View source for Ukrainian language

{{Short description|East Slavic language}}
{{pp|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2023}}
{{more citations needed|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Ukrainian
| nativename       = {{lang|uk|українська мова}}
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|uk|ʊkrɐˈjinʲsʲkɐ ˈmɔwɐ|}}
| states           = [[Ukraine]]
| ethnicity        = [[Ukrainians]]
| speakers         = [[first language|L1]]: {{sigfig|32.925810|2}} million{{update inline|date=September 2025}}
| date             = 2016
| ref              = e27
| speakers2        = [[Second language|L2]]: {{sigfig|5.994000|2}} million (2016)<ref name=e27/>
| speakers_label   = Speakers
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Balto-Slavic languages|Balto-Slavic]]
| fam3             = [[Slavic languages|Slavic]]
| fam4             = [[East Slavic languages|East Slavic]]
| ancestor         = [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]]
| ancestor2        = [[Proto-Balto-Slavic language|Proto-Balto-Slavic]]
| ancestor3        = [[Proto-Slavic language|Proto-Slavic]]
| ancestor4        = [[Old East Slavic language|Old East Slavic]]
| ancestor5        = [[Ruthenian language|Ruthenian]] ([[Ukrainian_language#Chronology|Middle Ukrainian]])
| ancestor6        = 
| dia1             = [[Southeastern Ukrainian dialects|Southeastern dialects]] ([[Balachka]])
| dia2             = [[Southwestern Ukrainian dialects|Southwestern dialects]] ([[Canadian Ukrainian]])
| dia3             = [[Northern Ukrainian dialects|Northern dialects]] 
| dia4             = (see also: [[Ukrainian dialects]])
| script           = {{ubli|[[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]] ([[Ukrainian alphabet]])|[[Ukrainian Braille]]}}
| nation           = {{ubl|[[Ukraine]]|[[Transnistria]]{{efn|Unrecognized Russian-occupied breakaway state, internationally recognized as a part of Moldova}}|[[Republic of Crimea (Russia)|Republic of Crimea]]{{efn|name=russian-occupied-ukraine|Occupied and claimed as a federal subject by Russia. This claim is supported by at least one UN state, although the majority of them recognize the territory as a part of Ukraine.}}|''[[Kherson Oblast]]''{{efn|name=russian-occupied-ukraine}}}}
| minority         = {{ubl|[[Belarus]]|[[Russia]]|[[Bosnia and Herzegovina]]<ref name="treaty" />|[[Croatia]]<ref name="treaty" />|[[Czech Republic]]<ref name="languages">{{cite web |url=http://www.vlada.cz/en/pracovni-a-poradni-organy-vlady/rnm/historie-a-soucasnost-rady-en-16666/ |title=National Minorities Policy of the Government of the Czech Republic |website=Vlada.cz |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=7 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120607051111/http://www.vlada.cz/en/pracovni-a-poradni-organy-vlady/rnm/historie-a-soucasnost-rady-en-16666/ |url-status=live }}</ref>|[[Hungary]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://languagecharter.eokik.hu/sites/StatesParties/Hungary.htm |title=Implementation of the Charter in Hungary |work=Database for the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages |publisher=Public Foundation for European Comparative Minority Research |access-date=16 June 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227004902/http://languagecharter.eokik.hu/sites/StatesParties/Hungary.htm |archive-date=27 February 2014 }}</ref>|[[Moldova]]|[[Poland]]<ref name="treaty"/>|[[Romania]]<ref name="treaty" />|[[Serbia]]<ref name="treaty">{{cite web |url=http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/ListeDeclarations.asp?NT=148&CM=8&DF=23/01/05&CL=ENG&VL=1 |title=List of declarations made with respect to treaty No. 148 (Status as of: 21/9/2011) |publisher=[[Council of Europe]] |access-date=2012-05-22  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118142916/http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/ListeDeclarations.asp?NT=148&CM=8&DF=23/01/05&CL=ENG&VL=1 |archive-date=18 January 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>|[[Slovakia]]<ref name="treaty" />}}
| agency           = [[National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine]]: [[Institute for the Ukrainian Language]], [https://web.archive.org/web/20110926095038/http://www.ulif.com.ua/UMIF/ Ukrainian language-information fund], [http://www.inmo.org.ua/ Potebnya Institute of Language Studies]
| iso1             = uk
| iso2             = ukr
| iso3             = ukr
| lingua           = 53-AAA-ed < [[East Slavic languages|53-AAA-e]]<br />(varieties: 53-AAA-eda to 53-AAA-edq)
| map2             = <!-- Idioma ucraniano.png -->
| mapcaption2      = The Ukrainian-speaking world:
{{Legend|#0080ff|regions where Ukrainian is the language of the majority}} {{Legend|#88c4ff|regions where Ukrainian is the language of a significant minority}}
| notice           = IPA
| glotto           = ukra1253
| glottoname       = Ukrainian
| region           = [[Eastern Europe]]
}}

'''Ukrainian''' ({{langx|uk|українська мова|translit=ukrainska mova|label=none}}, {{IPA|uk|ʊkrɐˈjinʲsʲkɐ ˈmɔwɐ|IPA}}) is an [[East Slavic languages|East Slavic language]], spoken primarily in [[Ukraine]]. It is the [[first language|first (native) language]] of a large majority of [[Ukrainians]].

Written Ukrainian uses the [[Ukrainian alphabet]], a variant of the [[Cyrillic script]]. The [[standard language]] is studied by the [[National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine]] and [[Potebnia Institute of Linguistics]]. Comparisons are often made between Ukrainian and [[Russian language|Russian]], another East Slavic language, yet there is more [[mutual intelligibility]] with [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]],<ref name="classification145">Alexander M. Schenker.  1993.  "Proto-Slavonic", ''The Slavonic Languages''. (Routledge).  pp. 60–121.  p. 60: "[The] distinction between dialect and language being blurred, there can be no unanimity on this issue in all instances..."<br />C.F. Voegelin and F.M. Voegelin.  1977.  ''Classification and Index of the World's Languages'' (Elsevier). p. 311, "In terms of immediate mutual intelligibility, the East Slavic zone is a single language."<br />Bernard Comrie.  1981.  ''The Languages of the Soviet Union'' (Cambridge). pp. 145–146: "The three East Slavonic languages are very close to one another, with very high rates of mutual intelligibility...The separation of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian as distinct languages is relatively recent...Many Ukrainians in fact speak a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian, finding it difficult to keep the two languages apart..."<br />The Swedish linguist [[Alfred Jensen (slavist)|Alfred Jensen]] wrote in 1916 that the difference between the [[Russian language|Russian]] and Ukrainian languages was significant and that it could be compared to the difference between [[Swedish language|Swedish]] and [[Danish language|Danish]]. Jensen, Alfred. ''Slaverna och världskriget. Reseminnen och intryck från Karpaterna till Balkan 1915–16.''. Albert Bonniers förlag, Stockholm, 1916, p. 145.</ref> and a closer [[Lexical similarity|lexical distance]] to [[West Slavic languages|West Slavic]] [[Polish language|Polish]] and [[South Slavic languages|South Slavic]] [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]].<ref>[[Kostiantyn Tyshchenko|K. Tyshchenko]] (1999), ''Metatheory of Linguistics'' (published in Ukrainian), cited in {{cite web |last1=Elms |first1=Teresa |title=Lexical Distance Among the Languages of Europe |url=https://elms.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/lexical-distance-among-languages-of-europe/ |website=Etymologikon |archive-url=https://archive.today/20170404185709/https://elms.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/lexical-distance-among-languages-of-europe/#selection-289.0-289.46 |archive-date=4 April 2017 |language=English |date=4 March 2008 |quote=[graph] lexical distance Ukrainian-Polish: 26–35, Ukrainian-Bulgarian: 26–35, (...) 36–50 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Ukrainian is a descendant of [[Old East Slavic]], a language spoken in the [[Middle Ages|medieval]] state of [[Kievan Rus{{softsign}}]]. In the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]], the language developed into [[Ruthenian language|Ruthenian]], where it became an official language,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ukrainian-language |title=Ukrainian language |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=23 August 2023 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |access-date= |archive-date=15 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150715033910/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ukrainian-language |url-status=live }}</ref> before a process of [[Polonization]] began in the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]]. By the 18th century, Ruthenian diverged into regional variants, and the modern Ukrainian language developed in the territory of present-day Ukraine.<ref name="pugh"/><ref name="shevelov"/><ref name="bunčić"/> [[Russification of Ukraine|Russification]] saw the Ukrainian language banned as a subject from schools and as a language of instruction in the [[Russian Empire]], and continued in various ways in the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="schools">[https://archive.org/details/eternalrussiayel00stee/page/216 Eternal Russia: Yeltsin, Gorbachev, and the Mirage of Democracy] by [[Jonathan Steele (journalist)|Jonathan Steele]], [[Harvard University Press]], 1988, {{ISBN|978-0-674-26837-1}} (p. 217)</ref> Even so, the language continued to see use throughout the country, and remained particularly strong in [[Western Ukraine]].<ref name="WUkraineL">[https://books.google.com/books?id=AP2Hh3LVGaUC&pg=PA309 Purism and Language: A Study in Modem Ukrainian and Belorussian Nationalism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922165713/https://books.google.com/books?id=AP2Hh3LVGaUC&pg=PA309 |date=22 September 2023 }} by [[Paul Wexler (linguist)|Paul Wexler]], [[Indiana University Press]], {{ISBN|087750-175-0}} (page 309)</ref><ref name="UkrGrammar30">[[iarchive:contestedtongues00bila/page/76|Contested Tongues: Language Politics and Cultural Correction in Ukraine]] by [[Laada Bilaniuk]], [[Cornell Univ. Press]], 2006, {{ISBN|978-0-8014-7279-4}} (page 78)</ref>

==Linguistic development==

===Theories===
Specific developments that led to a gradual change of the Old East Slavic vowel system into the system found in modern Ukrainian began around the 12th/13th century (that is, still at the time of the Kievan Rus{{softsign}}) with a lengthening and raising of the Old East Slavic mid vowels ''e'' and ''o'' when followed by a consonant and a [[Havlík's law|weak yer]] vowel that would eventually disappear completely, for example Old East Slavic котъ /kɔtə/ > Ukrainian кіт /kit/ 'cat' (via transitional stages such as /koˑtə̆/, /kuˑt(ə̆)/, /kyˑt/ or similar) or Old East Slavic печь /pʲɛtʃʲə/ > Ukrainian піч /pitʃ/ 'oven' (via transitional stages such as /pʲeˑtʃʲə̆/, /pʲiˑtʃʲ/ or similar).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Schweier |first=Ulrich |title=Ukrainisch |encyclopedia=Lexikon der Sprachen des europäischen Ostens (Wieser-Enzyklopädie des europäischen Ostens, vol. 10) |year=2002 |publisher=Wieser Verlag |location=Klagenfurt/Celovec |editor-last1=Okuka |editor-first1=Miloš |editor-last2=Krenn |editor-first2=Gerald |pages=535–549 |url=https://eeo.uni-klu.ac.at/wwwg.uni-klu.ac.at/eeo/Ukrainisch.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221023175332/https://eeo.uni-klu.ac.at/wwwg.uni-klu.ac.at/eeo/Ukrainisch.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-23 |url-status=live |isbn=3-85129-510-2}}</ref> This raising and other [[Phonology|phonological]] developments of the time, such as the merger of the Old East Slavic vowel [[Phoneme|phonemes]] и /i/ and ы /ɨ/ into the specifically Ukrainian phoneme /ɪ ~ e/, spelled with и (in the 13th/14th centuries), and the [[Fricative|fricativisation]] of the Old East Slavic consonant г /g/, probably first to /ɣ/ (in the 13th century), with /ɦ/ as a reflex in Modern Ukrainian, did not happen in Russian. Only the fricativisation of Old East Slavic г /g/ occurred in Belarusian, where the present-day reflex is /ɣ/.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

[[Ahatanhel Krymsky]] and [[Aleksey Shakhmatov]] assumed the existence of the common spoken language of Eastern Slavs only in prehistoric times.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://litopys.org.ua/pivtorak/pivt.htm |title=Григорій Півторак. Походження українців, росіян, білорусів та їхніх мов |publisher=Litopys.org.ua |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=1 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120201064220/http://litopys.org.ua/pivtorak/pivt.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> According to them the diversification of the Old East Slavic language took place in the 8th or early 9th century.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Russian linguist [[Andrey Zaliznyak]] stated that the [[Old Novgorod dialect]] differed significantly from that of other dialects of Kievan Rus{{softsign}} during the 11th–12th century, but started becoming more similar to them around the 13th–15th centuries. The modern Russian language hence developed from the fusion of this Novgorod dialect and the common dialect spoken by the other Kievan Rus{{softsign}}, whereas the modern Ukrainian and Belarusian languages developed from dialects which did not differ from each other in a significant way.<ref name="About Russian Language History">{{cite web |last1=Zaliznyak |first1=Andrey Anatolyevich |title=About Russian Language History |url=https://elementy.ru/nauchno-populyarnaya_biblioteka/431649/Ob_istorii_russkogo_yazyka |website=elementy.ru |publisher=Mumi-Trol School |access-date=21 May 2020 |archive-date=18 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418153113/https://elementy.ru/nauchno-populyarnaya_biblioteka/431649/Ob_istorii_russkogo_yazyka |url-status=live }}</ref>

Ukrainian linguist [[Stepan Smal-Stotsky]] denies the existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://litopys.org.ua/istkult/ikult01.htm |title=Мова (В.В.Німчук). 1. Історія української культури |publisher=Litopys.org.ua |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=10 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190610194227/http://litopys.org.ua/istkult/ikult01.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Similar points of view were shared by [[Yevhen Tymchenko]], [[Vsevolod Hantsov]], [[Olena Kurylo]], [[Ivan Ohienko]] and others. According to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages during the 6th through 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to an intensive migration of the population within the territory of today's Ukraine in later historical periods. This point of view was also supported by [[George Shevelov]]'s phonological studies,<ref name="autogenerated2">{{cite web|date=1979|title=Юрій Шевельов. Історична фонологія української мови|url=http://www.litopys.org.ua/shevelov/shev.htm|access-date=8 May 2016|publisher=Litopys.org.ua|archive-date=20 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221120105749/http://litopys.org.ua/shevelov/shev.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> which argue that specific features{{Which|date=September 2016}} were already recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic (seen as ancestors to Ukrainian) as far back as these varieties can be documented.<ref name="shevelov" />

===Origins and developments during medieval times===
{{external media
 |float     = right
 |video1    = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR1fdjz9VHU The Ukrainian language in the graffiti of St. Sophia of Kiev]<br/>[[National Sanctuary "Sophia of Kiev"]]. [[YouTube]]}}
As a result of close Slavic contacts with the remnants of the [[Scythians|Scythian]] and [[Sarmatians|Sarmatian]] population north of the [[Black Sea]], lasting into the early [[Middle Ages]], the appearance of the voiced fricative γ/г (romanized "h"), in modern Ukrainian and some southern Russian dialects is explained by the assumption that it initially emerged in [[Scythian language|Scythian]] and related eastern Iranian dialects, from earlier common [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] ''*g'' and ''*gʰ''.<ref>Абаев В. И. О происхождении фонемы ''g (h)'' в славянском языке // Проблемы индоевропейского языкознания. М., 1964. С. 115—121.</ref><ref>Майоров А.В. Великая Хорватия: Этногенез и ранняя история славян Прикарпатского региона. СПб.: Изд-во С.-Петерб. ун-та, 2006. {{ISBN|5-288-03948-8}}. С. 102.</ref><ref>Эдельман Д. И. К происхождению ирано-славянских диахронических паралелей // Славянская языковая и этноязыковая системы в контакте с неславянским окружением. М., 2002. С. 76—77.</ref>

