There’s not much that we hear about Ukrainian language; so, you can easily be forgiven for not knowing much about it. However, just because we don’t hear about the language doesn’t mean there isn’t much to know. With about 45 million people living in Ukraine and Ukrainian being the official language of the country, there are more people speaking the language than the stats show. Besides Ukraine, Ukrainian is also spoken in various other countries such as Bosnia, Hungary, Romania, and Serbia, among others. Let’s enlighten ourselves with this native language of Ukraine.
History of Ukrainian Language
Though, not much information is available about the origin of Ukrainian, it shares some words with other Slavic nation languages – mostly Polish, Russian and Slovak. Apart from the origin, Historical linguists traced the origin of the language to the Old East Slavic languages in the early medieval state of Kievan Rus’. However, after the fall of Kievan Rus,’ it was believed that the language developed into Ruthenian language.
Throughout its existence, the language has often been looked down upon and was even banned from schools in the Russian empire from 1804 until the Russian revolution. Moreover, the language has always been popular in Western Ukraine, where it never got banned and was used not only in folklore songs, but also by traveling musicians, and prominent authors.
Learning the Language
If you are an enthusiast and want to learn the language, you must know a few things beforehand about it.
The Alphabets
There are some letters that you may recognize from the English alphabets. It is also noticeable that majority of the words in Ukrainian language begin with the letter ‘n’ and the letter ‘o’ is a most frequently used word, while letters such as ‘ф’ and ‘г’ are not used much.
Speaking
Since the language has different alphabets as compared to English, it is a difficult language to master. However, if you have the knowledge of Slovakian, Russian, or Polish language, your task of learning Ukrainian may become easier.
In the End
Regardless of whether you are visiting Ukraine for a while and need document translation, or need Ukrainian translation due to various official reasons, look for a professional translation provider to avoid any last minute problem. For more information on Ukrainian translation, call 888-670-3369.