Languages
Native
Ukrainian
67%
Russian
30%
Secondary languages
English
18%
Language Samples
Привіт, як справи?
Pryvit, yak spravy?
Hello, how are you?
У мене все добре, дякую.
U mene vse dobre, dyakuyu.
I am very well, thank you.
Один, два, три, чотири, п'ять, шість, сім, вісім, дев'ять, десять.
Odyn, dva, try, chotyry, pyat, shist, sim, visim, devyat, desyat.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Linguistic History
Ukrainian is an East Slavic language with roots in Old East Slavic, the literary language of Kievan Rus' (9th–13th centuries). After the Mongol conquest and subsequent domination by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and then the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a distinct Ukrainian literary language emerged in the 16th–17th centuries. Tsarist Russia repeatedly suppressed the language through edicts such as the Ems Decree of 1876. Ukrainian experienced a major revival during the early Soviet period before Stalinist repression curtailed it again. Since Ukrainian independence in 1991 the language has steadily expanded its role in education, media, and public life, and its use has accelerated sharply since the Russian invasion of 2022.
Similar Languages
Russian
86%
Belarusian
84%
Polish
70%
Slovak
66%
Media
Kyiv Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves) overlooking the Dnipro River, Kyiv.
Photo: Falin · CC BY-SA 3.0
Did You Know
01
Ukrainian has a unique letter 'ї' (yi) not found in any other Slavic language, producing a distinct 'yee' sound.
02
The Ukrainian language has over 200,000 words for different shades and types of fields and steppes, reflecting the country's vast agricultural landscape.
03
Taras Shevchenko (1814–1861), whose poetry defined modern literary Ukrainian, is so central to the culture that Ukrainians call their language the 'Shevchenko language'.