During the 13th century, when German settlers were invited to Ukraine by the princes of the [[Kingdom of Ruthenia]], German words began to appear in the language spoken in Ukraine. Their influence would continue under{{Clarify|date=March 2025|reason=“under Poland” does not make sense - maybe “under Polish rule”? Or “when the land was part of Poland”?}} [[Poland]] not only through German colonists but also through the [[Yiddish|Yiddish-speaking]] Jews. Often such words involve trade or handicrafts. Examples of words of German or Yiddish origin spoken in Ukraine include {{lang|uk|dakh}} ("roof"), {{lang|uk|rura}} ("pipe"), {{lang|uk|rynok}} ("market"), {{lang|uk|kushnir}} ("furrier"), and {{lang|uk|majster}} ("master" or "craftsman").<ref name = "Concise Middle">History of the Ukrainian Language. R. Smal-Stocky. In ''Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia.''(1963). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 490–500</ref>

===Developments under Poland and Lithuania===
In the 13th century, eastern parts of Rus (including Moscow) came under [[Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus{{softsign}}|Tatar rule]] until their unification under the Tsardom of [[Tsardom of Russia|Muscovy]], whereas the south-western areas (including [[Kyiv]]) were incorporated into the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]]. For the following four centuries, the languages of the two regions evolved in relative isolation from each other. Direct written evidence of the existence of the Ukrainian language dates to the late 16th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://litopys.org.ua/zyzlex/zyz.htm |title=Лаврентій Зизаній. "Лексис". Синоніма славеноросская |publisher=Litopys.org.ua |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=30 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090830170514/http://litopys.org.ua/zyzlex/zyz.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> By the 16th century, a peculiar official language formed: a mixture of  the [[Liturgy|liturgical]] standardised language of [[Old Church Slavonic]], [[Ruthenian language|Ruthenian]] and [[Polish language|Polish]]. The influence of the latter gradually increased relative to the former two, as the nobility and rural large-landowning class, known as the [[szlachta]], was largely Polish-speaking. Documents soon took on many Polish characteristics superimposed on Ruthenian phonetics.<ref name=KostOstr>{{in lang|ru}} [[Mykola Kostomarov]], ''Russian History in Biographies of its main figures'', Chapter ''[http://www.kulichki.com/inkwell/text/special/history/kostom/kostom22.htm Knyaz Kostantin Konstantinovich Ostrozhsky] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803145944/http://www.kulichki.com/inkwell/text/special/history/kostom/kostom22.htm |date=3 August 2020 }}'' ([[Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski]])</ref>

[[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Polish–Lithuanian]] rule and education also involved significant exposure to [[Latin]]. Much of the influence of Poland on the development of the Ukrainian language has been attributed to this period, and is reflected in multiple words and constructions used in everyday Ukrainian speech that were taken from Polish or Latin. Examples of Polish words adopted from this period include ''zavzhdy'' (always; taken from old Polish word ''zawżdy'') and ''obitsiaty'' (to promise; taken from Polish ''obiecać'') and from Latin (via Polish) ''raptom'' (suddenly) and ''meta'' (aim or goal).<ref name="Concise Middle"/>

Significant contact with [[Tatars]] and [[Turkic peoples|Turks]] resulted in many [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] words, particularly those involving military matters and steppe industry, being adopted into the Ukrainian language.  Examples include ''torba'' (bag) and ''tyutyun'' (tobacco).<ref name="Concise Middle" />

Because of the substantial number of loanwords from Polish, German, Czech and Latin, early modern vernacular Ukrainian (''prosta mova'', "[[simple speech]]") had more lexical similarity with [[West Slavic languages]] than with Russian or Church Slavonic.<ref>Yaroslav Hrytsak. "On Sails and Gales, and Ships Driving in Various Directions: Post-Soviet Ukraine as a Test Case for the Meso-Area Concept".  In: Kimitaka Matsuzato ed. ''Emerging meso-areas in the former socialist countries: histories revived or improvised?''. Slavic Research Center, [[Hokkaido University]]. 2005. p. 57.</ref> By the mid-17th century, the linguistic divergence between the Ukrainian and Russian languages had become so significant that there was a need for translators during negotiations for the [[Treaty of Pereyaslav]], between [[Bohdan Khmelnytsky]], head of the [[Zaporozhian Host]], and the Russian state.<ref>Nicholas Chirovsky. (1973). ''On the Historical Beginnings of Eastern Slavic Europe: Readings'' New York: Shevchenko Scientific Society, pg. 184</ref>

By the 18th century, Ruthenian had diverged into regional variants, developing into the modern [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], [[Rusyn language|Rusyn]], and Ukrainian languages.<ref name="pugh">{{Cite journal|last=Pugh|first=Stefan M.|title=The Ruthenian Language of Meletij Smotryc{{softsign}}kyj: Phonology|journal=Harvard Ukrainian Studies|year=1985|volume=9|number=1/2|pages=53–60|jstor=41036132|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41036132|access-date=10 February 2023|archive-date=11 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230211154812/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41036132|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="shevelov">{{Cite book|last=Shevelov|first=George Y.|author-link=George Shevelov|title=A Historical Phonology of the Ukrainian Language|year=1979|location=Heidelberg|publisher=Carl Winter|isbn=9783533027867|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AIVgAAAAMAAJ|access-date=10 February 2023|archive-date=22 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922165717/https://books.google.com/books?id=AIVgAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="bunčić">{{Cite book|last=Bunčić|first=Daniel|title=Die ruthenische Schriftsprache bei Ivan Uževyč unter besonderer Berücksichtigung seines Gesprächsbuchs Rozmova/Besěda: Mit Wörterverzeichnis und Indizes zu seinem ruthenischen und kirchenslavischen Gesamtwerk|year=2006|location=München|publisher=Verlag Otto Sagner|url=https://www.academia.edu/4678996|access-date=10 February 2023|archive-date=26 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326031533/https://www.academia.edu/4678996|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Chronology===
The accepted chronology of Ukrainian divides the language into Old Ukrainian, Middle Ukrainian, and Modern Ukrainian.<ref>{{Cite Q|Q106315708|page=277}}</ref> Shevelov explains that much of this is based on the character of contemporary written sources, ultimately reflecting socio-historical developments, and he further subdivides the Middle period into three phases:<ref>{{Cite Q|Q105081119|isbn=3-533-02786-4|pages=40–41}}</ref><ref>{{Cite Q|Q105081178|page=54–55}}</ref><ref>{{Cite Q|Q87193076|chapter=Ukrainian language|url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CU%5CK%5CUkrainianlanguage.htm|first=George|last=Shevelov|author-link=George Shevelov}}</ref>

* Proto-Ukrainian (abbreviated PU, Ukrainian: {{Lang|uk-Latn|protoukrajins{{softsign}}kyj period}}, until the mid-11th century), with no extant written sources by speakers in Ukraine. Corresponding to aspects of [[Old East Slavic]].
* Old Ukrainian (OU, {{Lang|uk-Latn|davn{{softsign}}oukrajins{{softsign}}kyj period}} or {{Lang|uk-Latn|davn{{softsign}}oukrajins{{softsign}}ka mova}}, mid-11th to 14th c., conventional end date 1387), elements of phonology are deduced from written texts mainly in Church Slavic. Part of broader Old East Slavic.
* Middle Ukrainian ({{Lang|uk-Latn|seredn{{softsign}}oukrajins{{softsign}}kyj period}} or {{Lang|uk-Latn|staroukrajins{{softsign}}ka mova}}, 15th to 18th c.), historically called [[Ruthenian language|Ruthenian]].
** Early Middle Ukrainian (EMU, {{Lang|uk-Latn|rann{{softsign}}oseredn{{softsign}}oukrajins{{softsign}}kyj period}}, 15th to mid-16th c., 1387–1575), analysis focuses on distinguishing Ukrainian and Belarusian texts.
** Middle Ukrainian (MU, {{Lang|uk-Latn|seredn{{softsign}}oukrajins{{softsign}}kyj period}}, mid-16th to early 18th c., 1575–1720), represented by several vernacular language varieties as well as a version of Church Slavonic.
** Late Middle Ukrainian (LMU, {{Lang|uk-Latn|piznoseredn{{softsign}}oukrajins{{softsign}}kyj period}}, rest of the 18th c., 1720–1818), found in many mixed Ukrainian–Russian and Russian–Ukrainian texts.
* Modern Ukrainian (MoU, from the very end of the 18th c., {{Lang|uk-Latn|sučasnyj period}} or {{Lang|uk-Latn|sučasna ukrajins{{softsign}}ka mova}}, from 1818), the vernacular recognized first in literature, and subsequently all other written genres.

Ukraine marks the Day of Ukrainian Writing and Language on 9 November, the [[Eastern Orthodox]] [[feast day]] of [[Nestor the Chronicler]].{{cn|date=June 2024}}

==History of the spoken language==
{{See also|History of Ukraine}}
[[File:Триодь постная Петра Могилы 1646 new.jpg|thumb|"Lenten Triodion" of Kiev Metropolitan [[Petro Mohyla]], 1646 ]]

===Rus{{softsign}} and Kingdom of Ruthenia===
{{see also|Ruthenian language}}
The era of [[Kievan Rus{{softsign}}]] ({{circa}} 880–1240) is the subject of some linguistic controversy, as the language of much of the literature was purely or heavily [[Old Slavonic language|Old Church Slavonic]]. Some theorists{{which?|date=June 2024}} see an early Ukrainian stage in language development here, calling it Old Ruthenian; others{{which?|date=June 2024}} term this era [[Old East Slavic]]. Russian theorists tend to amalgamate Rus{{softsign}} to the modern nation of Russia, and call this linguistic era Old Russian. However, according to Russian linguist Andrey Zaliznyak (2012), people from the [[Novgorod Republic]] did not call themselves ''Rus{{softsign}}'' until the 14th century; earlier Novgorodians reserved the term ''Rus{{softsign}}'' for the [[Principality of Kiev|Kiev]], [[Principality of Pereyaslavl|Pereyaslavl]] and [[Principality of Chernigov|Chernigov]] principalities.<ref name="About Russian Language History"/> At the same time as evidenced by contemporary chronicles, the ruling princes and kings of [[Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia|Galicia–Volhynia]] and Kiev called themselves "people of Rus{{softsign}}" (in foreign sources called "[[Ruthenians]]"),{{cn|date=June 2024}} and Galicia–Volhynia has alternately been called the Principality or Kingdom of Ruthenia.{{sfn|Jakubowski|Miszczuk|Kawałko|Komornicki|2016|p=6}}

Also according to Andrey Zaliznyak, the Novgorodian dialect differed significantly from that of other dialects of Kievan Rus during the 11th–12th century, but  
started becoming more similar to them around 13th–15th centuries. The modern Russian language hence developed from the fusion of this Novgorodian dialect and the common dialect spoken by the other Kievan Rus, whereas the modern Ukrainian and Belarusian languages developed from the dialects which did not differ from each other in a significant way.<ref name="About Russian Language History"/>

=== In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ({{circa}} 1349–1569) ===
{{Further|Ruthenian language#Early Ruthenian (c. 1300–1550)}}
[[File:Peresopnytske Gospel 04.jpg|thumb|upright|Miniature of [[St Luke]] from the [[Peresopnytsia Gospels]] (1561)]]

During the 14th century, the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]] gradually established control over most of present-day Ukraine, except for Galicia, which would end up within the [[Crown of the Kingdom of Poland]] (since 1434 largely administered as the [[Ruthenian Voivodeship]]). Local autonomy of both rule and language was a marked feature of Lithuanian rule. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, administration evolved largely upon the legacy of [[Kievan Rus' law]]. Old East Slavic became the language of the chancellery, known as "Chancery Slavonic", and gradually evolved into the [[Ruthenian language]]. Ruthenian would be the prevailing language in the [[Lithuanian Metrica]] of the 15th and 16th century, and the original language of the [[Statutes of Lithuania]] (1529, 1566, and 1588), that were only later translated into Latin, and then Polish.{{cn|date=August 2025}}

=== In the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (1569–1648) ===
{{Further|Ruthenian language#High Ruthenian (c. 1550–1650)}}
Polish rule, which came later, was accompanied by a more assimilationist policy. By the 1569 [[Union of Lublin]] that formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from Lithuanian rule to Polish administration, resulting in cultural [[Polonization]] and visible attempts to [[colonization|colonize]] Ukraine by the Polish nobility.<ref name="Mywebpages.comcast.net">{{cite web |url=http://mywebpages.comcast.net/mdemkowicz1/dobra/poloniz.html |title=The Polonization of the Ukrainian Nobility |publisher=Mywebpages.comcast.net |access-date=2012-05-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020602145938/http://mywebpages.comcast.net/mdemkowicz1/dobra/poloniz.html |archive-date=2002-06-02 }}</ref>

Many Ukrainian nobles learned the Polish language and converted to Catholicism during that period in order to maintain their lofty aristocratic position.<ref name="Mywebpages.comcast.net"/> Lower classes were less affected because literacy was common only in the upper class and clergy. The latter were also under significant Polish pressure after the [[Union of Brest|Union with the Catholic Church]]. Most of the educational system was gradually Polonized. In Ruthenia, the language of administrative documents gradually shifted towards Polish.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Ukrainian culture and language flourished in the sixteenth and first half of the 17th century, when Ukraine was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, albeit in spite of being part of the PLC, not as a result. Among many schools established in that time, the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium (the predecessor of the modern [[Kyiv-Mohyla Academy]]), founded by the [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Orthodox]] [[Metropolitan bishop|Metropolitan]] [[Peter Mogila]], was the most important. At that time languages were associated more with religions: Catholics spoke Polish, and members of the Orthodox church spoke Ruthenian.{{cn|date=June 2024}} As witnessed by contemporary documents, such as the lexicon of [[Pamvo Berynda]], there was a strong mutual influence between [[Church Slavonic]] literary varieties and the common speech of Ukraine during that time.<ref name=nim>{{Cite book|editor=Василь Німчук|title=Лексикон словенороський Памви Беринди|date=1961|publisher=[[Kyiv|К.]]}}</ref>

Polish has had heavy influences on Ukrainian, particularly in [[Western Ukraine]]. The southwestern Ukrainian dialects are [[Dialect continuum|transitional]] to Polish.<ref name="Hull">Geoffrey Hull, Halyna Koscharsky. "[http://miskinhill.com.au/journals/asees/20:1-2/lexical-divide-ukrainian.pdf  Contours and Consequences of the Lexical Divide in Ukrainian] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516033533/http://miskinhill.com.au/journals/asees/20:1-2/lexical-divide-ukrainian.pdf |date=16 May 2013 }}". ''Australian Slavonic and East European Studies''. Vol. 20, no. 1-2. 2006.  pp. 140–147.</ref> As the Ukrainian language developed further, some borrowings from [[Tatar language|Tatar]] and [[Turkish language|Turkish]] occurred. Other languages which influenced Ukrainian speech during that time were [[Latin]] and [[Greek language|Greek]].<ref name=nim/>

