia, in Central Ukraine. The Zaporozhian Host grew rapidly in the 15th century by serfs fleeing the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth....
, and the Russian state.
The first theory of the origin of Ukrainian language was suggested in the Imperial Russia in the middle of the 18th century by
Mikhail LomonosovMikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries was the atmosphere of Venus. His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art,...
. This theory posits the existence of a common language spoken by all East Slavic people in the time of the Rus'. According to Lomonosov, the differences that subsequently developed between
Great RussianGreat Russian language is a name given in the 19th century to the Russian language as opposed to the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages...
and Ukrainian (he referred to as Little Russian) could be explained by the influence of the Polish and Turkic languages on Ukrainian and the influence of Ugro-Finnic languages on Russian during the period from 13th to 17th century.
The "Polonization" theory was criticized as early as in the first half of the nineteenth century by Mykhailo Maxymovych. The most distinctive features of the Ukrainian language however, are present neither in Russian nor in Polish. Ukrainian and Polish do share many common or similar words, but so do all Slavic languages, since many words originated in the Proto-Slavic language, the common ancestor of all modern Slavic languages. A much smaller part of their common vocabulary can be attributed to the later interaction of the two languages. The "Polonization" theory has not been seriously regarded by the academic community since the beginning of the 20th century, although it is still cited by anti-Ukrainian elements.
Another point of view developed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by linguists of Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union. Similarly to Lomonosov, they assumed the existence of a common language spoken by East Slavs in the past. But unlike Lomonosov's hypothesis, this theory does not view "Polonization" or any other external influence as the main driving force that led to the formation of three different languages: Russian, Ukrainian and
BelarusianThe Belarusian language, or Belorussian is the language of the Belarusian people and is spoken in Belarus and abroad, chiefly in Russia, Ukraine, and Poland...
from the common
Old East Slavic languageOld East Slavic, also known as Old Russian was a vernacular literary language used in 10th-15th centuries by East Slavs in the Kievan Rus' and states which evolved after the collapse of the Kievan Rus'...
. This general point of view is one of the most popular, particularly outside Ukraine. The supporters of this theory disagree, however, about the time when the different languages were formed.
Soviet scholars set the divergence between Ukrainian and Russian only at later time periods (fourteenth through sixteenth centuries). According to this view,
Old East SlavicOld East Slavic, also known as Old Russian was a vernacular literary language used in 10th-15th centuries by East Slavs in the Kievan Rus' and states which evolved after the collapse of the Kievan Rus'...
diverged into Belarusian and Ukrainian to the west (collectively, the Ruthenian language of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries), and Old Russian to the north-east, after the political boundaries of Kievan Rus’ were redrawn in the fourteenth century. During the time of the incorporation of Ruthenia (Ukraine and Belarus) into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Ukrainian and Belarusian diverged into identifiably separate languages.
Some scholars see a divergence between the language of Galicia-Volhynia and the language of Novgorod-
SuzdalSuzdal is a town in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, situated north-east of Moscow, from the city of Vladimir, on the Kamenka River. Population: -History:...
by the 1100s, assuming that before the 12th century the two languages were practically indistinguishable. This point of view is, however, at variance with some historical data. In fact, several East Slavic tribes, such as
PolansThe Polans were a tribe of Early East Slavs between the 6th and the 9th century, which inhabited both sides of the Dnieper river from Liubech to Rodnia and also down the lower streams of the rivers Ros', Sula, Stuhna, Teteriv, Irpin', Desna and Pripyat...
,
DrevlyansThe Drevlians were a tribe of Early East Slavs between the 6th and the 10th century, which inhabited the territories of Polesia, Right-bank Ukraine west of Polans, down the stream of the rivers Teteriv, Uzh, Ubort, and Stviga...
,
SeveriansThe Severians or Severyans or Siverians were a tribe or tribal union of early East Slavs occupying areas to the east of the middle Dnieper river around the rivers Desna, Sejm and Sula on the territory of the archaeological Romny culture....
,
DulebesThe Dulebs , or Dulebi were one of the tribal unions of Early East Slavs between the 6th and the 10th centuries...
(that later likely became
VolhyniansVolhynians were a tribe or tribal union of early East Slavs. They are mentioned in the Primary Chronicle as well as by the Bavarian Geographer. According to the latter, the Volhynians had seventy "cities" in the last half of the tenth century...
and
BuzhansThe Buzhans or Buzhane were one of the tribal unions of Early East Slavs. They are mentioned as Buzhane in the Primary Chronicle. It appears that the name of the tribe derives from the Bug River, where they chose to settle down. According to the Bavarian Geographer, the Buzhans had 230 "cities"...
),
White CroatsWhite Croats is the designation for one group of Slavic tribes which migrated to Dalmatia as part of the migration of the Croats in AD 610–641...
, Tiverians and
UlichsThe Ulichs were a tribe of Early East Slavs who between the eighth and the tenth century inhabited the territories along the Lower Dnieper, Bug River and the Black Sea littoral....
lived on the territory of today's Ukraine long before the 12th century. Notably, some Ukrainian features were recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic as far back as the language can be documented.
Some researchers, while admitting the differences between the dialects spoken by East Slavic tribes in the 10th and 11th centuries, still consider them as "regional manifestations of a common language" (see, for instance, the article by Vasyl Nimchuk). In contrast, Ahatanhel Krymsky and Alexei Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the common spoken language of Eastern Slavs only in prehistoric times. According to their point of view, the diversification of the Old East Slavic language took place in the 8th or early 9th century.
A Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stocky went even further: he denied the existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar points of view were shared by Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov, Olena Kurylo, Ivan Ohienko and others. According to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages during the 6th through 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to an intensive migration of the population within the territory of today's Ukraine in later historical periods. This point of view was also confirmed by phonological studies of Yuri Shevelov and is gaining a number of supporters among Ukrainian academics.
Medieval history
Beyond the polemics between several ideological conceptions, the continuous presence of Slavic settlements in Ukraine, since at least the sixth century, provides an underlying ethno-linguistic factual basis for the origins of the Ukrainian language. The westernmost areas of modern-day Ukraine lay to the south of the postulated homeland of the original Slavs.
Immigration of Slavic tribes to the Western Slavic and Southern Slavic portions of Eastern Europe led to the dissolution of
Early Common SlavicProto-Slavic is the proto-language from which Slavic languages later emerged. It was spoken before the seventh century. As with all other proto-languages, no attested writings have been found; the language has been reconstructed by applying the comparative method to all the attested Slavic...
into three groups by the seventh century (
East SlavicOld East Slavic, also known as Old Russian was a vernacular literary language used in 10th-15th centuries by East Slavs in the Kievan Rus' and states which evolved after the collapse of the Kievan Rus'...
,
West SlavicThe West Slavic languages is a subdivision of the Slavic language group that includes Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Sorbian.Classification:* Indo-European** Balto-Slavic*** Slavic**** West Slavic***** Czech-Slovak****** Czech****** Slovak...
, and
South SlavicSouth Slavic languages comprise one of the three geographical groups of Slavic languages . There are around 30 million speakers of these languages, mainly in the Balkans...
). During this time period, some East Slavic elements could have provided a Slavic identity to the Antes civilization (of which nothing but an Iranian name is known).
Rus' and Galicia-Volhynia
During the Khazar period, the territory of Ukraine, settled at that time by Iranian (post-Scythian), Turkic (post-Hunnic, proto-Bulgarian), and Finno-Ugric (proto-Hungarian) tribes, was progressively Slavicized by several waves of migration from the Slavic north. Finally, the Varangian ruler of Novgorod, called
OlegOleg of Novgorod was a Varangian prince who ruled all or part of the Rus people during the early tenth century. He is credited with moving the capital of Rus from Novgorod the Great to Kiev and, in doing so, he laid the foundation of the powerful state of Kievan Rus...
, seized Kiev (Kyiv) and established the political entity of
Rus'Kievan Rus , usually written simply Kievan Rus and sometimes Kyivan Rus, was a medieval state which existed from approximately 880 to the middle of the 13th century...
. Some theorists see an early Ukrainian stage in language development here; others term this era Old East Slavic or Old Ruthenian/Rus'ian. Russian theorists tend to amalgamate Rus' to the modern nation of Russia, and call this linguistic era Old Russian. Some hold that linguistic unity over Rus' was not present, but tribal diversity in language was.
The era of Rus' is the subject of some linguistic controversy, as the language of much of the literature was purely or heavily Old Slavonic. At the same time, most legal documents throughout Rus' were written in a purely
Old East Slavic languageOld East Slavic, also known as Old Russian was a vernacular literary language used in 10th-15th centuries by East Slavs in the Kievan Rus' and states which evolved after the collapse of the Kievan Rus'...
(supposed to be based on the Kiev dialect of that epoch). Scholarly controversies over earlier development aside, literary records from Rus' testify to substantial divergence between Russian and Ruthenian/Rusyn forms of the Ukrainian language as early as the era of Rus'. One vehicle of this divergence (or widening divergence) was the large scale appropriation of the Old Slavonic language in the northern reaches of Rus' and of the Polish language at the territory of modern Ukraine. As evidenced by the contemporary chronicles, the ruling princes of Galich (modern
HalychHalych is a historic city on the Dniester River in western Ukraine. The town gave its name to the historic province and kingdom of Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, of which it was the capital until the early 14th century, when the seat of the local princes was moved to Lviv...
) and Kiev called themselves "People of Rus'" (with the exact Cyrillic spelling of the adjective from
of Rus varying among sources), which contrasts sharply with the lack of ethnic self-appellation for the area until the mid-nineteenth century.
One prominent example of this north-south divergence in Rus' from around 1200, was the epic, The Tale of Igor's CampaignThe Tale of Igor's Campaign is an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language and tentatively dated to the end of 12th century.It is also occasionally translated as The Song of Igor's Campaign, The...
. Like other examples of Old Rus' literature (for example, BylinyByliny may refer to:*Byliny, plural of bylina, a traditional East-Slavic narrative poem*Byliny, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship...
, the Russian Primary Chronicle), which survived only in Northern Russia (Upper Volga belt) and was probably created there. It shows dialectal features characteristic of
SeveriaSeveria is a historical region in present-day northern Ukraine and southwestern Russia, centered around the city of Novhorod-Siverskyi , located on the border of Russia and Ukraine.-Severians:The region received its name after the Severians, an East Slavic tribe which inhabited the...
n dialect with the exception of two words which were wrongly interpreted by early nineteenth-century German scholars as Polish loan words.
Under Lithuania/Poland, Muscovy/Russia, and Austro-Hungary
After the fall of Galicia–Volhynia, Ukrainians mainly fell under the rule of Lithuania, then
PolandThe Crown of the Polish Kingdom , or simply the Crown , is the name for the territories under direct Polish administration in the times of the Kingdom of Poland until the end of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...
. Local autonomy of both rule and language was a marked feature of Lithuanian rule. Polish rule, which came mainly later, was accompanied by a more assimilationist policy. The Polish language has had heavy influences on Ukrainian (and on Belarusian). As the Ukrainian language developed further, some borrowings from
TatarThe Tatar language is a Turkic language spoken by the Tatars.-Geographic distribution:Tatar is spoken in Russia , Central Asia, Ukraine, Poland, China, Finland and Turkey....
and
TurkishTurkish is spoken as a first language by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other...
occurred. Ukrainian culture and language flourished in the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth century, when Ukraine was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Among many schools established in that time, the Kiev-Mogila Collegium (the predecessor of modern Kyiv-Mohyla Academy), founded by the Orthodox
MetropolitanIn Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital...
Peter Mogila (Petro Mohyla), was the most important. At that time languages were associated more with religions: Catholics spoke
Polish languagePolish is a West Slavic language and the official language of Poland. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet which corresponds basically to the Latin alphabet with a few additions...
, Orthodox spoke
Rusyn languageRusyn language is the language spoken by the Rusyns living in the Carpathian region. Opinions differ among linguists concerning whether Rusyn is a separate East Slavic language or a dialect of Ukrainian...
.
After the
Treaty of PereyaslavThe Treaty of Pereyaslav was concluded in 1654 in the Ukrainian city of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi , at a meeting between the Cossacks of the Zaporizhian Host and Tsar Alexey I of Tsardom of Russia, during the Khmelnytsky rebellion...
, Ukrainian high culture was sent into a long period of steady decline. In the aftermath, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was taken over by the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
and closed down later in 19th century. Most of the remaining Ukrainian schools also switched to Polish or Russian, in the territories controlled by these respective countries, which was followed by a new wave of
Polonization Polonization is the acquisition or imposition of elements of Polish culture, in particular, Polish language, as experienced in some historic periods by non-Polish populations of territories controlled or substantially influenced by Poland.-Piast Poland:...
and
RussificationRussification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attribute by non-Russian communities...
of the native nobility. Gradually the official language of Ukrainian provinces under Poland was changed to Polish, while the upper classes in the Russian part of Ukraine used Russian widely.
There was little sense of a Ukrainian nationality in the modern sense. East Slavs called themselves Rus’ki
('Russian' pl. adj.) in the east and Rusyny
('RutheniansThe term Ruthenians is a culturally loaded term and has different meanings according to the context in which it is used. Initially it was the ethnonym used for the Ukrainian people. With the emergence of Ukrainian nationalism in the mid 19th century, the term initially went out of use first in...
' n.) in the west, speaking Rus’ka mova
, or simply identified themselves as Orthodox (the latter being particularly important under the rule of Catholic Poland). A part of Ukraine under the Russian Empire was called Russia MinorLittle Russia, sometimes Little or Lesser Rus’ , was the name for a part of the territory of modern-day Ukraine before the twentieth century. Accordingly, derivatives such as "Little Russian" were commonly applied to the people, language, and culture of the area...
(Malorossija
) by the Russian establishment, where the inhabitants were considered to speak the “Little Russian language” (malorossijskij jazyk
) or “Southern Russian dialect” (južno-russkie narečie
) of the Russian literary language.
During the nineteenth century, a revival of Ukrainian self-identity manifested itself in the literary classes of both Russian-Empire Dnieper UkraineDnieper Ukraine , was the territory of Ukraine in the Russian Empire , roughly corresponding to the current territory of Ukraine, with the exceptions of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and Galicia in the west, which was a province of the Austrian Empire...
and Austrian GaliciaGalicia is a historical region in East-Central Europe, currently divided between Poland and Ukraine, named after the Ukraіniаn city of Halych. The nucleus of historic Galicia is formed of three regions of western Ukraine: Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk.-Tribal area:The region has a turbulent...
. The Brotherhood of Sts Cyril and Methodius in Kiev applied an old word for the Cossack motherland, Ukrajina
, as a self-appellation for the nation of Ukrainians, and Ukrajins’ka mova for the language. Many writers published works in the Romantic tradition of Europe demonstrating that Ukrainian was not merely a language of the village, but suitable for literary pursuits.
However, in the Russian Empire expressions of Ukrainian culture and especially language were repeatedly persecuted, for fear that a self-aware Ukrainian nation would threaten the unity of the Empire. In 1811 by the Order of the Russian government the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was closed. The Academy that had been openned since 1632 and was the first university in the eastern Europe, was now proclaimed to be outlaw. In 1847 the Brotherhood of Sts Cyril and Methodius was terminated. The same year
Taras ShevchenkoTaras Hryhorovych Shevchenko was a Ukrainian poet, artist and humanist. His literary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and, to a large extent, the modern Ukrainian language...
was arrested and exiled for ten years, and banned for political reasons from writing and painting. In 1862
Pavlo ChubynskyPavlo Chubynsky was a Ukrainian poet and ethnographer whose poem "Shche ne vmerla Ukraina" was set to music and adapted as the Ukrainian national anthem....
was exiled for seven years out of Ukraine to
ArkhangelskArkhangelsk , formerly called Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina river near its exit into the White Sea in the far north of European Russia. City districts spread for over along the banks of the...
. The Ukrainian magazine Osnova was discontinued. In 1863, the tsarist interior minister Pyotr Valuyev proclaimed in
his decreeThe Valuev Circular of 18 July, 1863 was a secret decree of the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire Pyotr Valuev by which a large portion of the publications in Ukrainian language was prohibited...
that "there never has been, is not, and never can be a separate Little Russian language". A following ban on Ukrainian books led to
Alexander IIAlexander II Nikolaevich , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor, or Czar, of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
's secret
Ems UkazThe Ems Ukaz, or Ems Ukase , was a secret decree of Tsar Alexander II of Russia issued in 1876, banning the use of the Ukrainian language in print, with the exception of reprinting of old documents. The ukaz also forbade the import of Ukrainian publications and the staging of plays or lectures in...
, which prohibited publication and importation of most Ukrainian-language books, public performances and lectures, and even the printing of Ukrainian texts accompanying musical scores. A period of leniency after 1905 was followed by another strict ban in 1914, which also affected Russian-occupied Galicia. (Luckyj 1956:24–25)
For much of the nineteenth century the Austrian authorities demonstrated some preference for Polish culture, but the Ukrainians were relatively free to partake in their own cultural pursuits in Halychyna and Bukovyna, where Ukrainian was widely used in education and in official documents. The suppression by Russia retarded the literary development of the Ukrainian language in Dnipro Ukraine, but there was a constant exchange with Halychyna, and many works were published under Austria and smuggled to the east.
