The Resilience of the Ukrainian Language

Introduction

Early Medieval Times:
- Kievan Rus: prosperous state founded by Scandinavian Vikings.
- Proto-Ukrainian language developed between 6th to mid 11th century.
- Based on colloquial language from Kiev.
12th Century:
- Old spoken Ukrainian begins to differ from written Slavonic (similar to vulgar Latin).
- 7,000 graffiti messages from the 11th century provide clues about ancient Ukrainian.
13th Century:
- Mongol invasion leads to societal upheaval but Ukrainians maintain their language through folk songs and storytelling.

16th Century:
- Earliest grammars of Old Ukrainian and first dictionary published in 1596.
- Influences from German, Turkic, Polish through various occupations.
18th Century Onward:
- Russian Empire bans Ukrainian printing and education in Ukrainian.
- Ukrainian literature prohibited; the term "Ukrainian" replaced with "Little Russian."
19th Century:
- Taras Shevchenko emerges as a pivotal poet; faced imprisonment but continued writing.
- Ongoing suppression of Ukrainian language and culture.

20th Century:
- After WWI and the Russian Revolution, Ukrainian language and culture experienced a revival.
- Ukrainian language became the language of education, army, and administration.
1933:
- Stalin's ban on Ukrainization leads to severe famine and violence against Ukrainian speakers.
Post 1991:
- Ukraine gains independence; Ukrainian becomes the only state language.
- New literature and media emerge, though the language faced challenges in urban slang and modernization.

Linguistic Characteristics:
- Ukrainian is a Slavic language; closely related to Belarusian and Polish.
- Rich inflection and unique grammatical structure (subject-verb-object, three genders).
Alphabet:
- Uses a version of Cyrillic with 33 letters.
- Some letters are unique to represent specific Ukrainian sounds.
Challenges:
- Learning Ukrainian considered moderately difficult (FSI levels), but pronunciation closely follows spelling.