Why are Ukrainians and Russians not “fraternal” peoples?
Are Ukrainian and Russian the same languages?
No, they are not. Ukrainian and Russian are different languages belonging to the same group of Slavic languages. These two languages are not even the most similar to each other. The Belarusian, Polish and Slovak languages are closer to Ukrainian in terms of vocabulary and phonetics than Russian. However, Ukrainians understand Russian well because of Ukraine’s colonial past and the Russification and assimilation policies enforced by Russia. At the same time, Russians either poorly understand the Ukrainian language or do not understand it at all.
There are languages that are much closer to Ukrainian than Russian. The closest to Ukrainian is the Belarusian language – these two languages have as much as 84% of common words. We also have 70% of common words with Polish and 68% with Slovak. The Russian language ranks only fourth as it has only 62% of common vocabulary with Ukrainian. As for phonetics and grammar, Ukrainian has more than 20 features in common with the Czech, Slovak, Polish, Croatian, and Bulgarian languages. Ukrainian has 29 features in common with the Belarusian language, as well as literally the same pronunciation of many words, especially those related to family and daily vocabulary.
Ukrainians understand Russian because they were subject to colonization and Russification for centuries and learning Russian was a must.
There were a lot of attempts to ban the Ukrainian language during history. In 1863, the Valuev Circular was adopted to prohibit the publication of religious, educational literature and textbooks in the Ukrainian language. In 1876, Russia issued another infamous decree for Ukrainians – the Ems Ukaz. That year, the Ukrainian language was banned in publishing, education, art, music, and public use. Hundreds of writers who wrote in Ukrainian were killed during the times of the Soviet Union. Russia killed people for using the Ukrainian language and continues to do so today. American historian Timothy Snyder, a professor at Yale University who specializes in the history of Eastern Europe, in particular Ukraine and Russia, said: “The Ukrainian language survived several centuries of real oppression when the Russian Empire forbade not just publishing the books in it, but also using Ukrainian at schools and in public life.”
Source Uaqa
Теги: Дискусія