Ukrainian is the official language of Ukraine (with the exception of the Crimea region, where the majority of the population is Russian) and is the first language of the majority of its citizens. Like Russian and Belorussian, Ukrainian belongs to
the East Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of Indo-European languages. Linguists
believe that the Slavic languages have retained the features of the original Proto
Indo-European language to a much greater extent than the Romance and the Germanic
languages have. The spoken Slavic languages also show more similarity among themselves
than do the Germanic or the Romance languages. However, some are written in the Cyrillic
alphabet and some in the Latin alphabet. Ukrainian, Russian, and Belorussian are all
written in the Cyrillic alphabet. These three major Eastern Slavic languages began to
diverge around the 12th or 13th century, and all three languages are still mutually
intelligible to some extent.
One Ukrainian word that has become a part of the English
language is
borscht. Another cultural contribution of Ukraine is the beloved and
well-known "Carol of the Bells," which is a traditional Ukrainian folk song.
As you learn the Ukrainian language, you will notice
that some words that sound like English have a very different meaning in Ukrainian. For
example, the Ukrainian word
rid means
generation or
origin. The word
is
means
from in Ukrainian. The Ukrainian word
dim means
smoke and the
word
on is an interjection meaning
here!
There are two forms of address in Ukrainian: the polite
second person plural
vy and the familiar second person singular
ty. It is
considered rude to use the familiar form when first meeting someone, unless the person you
are addressing happens to be a small child. Always use the polite form of address until
you are invited to switch to the familiar. The invitation to do so is a sign that your
friendship with the native speaker has reached a warmer, more intimate level.
In Ukrainian, nouns (as well as adjectives, and most
pronouns) decline in seven cases. Because Ukrainian is highly inflected, the word order in
sentences is fluid. The declined endings of nouns identify the subject and the direct and
indirect objects, among other things.
Ukrainian verbs possess a feature called
"aspect." The aspect can be perfective (action that has been completed) or
imperfective (ongoing action). A variety of prefixes that help create perfective verbs
convey shades of meaning that frequently require several words to translate in English--
or defy translation altogether.
Because Ukrainian pronunciation and grammar can be challenging to master, regular practice is necessary to achieve true success. That's why
Ukrainian software programs like those from Transparent Language are a useful idea. The fun games, educational activities, and native speaker recordings that accompany these programs will provide you with valuable tools in your quest for knowledge of this beautiful language.