Slavic Languages

Some of my students in Westport

I haven't written in some time and so much has happened. I have started teaching English to Ukrainians in Newport on Tuesdays and Westport on Thursdays. It's interesting that the Russian speakers do not believe that I cannot understand Russian. They have, however, started to respect that I do not wish to understand Russian, even though I really cannot understand most of it. What is also interesting, is that the Ukrainian language has evolved so differently in Ukraine. They use many more Russian words, like Da instead of Tak, and ponimayu instead of rosumiyu, and harasho instead of dobre.  

So I asked ChatGPT, the AI chat box what the difference is between Russian and Ukrainian. I have often told people they have different letters in their alphabets to start. Russian has also many more gutteral and Asian sounds as it had a lot of Far Eastern influence. Here's what AI had to say. 

"Russian and Ukrainian are two closely related Slavic languages that are spoken in Eastern Europe. They are both members of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages and are therefore closely related to each other, with a high degree of mutual intelligibility. However, they are distinct languages and there are some important differences between them.

One of the main differences between Russian and Ukrainian is the alphabet that they use. Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which is an alphabet of 33 letters that was developed in the 9th century based on the Greek alphabet. Ukrainian, on the other hand, uses the Cyrillic alphabet, but it also includes some additional letters to represent sounds that are specific to Ukrainian.

Another important difference between Russian and Ukrainian is their vocabulary. Although the two languages share a common Slavic root, they have developed a number of distinct words and phrases over the centuries. For example, Ukrainian tends to use more Ukrainian-derived words, while Russian tends to use more Russian-derived words.

There are also some differences in pronunciation and grammar between Russian and Ukrainian. Ukrainian tends to have a more complex grammar, with more cases and verb forms, and it also tends to use more nasal vowel sounds. Russian, on the other hand, has a simpler grammar and tends to use more palatalized consonants.

Overall, while Russian and Ukrainian are closely related languages, they are distinct and have their own unique characteristics and features. It is important to recognize and respect these differences, and to use the appropriate language when communicating with speakers of Russian or Ukrainian."

The modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters: twenty consonants (⟨б⟩, ⟨в⟩, ⟨г⟩, ⟨д⟩, ⟨ж⟩, ⟨з⟩, ⟨к⟩, ⟨л⟩, ⟨м⟩, ⟨н⟩, ⟨п⟩, ⟨р⟩, ⟨с⟩, ⟨т⟩, ⟨ф⟩, ⟨х⟩, ⟨ц⟩, ⟨ч⟩, ⟨ш⟩, ⟨щ⟩), ten vowels (⟨а⟩, ⟨е⟩, ⟨ё⟩, ⟨и⟩, ⟨о⟩, ⟨у⟩, ⟨ы⟩, ⟨э⟩, ⟨ю⟩, ⟨я⟩), a semivowel / consonant (⟨й⟩), and two modifier letters or "signs" (⟨ь⟩, ⟨ъ⟩) that alter the pronunciation of a preceding consonant or a following vowel.

In the modern Ukrainian alphabet, twenty letters represent consonants (б,в, г, ґ, д, ж, з, к, л, м, н, п, р, с, т, ф, х, ц, ч, ш, щ), ten vowels (а, е, є, и, і, ї, о, у, ю, я), and one semivowel (й/yot). The soft sign (ь), which appears only after consonants, indicates that the preceding consonant is soft (palatalized).

Note: When I responded to what I thought was an error in the AI answer, "I would argue that it is Russian that has additional letters to represent sounds that are specific to Russian rather than the other way around. Otherwise, it's pretty accurate." here's what it said:

Thank you for your feedback. You are correct that I made a mistake in my previous response. Ukrainian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, but it includes some additional letters to represent sounds that are specific to Ukrainian. Russian, on the other hand, uses the standard Cyrillic alphabet, which consists of 33 letters. I apologize for the error in my previous response. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Russian and Ukrainian, at first glance, look very similar. This is not so. In reality, they have more differences than similarities. In fact, Ukrainian does not use the letters Ёё, Ъъ, Ыы, Ээ, but does have Ґґ, Єє, Іі, Її, which are not present in Russian.

The following table visually shows how much closer the basic vocabulary of Modern Ukrainian is to other Eastern European languages and how far it is from Russian.

Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Slovak, and Czech (Note: all country names are in Russian)
https://folkways.today/different-russian-ukrainian-language/ 

It's not just the alphabet and words that diverge, but also grammar. Ukrainian is more closely related to other European languages than to Russian in grammatical structure. My Ukrainian friends who thought they could get by easily by studying Russian in school often were tripped up by Russian grammar. 

Addendum: "For example, English and Dutch are 63% similar as to their lexical composition, which is more than Russian and Ukrainian. Modern research has shown that Ukrainian is more similar to other Slavic languages: to Belorussian (29 common features), Czech and Slovak (23), Polish (22), Croatian and Bulgarian (21), but as to Russian there are only 11 common features.

Proceeding from this, some linguists even question the unification of Russian and Ukrainian into one language group.

According to statistics, only 62% words are common in these languages. These characteristics rank Russian fifth after Polish, Czech, Slovak and Byelorussian. For example, English and Dutch are 63% similar as to their lexical composition, which is more than Russian and Ukrainian."

'Ukrainian and Russian have common Slavic roots but are about as different as Dutch is from German (or even English)'