Dialects of Ukrainian

Several modern dialects of Ukrainian exist [2], [3]:

• Northern (Polissian) dialects [4]:
• Eastern Polissian is spoken in Chernihiv (excluding the southeastern districts), in the northern part of Sumy, and in the southeastern portion of the Kiev Oblast as well as in the adjacent areas of Russia, which include the southwestern part of the Bryansk Oblast (the area around Starodub), as well as in some places in the Kursk, Voronezh and Belgorod Oblasts. [5]. No linguistic border can be defined. The vocabulary approaches Russian as the language approaches the Russian Federation. Both Ukrainian and Russian grammar sets can be applied to this dialect. Thus, this dialect can be considered a transitional dialect between Ukrainian and Russian. [6].
• Central Polissian is spoken in the northwestern part of the Kiev Oblast, in the northern part of Zhytomyr and the northeastern part of the Rivne Oblast [7].
• West Polissian is spoken in the northern part of the Volyn Oblast, the northwestern part of the Rivne Oblast as well as in the adjacent districts of the Brest Voblast in Belarus. The dialect spoken in Belarus uses Belarusian grammar, and thus is considered by some to be a dialect of Belarusian. [8]
• Southeastern dialects [9]:
• Middle Dnieprian is the basis of the Standard Literary Ukrainian. It is spoken in the central part of Ukraine, primarily in the southern and eastern part of the Kiev Oblast). In addition, the dialects spoken in Cherkasy, Poltava and Kiev regions are considered to be close to " standard" Ukrainian.
• Slobodan dialect is spoken in Kharkiv, Sumy, Luhansk, and the northern part of Donetsk, as well as in the Voronezh and Belgorod regions of Russia. [10]. This dialect is formed from a gradual mixture of Russian and Ukrainian, with progressively more Russian in the northern and eastern parts of the region. Thus, there is no linguistic border between Russian and Ukrainian, and, thus, both grammar sets can be applied. This dialect is a transistional dialect between Ukrainian and Russian.[11]
• Steppe dialect is spoken in southern and southeastern Ukraine. This dialect was originally the main language of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. [12].
• Kuban (known locally as Balachka) is spoken in the Kuban region of Russia, by the Kuban Cossacks, descendants of the original Zaporozhian host, which had migrated here. This dialect features a predominant Russian vocabulary and grammar. It varies greatly from one area to another. [13]
• Southwestern dialects [14]:
• Podillian is spoken in the southern parts of the Vinnytsia and Khmelnytskyi Oblasts, in the northern part of the Odessa Oblast, and in the adjacent districts of the Cherkasy Oblast, the Kirovohrad Oblast and the Mykolaiv Oblast. [15]
• Volynian is spoken in Rivne and Volyn, as well as in parts of Zhytomyr and Ternopil. It is also used in Chelm in Poland.
• Pokuttia (Bukovynian) is spoken in the Chernivtsi Oblast of Ukraine. This dialect has some distinct volcabulary borrowed from Romanian.
• Upper Dniestrian is considered to be the main Galician dialect, spoken in the Lviv Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk Oblasts. Its distinguishing characteristics are the influence of Polish and the German vocabulary, which is reminiscent of the Austro-Hungarian rule. Some of the distinct words used in this dialect can be found here [16]
• Upper Sannian is spoken in the border area between Ukraine and Poland in the San river valley.

• The Rusyn language is considered by Ukrainian linguists to be a dialect of Ukrainian:
• Hutsul is spoken in the extreme southern parts of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (as well as in parts of the Chernivtsi and Transcarpathian Oblasts, and on the northern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains.
• Boyko is spoken on the northern side of the Carpathian Mountains in the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk Oblasts. It can also be heard across the border in the Subcarpathian Voivodship of Poland
• Lemko is spoken outside Ukraine in the Preš ov Region of Slovakia along the southern side of the Carpathian Mountains.
• Dolinian Rusyn or Subcarpathian Rusyn is spoken in the Transcarpathian Oblast.
• Pryashiv Rusyn is the Rusyn spoken in the Preš ov (in Ukrainian: Pryashiv) region of Slovakia, as well as by some é migré communities, primarily in the United States of America.
• Bač ka Rusyn is spoken in northwestern Serbia and eastern Croatia. Rusin language of the Bač ka dialect is one of the official languages of the Serbian Autonomous Province of Vojvodina).

Ukrainian is also spoken by a large é migré population, particularly in Canada (see Canadian Ukrainian), United States and several countries of South America like Argentina and Brazil. The founders of this population primarily emigrated from Galicia, which used to be part of Austro-Hungary before World War I, and belonged to Poland between the World Wars. The language spoken by most of them is the Galician dialect of Ukrainian from the first half of the twentieth century. Compared with modern Ukrainian, the vocabulary of Ukrainians outside Ukraine reflects less influence of Russian, but often contains many loan words from the local language.

[edit] Ukrainophone population

Ukrainian is spoken by approximately 36, 894, 000 people in the world. Most of the countries where it is spoken are ex-USSR where many Ukrainians have migrated. Canada and the United States are also home to a large Ukrainian population. Broken up by country (to the nearest thousand):

1. Ukraine 31, 058, 000
2. Russia 4, 363, 000 (1, 815, 000 according to the 2002 census [17])
3. Kazakhstan 898, 000
4. United States 844, 000
5. Brazil 760, 000
6. Moldova 600, 000
7. Belarus 291, 000
8. Canada 175, 000 (probably a low estimate; there are 1, 071, 060 Canadians of Ukrainian descent, 326, 195 exclusively Ukrainian, according to StatsCanada [18])
9. Uzbekistan 153, 000
10. Poland 150, 000
11. Kyrgyzstan 109, 000
12. Argentina 120, 000 ^{[ citation needed ]}
13. Latvia 78, 000
14. Portugal 65, 800
15. Romania 57, 600
16. Slovakia 55, 000
17. Georgia 52, 000
18. Lithuania 45, 000
19. Tajikistan 41, 000
20. Turkmenistan 37, 000
21. Australia 30, 000
22. Azerbaijan 32, 000
23. Paraguay 26, 000
24. Estonia 21, 000
25. Armenia 8, 000
26. Hungary 4, 900 (according to the 2001 census [19])
27. Serbia 3, 000

(Source, unless specified: Ethnologue [20])

Ukrainian is the official language of Ukraine. The language is also one of three official languages of the breakaway Moldovan republic of Transnistria (Source: The Constitution of Transnistria, Article 12 [21]).

Ukraine is also co-official, alongside Romanian, in ten communes in Suceava County, Romania (as well as Bistra in Maramureş County). In these localities, Ukrainians, who are an officially-recognised ethnic minority in Romania, make up more than 20% of the population. Thus, according to Romania's minority rights law, education, signage and access to public administration and the justice system are provided in Ukrainian, alongside Romanian.^{[ citation needed ]}

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