![]() ![]() One frequently cited figure is that Ukrainian and Russian share about 62% of their vocabulary. There are four letters in Ukrainian missing from Russian (ґ, є, і, ї), and four letters in Russian missing from Ukrainian (ё, ъ, ы, э).Īs Russian and Ukrainian diverged from each other relatively recently (less than a millennium ago), they still share a lot of basic and core vocabulary – but not enough to be considered dialects of a single language. ![]() They both use the Cyrillic alphabet, but slightly different versions. Today, Russian and Ukrainian are close relations: they share more vocabulary, grammar, and features of pronunciation with each other than they do with the other Slavonic languages. Large shifts had emerged both in the languages’ vocabularies, as well as in the sounds and grammar. So its language was shaped by contact with and immigration from areas to the east and the importation of foreign technical and cultural terms from western European countries like France, Germany and the Netherlands.īy the time Russia gained control of Ukraine in the 18th century, speakers in Russia and Ukraine were no longer as closely connected. Moscow united the cities of the north and east into an independent state, eventually called Russia. Ukraine became the eastern part of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth, absorbing significant amounts of Polish into its language. Over time, under different historical influences, divergences appeared. A thousand years ago, the language spoken across Russian and Ukrainian territories would have been similar, like different dialects of the same language. This group of related languages in central and eastern Europe also includes Polish, Czech and Bulgarian. Ukrainian and Russian are both part of the Slavonic (or Slavic) language family. Most people assume that being “separate” languages means some sort of complete and clear division between them, but the reality is more complex than that. In Ukraine, these statements are refuted by evidence of Ukrainian’s long history as a separate nation and language.Īs Putin continues his assault on Ukraine, the differences between these two languages have become part of the public discourse in the west – see the disparate spellings of Ukraine’s capital city, for example (Kiev being the Russian transliteration, Kyiv the Ukrainian). Vladimir Putin has written about the “historical unity” of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples, in part through their language.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |