Subject: Introduction. Alphabet. Letters and sounds.
Basic phrases
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Ukrainian |
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Spoken in: |
Ukraine, Russia, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Canada, United
States, Moldova, Hungary, Belarus, Poland, Portugal, Argentina, Paraguay |
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Total speakers: |
39.4 million |
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26 |
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Indo-European |
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Official status |
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Official language of: |
Ukraine, |
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Language codes |
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uk |
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ukr |
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Ukrainian-speaking world |
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Ukrainian
(украї́нська мо́ва, ukrayins'ka mova, [ukraˈjinʲsʲka ˈmɔʋa]) is a language of the East Slavic subgroup
of the Slavic languages.
It is the official state language
of Ukraine. The written Ukrainian uses a Cyrillic alphabet. The language shares some
vocabulary with the languages of the neighboring Slavic nations, most notably with Belarusian, Polish, Russian and Slovak.
The Ukrainian
language traces its origins to the Old East Slavic
language of the medieval state of Kievan Rus'. Called at its earlier stages as Ruthenian, Little Russian, the Ukrainian, along with
other East Slavic languages, is a lineal descendant of the colloquial language
used in Kievan Rus' (10th–13th century).[1]
The language has persisted despite several periods of bans and/or
discouragement throughout centuries as it has always nevertheless maintained a
sufficient base among the people of Ukraine
History
Perspective
Before the
eighteenth century the precursor to the modern Ukrainian language was a
vernacular language used mostly by peasants and petits bourgeois which existed side-by-side
with Church Slavonic,
a literary language of of religion that evolved from the Old Slavonic.
Although the spoken Ukrainian language was in no danger of extinction, it was
only raised to the level of a language of literature, philosophy and science by
being promoted at the expense of a separate "high language", be it
Greek, Church Slavonic, Polish, Latin or Russian. Ivan Kotlyarevsky in 1798 published an epic
poem, Eneyida, a burlesque in
Ukrainian, based on Virgil's Aeneid. The book turned out
to be the first literary work published in the vernacular Ukrainian, becoming
an undying classic of Ukrainian literature.
The Ukrainian
language reflects the history of Ukraine, which is mostly
comprised of the periods of foreign domination and resistance to it.
Origin
Ukrainian traces
its roots through the mid-fourteenth century Ruthenian language,
a chancellery languages of the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania, back to the early written evidences of tenth-century Kievan Rus'. One of the key difficulties
tracing the origin of the Ukrainian language more precisely is due to the fact
that until the end of the 18th century the
written language used in Ukraine was quite different from the spoken one. 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, while others are still being discussed
in the academic community.
A direct evidence
for the existence of Ukrainian language goes only as far as 17th century.[1]
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, Belarus and 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 Slavic
or Church Slavonic
language or their mixture. Both these languages are considerably different from
both modern Ukrainian and Russian language (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 Kievan Rus' (including Moscow) came under Tatar yoke for the three centuries to come,
whereas in the western areas (including Kiev)
the short Tatar period quickly ended as the territory was incorporated into Grand Duchy of
Lithuania. For the following four centuries, the two languages
evolved in relative isolation from each other. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania,
Old East Slavic became a language of che chancellery and gradually evolved into
Ruthenian language.
By the 1569 Union of Lublin that formed the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth, a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved
from Lithuanian rule to the Polish administration, resulting in the cultural
pressure of Polonization and
attempts to colonize Ukraine by
Polish nobility. It is known, for example, that many Ukrainian nobles learned
the Polish language and adopted Catholicism during that period.[2]
Lower classes have been less affected but as the literacy was limited to the
upper class and clergy and the latter was also under the Polish pressure to
come into a Union with the Catholic
Church that dominated Poland the effect on the literary language has
been strong. Most of the educational system getting Polonized and the most
generously funded institutions being to the west of Ruthenia had a
deteriorating effect on the Ruthenian indigenous culture. In the Polish
Ruthenia the administrative paperwork language started to gradually shift
towards Polish as a result of the gradual Polish domination. By the 16th
century the peculiar official language was formed, a mix of the older Church Slavonic with the Ruthenian language
of the commoners with the Polish language
with the influence of the latter gradually increasing. It soon became mostly
like Polish language superimposed on the Ruthenian phonetics.[3] Much of the Polish language
influence on spoken Ukrainian may be attributed to this period.
By the mid 17th
century, the linguistic divergence between Ukrainian and Russian languages is
confirmed by the need for translators during negotiations for the Treaty of Pereyaslav,
between Bohdan Khmelnytsky,
ruler of the Zaporozhian Host,
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 Lomonosov. This theory posits the
existence of a common language spoken by all East Slavic people in the time of the Kievan Rus'. According to Lomonosov, the
differences that subsequently developed between Great Russian
and Ukrainian (then called Little Russian)
could be explained by the influence of the Polish language on Ukrainian and the influence
of Turkic 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.
In fact, the most distinctive features of the Ukrainian language are present
neither in Russian nor in Polish. Ukrainian and Polish language do share
a lot of common or similar words, but so do all Slavic languages, since many
words are carried over from the Proto-Slavic language, the common ancestor of
the modern ones. 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 taken seriously by the academic
community since the beginning of the 20th century, but still has some circulation
among anti-Ukrainian organizations and politicians.
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 Byelorussian
from the common Old East Slavic
language. This general point of view is one of the most popular,[4] particularly outside Ukraine. The
supporters of this theory disagree, however, about the time when the different
languages were formed.
