How Close Are Ukrainian and Russian?

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CC subtitles available in multiple languages.
Ksenia, from Russia, learned Ukrainian in Ukraine. I asked her how much Ukrainian a Russian speaker, with no previous exposure, understands. Answer: 40%.
Ksenia's KZbin channel:
/ @kseniaturkova8600
0:00 How difficult is Ukrainian for Russian speakers?
6:13 The importance of learning the language of the country you live in.
7:49 Mixing Russian and Ukrainian.
10:35 Any unsolicited criticism in language learning is unwelcome.
13:32 How languages influence each other.
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#ukrainian #ukraine #languagelearning

[@Thelinguist]

The app I use to learn languages -> bit.ly/3uC8PES My 10 FREE secrets to language learning -> www.thelinguist.com What are the advantages and disadvantages of trying to learn a language closely related to one you already know?

[@mattybrunolucaszeneresalas9072]

What about visually? Lol

[@123youtoube]

I want learn english but I don't know how

[@polyglotsjourney]

I cannot agree more. You're really a huge source of the inspiration Steve for all of us who are as you say "language enthusiasts" 😊

[@luizacristina8293]

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[@TheOpinionatedYouTuber]

I’m a bit disappointed with how abruptly this interview ended. I could seriously have continued to listen to you both talk for another half hour. Your conversation was so interesting and Ksenia’s unique perspective is one I want more of!

[@Thelinguist]

We can do another one. I am always conscious of the fact that long videos tend to discourage some viewers.

[@ilvale73]

Completely agreed. One of the most interesting interview is ever heard. Good job Steve!

[@valq10]

@@Thelinguist Seconding the proposal for another one.

[@grandbaks4468]

Steve, you must know that in Polish we have the Latin alphabet. Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians have completely different alphabets. Many words are similar, but they are completely different languages. The Slovak language is much closer to Polish.

[@donrumata_]

It is interesting to see the point of a grow-up from abroad who learns Ukrainian. We, Russian-speaking Ukrainians, usually do not learn Ukrainian specifically as a foreign language. We just listen/watch TV being children, and that is it - we understand almost everything in 2-3 months. Do not get me wrong, I had the Ukrainian language as a subject in my Russian-speaking school. However, we were supposed to understand it from the day one, and we actually did! Nobody gave us lists of 30 verbs to learn or something like that: we studied Ukrainian the same way as English native speakers learn English grammar at school. And it is so different for grown-ups!

[@aftertwentea]

It's still a bit surreal to read about your experience. I never spoke Russian or heard it from people around me (only in media) until I went to university in Kyiv. And even then I didn't pay much attention to how many Ukrainians spoke Russian. My train of thought was, like, people speak it because it's popular an always on TV and Internet, and Soviet past and so on. But it really struck me when, while living abroad, I met a girl from Kharkiv. We spoke, and then she suddenly complimented me on my "excellent Ukrainian" and asked whether I was somewhere from the west of Ukraine (I'm from Kyiv region btw). And it suddenly felt really WEIRD. I answered something jokingly about it, like "your Russian is pretty good as well", but in my mind I thought how strange I would be if two British met and complimented each other on their English. But I guess, that's a reality of a post-colonial country. My experience with Russian language was the same. Never learned but always understood. It took some time to adjust when it came to speaking. Phonetics and stresses are a bit strange.

[@johannesmajamaki2626]

@@aftertwentea To chime in here as another student of Ukrainian - I think it's remarkable to me how moralised and politicised language is in Ukraine. I've had more than a few refugees visible nervous about their "суржик" when speaking with me, worrying about whether they might be teaching me something improper. Sometimes this gets brought up explicitly, other times it shows through in reactions when I ask about a word, and get given a (presumably more ukrainian) synonim which I understand. In one instance I'm fairly sure it's even driven a person to prefer speaking English, even though it was fairly obviously not going to be the easiest way for us to communicate... Judging by the number of times I turned to just saying something in Ukrainian when I couldn't find a simple enough way to say it in English. In a way I appreciate the care, but it's also a little bit sad to see. The colonial experience has deprived some of their language, yes, but even more seem to have had their linguistic self esteem hurt. Here in Finland it would be absurd that a speaker of a dialect would worry about "polluting" a foreign learner's vocabulary.

