I want to know, if Ukraine has martial law, and can seize any vehicle foro military use, why are the rich driving to Bukovel ski resort in fancy 4x4 vehicles while our army begs for 4x4 donations from the public. 99% of vehicles driving to the ski resort in Western Ukraine don't have Ukrainian flags on them. If we are going to get serious about Eastern Ukraine, let the Western Ukrainians suppport it a little more, Better we give it Russia than kill more of our boys that don't want to fight. I was stopped by military police looking for Ukrainian boys to fight, they said that the appetite is now not there. Ukraine is on it's last reserves. Get serious or give up the East!
Fascinating. I'm not so good with languages but I find the subject fascinating. My son is good with languages. When living and traveling in Asian countries I learned about alphabets. The Chinese characters used for different languages. So in Japan. If I remember correctly, Chinese characters written vertically. I believe a cursive type characters and than a relatively new phonetic alphabet that is horizontal. I noticed South Korea developed a phonetic alphabet. Anyways fascinating.
@@toberman3914 It's a troll fresh out of troll school. Pretend to be Ukrainian, complain about Ukrainians, say they should give up the east. Whine about the "rich" in Ukraine? That's new to me. I thought most of the really rich already fled to ruZZia. And I thought it strange for a ski resort to busy with rich people in the middle of summer so I checked the weather and snow conditions. Maybe they have casinos or some other attractions besides snow, but the ski lifts have very short lines right now.
@@buddyrojek9417 Well, I thought Prigozhin's Troll Farm had been closed down by Czar Putler. It just goes to show that you can't believe all that you hear on Russian State Media. More likely, we're seeing another truism in action -- in crisis is opportunity. Perhaps Supreme Field Marshall Shoigu, a man who wears more medals at State functions than your average Russian Comrade has hot meals in a month, has moved in on the vacuum in Russia's Troll Enterprise and opened his own boiler room operations. Does it must pay well, @BuddyRojek? After all, Oligarchs and Senior Party Officials have had to work overtime to replace their superyachts, Citation X's, and London Apartments, South of France beach homes, Greek mansions, and or Turkish villas, that have been seized through the Western Sanctions programs, and they aren't getting any of that back, no matter what Comrade Donald has assured them, privately. Do you like working for those champions against Nazism, Buddy?
Hello from Bulgaria! I love that Bulgarian and most Slavic languages are phonetic, even those with the Latin alphabet I can read Czech, for example, even though I don't know Czech. I can teach a foreigner to read Bulgarian in an hour, even though he won't understand what he's reading. The interesting thing is that Ukrainian uses all Bulgarian letters + as an addition you have 4 more than us. I also like that all Slavic languages are close, some more some less, but enough to be able to have a basic conversation, before more often with Russians but since the war started with Ukrainians as well.
@@crose7412 I chose the upper case version because you can see the structure of the letter easier. Most readers of Anna’s blog are not Ukrainian speakers so using a term like жорсткий знак would not have been helpful.
I have serious suspicions that Moscovian influences in Ukraine are causing Ukraine not to want to have the same alphabet as the rest of Europe. It's their matter, not ours.
Thanks, Anna, for another great, educational video. Whether or not I ever learn the Ukrainian language, I have high respect for any peoples that love and protect their heritage and culture. Victory and Freedom for Ukraine! 🇺🇦
Greetings from Bulgaria! While it is hard and often stupid to feel "pride" about events that took place more than a thousand years ago, I can't help but feel pride in the fact that so much of the world has been connected through the common usage of the Cyrillic alphabet, and I am happy that Ukraine and Bulgaria share this very important cultural aspect. Your video is fantastic and I certainly appreciate your detailed coverage of the history of the alphabet and its Bulgarian origins. I appreciate your insight into how Cyrillic shaped and still shapes Ukrainian culture to this day. I hope we continue sharing the Cyrillic alphabet in the future, and I certainly agree that Russia has no claim over it. That doesn't mean that Russian language shouldn't be using it - far from it - but that Russian policy has been to claim Cyrillic alphabet as their own and use it as a weapon of Russification of subjugated cultures and people. But enough about that. I should note that there are some minor simplifications of the history of the Cyrillic alphabet (i.e. it was developed by the students of Cyril and Methodius, which is why it was named Cyrillic in honor of Cyril), but those inconsistencies are excusable in the context of the brief but thorough coverage you provide. Cyrillic is a beautiful script with many different variations not only in terms of which letters are included, but also _how_ those letters are written. I bet many people don't know that there's a significant difference between Russian, Serbian and Bulgarian typography - unfortunately many Bulgarians are also unfamiliar with that fact and Bulgarian typographical forms have slowly disappeared with time. Thankfully, more and more Bulgarian Cyrillic typefaces, especially free ones, have become available in the past few years. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cyrillic_alternates.svg Now I'm curious whether that's also true for Ukrainian Cyrillic. I'll have to check it out. Once again, thanks for the video!
@@jiminverness It is a matter for Ukraine whether they will change their alphabet to Latin or not. They are distancing themselves from Western and Central Europe; it's their choice and their loss. Turkey adopted the Latin alphabet without losing its culture. It is difficult to expect hundreds of millions of Europeans and residents of both Americas to learn the Ukrainian alphabet. In my opinion, it would be wise if they created an 'Official Latinization' as a second alphabet, just like China did. If they don't do it themselves, Western countries will do it for themselves.
@@boguslawszostak1784 It looked like there was an eagerness to cut all ties keeping them beholden to Russia, but in the last months developments on that front have been somewhat drowned out by the military actions and events in and around this war. If Ukraine wants to properly integrate with the West, a Latin alphabet would help enormously.
And the Ruthenian is NOT recognized by Ukraine either...so they are killing off other cultures besides Ruzzian. Slovakia has recognized that Ruthenian is a distinct language and not some "dialect" of Ukrainian or a bastardized version of Ukrainian/Russian/Slovak. In fact, although I was not allowed to learn the old language when my family emigrated the US ("Forget the old country, you are American now, you speak English), What words and phrases I learned from church and home are NOT readily understood by Ukrainians OR Russians!! Which means.... Ruthenian is a complete and separate language from Ukrainian!! And original language of the Ruthenians of Western Ukraine in the Carpathian Mountains Region, the largest city in Ukraine being Uzhhorod. The Ruthenian people were promised their own country after the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after WW1 but that only lasted for 1 DAY!! Until all the other countries then SUBJUGATED the Ruthenians and stole their land again. Including the Bolshevik Communist Russians/Ukrainians, Hungarians, Romanians, Czechoslovakia. Yet it is the Ruthenians that had to fight not only the Bolsheviks, then Germans, then Ukrainains, and Communists. So where is all this "Slava Rusyn"?????
@@jiminvernessNO. Ukrainian identity, culture, heritage, language is different from ruzzian. Ukraine existed centuries before ruzzia. Your comment displays that you are a ruzzian troll.
I agree with you that Ukraine should not switch to the Latin alphabet. Ukraine should maintain her separate identity, and distinguish herself from the rest of the world. language is the most important part of a culture, and that includes the alphabet
@@mdjey2 true. but it is the people's choice. or at least, it should be. and I don't know if that was the case in Mongolia, but considering their neighbours, I highly doubt that the Mongolian people had any say in that matter
Language DOES NOT include the alphabet. That is why Slavic was spoken centuries before the creation of Cyrillic alphabet. That is why languages were spoken hundreds of thousands of years BEFORE the first alphabet (or writing) was even invented.
@@ionbrad6753 technically you are right. but nonetheless the alphabet is part of the current cultural identity of Ukraine. next to that, if Ukraine would switch to the latin alphabet, they should invent new letters as well. because many words in the Ukrainian vocabulary are not easy to phonetically translate to the latin alphabet with the existing letters in it
Love how you mention Bulgaria and respect the origin of the Cyrillic alphabet. Russians won't do that... They have a different narrative about this topic. Hugs from Bulgaria!
If I recall correctly, it is hypothesized by historians that Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Hebrew alphabets all descend from an older Phoenician alphabet
Thanks for this informative video by a professional linguist and professional Ukrainian 😉. It's good to know that Ukraine recovers and preserves the cultural identity after decades of Soviet oppression.💙💛💙💛
She speaks your language. For a dark mirror of attraction, see the French when one's tongue, pruned from agility during late developmental stages, injure their ears, which are also pruned dendritically, from ability to pronounce others. The word you seek may be charisma.
Well had I known about Anna earlier I would have conquered Ukraine looong before the Ruzzians did it and taken here as my war trophy. Ruzzians settle with laundry machines I settle with an intellectual and beautiful woman 😍
Intellect, integrity, and beauty would be a fair description of Ukrainian women. I lived there for a while. I dated a few. I have NOTHING negative to say about Ukrainian women.
Every language group needs an alphabet that describes its peculiar sounds. Cyrillic would actually be a better alphabet for Polish, as a west Slavic language, but because of the lands historic attachment to the Roman church, it uses the Latin alphabet, with lots of funny slashes and diacritical marks to indicate pronunciation. There is no reason for Ukraine to go this way; it already has an alphabet that fits its Slavic language well. Stay Cyrillic; it is not just a matter of national pride, but good sense.
