Honorifics & Accents

[is5512]

Actually two questions, but I was too lazy to start two threads, lol.

1) As a result of a strict upbringing combined with time in uniform, "Sir" and "Ma'am" are two of the three most frequent words off my lips. How does one convey respect in Ukrainian? Does one call a millitian-man "officer" (or the equivalent)? An elderly lady "Tyotya"?

2) I've never visited Ukraine, nor know for sure where my people are from. My English has been shaped by years of wandering, but it seems to lean Texan. I was amused to have a visitor from the Old Country tell me I speak Ukrainian with a Polish accent. Can someone give a crash course in in regional accents, and how the people speaking them are perceived (i.e. Odessa accent is indicative of a con artist, etc.)?

[bm-21Lemko]

The North-western group

• Volynian is spoken in Rivne and Volyn, as well as in parts of Zhytomyr and Ternopil. It is also used in Chelm in Poland.
• 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
• йНПНРЙХИ ЯКНБМХЙ КЭБЁБЯЭЙН© ЄБЮПХ This might be what you are looking for as a dialect Upper Dniestrian and is dialect among most emigre populations

The South-western group

• Southwestern dialects
  • Boyko is spoken by the Boyko people 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.
  • Hutsul is spoken by the Hutsul people on the northern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains, in the extreme southern parts of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, as well as in parts of the Chernivtsi and Transcarpathian Oblasts.
  • Lemko is spoken by the Lemko people, most of whose homeland rests outside the current political borders of Ukraine in the Prešov Region of Slovakia along the southern side of the Carpathian Mountains, and in the southeast of modern Poland, along the northern sides of the Carpathians.
  • 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.
  • Pokuttia (Bukovynian) is spoken in the Chernivtsi Oblast of Ukraine. This dialect has some distinct vocabulary borrowed from Romanian.
  • Rusyn is spoken by the Rusyn people, whose live in Transcarpathia around Uzhhorod. It is similar to the Lemko dialect spoken by Ukrainians outside the borders of Ukraine in the Prešov Region of Slovakia along the southern side of the Carpathian Mountains but differs from them by the active use of Russian and Hungarian elements. There is an active movement to make this dialect a separate language distinct from Ukrainian.

The South-eastern group

• Southeastern dialects
  • 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.
  • Slobozhan is spoken in Kharkiv, Sumy, Luhansk, and the northern part of Donetsk, as well as in the Voronezh and Belgorod 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 considered a transitional dialect between Ukrainian and Russian
  • A Steppe dialect is spoken in southern and southeastern Ukraine. This dialect was originally the main language of the Zaporozhian Cossacks

[bm-21Lemko]

The Northern dialects

Northern (Polissian) dialects:

• 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 areas in the Kursk, Voronezh and Belgorod OblastsNo 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
• 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
• 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 To others it is a dialect of Polish.

Dialects outside of Ukraine

• • Upper Sannian is spoken in the border area between Ukraine and Poland in the San river valley. Othen called Lemko or Lyshak.
• The Rusyn language is considered by Ukrainian linguists to be a dialect of Ukrainian:
  • Dolinian Rusyn or Subcarpathian Rusyn is spoken in the Transcarpathian Oblast.
  • Pannonian or Bačka Rusyn is spoken in northwestern Serbia and eastern Croatia. Rusin language of the Bačka dialect has been recodnised as one of the official languages of the Serbian Autonomous Province of Vojvodina).
  • Pryashiv Rusyn is the Ukrainian dialect spoken in the Prešov (in Ukrainian: Pryashiv) region of Slovakia, as well as by some émigré communities, primarily in the United States of America.
• A Kuban dialect known locally by the term Balachka is spoken in the Kuban region of Russia, by the Kuban Cossacks, descendants of the Zaporozhian Cossacks who resettled in that area in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This dialect ia based on Middle Dnieprian but features the use of Russian vocabulary. It varies somewhat from one area to another

[bm-21Lemko]

Many immigration populations from the Austro hungarian empire that came to the U.S. and Canada will use borrowed words from

polish and german especially if your ancestor was from the Galicia province.

They might also know german if they were in the Austro-hungarian army. My great great grandfather(lemko/ukrainian) learned

german in the Austro-hungarian army.