Soviet scholars
tend to admit a difference between Ukrainian and Russian only at later time periods
(fourteenth through sixteenth centuries). According to this view, Old East Slavic
diverged into Byelorusian 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 Byelorusian diverged into identifiably
separate languages.
Some scholars see a
divergence between the language of Halych-Volhynia and the language of Novgorod-Suzdal 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 Polans, Drevlyans, Severians, Dulebes (that later likely became Volhynians and Buzhans), White Croats, Tiverians and Ulichs 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.[2].
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.[4]
Similar points of view was 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 mixing and 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 [5]
and is gaining a number of supporters among Ukrainian scientists.
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 from 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 Slavic
into three groups by the seventh century (East Slavic,
West Slavic,
and South Slavic).
During this time period, some East Slavic elements could have already provided
a Slavic identity to the Antes civilization (of which nothing but an Iranian
name is known).
Kievan Rus' and Halych-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 Oleg, seized Kiev
(Kyiv) and established the political entity of Rus'. Some theorists see an early Ukrainian
stage in language development here; others term this era Early 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 present.
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
East Slavic language
(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 Halych 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 Campaign. Like other examples of Old Russian
literature (for example, Byliny, the Russian Primary
Chronicle), it survived only in Northern Russia (Upper Volga
belt) and was probably written there. It shows dialectal features
characteristic of Severian 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
Miniature of St Matthew from the Peresopnytsia Gospels
(1561).
After the fall of Halych-Volhynia, Ukrainians mainly fell under
the rule of Lithuania,
then Poland.
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 Tatar and Turkish 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. Ukrainian was also the official language of Ukrainian
provinces of the Crown of the
Polish Kingdom. Among many schools established in that time, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
(Kiev-Mogila Academy), founded by the Orthodox Metropolitan
Peter Mogila (Petro Mohyla), was the
most important.
In the anarchy of
the Khmelnytsky Uprising
and following wars, 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 Empire. 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 and Russification 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 nation in the modern sense. East Slavs called themselves Rus’ki
('Russian' pl. adj.) in the east and Rusyny ('Ruthenians' 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). Ukraine under the Russian Empire
was called Malorossiya (Little or Lesser Rus' or Little Russia, where the inhabitants spoke the
'Little Russian or Southern Russian language', a dialect of the Russian literary language.
But during the
nineteenth century, a revival of Ukrainian self-identity manifested itself in
the literary classes of both Russian-Empire Dnieper Ukraine and Austrian Galicia.
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 1847 Taras Shevchenko was arrested and exiled, and
banned from writing and painting, for political reasons. In 1863, tsarist
interior minister Pyotr Valuyev
proclaimed "there never has been, is not, and never can be a separate
Little Russian language". A following ban on Ukrainian books led up to Alexander II's
secret Ems Ukaz, 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 favoured Polish culture, but the
Ukrainians were relatively free to partake in their own cultural pursuits in
Galicia and Bukovyna, where Ukrainian was widely used in
education and in official documents.[6] The suppression by Russia retarded the
literary development of the Ukrainian language in Dnieper Ukraine, but there
was a constant exchange with Galicia, and many works were published under Austria
and smuggled to the east.
The name Ukrajins’ka mova 'Ukrainian language'
became accepted by much of the Ukrainian literary class during the late
nineteenth century under Russia and in the early twentieth in Austro-Hungarian
Galicia. By the time of the Russian
Revolution of 1917 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 Republic, shortly joined by the West
Ukrainian People's Republic).
Persecution and russification
Anti-russification
protest. The banner reads “For Ukrainian children - Ukrainian school!”.
Soviet policy
towards the Ukrainian language changed abruptly in late 1932 and early 1933,
when Stalin had already established his firm
control over the party and, therefore, the Soviet state. In December, 1932, the
regional party cells received a telegram signed by 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 raions
(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 many hardships for the Ukrainian
language and people. Some historians, especially of Ukraine, emphasize that the
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 that targeting
the Ukrainians in particular.
The Stalinist era
also marked the beginning of the Soviet policy of encouraging Russian as the
language of (inter-ethnic) Soviet 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
considered to be of secondary importance, and an excessive attachment to it was
considered a sign of nationalism and so "politically incorrect". At
the same time, however, the new Soviet Constitution adopted in 1936 stipulated
that teaching in schools should be in native languages.
The major
repression started in 1929–30, when a large group of Ukrainian intelligentsia was arrested and most were
executed. In Ukrainian history, this group is often referred to as "Executed Renaissance"
(Ukrainian: розстріляне відродження). "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism"
was declared to be the primary problem in Ukraine. The terror peaked in 1933,
four to five years before the Soviet-wide "Great Purge," 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 Cossack 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 (Holodomor) 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.
The Khrushchev thaw
While Russian was a de facto official language of the Soviet Union in all but formal name, all
national languages were proclaimed equal. The name and denomination of Soviet banknotes were listed in the languages
of all fifteen Soviet
republics. On this 1961 one-ruble note, the Ukrainian for "one
ruble", один карбованець (odyn karbovanets’), directly follows the
Russian один рубль (odin rubl’).
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
results, students upon graduation had a superior command in Russian than in
Ukrainian. 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 as 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 hobby. 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.
The Shelest period
The Communist Party
leader Petro 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.