I don't think any version of Cyrillic has the equivalent of the nasal Polish ą and ę, or the soft ć, ń, ś and ź, or the ł that sounds like an English w. As far as I know there is no w sound in Russian at all.
Polish alphabet evolved with polish language. Is someone asking Ukrainians to adopt it? Polish language has no problem with written form; what you call funny is not to a native speaker and comes naturally. To a Czech or a Pole, latin is not an 'alien' alphabet therefore there is no need for Cyrillic even if a so-called Slavic alphabet exist. And finally, every alphabet DOES reflect all the sounds of its language, we don't need to make it 'original' just for the sake of it. French evolved from Latin and it has "funny slashes"
@@tom-was The funny letter groups of English seem natural to me, growing up with them, but outsiders who struggle with them see that the Latin alphabet was not really made for this Germanic language, it does not reflect all its sounds. (Welsh is even worse). Old English used to have its own alphabet, reflecting its sounds, but that was dropped after conversion to the faith. Cyrillic has more letters that fit Slavic sounds, so needs less tinkering, as every Slavic country that has adopted it has found. Those that do not, find themselves writing things like ‘chce’ and ‘Lech Wałęsa’. Countries develop as they will, but the point here is, there is no need for Ukraine to switch. They would get nothing but more complication; that was the point of the comparison. Nikt nie chce zmieniać polskiego, więc przestań się martwić.
As an American I'm always interested how different languages pronounce their vowels. It seemed like every other language has a vowel shift where the E's sounded like A's, and the I's sounded like E's, etc. Then I came to the realization that it is in fact us *English speakers* doing the vowels wrong and now I see examples crop up everywhere.
We are NOT wrong. With one and a half billion speakers, you might say majority rules. English is the most spoken language on Earth. Ukrainian is about 50 million.
@@AstroGremlinAmerican There is a theory that the speech of the mountain folk (‘hillbillies’) is close to the way English was spoken in Elizabethan times.
Your more sure option hoodat, is to explore where the Irish and specific other dialect pronunciations settled in groupsin Appalachian regions. Other mountains do not at all adhere to those pronunciationd. The relaxation of r pronunciation may be an artifact of Norman French entry into Britain. They originally used the French guttural, so far different than thelower jaw and upturned tongue r of Latin and Italian, and other tongue variants used in northern Europe, that the nearly omitted r of King's English, the very French, if less -vocalized New England colonizers, caused decadence into no r at all in huge parts of Englan and North America, and the wild changes in vowels of Convict 'Strine language. ( i notice a lot of Australian being gulped up in hallowed Albion in recent years)
I so much agree to NOT switch to latin alphabet-- ciryllic, esp. Ukrainian is so special, characteristic and not really to transform or transliterate without loosing the characteristic sound. I learned the letters within 3 days, and (other than the grammatics :P) it´s not difficult... esp with your help ^^
Thanks Anna and Sasha! It's great to learn more about your language. Cyrillic is easy to read. It took me very little time to be able to read Ukrainian. Building a vocabulary so I know what I read is taking a LOT longer. With your help though, I'm making progress. Keep doing what you're doing. I greatly appreciate it.
When I see a map with Latin characters, I never pronounce towns right. But when someone includes the Cyrillic, I can generally get them very close, because Ukrainian is very logical and straightforward. It sounds exactly like it's spelled.
always thought the alphabet was both accessible yet exotic, since there are some similar letters to the Latin alphabet. Over the past 4 years I've learned a few of the Cyrillic alphabets because of my love for Slavic post punk and sovietwave and the desire to search for bands
Good going, Anna. Diakuyu for your (peripheral) explanation of Cyrillic alphabet. I loved the "each letter represents a different sound" reminder. (The word 'Latin' is pronounced so that the 'lat' part of the word rhymes with ''sat," "bat," or "fat.") Diakuyu for your efforts. Slava Ukrayini 🇺🇦
Great topic for the Day of State Sovereignty of Ukraine (July 16)! Thank you Anna! I think people need to understand that russia has tried to delete Ukrainian culture for hundreds of years, so in turn, culture is especially important to Ukrainians and this includes the Ukrainian alphabet (Cyrillic). A lot of Ukrainians seem to understand the Latin alphabet at the same time as the Cyrillic alphabet, I'm guessing this will probably increase even more as trade, tourism, and full joining with the EU comes into play. Victory, Freedom, Full Reparations, and all of Ukraine's Land for Ukraine, this includes Donbas and Crimea! 💙💛
It's not really that hard to learn to understand both, it's just that we tend to.... not do that From the point of view of someone from a country that uses Cyrillic alphabet, most foreign languages you can study use Latin, if not their own native script eg Hindi, Chinese, Korean, so of course it makes sense to learn it For whatever reason, Slavic languages don't seem to be that popular for us to learn at school, it's usually either Spanish, French or German, or wildly at the other end of the scale with Japanese or Chinese, and not really much in between. It is far less difficult to learn that it looks at first glance, it's a no-brainer to become proficient with it if you ever intend to visit the country.
@@rorychivers8769Thank you for explaining more about learning Latin and Cyrillic. Nope not Ukrainian, I'm a Canadian. A year and a half ago I only knew that Ukraine was a country in Europe, I also didn't know how messed up russia was. The more I learn about Ukraine, the more I like Ukraine and Ukrainians. The more I learn about russia, the more I dislike/despise it.
@@BMPWR They often like to forget the part of WWII where they allied with Hitler to carve up Poland between them, and then the other bit a short while later where we gave them billions of dollars of equipment to fight the NAZIS with when that first part went a bit wrong for them
@@rorychivers8769 And russia teaches their population that they won WWII on their own. Yes, those are definitely two very good examples of russian mentality. They never really changed.
Ah! ... That's why I can read Ukrainian almost perfectly although not speaking much! - But I am learning... By immersion and it works! :))))))))) Cheers from Portugal and many thanks, Anna. It was a lovely video.
Hello Anna, Very interesting, that there are national differences in cyrillic alphabets. This is true for latin alphabet too! At least in French and German version of latin alphabet we also have additional letters like äüöïë… Best regards, Ralf
Super interesting. I noticed the ven diagram you showed had a few letters that I haven't been taught while learning Ukrainian from Duolingo. And I felt proud that I noticed it didn't have the GEE letter even before you mentioned it. Baby steps of learning Ukrainian.
That's because the diagram showed russian alphabet. I understand your confusion. I guess Anna just tried to show the connection between different aplhabets in general
I'm glad Ukraine is going to continue to use Cyrillic. This is the first non-Latin alphabet that sparked my interest in writing systems. Now, my personal goal is for people to not automatically 'think russian' whenever they encounter Cyrillic script. And no letter combinations! I was beginning to worry that having to learn this would be my next step to some very basic level of literacy 😀 NOTFROMRUSSIA!!!!
@@AnnafromUkraine imagine trying to pronounce the very long name of that village on the Isle of Anglesey...even the Welsh speaking locals, have shortened it to Llanfair PG......!!...E...
What's horrible is that many Slavs, even some under this very video, continue to repeat the Greek/Byzantine brothers nonsense, which was pushed absolutely everywhere behind the Iron curtain for decades. It effectively destroys the very Slavic, NON-RUSSIAN Slavic, essence of the Cyrillic. It must stop!
English is the main language using the Latin alphabet but people don't think the Latin alphabet is English, right? Spanish, French, Portuguese and even Turkish would have something to say too.
Hi, You can start showing people euro banknotes, they are definitely not Russian, yet they have Cyrillic script on them: the name of euro in Bulgarian (eвро). ;-)
Yes - Language from Cyril and Methodius is a study in itself. Somebody should make a channel or a DVD where we could listen to the sounds of the alphabet and learn it for ourselves by listening and seeing the letters and hearing their pronunciation as often as we wanted.
Привіт і дякую, Анна! Thank you so much, Anna. 💙💛 I have been slowly learning Ukrainian since March 2022. This video gave me a lot of new, helpful information! 🌻🦋 Молодець і обіймаю. 🫂💛💙 Слава Україні! 💪🇺🇦
@@eamonnclabby7067Privit, Eamonn! 🤗 Yes, I remember you mentioning that your daughter is also learning Ukrainian. ☺️💙💛 I'm finding that speaking and grammar rules in Ukrainian are more difficult than the reading/writing/vocabulary aspects. Best wishes to you and yours... May all be lovely in your Wirral Peninsula. 💖💙💛
Anna, Please post a PDF of the Ukrainian alphabet like you show in your video! It's the best one I've seen as it includes examples of both cursive and manuscript writing as well as Capital and lower case. I've started self-learning your alphabet and because it IS phonetic, it's actually relatively easy to learn! That's been very helpful in reading names on maps. Just being able to decipher and sound out place names is a really encouraging step towards learning more. Thank you.