[@CouchPolyglot]

As a Spanish speaker, I do have the same with Portuguese, at the beginning and if spoken fast, it is just "noise", but once the ear gets used to it, it gets easier. I watched a whole documetary in Portuguese and after it "clicked", I could understand 90% or so

[@LucasLima-cc6jh]

as a brazilian, I might understand 95% what is being said in spanish, especially if it is spoken slowly, and in a "standard" accent. I have never studied spanish.

[@LucasLima-cc6jh]

PS: spanish from spain looks easier than spanish from latin america. especially if it's not Chilean, which is a lot more difficult when it comes to understand what is being said

[@estrafalario5612]

@@LucasLima-cc6jh Spanish from Chile sounds difficult even for us the native Spanish speakers, hahahha

[@Thelinguist]

The issue is not comprehension which happens quickly with related languages. The issue is speaking, totally converting into the new related language.

[@CouchPolyglot]

@@Thelinguist this is so true, when I learned Italian I felt great at the beginning because I could understand almost everything, but it took me a while until I could express myself in that language

[@ericcsuf]

Very informative. Ksenia was so enjoyable to listen to I wish I was learning Russian or Ukrainian. But I'm instead learning Norwegian. The video had some useful points for me in that my goal is to add Swedish and Danish to the mix.

[@Musicienne-DAB1995]

I really like the sound of Norwegian.

[@tomaszbeszterda7405]

As a Polish native speaker, I decided to learn Ukrainian and Russian on my own (with a little help of tutors). What is interesting, many people in Poland think that both Russian & Ukrainian are very similar to each other. When I started to learn both, after some time I realised how much Ukrainian and Russian are different. Even I found many Slovakian words in Ukrainian. However I need to admit that your, Steve's method (massive input before start) were very helppful in learning Uktlrainian. Reading in Ukrainian as interesting, but of course not all words were understandable.

[@lucyfromsiberia]

Russian Russian and I think that Russian and Ukrainian are one and the same language. Russian Russian and Church Slavonic are very well known to me, and I have a very large vocabulary in the Russian language. For example, I know that 200 years ago February was called "лютый" in Russian, and May was called "травень". And then the Russians took the names of the months from English. And Ukrainians have kept the old names. Ukrainian is an old version of Russian. Only a few modern new words have appeared. I have never studied Ukrainian specifically, but I understand 99-100%.

[@user-cr5jw6pc2g]

@@lucyfromsiberia The same language? Are you crazy?

[@oshitjazzboi6612]

@@user-cr5jw6pc2g She's russian, so you know the answer

[@user-cr5jw6pc2g]

@@oshitjazzboi6612 Росіянин - то діягноз? Вони мови не розрізняють

[@tomaszbeszterda7405]

@@lucyfromsiberia I am disagree with you. Ukrainian has many words different from Russian. Of course, Slavic languages has many in common. The example with February you mentioned is interesting. In Polish 🇵🇱 the February is caklet "luty", so it's quite similar to "лютый". It's possible that in Ukrainian there are much more words with Slavic roots than in Russian. The names of month in Russian were rather taken from French than from English. In the past French 🇫🇷 was much more influencial than English. However, that's good you understand almost everything in Ukrainian. Greetings

[@serhiitashkin1957]

Все верно говорит Ксения. Больше русскоговорящих украинцев переходят на украинский и среди моих знакомых, поскольку я понимаю украинский. Отношение к происходящему не определяется паспортом, языком, возрастом, религией и тд, но эмоционально, конечно, понять можно.

[@user-pk5ro1tj5e]

Ну да, по сути путинский режим сделал все чтобы отдалить русскоязычных украинцев от русского языка и России. Я и сам житель России будучи русским призадумался в какой позор втянули мою страну и все эти z фашисты. Все больше думаю про эмиграцию и стал активнее изучать английский язык.

[@jakobthompson5413]

As a Russian learner, really interesting topic Steve, thanks for the video!