The Shcherbytsky period
The new party boss,
Shcherbytsky,
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 famine, Great Purge, and most of Stalinism. And this region became the piedmont
of a hearty, if only partial renaissance of the Ukrainian language during
independence
Independence in the modern era
Modern signs in the
Kiev Metro are in Ukrainian. The evolution in
their language followed the changes in the language policies in post-war
Ukraine. Originally, all signs and voice announcements in the metro were in
Ukrainian, but their language was changed to Russian in the early 1980s,
at the height of Shcherbytsky's gradual Russification. In the perestroika liberalization of the late 1980s,
the signs were changed to bilingual. This was accompanied by bilingual voice
announcements in the trains. In the early 1990s,
both signs and voice announcements were changed again from bilingual to
Ukrainian-only during the Ukrainianization campaign that followed
Ukraine's independence.
Since 1991,
independent Ukraine has made Ukrainian the only official state language and 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. However, the transition
lacked most of the controversies that surrounded the de-russification in several 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 though remaining largely Russophone. The state
became truly bilingual as most of its population had already been. The Russian
language 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 became exclusively Ukrainian but
that had little influence on the audience because of their programs' low
ratings. There are few obstacles to the usage of Russian in commerce and it is
de facto still occasionally used in the government affairs.
In the 2001
census, 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
and Surzhyk (a blend of Russian vocabulary with
Ukrainian grammar and pronunciation). For example, according to the official
2001 census data[5] 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:[6] "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 minority groups to
prefer Ukrainian in many situations. The Jewish writer Aleksandr
Abramovic Bejderman from the mainly Russian speaking city of Odessa
is now writing most of his dramas in Ukrainian language. Emotional relationship
towards Ukrainian is partly changing in Southern and Eastern areas, too.
Dialects of Ukrainian
- Northern
(Polissian) dialects [9]:
- Eastern Polissian is spoken in Chernihiv
(excluding the southeastern districts), in the northern part of Sumy, and in the southeastern portion of
the Kiev Oblast as well as in the adjacent
areas of Russia, which include the southwestern
part of the Bryansk Oblast
(the area around Starodub), as well
as in some places in the Kursk, Voronezh
and Belgorod
Oblasts. [10].
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. [11].
- Central Polissian is spoken in the northwestern part of the Kiev Oblast, in the northern part of Zhytomyr
and the northeastern part of the Rivne Oblast [12].
- West Polissian is spoken in the northern part of the Volyn Oblast, the northwestern part of
the Rivne Oblast
as well as in the adjacent districts of the Brest Voblast in Belarus. The dialect spoken in Belarus
uses Belarusian grammar, and thus is considered by some to be a dialect
of Belarusian. [13]
- Southeastern dialects [14]:
- Middle Dnieprian is the basis of the Standard
Literary Ukrainian. It is spoken in the central part of Ukraine,
primarily in the southern and eastern part of the Kiev Oblast). In addition, the dialects
spoken in Cherkasy, Poltava and Kiev regions are considered to be close
to "standard" Ukrainian.
- Slobodan dialect is spoken in Kharkiv, Sumy, Luhansk, and the northern part of Donetsk, as well as in the Voronezh
and Belgorod
regions of Russia. [15].
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
transistional dialect between Ukrainian and Russian.[16]
- Steppe dialect is spoken in southern and southeastern
Ukraine. This dialect was originally the main language of the Zaporozhian
Cossacks. [17].
- Kuban
(known locally as Balachka) is spoken in the Kuban region of Russia, by the Kuban Cossacks, descendants of the
original Zaporozhian host,
which had migrated here. This dialect features a predominant Russian
vocabulary and grammar. It varies greatly from one area to another. [18]
- Southwestern dialects [19]:
- Podillian is spoken in the southern parts of the Vinnytsia
and Khmelnytskyi
Oblasts, in the northern part of the Odessa Oblast, and in the adjacent
districts of the Cherkasy Oblast,
the Kirovohrad Oblast
and the Mykolaiv Oblast.
[20]
- Volynian is spoken in Rivne and Volyn, as well as in parts of Zhytomyr
and Ternopil.
It is also used in Chelm in Poland.
- Pokuttia (Bukovynian) is spoken in the Chernivtsi Oblast
of Ukraine. This dialect has some distinct volcabulary borrowed from Romanian.
- Upper Dniestrian is considered to be the main Galician dialect,
spoken in the Lviv, Ternopil
and Ivano-Frankivsk
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 [21]
- Upper Sannian is spoken in the border area between Ukraine and
Poland in the San river valley.
- The Rusyn language is considered by
Ukrainian linguists to be a dialect of Ukrainian:
- Hutsul is spoken in the extreme southern parts of the Ivano-Frankivsk
Oblast (as well as in parts of the Chernivtsi
and Transcarpathian
Oblasts, and on the northern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains.
- Boyko is
spoken on the northern side of the Carpathian Mountains in the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk
Oblasts. It can also be heard across the border in the Subcarpathian
Voivodship of Poland
- Lemko is
spoken outside Ukraine in the Prešov Region
of Slovakia along the southern side of the
Carpathian Mountains.
- Dolinian Rusyn or Subcarpathian Rusyn is spoken in the Transcarpathian
Oblast.
- Pryashiv Rusyn is the Rusyn spoken in the Prešov (in
Ukrainian: Pryashiv) region of
Slovakia, as well as by some
émigré communities, primarily in the United States of
America.