Thank you, Anna and Sasha. I've been looking forward to this episode, and you executed the task of passing on very important knowledge so well. It's really interesting and educational. Unlike some people, I do *not* wish to see the Ukrainian alphabet switch over to being a Latin alphabet, though I can understand why transliteration can make Ukrainian far easier for some to learn to speak Ukrainian if they just cannot get used to Cyrillic, at least as a starting point; maybe progressing to learning the Cyrillic alphabet for the purpose of being able to read Ukrainian words - especially if they come to Ukraine. Though I've seen that Ukraine does provide a lot of information in English (and maybe other languages) to the visiting public. The Cyrillic alphabet's phonetics don't seem too difficult to learn, with regular reading practice of it, nor the phonetics; once one hears the written words spoken by Ukrainians. And, let's face it, one doesn't see much of anyone wanting say, 日本語のアルファベット or الأبجدية العربية to switch those alphabets to Latin ones 😉 Thank you for showing the different fonts at the start, Anna. I use a print-out of the cursive handwriting and I try to practice how the Ukrainian language is written by hand as well as typing it on my tech devices in the alternative language options settings. I'm sure many of us have documents from our ancestors that were written in Cyrillic, and deciphering what was written back then is a real challenge for many of us!!! Have a blessed evening, Ukraine!
Sister, I so much wish to meet you one day and try writing 😊 one of the main reasons why I would not advise to switch is this gap between Cyrillic heritage books and new generations who will not know how to read it
@@AnnafromUkraine Sister, that sounds like a plan! 😊It's *highly* likely we'll meet when I come to meet my ancestral Home in person. You're less than 150 miles North of my father's birthplace. I'd really like that and mutually share the wish to meet you one day. It'd be daft not to meet having travelled so far. Aha, yes, good point! So much would be lost; and only experts in the field able to comprehend those Cyrillic heritage books. Not only that, but the cost to the nations economy to convert every single thing in present-day Ukraine is unimaginable. 🤔 I think Ukrainians are being very accommodating in learning English now. People should feel honoured, but also think about how oppressive they sound when Ukraine is fighting to hold on to her cultural heritage, literally. I'm sorry I delayed a little in replying, sister, I went off to continue watching Timothy Snyder's, 'The Making of Modern Ukraine'. In particular, Class 4, (Ukrainian language included)... ate supper, did some embroidery, and realised just as his Class 6 was about to start, I should check YT for any replies 🙈 Timothy is great, he speaks volumes, but everything comes together nicely, falling into place, in a very interesting and memorable way. I should take my fogged up brain/boggle-eyes to sleep soon. I hope your week is kind to you, sister! 🫂
Another excellent and informative video from Anna. Years ago I went on vacation in Russia. I was surprised when the tour guide said that the Cyrillic language was invented by Russia. I knew this was not true and told the tour guide what she said was not true. Anna, I hope sometime you can explain the b character in the Cyrillic language. I understand it is a silent letter.
I learned that the Cyrillic alphabet comes from European origins that's why Ukraine has a good connection with Europe ! The Orcs only suppressed the language , pushing Ukraine away. It is a beautiful alphabet, just a big learning curve for Latin alphabet users. Stay Safe ! Slava Ukraini !💙💛
Not a big learning curve. As a Latin alphabet language user who learned to read russian Cyrillic alphabet for his third language I can assure you it's not difficult at all. You can learn to read Ukrainian in a day, whereas you could spend years learning to read English and would still make mistakes.
It comes from Byzantium where Cyril and Metod developed two alphabets for Slavic languages Glagolitic and Cyrilic and it was made in Ohrid which today is Macedonia but than was part of Bulgarian empire .
@@UTube4Junky No, It's much worse. At least you know who your enemy when they tell to your face Ukrainian language doesn't exist. Our deputies do something far more sinister. They promote themselves as big patriots who love Ukrainian language, but when push comes to shove they implement laws that hinder Ukrainian language. So in my opinion, hidden enemy is far more scarier and dangerous than the obvious one.
The Ukrainian language is beautiful. The cyrillic letters are unfortunately now just a umbilical cord connecting Ukraine to Russia, and used by Russia to suck everything good out of Ukraine.
Ukraine not only did not receive the Cyrillic alphabet from Russia. Rather, it can be said that Russia (at that time Muscovy) was Slavicized with the advent of Rus. Prior to this, the inhabitants of Muscovy were not a Slavic-speaking people.
As someone interested in the history of languages I find this topic fascinating. Some more episodes on the relationships between Slavic languages please!
So Cool Anna! Keep cultural diversity alive, and keep your heritage. I look forward to learning Urainian alphabet. Maybe there is an international business language but we all win from the richness of local cultures and languages. And perhaps that is why you chose to be a Linguistics expert. Slava Ukraini!
The differences between Cyrillic and Latin are actually quite minimal and, once you learn the differences, it is fairly easy to adjust to. This is particularly true if, like all well rounded westerners, you know a little Greek (or at least took enough math and physics classes). None the less I want to thank you, Anna, for posting this. :)
Thank you for such an interesting and informative video. I love all the videos that you have done. My full support, prayers and thoughts are with all Ukrainians on a daily basis. Take great care of yourself always and I look forward to seeing more videos from you.😘🌹❤️🇺🇦
5:50 This one is so true for Tatarstan. We Tatars used the Arabic alphabet for centuries and started to use the Latin alphabet (since it fits best for our vowels and consonants), but Stalin with his monstrous russification forced my people to switch to the Cyrillic alphabet. Which was and is still a tragedy for Volga Tatars. And now russia works so hard to not just erase our alphabet, but also to erase our language. So please, dear Ukrainians, don't lose your beautiful language and your likewise beautiful alphabet. And thank you so much for this educational video, dear Anna! Слава Украïнi! Alğa Tatarstan! 🇺🇦
Here on the Gaelic/ Celtic fringe of the British Isles, ( and the wider Irish ,Welsh and Scottish diaspora ) , the growing popularity of Feis, Eistedfods and Highland gatherings hop will fill you with some hope for the future...E...
Again Thank you for this timely discussion on the origins of the Cyrillic Alphabet. It was certainly new information for me and the fact that there has always been an exchange of ideas between cultures is not surprising. The development of alphabets borrowing from the Greco-Roman civilizations is understandable. I too agree that since this alphabet has such an extensive history in Ukrainian culture and books you must retain it! SLAVA UKRAINI!!!
Honestly I think it's easier to read Ukrainian words in Cyrillic than the latinized versions. The letters fit like a glove to the language. Beautiful language.
I have decided that you are (as usual) correct. Ukraine needs to stay with Cyrillic alphabet. It just makes another interesting adventure in life, learning a Cyrillic language. I tried Russian once before, and I found that it isn't difficult to master the alphabet.
Thank you for sharing this information about different ways usage of the language. Always love to see and hear from you. God bless you and keep you safe love you always Gene Krouse ❤❤❤
Anna is right. The Cyrillic alphabet is better for Ukrainian. If nothing else, it's simply more precise. For an English speaker, it's not hard to learn. Takes a day - two at most - if you're really trying; a week if you're loafing. Ukrainian language is a whole different deal - that's a long haul. For an English speaker, the Slavic group is a step up in difficulty from the Romance group, but far easier than the non Indo-European languages, like Arabic, Chinese, or Navajo.
It would be useful for Ukrainians to have English as a second language. Not many people will learn Ukrainian because there are less than 50 million speakers. There are around 1.5 billion English speakers. That's number one.
Actually, the english language is far worse to learn because of the level of complications in which it is spelled and read .Once you've learned the Cyrillic alphabet, it is easy to read the words.It's my experience as a beginner.
Hi Anna, I'm glad, you mentioned Bulgaria, as the origin of the Cyrillic script, because Bulgaria is an EU member, and therefore Bulgarian written in Cyrillic script is an official language of the European Union (Европейски съюз). This also means Cyrillic appears on the euro (eвро) banknotes, which are used daily by almost 350 million people as their official currency. So Cyrillic is definitely not a "Russian thing".
I finally got to a point learning the language that I can read Cyrillic as well as Latin, and don't even notice I'm reading Cyrillic moat of the time. Long ways from fluent, but happy to make that milestone anyway.
I am Bulgarian and fully agree. This absolute nonsense about ditching cyrillic coming from westerners had me so aggravated lately. 99% of them don't even know that it's not Russian. I had one of those on twitter telling me that it would be easier for westerners to learn Ukrainian because the cyrillic is difficult, so I asked her why hasn't she learned polish yet. It's almost the same as asking English or French after WW2 to ditch latin because Germany used it, while it comes from what is now Italy.
Cyrrilic is not that difficult to learn. The hardest letters for me to learn were what Anna calls false letters. So Р being R, Н being N, И being i. Also saying that you should abandon cyrrilic because of Russian would be like my country (Netherlands) abandoning the latin alphabet after ww2, because we share, a large part of, our alphabet with the Germans.