By the time of the
Russian Revolution of 1917The Russian Revolution is the collective term for the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. In the first revolution of February 1917 the Czar was deposed and replaced by a Provisional government...
and the collapse of Austro-Hungary in 1918, the former 'Ruthenians' or 'Little Russians' were ready to openly develop a body of national literature, to institute a Ukrainian-language educational system, and to form an independent state, named Ukraine (the
Ukrainian People's RepublicThe Ukrainian People's Republic was a republic in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Tsentralna Rada:The socialist-dominated Tsentralna Rada was established on...
, shortly joined by the West Ukrainian People's Republic).
Speakers in the Russian Empire
In the
Russian Empire CensusThe Russian Empire Census of 1897 was the first and the only census carried out in the Russian Empire. It recorded demographic data as of .Previously, the Central Statistical Bureau issued statistical tables based on fiscal lists ....
of 1897 the following picture emerged, with Ukrainian being the second most spoken language of the Russian Empire. According to the Imperial census's terminology, the Russian language (Russkij
) was subdivided into Ukrainian (Malorusskij
, 'Little Russian'), what we know as Russian today (Vjelikorusskij
, 'Great Russian'), and Belarusian (Bjelorusskij
, 'White Russian').
The following table shows the distribution of settlement by native language ("po rodnomu jazyku"
) in 1897, in Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
governorates (guberniyaA guberniya was a major administrative subdivision of Imperial Russia, usually translated as government, governorate, or province. A guberniya was ruled by a governor , a word borrowed from Latin , in turn from Greek...
s) which had more than 100,000 Ukrainian speakers.
|
Total population |
Ukrainian speakers |
Russian speakers |
Polish speakers |
Entire Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
|
125,640,021 |
22,380,551 |
55,667,469 |
7,931,307 |
UrbanAn urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
|
16,828,395 |
1,256,387 |
8,825,733 |
1,455,527 |
RuralRural areas are large and isolated areas of a country, often with low population density.About 91 percent of the rural population now earn salaried incomes, often in urban areas...
|
108,811,626 |
21,124,164 |
46,841,736 |
6,475,780 |
| Regions |
|
| "European Russia European Russia refers to the western areas of Russia that lie within Europe, comprising roughly 3,960,000 km², and spanning across 40% of Europe. Its eastern border is defined by the Ural mountains and in the South it is defined by the border with Kazakhstan. This area includes Moscow and St...
"
incl. Ukraine & Belarus |
93,442,864 |
20,414,866 |
48,558,721 |
1,109,934 |
| Vistulan guberniyas Vistula Land or Vistula Country was the name applied to the lands of Congress Poland following the defeat of the November Uprising as it was increasingly stripped of autonomy and incorporated into Imperial Russia...
|
9,402,253 |
335,337 |
267,160 |
6,755,503 |
| Caucasus The Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region between at the border of Europe and Asia. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, including Europe's highest mountain ....
|
9,289,364 |
1,305,463 |
1,829,793 |
25,117 |
SiberiaSiberia , is the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the...
|
5,758,822 |
223,274 |
4,423,803 |
29,177 |
| Central Asia Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
|
7,746,718 |
101,611 |
587,992 |
11,576 |
| Subdivisions |
|
BessarabiaBessarabia is a historical term for the geographic entity in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west...
|
1,935,412 |
379,698 |
155,774 |
11,696 |
VolynVolhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Western Bug, to the north of Galicia and Podolia. The area has some of the oldest Slavic settlements in Europe...
|
2,989,482 |
2,095,579 |
104,889 |
184,161 |
VoronezhVoronezh Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It was established on June 13, 1934.-Main rivers:*Don*Voronezh*Bityug*Khopyor-Time zone:...
|
2,531,253 |
915,883 |
1,602,948 |
1,778 |
| Don Host Province |
2,564,238 |
719,655 |
1,712,898 |
3,316 |
| Yekaterinoslav The Yekaterinoslav Governorate or Government of Yekaterinoslav was a governorate in the Russian Empire...
|
2,113,674 |
1,456,369 |
364,974 |
12,365 |
KievKiev Oblast, also written as Kyiv Oblast is an oblast in central Ukraine....
|
3,559,229 |
2,819,145 |
209,427 |
68,791 |
KurskKursk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kursk.-Geography:The oblast occupies the southern slopes of the middle-Russian plateau, and its average elevation is from 177 to 225 meters . The surface is hilly, and intersected by ravines...
|
2,371,012 |
527,778 |
1,832,498 |
2,862 |
PodoliaThe region of Podolia is an historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. Northern Transnistria, in Moldova is also a part of Podolia...
|
3,018,299 |
2,442,819 |
98,984 |
69,156 |
PoltavaThe Poltava Governorate or Government of Poltava was a guberniya in the historical Left-bank Ukraine region of the Russian Empire, which was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Malorossiya Governorate which was split between the Chernihiv Governorate and Poltava Govenorate with an...
|
2,778,151 |
2,583,133 |
72,941 |
3,891 |
TauridaThe Taurida Governorate or Government of Taurida was a historical governorate of the Russian Empire...
|
1,447,790 |
611,121 |
404,463 |
10,112 |
KharkovKharkiv Oblast is an oblast in eastern Ukraine. The oblast borders Russia to the north, Luhansk Oblast to the east, Donetsk Oblast to the south-east, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to the south-west, Poltava Oblast to the west and Sumy Oblast to the north-west...
|
2,492,316 |
2,009,411 |
440,936 |
5,910 |
KhersonThe Kherson Governorate or Government of Kherson was a guberniya, or administrative territorial unit, in the Southern Ukrainian region, between the Dnieper and Dniester Rivers, of the Russian Empire. It was one of three governorates created in 1802 when the Novorossiya guberniya was abolished...
|
2,733,612 |
1,462,039 |
575,375 |
30,894 |
City of OdessaOdessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .Odessa was founded by Hacı I Giray, the Khan of Crimea, in 1240...
|
403,815 |
37,925 |
198,233 |
17,395 |
ChernigovThe Chernigov Governorate , also known as the Government of Chernigov, was a guberniya in the historical Left-bank Ukraine region of the Russian Empire, which was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Malorossiya Governorate with an administrative center of Chernigov...
|
2,297,854 |
1,526,072 |
495,963 |
3,302 |
LublinLublin Voivodeship is a voivodeship, or province, in eastern Poland. It was created on January 1, 1999, out of the former Lublin, Chełm, Zamość, Biała Podlaska and Tarnobrzeg and Siedlce Voivodeships, pursuant to Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998...
|
1,160,662 |
196,476 |
47,912 |
729,529 |
| Sedletsk Siedlce Voivodeship was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in years 1975–1998, superseded by Masovian Voivodeship and Lublin Voivodeship. Its capital city was Siedlce.-Major cities and towns :...
|
772,146 |
107,785 |
19,613 |
510,621 |
| Kuban Province Kuban is a geographic region of Southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, Volga Delta and the Caucasus...
|
1,918,881 |
908,818 |
816,734 |
2,719 |
StavropolStavropol Krai is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Stavropol.-Geography:Stavropol Krai encompasses the central part of the Fore-Caucasus and most of the Northern slopes of Caucasus Major...
|
873,301 |
319,817 |
482,495 |
961 |
Soviet era
During the seven-decade-long Soviet era, the Ukrainian language held the formal position of the principal local language in the
Ukrainian SSRThe Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or the Ukrainian SSR was one of the founders of the Soviet Union constituent republic that made up the former Soviet Union from its formation in 1922 to its abolition in 1991.-Name:...
. However, practice was often a different story: Ukrainian always had to compete with Russian, and the attitudes of the Soviet leadership towards Ukrainian varied from encouragement and tolerance to discouragement and, at times, suppression.
Officially, there was no state language in the Soviet Union until the very end when it was proclaimed in 1989 that Russian language is the state language. Still it was implicitly understood in the hopes of minority nations that Ukrainian would be used in the Ukrainian SSR,
UzbekUzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 23.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia...
would be used in the
Uzbek SSRThe Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Uzbek SSR for short, was one of the republics of the Soviet Union since its creation in 1924...
, and so on. However, Russian was used in all parts of the Soviet Union and a special term, "a language of inter-ethnic communication" was coined to denote its status. In reality, Russian was in a privileged position in the USSR and was the state official language in everything but formal name—although formally all languages were held up as equal. Often the Ukrainian language was frowned upon or quietly discouraged which led to the gradual decline in its usage. Partly due to this suppression, in many parts of Ukraine, notably most urban areas of the east and south, Russian remains more widely spoken than Ukrainian.