- Bačka Rusyn is spoken in northwestern Serbia and eastern Croatia. Rusin language of the Bačka dialect
is one of the official languages of the Serbian Autonomous Province of Vojvodina).
Ukrainian is also
spoken by a large émigré population, particularly in Canada (see Canadian Ukrainian),
United States and several countries of South America like Argentina and Brazil. The founders of this population primarily emigrated
from Galicia,
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.
Ukrainophone population
Ukrainian is spoken
by approximately 36,894,000 people in the world. Most of the countries where it
is spoken are ex-USSR 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):
1. Ukraine 31,058,000
2. Russia 4,363,000 (1,815,000 according to the 2002 census [22])
3. Kazakhstan 898,000
4. 1 United States 844,000
5. Brazil 760,000
6. Moldova 600,000
7. Belarus 291,000
8. Canada 175,000 (probably a low estimate; there are
1,071,060 Canadians of Ukrainian descent, 326,195 exclusively Ukrainian,
according to StatsCanada [23]
)
9. Uzbekistan 153,000
10. Poland 150,000
11. Kyrgyzstan 109,000
12. Argentina 120,000[citation needed]
13. Latvia 78,000
14. Portugal 65,800
15. Romania 57,600
16. Slovakia 55,000
17. Georgia 52,000
18. Lithuania 45,000
19. Tajikistan 41,000
20. Turkmenistan 37,000
21. Australia 30,000
22. Azerbaijan 29,000
23. Paraguay 26,000
24. Estonia 21,000
25. Armenia 8,000
26. Hungary 4,900 (according to the 2001 census [24])
27. Serbia 3,000
Ukrainian is one of Slavonic
languages (others include Polish, Russian, Bulgarian, Czech, etc.). It shares
quite a few things with its closest neighbours, Byelorussian, Russian, and
Polish, but it also has its own unique grammar rules, vocabulary, and usage.
As
any other language, Ukrainian has its varieties and dialects that are spoken in
different parts of the country. A most commonly recognized distinction is
between the language of Western Ukraine (roughly west bank of the Dnipro
river), which is a bit closer to Polish, and that of Eastern Ukraine (roughly
east bank of the Dnipro) more influenced by Russian.
Another important difference is between "popular
Ukrainian" and "standard Ukrainian." Language influences have
played their roles here, too, but for our purposes it is important to know that
"popular Ukrainian" significantly deviates from the standard norms
described in grammar books and dictionaries and may in fact be a mixture of
Russian and Ukrainian, or diluted with a good many Polish words. This is of
course a natural process found in any language. "Standard Ukrainian,"
which is taught in this course, does not exclude colloquial forms, but
generally adheres to language norms. In other words, you won't be taught belles
letters Ukrainian, which would sound irrelevantly fine in everyday speech.
You will find here lessons of "educated speech" that will be
universally understood in
Major differences of the Ukrainian language
from English include:
- Cyrillic writing
- two forms of
"you" address: formal and informal (German, French, Spanish,
Russian and other languages also have that)
- absence of articles
- a relatively loose word
order in sentences
- three genders of nouns
(compare with German, which also has three genders)
- nouns change their
endings (cases) depending on their functions in the sentence (compare with
German (four cases) or Russian (six cases))
- besides grammatical
tenses (present, past, future), forms of verbs express the idea of completed
or progressive action.
Ukrainian has a Cyrillic alphabet almost
identical to some other Slavonic languages (Russian, Bulgarian). Some of its
letters look exactly like those of the Latin alphabet used in English; however,
most of these are pronounced differently than in English and may in fact
resemble other English sounds. For instance, letter "B" in Ukrainian
represents a sound similar to the English "v". Other Ukrainian
letters look quite different. There are 33 letters altogether.
Please review the following transliteration table to
get an idea about Ukrainian letters and their sounds.
Some
important points:
1) You've seen that the English y in transliterated
words (these are usually geographic and people's names) may in fact represent
two quite different sounds: the one is similar to the vowel y in "myth," and the other to
the consonant y in "yolk." How can you know when it's
the one and when the other? Just like in English: when y is the
first letter of a word or accompanies another vowel, either before or after
it, it's a consonant like in "yolk," "yacht,"
"you," or "yield," and when y is surrounded by consonants,
it is a vowel like in "myth."
2) The soft sign, unlike all other
letters, does not represent an independent sound but rather affects the
consonant before it, softens it. You can listen to pairs of hard and
soft consonants:
|
|
|
Sounds ya, yu, ye have a similar
softening effect on the consonant that precedes them. It is easy to see that
although represented by one letter, each of these sounds in fact combines two
sounds pronounced fast one after the other. The first is the short consonant y
discussed above, and the second is a regular vowel a, o, or e.
The y sound is distinctly pronounced after a vowel, but if it follows a
consonant, the y softens it and practically disappears itself. Listen to
the following combination of sounds; there will be hard/soft pairs again.
|
|
|
In transcriptions, the soft sign will be
indicated with an apostrophe '. In transliteration for other purposes, since
transliteration rules vary, it may or may not be used, depending on the
transcriber's preferences. [Ya, yu, ye] will be transcriptions of respective
Ukrainian letters after vowels; after consonants, their softening effect will
be again indicated by the apostrophe ['a, 'u, 'e]. Note that we'll use the ' in
transcription for study purposes only. When transliterating Ukrainian names for
other purposes (e.g., documents), ya, yu, ye should be spelled so throughout.
