What is the difference between Russian and Ukrainian

[Zbyszek]

Originally posted by Voyager13b

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I'm stuck in the linguistic middle, as I have relatives from Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. Some of my Polish and Ukrainian relatives are insulted by my long interest in Russia and it's language, as they look upon it as the language of the conquerer, and would prefer that it would just disappear. In particular, my Ukrainian relatives point out that even today in Kiev, the effect of Soviet domination still lingers in the fact that although prices and descriptions of items for sale in shops are marked in Ukrainian, many of the clerks working in the shops only speak Russian, or at best, speak Ukrainian as a second language. A damn shame, but that is changing.
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Hi Voyager, your ananlysis is correct. It is a bit funny that we follow our discussion in English. I am saying this with a heavy heart but I suppose we are slowly entering a new epoch of strong supremacy of English.
Russian is not easy, even for the Poles. Polish is spoken by 40 millions speakers and there are also many of them abroad but Slavic languages are much more difficult to learn than English so second generation emigrants are usually too lazy to speak their parents' tongue (even if they can speak it).
Ideally, it would be the best to invent a new synthetic language derived from English but simpler, particularly in writing. Computer science could be very helpful. Let us do it for our children until it is too late.

[Balamut]

No, we can pronounce "H" just not in "Hitler"
"H" --> "X"
For example "xa-xa" on russian sounds the same as "ha-ha" on english.

[Da_Kapital]

Hi Voyager (guess who this is),

Now I personally consider Ukrainian more of a dialect than a distinct language because its just so similar. I like to think of people who say they are Ukrainian and truly emphasize their nationalism as angry guys still bearing a grudge against Stalin/Lenin- "Ukrainians" and Russians I consider as one people.
BTW, there is an "H" sound in Russian, like Balamut pointed out- "x". Even though its not used much when translating names/words that use the "H" sound in their languages of origin into Russian...it still exists
And there are many ways of saying "I want to make love to you" to your partner (and not only to a partner), such as "blyada, ya t'ya xochy tryaxanyt'", or "davai cyka ya t'ya zdelau" (well this one all depends on the situation really), or "davai imet' sekc", or simply "v postel'?" There are many ways of expressing this facet of behavior

[Voyager13b]

I knew I would get hit with the x sound, but it's not really the same, and it's not used in exactly the same way as h. Besides, I wasn't complaining. I was just pointing out one of the reasons why Ukrainian sounds a little softer than Russian.

Voyager

[Voyager13b]

Originally posted by Da_Kapital



And there are many ways of saying "I want to make love to you" to your partner (and not only to a partner), such as "blyada, ya t'ya xochy tryaxanyt'", or "davai cyka ya t'ya zdelau" (well this one all depends on the situation really), or "davai imet' sekc", or simply "v postel'?" There are many ways of expressing this facet of behavior

Of course! What woman could resist the tender enticement of "davai cyka ya t'ya zdelau".



By the way, I like the new nic....

Voyager

[Kalinin]

Of course! What woman could resist the tender enticement of "davai cyka ya t'ya zdelau".

That little catchphrase is a winner! You'll get throngs of girls jumping on you!

By the way, I like the new nic....

I felt it was time to change my persona...in fact, I have slightly modified my political beliefs!

BTW, is it just me or do other Russian speakers think Ukranian sounds like poorly/incorrectly spoken Russian (kind of like a "ghettoized" version of the proper Russian tongue).

Oops, I forgot to log in with my new nic...

[fairbro]

How does one pronounce "x" in Russian? It seems to me that sometimes it sounds like English "k" and sometimes it sounds like "h." The only way I can describe it is a sound halfway between "h" and "k." When I say "(x)orosho" in Russian class, I try to make a sound like I am going to say "h" but then finish with "k". It takes too long to get your mouth to do all this, so I usually just say "korosho."

What's worse is the letter "bi", as in "Mbi" (we) or "Bbi" (you). Does anyone know how to properly say this? According to the book, you are supposed to curl your tongue backwards to the roof of your mouth while saying "e." By the time you can perform all this, the person you are talking to has probably lost interest in what you were saying.