Ukrainian

Ukrainian is an East Slavic language. It is the official state language of Ukraine and one of the three official languages in the unrecognized state of Transnistria, the other two being Romanian and Russian. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script.

History

The Ukrainian language traces its origins to the Old East Slavic language of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus'. In its earlier stages it was called Ruthenian. The language has persisted despite several periods of bans, discouragement or both throughout centuries as it has always maintained a sufficient base among the people of Ukraine, its folklore songs, itinerant musicians, and prominent authors.

Classification

Ukrainian is a member of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is closely related to Belarusian, Polish, and Russian.

Geographic distribution

Ukrainian is spoken by over 40 million people in Ukraine and other countries. The Ukrainian language is the most common first language in the Donbass and the rural Ukraine; it is less prevalent in western Ukraine.

Dialects

Ukrainian has two main dialectal variants, a standard one and a Ruthenian one, a transitional form to Belarusian.

Writing system

Ukrainian is written in a version of Cyrillic, with some letters derived from Greek and Latin. It is an adaptation of the Cyrillic script, a writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire. It is composed of 33 letters.

See also

• History of the Ukrainian language
• Ukrainian alphabet
• Ukrainian phonology
• Ukrainian literature

External links

• Ukrainian Language in the World