4 ms·

Californian and Texan accents might be mutually incomprehensible, but they' re not completely different languages like Ukrainian, Russian, and Belorussian.

option 6y ago
if you know one pf the three russian/ukraininan/belorus languages you will be able to understand 99% of what is said in the other two. Source: I grew up in Ukraine
- rkantbe 6y ago
  Cool, canadians and australians understand each other quite well too, what's your point?
  - option 6y ago
    my point is that those aren’t completely different languages by any stretch of imagination
    - osacial 6y ago
      These languages have similar grammar, because they all have evolved from Old Church Slavonic, but Russian had different path of evolution, where it has gained a lot of Turkic vocabulary among others. I know Russian on native level and have visited friends in Lviv. Sure it is possible for me with Russian language to understand some things and with what I know it would be very easy to LEARN Ukrainian, but I don't live among Ukrainians, so I can't understand 90% of anything when I am watching something on yt when Urainians start to talk in moiva. I think, that there is a bigger chance for Polish people to understand Ukrainians, that for speakers of Russian. It looks like your observation applies to Russians, who are already living in Ukraine and have some grasp of Ukrainian.
      - Mediterraneo10 6y ago
        They didn't evolve from Old Church Slavonic. OCS was an artificial South Slavic literary standard based on the language from around Thessaloniki, as spoken by Cyrill and Methodius's mission. Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian are East Slavic languages, a different branch of the family. Indeed, they all have a common ancestor in Proto-Slavic, but the relationship of Russian etc. and OCS is one of cousins, not parent-child.
        osacial 6y ago
        1. Russians do not have common ancestry in Proto-Slavic, because ancestors of Rus people in majority did not even speak Slavic languages, but Baltic, and Finnic languages - Rus themselves initially spoke Scandinavian. Poland and NW area of Ukraine is place where Proto-Slavioc originated. Do your math. Бере-менна can not even be explained by Slavic language, or Proto... Baltic, but it can be explained by Swedish language, where bear-men was clear purpose of Rus women. 2. All the survived early written texts of Rus are in Old Church Slavonic - very similar to Russian(and possibly others that were known as Ruthenian, but I have no knowledge of Ukrainian, Belorussian or Rusyn to judge that). 3. You and me are not going to decide the classification of languages, that are based purely on geographic distribution or in case of Rus languages(or as they are known to others - East Slavic) - common history being part of one nation and not based on similar ancestry.
        Mediterraneo10 6y ago
        Please pick up a basic introductory textbook to the history of the Slavic languages. Your understanding of the relationship between them is very mistaken. If you want to read in Russian, I can recommend К. А. Войлова’s Старославянский язык, which describes not only what Old Church Slavonic is, but also the family tree of the Slavic languages in general and how Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian are not a direct descendant of Old Church Slavonic. If you want to read in English, Alexander Schenker’s The Dawn of Slavic covers much of the same ground in an accessible fashion. > Russians do not have common ancestry in Proto-Slavic, because ancestors of Rus people in majority did not even speak Slavic languages When historical-comparative linguists say "common ancestry", they mean common linguistic ancestry, not the genetic ancestry of the Slavic languages' speakers. > All the survived early written texts of Rus are in Old Church Slavonic This is not the case. The Novgorod birchbark letters that were excavated over the 20th century attest some early East Slavic, noticeably different from the Old Church Slavonic language that was borrowed into Russia/Belarus/Ukraine around the same time as a literary standard after the christianization of the region. > You and me are not going to decide the classification of languages, that are based purely on geographic distribution The distinctions "West Slavic", "East Slavic" and "South Slavic" aren't actually based on the geographic distribution. Rather, they are based on the isoglosses that set the Slavic languages apart from one another. The terms "East/West/South" for the basic post-Proto-Slavic isoglosses are used only because those isoglosses map roughly with those cardinal directions. Again, this is something covered in any basic textbook. > Бере-менна can not even be explained by Slavic language, or Proto... Baltic, but it can be explained by Swedish language, where bear-men was clear purpose of Rus women. No, беременна is a native Slavic word and not a Swedish borrowing; it goes back to the same root as беру. If it looks similar to a Swedish word, this is only because the Slavic languages and the Germanic languages both inherited the same Proto-Indo-European word. A detailed etymology for the Russian word can be found in Vasmer under the headword *беремя*.
  - alsetmusic 6y ago
    Commonwealth?[0] I think you made an excellent point. I see both sides and have no horse in this race. [0] https://thecommonwealth.org/member-countries https://thecommonwealth.org/member-countries
- EGreg 6y ago
  Not true. Russians can’t understand Ukrainians even 50%.
- bitcurious 6y ago
  If you grew up in Ukraine you grew up around speakers of both Russian and Ukrainian and so learned both languages. You’re now confusing your knowing of two languages for innate properties of those languages. Source: I grew up in Ukraine.
- Mediterraneo10 6y ago
  This is not the case at all. Russian speakers can understand stock Ukrainian phrases used in jokes and the Ukrainian-Russian mixed language known as surzhyk, but when Russians are presented with samples of purer Ukrainian, like Shevchenko's poetry, intelligibility drops significantly.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