[@olhashapoval8098]

Как это классно знать языки,обожаю таких людей❤😊Пусть всё у всех получится❤

[@alexanderkormachev483]

Стив, спасибо большое за интересную гостью.

[@akazawayuki984]

What should I do? I have been learning Korean for 2 years and am at upper-beginner level. I decided to stop learning Korean for now and start Fari(Persian) as persian is kind of similar language to my native language(Urdu). I think I can reach intermediate level in persian much faster than Korean. Is this the right step?

[@Thelinguist]

Do whatever you are motivated to do.

[@Tehui1974]

I enjoyed listening to that interview. I like your guest's positive attitude in wanting to learn the native language of the country that she was living in. Fantastic!

[@fieldsofyasmine6255]

I’m studying Chinese at Leiden university and I love your methods but because I study at university I some times have to diverge from your methods for the sake of making exams hahahahah. I was wondering: do you have any insight on how to effectively study for an upcoming exam? ( a reading and listening exam, and I have gotten 6 videos and 6 texts to revise )

[@doviende]

Tight deadlines are tough, since they work against acquisition of the language, and instead make you focus on rote memorization. From the start of a school course, it helps immensely if you can supplement by reading and listening outside of class - both for learning extra vocab, but also just building intuition about how the language functions.

[@Thelinguist]

When preparing for an exam you still have to rely on what you have in reserve, what you put there through your input and output activities. I would warm up by doing as much reading and listening as possible and you will do fine.

[@fieldsofyasmine6255]

Another hard part is that we also often get audio or videos to listen to without any text to supplement your understanding

[@wolfthequarrelsome504]

@@fieldsofyasmine6255 hard is progress.

[@Mo96afaZ]

I'd rather have my English grammar or pronunciation corrected than keeping on saying something incorrectly, how else would I improve? ofc it should be done in a friendly manner.

[@Musicienne-DAB1995]

For sure. I myself welcome correction. But it does depend on the attitude. I did learn French and I pride myself on being mostly accurate.

[@ildarmingazov2304]

Hello there! I think the influence of Turkish and Tatar language to Ukrainian in several times a lot.

[@user-cr5jw6pc2g]

No

[@user-kf5sn6jj1w]

It’s the r*ssian, it has a lot of turk influence

[@user-tw7kc4ns8b]

It was so interesting to listen to you and your guest. I'm from kharkov, Ukraine. We speak Russian and we can understand Ukrainian wery well however our speaking skills is not very high. I'd like to know your opinion. Now most of Ukrainian people especially in the west hate if someone speaks russian. What do you think about it?

[@Thelinguist]

I am not Ukrainian so it's hard for me to comment. When I first started following Ukrainian events, I was of the opinion that Ukrainians should be proud of their bilingual and bi-cultural heritage, Ukrainian and Russian. To me, Ukraine is obviously the centre of Ukrainian culture and language in the world. It could also be one of the centres of Russian culture and language, more free, and more open than Russia. Unfortunately Russia's unwillingness to recognize Ukraine, its separate existence, its history, the desire of a majority of its citizens to be Ukrainian, the fact that Ukrainian is a vibrant language of its own, all of this Russia wants to drown in its imperialistic vision of "русский мир" . This unwillingness to allow Ukrainians to just be Ukrainian is what caused them to seize Crimea, and to interfere in Donbas in 2014. Much of the Ukrainian volunteer resistance to "русский мир" in 2014 was from Russian speakers, who fought for Ukraine while they continued to speak Russian. Now with the full scale invasion and mass killings, Russian is perceived as the language of the enemy. This is unfortunate. When I visited, Kyiv, Dnipro and Krasnohorivka 5 years ago, I had the impression that Russian speaking Ukrainians were comfortable speaking Russian but supported the idea of promoting more Ukrainian in schools and in media. When I was in Lviv I heard Russian and didn't sense any resistance to speaking Russian there. Now I guess things have changed. I hope the war ends. I hope the position of the Russian language in Ukraine can be revived. It is an asset for the country although this is a hard thing to say under the present circumstances. It's fair to say that if Russian had not been widely spoken in Ukraine, whatever the historical reasons, Putin would not have had the excuse of invading Ukraine in order to protect Russian speaking Ukrainians by killing them.

[@user-tw7kc4ns8b]

@@Thelinguist thank you very much for this complete answer. It's amazing you know quite a lot about our difficult and painful history. I also know that you are supporting Ukrainian people, we all really thank you for that. I hope that hate and anger will be only to those people who destroy our cities and doing the killing but it will be not against language. I think language it's just language and it should not have responsibility for all those horrible things.

[@vannhantran547]

@@Thelinguist your points that you mentioned are great. Hopefully the war will ends as soon as possible for both sides

[@Levuppercut]

I am from Kyiv- the largest Russian speaking city outside of Russia. The narrative that "most of Ukrainians, especially from the west hate when someone speaks Russian" is false, and is precisely the narrative that has been spread immensely by the Kremlin's propaganda in the past 10 if not 20 years, but nevertheless it is false, as most Russian propaganda is. However, after many Ukrainians in the past year have been traumatized by Russian war crimes, there are people who may react negatively to the use of the Russian language. But before the Russian aggression Ukrainians were pretty tolerant including the ones from the West.

[@user-kf5sn6jj1w]

@@Thelinguistyou are just stating that we are russian right now

[@anavm1776]

Very good interview! I could have listened 20 minutes more. Will there be a part 2 in the future?

[@GypsieSeeker]

russian has 62% lexical similarity with Ukrainian, which is about the same as Dutch and English. The closest language to Ukrainian is Belarusian, and Slovak and Polish are both closer to Ukrainian in vocab than russian is due to the long influence of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth in most of Ukraine. I find it unfortunate that Ukrainian has to justify itself in the eyes of some as being separate from russian. That is not the case for languages that are actually much closer to each other - e.g. Portuguese from Spanish, Norwegian from Swedish. Ukrainian is spoken by 40+ million people and interesting in its own right.

[@lucyfromsiberia]

Ukrainian and Russian are the same language. It's just that Ukrainian is an old Russian language. I have never studied Ukrainian specifically, but I understand 99-100%. Because I have a large vocabulary in Russian. Russian Russian I know a lot of outdated Russian words and Church Slavonic words that are in the Russian language. Russian Russian words have not completely disappeared from the Russian language, they are in folklore songs, in literature, and they have been preserved in the modern Ukrainian language. Russian russians often listen to Zelensky's appeals and I wonder how many words are in the Ukrainian language that are rarely used or not used in Russian, but they are in Russian.

[@johannesmajamaki2626]

@@lucyfromsiberia I think it's worth adding here that in another comment you cite quite extensive and early childhood exposure to Ukrainian. There wouldn't be Russian-speaking refugees in Lviv complaining about Ukrainian being hard to understand, if it were usually that easy. And even if we take your claim about all of the vocabulary being found in Russian as well, it is highly exceptional to be able to on the fly understand a rapid stream of such archaic, literary words, even in our native language. Let alone when the pronunciation is altered and the use cases are unusual. We might pick up some, but not 90%. It might be that you've an unusual verbal aptitude, coming together with your experience with the language, which renders Ukrainian understandable to you. But it doesn't make the languages one and the same.

[@scpmr]

lexical similarity is not the same thing as language similarity

[@oleksander]

@@scpmr do you know any other research results?

[@game_channel1998]

@@lucyfromsiberia ukrainian and belarusian languauges are different compared to russian…

[@Frankybeanselevators]

How do I click on the Belford Notifications?

[@dmitriminaev]

Quantitative estimations of lexical similarities between these two languages usually do no take into account that many Ukrainian words are used in colloquial Russian, like хлопці for 'guys' or ховати for 'to hide'. They are used in slightly Russified manner (ховать instead of ховати), but it automatically makes Ukrainian much more intelligible for Russian speakers. I'd say they're a bit like Scots and English. English speakers can understand Robert Burns to some extent, and Russians can read Taras Shevchenko. Unless they consciously put a mental barrier, which is often the case.