3) For us the apostrophe will only be a transcription
trick that has become customary. The Ukrainian language also uses the
apostrophe, but for different purposes: it separates ya, yu, ye, yi
from the preceding consonant, in which case the consonant is not
softened, and the y sound in these letters is distinctly heard. You will
see the apostrophe in Ukrainian originals; in transcriptions it will be
indicated by a quotation mark ".
Exercise1. After you have well
familiarized yourself with the Ukrainian alphabet and transliteration, listen
to the following passage. It is also given below in Ukrainian, as well as
transcribed. Try repeating it sentence by sentence after the speaker. You will
hear the line number, which will help you identify the respective lines in the
text printed on your screen. Do this exercise several times, until you learn to
follow the printed text and identify by ear (without referring to the English
transcription) which word is being pronounced by the speaker.
For your convenience, from now on we will
mark the accented (stressed) vowels in multi-syllable words in red.
|
|
Listen to the whole passage |
|
Listen sentence by sentence and
repeat |
[(1) Kyyiv stolyts'a Ukrayiny. (2) Tse
naybil'she ukrayins'ke misto. (3) U n'omu meshkayut' ponad dva z polovynoyu mil'yony cholovik. (4) Kyyiv roztashovanyy na berehakh richky Dnipro. (5) Shchoroku misto vidviduyut' bahato ukrayins'kykh ta inozemnykh turystiv. (6) Tut
ye, na shcho podyvytys'a. (7) Chymalo pam"yatnykh
mists' nahaduyut' pro znamenni podiyi z istoriyi Kyyeva ta vsiyeyi krayiny.]
(1) Kyiv is the
capital of
This is not a
word-by-word translation, so you should NOT try to learn vocabulary from this
exercise. It's purpose is to solidify your ability to recognize Cyrillic
letters and associate them with their sounds. That is, you're actually
beginning to read in Ukrainian! On the other hand, you now have a good idea
about what Ukrainian sounds like.
Basic Phrases
Greetings
|
|
|
Hello; good
day; good afternoon. |
|
|
|
Hi. |
|
|
|
Bye. |
|
|
|
Please; you are welcome. |
|
|
|
Please; you are welcome. |
|
|
|
Excuse me. |
|
|
|
Excuse me; sorry. |
|
|
|
Thank you. |
Introductions and
formalities
|
|
|
What is your name? |
|
|
|
What is your name? |
|
|
|
What is your
last name? |
|
|
|
My name is
Richard Smith. |
|
|
|
My last name
is Smith. |
|
|
|
Please show
me your documents. |
|
|
|
Please show
me your passport. |
|
|
|
Your documents (passport) please. |
In a store
Besides Western-type supermarkets where you have
access to goods, choose what you need and bring them to the cashier to pay on
your way out, there are still many over-the-counter stores in Ukraine where you
have to ask the salesperson to give you the thing you want to see closer. In
this situation the following phrases may be useful:
|
|
|
Please let me
see the black umbrella that costs 53 hryvnyas. |
|
|
|
How much does
it cost? |
|
|
|
I'll buy this. |
If you simply
want to ask to sell you something without looking at it closer, you say:
|
|
|
Please give
me a city map. |
|
|
|
Please give
me a 90 minute telephone card. |
And a small but
important expression in a restaurant/cafe:
|
|
|
Bring the bill please. |
Taxi and public transportation
If you need a ride, you don't have to necessarily look
for a regular cab but "hitch-hike" instead. When a car stops, open
the door and say, for instance:
|
|
|
Boryspil
airport please. |
|
|
|
Dnipro hotel.
|
Some drivers may try to negotiate the price right
away, but many will take whatever you offer when getting out. If you are
planning to use taxis often, try to find out first what the regular "hitch
hike" rates in the city of your stay are. Some drivers might try to name
an overly high price if they see that you're a foreigner. You may also wish to
check out local taxi companies that take phone orders.
If you need to use public transportation, there may
often be people in your way when getting out. In this case, it is customary to
say when you know the bus/trolleybus/tram is approaching your stop,
|
|
|
Are you
getting off at the next stop? |
|
|
|
Please let me
through. |
Exchanging money
|
|
|
Where can I
exchange money (foreign currency)? |
|
|
|
CURRENCY
EXCHANGE |
These exchange offices are bank outlets and are
completely safe. Avoid changing money in the streets even if you're offered a
higher price.
Other needs
|
|
|
Excuse me,
where is the restroom here? |
|
|
|
I need a doctor. |
![[11]](http://www.ethnology.ru/doc/narod/t1/gif/nrd-t1_0151z.gif){kind=link}
VOCABULARY
To use this glossary, you must have Cyrillic fonts
installed. If you do not see proper Cyrillic characters below and need help, go
the the Cyrillic Fonts menu item.
Stressed vowels marked in red. If
no red, one word syllable or stress same as in the initial form (listed first).
Word
listing formats:
Verbs: infinitive, third person singular (e.g., (he) reads) if there are
changes in the stem while conjugating, or ending (preceded by - ) of the third
person singular that replaces the infinitive -ти ending.
Nouns: nominative, other cases if there are stem changes, plural ending
(preceded by - ). Stressed endings are always marked in red.
Adjectives: masculine nominative.
Other words: comments
whenever necessary.
