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Home > 3 Ukrainian Dialects: History, Geography, and Examples
3 Ukrainian Dialects: History, Geography, and Examples
Every language is not spoken the same everywhere, and Ukrainian is no different. There are various Ukrainian dialects that are traditionally grouped into Northern, South-Western and South-Eastern Ukrainian dialects. Find out more about these three groups of dialects!
Ivanna Voitsekhovych
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Table of Contents
Become an expert in Ukrainian dialects and find out the difference between Northern, South-Western, and South-Eastern Ukrainian dialects!
History of Ukrainian Dialects
Literary Ukrainian is a standardized variant of our language. It is relatively young. Although its roots are found in the literature of the 17th century, it was fully formed only by the end of the 18th – beginning of the 19th century in the works of Ivan Kotliarevskyi and Taras Shevchenko.
The standard Ukrainian language united different Ukrainian dialects. More often than not, the dialects were developing under different rulings. The languages of the Russian Empire, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Ottoman Empire all had an influence on Ukrainian dialects.
The major ethnographic Ukrainian regions are Western, Central (Naddniprianska), and South-Eastern Ukraine. They have a common history. Ukrainian dialects are different from each other on three levels: pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary use.
If you go to off-the-beaten-track locations, you are likely to hear some ancient Ukrainian. You can prepare for it by reading this article 😉😎
You can see different Ukrainian dialect groups on this map.
The blue one is the Northern group, which is the Полісся (Polissia) region.
The red one is the South-Western group, which unites diverse dialects from different Western regions of Ukraine.
The biggest part is the South-Eastern group. It covers most Central and South-Eastern Ukraine. This group is traditionally divided into Наддніпрянський (Naddniprianskyi), Слобожанський (Slobozhanskyi), and Степовий (Stepovyi) dialects.
Dotted areas mark territories where different groups overlap and mix together.
Larger dots stand for foreign influences.
Північне наріччя (Northern group)
This group includes Ukrainian dialects of Eastern, Western, and Middle Полісся (Polissia). It is spoken in the North, where Ukraine borders Belarus, Poland, and Russia. Because of these neighboring influences, you may hear vocabulary similar to Belarusian, Polish, or Russian.
Pronunciation
There you might hear people using -є /je/ instead of -а /a/ after double consonants:
життє/zhyt’:e/ життя life
весіллє/ves’il’:e/ весілля wedding
зіллє/zil’:e/ зілля weed
They also say -и instead of -ий in plural adjectives:
Western Ukraine has four big regions: Галичина (Halychyna), Волинь (Volyn), Закарпаття (Zakarpattia), and Буковина (Bukovyna). These lands were part of Poland, Hungary, and Austria. People here speak the dialect of the South-Western group.
Western Ukraine
These Ukrainian dialects may be difficult to understand because the speakers live quite far from big cities, and they do not mix with the rest of the Ukrainian population.
Pronunciation
After soft and hissing consonants sound /а/ turns into /е/, /і/, /и/ in Halychyna and Bukovyna:
чiс /chis/ час time
шипка /shypka/ шапка hat
Unstressed /о/ becomes /у/:
гулубка /hulubka/ голубка dove,
кужух /kuzhukh/ кожух fur coat
Mixing /е/ and /і/:
жиеве/zhyeve/ живе lives
висло /vyslo/ весло paddle
In Bukovyna, /и/ tends to sound more like /е/:
беике /beyky/ бики oxen
жето /zheto/ жито wheat
Quite often, they stress words differently:
моя – моя my
твоя – твоя your
була – була was
Grammar
They saved the ancient endings of dative and locative cases of plural masculine adjectives:
синім – синам to sons
братім – братам to brothers
на синох – на синах on sons
на братіх – на братах on brothers
Also, instead of dative and instrumental cases of singular pronouns мені, тобі, собі, мене, тебе, себе people in these lands say мі, ми, ті, ти, си.
Дайте ми гусочку. – Дайте мені гусочку. Give me a duckling.
Він поміг ті. – Він допоміг тобі. He has helped you.
Future forms are numerous:
буду читати
буду читав
читатиму
му читати I will read.
Vocabulary
бараболя /barabol’a/ картопля potatoes
ябко /jabko/ яблуко apple
горнятко /horn’atko/ чашка cup
коцик /kotsyk/ ковдра blanket
пляцок /pl’atsok/ пиріг pie
To check your understanding of this Ukrainian dialect, listen to a Zakarpattia lady sharing an authentic pickled cucumber recipe with the region’s unique vocabulary, word endings, and pronunciation.
This region is the biggest. It includes the biggest part of our country. It is no wonder that this group of Ukrainian dialects was used as a basis for the literary language as you know it. Even so, there are still some special features that make it unique. Also, due to contact with Russians, Turkish and Bulgarian people, these dialects have some common vocabulary with them.
Pronunciation
They kept soft hissing sounds:
ло[ш’а] – лоша colt
ведме[ж’а] – ведмежа cub
поспі[ш’а]ть – поспішать hurry
Sometimes there is no alternation / х /,/ г /, / з /, / с /, / к /, / ц /:
поро[г’i] – порозі doorstep
ру[к’í] – руці arm
The vowel sound /ф/ is pronounced /x/, /хв/:
тухлі – туфлі shoes
хвабріка – фабрика factory
Grammar
There is -ій ending in many adjectives:
прохід[н’iй] – прохідний through
мар[н’iй] – марний useless
б’і[л’iй] – білий white
Ending -iм, -iх in dative and locative cases of plural nouns:
ко[н’iм] – коням to horses
ді[т’iм] – дітям to children
на ко[н’iх] – на конях on horses
The ending -е is quite common in verbs of the third person:
ход[е] – ходить he walks
прос[е] – просить he asks
нос[е] – носить he carries
Here you can listen to a lady talking about her childhood in the Kharkiv region:
Vocabulary
синенькі /synen’ki/ баклажани eggplants
аіст /aist/ лелека stork
жаровня /zharovn’a/ сковорода frying pan
драники /dranyky/ деруни hash browns
мореля /morel’a/ абрикос apricot
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I must say that these are just a few of many examples. You may encounter many more special features in every dialect.
To be honest, due to globalization and progress, the literary Ukrainian language is well-understood everywhere. But Ukrainian dialects still influence it every day. They enrich the literary language and spice it up quite a bit.
So, next time you talk to a native speaker, try to find out which Ukrainian region they come from and impress them with your knowledge of their dialect! 😃🤩
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