[@johannesmajamaki2626]

I think there's also a real skill to listening... "flexibly", being open to words having slightly unusual meanings or sounds, learning to explore "different interpretations" to keep the sentence making sense in real time. So accepting blurriness in sounds as well as meanings. As a B2 Ukrainian learner I can communicate with someone from Donetsk making an effort to try to speak Ukrainian. Some words like the Russian word for "because" (ukr: тому що) I could infer in this way without asking, others like "then, afterwards" (ukr: потім) were just that tiny bit out of reach. And the Russian word for "past" (as in history) (ukr: минулий) I could infer from context and that the word sounded a bit like the Ukrainian word for "to say goodbye, bid farewell, to part with someone" прощатися and some mental gymnastics around "the times we've already bid farewell to, aka the past". Not so confidently I felt sure, but enough for me to suggest it and her to confirm it. For native speakers of the respective languages, undoubtedly it will be substantially easier - but that flexibility is really key.

[@Musicienne-DAB1995]

@@johannesmajamaki2626 As someone who is learning Russian, I can see a lot of little tips and tricks for inferring the meaning of a word in Ukrainian.

[@vitalo9900]

Thanks for the video, it was interasting.

[@user-rf2eq1bs1s]

Wrong subtitles! The person is saying one thing, but it is written other.

[@Thelinguist]

They are automatically generated. Will look into it.

[@user-rf2eq1bs1s]

@@Thelinguist OK. Got it!

[@elizabethlebel9239]

Thanks for letting us know. They are fixed :)

[@Nat_Anastasiya]

Steve! I'd like to ask a question. It's probably too silly though. The question is: Is it bad to develop an habit of _always_ using subtitles, whenever you can? Even with any KZbin video I do this, even auto generated subs. I'm already pretty familiar with English, I use it everyday for at least two years, and yet I get a little overwhelmed when I'm consuming content that I want to understand everything and there are not subs available, they make me comfortable. I guess that language learning got me a little obsessed over understanding every single word that is said, at least with english, since I could say that I hold a certain proficiency on it. I'm pretty much comparing it with my mothertongue, because it's only "de vez em nunca" that I can't understand a word when watching a cartoon, for example. How can I get rid of this little obsession, should I? All in all, maybe always using subtitles help you to understand more, since sometimes a new word pops-out here and there, so when you encounter the new word again and you're not using subs, you may get it. Or just to bettern your brain into understanding a word that you already knew, but couldn't understand cause it got somewhat distorted, like when watching movies, and then, here are the subtitles to help you.

[@BRStormysea]

Come on Steve the more similar the student's native language is to the target language the easier it is to learn it. There's no doubt about it. That's common sense. The simillarity cannot be an disadvantage when it comes to aquiring a foreign language.

[@am2dan]

I'm not an expert and could be mistaken, but I believe that Russian собака and лошадь, as just two very common examples, are non-Slavic words adopted during the time of the "Mongol yoke". In other Slavic languages you'll find words similar to пёс and конь. (Too lazy to check the etymology on wiktionary just now.)

[@dmitriminaev]

Origin of these words is not clear, but they are not specifically Russian, they are used in other Slavic languages, including Ukrainian. And, of course, пёс and конь also exist in Russian.

[@user-cr5jw6pc2g]

In Ukrainian there is no лошадь. It is Turkic origin. Собака is Iranian origin

[@dmitriminaev]

@@user-cr5jw6pc2g not exactly лошадь, but лошак, I assume?

[@user-cr5jw6pc2g]

@@dmitriminaev Maybe in some regions

[@user-cr5jw6pc2g]

@@dmitriminaev But лошадь in russian is widely spread, it often substitutes конь, in Ukrainian лошак is rare and never substitutes кінь

[@pierreabbat6157]

I once had to interpret for a Pole who visited church. I've taken Russian; at the time it was the only Slavic language I knew much of. I understood about half of what he said, and I think vice versa. In Wikipedia there's a picture of a demonstration, where one person has a sign saying "Для половины населения Украины, русский язык родной!" That was in 2006. How is it now? Bulgarian seems to me the most different Slavic language from Russian, though it's also the only other Slavic language that uses no letter that Russian doesn't. What Slavic language is most different from Bulgarian?

[@Musicienne-DAB1995]

I've read two articles on the expansion of the Ukrainian language, and the trend to be expected is that the majority of the younger generation will speak Ukrainian, even if many Ukrainians remain bilingual or have alreday learned Russian as a second language. The Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is a native speaker of Russian, but now almost always uses Ukrainian; his wife always uses Ukrainian. Interesting what you say about Bulgarian, because I have found that many words in that language are closer to Russian than Ukrainian words are to Russian. Of course, there are differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, but that is my experience. I learned a lot of Russian words via listening to Russian Orthodox music, which is sung in Old Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian).

[@pierreabbat6157]

@@Musicienne-DAB1995 I heard a news report yesterday about a place in Kyiv to recharge mobile phones; the man who works there said "телефонов", not "телефонів", if I heard right. Bulgarian not only retains the aorist/imperfect tense, now used only in South Slavic, but also has lost noun cases which Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian still have, and has innovated some analytic verb tenses.

[@mariairenaossowska]

If you arę a Polish native speaker and know same Russian you can understand Ukrainian quite well: Polish translation of the sentence: Educated people should use independent sources is: Wykształceni ludzie powinni używać niezależnych źródeł.

[@antekp2965]

raczej słabo. znam rosyjski i na początku z ukraińskiego rozumiałem niewiele

[@federicorazzoli495]

Very interesting. About correcting mistakes: I don't know much about Americans, but Brits tend not to correct anyone, even if they're asked to do so. I understand that they just want to be nice and respectful and on one hand I appreciate that. On another hand, this is a practical problem for foreigners because we keep making the same mistakes - virtually forever.

[@Thelinguist]

If you pay attention to those areas of the language, those structures where you are less confident, I think you will eventually, gradually, self-correct. On the other I notice that even with correction, I continue making mistakes, the same mistakes, for quite some time.

[@nicolahcm]

why the author is not speaking russian with the interviewed?

[@Thelinguist]

No special reason.

[@patchy642]

Wow! This lady speaks such perfect English, despite her mild Slavic accent. I believe her only mispronunciation was "Crimean", understandable from its cultural context. She informed me so efficiently in this interview; succinctly, concisely, and perfectly vernacular and natural. Well done, Steve, for finding such an eloquent, informed and informative speaker. I can imagine her radio programs are of the very best quality. When will you have a speaker of Belarusian to complete the picture?

[@mishraarun5000]

Amazing 🙏❤️. Huge love from India ❤️❤️.

[@walterbyc5773]

1st language is Ukrainian, English l know 6 years old. Now studying Swedish. Understand better Polish, little bit Russian, little Belarus

[@qiziqkop]

Native Qazaq speaker, language enthusiast and activist here, I make Qazaq videos on this channel. To answer your question: Qazaqs can't understand Turkish speech at first (reading is easier), can understand 30% of what is said after getting used to the differences between the two phonologies (because the grammar is very similar) and, I suspect, can get to conversational level within just 6 months of learning. It's funny that I first hear you mention Qazaq under this particular video, because the Qazaq and Kirgiz societies face the same problem that the Ukrainians do (Özbeks seems to have faired better). Russian is everywhere and prestigious. One can't find a good job without Russian, but the national languages are optional. Russian Federation citizens are welcomed in those jobs, on the other hand. We have to watch Hollywood movies in Russian dub, because Qazaqs dubs don't get funding, and the people show little interest when they do get it. Book stores are 95% Russian. Small businesses only write signs in Russian. Qazaq speaking parents register their kids into Russian schools (40% of school sign-ups in Astana this year were for Russian schools, despite Astana being 79% ethnic Qazaq). Qazaq language activists like myself are often treated with disregard, even called Nazis (the term adopted from the Russian narrative). The Qazaq population is very much Russified to the point of being ashamed to of its own language and heritage. They see no world without reliance on Russian. And that upsets me very much. I watch all these videos of Georgians and Ukrainians reclaiming their language and both respect and envy them. I would like to visit their countries, learn their languages and immerse myself in societies that truly appreciate their heritages. But I can't even get a job without compromising my beliefs. On Ехо України you mentioned that Francophones couldn't get good jobs in Québec at some point, but the will of the people eventually persevered. I hope that by the time I'm your age I can finally look back on all this the same way. I just don't know what it would take to get there.

