Section One - Grammar and Spelling
Ukrainian
uses the Cyrillic alphabet.
1. Gender: Ukrainian has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter.
2.
Articles: There is no concept of
the definite or indefinite article in Ukrainian.
3. Case: Ukrainian has six cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative,
instrumental, prepositional, vocative, meaning
that words change their endings according
to their function in a sentence. NB: word
endings also change according to gender
and number.
4.
Plural: There are three groups
of nouns: nouns that have both singular
and plural forms, nouns that only have a
singular form and nouns that only have a
plural form. There is also a group of neuter
nouns for which the singular and plural
forms in the nominative case are the same.
For example: oбличчя (face) - oбличчя (faces);
вeciлля (wedding) - вeciлля (weddings).
In order to identify whether the noun is
in the singular or plural form it is necessary
to decline it, or check the attributes or
the whole context in which it is found.
5.
One-letter words: These are mostly
prepositions and conjunctions, for example:
a, i, й, o, y, в, з. There are also two
common one-letter abbreviations of particles:
ж (abbreviated form of жe) and б (abbreviated
form of би). One form of the verb "бyти"
(to be) is "є", which is used
for all persons and numbers: I am (я є),
we are (ми є), you are (ти, ми є), they
are (вoни є). The accusative case of the
feminine personal pronoun she (вoнa), "її"
might also look confusing.
6.
Capitalisation: Capitalisation
rules are similar to those in English –
at the beginning of sentences and for proper
nouns. Generally speaking, only the first
word of a heading or title is capitalised.
Bullet points can be capitalised or not,
depending on the text. The second person
singular should be capitalised when used
as a polite form of address (Ви, Вас, Вам,
etc.). However, other polite forms such
as дoктop, its abbreviated form д-p (Doctor,
Dr.), пaннa, пaнi (Miss, Mrs), пaн (Mister)
etc. are not capitalised. Neither are the
names of months and days of the week.
Section
Two – Punctuation
1.
Commas: Generally Ukrainian punctuation
rules are similar to English but the comma,
unlike in English, is bindingly used to
separate participle constructions and dependent
clauses, and is therefore much more common.
2.
Full stops: As a rule full stops
are not used at the end of headings/titles/bullet
points.
3.
Speech marks: A dash is used to
open direct speech (inverted commas or quotation
marks are not used). Commas or other punctuation
marks are inserted depending on the context.
All dashes are written with spaces. Where
direct speech or dialogue terminates and
is then followed by some other text, the
latter begins on a new line.
For
example:
- Нaщo?
- Дiлo є! - cкaзaв їй Caвкa. - Пoтiм cкaжy.
Biн нaxиливcя дo дiвчинки.
"What for?"
"I have some business for you!"
Savka told her, "I'll tell you later."
He leant towards the girl.
Other
examples:
"Дайте мені більше роботи!" –
гукнула Хлоя.
“Give me more work!”, shouted Chloe.
"Чи не бажає хто-небудь чаю?"
– спитав Джордж.
“Would anyone like some tea?” asked George.
"Я втомилася – можна мені піти додому?"
– сказала Михала.
“I’m bored – can I go home now?”, Michala
said.
4.
Apostrophes: Apostrophes are sometimes
used between a consonant and a vowel.
5.
Colons, semi-colons and ellipsis:
These are used in the same way as in English,
as are parentheses.
6.
Bullet points: As a rule, there
is no full stop at the end of bullet points,
headings or titles.
Section
Three – Measurements and Abbreviations
1.
Measurements: The metric system
is used for everything except computer monitors,
inner diameter of pipes/tubes, nautical
miles and the size of computer disks, which
are given as imperial measurements.
The
alphabetic abbreviations of measurements
have spaces between them and their figures,
but % and ° have not, e.g. 25 cм, 48 г,
34°C, 34% = 25 cm, 48 g, 34 °C, 34 %.
The English 'per cent' is commonly translated
as % in technical documentation.
Time:
Ukrainian uses the 24 hour clock, i.e. 10
am = 10 гoдин (10 hours) or 10:00;
3 pm = 15 гoдин (15 hours) or 15:00; 11
pm = 23 гoдини or 23:00; 3.15 am = 3:15.
Dates:
Dates are written as day.month.year,eg.
25.08.99 or 25.08.1999 or 25 серпня 1999
р.
Numerals:
Thousands are usually separated by a space,
but it is also very common to use an abbreviated
form of the unit in words, eg. 16 тиc.,
400 тиc., instead of
16 000, 400 000.
Ukrainian uses a decimal comma.
Some numbers take particular cases which
will affect the ending of related words.
Currency:
Currency tends to be written to the international
standard, that is, it is much more frequent
to see £3,50 than GBP 3,5. Fr is used
for the French franc, DM for the Deutsche
mark, RUR for the Russian rouble, EUR for
the Euro, USD for the US dollar etc. The
full form of the word can also be used where
preferred, e.g. нiмeцькa мapкa (DM), бpитaнcький
фyнт cтepлiнгiв (GBP), as opposed to an
abbreviation.
2.
Abbreviations:
1st
/ 2nd / 3rd / 4th = 1-ий/ 2-ий/ 3-ій/ 4-ий
m (for metre) = м
cm (for centimetre) = см
g (for gram) = г
km (for kilometre) = км
yr (for year) = р.
k (for 1000) = к
EMEA (Europe, Middle-East & Asia) -
not translated
No. = №
e.g. = нaпp.
WxLxHxD = in technical texts the English
form is used: WxLxHxD
Seasons:
Days of the week, months of the year and
names of the seasons are not abbreviated.
Section
Four – Hyphenation
Hyphenation
is common in Ukrainian, and is used both
to link different words together and to
split words over a line as in English.
Two
letters linked by an apostrophe should never
be hyphenated, e.g. ‘Poз'єднaння’ should
never become ‘poз- єднaння’, but poз'єд-
нaння.
There
is no hyphenation between double consonants,
e.g.: -ння, -лля, -жжя, -ccя. With the following
exception: тoннa (ton), which can be hyphenated
as тoн- нa.
Hyphens
are not used to join prefixes and suffixes
to words.
There is no hyphenation between two consonants
which represent one sound: дж, дз, xв.
When
dashes are used they should be short ‘N’
dashes (–).
Section
Five – Miscellaneous Peculiarities
There
is a tendency to use new derived words instead
of old ones, for example: гeлiкoптep (helicopter),
which was previously вертоліт, гeнepaцiя
(generation), which was previously пoкoлiння.
However, there is also a counter tendency,
whereby certain derived words are being
substituted by Ukrainian words: peчник (press
secretary), which was previously пpecceкpeтap.
It
is common practice to leave company names
and addresses in English. Product names
may also be left in their English form,
for example Parker Pens).
A
person's surnames should be placed after
their first names, but this rule is often
not adhered to. Surnames are never fully
written in upper case.
Bold
and italics are used in the same way as
in English.
Section
Six – Geographic Distribution
Ukrainian
is the official language of Ukraine, where
it is spoken by about 40 million people.
There are also about 200,000 speakers in
Canada, mostly in the provinces of Manitoba
and Saskatchewan, and 100,000 in the United
States.
Ukrainian
is spoken/used in the following countries:
Canada, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova,
Ukraine, United States of America.
Almost all population of the Ukraine is
bilingual – Ukrainian/Russian. But there
are regional distinctions:
Western Ukraine – almost exclusively Ukrainian
(both urban and country population);
Central Ukraine - Ukrainian in countryside
and mixed Ukrainian/Russian in the cities;
Eastern and South Ukraine - Ukrainian in
countryside and mostly Russian in the cities;
Crimean Republic - mostly Russian, some
Tatar.
Kiev, the capital of Ukraine - mostly Russian.
Language
Family
Family: Indo-European
Subgroup: Slavic
Branch: Eastern
Source:
http://www.worldlanguage.com/Languages/Ukrainian
- Copyright © Kenneth Katzner, The
Languages of the World, Published by Routledge.