Soviet language policy in Ukraine is divided into six policy periods
- Ukrainianization and tolerance (1921–1932)
- Persecution and russification (1933–1957)
- Khrushchev thaw (1958–1962)
- The Shelest period: limited progress (1963–1972)
- The Shcherbytsky period: gradual suppression (1973–1989)
- Gorbachev and perestroika
is the Russian term for the political and economic reforms introduced in June 1987 by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
(1990–1991)
Ukrainianization and tolerance
Following the
Russian Revolution of 1917The Russian Revolution is the collective term for the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. In the first revolution of February 1917 the Czar was deposed and replaced by a Provisional government...
, the Russian Empire was broken up. In different parts of the former empire, several nations, including Ukrainians, developed a renewed sense of national identity. In the chaotic post-revolutionary years the Ukrainian language gained some usage in government affairs. Initially, this trend continued under the
BolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903...
government of the Soviet Union, which in a political struggle to retain its grip over the territory had to encourage the national movements of the former Russian Empire. While trying to ascertain and consolidate its power, the Bolshevik government was by far more concerned about many political oppositions connected to the pre-revolutionary order than about the national movements inside the former empire, where it could always find allies.
The widening use of Ukrainian further developed in the first years of Bolshevik rule into a policy called Korenization. The government pursued a policy of Ukrainianization by lifting a ban on the Ukrainian language. That led to the introduction of an impressive education program which allowed the Ukrainian taught classes and raised the literacy of the Ukrainophone population. This policy was led by Education Commissar
Mykola SkrypnykMykola Oleksiyovych Skrypnyk was a Ukrainian Bolshevik leader who was a proponent of the Ukrainian Republic's independence, and led the cultural Ukrainization effort in Soviet Ukraine...
and was directed to approximate the language to
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
. Newly-generated academic efforts from the period of independence were co-opted by the Bolshevik government. The party and government apparatus was mostly Russian-speaking but were encouraged to learn the Ukrainian language. Simultaneously, the newly-literate ethnic Ukrainians migrated to the cities, which became rapidly largely Ukrainianized — in both population and in education.
The policy even reached those regions of southern
Russian SFSRThe Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , also called the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the Russian SFSR and the RSFSR for short, was the largest and most populous of the fifteen Soviet republics of the Soviet Union and became the Russian...
where the ethnic Ukrainian population was significant, particularly the areas by the Don River and especially
KubanKuban is a geographic region of Southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, Volga Delta and the Caucasus...
in the
North CaucasusThe North Caucasus is the northern part of the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas and within European Russia. The term is also used as a synonym for the North Caucasus economic region of Russia....
. Ukrainian language teachers, just graduated from expanded institutions of higher education in Soviet Ukraine, were dispatched to these regions to staff newly opened Ukrainian schools or to teach Ukrainian as a second language in Russian schools. A string of local Ukrainian-language publications were started and departments of Ukrainian studies were opened in colleges. Overall, these policies were implemented in thirty-five raions (administrative districts) in southern
RussiaThe Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , also called the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the Russian SFSR and the RSFSR for short, was the largest and most populous of the fifteen Soviet republics of the Soviet Union and became the Russian...
.
Persecution and russification
Soviet policy towards the Ukrainian language changed abruptly in late 1932 and early 1933, with the termination of the policy of Ukrainianization. In December 1932, the regional party cells received a telegram signed by V. Molotov and Stalin with an order to immediately reverse the korenization policies. The telegram condemned Ukrainianization as ill-considered and harmful and demanded to "immediately halt Ukrainianization in
raionA raion is a type of administrative unit of some post-Soviet states. The term, which is from French rayon 'honeycomb, department,' describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is almost always translated as "district"...
s (districts), switch all Ukrainianized newspapers, books and publications into Russian and prepare by autumn of 1933 for the switching of schools and instruction into Russian".
The following years were characterized by massive repression and discrimination for the Ukrainophones. Western and most contemporary Ukrainian historians emphasize that the cultural repression was applied earlier and more fiercely in Ukraine than in other parts of the Soviet Union, and were therefore anti-Ukrainian; others assert that Stalin's goal was the generic crushing of any dissent, rather than targeting the Ukrainians in particular.
Stalinist policies shifted to define Russian as the language of (inter-ethnic) communication. Although Ukrainian continued to be used (in print, education, radio and later television programs), it lost its primary place in advanced learning and republic-wide media. Ukrainian was demoted to a language of secondary importance, often associated with the rise in Ukrainian self-awareness and nationalism and often branded "politically incorrect". The new Soviet Constitution adopted in 1936 however stipulated that teaching in schools should be in native languages.
Major repression started in 1929–30, when a large group of Ukrainian
intelligentsiaThe intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
was arrested and most were executed. In Ukrainian history, this group is often referred to as "Executed Renaissance" (Ukrainian: розстріляне відродження). "Ukrainian
bourgeois nationalismBourgeois nationalism is a term from Marxist phraseology. It refers to the practice of dividing people by nationality, race, ethnicity, or religion, which were alleged to deflect them from class warfare...
" was declared to be the primary problem in Ukraine. The terror peaked in 1933, four to five years before the Soviet-wide "
Great PurgeGreat Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin in 1937–1938. It involved a large-scale purge of the Communist Party and Government officials, repression of peasants, Red Army leadership, and the persecution of...
", which, for Ukraine, was a second blow. The vast majority of leading scholars and cultural leaders of Ukraine were liquidated, as were the "Ukrainianized" and "Ukrainianizing" portions of the Communist party. Soviet Ukraine's autonomy was completely destroyed by the late 1930s. In its place, the glorification of Russia as the first nation to throw off the capitalist yoke had begun, accompanied by the migration of Russian workers into parts of Ukraine which were undergoing industrialization and mandatory instruction of classic Russian language and literature. Ideologists warned of over-glorifying Ukraine's
CossackCossacks were originally members of military communities in the uninhabited borderland areas in the steppe that lies North of Black Sea...
past, and supported the closing of Ukrainian cultural institutions and literary publications. The systematic assault upon Ukrainian identity in culture and education, combined with effects of an artificial famine (
HolodomorThe Holodomor refers to the famine of 1932–1933 in the Ukrainian SSR during which millions of people were starved to death due to Soviet policies. There were no natural causes for starvation and in fact, Ukraine - unlike other Soviet Republics - enjoyed a bumper wheat crop in 1932...
) upon the peasantry—the backbone of the nation—dealt Ukrainian language and identity a crippling blow from which it would not completely recover.
This policy succession was repeated in the Soviet occupation of Western Ukraine. In 1939, and again in the late 1940s, a policy of Ukrainianization was implemented. By the early 1950s, Ukrainian was persecuted and a campaign of Russification began.
Khrushchev thaw
After the death of Stalin (1953), a general policy of relaxing the language policies of the past was implemented (1958 to 1963). The Khrushchev era which followed saw a policy of relatively lenient concessions to development of the languages on the local and republican level, though its results in Ukraine did not go nearly as far as those of the Soviet policy of Ukrainianization in the 1920s. Journals and encyclopedic publications advanced in the Ukrainian language during the Khrushchev era.
Yet, the 1958 school reform that allowed parents to choose the language of primary instruction for their children, unpopular among the circles of the national intelligentsia in parts of the USSR, meant that non-Russian languages would slowly give way to Russian in light of the pressures of survival and advancement. The gains of the past, already largely reversed by the Stalin era, were offset by the liberal attitude towards the requirement to study the local languages (the requirement to study Russian remained). Parents were usually free to choose the language of study of their children (except in few areas where attending the Ukrainian school might have required a long daily commute) and they often chose Russian, which reinforced the resulting Russification. In this sense, some analysts argue that it was not the "oppression" or "persecution", but rather the lack of protection against the expansion of Russian language that contributed to the relative decline of Ukrainian in 1970s and 1980s. According to this view, it was inevitable that successful careers required a good command of Russian, while knowledge of Ukrainian was not vital, so it was common for Ukrainian parents to send their children to Russian-language schools, even though Ukrainian-language schools were usually available. While in the Russian-language schools within the republic, the Ukrainian was supposed to be learned as a second language at comparable level, the instruction of other subjects was in Russian and, as a result, students had a greater command of Russian than Ukrainian on graduation. Additionally, in some areas of the republic, the attitude towards teaching and learning of Ukrainian in schools was relaxed and it was, sometimes, considered a subject of secondary importance and even a waiver from studying it was sometimes given under various, ever expanding, circumstances.
