Incredible analysis from Lang focus:
Ukrainian “Lexical Similarity” with
Russian: 62%
Polish: 70%
Slovak: 66%
Belarusian: 84%
Russian vocabulary – from Lativ via Old Church Slavonic
Ukrainian vocabulary – Original vernacular slavic words
I think the last fact of vocabulary origin speaks to the socio-political difference that defines the two cultures: centralized and authoritarian vs individualistic and free
At the age of 26 he started to mix with poets and writers and share with them a role that was bestowed upon them at the time of faith in “evolution”; the role of teaching people. “This faith in the meaning of poetry and in the evolution of life was a religion and I was one of its priests…..for a considerable length of time I lived in this faith without doubting its validity.”
He began to doubt the sincerity of his circle when he noticed that each group term themselves as “the finest and most useful teachers” and “others teach falsely”. Something very deep in him was telling him that if ever someone was carrying such a great mission of “teaching people” he should not seek personal esteem as first priority. But still he shared with them their “genuine, sincere concern” of “how to gain as much money and fame as possible” by writing books and journals. When he remembers this stage in his life Tolstoy says,
At the time we were all convinced that we must talk and talk and write and publish as quickly as possible, and as much as possible, and that this was all necessary for the good of mankind. And thousands of us, contradicting and abusing one another, published and wrote with the aim of teaching others. Failing to notice that we knew nothing, that we did not know the answer to the most basic question of life — what is good and what is evil — we all spoke at the same time, never listening to one another. At times we indulged and praised each other in order to be indulged and praised in return, at other times we grew angry and shrieked at each other, just as if we were in a madhouse.
I discovered this word when reading a Ukrainian translation of a Peppa Pig story book. It means almost nothing. It’s the equivalent of clearing your throat loudly. It means “pay attention to me, I’m going to speak now,” and maybe also “what I’m about to say is an extension of the moments which just transpired.”
The word is just obscure enough that I, as a foreigner in Ukraine, achieve some comedic value when I use it. In the story, the self-important Daddy Pig reads from a shopping list upon arrival in a grocery store, so when I say it in front of my son, he’ll immediately speak the next line from the story book: “five tomatoes.”
“Tomos” was chosen as the word of the year in 2018 by the dictionary of modern Ukrainian language and slang “Myslovo”.
“The word is the symbol of the creation of Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and further withdrawal from the ideological influence of Moscow,” the message said.
Related: Christmas liturgy takes place in Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral
Greek word “Tomos”, which was known only by a narrow range of people dedicated to the religious terminology arouse the public interest last year.
Firstly, it appeared in the Ukrainian public space in April 2018, when President Petro Poroshenko asked the parliament to support his appeal to Ecumenical Patriarch on the provision of Tomos on Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
https://112.international/ukraine-top-news/tomos-becomes-word-of-year-in-ukraine-35780.html
Yesterday, January 5, the ceremony of signing the Tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine took place in Istanbul.
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko took part in the ceremony of the Tomos delivery and the divine liturgy said by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and the primate of the OCU.
I assume “Tomos” is a proper noun that refers to the holy document pictured above.
:-)
Trailer for documentary about the “New York Group” of Ukrainian diaspora writers:
Smart guy. The interviewer is sharp too. He challenges Yuri appropriately.
No wonder I couldn’t explain.
There are a number of places where English has two words and Ukrainian just one.
monkey, ape == mavpa
pumpkin, squash = harbuz
There are a number of places where it’s the opposite
blueberry, wild blueberry == chronytsia, loxyna
strawberry, wild strawberry == polunytsia, sunytsia
cherry, sour cherry == chereshnia, vyshnia
ное 28 ноября 1866 года поэтом Фёдором Тютчевым:
This famous line is from a quatrain written in 1866 by Russian poet Fyodor Tyutchev.
Умом Россию не понять,
Аршином общим не измерить:
У ней особенная стать —
В Россию можно только верить.
It ends “in Russia, you can only believe.”
Their bias against understanding is deep seeded.
If you want to see some crazy pictures, do a Google image search for Умом Россию не понять.
Fascinating! # of books published per year per capita in Europe.
Britain and Spanish are expected leaders — publishing for the entire English / Spanish market.
Czech, Belarus and Slovenia (!?) are surprisingly prominent.
Ukraine is last :-(. The market here is probably served by Russian and Belarussian publishers — same reason that Belgium ranks poorly — it’s served by German or French publishers.
https://jakubmarian.com/number-of-books-published-per-year-per-capita-by-country-in-europe/
voda = water
vodychka = little water
sobaka = dog
sobachka = little dog
lampa = lamp
lampochka = light bulb?!
Word of the Day for me: INIQUITY
immoral or grossly unfair behavior.
“a den of iniquity”
Now many Russian speakers in Ukraine — who live primarily in the country’s east and in large cities — are demonstratively turning to Ukrainian as a badge of self-identification. A concise tutorial on how to switch from Russian to Ukrainian, written by a Kiev blogger, has earned thousands of shares and reposts. Patriotic Russian-speakers in Kiev and big eastern cities are pledging on social networks to speak Ukrainian to their children, hoping to make the next generation more fluent and natural speakers of their native tongue.
For the first time in decades, speaking Ukrainian is seen as fashionable rather than backward.
For the first time in decades, speaking Ukrainian is seen as fashionable rather than backward.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/06/26/why-ukrainians-are-speaking-more-ukrainian/
