Ukrainian language facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Ukrainian |
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| Native to | Ukraine | |||
| Ethnicity | Ukrainians | |||
| Native speakers | 45 million (2007)ne2007 | |||
| Language family |
Indo-European
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| Early forms: |
Old East Slavic
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| Writing system |
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| Official status | ||||
| Official language in | ||||
| Recognised minority language in | ||||
| Regulated by | National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine: Institute for the Ukrainian Language, Ukrainian language-information fund, Potebnya Institute of Language Studies | |||
| Linguasphere |
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Ukrainian-speaking world
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Ukrainian language and Ukrainians with their neighbors in the early 20th century.
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The Ukrainian language (Ukrainian: українська (мова), transliteration: ukrajins'ka mova) is an Eastern Slavic language. This language is a part of the Indo-European language family.
Ukrainian is the second most spoken Slavic language. It is the official language of Ukraine. There are 37 million speakers in Ukraine. Most of them are native speakers. All over the world there are more than 50 million speakers.
The Ukrainian language is written with Cyrillic letters.
Some words are similar to the Polish language.
Alphabet
The Ukrainian alphabet with transliteration and German transcription:
| Capital letter(HTML-Entity) | Small letter(HTML-Entity) | Academic transliteration |
English transcription |
German transcription |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| А (А) | а (а) | A a | A a | A a |
| Б (Б) | б (б) | B b | B b | B b |
| В (В) | в (в) | V v | V v | W w |
| Г (Г) | г (г) | H h | H h | H h |
| Ґ (Ґ) | ґ (ґ) | G g | G g | G g |
| Д (Д) | д (д) | D d | D d | D d |
| Е (Е) | е (е) | E e | E e | E e |
| Є (Є) | є (є) | Je je | Ye ye | Je je |
| Ж (Ж) | ж (ж) | Ž ž | Zh zh | Sch (Sh) sch (sh) |
| З (З) | з (з) | Z z | Z z | S s |
| И (И) | и (и) | Y y | Y y | Y y |
| І (І) | і (і) | I i | I i | I i |
| Ї (Ї) | ї (ї) | Ji ji | Yi yi | Ji ji |
| Й (Й) | й (й) | J j 1 | Y y | J j |
| К (К) | к (к) | K k | K k (instead ks x) | K k (instead ks x) |
| Л (Л) | л (л) | L l | L l | L l |
| М (М) | м (м) | M m | M m | M m |
| Н (Н) | н (н) | N n | N n | N n |
| О (О) | о (о) | O o | O o | O o |
| П (П) | п (п) | P p | P p | P p |
| Р (Р) | р (р) | R r | R r | R r |
| С (С) | с (с) | S s | S s | S s (between vowels ss) |
| Т (Т) | т (т) | T t | T t | T t |
| У (У) | у (у) | U u | U u | U u |
| Ф (Ф) | ф (ф) | F f | F f | F f |
| Х (Х) | х (х) | Ch ch | Kh, kh | Ch ch |
| Ц (Ц) | ц (ц) | C c | Ts ts | Z z |
| Ч (Ч) | ч (ч) | Č č | Ch ch | Tsch tsch |
| Ш (Ш) | ш (ш) | Š š | Sh sh | Sch sch |
| Щ (Щ) | щ (щ) | Šč šč | Shch shch | Schtsch schtsch (Stsch stsch) |
| Ь (Ь) | ь (ь) | ’ (apostrophe) before vowel j 2 | ’ (apostrophe) before vowel y (Soft sign) | (–) bzw. j |
| Ю (Ю) | ю (ю) | Ju Ju | Yu yu | Ju ju |
| Я (Я) | я (я) | Ja ja | Ya ya | Ja ja |
| ’ | ’ (apostrophe)3 | (–) | (–) |
- 1only before o
- 2only after consonants; a capital letter does not exist; the soft sign ь is not a letter representing a sound, but modifies the sound of the preceding letter, indicating palatalisation ('softening').
- 3an apostrophe (’) is used to mark de-palatalization of the preceding consonant.
Images for kids
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Miniature of St Luke from the Peresopnytsia Gospels (1561).
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Ukrainian speakers in the Russian Empire (1897)
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The Ukrainian text in this Soviet poster reads: "The Social base of the USSR is an unbreakable union of the workers, peasants and intelligentsia".
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The 1921 Soviet recruitment poster. It uses traditional Ukrainian imagery with Ukrainian-language text: "Son! Enroll in the school of Red commanders, and the defense of Soviet Ukraine will be ensured."
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Anti-russification protest. The banner reads "Ukrainian School for Ukrainian kids!".
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While Russian was a de facto official language of the Soviet Union in all but formal name, all national languages were proclaimed equal. The name and denomination of Soviet banknotes were listed in the languages of all fifteen Soviet republics. On this 1961 one-ruble note, the Ukrainian for "one ruble", один карбованець (odyn karbovanets`), directly follows the Russian один рубль (odin rubl`).
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Fluency in Ukrainian (purple column) and Russian (blue column) in 1989 and 2001
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Ukrainian language traffic sign for the Ivan Franko Museum in Kryvorivnia.
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Ethnographic Map of Slavic and Baltic Languages
See also
In Spanish: Idioma ucraniano para niños