The complete suppression of all expressions of separatism or Ukrainian nationalism also contributed to lessening interest in Ukrainian. Some people who persistently used Ukrainian on a daily basis were often perceived as though they were expressing sympathy towards, or even being members of, the political opposition. This, combined with advantages given by Russian fluency and usage, made Russian the primary language of choice for many Ukrainians, while Ukrainian was more of a
hobbyA hobby is an activity or interest that is undertaken for pleasure or relaxation in one's spare time.- Etymology :A hobby horse is a wooden or wickerwork toy made to be ridden just like a real horse...
. In any event, the mild liberalization in Ukraine and elsewhere was stifled by new suppression of freedoms at the end of the Khrushchev era (1963) when a policy of gradually creeping suppression of Ukrainian was re-instituted.
The next part of the Soviet Ukrainian language policy divides into two eras: first, the Shelest period (early 1960s to early 1970s), which was relatively liberal towards the development of the Ukrainian language. The second era, the policy of Shcherbytsky (early 1970s to early 1990s), was one of gradual suppression of the Ukrainian language.
Shelest period
The Communist Party leader
Petro ShelestPetro Yukhymovych Shelest was the First Secretary of the Communist party in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Petro Yukhymovych Shelest (February 14, 1908-January 22, 1996) was the First Secretary of the Communist party in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Petro Yukhymovych Shelest...
pursued a policy of defending Ukraine's interests within the Soviet Union. He proudly promoted the beauty of the Ukrainian language and developed plans to expand the role of Ukrainian in higher education. He was removed, however, after only a brief reign, for being too lenient on Ukrainian nationalism.
Shcherbytsky period
The new party boss,
ShcherbytskyVolodymyr Vasylyovych Shcherbytsky was a Ukrainian and Soviet politician. He was a leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine from 1972 to 1989....
, purged the local party, was fierce in suppressing dissent, and insisted Russian be spoken at all official functions, even at local levels. His policy of Russification was lessened only slightly after 1985.
Gorbachev and perestroika
The management of dissent by the local Ukrainian Communist Party was more fierce and thorough than in other parts of the Soviet Union. As a result, at the start of the Gorbachev reforms, Ukraine under Shcherbytsky was slower to liberalize than Russia itself.
Although Ukrainian still remained the native language for the majority in the nation on the eve of Ukrainian independence, a significant share of ethnic Ukrainians were Russified. The Russian language was the dominant vehicle, not just of government function, but of the media, commerce, and modernity itself. This was substantially less the case for western Ukraine, which escaped the
artificial famineThe Holodomor refers to the famine of 1932–1933 in the Ukrainian SSR during which millions of people were starved to death due to Soviet policies. There were no natural causes for starvation and in fact, Ukraine - unlike other Soviet Republics - enjoyed a bumper wheat crop in 1932...
,
Great PurgeGreat Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin in 1937–1938. It involved a large-scale purge of the Communist Party and Government officials, repression of peasants, Red Army leadership, and the persecution of...
, and most of
StalinismStalinism was the political system and ideology of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1928–1953...
. And this region became the piedmont of a hearty, if only partial, renaissance of the Ukrainian language during independence.
Independence in the modern era
Since 1991, Ukrainian is official state language in Ukraine and the state administration implemented government policies to broaden the use of Ukrainian. The educational system in Ukraine has been transformed over the first decade of independence from a system that is partly Ukrainian to one that is overwhelmingly so. The government has also mandated a progressively increased role for Ukrainian in the media and commerce. In some cases the abrupt changing of the language of instruction in institutions of secondary and higher education led to the charges of Ukrainianization, raised mostly by the Russian-speaking population. This transition however lacked most of the controversies that arose during the de-
russificationRussification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attribute by non-Russian communities...
of the other former Soviet Republics.
With time, most residents, including ethnic Russians, people of mixed origin, and Russian-speaking Ukrainians started to self-identify as Ukrainian nationals, even those who remained
RussophoneA Russophone is literally a speaker of the Russian language either natively or by preference. At the same time the term is used in a more specialized meaning to describe the category of people whose cultural background is associated with Russian language regardless of ethnic and territorial...
. The Russian language however still dominates the print media in most of Ukraine and private radio and TV broadcasting in the eastern, southern, and to a lesser degree central regions. The state-controlled broadcast media have become exclusively Ukrainian. There are few obstacles to the usage of Russian in commerce and it is still occasionally used in the government affairs.
In the
2001 censusThe first Ukrainian Census was carried out by State Statistics Committee of Ukraine on 5 December 2001, twelve years after the last Soviet Union census in 1989....
, 67.5% of the country population named Ukrainian as their native language (a 2.8% increase from 1989), while 29.6% named Russian (a 3.2% decrease). It should be noted, though, that for many Ukrainians (of various ethnic descent), the term native language
may not necessarily associate with the language they use more frequently. The overwhelming majority of ethnic Ukrainians consider the Ukrainian language native
, including those who often speak Russian. According to the official 2001 census data approximately 75% of Kiev's population responded "Ukrainian" to the native language
(ridna mova) census question, and roughly 25% responded "Russian". On the other hand, when the question "What language do you use in everyday life?" was asked in the sociological survey, the Kievans' answers were distributed as follows: "mostly Russian": 52%, "both Russian and Ukrainian in equal measure": 32%, "mostly Ukrainian": 14%, "exclusively Ukrainian": 4.3%.
Ethnic minorities, such as Romanians, Tatars and Jews usually use Russian as their lingua franca. But there are tendencies within these minority groups to use Ukrainian. The Jewish writer
Olexander BeydermanOlexander Abramovytsch Beyderman is a Jewish-Ukrainian writer...
from the mainly Russian speaking city of Odessa is now writing most of his dramas in Ukrainian. the emotional relationship regarding Ukrainian is changing in Southern and Eastern areas.
Opposition to expansion of Ukrainian-language teaching is a matter of contention in eastern regions closer to Russia — in May 2008, the
DonetskDonetsk , is a large city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river...
city council prohibited the creation of any new Ukrainian schools in the city in which 80% of them are Russian-language schools. The Ukrainian language is being heavily discriminated there in association with the Soviet propaganda against the National Resistance Movement. The Ukrainians there are called nationalists which is accepted as the Nazis and
banderivtsiThe Ukrainian Insurgent Army was a group of Ukrainian nationalist partisans who engaged in a series of guerrilla conflicts during World War II...
- which is associated with
Stepan BanderaStepan Andriyovych Bandera was a Ukrainian politician and one of the leaders of Ukrainian national movement in Western Ukraine, who headed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists . The son of a clerical family, Bandera played a significant role in the history of Ukraine during World War II...
.
Literature
- See Ukrainian literature
Ukrainian literature is literature written in the Ukrainian language. Ukrainian literature had a difficult development because, due to constant foreign domination over Ukrainian territories, there was often a significant difference between the spoken and written language...
The literary Ukrainian language, which was preceded by
Old East SlavicOld East Slavic, also known as Old Russian was a vernacular literary language used in 10th-15th centuries by East Slavs in the Kievan Rus' and states which evolved after the collapse of the Kievan Rus'...
literature, may be subdivided into three stages: old Ukrainian (twelfth to fourteenth centuries), middle Ukrainian (fourteenth to eighteenth centuries), and modern Ukrainian (end of the eighteenth century to the present). Much literature was written in the periods of the old and middle Ukrainian language, including legal acts, polemical articles, science treatises and fiction of all sorts.
Influential literary figures in the development of modern Ukrainian literature include the philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda, Mykola Kostomarov,
Mykhailo KotsiubynskyMykhailo Mykhailovych Kotsiubynsky , was an Ukrainian author whose writings described typical Ukrainian life at the start of the 20th century. He was one of the most talented representative of existentialism in European literature staying in line with Franz Kafka and Fyodor Dostoevsky...
,
Taras ShevchenkoTaras Hryhorovych Shevchenko was a Ukrainian poet, artist and humanist. His literary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and, to a large extent, the modern Ukrainian language...
,
Ivan FrankoIvan Yakovych Franko was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, economist, and political activist. He was a political radical, and a founder of the socialist movement in western Ukraine...
, and Lesia Ukrainka. The literary Ukrainian language is based on the dialect of the
PoltavaPoltava is a city in central Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Poltava Oblast, as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Poltavskyi Raion within the oblast. The city itself is also designated as its own separate raion within the oblast. The current estimated population...
region, with some heavy influence from the dialects spoken in the west, notably
GaliciaGalicia is a historical region in East-Central Europe, currently divided between Poland and Ukraine, named after the Ukraіniаn city of Halych. The nucleus of historic Galicia is formed of three regions of western Ukraine: Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk.-Tribal area:The region has a turbulent...