option 6y ago

if you know one pf the three russian/ukraininan/belorus languages you will be able to understand 99% of what is said in the other two. Source: I grew up in Ukraine

rkantbe 6y ago
Cool, canadians and australians understand each other quite well too, what's your point?
- option 6y ago
  my point is that those aren’t completely different languages by any stretch of imagination
  - osacial 6y ago
    These languages have similar grammar, because they all have evolved from Old Church Slavonic, but Russian had different path of evolution, where it has gained a lot of Turkic vocabulary among others. I know Russian on native level and have visited friends in Lviv. Sure it is possible for me with Russian language to understand some things and with what I know it would be very easy to LEARN Ukrainian, but I don't live among Ukrainians, so I can't understand 90% of anything when I am watching something on yt when Urainians start to talk in moiva. I think, that there is a bigger chance for Polish people to understand Ukrainians, that for speakers of Russian. It looks like your observation applies to Russians, who are already living in Ukraine and have some grasp of Ukrainian.
    - Mediterraneo10 6y ago
      They didn't evolve from Old Church Slavonic. OCS was an artificial South Slavic literary standard based on the language from around Thessaloniki, as spoken by Cyrill and Methodius's mission. Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian are East Slavic languages, a different branch of the family. Indeed, they all have a common ancestor in Proto-Slavic, but the relationship of Russian etc. and OCS is one of cousins, not parent-child.
      - osacial 6y ago
        1. Russians do not have common ancestry in Proto-Slavic, because ancestors of Rus people in majority did not even speak Slavic languages, but Baltic, and Finnic languages - Rus themselves initially spoke Scandinavian. Poland and NW area of Ukraine is place where Proto-Slavioc originated. Do your math. Бере-менна can not even be explained by Slavic language, or Proto... Baltic, but it can be explained by Swedish language, where bear-men was clear purpose of Rus women. 2. All the survived early written texts of Rus are in Old Church Slavonic - very similar to Russian(and possibly others that were known as Ruthenian, but I have no knowledge of Ukrainian, Belorussian or Rusyn to judge that). 3. You and me are not going to decide the classification of languages, that are based purely on geographic distribution or in case of Rus languages(or as they are known to others - East Slavic) - common history being part of one nation and not based on similar ancestry.
        Mediterraneo10 6y ago
        Please pick up a basic introductory textbook to the history of the Slavic languages. Your understanding of the relationship between them is very mistaken. If you want to read in Russian, I can recommend К. А. Войлова’s Старославянский язык, which describes not only what Old Church Slavonic is, but also the family tree of the Slavic languages in general and how Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian are not a direct descendant of Old Church Slavonic. If you want to read in English, Alexander Schenker’s The Dawn of Slavic covers much of the same ground in an accessible fashion. > Russians do not have common ancestry in Proto-Slavic, because ancestors of Rus people in majority did not even speak Slavic languages When historical-comparative linguists say "common ancestry", they mean common linguistic ancestry, not the genetic ancestry of the Slavic languages' speakers. > All the survived early written texts of Rus are in Old Church Slavonic This is not the case. The Novgorod birchbark letters that were excavated over the 20th century attest some early East Slavic, noticeably different from the Old Church Slavonic language that was borrowed into Russia/Belarus/Ukraine around the same time as a literary standard after the christianization of the region. > You and me are not going to decide the classification of languages, that are based purely on geographic distribution The distinctions "West Slavic", "East Slavic" and "South Slavic" aren't actually based on the geographic distribution. Rather, they are based on the isoglosses that set the Slavic languages apart from one another. The terms "East/West/South" for the basic post-Proto-Slavic isoglosses are used only because those isoglosses map roughly with those cardinal directions. Again, this is something covered in any basic textbook. > Бере-менна can not even be explained by Slavic language, or Proto... Baltic, but it can be explained by Swedish language, where bear-men was clear purpose of Rus women. No, беременна is a native Slavic word and not a Swedish borrowing; it goes back to the same root as беру. If it looks similar to a Swedish word, this is only because the Slavic languages and the Germanic languages both inherited the same Proto-Indo-European word. A detailed etymology for the Russian word can be found in Vasmer under the headword *беремя*.
- alsetmusic 6y ago
  Commonwealth?[0] I think you made an excellent point. I see both sides and have no horse in this race. [0] https://thecommonwealth.org/member-countries https://thecommonwealth.org/member-countries
EGreg 6y ago
Not true. Russians can’t understand Ukrainians even 50%.
bitcurious 6y ago
If you grew up in Ukraine you grew up around speakers of both Russian and Ukrainian and so learned both languages. You’re now confusing your knowing of two languages for innate properties of those languages. Source: I grew up in Ukraine.
Mediterraneo10 6y ago
This is not the case at all. Russian speakers can understand stock Ukrainian phrases used in jokes and the Ukrainian-Russian mixed language known as surzhyk, but when Russians are presented with samples of purer Ukrainian, like Shevchenko's poetry, intelligibility drops significantly.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]