=== In the Cossack Hetmanate and Tsarist Russia until 1800 ===
{{Further|Ruthenian language#Late Ruthenian (c. 1650–1800)}}
When the [[Cossack Hetmanate]] arose in the mid-17th century, [[Polish language|Polish]] remained a language of administration in the Hetmanate, and most Cossack officers and [[Szlachta|Polish nobles]] (two groups which overlapped a lot) still communicated with each other using a combination of Latin, Polish and Ruthenian.{{sfn|Snyder|2003|p=116}} On the other hand, the language barrier between Cossack officers and [[Tsardom of Russia|Muscovite officials]] had become so great that they needed translators to understand each other during negotiations, and hetman [[Bohdan Khmelnytsky]] 'had letters in [[History of the Russian language#The Moscow period (15th–17th centuries)|Muscovite dialect]] translated into Latin, so that he could read them.'{{sfn|Snyder|2003|p=116}}

The 1654 [[Pereiaslav Agreement]] between [[Cossack Hetmanate]] and [[Alexis of Russia]] divided Ukraine between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia. During the following century, both monarchies became increasingly intolerant of Ukrainian own cultural and political aspirations.<ref>{{cite book|last=Magocsi|first=Paul Robert|title=A History of Ukraine|date=1996|publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]]|page=293|quote=}}</ref> Ukrainians found themselves in a colonial situation.<ref>{{cite AV media|first1=Timothy|last1=Snyder|first2=Arne|last2=Westad|title=The Making of Modern Ukraine. Class 21. Comparative Russian Imperialism|minutes=5|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWRXLrJhqA0|quote="Even though these areas, these countries are close to the imperial centers, Ireland and Algeria, their evolution has been an evolution driven in the 20th century by decolonization. And what I'm indicating here, of course, is that the relationship between Russia and Ukraine is in many ways similar – in character, not in every context of those relationships."|access-date=21 September 2023|archive-date=2 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702085119/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWRXLrJhqA0|url-status=live}}</ref> The Russian centre adopted the name ''[[Little Russia]]'' for Ukraine and ''Little Russian'' for the language,<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Michael S.|last1=Flier|first2=Andrea|last2=Graziosi|title=The Battle for Ukrainian: An Introduction|journal=Harvard Ukrainian Studies|volume=35|year=2017–2018|pages=11–30|url=https://www.husj.harvard.edu/articles/the-battle-for-ukrainian-an-introduction|access-date=5 September 2023|archive-date=5 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230905073704/https://www.husj.harvard.edu/articles/the-battle-for-ukrainian-an-introduction|url-status=live}}</ref> an expression that originated in Byzantine Greek and may originally have meant "old, original, fundamental Russia", and had been in use since the 14th century.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kohut|first=Zenon Eugene|title=The Development of a Little Russian Identity and Ukrainian Nationbuilding|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41036271|journal=Harvard Ukrainian Studies|year=1986|volume=10|issue=3/4|pages=559–576|jstor=41036271|quote=The reasons for choosing the terms remain obscure. They might simply have reflected that the Galician metropolitan had fewer eparchies than the Suzdal one, or they might have come about due to an ancient Greek practice of denoting the homeland as “minor” while the colonies were labelled as “major” (e.g., Megalê Hellas, or Magna Graecia in Latin, for the Greek colonies in Italy). Whatever the conceptual underpinnings, the terms gained acceptance in ecclesiastical circles and entered the political sphere by the 1330s. <...> As a political designation “Little Rus”” faded with the demise of the Galician Principality (1340), but it continued to be important in the expanded battles over the Rus’ metropolitanate.|access-date=13 November 2023|archive-date=27 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230527193501/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41036271|url-status=live}}</ref> Ukrainian high culture went into a long period of steady decline. The Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was taken over by the Russian Empire. Most of the remaining Ukrainian schools also switched to Polish or Russian in the territories controlled by these respective countries, which was followed by a new wave of Polonization and [[Russification]] of the native nobility. Gradually the official language of Ukrainian provinces under Poland was changed to Polish, while the upper classes in the Russian part of Ukraine used Russian.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

=== In Austrian Galicia and Lodomeria (1772–1918) ===
After the 1772 [[First Partition of Poland]], when the lands annexed by the Austrian [[Habsburg monarchy]] were reorganised as the [[Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria]], the Habsburg administration was initially surprised to find out that, apart from Poles, there were a lot of other people living in it whom they began calling ''Ruthenen'' ("Ruthenians" or "Rusyny").{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=88}} They differed from the Poles in that the vast majority of them adhered to the [[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church|Greek Catholic faith]] (organised as the [[Ruthenian Uniate Church]]) rather than Roman Catholic, and that their liturgical language was [[Church Slavonic]] rather than Latin.{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=88}} Most of them had not received much education; they used Ruthenian only as a spoken language, few could read or write, and those who did more often used Polish or (increasingly) German instead.{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=88}} As Empress [[Maria Theresa]] had introduced a general compulsory education (''Allgemeiner Schulzwang'') in 1774, and enacted it in newly-acquired Galicia and Lodomeria in 1777, the decision was made to produce Polish and Ruthenian textbooks that were used in elementary schools for those language communities.{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=88}} 

{{Quote box
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 |source = – Ivan Mohylnytsky, ''Information on the Ruthenian Language'' (1829)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.wbc.poznan.pl/dlibra/applet?mimetype=image%2Fx.djvu&sec=false&handler=djvu_html5&content_url=%2FContent%2F113939%2Findex.djvu |title=Jan Mogilnicki. Rozprawa о ięzyku ruskim // Czasopism Naukowy Księgozbioru Publicznego imienia Ossolińskich. – Rok 2. – Zeszyt 3. – Lwów, 1829. – S. 56-87 |accessdate=23 December 2024 |archive-date=29 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729200556/http://www.wbc.poznan.pl/dlibra/applet?mimetype=image%2Fx.djvu&sec=false&handler=djvu_html5&content_url=%2FContent%2F113939%2Findex.djvu}}</ref>{{rp|56}}
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Although some Ruthenian parish schools were established in some villages, and some printed primers and catechisms in Ruthenian were distributed there, the effects of Ruthenian-language education achieved very little until 1815.{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=88}} That year, {{ill|Ivan Mohylnytsky|uk|Могильницький Іван|pl|Iwan Mohylnycki}}, a [[Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Przemyśl–Warsaw|Przemyśl eparchy]] [[Canon (title)|canon]] who contributed to the establishment of a strong network of Ruthenian parish schools and a teacher training school, published a catechism at the Royal University of Buda entitled ''Christian Learning in the Case of the Common Catechism for Parish Children''.{{sfn|Moser|2017|pp=88–89}} He followed this up in 1823 by a ''Grammar of the Slovene–Ruthenian language'' (never published), and in 1829 by his treatise ''Information on the Ruthenian Language'' (published both in Polish as ''Rozprawa o ięzyku ruskim'' and in Ruthenian as "Відомість о руском языці"), which represents the first scholarly study arguing that Ruthenian was a language in its own right, separate from Polish, Russian, and Church Slavonic.{{sfn|Moser|2017|pp=88–89}} On the other hand, new educational regulations in 1818 determined that schools that were exclusively attended by children of Greek Catholic parents were to receive instruction in Ruthenian, whereas schools attended by children of both Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic parents had Polish as the [[medium of instruction]].{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=89}} Nevertheless, pupils at Ruthenian-instruction schools had to learn Polish as a second language as well.{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=89}}

In higher education, Ruthenian was not valued as an equal language, and students were expected to learn and use Latin and Polish instead.{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=89}} Students training to become Greek Catholic priests at the [[University of Lviv]] did receive instruction in Ruthenian in the so-called "Studium ruthenum" according to Austrian regulations between 1787 and 1809, but it was not a fully-fledged course; instead, it was regarded as a temporary measure for students who did not yet know Latin.{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=89}} Both its professors and alumni received only half the salary of their counterparts from the "Studium latinum", the number of students steadily decreased over the decades, and in 1809 the Ruthenians themselves requested the "Studium ruthenum" to be abandoned.{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=89}}

In the first few decades of the Austrian period in Galicia, there was also confusion amongst both the Habsburg administration and educated Ruthenians about which variety of written Ruthenian to use: late Church Slavonic, literary Russian, traditional written Ruthenian, or something close to how Ruthenian was actually spoken in Galicia at that time.{{sfn|Moser|2017|pp=89–90}} The Habsburg Imperial censor for Slavic publications, [[Jernej Kopitar]] (himself from Slovenia), encouraged Ruthenian authors to base their written language on the Ruthenian vernacular, and from December 1833 onwards, to write [[Ukrainian Latin alphabet|Ruthenian in a Latin alphabet]] rather than Cyrillic.{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=90}} This initiated a discussion on Ruthenian identity, later called the [[Alphabet War|"First Alphabet War" or "Blizzard"]].{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=90}} Although most Ruthenian intellectuals did respond by increasingly basing their writings on spoken Ruthenian, the majority of them defended the use Cyrillic over concerns of Polonisation.{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=90}} Nevertheless, they could not agree on various standardisation issues; three different Ruthenian grammars were published between 1834 and 1848, and none of them was widely adopted.{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=90}} Before 1848, no Ruthenian dictionaries were produced, no Ruthenian-language periodical press existed within Habsburg Galicia, and Ruthenian played no role as language of administration.{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=90}}

[[File:Galicja language.png|300x300px|Prevalence of Polish or Ukrainian language in Galicia in 1910|alt=Prevalence of Polish or Ukrainian language in Galicia in 1910|thumb]]
The [[Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire]] changed everything: the native languages of most populations in the Empire, including Ruthenian, were accorded official status, and all laws in the Danubian monarchy would be published in these languages from 1 October 1849 onwards.{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=91}} Ruthenian would henceforth be used in local administration in the ''Landesgesetzblätter''.{{sfn|Moser|2017|pp=91–92}} From 1849 onwards, various official periodicals were established in Ruthenian, and the Interior Ministry stipulated in July 1849 that street signs in Lviv had to include Ruthenian versions.{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=92}} In October 1852, the Ministry of Justice also decreed that Ruthenian could be used by parties involved in legal issues in their communication with the courts of law, although it would take until 1861 to allow these letters to employ ''[[Ukrainian skoropys|skoropys]]'' Cyrillic rather than Latin script (or the Muscovite ''graždanka'' variety of Cyrillic).{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=92}} In the post-1848 era, there were some contradictory developments, some of which countered Polonisation in the sphere of education, while others stimulated further Polonisation in the sphere of administration.{{sfn|Moser|2017|pp=94–95}} Similarly, [[Galician Russophilia]] or Moscophilia strived towards ever greater assimilation of Ruthenian towards the so-called "Great Russian" language as used in Moscow, which still heavily leaned on Church Slavonic. Both the Habsburg administration and Greek Catholic Church raised concerns that these were "barely comprehensible" to the common people of Galicia and hampered the "development of the Ruthenian language", adding that Orthodox Imperial Russia was a threat to the overwhelmingly Catholic Habsburg realm.{{sfn|Moser|2017|pp=92–94}} 

Matters once again came to a head in May 1859, when the Polish governor of Galicia [[Agenor Romuald Gołuchowski|Gołuchowski]] recommended Czech linguist [[Josef Jireček]]'s proposal for a Ruthenian Latin alphabet, leading to the [[Alphabet War|"Second Alphabet War" or "Blizzard"]].{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=94}} Ruthenian intellectuals almost unanimously rejected the proposal for fear of Polonisation, leading the government to overreact by banning the "Russian script" (meaning the Muscovite ''graždanka'') in July 1859, which Ruthenian writers generally ignored.{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=94}} By March 1861, the Habsburg State Ministry essentially conceded defeat by stating that the Ruthenians themselves were responsible for developing their own language, and that it was not up to the government.{{sfn|Moser|2017|pp=94–95}} Around the same time, however, Ruthenian intellectuals became acquainted with the writings of Ukrainian intellectuals from "Little Russia" in the Russian Empire, such as poet [[Taras Shevchenko]] (died 1861), who was fiercely anti-Russian and [[Ukrainophilia|Ukrainophile]], leading many Galician Ruthenians to abandon their earlier Russophilia.{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=95}} In between the pro-Polish and pro-Russian tendencies, the Ruthenian language in Galicia would gradually develop into an independent literary and intellectual written language in the second half of the 19th century, when it was increasingly called "Ukrainian".{{sfn|Moser|2017|pp=95–97}}

=== In the Russian Empire ===
During the 19th century, a [[Ukrainian National Revival|revival of Ukrainian self-identification]] manifested in the literary classes of both Russian-Empire [[Dnieper Ukraine]] and Austrian [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]]. The [[Brotherhood of Sts Cyril and Methodius]] in Kyiv applied an old word for the Cossack motherland, ''Ukrajina'', as a self-appellation for the nation of Ukrainians, and ''Ukrajins{{softsign}}ka mova'' for the language. Many writers published works in the Romantic tradition of Europe demonstrating that Ukrainian was not merely a language of the village but suitable for literary pursuits.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

However, in the Russian Empire expressions of Ukrainian culture and especially language were repeatedly persecuted for fear that a self-aware Ukrainian nation would threaten the unity of the empire. In 1804 Ukrainian as a subject and language of instruction was banned from schools.<ref name=schools/> In 1811, by order of the Russian government, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was closed.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

In 1847 the Brotherhood of St Cyril and Methodius was terminated. The same year [[Taras Shevchenko]] was arrested, exiled for ten years, and banned for political reasons from writing and painting. In 1862 [[Pavlo Chubynsky]] was exiled for seven years to [[Arkhangelsk]]. The Ukrainian magazine ''[[Osnova]]'' was discontinued. In 1863, the tsarist interior minister [[Pyotr Valuyev]] proclaimed in [[Valuyevsky Ukaz|his decree]] that "there never has been, is not, and never can be a separate Little Russian language".<ref name="Valuyev">[[s:ru:Валуевский циркуляр|Валуевский циркуляр]], full text of the Valuyev circular on [[Wikisource]] {{in lang|ru}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media|first=Timothy|last=Snyder|title=The Making of Modern Ukraine. Class 22. Ukrainian Ideas in the 21st Century|minutes=4|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz6MSiGZQCU|access-date=27 August 2023|archive-date=21 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230821123224/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz6MSiGZQCU|url-status=live}}</ref>