[@kerim.peardon5551]

I have a friend who is Polish who has worked with a couple of Russian guys. One doesn't have great English, so they had a tendency to fall into Russian when talking amongst themselves. Konrad doesn't have any Russian, but he said he caught enough cognate words in their conversation that he could figure out what they were talking about, even if he didn't catch the details. Some of the first words I learned in Polish were cognates of words in Russian that I already knew (like "prawda"). When I was still relatively early in my journey of learning Polish, I watched a video by someone who was learning Macedonian. He spoke to his wife, who was a native speaker, in Macedonian. (Which I had no idea was a Slavic language. I would have assumed they spoke some relative of Greek.) Funny enough, at the time, I understood him more than I could understand native Polish speakers. I think speaking slowly had a lot to do with it.

[@Musicienne-DAB1995]

I can't speak Polish, but I have met some Polish people who were able to understand some Russian words. Ever since I began learning Russian seriously, I have found myself being able to vaguely understand some Polish words.

[@maxinharps]

Война это ужасно

[@scpmr]

Some German "dialects" are much farther from the standard German than Russian is from Ukrainian. Same thing is with Italian "dialects". But still they are called dialects. And in the same time we have Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian "languages". The difference between them are minuscule. This is a political thing.

[@Thelinguist]

I have traveled widely in Germany , Austria and Italy. The language of every day speech is quite standard. There are regional languages. For example in Italy. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Italy#:~:text=Of%20the%20indigenous%20languages%2C%20twelve,such%20groups%2C%20with%20approximately%20one Ukrainian is widely used in daily speech and its vocabulary is as distinct from Russian as Dutch is from English, and closer to Polish than to Russian.. alternativetransport.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/lexical-distance-among-the-languages-of-europe-2-1-mid-size.png

[@scpmr]

@@Thelinguist That's because the dialects (in fact languages) of Italy/Germany/France are dying out. And they are dying out because of the official policy of those states. There is no schooling in Bavarian for example. It is not even taught in schools as a separate school subject. But you do not call it suppression of local German languages. Right? Many German dialects are mutually unintelligible. Had Germans not learnt standard German they would have a hard time to understand each other. But my point was that the difference between dialect and language is often political. One German nation - one German language (although with mutually unintelligible dialects). Two different nations (Serbians, Croatians) - two different languages, even though they are almost 100% mutually intelligible. As someone (I don't remember who) said - a language is a dialect with an army.

[@game_channel1998]

So do you want to say Ukrainian and Belarusian languages are dialects of Russian? You're typical russian chauvinist.

[@scpmr]

@@game_channel1998 I want to say that Ukrainian and Russian can be considered as the dialects of Belarusian. Or they can be considered as separate languages. That depends on politics, not on linguistics. Linguistics allows them to be called the dialects of Belarusian because both Ukrainian and Russian are close enough to Belarusian (and they are related to it). Much closer than say Low German (Plattdeutsch) dialect is to the Standard German (Hochdeutsch)

[@game_channel1998]

@@scpmr Ukrainian and Belarusian languages have 80% in common. Russian has 60% in Ukrainian. I disagree about "Ukrainian and Russian can be considered as the dialects of Belarusian".

[@Grandiloquence]

皆さんこんにちは、皆さん、本当にありがとうございました! 💜 Herkese merhaba, hepinizin iyi yaptığını umuyorum! 😘 Saluton [esprimas al vi] - [iu persono, kiu persono estas] Blazio! 🙏 Bonjour à tous, j'espère que vous allez bien ! 🤪 مرحباً جميعاً، أتمنى أن تكونوا بخير! ❤ Hallo iedereen, ik hoop dat jullie het goed doen! 🖖 在座各位,我希望你们大家正 fine! 😉 Hello mindenki, remélem, mindannyian jól csinálsz! 😇 Hei kaikki, toivottavasti te kaikki pärjäätte! 🤚 Dia duit gach duine, Tá súil agam go bhfuil tú go léir ag déanamh fíneáil! 💛

[@olhashapoval8098]

А где канал Ксении?