(Halychyna
). For most of its history, Russian letters were used for written Ukrainian (for example, by Shevchenko). The modern Ukrainian alphabetThe Ukrainian alphabet is the set of letters used to write Ukrainian, the official language of Ukraine. It is one of the national variations of the Cyrillic writing system....
and orthography, which introduced the distinct letters і, ї, є, ґ,
and modified the usage of и, was developed in the late nineteenth century in Austrian-controlled Galicia.
Ukrainophone
A Ukrainophone is somebody who speaks the Ukrainian language.
In the modern nation of Ukraine almost everybody can speak Ukrainian. Many people are fluent in Russian as well. Therefore the nation is sometimes divided into Ukrainophones and
RussophoneA Russophone is literally a speaker of the Russian language either natively or by preference. At the same time the term is used in a more specialized meaning to describe the category of people whose cultural background is associated with Russian language regardless of ethnic and territorial...
s. In English these terms are used to indicate a person's language usage but not their ethnicity.
Current usage
The Ukrainian language is currently emerging from a long period of decline. Although there are almost fifty million ethnic
UkrainiansUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group primarily living in Ukraine, or more broadly—citizens of Ukraine...
worldwide, including 37.5 million in Ukraine (77.8% of the total population), only in western Ukraine is the Ukrainian language prevalent. In Kiev, both Ukrainian and Russian are spoken, a notable shift from the recent past when the city was primarily Russian speaking. The shift is caused, largely, by an influx of the rural population and migrants from the western regions of Ukraine but also by some Kievans' turning to use the language they speak at home more widely in everyday matters. In southern and eastern Ukraine, Russian is the language of the urban population. According to the Ukrainian Census of 2001, 87,8% people living in Ukraine are able to communicate in Ukrainian.
Use of the Ukrainian language in Ukraine can be expected to increase, as the rural population (still overwhelmingly Ukrainophone) migrates into the cities and the Ukrainian language enters into wider use in central Ukraine. However, the situation in eastern and southern Ukraine is not changing a lot, the rural Ukrainophones continue switching to Russian. The literary tradition of Ukrainian is also developing rapidly overcoming the consequences of the long period when its development was hindered by either direct suppression or simply the lack of the state encouragement policies.
Dialects
Several modern
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other...
s of Ukrainian: exist
- Northern (Polissian) dialects:
(3) Eastern Polissian is spoken in Chernihiv
Chernihiv Oblast is an oblast of northern Ukraine...
(excluding the southeastern districts), in the northern part of SumySumy Oblast is an oblast in the northeastern part of Ukraine...
, and in the southeastern portion of the Kiev OblastKiev Oblast, also written as Kyiv Oblast is an oblast in central Ukraine....
as well as in the adjacent areas of Russia, which include the southwestern part of the Bryansk OblastBryansk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Bryansk. Population: 1,378,941 ; -Time zone:Bryansk Oblast is located in the Moscow Time Zone...
(the area around StarodubStarodub is a town in Bryansk Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Babinets River , 169 km southwest of Bryansk. Population: 18,643 ; 16,000 .-History:...
), as well as in some places in the KurskKursk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kursk.-Geography:The oblast occupies the southern slopes of the middle-Russian plateau, and its average elevation is from 177 to 225 meters . The surface is hilly, and intersected by ravines...
, VoronezhVoronezh Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It was established on June 13, 1934.-Main rivers:*Don*Voronezh*Bityug*Khopyor-Time zone:...
and BelgorodBelgorod Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Belgorod. Population: 1,511,620 ; -Time zone:Belgorod Oblast is located in the Moscow Time Zone...
Oblasts. No linguistic border can be defined. The vocabulary approaches Russian as the language approaches the Russian Federation. Both Ukrainian and Russian grammar sets can be applied to this dialect. Thus, this dialect can be considered a transitional dialect between Ukrainian and Russian.
- (2) Central Polissian is spoken in the northwestern part of the Kiev Oblast
Kiev Oblast, also written as Kyiv Oblast is an oblast in central Ukraine....
, in the northern part of ZhytomyrZhytomyr Oblast is an oblast of northern Ukraine...
and the northeastern part of the Rivne OblastRivne Oblast is an oblast of Ukraine. Its administrative center is Rivne....
.
- (1) West Polissian is spoken in the northern part of the Volyn Oblast
Volyn Oblast is an oblast in north-western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Lutsk...
, the northwestern part of the Rivne OblastRivne Oblast is an oblast of Ukraine. Its administrative center is Rivne....
as well as in the adjacent districts of the Brest VoblastBrest Voblast or Brest Oblast is a province of Belarus with its administrative center being Brest.Important cities within the voblast' include: Baranovichi, Brest, and Pinsk....
in Belarus. The dialect spoken in Belarus uses Belarusian grammar, and thus is considered by some to be a dialect of Belarusian.
Southeastern dialects:
- (4) Middle Dnieprian is the basis of the Standard
A standard language is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status...
Literary Ukrainian. It is spoken in the central part of Ukraine, primarily in the southern and eastern part of the Kiev OblastKiev Oblast, also written as Kyiv Oblast is an oblast in central Ukraine....
). In addition, the dialects spoken in CherkasyCherkasy Oblast is an oblast of central Ukraine located along the Dnieper River. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Cherkasy).-Geography:...
, PoltavaPoltava Oblast is an oblast of central Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Poltava....
and KievKiev Oblast, also written as Kyiv Oblast is an oblast in central Ukraine....
regions are considered to be close to "standard" Ukrainian.
- (5) Slobodan is spoken in Kharkiv
Kharkiv Oblast is an oblast in eastern Ukraine. The oblast borders Russia to the north, Luhansk Oblast to the east, Donetsk Oblast to the south-east, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to the south-west, Poltava Oblast to the west and Sumy Oblast to the north-west...
, SumySumy Oblast is an oblast in the northeastern part of Ukraine...
, LuhanskLuhansk Oblast is the easternmost oblast of Ukraine...
, and the northern part of DonetskDonetsk Oblast is an oblast of eastern Ukraine. Its administrative center is Donetsk...
, as well as in the VoronezhVoronezh Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It was established on June 13, 1934.-Main rivers:*Don*Voronezh*Bityug*Khopyor-Time zone:...
and BelgorodBelgorod Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Belgorod. Population: 1,511,620 ; -Time zone:Belgorod Oblast is located in the Moscow Time Zone...
regions of Russia. This dialect is formed from a gradual mixture of Russian and Ukrainian, with progressively more Russian in the northern and eastern parts of the region. Thus, there is no linguistic border between Russian and Ukrainian, and, thus, both grammar sets can be applied. This dialect is a transitional dialect between Ukrainian and Russian.
- A (6) Steppe dialect is spoken in southern and southeastern Ukraine. This dialect was originally the main language of the Zaporozhian Cossacks.
- A Kuban dialect related based on the Steppe dialect is often referred to as Balachka
Balachka is a term used to label the dialects spoken by Cossacks living in Russia. Originally the term was applied to the dialects of Ukrainian language spoken in the region around the Kuban river, however the usage of this term has recently broadened to include the Cossack dialects spoken on the...
and is spoken by the Kuban CossacksKuban Cossacks or Kubanians are Cossacks who live in the Kuban region of Russia. Although numerous Cossack groups came to inhabit the Western Northern Caucasus most of the Kuban Cossacks are descendants of the Black Sea Cossack Host, and the Caucasus Line Cossack Host...
in the KubanKuban is a geographic region of Southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, Volga Delta and the Caucasus...
region in Russia by the descendants of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, who settled in that area in the late eighteenth century. It was formed from gradual mixture of Russian into Ukrainian. This dialect features the use of some Russian vocabulary along with some Russian grammar. There are 3 main variants which have been grouped together according to location.
Southwestern dialects:
(13) Boyko is spoken by the Boyko peopleThe Boykos or Boikos are a distinctive group of Ukrainian Carpathian highlanders or mountain-dwellers of the Carpathian highlands. The Boykos inhabited the central and the western half of the Carpathians in Ukraine, including the Dolynskyi and a part of the Rozhniativskyi Raions in the...
on the northern side of the Carpathian Mountains in the LvivLviv Oblast is an oblast in western Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Lviv.-History:...
and Ivano-FrankivskIvano-Frankivsk Oblast is an oblast in western Ukraine...