Abbreviations:
|
adj = adjective |
imp = imperfective verb |
per = perfective verb |
А Б В Г Д Є Ж З И І Ї Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ь
Ю Я
|
|
|
|
автобус (m), pl: -и |
bus |
|
аеропорт (m), pl: -и |
airport |
|
аж
(unchangeable particle) |
used for emphasis, can be roughly translated
"as much/many as" |
|
ало |
hello (phone
greeting) |
|
Америка, dat, prep: Америці (f) |
America |
|
Б |
|
|
багатенько (diminutive) |
a lot, many,
much |
|
багато |
a lot, many,
much |
|
батько, pl: -и |
father, pl:
parents |
|
бачити, -ить (imp) |
to see |
|
без |
without |
|
берег (m), prep: березі, pl: -и |
shore, bank,
coast |
|
березень (m) |
March |
|
бізнесмен (m), pl: - и |
businessman |
|
більше |
more |
|
бо |
because
(since, for) |
|
брат (m),
pl:-и |
brother |
|
будь ласка |
please; you
are welcome |
|
бути (imp), |
to be |
|
В |
|
|
в |
in, at |
|
валюта (f), unc. |
(foreign)
currency |
|
вам |
dat. of ви |
|
ваш |
your, yours |
|
ввечері |
in the
evening |
|
вдома |
at home |
|
вересень (m) |
September |
|
весь (m) |
whole |
|
вечеряти, -є (imp) |
to have
dinner/supper |
|
вже |
already |
|
взяти, візьм (per) |
to take |
|
вибачте |
excuse me |
|
вийти, вийде (per) |
to walk/go
out |
|
виходити, виходить (imp) |
to walk/go out; to result in |
|
ви |
you (formal
and plural) |
|
вівторок (m), pl: вівторки |
Tuesday |
|
відбутися, відбудеться (per) |
to take place |
|
відвідувати, відвідує (per) |
to visit |
|
відрядження (n), pl: no change |
business trip |
|
візьміть (per) |
imperative of
"take" |
|
вікно (n), pl: - а |
window |
|
він |
he |
|
вокзал (m), pl: - и |
train station |
|
волосся (n), pl: no change |
hair |
|
воно |
neuter
pronoun |
|
восьмий |
eighth |
|
вставати, встає (imp) |
to rise, to get up |
|
встати, встане (per) |
to rise, to get up |
|
вулиця (f), pl: - і |
street |
|
вчити, вчить (imp) |
to learn, to
study |
|
Г |
|
|
газета (f), pl: - и |
newspaper |
|
гаразд |
OK |
|
гість (m), pl:
гості |
guest |
|
говорити, говорить (imp) |
to speak |
|
година (f), pl: - и |
hour, o'clock |
|
готель (m), pl: - і |
hotel |
|
грам (m), pl:
-и |
gram |
|
гривня (f), pl: - і |
hryvnya (name of Ukr. currency) |
|
грудень (m) |
December |
|
Д |
|
|
давати, дає (imp) |
to give |
|
давно |
for a long time; a long time ago |
|
дата (f), pl: - и |
date |
|
дев'ятий |
nineth |
|
день (m),
gen: дня, pl: -і |
day |
|
десь |
somewhere;
approximately |
|
десятий |
tenth |
|
де |
where |
|
дивитися, дивиться (imp) |
to look (at) |
|
дівчина (f), pl: дівчата |
girl |
|
дізнатися, дізнається (per) |
to find out |
|
Дніпро |
Dnipro (name of a river, also translated as |
|
добре |
well; good;
OK |
|
добрий |
good; kind |
|
додому |
home (in directions, e.g., to go home) |
|
дозволяти, -є (imp) |
to allow, to
permit |
|
документ (m), pl: - и |
document |
|
долар (m), pl: - и |
dollar |
|
до побачення |
good-bye |
|
другий |
second |
|
друг (m),
prep: (на) друзі; pl: друзі |
friend |
|
дрібний |
small; tiny |
|
дуже |
very |
|
душ (m), pl:
-і |
shower |
|
дякувати, дякує (imp) |
to thank |
|
дякую |
thank you (literally: (I) thank) |
|
Є |
|
|
є |
see бути |
|
Ж |
|
|
жаль |
на жаль --
unfortunately |
|
жетон (m), pl: - и |
metro token |
|
жовтень (m) |
October |
|
З |
|
|
з |
with |
|
за |
for; in
exchange of |
|
заборонено |
forbidden |
|
забронювати, забронює (per) |
to book |
|
закінчитися, закінчиться (per) |
to end |
|
зараз |
now |
|
зателефонувати, зателефонує (per) |
to phone, to
call |
|
захворіти, -є (per) |
to fall ill |
|
захоплюватися, захоплюється (imp) |
to admire |
|
зачинено |
closed;
locked |
|
заїхати, заїде (per) |
to stop by |
|
збори (always pl) |
(staff)
meeting |
|
зважити, зважить (per) |
to weigh |
|
звати, зове (imp) |
to call (by
name) |
|
звідки |
where from |
|
здача (f), unc. |
change |
|
змогти, зможе (per) |
can; be able
to |
|
знайомий |
acquaintance |
|
знаменний |
memorable;
singular |
|
знати, -є (imp) |
to know |
|
знову |
again |
|
зупинитися, зупиниться (per) |
to stop |
|