Très intéressant Anna, personnellement j'adore l'écriture Ukrainienne. La Russie n'a pas a vous dire comment parler. A bientôt Anna et merci pour la vidéo. 🙂💙💛❤️👌👍🤞✌️👋
Muchas gracias, Señorita Anna, no conocía la historia del alfabeto cirílico… sus orígenes, la cantidad de países que lo utilizan y su evolución, según el país y cultura, es un tesoro que no se debe perder. Sería una gran pérdida de la historia humana… gracias por las palabras del día, he logrado aprender algo pero a falta de práctica y tiempo es un avance como el contra-ataque, lento pero seguro… hasta la victoria…. Cuídense, abrazos fraternales y saludos para tu equipo. SLAVA UKRAINI, HEROYAM SLAVA 🫶🙏🇺🇦🐈⬛
Hello Anna. I used to travel the world and foreign alphabets never stopped me. When you go to a bus station in China it’s obvious that you are looking for a bus and you don’t have to understand all the signs. Just show someone where you want to go on a map or Google Maps and they will help you. I would have no problem finding my way in Ukraine 🇺🇦
Thank you. Informative as always. Ten years ago I made a spreadsheet with different alphabets and national varieties. It includes simple notations how to say the alphabets (like α: άλφα [alpha], β: βήτα [beta], γ: γάμμα [gamma]). Our son was seven years old then and he had a friend who had Serbian origin. Since we use Portuguese within the family I used the comparison of the alphabets to show our son that the Portuguese sounds of "lh" and "nh" (similar to Spanish "ll" and "ñ") had their own characters in the Serbian alphabet, the letters "љ" and "њ". That spreadsheet has been useful several times, even though my wife said something about poor boy first time I showed him and explained some aspects of the different alphabets and varieties. Just a few days ago my daughter and I glanced through that spreadsheet, when she connected Cyrillic alphabet to Russian by default. Then I had to inform her that Ukrainians (Rutenians / peoples of the principalities of Rus) used the Cyrillic alphabet several hundred years before Moscow even was invented, and that Kyrillos and Methodios invented the (predecessor of) Cyrillic alphabet to translate texts of the Christian church into Slavic / Slavonian language. I also remember that when I made the spreadsheet I had space enough for varieties of just eight languages to be printed on a A3 sheet. The Ukrainian alphabet was one that i prioritised to show. The reason was not only that I was interested in Ukrainian history and culture, but also because I found it easier to show the connection between Greek and Cyrillic alphabets when including the Ukrainian alphabet. I also explicitly marked the formerly forbidden "ґ" with deviating background colour, to be able to illustrate the imperialistic history of development of the language of the last couple of centuries. It is only now, during the last year, I realised how important it is that I have showed our children these (and other) glimpses of our common European history. Otherwise they probably would have had major difficulties to understand the events of our time.
I did not expect that a subject like Cyrillic alphabet could be so interesting. You are a very talented teacher, Anna. Perfect outfit by the way that match your hair color.
This is amazing , thank you so very , very much Anna. I have saved this to my playlist so I can watch this several times to learn all about this important subject.
Thanks for the valuable history and introduction to both the alphabet and the language. Knowing that the alphabet is phonetic makes learning it learning the correct pronunciation of it within the language so much easier and not as dependent upon sentence structure and context as it is in some languages. I am looking forward to learning more about this in the future.
Bravo, Anna!!!!! A most powerful explanation of why the Cyrillic alphabet is on the map of 50 languages. You give a perfect non-nationalistic lesson about the importance of national language with such a mix of science and elegance. Pure finesse!. I am happy for making part of your audience, and I will be back on your channel. I was not aware of Czar Boris' historical role. I am from Portugal, where, at this moment, there are some 50-60.000 Ukrainian refugees. Slava Ukraini!
Поздравления за обективната информация. Време е светът да научи че Кирилицата не е руска азбука. Тя е създадена за всички славяни и първо е въведена в България. Само едно леко уточнение: счита се че Кирилската азбука е създадена от Климент Охридски - ученик на Кирил и Методи, който я е нарекъл така в тяхна чест. Повечето букви са заемки от гръцката азбука, а за звуци които нямат аналог в нея са използвани древно-български руни (Ж, Ш, Ч и други).
I love how the Cyrillic alphabet looks. I hope you guys keep using it, it’s part of your culture and who you are. I want to learn more about it for fun for myself. I’ve been watching so many videos on the war and about Ukraine that there are some words in Cyrillic that I can translate to english or french not. I’m nowhere close to being good with this alphabet but it’s a beginning.
Loved this video--I'm a huge language geek! I always learn SO much from your channel! I had no idea if the role Bulgaria played in Slavic languages. I look forward to checking out the rest of this series!💙💛
It's quite normal that you didn't know, Western schools kind of trend to ignore Eastern and Southeastern history and when they DO show some stuff, they have one or two maps where Bulgaria is shown as a tiny part of what it actually was, so how are you supposed to know the massive influence Bulgarian had on Slavic languages. The truth is that being the first Slavic empire (where the title tsar comes from), with the first Slavic Patriarchate, developing, translating and creating new Slavic Biblical texts, it influenced not only languages but also the very political structures of the Slavic polities. There's an amazing video on the history of Ukraine, basically debunking the vast majority of Russian historical nonsense in addition to being very informative- "Timothy Snyder: The Making of Modern Ukraine" from Yale courses. Watch it when you have a little bit of time. It focuses obviously on Ukraine but it has some explanation on the role Bulgaria played in the Slavic (and also Romanian) world.
Remember to join me on Instagram too instagram.com/anna_from_ukraine_official?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
I want to know, if Ukraine has martial law, and can seize any vehicle foro military use, why are the rich driving to Bukovel ski resort in fancy 4x4 vehicles while our army begs for 4x4 donations from the public. 99% of vehicles driving to the ski resort in Western Ukraine don't have Ukrainian flags on them. If we are going to get serious about Eastern Ukraine, let the Western Ukrainians suppport it a little more, Better we give it Russia than kill more of our boys that don't want to fight. I was stopped by military police looking for Ukrainian boys to fight, they said that the appetite is now not there. Ukraine is on it's last reserves. Get serious or give up the East!
Fascinating. I'm not so good with languages but I find the subject fascinating. My son is good with languages. When living and traveling in Asian countries I learned about alphabets. The Chinese characters used for different languages.
So in Japan. If I remember correctly, Chinese characters written vertically. I believe a cursive type characters and than a relatively new phonetic alphabet that is horizontal. I noticed South Korea developed a phonetic alphabet.
Anyways fascinating.
@@buddyrojek9417 "Better we give it to Russia...", damn son
@@toberman3914 It's a troll fresh out of troll school. Pretend to be Ukrainian, complain about Ukrainians, say they should give up the east. Whine about the "rich" in Ukraine? That's new to me. I thought most of the really rich already fled to ruZZia. And I thought it strange for a ski resort to busy with rich people in the middle of summer so I checked the weather and snow conditions. Maybe they have casinos or some other attractions besides snow, but the ski lifts have very short lines right now.
@@buddyrojek9417 Well, I thought Prigozhin's Troll Farm had been closed down by Czar Putler. It just goes to show that you can't believe all that you hear on Russian State Media.
More likely, we're seeing another truism in action -- in crisis is opportunity. Perhaps Supreme Field Marshall Shoigu, a man who wears more medals at State functions than your average Russian Comrade has hot meals in a month, has moved in on the vacuum in Russia's Troll Enterprise and opened his own boiler room operations. Does it must pay well, @BuddyRojek? After all, Oligarchs and Senior Party Officials have had to work overtime to replace their superyachts, Citation X's, and London Apartments, South of France beach homes, Greek mansions, and or Turkish villas, that have been seized through the Western Sanctions programs, and they aren't getting any of that back, no matter what Comrade Donald has assured them, privately.
Do you like working for those champions against Nazism, Buddy?
Hello from Bulgaria! I love that Bulgarian and most Slavic languages are phonetic, even those with the Latin alphabet I can read Czech, for example, even though I don't know Czech. I can teach a foreigner to read Bulgarian in an hour, even though he won't understand what he's reading. The interesting thing is that Ukrainian uses all Bulgarian letters + as an addition you have 4 more than us. I also like that all Slavic languages are close, some more some less, but enough to be able to have a basic conversation, before more often with Russians but since the war started with Ukrainians as well.
I love how Bulgarian uses “Ъ” as a vowel as in България. Слава Україні 🇺🇦🌻.
@@stevencole9387 You didn't utilise “Ъ” in your example.
@@crose7412
I thought I did, using the name of Bulgaria in the Bulgarian language, e.g. България
@@stevencole9387 Ah,Ъ and ъ looked different from each other because they're different sizes.
@@crose7412
I chose the upper case version because you can see the structure of the letter easier. Most readers of Anna’s blog are not Ukrainian speakers so using a term like жорсткий знак would not have been helpful.
I am glad that Ukraine maintains Cyrilic Alphabet on its Language. Keeping the written and spoken forms maintains uniqueness of Ukraine Language.
Ukraine will never be free from Russia (mentally) while it's there. Same with Serbia (but Serbia doesn't want to be free from Russian thinking).
I have serious suspicions that Moscovian influences in Ukraine are causing Ukraine not to want to have the same alphabet as the rest of Europe. It's their matter, not ours.
@@boguslawszostak1784 I agree, except for the part about it being "their matter, not ours."
In my reckoning, it's both their matter, *and* ours.
