Ukrainian Language Facts

If you’re thinking about learning Ukrainian it’s always good to know a little about the origins and history of the language you are learning. Here, Cactus Language offers up our most interesting Ukrainian language facts:

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    Ukrainian Language - Motherland Statue Kyiv

    5 Interesting Ukrainian Language Facts

    1. Older than Russian

    Ukrainian is older than Russian. The oldest recorded mention of Ukrainian dates back to 858. But the first published words, in the language, didn’t occur until 1798. Eneida, a burlesque poem by the Ivan Kotliarevsky, was written during the formation romanticism and nationalism in Europe.

    2. Most similar to Belarusian

    Ukrainian is similar to many other Slavic languages. However, shares most words and structures with Belarusian. Nearly 84% of Ukrainian words are the same as Belarusian while 70% can be found in Polish.

    3. 37 Million native speakers

    There are over 37 million native speakers of Ukrainian across the world. The majority of speakers being in Ukraine itself. As well as these 37 million people who consider Ukrainian to be their first language, 15 million others consider it to be their second language.

    4. P most common letter

    The letter P is the most common letter used in the Ukrainian language. As well as being the most popular letter overall, it is also the letter most words in the language start with.

    5. Longest word – 34 letters

    The longest word in Ukrainian is an outstanding 34 letters long! “Нікотинамідаденіндинуклеотидфосфат” which translates to ‘Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide Phosphate’. The word is not used in regular conversation outside of a science lab, but it is still impressive.

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