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Russian or Ukrainian?

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18 messages over 3 pages: 13  Next >>
furyou_gaijin
Senior Member
Japan
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 Message 9 of 18
18 October 2007 at 12:16pm | IP Logged 
Daren wrote:

furyou_gaijin wrote:
Strictly speaking, Russian has 7 cases, too...


Are you talking about the vocative case? Because that would be the seventh case, that is used commonly in
Ukrainian, but in Russian, it is only used in some older texts and religious services, when someone addresses God,
no?



So why does this mean you can discard it?
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Russianbear
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
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Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 10 of 18
18 October 2007 at 12:36pm | IP Logged 
Daren, a lot of it is phonetics, but part of it are actual words one may use. Since the languages are so close, people can get away with words that are not technically in the other language, and will be understood anyway.

So a Ukrainian could insert Ukrainian words and say things like "vzhe" instead of "uzhe", "dobre" instead of "khorosho", "treba" instead of "nado" etc - and be understood. As for phonetics, your "gorod" example is good (note that a Ukrainian can give himself away by using "misto", which is the ukrainian word for "town", or even "myesto", which is a Russian cognate that means "place", not "town", etc), though if it is said with the ukrainian "g", it is even more Ukrainian sounding. A typical example is the mispronounced "chto", that is pronounced "scho" or "sho". In short, it is the tendency to insert Ukrainian words, sounds ("g" and the vowels) and - sometimes- being overly phonetical. Russian accent in Ukrainian would be the reverse.
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Daren
Diglot
Newbie
Hungary
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10 posts - 10 votes
Speaks: Hungarian*, English
Studies: German, Russian

 
 Message 11 of 18
18 October 2007 at 12:52pm | IP Logged 
furyou_gaijin wrote:
Daren wrote:

furyou_gaijin wrote:
Strictly speaking, Russian has 7 cases, too...


Are you talking about the vocative case? Because that would be the seventh case, that is used commonly in
Ukrainian, but in Russian, it is only used in some older texts and religious services, when someone addresses God,
no?



So why does this mean you can discard it?


I didn't say I will discard it.

I just pointed out, that in Ukrainian, the vocative case is used in everyday life, but in Russian it is only used in literature, older texts and church, so learning the remains of the vocative case in Russian is not vital to be understood for a beginner learner, but if I want to advance to a better level I will learn it.

Edited by Daren on 18 October 2007 at 12:53pm

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ElfoEscuro
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
cyworld.com/brahmapu
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 Message 12 of 18
18 October 2007 at 5:08pm | IP Logged 
Russianbear wrote:
Daren, a lot of it is phonetics, but part of it are actual words one may use. Since the languages are so close, people can get away with words that are not technically in the other language, and will be understood anyway.

So a Ukrainian could insert Ukrainian words and say things like "vzhe" instead of "uzhe", "dobre" instead of "khorosho", "treba" instead of "nado" etc - and be understood. As for phonetics, your "gorod" example is good (note that a Ukrainian can give himself away by using "misto", which is the ukrainian word for "town", or even "myesto", which is a Russian cognate that means "place", not "town", etc), though if it is said with the ukrainian "g", it is even more Ukrainian sounding. A typical example is the mispronounced "chto", that is pronounced "scho" or "sho". In short, it is the tendency to insert Ukrainian words, sounds ("g" and the vowels) and - sometimes- being overly phonetical. Russian accent in Ukrainian would be the reverse.

Interesting stuff.
How about Belarusians? How is their Russian and how about Russians' Belarusian? (Sorry, a bit off topic)
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Daren
Diglot
Newbie
Hungary
Joined 6249 days ago

10 posts - 10 votes
Speaks: Hungarian*, English
Studies: German, Russian

 
 Message 13 of 18
19 October 2007 at 10:30am | IP Logged 
Thanks everyone for your answers!

After thinking over the Pros. and Cons., that I had collected, your opinions and my research, I've decided which language will I learn.

I'm going to learn Russian, I'm not really sure that I'm going to learn other Slavic languages (except maybe Ukrainian after I will have learned Russian) so the greater transparency of Ukrainian to other Slavic languages doesn't have much use for me.

While I had my special reasons to learn Ukrainian, I think Russian would me more useful at the moment, since it is a world language, both in the real world and on the internet.

And as Russianbear said, if I decide to stop learning Slavic languages after I learn Russian, I'll be stuck with the most useful language of that language family, so even if I don't learn Ukrainian after learning Russian (but I think I will learn it) I'll have a language that is useful in both Russia and Ukraine, and other parts of the world too.

Edited by Daren on 19 October 2007 at 10:34am

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Russianbear
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
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 Message 14 of 18
19 October 2007 at 2:16pm | IP Logged 
Good luck with Russian, Daren.

ElfoEscuro wrote:

Interesting stuff.
How about Belarusians? How is their Russian and how about Russians' Belarusian? (Sorry, a bit off topic)
I am not as familiar with Belarusian language, accent or the language situation in Belarus. From what I know, I think the issue is not as big with Belarusian language/accent. I don't think there are that many Belarusian speakers. There aren't many Belarusians, compared to Ukrainians, period. And Belarus seems to be more Russified of the two countries, so the number of people who would have the Belarusian accent in Russian is relatively small. Whenever I visited Pinsk, a town in Western Belarus that is close to both Poland and Ukraine, I don't remember speaking anything other than Russian and I don't even remember encountering Belorusian other than on TV (though, to be fair, a person who knows both Russian and Ukrainian could probably encounter Belorussian and not even know it). The only person who I can think of that has a Belarusian accent in Russian is the Belarusian president. On the other hand, the Ukrainian accent is relatively common, and even some pop singers in Russia have it. Also, it is possible that the Belorusian accent in Russian is not as obvious as the Ukrainian accent, though I may be biased due to my knowledge of Ukrainian language and its phonetics.

Edited by Russianbear on 19 October 2007 at 2:25pm

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Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
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 Message 15 of 18
19 October 2007 at 4:03pm | IP Logged 
Another point: I think understanding written Ukrainian for a speaker of Russian is easier than vice versa.
As for Belarusian, many people in Belarus speak Trasianka - including Lukashenko. Russianbear, yes, Belarusian can be rarely encountered in daily life, except on TV and also in the press, on the signs etc.
BTW, a nice feature of Belarusian is that the stress can often be predicted from the spelling - like Russian, it has vowel reduction, but unlike in Russian it's also reflected in the orphography.
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William Camden
Hexaglot
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United Kingdom
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 Message 16 of 18
24 October 2007 at 4:12pm | IP Logged 
Lee Harvey Oswald lived in Minsk during his rather mysterious Soviet period. He became fluent in Russian but seems to have had little or no exposure to Belarusian (or Belorussian, my preferred spelling).


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