What made a nation a nation is the poets, lyrics, songs, stories and the language! Be proud of all of this Anna, it's in your mind and thoughts.
Thanks, Anna, for another great, educational video. Whether or not I ever learn the Ukrainian language, I have high respect for any peoples that love and protect their heritage and culture. Victory and Freedom for Ukraine! 🇺🇦
Greetings from Bulgaria! While it is hard and often stupid to feel "pride" about events that took place more than a thousand years ago, I can't help but feel pride in the fact that so much of the world has been connected through the common usage of the Cyrillic alphabet, and I am happy that Ukraine and Bulgaria share this very important cultural aspect.
Your video is fantastic and I certainly appreciate your detailed coverage of the history of the alphabet and its Bulgarian origins. I appreciate your insight into how Cyrillic shaped and still shapes Ukrainian culture to this day.
I hope we continue sharing the Cyrillic alphabet in the future, and I certainly agree that Russia has no claim over it. That doesn't mean that Russian language shouldn't be using it - far from it - but that Russian policy has been to claim Cyrillic alphabet as their own and use it as a weapon of Russification of subjugated cultures and people. But enough about that.
I should note that there are some minor simplifications of the history of the Cyrillic alphabet (i.e. it was developed by the students of Cyril and Methodius, which is why it was named Cyrillic in honor of Cyril), but those inconsistencies are excusable in the context of the brief but thorough coverage you provide. Cyrillic is a beautiful script with many different variations not only in terms of which letters are included, but also _how_ those letters are written. I bet many people don't know that there's a significant difference between Russian, Serbian and Bulgarian typography - unfortunately many Bulgarians are also unfamiliar with that fact and Bulgarian typographical forms have slowly disappeared with time. Thankfully, more and more Bulgarian Cyrillic typefaces, especially free ones, have become available in the past few years.
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cyrillic_alternates.svg
Now I'm curious whether that's also true for Ukrainian Cyrillic. I'll have to check it out.
Once again, thanks for the video!
Preserving the Ukrainian identity 💙💛 🔱 Slava Anna 😊
It's preserving links to Russia, and supporting Russian claims on Ukraine.
@@jiminverness It is a matter for Ukraine whether they will change their alphabet to Latin or not. They are distancing themselves from Western and Central Europe; it's their choice and their loss. Turkey adopted the Latin alphabet without losing its culture. It is difficult to expect hundreds of millions of Europeans and residents of both Americas to learn the Ukrainian alphabet.
In my opinion, it would be wise if they created an 'Official Latinization' as a second alphabet, just like China did. If they don't do it themselves, Western countries will do it for themselves.
@@boguslawszostak1784 It looked like there was an eagerness to cut all ties keeping them beholden to Russia, but in the last months developments on that front have been somewhat drowned out by the military actions and events in and around this war.
If Ukraine wants to properly integrate with the West, a Latin alphabet would help enormously.
And the Ruthenian is NOT recognized by Ukraine either...so they are killing off other cultures besides Ruzzian. Slovakia has recognized that Ruthenian is a distinct language and not some "dialect" of Ukrainian or a bastardized version of Ukrainian/Russian/Slovak. In fact, although I was not allowed to learn the old language when my family emigrated the US ("Forget the old country, you are American now, you speak English), What words and phrases I learned from church and home are NOT readily understood by Ukrainians OR Russians!! Which means.... Ruthenian is a complete and separate language from Ukrainian!! And original language of the Ruthenians of Western Ukraine in the Carpathian Mountains Region, the largest city in Ukraine being Uzhhorod. The Ruthenian people were promised their own country after the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after WW1 but that only lasted for 1 DAY!! Until all the other countries then SUBJUGATED the Ruthenians and stole their land again. Including the Bolshevik Communist Russians/Ukrainians, Hungarians, Romanians, Czechoslovakia. Yet it is the Ruthenians that had to fight not only the Bolsheviks, then Germans, then Ukrainains, and Communists. So where is all this "Slava Rusyn"?????
@@jiminvernessNO. Ukrainian identity, culture, heritage, language is different from ruzzian. Ukraine existed centuries before ruzzia. Your comment displays that you are a ruzzian troll.
I agree with you that Ukraine should not switch to the Latin alphabet. Ukraine should maintain her separate identity, and distinguish herself from the rest of the world. language is the most important part of a culture, and that includes the alphabet
But in some cases it can be switched like with Mongolia. They used to have Mongolian writing, but now they use Cyrillic.
@@mdjey2 true. but it is the people's choice. or at least, it should be. and I don't know if that was the case in Mongolia, but considering their neighbours, I highly doubt that the Mongolian people had any say in that matter
Language DOES NOT include the alphabet. That is why Slavic was spoken centuries before the creation of Cyrillic alphabet.
That is why languages were spoken hundreds of thousands of years BEFORE the first alphabet (or writing) was even invented.
@@ionbrad6753 technically you are right. but nonetheless the alphabet is part of the current cultural identity of Ukraine. next to that, if Ukraine would switch to the latin alphabet, they should invent new letters as well. because many words in the Ukrainian vocabulary are not easy to phonetically translate to the latin alphabet with the existing letters in it
@@enricotempertsoviet influence. It was soviet influence that caused them to switch.
As always, another interesting and informative video. Thank you for the lesson on the Cyrillic alphabet 👍🇨🇦
Excellent video, Anna! Greetings from Bulgaria and glory to Ukraine ❤️🇧🇬🇺🇦
Love how you mention Bulgaria and respect the origin of the Cyrillic alphabet. Russians won't do that... They have a different narrative about this topic. Hugs from Bulgaria!
As a Biblical scholar, Cyril would have been familiar with Hebrew, which explains why he borrowed some of the characters from the alef bet.
Interesting!
I love learning this stuff. 😊
If I recall correctly, it is hypothesized by historians that Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Hebrew alphabets all descend from an older Phoenician alphabet
Byzantine language. The remnants of the eastern Roman empire. Surprised this isn't being discussed.
Yeah, but what about Živěte, which descended from Coptic Janja
Thanks for this informative video by a professional linguist and professional Ukrainian 😉. It's good to know that Ukraine recovers and preserves the cultural identity after decades of Soviet oppression.💙💛💙💛
The Ukrainian Identity does not depend on Cyrillic letters.
Love this woman! Intellect, integrity and beauty all in one! Slava Ukraini!🇺🇦🇨🇦
She speaks your language.
For a dark mirror of attraction, see the French when one's tongue, pruned from agility during late developmental stages, injure their ears, which are also pruned dendritically, from ability to pronounce others.
The word you seek may be charisma.
Absolutely. Humane witty and intelligent.
@@briseboy And she advocates killing Russian fascists ! What a woman!
Well had I known about Anna earlier I would have conquered Ukraine looong before the Ruzzians did it and taken here as my war trophy. Ruzzians settle with laundry machines I settle with an intellectual and beautiful woman 😍
Intellect, integrity, and beauty would be a fair description of Ukrainian women. I lived there for a while. I dated a few. I have NOTHING negative to say about Ukrainian women.
Thank you for covering this subject. Greeting from Bulgaria and glory to Ukraine! 🤝
Wonderful vlog dear Anna! So informative, such a rich history. Thank you!!!Slava Ukrayini!!!
Every language group needs an alphabet that describes its peculiar sounds. Cyrillic would actually be a better alphabet for Polish, as a west Slavic language, but because of the lands historic attachment to the Roman church, it uses the Latin alphabet, with lots of funny slashes and diacritical marks to indicate pronunciation.
There is no reason for Ukraine to go this way; it already has an alphabet that fits its Slavic language well. Stay Cyrillic; it is not just a matter of national pride, but good sense.
Dry well said
Ironically, the Polish version of the Latin alphabet is much more logical and straightforward than the English version.
I don't think any version of Cyrillic has the equivalent of the nasal Polish ą and ę, or the soft ć, ń, ś and ź, or the ł that sounds like an English w. As far as I know there is no w sound in Russian at all.
Polish alphabet evolved with polish language. Is someone asking Ukrainians to adopt it? Polish language has no problem with written form; what you call funny is not to a native speaker and comes naturally. To a Czech or a Pole, latin is not an 'alien' alphabet therefore there is no need for Cyrillic even if a so-called Slavic alphabet exist. And finally, every alphabet DOES reflect all the sounds of its language, we don't need to make it 'original' just for the sake of it. French evolved from Latin and it has "funny slashes"
@@tom-was The funny letter groups of English seem natural to me, growing up with them, but outsiders who struggle with them see that the Latin alphabet was not really made for this Germanic language, it does not reflect all its sounds. (Welsh is even worse). Old English used to have its own alphabet, reflecting its sounds, but that was dropped after conversion to the faith.
Cyrillic has more letters that fit Slavic sounds, so needs less tinkering, as every Slavic country that has adopted it has found. Those that do not, find themselves writing things like ‘chce’ and ‘Lech Wałęsa’. Countries develop as they will, but the point here is, there is no need for Ukraine to switch. They would get nothing but more complication; that was the point of the comparison.
Nikt nie chce zmieniać polskiego, więc przestań się martwić.
As an American I'm always interested how different languages pronounce their vowels. It seemed like every other language has a vowel shift where the E's sounded like A's, and the I's sounded like E's, etc. Then I came to the realization that it is in fact us *English speakers* doing the vowels wrong and now I see examples crop up everywhere.
We are NOT wrong. With one and a half billion speakers, you might say majority rules.
English is the most spoken language on Earth.
Ukrainian is about 50 million.
@@AstroGremlinAmerican There is a theory that the speech of the mountain folk (‘hillbillies’) is close to the way English was spoken in Elizabethan times.
Your more sure option hoodat, is to explore where the Irish and specific other dialect pronunciations settled in groupsin Appalachian regions.
Other mountains do not at all adhere to those pronunciationd.
The relaxation of r pronunciation may be an artifact of Norman French entry into Britain.
They originally used the French guttural, so far different than thelower jaw and upturned tongue r of Latin and Italian, and other tongue variants used in northern Europe, that the nearly omitted r of King's English, the very French, if less -vocalized New England colonizers, caused decadence into no r at all in huge parts of Englan and North America, and the wild changes in vowels of Convict 'Strine language. ( i notice a lot of Australian being gulped up in hallowed Albion in recent years)
and you're talkin to a California surfer. We understand accelerated speech, being students of the fastest-speaking girls outside berserk Latinas.
@@TheBandit7613 lol k
Hi Lady: Now that was interesting, especially with the "history drops/stories" you put in - again Anna = 1 like 💛💙
I so much agree to NOT switch to latin alphabet-- ciryllic, esp. Ukrainian is so special, characteristic and not really to transform or transliterate without loosing the characteristic sound. I learned the letters within 3 days, and (other than the grammatics :P) it´s not difficult... esp with your help ^^
Thanks Anna and Sasha! It's great to learn more about your language. Cyrillic is easy to read. It took me very little time to be able to read Ukrainian. Building a vocabulary so I know what I read is taking a LOT longer. With your help though, I'm making progress. Keep doing what you're doing. I greatly appreciate it.
Благодаря Ана от един Канадец което живее в България 😊
I really like this type of short informative fact-based history lessons...
Great video as usual... 🙂
Loved this commentary, very interesting..😊😊
EXCELLENT…. I’m going to look into BABBLE and hopefully squire a first graders language level
So much to learn...
Looking forward to next Sunday already.
Thanks Anna.
Thank you 😊
I think this is another great vlog!! Like usual, I leaned a lot from you!! Preserving the Ukrainian cultural identity is important!!
When I see a map with Latin characters, I never pronounce towns right. But when someone includes the Cyrillic, I can generally get them very close, because Ukrainian is very logical and straightforward. It sounds exactly like it's spelled.
Thank you your educational vlogs. 🇺🇸 💙💛 🇺🇦. Stay safe. 🔱🇺🇦💪🔱
always thought the alphabet was both accessible yet exotic, since there are some similar letters to the Latin alphabet. Over the past 4 years I've learned a few of the Cyrillic alphabets because of my love for Slavic post punk and sovietwave and the desire to search for bands
Good going, Anna. Diakuyu for your (peripheral) explanation of Cyrillic alphabet. I loved the "each letter represents a different sound" reminder. (The word 'Latin' is pronounced so that the 'lat' part of the word rhymes with ''sat," "bat," or "fat.") Diakuyu for your efforts. Slava Ukrayini 🇺🇦
Thank you ☺️
The block letters are simple to learn, but fancy cursive gets me every time!
Extra credit for using a Venn diagram in your video
I loved learning Ukrainian Cyrillic. Cursive and the soft sign in certain positions are my arch enemies, though!
I love the Ukrainian language and alphabet! Ukrainian is a beautiful language! Glory to Ukraine! 🇺🇦💜
brilliant log Anna. Thank you: 😀👍
Thank you 💛💙
Great topic for the Day of State Sovereignty of Ukraine (July 16)! Thank you Anna!
I think people need to understand that russia has tried to delete Ukrainian culture for hundreds of years, so in turn, culture is especially important to Ukrainians and this includes the Ukrainian alphabet (Cyrillic).
A lot of Ukrainians seem to understand the Latin alphabet at the same time as the Cyrillic alphabet, I'm guessing this will probably increase even more as trade, tourism, and full joining with the EU comes into play.
Victory, Freedom, Full Reparations, and all of Ukraine's Land for Ukraine, this includes Donbas and Crimea! 💙💛
It's not really that hard to learn to understand both, it's just that we tend to.... not do that
From the point of view of someone from a country that uses Cyrillic alphabet, most foreign languages you can study use Latin, if not their own native script eg Hindi, Chinese, Korean, so of course it makes sense to learn it
For whatever reason, Slavic languages don't seem to be that popular for us to learn at school, it's usually either Spanish, French or German, or wildly at the other end of the scale with Japanese or Chinese, and not really much in between.
It is far less difficult to learn that it looks at first glance, it's a no-brainer to become proficient with it if you ever intend to visit the country.
I get the feeling you're now about to tell me you're actually Ukrainian...
@@rorychivers8769Thank you for explaining more about learning Latin and Cyrillic. Nope not Ukrainian, I'm a Canadian.
A year and a half ago I only knew that Ukraine was a country in Europe, I also didn't know how messed up russia was. The more I learn about Ukraine, the more I like Ukraine and Ukrainians. The more I learn about russia, the more I dislike/despise it.
@@BMPWR They often like to forget the part of WWII where they allied with Hitler to carve up Poland between them, and then the other bit a short while later where we gave them billions of dollars of equipment to fight the NAZIS with when that first part went a bit wrong for them
@@rorychivers8769 And russia teaches their population that they won WWII on their own. Yes, those are definitely two very good examples of russian mentality. They never really changed.
I have learned ONE cyrillic language. Writing and reading the alphabet is the easiest part. Just give it the right practice and it sticks for life.
Ah! ... That's why I can read Ukrainian almost perfectly although not speaking much! - But I am learning... By immersion and it works! :)))))))))
Cheers from Portugal and many thanks, Anna. It was a lovely video.
Hello Anna,
Very interesting, that there are national differences in cyrillic alphabets.
This is true for latin alphabet too! At least in French and German version of latin alphabet we also have additional letters like äüöïë…
Best regards, Ralf
Yeah and the Czechs have Č, Romanians Ç and the Dutch have IJ among other things
Super interesting. I noticed the ven diagram you showed had a few letters that I haven't been taught while learning Ukrainian from Duolingo. And I felt proud that I noticed it didn't have the GEE letter even before you mentioned it. Baby steps of learning Ukrainian.
That's because the diagram showed russian alphabet. I understand your confusion. I guess Anna just tried to show the connection between different aplhabets in general
I'm glad Ukraine is going to continue to use Cyrillic. This is the first non-Latin alphabet that sparked my interest in writing systems. Now, my personal goal is for people to not automatically 'think russian' whenever they encounter Cyrillic script.
And no letter combinations! I was beginning to worry that having to learn this would be my next step to some very basic level of literacy 😀
NOTFROMRUSSIA!!!!
Exactly 💙💛
@@AnnafromUkraine imagine trying to pronounce the very long name of that village on the Isle of Anglesey...even the Welsh speaking locals, have shortened it to Llanfair PG......!!...E...
What's horrible is that many Slavs, even some under this very video, continue to repeat the Greek/Byzantine brothers nonsense, which was pushed absolutely everywhere behind the Iron curtain for decades. It effectively destroys the very Slavic, NON-RUSSIAN Slavic, essence of the Cyrillic. It must stop!
English is the main language using the Latin alphabet but people don't think the Latin alphabet is English, right? Spanish, French, Portuguese and even Turkish would have something to say too.
Hi,
You can start showing people euro banknotes, they are definitely not Russian, yet they have Cyrillic script on them: the name of euro in Bulgarian (eвро). ;-)
Our Anna from Europe
Oh, that’s beautiful. Thank you 😊🇺🇦🇪🇺
Yes - Language from Cyril and Methodius is a study in itself. Somebody should make a channel or a DVD where we could listen to the sounds of the alphabet and learn it for ourselves by listening and seeing the letters and hearing their pronunciation as often as we wanted.
Привіт і дякую, Анна!
Thank you so much, Anna. 💙💛 I have been slowly learning Ukrainian since March 2022. This video gave me a lot of new, helpful information! 🌻🦋
Молодець і обіймаю. 🫂💛💙
Слава Україні! 💪🇺🇦
Героям слава! Обіймаю
My daughter is trying out her Ukrainian on us at Clabby Towers...😊😊
@@eamonnclabby7067Privit, Eamonn! 🤗 Yes, I remember you mentioning that your daughter is also learning Ukrainian. ☺️💙💛 I'm finding that speaking and grammar rules in Ukrainian are more difficult than the reading/writing/vocabulary aspects. Best wishes to you and yours... May all be lovely in your Wirral Peninsula. 💖💙💛
@@meredithf.1022 just polished off some very chocolatey chocolate cake with fresh strawberries ( it is Wimbledon after all..!! ) ...😊😁
Bonjour Anna, je reviens écouté avec la traduction. 🫠💙💛❤️
Anna,
Please post a PDF of the Ukrainian alphabet like you show in your video! It's the best one I've seen as it includes examples of both cursive and manuscript writing as well as Capital and lower case.