зупинка (f), dat, prep: зупинці, pl: -и |
stop; station |
|
зустрітися, зустрінеться (per) |
to meet |
|
зустріти, зустріне (per) |
to meet |
|
зустрічатися, зустрічається (im) |
to meet |
|
зустріч (f), pl: - і |
meeting;
encounter |
|
І |
|
|
ім'я (n), gen, dat, prep: імені; pl: імена |
name |
|
інженер (m), pl: - и |
engineer |
|
іноземний |
foreign |
|
історія (f), pl: - ї |
history;
story |
|
Ї |
|
|
їхати, їде (imp) |
to go (by
vehicle) |
|
Й |
|
|
його |
gen. case of
він |
|
йому |
dat. case of
він |
|
К |
|
|
кава (f) unc. |
coffee |
|
кав'ярня (f), pl: - і |
cafe |
|
карта (f), pl: - и |
map |
|
картка (f), pl: - и |
card |
|
квартира (f), pl: - и |
apartment;
flat |
|
квиток (m), gen: квитка, pl: квитки |
ticket |
|
квітень (m) |
April |
|
Київ (m), gen: Києва |
Kyiv (capital
of Ukraine) |
|
кімната (f), pl: - и |
room |
|
коли |
when |
|
комп'ютер (m), pl: - и |
computer |
|
концерт (m), pl: - и |
concert |
|
копійка (f), dat, prep: копійці; pl: - и |
kopeck |
|
котрий |
which; котра година? -- what time
is it? |
|
коштувати, коштує (imp) |
to cost |
|
країна (f), pl: - и |
country |
|
куди |
where to |
|
купувати, купує (imp) |
to buy |
|
Л |
|
|
лежати, лежить (imp) |
to lie |
|
липень (m) |
July |
|
листопад (m) |
November |
|
ліжко (n), pl: - а |
bed |
|
лікар (m), pl: -і |
doctor
(physician) |
|
лютий (m) |
February |
|
лягати, -є (imp) |
to lie down |
|
лягти, ляже (per) |
to lie down |
|
М |
|
|
магазин (m), pl: - и |
store |
|
мама (f), pl: - и |
mom |
|
масло (n), unc. |
butter |
|
машина (f), pl: - и |
car; machine |
|
мати, має (imp) |
to have; to have (to do smth) |
|
мене |
gen. of я |
|
мені |
dat. of я |
|
метро (n), unchangeable |
subway; metro |
|
мешкати, -є (imp) |
to be resident; to live |
|
ми |
we |
|
мій |
my; mine |
|
місто (n), pl: -а |
city; town |
|
місце (n), pl: -я |
place |
|
місяць (n), pl: -і |
month |
|
мобільний |
mobile |
|
могти, може (imp) |
can; be able
to |
|
можливо |
maybe;
perhaps |
|
море (n), pl: - я |
sea |
|
мусити, я мушу, він мусить (imp) |
must |
|
Н |
|
|
на |
on (other
meanings possible) |
|
на все добре |
formal good bye (literally: all
the best) |
|
навчатися, навчається (imp) |
to study |
|
нагадувати, нагадує (imp) |
to remind |
|
найбільший |
largest |
|
написати, напише (per) |
to write |
|
наступний |
next |
|
неділя (f), pl: - і |
Sunday |
|
нема |
don't/doesn't
(have) |
|
нехай |
let it be |
|
не |
negative
particle not, no |
|
ніч
(f), gen, pl.: ночі |
night |
|
номер (m), pl: -и |
number; hotel
room |
|
О |
|
|
о |
at (for time: at |
|
обідати, -є (imp) |
to have lunch |
|
обідній |
adj. lunch (e.g., lunch break) |
|
обличчя (n), pl: the same |
face |
|
обмін (m), pl: - и |
exchange |
|
оглянути, огляне (per) |
to look at/around; to see |
|
ось |
here |
|
офіс (m), pl: - и |
office |
|
П |
|
|
пальто (n), pl: пальта |
coat |
|
пам'ятний |
memorable |
|
парасолька (f), pl: - и |
umbrella |
|
паспорт (m), pl: -и |
passport |
|
передати, передасть (per) |
to hand over, to give |
|
перекладати, -є (imp) |
to translate |
|
перекласти, перекладе (per) |
to translate |
|
перепрошую |
excuse me |
|
перерва (f), pl: - и |
break |
|
перший |
first |
|
писати, пише (imp) |
to write |
|
пів |
half
(colloquial) |
|
підручник (m), pl: - и |
textbook |
|
повернутися, повернеться (per) |
to return |
|
повертатися, повертається (imp) |
to return |
|
повечеряти, -є (per) |
to have
dinner/supper |
|
повинний |
must;
required |
|
повторити, повторить (per) |
to repeat; to
recapitulate |
|
поговорити, поговорить (per) |
to speak |
|
подивитися, подивиться (per) |
to see; to take a look; to watch |
|
подорожувати, подорожує (imp) |
to travel |
|
подруга (f), dat, prep: подрузі; pl: -и |
girl friend |
|
подія (f), pl: - ї |
event |
|
познайомитися, познайомиться (per) |
to get acquainted; to meet |
|
позначено |
indicated |
|
показати, покаже (per) |
to show |
|
поле (n), pl: - я |
field |
|
половина (f), pl: - и |
half |
|
поміняти, -є (per) |
to exchange |
|
понад |
more than |
|