Oblasts. It can also be heard across the border in the Subcarpathian VoivodeshipSubcarpathian Voivodeship is a voivodeship, or province, situated in the far south-east of Poland...
of Poland
(12) Hutsul is spoken by the Hutsul peopleHutsuls are an ethno-cultural group of Ukrainian highlanders who for centuries have inhabited the Carpathian mountains, mainly in Ukraine, but also in the northern...
on the northern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains, in the extreme southern parts of the Ivano-Frankivsk OblastIvano-Frankivsk Oblast is an oblast in western Ukraine...
, as well as in parts of the ChernivtsiChernivtsi Oblast , is an oblast in western Ukraine, bordering on Romania and Moldova. It has a large variety of landforms: the Carpathian Mountains and picturesque hills at the foot of the mountains gradually change to a broad partly forested plain situated between the Dniester and Prut rivers....
and Transcarpathian Oblasts, .
Lemko is spoken by the Lemko peopleLemkos , one of several quantitatively and territorially small ethnic groups who also call themselves Rusyns , are one of the ethnic groups inhabiting the Carpathian Mountains...
, whose homelandLemkivshchyna sometimes called Lemkovyna, Lemkivshchyna or Łemkowszczyzna, is the region traditionally inhabited by the Lemkos. It forms an ethnographic peninsula 140 km long and 25-50 km wide from the Ukrainian border within Polish and Slovak territory...
rests outside the borders of Ukraine in the Prešov RegionThe Prešov Region is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions. It consists of 13 districts.-Geography:...
of SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
along the southern side of the Carpathian Mountains, and in the southeast of modern Poland, along the northern sides of the Carpathians.
(8) Podillian is spoken in the southern parts of the VinnytsiaVinnytsia Oblast is an oblast of Ukraine. Its administrative center is Vinnytsia.-Geography:...
and KhmelnytskyiKhmelnytskyi Oblast is an oblast of western Ukraine...
Oblasts, in the northern part of the Odessa OblastOdessa Oblast, also written as Odesa Oblast , is an oblast of south-western Ukraine...
, and in the adjacent districts of the Cherkasy OblastCherkasy Oblast is an oblast of central Ukraine located along the Dnieper River. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Cherkasy).-Geography:...
, the Kirovohrad OblastKirovohrad Oblast is an oblast of Ukraine...
and the Mykolaiv OblastMykolaiv Oblast is an oblast of Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Mykolayiv.-Geography:...
.
(7) Volynian is spoken in RivneRivne Oblast is an oblast of Ukraine. Its administrative center is Rivne....
and VolynVolyn Oblast is an oblast in north-western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Lutsk...
, as well as in parts of ZhytomyrZhytomyr Oblast is an oblast of northern Ukraine...
and TernopilTernopil Oblast is an oblast of Ukraine. Its administrative center is Ternopil.-History:...
. It is also used in Chełm in PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
(11) Pokuttia (Bukovynian) is spoken in the Chernivtsi OblastChernivtsi Oblast , is an oblast in western Ukraine, bordering on Romania and Moldova. It has a large variety of landforms: the Carpathian Mountains and picturesque hills at the foot of the mountains gradually change to a broad partly forested plain situated between the Dniester and Prut rivers....
of Ukraine. This dialect has some distinct volcabulary borrowed from RomanianRomanian or Daco-Romanian is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova. It has official status in Romania, Republic of Moldova, and the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in Serbia...
.
(9) Upper Dniestrian is considered to be the main Galician dialect, spoken in the LvivLviv Oblast is an oblast in western Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Lviv.-History:...
, TernopilTernopil Oblast is an oblast of Ukraine. Its administrative center is Ternopil.-History:...
and Ivano-FrankivskIvano-Frankivsk Oblast is an oblast in western Ukraine...
Oblasts. Its distinguishing characteristics are the influence of Polish and the German vocabulary, which is reminiscent of the Austro-Hungarian rule. Some of the distinct words used in this dialect can be found here.
(10) Upper Sannian is spoken in the border area between Ukraine and Poland in the San river valley.
The Rusyn languageRusyn language is the language spoken by the Rusyns living in the Carpathian region. Opinions differ among linguists concerning whether Rusyn is a separate East Slavic language or a dialect of Ukrainian...
is considered by Ukrainian linguists to be also a dialect of Ukrainian:
- Dolinian Rusyn or Subcarpathian Rusyn is spoken in the Transcarpathian Oblast.
- Pannonian or Bačka Rusyn
Pannonian Rusyn or simply Rusyn is a Slavic language or dialect spoken in north-western Serbia and eastern Croatia . It is similar to West Slavic languages, , but has Eastern Slavic phonetics and vocabulary...
is spoken in northwestern SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
and eastern CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
. Rusin language of the Bačka dialect is one of the official languages of the Serbian Autonomous Province of VojvodinaThe Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province in Serbia, containing about 27% of its total population according to the 2002 Census. It is located in the northern part of the country, in the Pannonian plain of Central Europe...
).
- Pryashiv Rusyn is the Rusyn spoken in the Prešov (in Ukrainian: Pryashiv) region of Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
, as well as by some émigré communities, primarily in the United States of America.
Ukrainian is also spoken by a large émigré population, particularly in Canada (see
Canadian UkrainianCanadian Ukrainian is a variety of the Ukrainian language specific to the Ukrainian Canadian community descended from the first two waves of historical Ukrainian emigration to Western Canada.Canadian Ukrainian was widely spoken from the beginning of Ukrainian settlement in...
), United States and several countries of South America like Brazil and
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
. The founders of this population primarily emigrated from
GaliciaGalicia is a historical region in East-Central Europe, currently divided between Poland and Ukraine, named after the Ukraіniаn city of Halych. The nucleus of historic Galicia is formed of three regions of western Ukraine: Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk.-Tribal area:The region has a turbulent...
, which used to be part of Austro-Hungary before World War I, and belonged to Poland between the World Wars. The language spoken by most of them is the Galician dialect of Ukrainian from the first half of the twentieth century. Compared with modern Ukrainian, the vocabulary of Ukrainians outside Ukraine reflects less influence of Russian, but often contains many loan words from the local language.
Ukrainian diaspora
Ukrainian is spoken by approximately 36,894,000 people in the world. Most of the countries where it is spoken are
ex-USSRThe post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the Former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent nations that split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its breakup in December 1991...
where many Ukrainians have migrated. Canada and the United States are also home to a large Ukrainian population. Broken up by country (to the nearest thousand):
- Ukraine 42,545,000
- Russia 4,363,000 (1,815,000 according to the 2002 census)
- Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country situated in Eurasia that is ranked as the ninth largest country in the world. It is also the world's largest landlocked country. Its territory of 2,727,300 km² is greater than Western Europe...
898,000
- Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean...
850,000
- Belarus
Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
291,000
- Canada 200,525, 67,665 spoken at home in 2001, 148,000 spoken as "mother tongue" in 2006
- Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
153,000
- Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
150,000
- Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east....
109,000
- Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
120,000
- United Kingdom 100,000 (Fluent or conversational - see here)
- Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , and to the southeast by Belarus . Across the Baltic Sea to the west lies Sweden...
78,000
- Spain 69,000
- Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
65,800
- Romania
Romania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
57,600
- Paraguay
Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay , is one of the two landlocked countries which lie entirely within the Western Hemisphere, the other being Bolivia, both in South America....
56,000
- Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
55,000
- Georgia
Georgia Georgia Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Situated at the juncture of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the east by Azerbaijan...
52,000
- Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of...
45,000
- Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east...
41,000
- Turkmenistan
Republic of Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic...
37,000
- Australia 30,000
- Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , formally the Republic of Azerbaijan , is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south...
29,000
- Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by the Russian Federation...
21,000
- Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
8,000
- Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
5 345
- Hungary
Hungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
4,900 (according to the 2001 census)
Ukrainian is the official language of Ukraine. The language is also one of three official languages of the breakaway Moldovan republic of
TransnistriaTransnistria, also known as Trans-Dniester or Transdniestria is a disputed region in Eastern Europe, located mostly in a strip between the Dniester River and Ukraine...
..
Ukrainian is also co-official, alongside
RomanianRomanian or Daco-Romanian is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova. It has official status in Romania, Republic of Moldova, and the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in Serbia...
, in ten communes in
Suceava CountySuceava is a county of Romania, in the historical regions of Moldova and Bukovina, with the capital city at Suceava.- Demographics :In 2002, it had a population of 688,435 and the population density was 80.5/km².* Romanians - 96.3%...
,
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
(as well as
BistraBistra or Petrovabistra is a commune in Maramureş County, Romania. The Ukrainian border is located to the north of the commune.-Villages:Aside from the main locality of Bistra, it contains the two villages of Valea Vişeului and Crasna Vişeului....
in
Maramureş CountyMaramureş is a county of Romania, in the Maramureş region. The county seat is Baia Mare.- History :* The 10th century frontier county of Borsova was founded by Stephen I of Hungary...