Although the [[name of Ukraine]] is known since 1187, it was not applied to the language until the mid-19th century.<ref name="Flier,Graziosi">https://www.husj.harvard.edu/articles/the-battle-for-ukrainian-an-introduction {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230905073704/https://www.husj.harvard.edu/articles/the-battle-for-ukrainian-an-introduction |date=5 September 2023 }} "It was during this period that elites on both sides of the border began to apply the term Ukrainian to the varieties formerly called Ruthenian and Little Russian."</ref> The [[linguonym]] ''Ukrainian language'' appears in [[Yakub Holovatsky]]'s book from 1849,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/golovatsky1849/page/n33/mode/2up | title=Розправа о язиці южноруськім і його наріччях | date=5 January 2024 }}</ref> listed there as a variant name of the ''Little Russian language''. In a private letter from 1854, Taras Shevchenko lauds "our splendid Ukrainian language".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PpcjAAAAMAAJ&q="наш+прекрасний+український+язик |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230904201454/https://books.google.com/books?id=PpcjAAAAMAAJ&dq= |archive-date=4 September 2023|page=269 | title=Istorii͡a ukraïns{{softsign}}koï literatury | date=1954 }}</ref> Valuyev's decree from 1863 derides the "Little Russian" language throughout, but also mentions "the so-called Ukrainian language" once.<ref name="Valuyev" /> In Galicia, the earliest applications of the term ''Ukrainian'' to the language were in the hyphenated names ''Ukrainian-Ruthenian'' (1866, by [[Paulin Święcicki]]) or ''Ruthenian-Ukrainian'' (1871, by [[Panteleimon Kulish]] and [[Ivan Puluj]]), with non-hyphenated ''Ukrainian language'' appearing shortly thereafter (in 1878, by [[Mykhailo Drahomanov]]).{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=103}}<ref>https://diasporiana.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/books/7615/file.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221128082130/https://diasporiana.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/books/7615/file.pdf |date=28 November 2022 }} p.97: "...а також і дльа неукрајінських читачів, котрим не можна давати книги на украјінськіј мові, поки не буде словника тіјејі мови."</ref>

A following ban on Ukrainian books led to [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]]'s secret [[Ems Ukaz]], which prohibited publication and importation of most Ukrainian-language books, public performances and lectures, and even banned the printing of Ukrainian texts accompanying musical scores.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://litopys.org.ua/ohukr/ohu14.htm |title=XII. СКОРПІОНИ НА УКРАЇНСЬКЕ СЛОВО. Іван Огієнко. Історія української літературної мови |publisher=Litopys.org.ua |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=5 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305214746/http://litopys.org.ua/ohukr/ohu14.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> A period of leniency after 1905 was followed by another strict ban in 1914, which also affected Russian-occupied Galicia.{{Sfn|Luckyj|1990|pp=24–25}}

For much of the 19th century the Austrian authorities demonstrated some preference for Polish culture, but the Ukrainians were relatively free to partake in their own cultural pursuits in [[Halychyna]] and [[Bukovina]], where Ukrainian was widely used in education and official documents.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vesna.org.ua/txt/subtelny/istukr/17.htm#6 |title=Вiртуальна Русь: Бібліотека<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=28 January 2006 |archive-date=17 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070517081804/http://www.vesna.org.ua/txt/subtelny/istukr/17.htm#6 |url-status=live }}</ref> The suppression by Russia hampered the literary development of the Ukrainian language in [[Dnieper Ukraine|Dnipro Ukraine]], but there was a constant exchange with Halychyna, and many works were published under Austria and smuggled to the east.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

By the time of the [[Russian Revolution]] of 1917 and the [[Austro-Hungary#Dissolution of the Empire|collapse of Austro-Hungary]] in 1918, Ukrainians were ready to openly develop a body of national literature, institute a Ukrainian-language educational system, and form an independent state (the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]], shortly joined by the [[West Ukrainian People's Republic]]). During this brief independent statehood the stature and use of Ukrainian greatly improved.<ref name=UkrGrammar30 />

====Speakers in the Russian Empire====
[[File:Ukrainian in Russian Empire 1897.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Ukrainian speakers in the Russian Empire (1897)]]
In the [[Russian Empire Census]] of 1897 the following picture emerged, with Ukrainian being the second most spoken language of the Russian Empire. According to the Imperial census's terminology, the Russian language (''Русскій'') was subdivided into Ukrainian (Малорусскій, '[[Little Russian]]'), what is known as Russian today (Великорусскій, '[[Great Russian language|Great Russian]]'), and Belarusian (Бѣлорусскій, 'White Russian').<ref name=demoskop/><ref>{{cite book |last=Hirsch |first=Francine |author-link=Francine Hirsch |date=2005 |title=Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union |location=New York |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |page=116 |isbn=0801442737}}</ref>

The following table shows the distribution of settlement by native language (''"по родному языку"'') in 1897 in [[Russian Empire]] governorates (''[[guberniya]]s'') that had more than 100,000 Ukrainian speakers.<ref name=demoskop>{{cite web |url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97.php |title=Демоскоп Weekly – Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей |publisher=Demoscope.ru |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=4 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204034344/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97.php |url-status=live }}</ref>
{{Clear}}
{| border=1 cellpadding=2 style="text-align:right; white-space:wrap; border:0 none transparent; border-collapse:collapse;" summary="Speakers of Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish languages in the entire Russian Empire, by rural/urban split, and broken down by 23 guberniyas."
|- style="border-bottom:3px double #999; vertical-align:bottom;"
!
! style="width:20%;"| Total population
! style="width:20%;"| Ukrainian speakers
! style="width:20%;"| Russian speakers
! style="width:20%;"| Polish speakers
|- style="background:#eee;"
| {{em|[[Russian Empire|Entire Russian Empire]]}}
| 125,640,021
| 22,380,551
| 55,667,469
| 7,931,307
|-
| [[Urban area|Urban]]
| 16,828,395
| 1,256,387
| 8,825,733
| 1,455,527
|-
| [[Rural]]
| 108,811,626
| 21,124,164
| 46,841,736
| 6,475,780
|- style="border-top:1px solid #999; background:#eee;"
| {{em|Regions}}
| colspan=4 |
|- style="vertical-align:bottom;"
| "[[European Russia]]" <br />incl. Ukraine & Belarus
| 93,442,864
| 20,414,866
| 48,558,721
| 1,109,934
|-
| [[Vistula Land|Vistulan guberniyas]]
| 9,402,253
| 335,337
| 267,160
| 6,755,503
|-
| [[Caucasus]]
| 9,289,364
| 1,305,463
| 1,829,793
| 25,117
|-
| [[Siberia]]
| 5,758,822
| 223,274
| 4,423,803
| 29,177
|-
| [[Central Asia]]
| 7,746,718
| 101,611
| 587,992
| 11,576
|- style="border-top:1px solid #999; background:#eee;"
| {{em|Subdivisions}}
| colspan=4 |
|-
| [[Bessarabia]]
| 1,935,412
| 379,698
| 155,774
| 11,696
|-
| [[Volhynia|Volyn]]
| 2,989,482
| 2,095,579
| 104,889
| 184,161
|-
| [[Voronezh Oblast|Voronezh]]
| 2,531,253
| 915,883
| 1,602,948
| 1,778
|-
| [[Don Host Oblast]]
| 2,564,238
| 719,655
| 1,712,898
| 3,316
|-
| [[Yekaterinoslav Governorate|Yekaterinoslav]]
| 2,113,674
| 1,456,369
| 364,974
| 12,365
|-
| [[Kyiv Governorate|Kyiv]]
| 3,559,229
| 2,819,145
| 209,427
| 68,791
|-
| [[Kursk Oblast|Kursk]]
| 2,371,012
| 527,778
| 1,832,498
| 2,862
|-
| [[Podolia]]
| 3,018,299
| 2,442,819
| 98,984
| 69,156
|-
| [[Poltava Governorate|Poltava]]
| 2,778,151
| 2,583,133
| 72,941
| 3,891
|-
| [[Taurida Governorate|Taurida]]
| 1,447,790
| 611,121
| 404,463
| 10,112
|-
| [[Kharkiv Oblast|Kharkiv]]
| 2,492,316
| 2,009,411
| 440,936
| 5,910
|-
| [[Kherson Governorate|Kherson]]
| 2,733,612
| 1,462,039
| 575,375
| 30,894
|-
| [[Odesa|City of Odesa]]
| 403,815
| 37,925
| 198,233
| 17,395
|-
| [[Chernigov Governorate|Chernihiv]]
| 2,297,854
| 1,526,072
| 495,963
| 3,302
|-
| [[Lublin Voivodeship|Lublin]]
| 1,160,662
| 196,476
| 47,912
| 729,529
|-
| [[Siedlce Voivodeship|Sedletsk]]
| 772,146
| 107,785
| 19,613
| 510,621
|-
| [[Kuban|Kuban Province]]
| 1,918,881
| 908,818
| 816,734
| 2,719
|-
| [[Stavropol Krai|Stavropol]]
| 873,301
| 319,817
| 482,495
| 961
|- style="border-bottom:3px double #999;"
| [[Brest Voblast|Brest-Litovsk district]]
| 218,432
| 140,561
| 17,759
| 8,515
|}

Although in the rural regions of the Ukrainian provinces, 80% of the inhabitants said that Ukrainian was their native language in the Census of 1897 (for which the results are given above), in the urban regions only 32.5% of the population claimed Ukrainian as their native language. For example, in [[Odesa]] (then part of the Russian Empire), at the time the largest city in the territory of current Ukraine, only 5.6% of the population said Ukrainian was their native language.<ref name=George>[https://books.google.com/books?id=2oqThmrFCfwC&dq=Nikolayev+Ukrainian+language&pg=PA12 ''Soviet Nationality Policy, Urban Growth, and Identity Change in the Ukrainian SSR 1923–1934''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406080213/https://books.google.com/books?id=2oqThmrFCfwC&dq=Nikolayev+Ukrainian+language&pg=PA12 |date=6 April 2023 }} by George O. Liber, [[Cambridge University Press]], 1992, {{ISBN|978-0-521-41391-6}} (page 12/13)</ref>

Until the 1920s the urban population in Ukraine grew faster than the number of Ukrainian speakers. This implies that there was a (relative) decline in the use of Ukrainian language. For example, in Kyiv, the number of people stating that Ukrainian was their native language declined from 30.3% in 1874 to 16.6% in 1917.<ref name=George/>

===Soviet era===
[[File:Soviet UA class union.gif|thumb|A Ukrainian-language poster reading "The social foundation of the [[USSR]] is an unbreakable union of the workers, peasants and [[intelligentsia]]"]]

During the seven-decade-long [[Soviet era]], the Ukrainian language held the formal position of the principal local language in the [[Ukrainian SSR]].<ref name=life>[https://books.google.com/books?id=iU0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA120 The Ukraine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230211062252/https://books.google.com/books?id=iU0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA120 |date=11 February 2023 }}, [[Life (magazine)|''Life'']], 26 October 1946</ref> However, practice was often a different story:<ref name=life/> Ukrainian always had to compete with Russian, and the attitudes of the Soviet leadership towards Ukrainian varied from encouragement and tolerance to de facto banishment.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

Officially, there was no [[state language]] in the Soviet Union until the very end when it was proclaimed in 1990 that Russian language was the all-Union state language and that the constituent [[Soviet republics|republics]] had rights to declare additional state languages within their jurisdictions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://legal-ussr.narod.ru/data01/tex10935.htm |title=Law on Languages of Nations of USSR |publisher=Legal-ussr.narod.ru |date=1990-04-24 |access-date=2012-05-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508201331/http://legal-ussr.narod.ru/data01/tex10935.htm |archive-date=2016-05-08}}</ref> Still it was implicitly understood in the hopes of minority nations that Ukrainian would be used in the Ukrainian SSR, [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]] would be used in the [[Uzbek SSR]], and so on.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} However, Russian was used as the [[lingua franca]] in all parts of the Soviet Union and a special term, "a language of inter-ethnic communication", was coined to denote its status.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

====Stalin====
{{see also|Ukrainianization}}
{{expand section|date=October 2023}}
<!--[[File:UkrSchool.jpeg|right|thumb|Anti-russification protest. The banner reads ''"Ukrainian school for Ukrainian kids!"''.]]-->

====Khrushchev thaw====
[[File:Rouble-1961-Paper-1-Reverse.jpg|right|upright=1.15|thumb|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 rouble|Soviet banknotes]] were listed in the languages of all fifteen [[Republics of the Soviet Union|Soviet republics]]. On this 1961 1&nbsp;Rbl note, the Ukrainian for "one rouble", один карбованець (''odyn karbovanets{{softsign}}''), directly follows the Russian один рубль (''odin rubl{{softsign}}'').]]

After the death of Stalin (1953), a general policy of relaxing the language policies of the past was implemented (1958 to 1963). The [[Nikita Khrushchev|Khrushchev]] era which followed saw a policy of relatively lenient concessions to development of the languages at the local and republic level, though its results in Ukraine did not go nearly as far as those of the Soviet policy of Ukrainianization in the 1920s. Journals and encyclopedic publications advanced in the Ukrainian language during the Khrushchev era, as well as [[transfer of Crimea]] under Ukrainian SSR jurisdiction.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Yet, the 1958 school reform that allowed parents to choose the language of primary instruction for their children, unpopular among the circles of the national intelligentsia in parts of the USSR, meant that non-Russian languages would slowly give way to Russian in light of the pressures of survival and advancement. The gains of the past, already largely reversed by the Stalin era, were offset by the liberal attitude towards the requirement to study the local languages (the requirement to study Russian remained).{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Parents were usually free to choose the language of study of their children (except in few areas where attending the Ukrainian school might have required a long daily commute) and they often chose Russian, which reinforced the resulting Russification. In this sense, some analysts argue that it was not the "oppression" or "persecution", but rather the ''lack of [[linguistic protectionism|protection]]'' against the expansion of Russian language that contributed to the relative decline of Ukrainian in the 1970s and 1980s. According to this view, it was inevitable that successful careers required a good command of Russian, while knowledge of Ukrainian was not vital, so it was common for Ukrainian parents to send their children to Russian-language schools, even though Ukrainian-language schools were usually available.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

The number of students in Russian-language in Ukraine schools was constantly increasing, from 14 percent in 1939 to more than 30 percent in 1962.<ref>{{cite book|first=Serhii|last=Plokhy|author-link=Serhii Plokhy|title=The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine|page=304|year=2015|publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-141-98061-4}}</ref>

====Shelest period====
The Communist Party leader from 1963 to 1972, [[Petro Shelest]], pursued a policy of defending Ukraine's interests within the Soviet Union. He proudly promoted the beauty of the Ukrainian language and developed plans to expand the role of Ukrainian in higher education. He was removed, however, after only a brief tenure, for being too lenient on Ukrainian nationalism.{{cn|date=November 2023}}

====Shcherbytsky period====
The new party boss from 1972 to 1989, [[Volodymyr Shcherbytsky]], purged the local party, was fierce in suppressing dissent, and insisted Russian be spoken at all official functions, even at local levels. His policy of Russification was lessened only slightly after 1985.{{cn|date=November 2023}}

====Gorbachev and perebudova====
[[File:Map12 b.png|thumb|Fluency in Ukrainian (purple column) and Russian (blue column) in 1989 and 2001]]
The management of dissent by the local [[Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine|Ukrainian Communist Party]] was more fierce and thorough than in other parts of the Soviet Union. As a result, at the start of the [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] reforms [[Perestroika|perebudova]] and [[Glasnost|hlasnist’]] (Ukrainian for ''perestroika'' and ''glasnost''), Ukraine under Shcherbytsky was slower to liberalize than Russia itself.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Although Ukrainian still remained the native language for the majority in the nation on the eve of Ukrainian independence, a significant share of ethnic Ukrainians were russified. In [[Donetsk]] there were no Ukrainian language schools and in Kyiv only a quarter of children went to Ukrainian language schools.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/eternalrussiayel00stee/page/216 <!-- quote=1804. --> Eternal Russia:Yeltsin, Gorbachev, and the Mirage of Democracy] by [[Jonathan Steele (journalist)|Jonathan Steele]], [[Harvard University Press]], 1988, {{ISBN|978-0-674-26837-1}} (page 218)</ref>

The Russian language was the dominant vehicle, not just of government function, but of the media, commerce, and modernity itself. This was substantially less the case for western Ukraine, which escaped the [[Holodomor|artificial famine]], [[Great Purge]], and most of [[Stalinism]]. And this region became the center of a hearty, if only partial, renaissance of the Ukrainian language during independence.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

===Independence in the modern era===
[[File:Ukraine census 2001 Ukrainian.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|Percentage of people with Ukrainian as their native language according to 2001 census (by region)]]
[[File:Inf board metro.JPG|thumb|upright=1.35|Modern signs in the [[Kyiv Metro]] are in Ukrainian. The evolution in their language followed the changes in the language policies in post-war Ukraine. Originally, all signs and voice announcements in the metro were in Ukrainian, but their language was changed to Russian in the early 1980s, at the height of Shcherbytsky's gradual Russification. In the [[perestroika]] liberalization of the late 1980s, the signs were changed to bilingual. This was accompanied by bilingual voice announcements in the trains. In the early 1990s, both signs and voice announcements were changed again from bilingual to Ukrainian-only during the [[De-Russification|de-russification]] campaign that followed Ukraine's independence.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} Since 2012 the signs have been in both Ukrainian and English.]]

