Ukrainian language: Encyclopedia II - Ukrainian language - Current usage

Ukrainian language - Current usage

The Ukrainian language is currently emerging from a long period of decline. Although there are almost fifty million ethnic Ukrainians 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 languages 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 northern and central Ukraine, Russian is the language of the urban population, while in rural areas Ukrainian is much more common. In the south and the east of Ukraine, Russian is prevalent even in rural areas, and in Crimea, Ukrainian is almost absent.

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. 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.

Ukrainian language - Dialects of Ukrainian

Several modern dialects of Ukrainian exist [5], [6]:

• Northern (polissian) dialects [7]:
  • Eastpolissian dialect spoken in Chernihiv oblast (excluding south-eastern districts), in the northern part of Sumy Oblast, and in south-eastern districts of Kiev Oblast as well as in adjacent districts of Russian Federation: south-western part of Bryansk Oblast (the area around Starodub), as well as in some places of Kursk Oblast, Voronezh Oblast and Belgorod Oblast. [8]. No linguigraphical border defined, volcabulary differs as one approaches to Russia or Ukraine porper. Both grammar sets are thus applicable [9].
  • Central polissian dialect spoken in the north-western part of Kiev Oblast, in the nothern part of Zhytomyr Oblast and north-eastern part of Rivne Oblast [10].
  • Westpolissian dialect in northern part of Volyn Oblast, noth-western part of Rivne Oblast as well as in adjacent districts of Brest Voblast of Belarus. The latter area uses Belarusian grammar. Considered to be dialect of Belarusian as well. [11]

• South-East dialects [12]:
  • Serednionaddniprianskyi dialect is base of the Standard Ukrainian (spoken in the central part of the nation, and in southern and eastern part of Kiev Oblast). Traditionally, the variation of language naturally spoken in Cherkasy, Poltava and Kiev areas is considered to be the closest to the "standard" Ukrainian.
  • Slobozhanskyi dialect spoken in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Luhansk, Northern part of Donetsk regions as well as Voronezh and Belgorod regions of Russia. [13]. Formed from gradual mixture of Russian and Ukrainian, the language slowly shifts from Ukrainian to Russian as one travels northwards or eastwards (and vice versa) with no linguigraphical border. Both grammar sets are applicable [14]
  • Steppe dialect spoken in South and South-East Ukraine. Originally the main language of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. [15].
  • Kuban dialect (known locally as Balachka) spoken in the Kuban region of Russia, by Kuban Cossacks, descendents of the original Zaporozhian host after they migrated there. Formed from gradual mixture of Russian and Ukrainian. Predominantly Russian volcabulary is used along with Russian grammar. Strongly varies from one area to another. [16]
• South-West dialects [17]:
  • Podillian dialect. Spoken in the southern parts of Vinnytsia and Khmelnytskyi Oblasts, in the nothern part of Odessa Oblast and in the adjacent districts of Cherkasy Oblast, Kirovohrad Oblast and Mykolaiv Oblast [18].
  • Volynian dialect spoken in the Rivne, Volyn and parts of Zhytomyr and Ternopil regions, as well as around Chelm in Poland.
  • Pokuttia (Bukovynian) dialect. Spoken in the Chernivtsi Oblast of Ukraine. Shows some destinct volcabulary borrowed from Romanian.
  • Naddnistrianskyi dialect. Considered to be the main Galician dialect, spoken in the Lviv Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk Oblasts. Distinguishes itself from the large amount of Polish features and some German Volcabulary.
  • Nadsianskyi dialect. Spoken in the border area between Ukraine and Poland around the San river valley.
  • Hutsul dialect. Spoken in the extreame south of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (as well parts of Chernivtsi and Transcarpathian Oblasts, on the northern slope of the Carpathian ridge.
  • Boyko dialect. Spoken on the Northern side of the Carpathian ridge of the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk. As well as across the border in the Subcarpathian Voivodship of Poland
  • Lemko dialect. Spoken outside Ukraine in the Prešov Kraj of Slovakia along the Southern side of the Carpathian ridge.
  • Transcarpathian dialect. Spoken in the Transcarpathian Oblast.
    • Pryashiv-rusyn dialect spoken Ukrainian (Rusyn) in Pryashiv region Slovakia as well as some émigré communities (some linguists consider as separate Rusyn language)
    • Bačka-rusyn (бачвансько-русинський) dialect spoken Ukrainian (Rusyn) in north-western Serbia and eastern Croatia (Also considered as a separate Rusin language, 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 One, 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 language - Ukrainophone population

The Ukrainian is a language of speach by ethnic Ukrainians that is approximately 36,894,000 people in the world. Most of the countries are either ex-USSR where a lot of Ukrainians 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 [19])
3. Brazil 900,000 ^{[citation needed]}
4. Kazakhstan 898,000
5. United States 844,000
6. Moldova 600,000
7. Italy 500,000 [20]
8. Hungary 300,000
9. Portugal 300,000 [21]
10. Belarus 291,000
11. Spain 200,000 [22]
12. Canada 175,000
13. Uzbekistan 153,000
14. Poland 150,000
15. Kyrgyzstan 109,000
16. Slovakia 100,000
17. Argentina 100,000 ^{[citation needed]}
18. Latvia 78,000
19. Romania 57,600
20. Georgia 52,000
21. Lithuania 45,000
22. Tajikistan 41,000
23. Turkmenistan 37,000
24. Azerbaijan 32,000
25. Paraguay 26,000
26. Estonia 21,000
27. Armenia 8,000
28. Serbia and Montenegro 3,000

(Source, unless specified: Ethnologue [23])

The Ukrainian language is the official language of Ukraine. The language is also one of three official languages of the breakaway Moldovan republic of Transnistria (Source: The Constitution of Transnistria, Article 12 [24])

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Current usage", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki