The increase in learners of the Ukrainian language has increased 200% in 2022 on the world’s most popular language learning app, Duolingo. This growing interest in learning Ukrainian has caused many people to notice the similarities it has with the Russian language. The Ukrainian language and Russian language may appear similar at first glance, but there are in fact many distinct features of these Slavic languages. Let’s compare the two languages by taking a look at 5 interesting features of Ukrainian and Russian translation .
Shared Roots Of Ukrainian And Russian Translation
Ukrainian and Russian are both East Slavic languages of the Indo-European language family. Their common ancestor can be traced back to the Old East Slavic language used in the 10th to 13th century. However, due to political strife after the 13th century, the then Ukrainians inhabited a different geographical area than they do today. This geographical split as well as the outside influence of other languages caused Russian and Ukrainian to become distinct entities. As a result, translation services were often needed during treaty negotiations, as members of the two countries could no longer understand each other.
Pronunciation Differences Between Ukrainian And Russian Translation
To the untrained ear, Russian and Ukrainian sound extremely similar. But to professionals who participate in advanced language translation, they can hear the different nuances between the two Slavic languages. For example, both languages have the letter “Г г” in them, but it is pronounced as an [h] in Ukrainian and a [g] sound in Russian. Also, whereas Ukrainian has a consistent [o] sound, Russians pronounce “o” as an [a] or [ə] sound depending on the context. This is why professional interpreting services are needed when handling these languages; improper pronunciation can make a huge difference.
Grammar Complexities Between Russian And Ukrainian Translation
There are quite a few similarities Russian and Ukrainian grammar share. For example, both languages have three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter); both have the same noun case markings which is also used for their adjectives and pronouns; and both have the same verb conjugations. However, there are some significant differences between the two languages that can be quite tricky to catch. For example, Ukrainian has three ways to express the future tense whereas Russian only has two. Also, Russian has six grammatical cases whereas Ukrainian has seven (the additional case being a vocative case). Language translation services must be careful to capture the distinctions between these two languages as Russian-to-Ukrainian translation can easily go wrong due to these small differences.
The Increased Need For Ukrainian Translation
Due to the large displacement of Ukrainians in 2022, the US has welcomed around 180,000 Ukrainian refugees to aid the country in the midst of its conflict with Russia. A significant step to helping these refugees is connecting them with multilingual interpretation services. Ukrainian families must meet with attorneys and social service workers in order to successfully enter the US, but inevitably there is a huge language barrier between US English speakers and these Ukrainian refugees. Thus, language interpreter services are an essential bridge to help their successful transition to life in the US. Additionally, businesses should consider website translation services and localization into Ukrainian to accommodate these refugees to ensure they can access the products and services available in the US for any of their needs.
Hiring A Ukrainian Translation Provider
The increase in requests for Ukrainian interpretation services has doubled since pre-invasion of Ukraine, and it is likely that this need will stay and perhaps increase in the coming years. We need to be ready and equipped with proper, professional language translation services instead of Google translation from Russian to Ukrainian (which a council needed to resort to due to not enough language interpreter services being available). Luckily, Language Connections has a wide pool of highly-skilled interpreters and translators in over 200+ languages. Contact us today for professional translation and interpreting services for your business and help bridge the gap for these Ukrainian refugees.
About Language Connections:
Language Connections is one of the top language service companies in the US. Over the last 30 years, we’ve focused on providing the best business translation services, interpreting services, as well as interpreter training and customized language training programs. In addition to top-tier corporate language training, we offer certified corporate interpreters and professional business translation services in 200+ languages. Our network includes linguists with backgrounds in all major industries. They’re ready to meet your needs, whether they’re for technical translation services, legal translation, government translation services, international development translation services, education translation services, life sciences translation, or something else. Reach out to us today for a free quote on our cost-efficient and timely translation services, interpreters, or other linguistic services.
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