Since 1991, Ukrainian has been the official state language in Ukraine, and the state administration implemented government policies to broaden the use of Ukrainian. The educational system in Ukraine has been transformed over the first decade of independence from a system that is partly Ukrainian to one that is overwhelmingly so. The government has also mandated a progressively increased role for Ukrainian in the media and commerce.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

In the [[Ukrainian Census (2001)|2001 census]], 67.5% of the country's population named Ukrainian as their native language (a 2.8% increase from 1989), while 29.6% named Russian (a 3.2% decrease).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/language/ |title=About number and composition population of UKRAINE by All-Ukrainian population census 2001 data |access-date=11 April 2021 |archive-date=24 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140924081100/http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/language/ |url-status=live }}</ref> For many Ukrainians (of various ethnic origins), the term ''[[native language]]'' may not necessarily associate with the language they use more frequently. The overwhelming majority of ethnic Ukrainians consider the Ukrainian language ''native'', including those who often speak Russian.<ref name=2001ukrcensusKievLang/>

According to the official 2001 census data, 92.3% of Kyiv region population responded "Ukrainian" to the ''native language'' (''ridna mova'') census question, compared with 88.4% in 1989, and 7.2% responded "Russian".<ref name=2001ukrcensusKievLang>{{cite web |url=http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/language/Kiev/ |title=About number and composition population of Kiev Region by data All-Ukrainian census of the population 2001 |access-date=11 April 2021 |archive-date=11 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411075657/http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/language/Kiev/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 

In 2019, the [[law of Ukraine "On protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language"]] was approved by the parliament, formalizing rules governing the usage of the language and introducing penalties for violations.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.kievpost.com/ukraine-politics/parliament-passes-ukrainian-language-bill.html?cn-reloaded=1|title=Parliament passes Ukrainian language bill|author=Oleg Sukhov|date=25 April 2019|newspaper=Kiev Post|access-date=2 May 2019|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308204648/https://www.kievpost.com/ukraine-politics/parliament-passes-ukrainian-language-bill.html?cn-reloaded=1|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Literature and literary language==
{{further|Ukrainian literature}}

The literary Ukrainian language, which was preceded by Old East Slavic literature, may be subdivided into two stages: during the 12th to 18th centuries what in Ukraine is referred to as "Old Ukrainian", but elsewhere, and in contemporary sources, is known as the Ruthenian language, and from the end of the 18th century to the present what in Ukraine is known as "Modern Ukrainian", but elsewhere is known as just Ukrainian.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Influential literary figures in the development of modern Ukrainian literature include the philosopher [[Hryhorii Skovoroda]], [[Ivan Kotlyarevsky]], [[Mykola Kostomarov]], [[Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky]], Shevchenko, [[Ivan Franko]], and [[Lesia Ukrainka]]. The earliest literary work in the Ukrainian language was recorded in 1798 when Kotlyarevsky, a playwright from [[Poltava]] in southeastern Ukraine, published his [[epic poem]], ''Eneyida'', a [[Burlesque (literature)|burlesque]] in Ukrainian, based on [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]''. His book was published in vernacular Ukrainian in a satirical way to avoid being censored, and is the earliest known Ukrainian published book to survive through Imperial and, later, Soviet policies on the Ukrainian language.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Kotlyarevsky's work and that of another early writer using the Ukrainian vernacular language, {{ill|Petro Artemovsky|uk|Гулак-Артемовський Петро Петрович}}, used [[Middle Dnieprian dialect|the southeastern dialect spoken in the Poltava, Kharkiv and southern Kyiv regions of the Russian Empire]]. This dialect would serve as the basis of the Ukrainian literary language when it was developed by Shevchenko and Kulish in the mid 19th century. In order to raise its status from that of a dialect to that of a language, various elements from folklore and traditional styles were added to it.<ref name="Shevelov1981">{{cite book |last1=Shevelov |first1=George |chapter=Evolution of the Ukrainian Literary Language |editor1-last=Rudnytsky|editor1-first=Ivan L. |editor2-last= Himka |editor2-first=John-Paul |title=Rethinking Ukrainian History  |date=1981 |publisher= [[Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies]] (CIUS) Press (University of Alberta) |location= Edmonton, Alberta  |isbn=978-0920862124 |pages=221–225 |editor1-link=Ivan L. Rudnytsky }}</ref>

The Ukrainian literary language developed further when the Russian state banned the use of the Ukrainian language, prompting many of its writers to move to the western Ukrainian region of Galicia which was under more liberal Austrian rule; after the 1860s the majority of Ukrainian literary works were published in Austrian Galicia.  During this period Galician influences were adopted in the Ukrainian literary language, particularly with respect to vocabulary involving law, government, technology, science, and administration.<ref name="Shevelov1981"/>

==Current usage==
{{Further|Law of Ukraine "On supporting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the State language"}}
[[File:Ivan Franko Museum in Krivorivnia.jpg|thumb|Ukrainian language traffic sign for the Ivan Franko Museum in [[Kryvorivnia]]]]
The use of the Ukrainian language is increasing after a long period of decline. Although there are almost fifty million ethnic [[Ukrainians]] worldwide, including 37.5 million in Ukraine in 2001 (77.8% of the total population at the time), the Ukrainian language is prevalent mainly in western and central Ukraine. In Kyiv, both Ukrainian and Russian are spoken, a notable shift from the recent past when the city was primarily Russian-speaking.<ref name="d-m.com.ua"/>

The shift is believed to be caused mainly by an influx of migrants from western regions of Ukraine but also by some Kyivans opting to use the language they speak at home more widely in public settings. Public signs and announcements in Kyiv are displayed in Ukrainian. In southern and eastern Ukraine, Russian is the prevalent language in most large and some small cities. According to the Ukrainian Census of 2001, 87.8% of people living in Ukraine were fluent in Ukrainian.<ref name="d-m.com.ua">{{Cite web|url=http://www.d-m.com.ua/05_03.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090302201528/http://www.d-m.com.ua/05_03.htm|url-status=dead|title=D-M.com.ua|archivedate=2 March 2009|accessdate=31 July 2024}}</ref>

In August 2022, a survey in Ukraine by Rating Group found that 85% said they speak Ukrainian or Ukrainian and Russian at home, 51% only Ukrainian, an increase from 61% and 44% in February 2014.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2022-08-23 |title=Seventeenth National Survey: Identity. Patriotism. Values (17–18 August 2022) |url=https://ratinggroup.ua/en/research/ukraine/s_mnadcyate_zagalnonac_onalne_opituvannya_dentichn_st_patr_otizm_c_nnost_17-18_serpnya_2022.html |access-date=2022-10-22 |website=Rating Group |archive-date=22 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221022194351/https://ratinggroup.ua/en/research/ukraine/s_mnadcyate_zagalnonac_onalne_opituvannya_dentichn_st_patr_otizm_c_nnost_17-18_serpnya_2022.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2022-08-23 |title= |script-title=uk:Сімнадцяте загальнонаціональне опитування: Ідентичність. Патріотизм. Цінності (17–18 серпня 2022) |trans-title=Seventeenth National Survey: Identity. Patriotism. Values (17–18 August 2022) |url=https://ratinggroup.ua/files/ratinggroup/reg_files/rg_ua_1000_independence_082022_xvii_press.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220826043944/https://ratinggroup.ua/files/ratinggroup/reg_files/rg_ua_1000_independence_082022_xvii_press.pdf |archive-date=2022-08-26 |url-status=live |access-date=2022-10-22 |website=Rating Group |pages=29–38}}</ref> In the same survey, 76% considered Ukrainian their native language ({{Transliteration|uk|ridna mova}}), up from 57% in July 2012, including 30% of Russian speakers.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

===Popular culture===
{{Main|Music of Ukraine|Cinema of Ukraine}}

====Music====
Ukrainian has become popular in other countries through movies and songs performed in the Ukrainian language. The most popular [[Ukrainian rock]] bands, such as [[Okean Elzy]], [[Vopli Vidopliassova]], and [[BoomBox (Ukrainian band)|BoomBox]] perform regularly in tours across Europe, Israel, North America and especially Russia. In countries with significant Ukrainian populations, bands singing in the Ukrainian language sometimes reach top places on the charts, such as [[Enej]] (a band from Poland). Other notable Ukrainian-language bands are [[The Ukrainians]] from the United Kingdom, [[Klooch]] from Canada, [[Ukrainian Village Band]] from the United States, and the [[Kuban Cossack Choir]] from the [[Kuban]] region in Russia.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

====Cinema====
{{Update|section|updated=17 November 2013|date=April 2017}}

The 2010s saw a revival of Ukrainian cinema.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://gazeta.ua/articles/culture/_mi-stojimo-bilya-vitokiv-vidrodzhennya-ukrajinskogo-kino-sumska/518589|title=Ми стоїмо біля витоків відродження українського кіно – Сумська|date=29 September 2013|access-date=17 November 2013|archive-date=27 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131227151252/http://gazeta.ua/articles/culture/_mi-stojimo-bilya-vitokiv-vidrodzhennya-ukrajinskogo-kino-sumska/518589|url-status=live}}</ref> The top Ukrainian-language films (by IMDb rating) are:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/language/uk?ref_=tt_dt_dt|title=IMDb – Data as for 17 November 2013|website=[[IMDb]]|access-date=30 June 2018|archive-date=6 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160906141210/http://www.imdb.com/language/uk?ref_=tt_dt_dt|url-status=live}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=February 2022}}

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Name !! Year!! Rating || Link
|-
| {{ill|Іван Сила|uk|Іван Сила (фільм)}} || 2013|| 8.6 || [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2401213/]
|-
| {{interlanguage link|Тіні незабутих предків|uk}} || 2013 || 8.5 || [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2245906/]
|-
| {{interlanguage link|Звичайна справа|uk}}  || 2012|| 8.1 || [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2381127/]
|-
| [[Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors|Тіні забутих предків]]  || 1965 || 7.9  ||[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058642/]
|-
| [[Pawnshop (film)|Ломбард]] || 2013|| 7.9  || [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2195804/]
|-
| [[Delirium (2013 film)|Деліріум]]  || 2013|| 7.8  ||[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2040319/]
|-
| {{ill|Фучжоу|uk|Фучжоу (фільм)}}  || 1993|| 7.7 || [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179186/]
|}

====Argots====
Oleksa Horbach's 1951 study of argots analyzed historical primary sources (argots of professionals, thugs, prisoners, homeless, school children, etc.) paying special attention to etymological features of argots, word formation and borrowing patterns depending on the source-language (Church Slavonic, Russian, Czech, Polish, Romani, Greek, Romanian, Hungarian, German).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Argot in Ukraine|last=Horbach|first=Oleksa|publisher=habilitation thesis, Ukrainian Free University in Munich|year=1951}}</ref>

===Dialects===
{{Main|Ukrainian dialects}}
[[File:Map of Ukrainian dialects en.png|thumb|A map of Ukrainian dialects and subdialects (2005)
{{legend|#5987FF|Northern group}}{{legend|#FFD326|South-eastern group}}{{legend|#FF4E44|South-western group}}
]]

