Singular subjects get verbs conjugated in the singular, and plural subjects get verbs conjugated in the plural. Opinion A Word, Please: How to navigate difficult subject-verb agreement problems Ukrainian became the official language of Ukraine in 1989 - about two years before the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic claimed its independence - and was reaffirmed as the country’s only official language in 1996 in the country’s constitution. But forced “Russification” resumed in the 1930s and more attempts to suppress Ukrainian ensued. After the Russian revolution of 1917, the Ukrainian language was afforded equal status in the region. In 1863, a secret order called “The Valuyev Circular” was issued by a minister of the Russian Empire to prohibit publications in the Ukrainian language. The Ukrainian language has come under repeated attack for centuries. Think of the small differences between the alphabets used in Spanish and Portuguese, or those of Arabic and Farsi, and you get the idea. Ukrainian uses a form of the Cyrillic alphabet, which is very similar to the alphabet used for Russian. Ukrainian falls under the East Slavic sub-branch of Indo-European languages, making it a close cousin of Polish, Serbian, Czech, Russian, Belorussian and Bulgarian. Like English, Ukrainian is an Indo-European language, which means it is structurally similar to our own tongue, as well as to German, Greek, Celtic, Italian, Hindi and about 440 others. Ukrainian is also common in some communities outside Ukraine, notably in Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, Lithuania and Slovakia. About 30% of Ukrainians speak Russian as their first language, while just under 3% speak Crimean Tatar, Moldovan, Hungarian, Romanian or any of the other three dozen languages spoken in Ukrainian homes. Ukrainian is the first language of about 68% of the country’s 44 million residents. With that in mind, here are a few facts about the language of Ukraine. And when those attacks are part of a worldwide assault on democracy itself, such an act of solidarity is simultaneously an act of American patriotism - a nod to the ideals of freedom and self-determination at home and abroad. When a peaceful country is fighting for its survival, when civilians are being bombed in their homes and children are getting killed, learning a little about its language can be a small gesture of solidarity. It offers a way to form bonds with people from other lands. This column is about language, not foreign affairs.īut language is culture.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |