[identity profile] sarahbrowneyes.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] learn_russian
does anyone know to what degree ukrainian is different than russian language?

i am somewhat familiar with russian and i may be doing a research paper utilizing ukrainian sources. i was just wondering if any of that russian experience would help, or if it is just too different?

thank you!

Date: 2004-09-10 07:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wolk-off.livejournal.com
It is different. More or less like Dutch from German. Too many words differ, though grammar is quite close. Bulgarian is much closer to Russian in its vocabulary but the grammar is dramatically different :)
Here's an example:
"In the previous discussions concerning this question..."
Russian: в предшествовавших обсуждениях этого вопроса...
Ukrainian: в попередніх обговореннях цього питання...

Date: 2004-09-11 12:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kart.livejournal.com
Thanks. That is an interesting description of how the grammar and vocabulary are different.

If I understand correctly, modern Bulgarian has replaced most declensions and cases with only prepositions instead. Yet, Bulgarian retains some proto-Slavic verb tenses that were elminated from modern Russian (for example, I believe Bulgarian retains aorist verb sense, like "господи воззвахъ" in Old Church Slavonic).

As for how Ukranians relate to the Russian language, I can't say. However my great grandmother from western Belarus understood both Russian and Belarussian. Her explanation of the 2 languages was simply that Belarussian was "country polack russian" and Russian was "чистый русский язык". I am not completely sure but the difference between Russian and Belarussian is probably smaller than Russian-Ukranian.

Date: 2004-09-11 10:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wolk-off.livejournal.com
Yes, modern Bulgarian is a "prepositional" language, that's right. No cases, except of nominative and prepositive. And those post-position articles that drive me mad... "Thank you very much for your help": Russian - большое вам спасибо за помощь, Bulgarian - благодаря ви много за помощта (this "та" after "помощ" is the article!) But PHONETICALLY it's very close to Russian - when in Bulgaria this summer, I always felt that people speak Russian around, though they were speaking Bulgarian :) And yes, there is a lot of more ancient grammar forms (and words!) than in Russian.

P.S.

Date: 2004-09-11 11:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wolk-off.livejournal.com
Modern Belarussian is closer to Russian that Ukrainian is when people speak, but writetn Belarussian is a nightmare because they write "as they hear". A girl - девушка in Russian - sounds as дивчина in both Ujkrainian and Belarussian, but in Ukrainian they write дiвчина and in Belarussian дзяучина.

Re: P.S.

Date: 2004-09-11 12:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kart.livejournal.com
Belarussian spelling (http://www.pravapis.org/art_language_reform1.asp) is truly a nightmare. I may never understand it completely.

Дзякую вам за дапамога! ;)

Date: 2004-09-10 08:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] klop.livejournal.com
Russians absolutely don't understand ukrainian. Ukrainians understand russian with no problem. Ukrainian is rather different, especially western ukrainian. I think russian experience could help a little but not much.

Date: 2004-09-10 08:12 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wolk-off.livejournal.com
Well, I do understand Ukrainian, and I'm Russian. Doctor, is there something wrong woth me? ;-))))

Date: 2004-09-10 08:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] demonn.livejournal.com
Must be, there're some russians who can understand ukrainian. :)

Date: 2004-09-10 11:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pantherclaw.livejournal.com
Hmm... I do understand Ukrainian

Date: 2004-09-13 05:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] demonn.livejournal.com
Then you're either one of those russians who can understand ukrainian or you're not russian :-)))

Date: 2004-09-10 08:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] klop.livejournal.com
now there are two of us ;))

Date: 2004-09-10 09:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nale.livejournal.com
They probably "understand Russian with no problem", because they were taught Russian (once the state language or USSR) at schools, while Russians living outside Ukraine were not taught Ukranian.

Date: 2004-09-10 09:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tommygirl.livejournal.com
exactly!
(says the former citizen of Czechoslovakia)
:)

Date: 2004-09-10 02:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] klop.livejournal.com
Absolutely. That is the reason.

Date: 2004-09-11 11:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wolk-off.livejournal.com
Again, I'm Russian Muscovite, hasn't been taught Ukrinian at school, but I do understand it, and after some practice (I visit Ukraine two or three times a year during the last five years) I can even answer simple questions in Ukrainian. I'm not an average Russian though :)))

Date: 2004-09-20 12:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] a-konst.livejournal.com
Really, Russians can understand Ukrainian - after they live some time in ukrainian environment :)

Russians (in general) don't like TRY to understand ukrainian. But Ukrainians (again, in general) are more tolerant to russian language.