Several modern [[dialect]]s of Ukrainian exist.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um156.htm |title=Діалект. Діалектизм. Українська мова. Енциклопедія |publisher=Litopys.org.ua |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=1 November 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051101043729/http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um156.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um184.htm |title=Інтерактивна мапа говорів. Українська мова. Енциклопедія |publisher=Litopys.org.ua |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=19 February 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060219120041/http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um184.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
* {{em|Northern (Polissian)}} dialects:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um161.htm |title=Північне наріччя. Українська мова. Енциклопедія |publisher=Litopys.org.ua |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=1 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210201132806/http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um161.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
** {{em|(3) Eastern Polissian}} is spoken in [[Chernihiv oblast|Chernihiv]] (excluding the southeastern districts), in the northern part of [[Sumy Oblast|Sumy]], and in the southeastern portion of the [[Kyiv Oblast]] as well as in the adjacent areas of Russia, which include the southwestern part of the [[Bryansk Oblast]] (the area around [[Starodub]]), as well as in some places in the [[Kursk Oblast|Kursk]], [[Voronezh Oblast|Voronezh]] and [[Belgorod Oblast|Belgorod]] Oblasts.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um155.ht |title=ІЗБОРНИК. Історія України IX-XVIII ст. Першоджерела та інтерпретації. Нульова сторінка |publisher=Litopys.org.ua |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=1 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210201132825/http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um155.ht |url-status=live }}</ref> No linguistic border can be defined. The vocabulary approaches Russian as the language approaches the Russian Federation. Both Ukrainian and Russian grammar sets can be applied to this dialect.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web |url=http://www.ethnology.ru/doc/narod/t1/gif/nrd-t1_0151z.gif |title=map |date= |website=www.ethnology.ru |access-date=27 December 2005 |archive-date=9 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909083130/http://www.ethnology.ru/doc/narod/t1/gif/nrd-t1_0151z.gif |url-status=live }}</ref>
** {{em|(2) Central Polissian}} is spoken in the northwestern part of the [[Kyiv Oblast]], in the northern part of [[Zhytomyr Oblast|Zhytomyr]] and the northeastern part of the [[Rivne Oblast]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um167.htm |title=Середньополіський говір. Українська мова. Енциклопедія |publisher=Litopys.org.ua |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=1 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210201132851/http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um167.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
** {{em|(1) West Polissian}} is spoken in the northern part of the [[Volyn Oblast]], the northwestern part of the [[Rivne Oblast]], and in the adjacent districts of the [[Brest Region]] in Belarus. The dialect spoken in Belarus uses Belarusian grammar and thus is considered by some to be a dialect of Belarusian.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.belarusguide.com/as/map_text/havorki.html |title=Maps of Belarus: Dialects on Belarusian territory |publisher=Belarusguide.com |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=22 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120522181734/http://www.belarusguide.com/as/map_text/havorki.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
* {{em|Southeastern}} dialects:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um160.htm |title=Південно-східне наріччя. Українська мова. Енциклопедія |publisher=Litopys.org.ua |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=1 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210201132739/http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um160.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
** {{em|(4) Middle Dnieprian}} is the basis of the [[Standard language|Standard]] Literary Ukrainian. It is spoken in the central part of Ukraine, primarily in the southern and eastern part of the [[Kyiv Oblast]]. In addition, the dialects spoken in [[Cherkasy Oblast|Cherkasy]], [[Poltava Oblast|Poltava]], and Kyiv regions are considered to be close to "standard" Ukrainian.
** {{em|(5) Slobodan}} is spoken in [[Kharkiv Oblast|Kharkiv]], [[Sumy Oblast|Sumy]], [[Luhansk Oblast|Luhansk]], and the northern part of [[Donetsk Oblast|Donetsk]], as well as in the [[Voronezh Oblast|Voronezh]] and [[Belgorod Oblast|Belgorod]] regions of Russia.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um169.htm |title=Слобожанський говір. Українська мова. Енциклопедія |publisher=Litopys.org.ua |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=1 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210201132814/http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um169.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> This dialect is formed from a gradual mixture of Russian and Ukrainian, with progressively more Russian in the northern and eastern parts of the region. Thus, there is no linguistic border between Russian and Ukrainian, and, thus, both grammar sets can be applied.<ref name="autogenerated1" />
** A {{em|(6) Steppe}} dialect is spoken in southern and southeastern Ukraine. This dialect was originally the main language of the [[Zaporozhian Cossacks]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um171.htm |title=Степовий говір. Українська мова. Енциклопедія |publisher=Litopys.org.ua |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=1 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101111035/http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um171.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
** A {{em|Kuban}} dialect related to or based on the Steppe dialect is often referred to as ''[[Balachka]]'' and is spoken by the [[Kuban Cossacks]] in the [[Kuban]] region in Russia by the descendants of the [[Zaporozhian Cossacks]], who settled in that area in the late 18th century. It was formed from a gradual mixture of Russian into Ukrainian. This dialect features the use of some Russian vocabulary along with some Russian grammar.<ref name="Zakharchenko">Viktor Zakharchenko, Folk songs of the Kuban, 1997 {{cite web |url=http://geocities.com/terek_kaz/pesni/peskub.htm |title=Oocities.com |access-date=2005-02-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050226230010/http://geocities.com/terek_kaz/pesni/peskub.htm |archive-date=26 February 2005 }}, Retrieved 7 November 2007</ref> There are three main variants, which have been grouped together according to location.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://harazd.net/~nadbuhom/mapy-historia/mapy_8.htm |title=Mapa ukrajinskich howoriv |publisher=Harazd.net |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=4 April 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050404085334/http://harazd.net/~nadbuhom/mapy-historia/mapy_8.htm |url-status=usurped }}</ref>
* {{em|Southwestern}} dialects:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um159.htm |title=Південно-західне наріччя. Українська мова. Енциклопедія |publisher=Litopys.org.ua |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=7 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207143836/http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um159.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
** {{em|(13) Boyko}} is spoken by the [[Boyko|Boyko people]] on the northern side of the Carpathian Mountains in the [[Lviv Oblast|Lviv]] and [[Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast|Ivano-Frankivsk]] Oblasts. It can also be heard across the border in the [[Subcarpathian Voivodeship]] of Poland.<!--Distinctive Features-->
** {{em|(12) Hutsul}} is spoken by the [[Hutsuls|Hutsul people]] on the northern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains, in the extreme southern parts of the [[Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast]], and in parts of the [[Chernivtsi Oblast|Chernivtsi]] and [[Transcarpathian Oblast|Transcarpathian]] Oblasts.<!--Distinctive Features-->
** {{em|Lemko}} is spoken by the [[Lemkos|Lemko people]], whose [[Lemkivshchyna|homeland]] rests outside the borders of Ukraine in the [[Prešov Region]] of [[Slovakia]] along the southern side of the Carpathian Mountains, and in the southeast of modern Poland, along the northern sides of the Carpathians.<!--Distinctive Features-->
** {{em|(8) Podillian}} is spoken in the southern parts of the [[Vinnytsia Oblast|Vinnytsia]] and [[Khmelnytskyi Oblast|Khmelnytskyi]] Oblasts, in the northern part of the [[Odesa Oblast]], and in the adjacent districts of the [[Cherkasy Oblast]], the [[Kirovohrad Oblast]], and the [[Mykolaiv Oblast]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um180.htm |title=Подільський говір. Українська мова. Енциклопедія |publisher=Litopys.org.ua |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=1 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101111012/http://litopys.org.ua/ukrmova/um180.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
** {{em|(7) Volynian}} is spoken in [[Rivne Oblast|Rivne]] and [[Volyn Oblast|Volyn]], as well as in parts of [[Zhytomyr Oblast|Zhytomyr]] and [[Ternopil Oblast|Ternopil]]. It is also used in [[Chełm]], Poland.
** {{em|(11) Pokuttia (Bukovinian)}} is spoken in the [[Chernivtsi Oblast]] of Ukraine. This dialect has some distinct vocabulary borrowed from [[Romanian language|Romanian]].
** {{em|(9) Upper Dniestrian}} (Kresy) is considered to be the main Galician dialect, spoken in the [[Lviv Oblast|Lviv]], [[Ternopil Oblast|Ternopil]], and [[Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast|Ivano-Frankivsk]] Oblasts. Its distinguishing characteristics are the influence of Polish and the German vocabulary, which is reminiscent of the [[Austro-Hungarian]] rule. Some of the distinct words used in this dialect can be found here.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ji.lviv.ua/n36-1texts/gwara.htm |title=Короткий словник львівської ґвари |publisher=Ji.lviv.ua |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=23 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110123112532/http://www.ji.lviv.ua/n36-1texts/gwara.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
** {{em|(10) Upper Sannian}} is spoken in the border area between Ukraine and Poland in the San river valley.
* The {{em|[[Rusyn language]]}} is considered by Ukrainian linguists to be a dialect of Ukrainian as well:<ref>{{Cite book |first1=Petr |last1=Kokaisl |first2=Andrea |last2=Štolfová |first3=Pavla |last3=Fajfrlíková |first4=Veronika |last4=Němcová |first5=Jana |last5=Zychová |first6=Irena |last6=Cejpová |display-authors=et al. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2bSvEAAAQBAJ&dq=Officially,+state+officials+consider+Rusyn+to+be+just+one+of+many+dialects+of+Ukrainian,+the+so-called+Transcarpathian+dialect.&pg=PA57 |title=In the footsteps of the Rusyns in Europe: Ukraine, Slovakia, Serbia, Poland and Hungary |date=2023-01-11 |publisher=NOSTALGIE Praha |isbn=978-80-908883-0-2 |pages=57 |language=en}}</ref>
** {{em|Dolinian Rusyn or Subcarpathian Rusyn}} is spoken in the [[Transcarpathian Oblast]].{{cn|date=June 2024}}<!--Distinctive Features-->
** {{em|[[Pannonian Rusyn language|Pannonian or Bačka Rusyn]]}} is spoken in northwestern [[Serbia]] and eastern [[Croatia]]. [[Rusin language]] of the Bačka dialect is one of the official languages of the Serbian Autonomous Province of [[Vojvodina]].{{cn|date=June 2024}}
** {{em|Pryashiv Rusyn}} is the Rusyn spoken in the Prešov (in Ukrainian: [[Pryashiv]]) region of Slovakia, as well as by some émigré communities, primarily in the United States of America.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

===Neighbouring countries===
{{Further|Languages of Romania#Ukrainian|Romania|Languages of Moldova#Ukrainian}}
[[File:Vviseului4.jpg|thumb|right|Sign in both Ukrainian and [[Romanian language|Romanian]] languages in the village of Valea Vișeului (Vyshivska Dolyna), [[Bistra, Maramureș|Bistra]] commune, Romania]]

All the countries neighbouring Ukraine (except for Hungary) historically have regions with a sizable Ukrainian population and therefore Ukrainian language speakers. Ukrainian is an official minority language in Belarus, Romania, and Moldova.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

===Ukrainian diaspora===
Ukrainian is also spoken by a large [[émigré]]e population, particularly [[Canadian Ukrainian|in Canada]], the United States, and several countries of South America like Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} The founders of this population primarily emigrated from [[Galicia (Central Europe)|Galicia]], which used to be part of [[Austro-Hungary]] before World War I, and belonged to Poland between the World Wars. The language spoken by most of them is the Galician dialect of Ukrainian from the first half of the 20th century. Compared with modern Ukrainian, the vocabulary of Ukrainians outside Ukraine reflects less influence of Russian, but often contains many [[loanwords]] from the local language.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

Most of the countries where it is spoken are [[Post-Soviet states|ex-USSR]], where many Ukrainians have migrated. Canada and the United States are also home to a large Ukrainian population. Broken up by country (to the nearest thousand):<ref name=e27/>

# Russia 1,129,838 (according to the [[Russian Census (2010)|2010 census]]);<ref name="rus">{{cite web|url=http://www.perepis-2010.ru/results_of_the_census/tab6.xls|script-title=ru:Население Российской Федерации по владению языками|language=ru|access-date=9 February 2013|archive-date=30 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120530221314/http://www.perepis-2010.ru/results_of_the_census/tab6.xls|url-status=dead}}</ref>
# Canada 200,525<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/themes/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?Temporal=2001&PID=55539&APATH=11&GID=431515&METH=1&PTYPE=55440&THEME=41&FOCUS=0&AID=0&PLACENAME=0&PROVINCE=0&SEARCH=0&GC=99&GK=NA&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=&FL=0&RL=4&FREE=0|title=Various Languages Spoken|publisher=[[Statistics Canada]]|year=2001|access-date=2008-02-03|archive-date=24 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160524015103/http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/themes/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?Temporal=2001&PID=55539&APATH=11&GID=431515&METH=1&PTYPE=55440&THEME=41&FOCUS=0&AID=0&PLACENAME=0&PROVINCE=0&SEARCH=0&GC=99&GK=NA&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=&FL=0&RL=4&FREE=0|url-status=dead}}</ref> (67,665 spoken at home<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/themes/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?Temporal=2001&PID=55536&APATH=11&GID=431515&METH=1&PTYPE=55440&THEME=41&FOCUS=0&AID=0&PLACENAME=0&PROVINCE=0&SEARCH=0&GC=99&GK=NA&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=&FL=0&RL=4&FREE=0|title=Detailed Language Spoken at Home|publisher=Statistics Canada|year=2001|access-date=2008-02-03|archive-date=2 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202180854/http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/themes/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?Temporal=2001&PID=55536&APATH=11&GID=431515&METH=1&PTYPE=55440&THEME=41&FOCUS=0&AID=0&PLACENAME=0&PROVINCE=0&SEARCH=0&GC=99&GK=NA&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=&FL=0&RL=4&FREE=0|url-status=dead}}</ref> in 2001, 148,000 spoken as "mother tongue" in 2001)<ref>Mother tongue "refers to the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the individual at the time of the census." More detailed language figures are to be reported in December 2007.  Statistics Canada (2007). ''[http://publications.gc.ca/Collection/Statcan/12-581-X/12-581-XIE2006001.pdf Canada at a Glance 2007] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141205052736/http://publications.gc.ca/Collection/Statcan/12-581-X/12-581-XIE2006001.pdf |date=5 December 2014 }}'', p. 4.</ref>

Ukrainian is declaratively proclaimed as one of three official languages of the breakaway Moldovan region of [[Transnistria]].<ref>{{cite web |author=Неофициальный сайт Президента ПМР |url=http://president-pmr.org/ |title=The Constitution of Transnistria, Article 12 |publisher=President-pmr.org |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=5 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220205193950/http://president-pmr.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Ukrainian is widely spoken within the 400,000-strong (in 1994) [[Ukrainian Brazilian|Ukrainian community in Brazil]].<ref name="Boruszenko">Oksana Boruszenko and Rev. Danyil Kozlinsky (1994). ''Ukrainians in Brazil'' (Chapter), in ''Ukraine and Ukrainians Throughout the World'', edited by Ann Lencyk Pawliczko, University of Toronto Press: Toronto, pp. 443–454</ref> It is the official language in [[Prudentópolis]] alongside [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]].<ref>{{Cite act|type=Bill|index=024/2021|date=14 September 2021|article=1|url=http://www.cmprudentopolis.pr.gov.br/index.php?sessao=a8e910730f0da8&id=59452|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220225004703/http://www.cmprudentopolis.pr.gov.br/index.php?sessao=a8e910730f0da8&id=59452|url-status=dead|archive-date=2022-02-25|language=pt}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Tecnologia |first=Flize |date=6 October 2021 |title=Língua Ucraniana é oficialmente a Língua Co-oficial do município de Prudentópolis |trans-title=Ukrainian is officially the co-official language of the municipality of Prudentópolis |url=https://nossagente.info/2021/10/06/lingua-ucraniana-e-oficialmente-a-lingua-co-oficial-do-municipio-de-prudentopolis/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220225004645/https://nossagente.info/2021/10/06/lingua-ucraniana-e-oficialmente-a-lingua-co-oficial-do-municipio-de-prudentopolis/ |archive-date=25 February 2022 |access-date= |website=Nossa Gente |language=pt}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Maier |first=Mayara |date=21 October 2021 |title=Prudentópolis tornou a Língua Ucraniana cooficial no Município |trans-title=Prudentópolis made the Ukrainian language official in the municipality |url=https://redesuldenoticias.com.br/noticias/lingua-ucraniana-e-oficializada-nessa-quarta-20-em-prudentopolis/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220225232953/https://redesuldenoticias.com.br/noticias/lingua-ucraniana-e-oficializada-nessa-quarta-20-em-prudentopolis/ |archive-date=25 February 2022 |access-date= |website=RSN |language=pt}}</ref>

==Language structure==
: ''Cyrillic letters in this article are [[Romanization of Ukrainian|romanized]] using [[Romanization of Ukrainian#Scientific transliteration|scientific transliteration]].''

===Grammar===
{{Further|Ukrainian grammar}}

Ukrainian is a [[fusional language|fusional]], [[Nominative–accusative alignment|nominative–accusative]], [[verb framing|satellite-framed]] language. It exhibits [[T–V distinction]], and is [[null-subject language|null-subject]]. The canonical word order of Ukrainian is [[subject–verb–object|SVO]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wals.info/refdb/record/Stechishin-1958 |title=Stechishin-1958 |publisher=Wals.info |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=11 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011112132/http://wals.info/refdb/record/Stechishin-1958 |url-status=live }}</ref> Other [[word order]]s are common due to the free word order enabled by Ukrainian's [[inflection]]al system.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Nouns have one of 3 [[grammatical gender|genders]]: masculine, feminine, neuter; nouns [[declension|decline]] for:{{cn|date=June 2024}}
* 7 [[grammatical cases|cases]]: [[nominative]], [[accusative]], [[genitive]], [[dative]], [[instrumental case|instrumental]], [[locative case|locative]], [[vocative]];
* 2 [[grammatical number|numbers]]: [[grammatical number#singular vs plural|singular]], [[plural]].

