Ukraine

Ukrainian language

ukrainian flag

Ukraine is a country belonging to Europe, whose capital is Kiev. It is the 32nd most populous country in the world, with 42.4 million inhabitants, and the 45th largest (603,628 km 2). Its human development index is high (84th) and its official currency is the Ukrainian hryvnia. And what language is spoken in Ukraine?

What language do they speak in Ukraine?

Ukraine under its constitution has only one official language, Ukrainian, which is spoken by two-thirds of the population.

Due to the legacy of the Soviet Union, most of these Ukrainian speakers speak Russian as a second language. 30% of the country’s population speak Russian as their native language, and the remaining 3% have other immigrant native languages. The most studied foreign languages ​​are Russian, English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Italian and Arabic.

The Ukrainian language

Ukrainian (українська мова) is an East Slavic language, official in the Ukrainian country . It is spoken by 67.5% of the population, mainly in the western and central areas of the country. Although the predominance of the language is notable in the western part, in the central zone it is spoken equally along with Russian in urban areas (with the exception of Kiev, which is dominated by Russian), while in rural areas Ukrainian predominates.

use of russian in macro-regions of ukraine

Ukrainian was affected over time during Soviet times, as it was losing speakers with each generation. Thanks to the breakup of the communist bloc, the government began a ” Ukrainianization ” campaign to encourage the use of its language, banning or censoring Russian in movies and in the media. Thus, foreign broadcasts in Russian (or any other language) now require dubbing or subtitles in Ukrainian.

The Russian language

Russian (русский язык) is spoken by about 30% of the population. It is most widespread in the eastern and southern part of the country, where Russian is used mainly in cities and Ukrainian is used in rural areas. Special mention affects the conflict zone of Crimea, where the majority of the population speaks Russian (77%), with Ukrainian being a minor language (10.1%), as well as Tatar (11.4%).

native russian speakers in ukraine

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