Which language is the closest to Ukrainian?

[Kathy]

Hello miaow - It is not Russians who lived in the Baltic Republics who complained - it was Moscow's government representatives in Russia. Russia made the same complaint to the EU about Ukraine. The point is, this is a power ploy by Moscow because it results in EU investigation, as it is contrary to EU admission policies. That is why Ukraine has introduced legislation to give Russian equal language status to Ukrainian.

[Silkrem]

Me and my daughter work at thet same factory. In October, 2002 she has asked me to help the Polish driver, who has brought the goods from Poland for her department. This man talked only in Polish and he has visited Ukraine for the first time. Certainly he has lost the way in our city. But the kind people have shown him a road to our factory. I have shown him a road to night parking in a quiet place and has given some instructions for the next day. By the way, this driver had an excellent detailed map of Ukraine in the Polish language. We (me and my daughter) spoke with him in Ukrainian and Russian. I attempt to teach the Polish language, I understand about 80 % of the text. So I understood his speech. In difficult cases - digits and numbers - I wrote on a paper. We have understood one another very well. For one day later we have received the message, that this man successfully has reached the following point - Odessa. We can cooperate without translators. The main thing is a good will.

[Zbyszek]

Originally posted by Silkrem

...
I attempt to teach the Polish language, I understand about 80 % of the text. So I understood his speech. In difficult cases - digits and numbers - I wrote on a paper. We have understood one another very well. For one day later we have received the message, that this man successfully has reached the following point - Odessa. We can cooperate without translators. The main thing is a good will.

Greetings Silkrem, yes we can co-operate if we really want to. I believe you actually wanted to say about learning and not teching Polish, which is difficult even for us Poles (sic!). It is enjoyable to be able to understand someone speaking different language.
There are a lot of funny situations of course because of the antonyms and homonyms. I have already reported problems of a Polish teacher who visited Slovakia to teach children. When the time of a first lesson arrived he declared: if I make a mistake you can correct me which is popravits' in Polish. The kids roared with laughs which surprised a poor guy. "What's the matter?" he asked at last. The kids replied: "popravit' means: to hang in Slovak."
I still remember my lessons of Russian and some diffcult phrases to write like: dyeti syeli pad yeli i syeli zavtrak. I was very afraid of unexpected daily tests our teacher invented in big numbers.
In Polish grozny means "dangerous" while in Russian it is "terrible" so Tsar Ivan's name does not imply so much awe in Poland.
There is also another problem of similarity between the languages. It can give the impression of a foreign language as of a distorted, twisted version of one's mother tongue. I noticed that some Russians have sucha feeling about Ukrainian. Melody of some similar languages can look funny as well. Poles like a melody of Slovak or Czech but these languages sound just funny to us, just like kids' talk.


[Edited by Zbyszek on 6th April 2003 at 00:28]

[happy_gunner]

Originally posted by Zbyszek


In Polish grozny means "dangerous" while in Russian it is "terrible" so Tsar Ivan's name does not imply so much awe in Poland.

Zbyszek I think I am in the rare position of correcting you, but I'm sure the Russian speakers on here can confirm that "Grozny" doesn't mean "terrible" in Russian.
To say terrible in Russian I think you would choose "uzhasno" or "strashno", whereas "grozny" means something more like "formidable", "not to be messed with", "threatening" and is closer to your "dangerous" than it is to "terrible".
I think this is a common error due to Ivan Grozny being labelled Ivan the Terrible by the English-speaking world, however can I assume that in Polish the word derives from the word for "storm" like in Russian?
Apologies if I am wrong but I hope I'm not - it means I'm even more behind in my Russian studies than I thought(!)
All the best.

[Zbyszek]

Greetings Happy-Gunner. You must be right and this situation reflects my imperfect English
Grozny in Polish means only dangerous so I would say it usually involves risk but no awe.
Groza in Polish means awe and not a storm like in Russian.
It is strange but in Polish, grozny and groza are only historically connected but their meanings are not too much linked now.
Maybe "awesome" would be a better attribute for Ivan. I can not say it for sure. Your suggestion does not support this view.
Now I noticed that both Polish and English translations of Ivan's nickname are not accurate enough.
Pozhelhanya vsyevo kharoshevo iz Varshavy. Zbigniew

Mihkail Heller supports your interpretation and I am the more inclined to believe you. He says that Ivan III was also attributed this way but it was forgotten.
Moreover, Heller says grozny meant "able to rule" or "sovereign" for Russians because power was naturally awesome in Russia.

[Inter]

Ukrainian has got about 60% common roots with Polish and 40% common with Russian. However, pronunciation is much different in Polish. Slovaks just speak more recognizable to Ukrainian ear language. Roots are about 30% similar..
One can "guess" and even "understand" the gist, but not necessarily be right about closeness of words: "hod" is a root that means movement (usually on feet) "hoda", "hodit'". But watch in Ukrainian comes from "godina" ( an hour ), so it is "godinnik" (again, pronunciation)
Being Ukrainian myself, I can tell: it is much easy to READ Polish for me but to HEAR Slovakian

[Volodya987]

Inter, you may or may not be Ukrainian, but the Ukrainian language has both a H and a G, the H missing since Stalin stole it. In Ukrainian, time is hodena, watch/clock is hodennek (Using English phonetics where e is for egg, a is for umbrella). The root word for walk is khod, (with the kh pronounced like the sound of the kindling of a young fire flaring up). Computer studies, years ago, found that Ukrainian, spoken correctly, is the centre of Indo-European languages ie it is the least deviated from the original. It is older than Sanscrit. It is not that Ukrainian is 60% Polish/40% Russian but the opposite. Polish is much less deviated from Ukrainian than Russian is.
A long time ago, someone carried out experiments, where people listened to different Indo-European languages, trying to decide which was the most "musical" and pleasant sounding to the ear. It was a dead heat between Italian, spoken correctly, and Ukrainian, spoken correctly, as to who won this particular competition.
Finally, although Ukrainian has both H and G, the hard G sound is not very common, and only used in imported, dangerous words such as "The Gulag", and most imported words with a "G" are softened to "H". So, if you think you
speak Ukrainian, and say "godinik" rather than "hodennek",
go and take a long hot, shower.