I've started self-learning your alphabet and because it IS phonetic, it's actually relatively easy to learn! That's been very helpful in reading names on maps. Just being able to decipher and sound out place names is a really encouraging step towards learning more. Thank you.
I just used the snipping tool in windows and made a jpeg of it.
Thank you, Anna and Sasha. I've been looking forward to this episode, and you executed the task of passing on very important knowledge so well. It's really interesting and educational. Unlike some people, I do *not* wish to see the Ukrainian alphabet switch over to being a Latin alphabet, though I can understand why transliteration can make Ukrainian far easier for some to learn to speak Ukrainian if they just cannot get used to Cyrillic, at least as a starting point; maybe progressing to learning the Cyrillic alphabet for the purpose of being able to read Ukrainian words - especially if they come to Ukraine. Though I've seen that Ukraine does provide a lot of information in English (and maybe other languages) to the visiting public.
The Cyrillic alphabet's phonetics don't seem too difficult to learn, with regular reading practice of it, nor the phonetics; once one hears the written words spoken by Ukrainians.
And, let's face it, one doesn't see much of anyone wanting say, 日本語のアルファベット or الأبجدية العربية to switch those alphabets to Latin ones 😉
Thank you for showing the different fonts at the start, Anna. I use a print-out of the cursive handwriting and I try to practice how the Ukrainian language is written by hand as well as typing it on my tech devices in the alternative language options settings. I'm sure many of us have documents from our ancestors that were written in Cyrillic, and deciphering what was written back then is a real challenge for many of us!!!
Have a blessed evening, Ukraine!
This is an authentic example of diversity, to be cher and celebrated, nice one, AJ...Peaceful skys from all at Clabby Towers...😊😊😊😊....E....
Typo...cherished...
Sister, I so much wish to meet you one day and try writing 😊 one of the main reasons why I would not advise to switch is this gap between Cyrillic heritage books and new generations who will not know how to read it
@@AnnafromUkraine as Wimbledon has just finished, felt strangely compelled to have some chocolate cake and strawberries...yum...!!!.. 😊😁
@@AnnafromUkraine Sister, that sounds like a plan! 😊It's *highly* likely we'll meet when I come to meet my ancestral Home in person. You're less than 150 miles North of my father's birthplace. I'd really like that and mutually share the wish to meet you one day. It'd be daft not to meet having travelled so far.
Aha, yes, good point! So much would be lost; and only experts in the field able to comprehend those Cyrillic heritage books. Not only that, but the cost to the nations economy to convert every single thing in present-day Ukraine is unimaginable. 🤔 I think Ukrainians are being very accommodating in learning English now. People should feel honoured, but also think about how oppressive they sound when Ukraine is fighting to hold on to her cultural heritage, literally.
I'm sorry I delayed a little in replying, sister, I went off to continue watching Timothy Snyder's, 'The Making of Modern Ukraine'. In particular, Class 4, (Ukrainian language included)... ate supper, did some embroidery, and realised just as his Class 6 was about to start, I should check YT for any replies 🙈 Timothy is great, he speaks volumes, but everything comes together nicely, falling into place, in a very interesting and memorable way.
I should take my fogged up brain/boggle-eyes to sleep soon.
I hope your week is kind to you, sister!
🫂
Another excellent and informative video from Anna. Years ago I went on vacation in Russia. I was surprised when the tour guide said that the Cyrillic language was invented by Russia. I knew this was not true and told the tour guide what she said was not true. Anna, I hope sometime you can explain the b character in the Cyrillic language. I understand it is a silent letter.
It is a sign of softening, in English we transliterate it with ‘
I learned that the Cyrillic alphabet comes from European origins that's why Ukraine has a good connection with Europe ! The Orcs only suppressed the language , pushing Ukraine away. It is a beautiful alphabet, just a big learning curve for Latin alphabet users. Stay Safe ! Slava Ukraini !💙💛
Not a big learning curve. As a Latin alphabet language user who learned to read russian Cyrillic alphabet for his third language I can assure you it's not difficult at all. You can learn to read Ukrainian in a day, whereas you could spend years learning to read English and would still make mistakes.
@@Laurynas_LTUyes I agree
Cyrrilic is influenced by the Greek alphabet so yeah
@@Laurynas_LTUI agree. That is the easiest part of learning a slavic language. Just be concentrated. And good guidance speeds it up.
It comes from Byzantium where Cyril and Metod developed two alphabets for Slavic languages Glagolitic and Cyrilic and it was made in Ohrid which today is Macedonia but than was part of Bulgarian empire .
Anna, a very timely vlog as propagandists have been putting down the Ukrainian language. Дякуємо!
Forget about propagandists, our OWN government does exactly that.
@@Sviatoslav_The_Brave Ukrainian government claim Ukrainian is not a real language? Confused about your statement.
@@UTube4Junky No, It's much worse. At least you know who your enemy when they tell to your face Ukrainian language doesn't exist. Our deputies do something far more sinister. They promote themselves as big patriots who love Ukrainian language, but when push comes to shove they implement laws that hinder Ukrainian language. So in my opinion, hidden enemy is far more scarier and dangerous than the obvious one.
The Ukrainian language is beautiful.
The cyrillic letters are unfortunately now just a umbilical cord connecting Ukraine to Russia, and used by Russia to suck everything good out of Ukraine.
@@Sviatoslav_The_Brave you sound like a russian troll
Ukraine not only did not receive the Cyrillic alphabet from Russia. Rather, it can be said that Russia (at that time Muscovy) was Slavicized with the advent of Rus. Prior to this, the inhabitants of Muscovy were not a Slavic-speaking people.
As someone interested in the history of languages I find this topic fascinating. Some more episodes on the relationships between Slavic languages please!
A background in chemistry, math & physics actually makes learning to identify letters & their accompanying sound(s) a lot easier.
So Cool Anna!
Keep cultural diversity alive, and keep your heritage.
I look forward to learning Urainian alphabet. Maybe there is an international business language but we all win from the richness of local cultures and languages. And perhaps that is why you chose to be a Linguistics expert.
Slava Ukraini!
The differences between Cyrillic and Latin are actually quite minimal and, once you learn the differences, it is fairly easy to adjust to. This is particularly true if, like all well rounded westerners, you know a little Greek (or at least took enough math and physics classes). None the less I want to thank you, Anna, for posting this. :)
Thank you for such an interesting and informative video. I love all the videos that you have done.
My full support, prayers and thoughts are with all Ukrainians on a daily basis.
Take great care of yourself always and I look forward to seeing more videos from you.😘🌹❤️🇺🇦
5:50 This one is so true for Tatarstan. We Tatars used the Arabic alphabet for centuries and started to use the Latin alphabet (since it fits best for our vowels and consonants), but Stalin with his monstrous russification forced my people to switch to the Cyrillic alphabet. Which was and is still a tragedy for Volga Tatars. And now russia works so hard to not just erase our alphabet, but also to erase our language. So please, dear Ukrainians, don't lose your beautiful language and your likewise beautiful alphabet. And thank you so much for this educational video, dear Anna!
Слава Украïнi! Alğa Tatarstan! 🇺🇦
Thank you so much! I value your comments and our joint experience very much! Hugs!
Here on the Gaelic/ Celtic fringe of the British Isles, ( and the wider Irish ,Welsh and Scottish diaspora ) , the growing popularity of Feis, Eistedfods and Highland gatherings hop will fill you with some hope for the future...E...
Again Thank you for this timely discussion on the origins of the Cyrillic Alphabet. It was certainly new information for me and the fact that there has always been an exchange of ideas between cultures is not surprising. The development of alphabets borrowing from the Greco-Roman civilizations is understandable. I too agree that since this alphabet has such an extensive history in Ukrainian culture and books you must retain it! SLAVA UKRAINI!!!
Honestly I think it's easier to read Ukrainian words in Cyrillic than the latinized versions. The letters fit like a glove to the language. Beautiful language.
🌹🌹🌹Ambassador Anna!🌹🌹🌹
I have decided that you are (as usual) correct. Ukraine needs to stay with Cyrillic alphabet. It just makes another interesting adventure in life, learning a Cyrillic language. I tried Russian once before, and I found that it isn't difficult to master the alphabet.
Thank you for sharing this information about different ways usage of the language. Always love to see and hear from you. God bless you and keep you safe love you always Gene Krouse ❤❤❤
That was very informative. I learned so much. Thank you for educating us viewers. ❤️
Good to know we're closer that we were ever allowed to know. Greetings from Bulgaria.
wow, I did not know all of that. Feels good to have a better understanding now of this topic. Thanx Anna!
more about the letters you use and the noises they make please. that would be great as well as the shorts on words too👍
Anna is right. The Cyrillic alphabet is better for Ukrainian. If nothing else, it's simply more precise. For an English speaker, it's not hard to learn. Takes a day - two at most - if you're really trying; a week if you're loafing. Ukrainian language is a whole different deal - that's a long haul. For an English speaker, the Slavic group is a step up in difficulty from the Romance group, but far easier than the non Indo-European languages, like Arabic, Chinese, or Navajo.