). In these localities, Ukrainians, who are an officially recognized ethnic minority in Romania, make up more than 20% of the population. Thus, according to Romania's minority rights law, education, signage and access to public administration and the justice system are provided in Ukrainian, alongside Romanian.
Statistics
Research conducted by the Ukrainian Book Trade Project in 2006 shows that 60% of books published in Ukraine are in the Russian language and 38% are in Ukrainian, with Western Ukraine being the only region where books in Ukrainian are more popular than books in Russian.
Language structure
- Cyrillic letters in this article are romanized using scientific transliteration
Scientific transliteration, variously called academic, linguistic, or scholarly transliteration, is an international system for transliteration of text from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet...
.
Grammar
Old East Slavic (and Russian) o
in closed syllables, that is, ending in a consonant, in many cases corresponds to a Ukrainian i
, as in pod
->pid
(під, ‘under’). Thus, in the declension of nouns, the o
can re-appear as it is no longer located in a closed syllable, such as rik
(рік, ‘year’) (nomThe nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments....
): rotsi
(locLocative is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by"...
) (році).
Ukrainian case endings are somewhat different from Old East Slavic, and the vocabulary includes a large overlay of Polish terminology. Russian na pervom etaže
‘on the first floor’ is in the prepositional case. The Ukrainian corresponding expression is na peršomu poversi
(на першому поверсі). -omu
is the standard locative (prepositional) ending, but variants in -im
are common in dialect and poetry, and allowed by the standards bodies. The kh
of Ukrainian poverkh
(поверх) has mutated into s
under the influence of the soft vowel i
(k
is similarly mutable into c in final positions). Ukrainian is the only modern East Slavic language which preserves the
vocative caseThe vocative case is the case used for a noun identifying the person being addressed and/or occasionally the determiners of that noun. A vocative expression is an expression of direct address, wherein the identity of the party being spoken to is set forth expressly within a sentence...
.
Sounds
The Ukrainian language has six vowels, , and two approximants .
A number of the consonants come in three forms: hard, soft (palatalized) and long, for example, , , and or , , and .
The letter г represents different
consonantIn articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx...
s in Old East Slavic and Ukrainian. Ukrainian г , often transliterated as Latin h, is the voiced equivalent of Old East Slavic х . The Russian (and Old East Slavic) letter г denotes . Russian-speakers from Ukraine and Southern Russia often use the soft Ukrainian г, in place of the hard Old East Slavic one. The Ukrainian alphabet has the additional letter ґ, for representing , which appears in some Ukrainian words such as gryndžoly
(ґринджоли, ‘sleigh’) and gudzyk (ґудзик, ‘button’). However, the letter ґ appears almost exclusively in loan words. This sound is still more rare in Ukrainian than in
CzechCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. Czech is similar to and mutually intelligible with Slovak and, to a lesser extent, to Polish and Sorbian. - Official status :Czech is widely...
or Slovak.
Another phonetic divergence between the two languages is the pronunciation of the (Cyrillic в). While in standard Russian it represents , in many Ukrainian dialects it denotes (following a vowel and preceding a consonant (cluster), either within a word or at a word boundary, it denotes the allophone of the latter phoneme, the non-syllabic [u̯], sounding close to the off-glide of the
diphthongIn phonetics, a diphthong, or , is a contour vowel—that is, a unitary vowel that changes quality during its pronunciation, or "glides", with a smooth movement of the tongue from one articulation to another, as in the English words eye, boy, and cow...
s in the English words "flow" and "cow". In fact, it forms a diphthong with the preceding vowel).
Unlike Russian and most other modern Slavic languages, Ukrainian does not have final devoicing.
Alphabet
The alphabet of the Ukrainian language consists of 33 letters and is derived from the Cyrillic writing system. The modern Ukrainian alphabet is the result of a number of proposed alphabetic reforms from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in Ukraine under the Russian Empire, in Austrian Galicia, and later in Soviet Ukraine. A unified Ukrainian alphabet (the Skrypnykivka
, after Mykola SkrypnykMykola Oleksiyovych Skrypnyk was a Ukrainian Bolshevik leader who was a proponent of the Ukrainian Republic's independence, and led the cultural Ukrainization effort in Soviet Ukraine...
) was officially established at a 1927 international Orthographic Conference in KharkivKharkiv , also spelled Kharkov is the second largest city in Ukraine.It was the first capital of Soviet Ukraine, now the administrative centre of the Kharkiv Oblast , as well as the administrative centre of the surrounding Kharkivskyi Raion within the oblast. The city is located in the northeast...
, during the period of UkrainizationUkrainization is a policy of increasing the usage and facilitating the development of the Ukrainian language and promoting other elements of Ukrainian culture, in various spheres of public life such as education, publishing, government and religion.The term is used, most prominently, for the...
in Soviet Ukraine. But the policy was reversed in the 1930s, and the Soviet Ukrainian orthography diverged from that used by the diasporaThe term Ukrainian diaspora refers to the global community of ethnic Ukrainians, usually more specifically those who maintain some kind of connection, even if ephemeral, to the land of their ancestors and maintain their feeling of Ukrainian national identity within their own local community.-1608...
. The Ukrainian letter geGe is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet mainly used in Ukrainian, Urum and Rusyn representing the voiced velar plosive...
ґ was banned in the Soviet Union from 1933 until the period of
Glasnostwas the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of 1980s....
in 1990.
The alphabet comprises thirty-three letters, representing thirty-eight
phonemeIn a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s (meaningful units of sound), and an additional sign—the apostrophe. Ukrainian orthography is based on the phonemic principle, with one letter generally corresponding to one phoneme, although there are a number of exceptions. The orthography also has cases where the semantic, historical, and morphological principles are applied.
The letter щ represents two consonants . The combination of with some of the vowels is also represented by a single letter (=я, =є, =ї, =ю), while =йо and the rare regional =йи are written using two letters. These iotated vowel letters and a special
soft signThe soft sign is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. In Old Church Slavonic, it represented a short front vowel but in modern Slavic Cyrillic writing systems , it does not represent an individual sound, rather it indicates softening of the preceding consonant or just has a traditional orthographic...
change a preceding consonant from hard to soft. An
apostropheThe apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets. In English it has two main functions: it marks omissions, and it assists in marking the possessives of nouns and some pronouns...
is used to indicate the hardness of the sound in the cases when normally the vowel would change the consonant to soft; in other words, it functions like the
yerThe letter yer of the Cyrillic alphabet, also spelled jer or er, is known as the hard sign in the modern Russian and Rusyn alphabets and as er golyam in the Bulgarian alphabet. The letter is called back yer in the pre-reform Russian orthography, in Old Russian, and in Old Church Slavonic...
in the Russian alphabet.
A consonant letter is doubled to indicate that the sound is doubled, or long.
The phonemes and do not have dedicated letters in the alphabet and are rendered with the
digraphsA digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
дз and дж, respectively. is pronounced close to English dz
in adze
, is close to g
in huge
.
-
See also
DrahomanivkaDrahomanivka was a proposed reform of the Ukrainian alphabet and orthography, promoted by Mykhailo Drahomanov. This orthography was used in a few publications and in Drahomanov's correspondence, but due to cultural resistance and political persecution it was never able to catch on.This phonemic...
,
Ukrainian Latin alphabetA Latin alphabet for the Ukrainian language has been proposed or imposed several times in history, but has never challenged the conventional Cyrillic Ukrainian alphabet. The Ukrainian literary language has been written with the Cyrillic alphabet, in a tradition going back to the eighth-century...
.
See also
- Surzhyk
Surzhyk , refers to a range of sociolects used by a considerable part of the population of Ukraine and adjacent lands. It is a Ukrainian influenced by Russian...
- Balachka
Balachka is a term used to label the dialects spoken by Cossacks living in Russia. Originally the term was applied to the dialects of Ukrainian language spoken in the region around the Kuban river, however the usage of this term has recently broadened to include the Cossack dialects spoken on the...
- Swadesh list of East-Slavic languages
- Ukrainianization
- Korenizatsiya
Korenizatsiya sometimes also called korenization, meaning "nativization" or "indigenization", literally "putting down roots", was the early Soviet nationalities policy promoted mostly in the 1920s but with a continuing legacy in later years...
- Russification
Russification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attribute by non-Russian communities...
- Vergonha
La vergonha is what some Occitans call the effects of various policies of the Government of France on its citizens whose mother tongue was a so-called patois, specifically langue d'oc...
- Linguistic discrimination
Linguistic discrimination is discrimination based on native language, usually in the language policy especially in education of a state that has one or several linguistic minorities....
External links