[[Adjective]]s [[agreement (linguistics)|agree]] with nouns in gender, [[grammatical case|case]], and [[grammatical number|number]].{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Verbs [[Grammatical conjugation|conjugate]] for:{{cn|date=June 2024}}
* 4 [[grammatical tense|tenses]]: [[past tense|past]], [[pluperfect]]<!-- According to the wording of the Ukrainian orthography (2019 edition), the Ukrainian language has a past tense (минулий час) and a long past tense (давноминулий час). It is determined that these are two different times. -->, [[present tense|present]], [[future tense|future]];
* 2 [[grammatical voice|voices]]: [[active voice|active]], [[mediopassive voice|mediopassive]];
* 3 [[grammatical person|persons]]: first, second, third;
* 2 [[grammatical number|numbers]]: [[grammatical number#singular vs plural|singular]], [[plural]].

Ukrainian verbs come in [[Grammatical aspect in Slavic languages|aspect pairs]]: [[perfective aspect|perfective]], and [[imperfective aspect|imperfective]]. Pairs are usually formed by a [[prepositional]] prefix and occasionally a [[apophony|root change]]. The [[past tense]] agrees with its [[subject (grammar)|subject]] in number and gender (but ''not'' [[Grammatical person|person]]), having developed from the [[perfect (grammar)|perfect]] [[participle]].{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

The Old East Slavic and Russian ''o'' in syllables ending in a consonant, often correspond to a Ukrainian ''i'', as in ''pod'' → ''pid'' (під, 'under'). Thus, in the declension of nouns, the ''o'' can re-appear when it is no longer located in a closed syllable, such as ''rik'' (рік, 'year') ([[nominative case|nom]]): ''rotsi'' ([[locative case|loc]]) (році). Similarly, some words can have ''і'' in some cases when most of the cases have ''o'', for example ''слово'' (nominative singular), ''слова'' (nominative plural) but ''слiв'' (genitive plural).{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

Ukrainian case endings are somewhat different from Old East Slavic, and the vocabulary includes a large overlay of Polish terminology. Russian ''na pervom etaže'' 'on the first floor' is in the locative (prepositional) case. The Ukrainian corresponding expression is ''na peršomu poversi'' (на першому поверсі). ''-omu'' is the standard locative (prepositional) ending, but variants in ''-im'' are common in dialect and poetry, and allowed by the standards bodies. The ''kh'' of Ukrainian ''poverkh'' (поверх) has mutated into ''s'' under the influence of the soft vowel ''i'' (''k'' is similarly mutable into ''c'' in final positions).{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

===Phonology===
{{Further|Ukrainian phonology}}

[[File:Emma Andijewska, Vidsvity hrozy.ogg|thumb|The poem "Gleams of Thunderstorm" by [[Emma Andijewska]] read in Ukrainian]]

The Ukrainian language has six vowels, {{IPA|/i/}}, {{IPA|/u/}}, {{IPA|/ɪ/}}, {{IPA|/ɛ/}}, {{IPA|/ɔ/}}, {{IPA|/a/}}.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

A number of the consonants come in three forms: hard, soft ([[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]]) and [[geminate consonant|long]], for example, {{IPA|/l/}}, {{IPA|/lʲ/}}, and {{IPA|/lː/}} or {{IPA|/n/}}, {{IPA|/nʲ/}}, and {{IPA|/nː/}}.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

The letter {{angle bracket|г}} represents the [[voiced glottal fricative]] {{IPA|/ɦ/}}, often transliterated as Latin ''h''. It is the [[Voiced consonant|voiced]] equivalent of English {{IPA|/h/}}. Russian speakers from Ukraine often use the soft Ukrainian {{IPA|/ɦ/}} in place of Russian {{IPA|/ɡ/}}, which comes from northern dialects of Old East Slavic. The Ukrainian alphabet has the additional letter {{angle bracket|[[ґ]]}} for {{IPA|/ɡ/}}, which appears in a few native words such as {{Lang|uk|ґринджоли}}  ''gryndžoly'' 'sleigh' and {{Lang|uk|ґудзик}} ''gudzyk'' 'button'. However, {{IPA|/ɡ/}} appears almost exclusively in [[loan words]], and is usually simply written {{angle bracket|г}}. For example, loanwords from English on public signs usually use {{angle bracket|г}} for both English ''g'' and ''h''.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Another phonetic divergence between the Ukrainian and Russian languages is the pronunciation of Cyrillic {{angle bracket|[[в]]}} ''v/w''. While in standard Russian it represents {{IPA|/v/}}, in many Ukrainian dialects it denotes {{IPA|/w/}} (following a vowel and preceding a consonant (cluster), either within a word or at a word boundary, it denotes the allophone {{IPA|[u̯]}}, and like the off-glide in the English words "flow" and "cow", it forms a [[diphthong]] with the preceding vowel). Native Russian speakers will pronounce the Ukrainian {{angle bracket|в}} as {{IPA|[v]}}, which is one way to tell the two groups apart. As with {{angle bracket|г}} above, Ukrainians use {{angle bracket|в}} to render both English ''v'' and ''w''; Russians occasionally use {{angle bracket|у}} for ''w'' instead.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Unlike Russian and most other modern Slavic languages, Ukrainian does not have [[final devoicing]].{{cn|date=June 2024}}

===Alphabet===
{{Main|Ukrainian alphabet}}
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; font-family:serif; text-align: center; font-size: 120%"
|+ The Ukrainian alphabet
|-
| style="width:2.5em;" | А а 
| style="width:2.5em;" | Б б 
| style="width:2.5em;" | В в 
| style="width:2.5em;" | Г г 
| style="width:2.5em;" | Ґ ґ 
| style="width:2.5em;" | Д д 
| style="width:2.5em;" | Е е 
| style="width:2.5em;" | Є є 
| style="width:2.5em;" | Ж ж 
| style="width:2.5em;" | З з 
| style="width:2.5em;" | И и
|-
| І і || Ї ї || Й й || К к || Л л || М м || Н н || О о || П п || Р р || С с
|-
| Т т || У у || Ф ф || Х х || Ц ц || Ч ч || Ш ш || Щ щ || Ь ь || Ю ю || Я я
|}

Ukrainian is written in a version of [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]], consisting of 33 letters, representing 38 [[phoneme]]s; an [[apostrophe]] is also used.  Ukrainian orthography is based on the phonemic principle, with one letter generally corresponding to one phoneme, although there are a number of exceptions. The orthography also has cases where the semantic, historical, and morphological principles are applied.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

The modern Ukrainian alphabet is the result of a number of proposed alphabetic reforms from the 19th and early 20th centuries, in Ukraine under the Russian Empire, in Austrian Galicia, and later in Soviet Ukraine. A unified Ukrainian alphabet (the ''[[Ukrainian orthography of 1928|Skrypnykivka]]'', after [[Mykola Skrypnyk]]) was officially established at a 1927 international Orthographic Conference in [[Kharkiv]], during the period of [[Ukrainization]] in Soviet Ukraine.  But the policy was reversed in the 1930s, and the Soviet Ukrainian orthography diverged from that used by the [[Ukrainian diaspora|diaspora]]. The Ukrainian letter [[Ghe with upturn|ge]] ''ґ'' was banned in the Soviet Union from 1933 until the period of Glasnost in 1990.<ref>Magocsi 1996, pp 567, 570–71.</ref>

The letter щ represents two consonants {{IPA|[ʃt͡ʃ]}}. The combination of {{IPA|[j]}} with some of the vowels is also represented by a single letter ({{IPA|[ja]}} = я, {{IPA|[je]}} = є, {{IPA|[ji]}} or {{IPA|[jı̽]}} = ї, {{IPA|[ju]}} = ю), while {{IPA|[jɔ]}} = йо and the rare regional {{IPA|[jɨ]}} = йи are written using two letters. These [[iotated]] vowel letters and a special [[soft sign]] change a preceding consonant from hard to soft. An [[Ukrainian apostrophe|apostrophe]] is used to indicate the hardness of the sound in the cases when normally the vowel would change the consonant to soft; in other words, it functions like the [[yer]] in the Russian alphabet.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

A consonant letter is doubled to indicate that the sound is doubled, or long.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

The phonemes {{IPA|[d͡z]}} and {{IPA|[d͡ʒ]}} do not have dedicated letters in the alphabet and are rendered with the [[Digraph (orthography)|digraphs]] дз and дж, respectively. {{IPA|[d͡z]}} is equivalent to English ''ds'' in ''pods'', {{IPA|[d͡ʒ]}} is equivalent to ''j'' in ''jump''.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

As in Russian, the [[acute accent]] may be used to denote vowel stress.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

====Transliteration====
{{main|Romanization of Ukrainian}}

{{see also|Drahomanivka|Ukrainian Latin alphabet}}

===Orthography===
{{main|Ukrainian orthography}}{{see also|Ukrainian orthography of 2019}}
[[File:KB_Ukrainian.svg|thumb|A Ukrainian keyboard layout]]
Spelling search,{{clarify|date=November 2022}} which began in the late 18th century with the emergence of modern literary language, led to the emergence of several spelling options. In particular, there was the spelling system of Oleksii Pavlovskyi, the [[Shashkevychivka|spelling version of "Mermaid of the Dniester"]] (1837), Kulishivka (P. Kulish's spelling system), [[Drahomanivka]] (produced in Kyiv in the 1870s by a group of cultural figures led by linguist P. Zhytetskyi, which included and M. Drahomanov), [[Zhelekhivka]] (system of Yevhen Zhelekhovskyi (1886), enshrined in the ''Ruthenian Grammar'' by Smal-Stotskyi and [[Theodor Gartner|Theodore Gartner]] 1893).{{cn|date=June 2024}}

[[Borys Grinchenko|Borys Hrinchenko]] used some corrections in the fundamental four-volume ''Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language'' (1907–1909). Most of the spelling rules (practically based on phonetics – "write as you hear") used in Hrinchenko's dictionary are still valid. Hrinchenko's work became an informal spelling and model for Ukrainian writers and publications from 1907 until the creation of the first official Ukrainian spelling in 1918.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

On 17 January 1918, the [[Central Council of Ukraine|Central Rada of Ukraine]] issued the "Main Rules of Ukrainian orthography", which, however, did not cover the entire scope of the language. On 17 May 1919, the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences approved the "Main Rules of Ukrainian Orthography", which became the basis for all subsequent revisions and amendments.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

On 23 July 1925, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR decided to organize a State Commission for the Organization of Ukrainian Spelling (State Spelling Commission). It included more than 20 academics from the USSR, who also expressed a desire to invite representatives of Western Ukraine: Smal-Stotskyi, [[Volodymyr Hnatiuk]] and Vasyl Simovych.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

After almost a year of work in April 1926, the "Project of Ukrainian Spelling" was published to acquaint the general public with the new system. After several months of discussion and consideration of the project at the All-Ukrainian Spelling Conference (26 May – 6 June 1927), the Ukrainian orthography of 1928 was adopted in accordance with the RNC resolution of 6 September 1928. It went down in history as "Kharkiv" or "Skrypnik orthography" – from the place of creation, or from the surname of Skrypnyk.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

In 1929, Hryhorii Holoskevych published the ''Ukrainian Spelling Dictionary'' (about 40,000 words), agreed with the full spelling produced by the State Spelling Commission and approved by the People's Commissar for Education (6 September 1928).<ref>[http://www.r2u.org.ua/data/Правописний%20словник%20%281929%29.pdf Голоскевич Григорій. ''Правописний словник''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222225840/http://r2u.org.ua/data/%D0%9F%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B9%20%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%20%281929%29.pdf |date=22 December 2010 }} (за нормами Українського правопису Всеукраїнської Академії Наук, Харків, 1929&nbsp;р.)</ref>

In 1933, a spelling commission headed by Andrii Khvylia branded the Ukrainian orthography of 1928 as "nationalist", immediately stopped publishing any dictionaries, and without any discussion, in a very short time (five months), created a [[Ukrainian orthography of 1933|new spelling]] that unified as never before the Ukrainian and Russian languages. The letter ґ was removed from the alphabet, and Ukrainian scientific terminology was revised and harmonized with Russian-Ukrainian dictionaries (the Institute of Ukrainian Scientific Language was abolished in 1930). This version of the spelling was approved by the resolution of the People's Commissar of Education of the USSR of 5 September 1933.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Some minor changes were made in the spelling of 1946 and 1959 (published the following year). It was connected with the document "The rules of Russian spelling and punctuation", published in 1956. From 1960 until 1990, the 1960 edition was the official standard.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

After the beginning of "perestroika", the issue of improving Ukrainian spelling became relevant again: the editing of the spelling code was started by the Orthographic Commission at the LMM of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The project was also discussed in the newly established Ukrainian Language Society. T. Shevchenko (headed by [[Dmytro Pavlychko]]). The new version was approved on 14 November 1989, and published in 1990. The main achievements were the restoration of the letter ґ and the [[Vocative case|accusative case]] (in Soviet times it was optional and was called the ''accusative form'').{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Today, despite the existence of the official spelling of the Ukrainian language, it is not the only spelling standard in use. Even in Ukraine itself, many publishers and publications use other versions of the spelling, which either tend to "skrypnykivka", or else differ from the official rules of transmission of words of foreign origin.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

On 22 May 2019, the [[Government of Ukraine|Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine]] approved a [[Ukrainian orthography of 2019|new version of the orthography]] prepared by the Ukrainian National Commission on Spelling. The new edition brought to life some features of orthography in 1928, which were part of the Ukrainian orthographic tradition. At the same time, the commission was guided by the understanding that the language practice of Ukrainians in the second half of the 20th to the beginning of the 21st century has already become part of the Ukrainian orthographic tradition.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Ministry of Education and Science explained why they changed the Ukrainian spelling. Law and Business|url=https://zib.com.ua/ua/print/140751-u_mon_poyasnili_navischo_minyali_ukrainskiy_pravopis.html|website=zib.com.ua|accessdate=2021-04-06|archive-date=10 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410215126/https://zib.com.ua/ua/print/140751-u_mon_poyasnili_navischo_minyali_ukrainskiy_pravopis.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Vocabulary===
''The Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language'', in 11 volumes, contains 253,000 entries.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/velykyislovnyk|title=Великий тлумачний словник сучасної української мови|year=2005|access-date=26 March 2022}}</ref> Lexical card catalog of the Ukrainian Institute of Language Studies has six million cards.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www1.nas.gov.ua/institutes/ium/lb/Documents/LB-10.pdf|title=Лексикографічний Бюлетень|year=2004|access-date=27 December 2014|archive-date=27 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227172924/http://www1.nas.gov.ua/institutes/ium/lb/Documents/LB-10.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> As mentioned at the top of the article, Ukrainian is most closely related lexically to Belarusian, and is also closer to Polish than to Russian (for example, можливість, ''mozhlyvist{{softsign}}'', "possibility", and Polish ''możliwość'', but Russian возможность, ''vozmozhnost{{softsign}}'').{{cn|date=June 2024}}