понеділок (m), pl: понеділки |
Monday |
|
пообідати, -є (per) |
to have lunch |
|
поснідати, -є (per) |
to have
breakfast |
|
потрібний |
necessary |
|
починатися, починається (imp) |
to start; to
begin |
|
пошта (f), pl: - и |
mail; post
office |
|
поїхати, поїде (per) |
to start going (by vehicle) |
|
правда |
however; the
truth is |
|
працювати, працює (imp) |
to work |
|
привіт |
hi |
|
приймати, -є (imp) |
to accept; to
take |
|
прийняти, прийме (per) |
to accept; to
take |
|
прийти, прийде (per) |
to come (on
foot) |
|
прилетіти, прилетить (per) |
to come by plane; to fly in |
|
приємно |
pleasant;
nice |
|
приїхати, приїде (per) |
to come (by
vehicle) |
|
прізвище (n), pl: - а |
last name |
|
пройти, пройде (per) |
to pass |
|
прокидатися, прокидається (imp) |
to wake up |
|
прокинутися, прокинеться (per) |
to wake up |
|
пропрацювати, пропрацює (per) |
to work
through |
|
просто |
easy, simple |
|
прохід (m) gen, dat: проходу; pl:
проходи |
(walking)
passage |
|
прочитати, -є (per) |
to read |
|
прошу |
please; you're welcome; (I would like to) ask |
|
проїзд (m), pl: - и |
passage (for
vehicles) |
|
п'ятий |
fifth |
|
п'ятниця (f), pl: - і |
Friday |
|
Р |
|
|
разом |
together |
|
ранку |
in the
morning |
|
ранок (m), gen, dat, prep: ранку, pl: ранки |
morning |
|
рано |
early |
|
рахунок (m), gen, dat, prep: рахунку, pl: рахунки |
bill |
|
решта (f) |
the rest |
|
рік
(m), gen, dat: року, pl: роки |
year |
|
річка (f), pl: - и |
river |
|
робота (f), pl: роботи |
work |
|
робочий |
worker;
working |
|
розміняти, -є (per) |
to change (for smaller bills/coins) |
|
розташований |
located |
|
ручка (f), pl: - и |
pen; handle |
|
С |
|
|
свій |
one's own |
|
"Світоч" |
Svitoch
(chocolate brand name) |
|
село (n), pl: - а |
village |
|
середа (f), pl: середи |
Wednesday |
|
серед |
among |
|
серпень (m) |
August |
|
сестра (f), pl: - и |
sister |
|
сім'я (f), pl: - ї |
family |
|
січень (m) |
January |
|
скільки |
how much/many. Скільки з мене? How much
should I pay? |
|
снідати, -є (imp) |
to have
breakfast |
|
сонце (n), pl: - я |
sun |
|
спати, спить (imp) |
to sleep |
|
спершу |
first (of
all) |
|
справа (f), pl: - и |
business |
|
стіл, gen, dat: столу, pl: столи |
table |
|
столиця (f), pl: - і |
capital city |
|
стояти, стоїть (imp) |
to stand |
|
студент (m), pl: - и |
student |
|
субота (f), pl: -и |
Saturday |
|
сукня (f), pl: - і |
dress |
|
сусідній |
neighboring |
|
сьогодні |
today |
|
сьомий |
seventh |
|
Т |
|
|
так |
this way; so |
|
там |
there |
|
телефонний |
telephone
(adj.) |
|
телефонувати, телефонує (imp) |
to phone |
|
телефон (m), pl: - и |
telephone |
|
терміново |
urgently |
|
тиждень (m), gen: тижня, pl: тижні |
week |
|
тому що |
because |
|
травень (m) |
May |
|
третій |
third |
|
туалет (m), pl: - и |
toilet;
restroom |
|
турист (m), - и |
tourist |
|
тут |
here |
|
У |
|
|
у вас
(idiom.) |
you have |
|
уже (also: вже) |
already |
|
Україна (f) |
Ukraine |
|
український |
Ukrainian |
|
Х |
|
|
хвилина (f), pl: - и |
minute |
|
хвилинка (f), pl: - и |
minute
(diminutive) |
|
хотів би |
would like to |
|
хто |
who |
|
Ц |
|
|
це |
this |
|
цукерка (f), pl: - и |
candy |
|
Ч |
|
|
час (m), pl:
-и |
time |
|
червень (m) |
June |
|
четвертий |
fourth |
|
четвер (m), pl: четверги |
Thursday |
|
чимало |
quite a few; many/much |
|
число (n), pl: - а |
number; date |
|
читати, -є (imp) |
to read |
|
чоловік (m), pl: -и |
man; husband; pl. gen. of people |
|
чорний |
black |
|
Ш |
|
|
шоколадний |
chocolate
(adj.) |
|
шостий |
sixth |
|
шукати, -є (imp) |
to search, to look for |
|
Щ |
|
|
ще |
more;
moreover |
|
що |
what; that |
|
щойно |
just now |
|
щороку |
every year |
|
щось |
something |
|
Я |
|
|
я |
I |
|
яблуко (n), pl: - а |
apple |
|
якщо |
if |
TEXTBOOK REQUIRED
Бахтіярова Х. Ш., Лукашевич С.
С., Майданюк І. З. Українська мова. Практичний курс для іноземців: Посібник для
слухачів підготовчих відділень і факультетів. – Тернопіль: Укрмедкнига, 1999.
INTERNET SITE
www.ukma.kiev.ua/pub/courses/UFL/