In order to communicate with each other, the origin of language was the essential part. 7151 languages are spoken today, but just 23 languages account for more than half the world's population.
Namibia, despite its scant population, is home to a wide diversity of languages, even from multiple language families: Germanic, Bantu, and the various Khoisan families. 13 languages have been recognized in Namibia as national languages and English is official.
There are approximately 20 languages spoken in Ukraine. The official language of Ukraine is Ukrainian.
South Africa has about 34 historically established languages and 11 official languages.
Language is something that is alive, constantly changing, depending on the time, the situation. By which words are used most often, which tenses there are, which words are the most beautiful, you can measure people's values and feelings.
We can demonstrate our thoughts, feelings and ideas by our gestures, expressions, tones, and emotions but language is important for personal communication.
By learning a foreign language, you can understand ideas and thoughts that may be different from your own culture.
Many of us know the answer to why is language important, but we often take language for granted or actually don’t think about it. The truth is, language has immense importance to the social fabric of humankind. As a personal thing, language is not only a mode of communication between individuals but is also a way for the expression of their personality, a way for the expression of nationality. It is always good to learn different languages and appreciate the uniqueness of each one.
Few facts:
Ukrainian, English, Afrikaans and German developed from Indo-European languages.
English is the most widely spoken language on the planet taking into account native and non-native speakers.
Ukrainian language is one of the most difficult languages.
Major difference of the Ukrainian language from English / Afrikaans / German includes Cyrillic writing.
But did you know that the first schools to use Afrikaans were Muslim and it was written in Arabic lettering. Afrikaans as it is written today, with Roman script, only started appearing in newspapers around 1850.
The German language was written using the Fraktur script of the Latin alphabet right up until the middle of 20th century. In early German printing (before 16th century), the lettering known as Schwabacher was the primary typeface used to print German documents.
According to the scientists, the Ukrainian language is the oldest of all living Slavic languages and Afrikaans is the youngest official language in the world.
But did you know that a new English word is added to the dictionary every two hours and the German spelling rules changed in 1996?
Ukrainian is one of the most beautiful languages in the world. At a language competition in Italy, it was recognized as the second most melodic language in the world (after Italian) according to such criteria as phonetics, vocabulary, phraseology and sentence structure.
The most common noun in the English Language is ‘time’, and the most mispronounced (and often misspelt) word in the English language is ‘Pronunciation’.
A few German words seem that only Germans be able to pronounce (Eichhörnchen – squirrel, Streichholzschächtelchen – a little matchbox).
The Ukrainian language is immensely rich in diminutive forms – the way to make a word more cutesy and “small”. (Think “kitty” from “kitten” or “Timmy” from “Tim.) All personal names in addition to a neutral informal “short” name have also a rude-familiar or friendly and diminutive forms.
Perhaps surprisingly, even such categorically un-cute words like “enemies” have their diminutive forms. In this case, "вороженьки" - vorozen'ki. This word is present even in the national anthem of Ukraine.
The English language is said to be one of the happiest languages in the world, the word “happy” is used 3 times more often than the word “sad”. The most used adjective in the English language is “good”.
The most beautiful German words are Habseligkeiten (treasured belongings), followed by Geborgenheit (emotional security), lieben (love).
The Ukrainian language is very rich in synonyms. For example, the word “horizon” has 12 synonyms. But the absolute record is the verb “to beat”. According to the “Dictionary of Synonyms of the Ukrainian Language”, it has 45 synonyms.
Some claim that Ukrainian has over 5 million synonyms.
And the English language contains a lot of contronyms – words that can have contradictory meanings depending on context.
German is famous for its excessively long words with the longest word being made up of 79 letters.
English must be the only major world language that doesn't have a regulatory body.
Each year since 1997 on November 9 Ukraine celebrates the Day of the Ukrainian language.
The 21st of February was declared to be International Mother Language Day in 1999 by UNESCO and has been celebrated annually since 2000.
Afrikaans is one of the few languages in the world that has a monument dedicated to it, it is a reflection of Afrikaans’ history: a giant curve made up of stone pillars.
The International Mother Language monument is a heritage for all communities, no matter what languages they speak.
The Ukrainian language has come under repeated attack for centuries. Probably the most oppressed in the world by the neighbor.
German is known as “the language of poets and thinkers.”
English has more words than most languages but an average English speaker only knows between 20,000 and 30,000 words (as an average around the world) and use only 6000 - 8000.
William Shakespeare's vocabulary is over 15,000 words and Taras Shevchenko's prose vocabulary, around 20,000.
The most translated among Ukrainian poetry works is Taras Shevchenko’s “Testament”: it has been translated into 147 languages. There are 1384 monuments to Shevchenko in the world (in the 36 countries) - the biggest amount dedicated to the person (not political).
On average, the most translated books are available in 40 to 50 languages.
The most translated literary works: The Bible - translated into 3384 languages.
The World's most translated document is the Universal Declaration of Human rights. It has been translated into 500 languages.
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels was translated from German in more than 500 languages.
The World's most translated English book is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll) - 174 languages.
The World's most translated German book is Heidi (Johanna Spyri) - 50 languages.
If you want to know more about Ukrainian language read this article: What is the Ukrainian language?
FAQ.
Assuming that Ukrainian is "not that different from russian" is prettymuch like saying that Dutch is just German with English pronunciation. While most Ukrainians understand russian, this does not work the other way round. The Ukrainian language is too complex for most russians. As wel as Afrikaans-speakers understand Dutch better than Dutch-speakers do Afrikaans.
Some Ukrainian words even can't be pronounced by russians because of phonetic differences.
If we compare with other European languages, the similarities between Spanish and Italian has 67%, French and Portuguese - 61%.
What is interesting - in Ukrainian (as in russian) verbs can be in the present, past and future tense, but, for example, the verb "to win" in Ukrainian exists in the future tense, while in russian it does not (only past - "побеждал" - pobezhdal and present - "побеждаю" - pobezhdayu):
All languages are connected to each other. There are words or phrases that we have to adapt from other languages because we do not have a word that means the same thing in our own language. Did you know that English has borrowed a number of words from Afrikaans too?
You can easily speak Ukrainian using English words you already know.
Or speak Ukrainian using Afrikaans and German words.
Learn few Ukrainians phrases:
Welcome: Laskа́vo prо́symo.
Cheers: Budmo. When Ukrainians toast, they use this term that literally means “let us be.”
Glory to Ukraine: Slava Ukrayini! is the official salute of the Ukrainian armed forces since 2018.
Moya rybon’ko is a tender and poetic appeal to a beloved woman. Its literary meaning “little fish” might confuse a foreigner. However, Fish the Great Mother used to be a supreme goddess in the Slavic pantheon, which is why fish not only symbolizes a beloved one but also demonstrates a piety to a woman.
Khai yomu hrets’ is a phrase that expresses strong disapproval, dissatisfaction by something. The English equivalent of that phrase would be “blast him!”
Do dupy is an authentic Ukrainian swearing. With “dupa” meaning “butt” the expression is a non-vulgar way to express discontent, but it is used in an informal context only. It is also used to describe something poorly done or simply useless.
You might get confused with the phrase “Ta ni, ne znaju” where the literal translation is “Yes no I dont know”. This phrase means “No” or “I dont know” or... "Yes" sometimes (especially if it's saying by woman) but uses very often.
Here you can find more useful phrases combination of two languages.
And yes, We will win - Mi peremozemo - Ми переможемо!
🇺🇦 🇿🇦 Слава Україні !🌻 As a South African I'm bilingual like many and I certainly found this article interesting and informative. Yes, Victory will be Ukrainian.