===False cognates with Russian===
{{see also|Surzhyk}}
The standard Ukrainian language which is based on the Kyiv–Poltava dialect has a plethora of [[false friend]]s with the standard Russian language which is based on the dialect of Moscow. Many people intentionally do or do not use them, causing their language shift into what is known as [[Surzhyk]], where the meaning of some words mimicking Russian could be understood out of context rather than their literal meaning in Ukrainian.{{cn|date=June 2024}}
{| class="wikitable"
|+ False friend samples
|-
! English 
! Ukrainian 
! Surzhyk
! Russian
|-
| to cancel 
| скасовувати<br />''skasovuvaty''
| style="background:#FDF5E6"| відміняти<br />''vidminiaty''
| style="background:#E6EAFF"| отменять<br />''otmenyat{{softsign}}''
|-
| to conjugate 
| style="background:#D4F7D4"| відміняти<br />''vidminiaty''
| спрягати<br />''spriahaty''
| спрягать<br />''spryagat{{softsign}}''
|-
| gentle 
| лагідний<br />''lahidnyi''
| style="background:#FDF5E6"| ласкавий<br />''laskavyi''
| style="background:#E6EAFF"| ласковый<br />''laskovyy''
|-
| kind 
| style="background:#D4F7D4"| ласкавий<br />''laskavyi''
| добродушний<br />''dobrodushnyi''
| добродушный<br />''dobrodushnyy''
|}

==Classification==
[[File:Geographical distribution of extant Slavic and East Baltic languages 2015.png|thumb|Ethnographic Map of Slavic and Baltic Languages]]
Ukrainian has varying degrees of [[mutual intelligibility]] with other [[Slavic languages]]. It is closely related to other [[East Slavic languages]] with high levels of mutual intelligibility.<ref name="classification145"/>  Ukrainian is considered to be most closely related to Belarusian.<ref>Roland Sussex, Paul V. Cubberley. (2006). ''The Slavic languages''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pg. 518</ref>

The separation of the East Slavic languages is considered to be relatively recent.<ref name="classification145"/> In the 19th century, the question of whether the Ukrainian, [[Belorusian language|Belarusian]] and [[Russian language|Russian]] languages were dialects of a single language or three separate languages was actively discussed, with the debate affected by linguistic and political factors.<ref name="classification145" /> The political situation (Ukraine and Belarus being mainly part of the Russian Empire at the time) and the historical existence of the medieval state of Kievan Rus{{softsign}}, which occupied large parts of these three nations, led to the creation of the common classification known later as the East Slavic languages. The underlying theory of the grouping is their descent from a common ancestor. In modern times, Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian are usually listed by linguists as separate languages.<ref>Bernard Comrie and Greville G. Corbett, ed.  1993.  ''The Slavonic Languages'' (Routledge).<br />Bernard Comrie.  1992.  "Slavic Languages", ''International Encyclopedia of Linguistics'' (Oxford).  Vol. 3, pp. 452–456.</ref><ref>David Dalby. 1999/2000. ''The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities'' (The Linguasphere Observatory), Volume Two, pg. 442: "53-AAA-e, Russkiy+Ukrainska"</ref><ref name=e27/>

The Ukrainians were predominantly [[Peasant|peasants]] and [[petit bourgeois|petits bourgeois]]. In 1897, 93% of Ukrainians were peasants.<ref name="WUkraineL"/> As a result, the Ukrainian language was mostly vernacular and few earlier literary works from the period can be found. In the cities, Ukrainian coexisted with [[Church Slavonic language|Church Slavonic]]—a literary language of [[religion]] that evolved from Old Church Slavonic—and later Polish and Russian, both languages which were more often used in formal writing and communication during that time.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

===Differences from other Slavic languages===
The Ukrainian language has the following similarities with and differences from other Slavic languages:

*Like all Slavic languages with the exception of [[Russian language|Russian]], Belarusian, standard written Slovak{{efn|In standard written Slovak, the vocative case is still retained in some common words, like ''mami'' — vocative (English mum) vs ''mama'' — nominative, ''oci'' or ''tati'' – vocative, (English dad) vs ''oco'', ''tato'' — nominative, ''Bože'' (God in English) vs ''Boh''}} and [[Slovene language|Slovene]], the Ukrainian language has preserved the Common Slavic [[vocative case]]. When addressing one's sister (''sestra'') she is referred to as ''sestro.'' In the Russian language the vocative case has been almost entirely replaced by the nominative (except for a handful of vestigial forms, e.g. ''Bozhe'' "God!" and ''Gospodi'' "Lord!").<ref name="comparison">J. B. Rudnyckyj. (1963) . The Position of the Ukrainian Language among the Slavic languages. In ''Ukraine: A concise Encyclopedia''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 445–448.</ref>
*The Ukrainian language, in common with all Slavic languages other than Russian, Slovak and Slovene, has retained the Common [[Slavic second palatalization]] of the velars *k, *g and *x in front of the secondary vowel *ě of the dative and locative ending in the female [[declension]], resulting in the final sequences -cě, -zě, and -sě. For example, ''ruka'' (hand) becomes ''ruci'' in Ukrainian. In Russian, the dative and locative of ''ruka'' is ''ruke.''
*The Ukrainian language, in common with Serbo-Croatian and Slovene, has developed the ending -''mo'' for first-person plurals in verbs (''khodymo'' for "we walk").<ref name="comparison" /> In all cases, it resulted from lengthening of the Common Slavic -''mŭ''.{{citation needed|date=April 2014}}{{dubious|date=April 2014}}
*The Ukrainian language, along with Russian and Belarusian, has changed the Common Slavic word-initial ''ye''- into ''o'', such as in the words ''ozero'' (lake) and ''odyn'' (one).<ref name="comparison" />
*The Ukrainian language, in common with Czech, Slovak, Upper Sorbian, Belarusian and southern Russian dialects, has changed the Common Slavic "g" into an "h" sound (for example, ''noha'' – leg).<ref name="comparison" />
*The Ukrainian language, in common with some northern Russian and Croatian dialects, has transformed the Common Slavic ''yě'' into ''i'' (for example, ''lis'' – forest).<ref name="comparison" />
*The Ukrainian language, in common with Russian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, and Slovene, has simplified the Common Slavic ''tl'' and ''dl'' into ''l'' (for example, ''mela'' – she swept").<ref name="comparison" />
*The Ukrainian language, in common with the most of Slavic ones, is a [[Isochrony|stress-timed language]], in which syllables may last different amounts of time, but there is perceived to be a fairly constant amount of time (on average) between consecutive stressed syllables.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oleksandr |first=Ishchenko |date=2016 |title=Ukrainian in prosodic typology of world languages |url=https://zenodo.org/record/7548409 |journal=Dialog der Sprachen, Dialog der Kulturen. Die Ukraine aus Globaler Sicht: V. Internationale Virtuelle Konferenz der Ukrainistik |language=uk |publisher=Open Publishing LMU |publication-place=München |pages=76–85 |doi=10.5281/ZENODO.7548409 |access-date=19 January 2023 |archive-date=19 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119113138/https://zenodo.org/record/7548409 |url-status=live }}</ref> 
*The Ukrainian language, in common with all modern Slavic languages other than Bulgarian and Macedonian, does not use [[Article (linguistics)|articles]].
*Other Slavic ''o'' in closed syllables, i.e., syllables ending in a consonant, in many cases corresponds to a Ukrainian ''i'', as in ''pod'' → ''pid'' (під, 'under'). This also includes place names such as Lviv (Львів in Ukrainian), Lwów in Polish, and Львов (Lvov) in Russian.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Unlike all other Slavic languages, Ukrainian has a synthetic future (also termed inflectional future) tense which developed through the erosion and [[Clitic|cliticization]] of the verb "to have" (or possibly "to take"): ''pysat-ymu'' (infinitive-future-1st sg.) ''I will write''.<ref name="Languages of Europe">Bernd Kortmann, Johan van der Auwera (2011). ''The Languages and Linguistics of Europe: A Comprehensive Guide'', Volume 2. p. 103</ref> Although the inflectional future (based on the verb 'to have') is characteristic of [[Romance languages]], Ukrainian linguist A. Danylenko argues that Ukrainian differs from Romance in the choice of auxiliary, which should be interpreted as 'to take' and not 'to have.' He states that Late Common Slavic (LCS) had three verbs with the same Proto-Indo-European root {{lang|ine-x-proto|h₁em-}}: 
* a determined imperfective LCS *jęti: *jĭmǫ 'to take' (later superseded by numerous prefixed perfectives)
* an indetermined imperfective LCS *jĭmati: jemljǫ 'to take' (which would not take any prefixes)
* an imperfective LCS *jĭměti: *jĭmamĭ 'to hold, own, have'
The three verbs became conflated in East Slavic due to morphological overlap, in particular of *iměti "to have" and *jati "to take" as exemplified in the Middle Ukrainian homonymic imut’ from both iměti (&lt; *jĭměti) and jati (&lt; *jęti). Analogous grammaticalization of the type take ("to take", "to seize") > future is found in [[Chinese language|Chinese]] and [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]].<ref name="Danylenko">Andrii Danylenko. "Is There Any Inflectional Future in East Slavic? A Case of Ukrainian against Romance Reopened." ''Journal of the Slavic Research Center at Hokkaido University'', 2007. PP. 147–177.</ref>

== Sample text ==
[[File:Universal Declaration of Human Rights - ukr - r90 - Art1.ogg|thumb|Ukrainian pronunciation]]

Article 1 of the ''[[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]]'' in Ukrainian:<blockquote>'''''Всі люди народжуються вільними і рівними у своїй гідності та правах. Вони наділені розумом і совістю і повинні діяти у відношенні один до одного в дусі братерства.'''''<ref>{{cite web |title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Ukrainian |url=http://www.udhr.de/ukr.html |website=unicode.org |access-date=9 July 2023 |archive-date=9 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230709065919/http://www.udhr.de/ukr.html |url-status=live }}</ref></blockquote>The [[Romanization of Ukrainian|romanization]] of the text into [[Latin alphabet]]:<blockquote>''Vsi lyudy narodzhuyut{{softsign}}sya vil{{softsign}}nymy i rivnymy u svoyiy hidnosti ta pravakh. Vony nadileni rozumom i sovistyu i povynni diyaty u vidnoshenni odyn do odnoho v dusi braterstva.''</blockquote>Article 1 of the ''Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' in English:<ref>{{cite news |title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights |newspaper=United Nations |url=https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights |access-date=9 July 2023 |archive-date=16 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316050452/https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights |url-status=live }}</ref><blockquote>All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.</blockquote>

==See also==
{{Portal|Ukraine|Language|Linguistics}}
{{See also|Bibliography of Ukrainian history}}
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Chronology of Ukrainian language suppression]]
* [[Languages of Ukraine]]
* [[Language policy in Ukraine]]
* [[Ukrainian Braille]]
* [[Ukrainian Sign Language]]
{{div col end}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last = Korunets{{softsign}} |first = Ilko V. |title = Contrastive Topology of the English and Ukrainian Languages |location = Vinnytsia |publisher = Nova Knyha Publishers |year = 2003 |isbn = 966-7890-27-9 }}
* Lesyuk, Mykola [https://web.archive.org/web/20060630054103/http://www.mesogaia.il.if.ua/lesjuk.htm "Різнотрактування історії української мови"].
* {{cite book |last1=Jakubowski |first1=A. |last2=Miszczuk |first2=A. |last3=Kawałko |first3=B. |last4=Komornicki |first4=T. |last5=Szul |first5=R. |title=The EU's New Borderland: Cross-border relations and regional development |publisher=Taylor & Francis |series=ISSN |year=2016 |pages=272 |isbn=978-1-317-22431-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gAoxDQAAQBAJ |access-date=31 May 2024}}
* {{cite book |last = Luckyj |first = George S. N. |author-link = George S. N. Luckyj |year = 1990 |orig-year = 1956 | title = Literary Politics in the Soviet Ukraine, 1917–1934 |location = Durham and London |publisher = [[Duke University Press]] |isbn = 0-8223-1099-6 }} (revised and updated edition)
* Nimchuk, Vasyl{{softsign}}. Періодизація як напрямок дослідження генези та історії української мови. Мовознавство. 1997.- Ч.6.-С.3–14; 1998.
* [[Magocsi, Paul Robert]] (1996). ''A History of Ukraine.'' Toronto: [[University of Toronto Press]]. {{ISBN|0-8020-0830-5}}.
* {{cite journal |last=Moser |first=Michael A. |title=The Fate of the |journal=Harvard Ukrainian Studies |publisher=Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute |volume=35 |issue=1/4 |year=2017 |issn=0363-5570 |jstor=44983536 |pages=87–104 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/44983536 |access-date=5 September 2023|archive-date=5 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230905091831/https://www.jstor.org/stable/44983536|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last = Pivtorak |first = Hryhoriy Petrovych |title = Походження українців, росіян, білорусів та їхніх мов |trans-title = The origin of Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians and their languages |location = Kyiv |publisher = Akademia |year = 1998 |isbn = 966-580-082-5 |language = uk }}[http://izbornyk.org.ua/pivtorak/pivt.htm Litopys.kiev.ua] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522143121/http://izbornyk.org.ua/pivtorak/pivt.htm |date=22 May 2011 }}
* {{cite book |last = Shevelov |first = George Y. |title = A Historical Phonology of the Ukrainian Language. |location = [[Heidelberg]] |publisher = Carl Winter Verlag |year =1979 |isbn = 3-533-02787-2 }}. Ukrainian translation is partially available [http://www.litopys.org.ua/shevelov/shev.htm online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221120105749/http://litopys.org.ua/shevelov/shev.htm |date=20 November 2022 }}.
* {{cite book |last=Snyder |first=Timothy D. |authorlink=Timothy D. Snyder |title=The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999 |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2003 |pages=384 |isbn=978-0-300-10586-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xSpEynLxJ1MC |access-date=1 November 2024}}
* {{cite book |first = Orest |last = Subtelny |title = Ukraine: A History |location = Toronto |publisher = University of Toronto Press |year = 1988 |isbn = 0-8020-5808-6 |author-link = Orest Subtelny }}
* [http://www.wumag.kiev.ua/index2.php?param=pgs20032/72 "What language is spoken in Ukraine"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011112630/http://www.wumag.kiev.ua/index2.php?param=pgs20032%2F72 |date=11 October 2017 }}, in ''Welcome to Ukraine'', 2003, 1., wumag.kiev.ua
* [http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng All-Ukrainian population census 2001] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140311072116/http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/ |date=11 March 2014 }}, ukrcensus.gov.ua
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071005105502/http://www.rada.kiev.ua/const/const1.htm Конституція України (Constitution of Ukraine)], 1996, rada.kiev.ua {{in lang|uk}} [https://web.archive.org/web/19970415063610/http://rada.kiev.ua/const/conengl.htm English translation (excerpts)], rada.kiev.ua.
* [http://demoscope.ru/weekly/pril.php 1897 census] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514001827/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/pril.php |date=14 May 2011 }}, demoscope.ru
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links
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* [http://www.irekw.internetdsl.pl/mapy/rozne/mapy_kuraszkiew.jpg Dialects of Ukrainian Language / Narzecza Języka Ukraińskiego by Wł. Kuraszkiewicz] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100214134402/http://www.irekw.internetdsl.pl/mapy/rozne/mapy_kuraszkiew.jpg |date=14 February 2010 }} {{in lang|pl}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080303112904/http://cla.calpoly.edu/~mriedlsp/History315/Maps/map2.html Ethnographic map of Europe 1914], cla.calpoly.edu (archived 3 March 2008)
* [http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CU%5CK%5CUkrainianlanguage.htm Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine: Ukrainian language]
* [http://izbornyk.org.ua/pravopys/pravopys2012.htm The official Ukrainian Orthography (2012), published by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine]
* [http://www.101languages.net/ukrainian/history.html 101languages.net – Ukrainian 101]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ukrainian Language}}
[[Category:Ukrainian language| ]]
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