I think it would be great if Anna could find a Ukrainian Alphabet song to make a video with. 🤔🤝
It would be useful for Ukrainians to have English as a second language.
Not many people will learn Ukrainian because there are less than 50 million speakers.
There are around 1.5 billion English speakers. That's number one.
@@TheBandit7613 -- Ukrainians know far more English than you know any other topic with your "number one" superiority complex.
@@TheBandit7613 They are already doing that.
Actually, the english language is far worse to learn because of the level of complications in which it is spelled and read .Once you've learned the Cyrillic alphabet, it is easy to read the words.It's my experience as a beginner.
Lovely program Anna, thank you, makes it a little easier. Please keep up these great videos.
Hi Anna,
I'm glad, you mentioned Bulgaria, as the origin of the Cyrillic script, because Bulgaria is an EU member, and therefore Bulgarian written in Cyrillic script is an official language of the European Union (Европейски съюз). This also means Cyrillic appears on the euro (eвро) banknotes, which are used daily by almost 350 million people as their official currency. So Cyrillic is definitely not a "Russian thing".
I finally got to a point learning the language that I can read Cyrillic as well as Latin, and don't even notice I'm reading Cyrillic moat of the time.
Long ways from fluent, but happy to make that milestone anyway.
I am Bulgarian and fully agree. This absolute nonsense about ditching cyrillic coming from westerners had me so aggravated lately. 99% of them don't even know that it's not Russian. I had one of those on twitter telling me that it would be easier for westerners to learn Ukrainian because the cyrillic is difficult, so I asked her why hasn't she learned polish yet.
It's almost the same as asking English or French after WW2 to ditch latin because Germany used it, while it comes from what is now Italy.
Cyrrilic is not that difficult to learn. The hardest letters for me to learn were what Anna calls false letters. So Р being R, Н being N, И being i.
Also saying that you should abandon cyrrilic because of Russian would be like my country (Netherlands) abandoning the latin alphabet after ww2, because we share, a large part of, our alphabet with the Germans.
Must admit that I'm mesmerized by your hands, Anna. Your message is compelling as well, but the hands speak in their own way to deliver it very well.
Très intéressant Anna, personnellement j'adore l'écriture Ukrainienne. La Russie n'a pas a vous dire comment parler. A bientôt Anna et merci pour la vidéo. 🙂💙💛❤️👌👍🤞✌️👋
A perfect post Sunday roast, tutorial and interesting bite sized chunks of knowledge, thank you Anna...❤😊...E...
Дякую 💙💛
@@AnnafromUkraine ....😊
@@eamonnclabby7067 🙃👋
@@julienmcnicoll7013 ...😊
Muchas gracias, Señorita Anna, no conocía la historia del alfabeto cirílico… sus orígenes, la cantidad de países que lo utilizan y su evolución, según el país y cultura, es un tesoro que no se debe perder. Sería una gran pérdida de la historia humana… gracias por las palabras del día, he logrado aprender algo pero a falta de práctica y tiempo es un avance como el contra-ataque, lento pero seguro… hasta la victoria…. Cuídense, abrazos fraternales y saludos para tu equipo.
SLAVA UKRAINI, HEROYAM SLAVA 🫶🙏🇺🇦🐈⬛
A great lesson ! Thanks especially for your wonderful voice and elegant beauty.
Hello Anna. I used to travel the world and foreign alphabets never stopped me.
When you go to a bus station in China it’s obvious that you are looking for a bus and you don’t have to understand all the signs.
Just show someone where you want to go on a map or Google Maps and they will help you.
I would have no problem finding my way in Ukraine 🇺🇦
Thank you. Informative as always.
Ten years ago I made a spreadsheet with different alphabets and national varieties. It includes simple notations how to say the alphabets (like α: άλφα [alpha], β: βήτα [beta], γ: γάμμα [gamma]). Our son was seven years old then and he had a friend who had Serbian origin. Since we use Portuguese within the family I used the comparison of the alphabets to show our son that the Portuguese sounds of "lh" and "nh" (similar to Spanish "ll" and "ñ") had their own characters in the Serbian alphabet, the letters "љ" and "њ". That spreadsheet has been useful several times, even though my wife said something about poor boy first time I showed him and explained some aspects of the different alphabets and varieties.
Just a few days ago my daughter and I glanced through that spreadsheet, when she connected Cyrillic alphabet to Russian by default. Then I had to inform her that Ukrainians (Rutenians / peoples of the principalities of Rus) used the Cyrillic alphabet several hundred years before Moscow even was invented, and that Kyrillos and Methodios invented the (predecessor of) Cyrillic alphabet to translate texts of the Christian church into Slavic / Slavonian language.
I also remember that when I made the spreadsheet I had space enough for varieties of just eight languages to be printed on a A3 sheet. The Ukrainian alphabet was one that i prioritised to show. The reason was not only that I was interested in Ukrainian history and culture, but also because I found it easier to show the connection between Greek and Cyrillic alphabets when including the Ukrainian alphabet. I also explicitly marked the formerly forbidden "ґ" with deviating background colour, to be able to illustrate the imperialistic history of development of the language of the last couple of centuries.
It is only now, during the last year, I realised how important it is that I have showed our children these (and other) glimpses of our common European history. Otherwise they probably would have had major difficulties to understand the events of our time.
Thank you clearing this up!!
Fascinating history❤
Learning UA language for 6 month now. Once you get used to the letters, it ok. And its true, that the sound stays the same. Thats helpful.
Thank you Anna for your very interesting and concise presentation. You make it easy to learn something.
I've learned so much from you. It's like I'm back in school!
yaaay finally a good video about how this alphabet works👍👍👍
I did not expect that a subject like Cyrillic alphabet could be so interesting. You are a very talented teacher, Anna.
Perfect outfit by the way that match your hair color.
Thank you Anna ,very interesting video
Glad you liked it
This is amazing , thank you so very , very much Anna. I have saved this to my playlist so I can watch this several times to learn all about this important subject.
You Anna are an asset to your people and country. Love your educational videos. Please keep educating us. 💚
I am learning Ukrainian to help family members and found this very useful. I enjoy all of Anna's presentations -- she is amazing -- and beautiful!
Very interesting! Well explained!
Thanks for the valuable history and introduction to both the alphabet and the language. Knowing that the alphabet is phonetic makes learning it learning the correct pronunciation of it within the language so much easier and not as dependent upon sentence structure and context as it is in some languages. I am looking forward to learning more about this in the future.
How interesting. I knew next to nothing about the Cyrillic alphabet. Thanks, Anna!
Anna is beautiful to listen to.
Not one "hmmm", "aah", "you know", "I mean".
Bravo, Anna!!!!! A most powerful explanation of why the Cyrillic alphabet is on the map of 50 languages. You give a perfect non-nationalistic lesson about the importance of national language with such a mix of science and elegance. Pure finesse!. I am happy for making part of your audience, and I will be back on your channel. I was not aware of Czar Boris' historical role. I am from Portugal, where, at this moment, there are some 50-60.000 Ukrainian refugees. Slava Ukraini!
Very good high altitude overview of your alphabet. Appreciated.
Поздравления за обективната информация. Време е светът да научи че Кирилицата не е руска азбука. Тя е създадена за всички славяни и първо е въведена в България. Само едно леко уточнение: счита се че Кирилската азбука е създадена от Климент Охридски - ученик на Кирил и Методи, който я е нарекъл така в тяхна чест. Повечето букви са заемки от гръцката азбука, а за звуци които нямат аналог в нея са използвани древно-български руни (Ж, Ш, Ч и други).
I love how the Cyrillic alphabet looks. I hope you guys keep using it, it’s part of your culture and who you are. I want to learn more about it for fun for myself.
I’ve been watching so many videos on the war and about Ukraine that there are some words in Cyrillic that I can translate to english or french not. I’m nowhere close to being good with this alphabet but it’s a beginning.
Loved this video--I'm a huge language geek! I always learn SO much from your channel! I had no idea if the role Bulgaria played in Slavic languages.
I look forward to checking out the rest of this series!💙💛
It's quite normal that you didn't know, Western schools kind of trend to ignore Eastern and Southeastern history and when they DO show some stuff, they have one or two maps where Bulgaria is shown as a tiny part of what it actually was, so how are you supposed to know the massive influence Bulgarian had on Slavic languages. The truth is that being the first Slavic empire (where the title tsar comes from), with the first Slavic Patriarchate, developing, translating and creating new Slavic Biblical texts, it influenced not only languages but also the very political structures of the Slavic polities.
There's an amazing video on the history of Ukraine, basically debunking the vast majority of Russian historical nonsense in addition to being very informative- "Timothy Snyder: The Making of Modern Ukraine" from Yale courses. Watch it when you have a little bit of time. It focuses obviously on Ukraine but it has some explanation on the role Bulgaria played in the Slavic (and also Romanian) world.
Thank you so much for Discover Ukraine. You are amazing with both your channels.