Really, I understand ukrainian very easy - most of words are compound from the same parts as russian words.

Date: 2004-09-10 09:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dushka.livejournal.com
they are quite different despite their common roots, just like spanish and italian, german and english, etc. as a native speaker of russian i understand roughly 30-40% of ukrainian depending on the context, etc.

Date: 2004-09-10 09:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tommygirl.livejournal.com
I think you might be able to get away with it...
I mean, these are simply Ukranian resources you are using.
You will be reading them, not conversing, and chances are quite high that you will get most of the material.
(you can also take your time, look things up or ask friends to help you out)

Definitely take a look at some of the Ukranian sources you might be using and see if you're understanding at least 80% of the material BEFORE commiting to this project.
(I've personally have completed a variety of essays/projects in university where I used sources in languages that I was only 'comfortable' with rather than 100% fluent)

BEST OF LUCK

Date: 2004-09-10 10:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] a-1dao2-shi3.livejournal.com
I understand Ukrainian fairly well. I grew up speaking Polish at home, and I take Russian at college. My family also is from the part of Poland that is closest to Ukraine (we used to live in what is now Ukraine but were kicked out by the soviets). I can usually make heads or tails from Ukrainian through Polish or Russian.

German-->Russian

Date: 2004-09-10 10:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dreammaker182.livejournal.com
Well I was told that it would be easier as an English speaker to learn German as I am now, then Russian... Is there any truth to that? I wanted to learn German because of the similarities that it has to English...

Re: German-->Russian

Date: 2004-09-10 01:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nadyezhda.livejournal.com
Well, sine English is about 60% germanic, there are a lot of similarities. I dunno. They're both different languages, each requiring a lot of work- but I think people recommend German because it will seem a little less foreign/a little more familiar to you. Anyway. They're both case languages, in case you didn't know... Good luck making your decision!

Re: German-->Russian

Date: 2004-09-10 01:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] giggle-chick.livejournal.com
yes i would think that german is easier than russian.
i took 3 years of german in high school and it was like speaking english (similar grammar). i'm currently teaching myself russian and 1) pronunciation is quite a bit different from english adn 2) the grammar is more complex. but yes! good luck with either languages

Re: German-->Russian

Date: 2004-09-10 01:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dreammaker182.livejournal.com
Case languges? what do you mean by that?

Actually I am already minoring in German and I am in a German 101 class at the University of Alabama! My major is Telecomunication/Film.

Re: German-->Russian

Date: 2004-09-11 08:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kart.livejournal.com
"case languages" just means that German and Russian both have cases like nominative, accusitive, genitive, dative. Russian is more highly inflected than German though.

Linguists like to classify languages according to this kind of stuff. Languages can be placed on a spectrum from highly inflected to highly isolating.

Isolating analytical type languages have very little conjugation and inflection. Sense is maintained mainly through pre/post-positions and word order. The function of each word is indicated by is position and relation to the words around it in a sentence. Examples of such languages are Chinese and Thai.

Synthetic languages use conjugation and inflection to indicate how morphemes are used in a sentence. Russian, German, Latin, French, etc are all considered inflected synthetic.

English is only slightly inflected, but it has developed out of more highly inflected ancestors such as Old English. English still maintains some inflected cases for pronouns and a very few adjectives:

I, you, we, who - nominative
mine, yours, ours, whose - genitive
me, you, us, whom - fused accusative/dative

Most highschool English teachers would be aghast if told that the posessive apostrophe-s suffix is in fact NOT a contraction of "his". It is an remant of the Old English genitive declension for nouns. If Harald had a sword, it was Haraldes sweorde. That turned into the modern phrase "Harold's sword". There was NEVER any long-form phrase of Harald-his sword. That's complete hogwash.

Uerrrh, ok. End of rant, sorry. Hope the first half of that at least was helpful in explaining cases and inflection.

Re: German-->Russian

Date: 2004-09-10 02:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nemica.livejournal.com
I think that Ukranian is much closer to Russian than English to German. The German grammar's much more difficult and also vocabulary's not so close.

I understand Ukranian, it's not too difficult especially if you have possibility to spend a couple of days there to get some useful words and catch pronunciation.

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