Ukrainian language

[Serb]

I hope my question doesn't offend anybody, but I'd like to know what's the difference between ukrainian and russian. Can a russian and ukrainian understand eachother, is there a large or small difference between th two languages?

Im asking because all slav languages originate from the same root, speaking serbian myself I can basically understand some bulgarian, and macedonian, the south slav branch. So I was wondering how similar is the eastern slav languages.

Thaks..

[big-daddy]

Originally posted by Serb
I hope my question doesn't offend anybody, but I'd like to know what's the difference between ukrainian and russian. Can a russian and ukrainian understand eachother, is there a large or small difference between th two languages?

Im asking because all slav languages originate from the same root, speaking serbian myself I can basically understand some bulgarian, and macedonian, the south slav branch. So I was wondering how similar is the eastern slav languages.

Thaks..

Ukrainian language is softer, while Russian is more harsh with many hard consonants. A ukrainian and russian can understand each other pretty well, provided that the Ukrainian begins speaking Russian. But seriously, I don't know if Russians understand Ukrainian language. Maybe there are some Russians around here who might answer that.

Plus there are minor Ukr. dialects. In the west there is a large # of german+Polish words (wtf is " bambetl' "?) And then there's the Zakarpatia- Ukr+Romanian+Hungarian+Slovak.

For a really interesting experience one should go further west and listen how ukrainians of Canada and US speak, collectively known as the "baniaky". 50 years, if not more, of relative isolation from the rest of Ukraine take their toll. When I first heard them speak I was laughing my a$$ off. "Kopanyy miach" = "football" ("miach"="ball", "Kopanyy" is an adjective from "kopaty"="to kick", so that football/soccer=kicked ball.)

or "Ya vchora draivuvav po highweyu..." ("draivuvav" from the english "drive", "highweyu" from english "highway").

[Zbyszek]

Originally posted by big-daddy

Ukrainian language is softer, while Russian is more harsh with many hard consonants. A ukrainian and russian can understand each other pretty well, provided that the Ukrainian begins speaking Russian. But seriously, I don't know if Russians understand Ukrainian language. Maybe there are some Russians around here who might answer that.

Plus there are minor Ukr. dialects. In the west there is a large # of german+Polish words (wtf is " bambetl' "?) And then there's the Zakarpatia- Ukr+Romanian+Hungarian+Slovak.

For a really interesting experience one should go further west and listen how ukrainians of Canada and US speak, collectively known as the "baniaky". 50 years, if not more, of relative isolation from the rest of Ukraine take their toll. When I first heard them speak I was laughing my a$$ off. "Kopanyy miach" = "football" ("miach"="ball", "Kopanyy" is an adjective from "kopaty"="to kick", so that football/soccer=kicked ball.)

or "Ya vchora draivuvav po highweyu..." ("draivuvav" from the english "drive", "highweyu" from english "highway"). [/b]

Daddy, I'd like to add my two Polish cents to your interesting description. "Bambetle" seems to be a German word which functions in Polish as a very funny, colourful substitute for "manatki" [belongings]. "Manatki" is another funny term which is sometimes barbled as "manele".
Ukrainian seems to be rather understandable language for readers acquainted with the Cyrillic characters. Knowledge of Russian makes Ukrainian more understandable of course. However, spoken Ukrainian is more difficult to comprehend.
Generally, melody of all language spoken in the area which I would define as former Polish borderland, sounds really nice, softly for Polish ears, never mind it would be Belarussian, Ukrainian or Polish. One in central or western Poland can easily recognize a newcomer from Lviv, Vilnius or Grodno.

Also for us Poles, Polish spoken by Polish Americans is also funny [but in a positive meaning]. The sentence: Ya zrobilem zakupy w shopie za kornerem is just one example.

[Serhii]

Dzien dobry Zbyszku,

It was very nice to run into your post which is very interesting and informative as usually. Living in Warsaw can you recognize poles from different part of Poland ?
Once I met Ukrainians from Olshtyn - they spoke very clean, perfect Ukrainian language , but it sounded different than I do - pronunciation was another.

------------------------------------------------------------
Serb,

I know for sure that Ukrainians who grew up abroad ( = didn't learn or hear Russian ) do not understand it correctly. It is the same if I speak to you Ukrainian - you wouldn't understand all I talk about. Russians won't read or understand any Ukr texts in literature ( especially scientific ) language. Ukrainians will do, because we learn Russian and listen to it every day ( tv, radio, music, etc ). It is not like Serbian and Chroatian ones. If you only knew how many common words we have in Serbian and Ukrainian which Russian doesn't have at all. Maybe all Slavs really came from a territory which is Ukraine now ? Many historians think so.

A few words about sounding. You can easily recognize two languages if you don't know any of them. Russian is so called A-sounding one. It received stong Finno-Hungarian influence ( Maskwa, Aka, malako ,etc) , then there was a big mongol impuct.

Ukr is O-sounding very melodic language. It has developed some sounds which Rus doesn't have at all, it avoids two strong consonants following each other ( never KTO , but HTO, etc ). You can read a lot about it... I think all Slavic languages are great.

[Serb]

Thanks for your replies.

And don't worry, Serbs living in America, Canada and Australia sound very funny as well. There's lots of english-serbian combinations. I think most people who are dettached from their homeland mix the languages in question.

Regards 8)

[big-daddy]

There's a Seinfeld episode- one of the earliest, and in it, Kramer persuaded Jerry to get illegal cable and two Russian cable guys showed up. These two guys mumbled something and you couldn't catch individual Russian words- there were none, but the way they spoke, INTONATION, was very Russian. That's how Russian really is.

If I was doing a polish imitation, I'd take Ukrainian and put "z", "sh" and "s" sounds in every word. Polish- very funny language.

Where are you from Serhii? (city)

[Serhii]

It is funny, but true - indeed. I think you can recognize every native speaker by her intonation , even more - what part of country he/she is from ( as Zbyszek mentioned ). If you only knew how difficult is for us not English speaking guys understand and follow American intonation !
I am from Central Ukraine - Dnipropetrovs'k. Pryvit z Ukrajiny !