[@user-nata-tata]

Дякуємо за підняття українськіх питань!💙💛💙💛💙💛

[@Musicienne-DAB1995]

I really wanted to watch this video. I am learning Russian. I have found that I can understand some words in Ukrainian. Other words I can sort of guess based on the root word. I like the way Ukrainian sounds; it seems a lot softer than Russian. And by the way, in terms of great literature, some of the great writers, artists, and musicians in Russian culture were actually from Ukraine. Nikolai Gogol's father was Ukrainian. Dmitri Bortniansky was of Cossack-Ukrainian heritage. There's also a lot of Ukrainian musical influence in the works of composers like Peter Tchaikovsky.

[@vonsark]

It is good that Tchaikovsky, Gogol and Repin died and dnt know that they are now ukrainians. There is a quote in the work of Taras Bulba. «Когда очнулся Тарас Бульба от удара и глянул на Днестр, уже козаки были на челнах и гребли вёслами; пули сыпались на них сверху, но не доставали. И вспыхнули радостные очи у старого атамана. - Прощайте, товарищи! - кричал он им сверху. - Вспоминайте меня и будущей же весной прибывайте сюда вновь да хорошенько погуляйте! Что, взяли, чёртовы ляхи? Думаете, есть что-нибудь на свете, чего бы побоялся козак? *Постойте же, придёт время, будет время, узнаете вы, что такое православная русская вера!* Уже и теперь чуют дальние и близкие народы: подымается из Русской земли свой Царь, и не будет в мире силы, которая бы не покорилась ему!.. А уже огонь подымался над костром, захватывал его ноги и разостлался пламенем по дереву… *Да разве найдутся на свете такие огни, муки и такая сила, которая бы пересилила русскую силу?!*» For Gogol, there was no Ukrainian people separate from the Russian, although he was well aware of the peculiarities of the Little Russian tribe. Moreover, his first collection of short stories, Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, was just a poeticization and romanticization of Ukrainian rural life. But at the same time, Gogol was aware that Ukraine had no right to claim any political existence separate from Russia. Little Russians - a branch of the Russian people Moreover, Repin, who has recently been attributed to the Ukrainians. said the following about Ukrainians. "Двор наш казался ярмаркой. Везде громко говорили люди, больше хохлы: мне их язык казался смешным, и, когда несколько "погепанных" хохлов говорили громко и скоро, я почти ничего не понимал. Из разных деревень были люди: из Малиновки - это близко, а были хохлы из Шелудковки, из Мохначей, из Гракова, из Коробочкиной, наши русские - из Большой Бабки и других сел..." The quote is difficult to understand without knowing the intricacies of the language, but it doesnt sound quite neutral. It's funny to watch events where history is being rewritten.

[@Musicienne-DAB1995]

@@vonsark Ukrainians are not a "Little Russian" tribe. They have a language that is over 800 years old, and they have their own culture. There's no point quoting prejudiced views about Ukrainians to "prove" your point. I said that Tchaikovsky had used Ukrainian musical influences in his music. I did not claim that Tchaikovsky was Ukrainian. I did not mention Ilya Repin, although his birthplace is listed as being in the Russian Empire, in what is now modern-day Ukraine. I said that Gogol's father was Ukrainian; Gogol's father wrote Ukrainian poetry. The fact that Ukraine was under the Russian Empire does not mean that it cannot be a free country today. The Russian Empire is finished, in case you had not noticed. The Soviet Union is also finished. People that were under Russian rule want to be free. Russia is still the world's largest country, so your obsession with controlling and subjugating Ukrainian people is as absurd as it is pathetic.

[@makomaa2386]

I believe it's far more than 40% according my experience it's about 60%

[@keepcalm5753]

Дякую , 😊 Thanks

[@mgabor6936]

Contemporary Russian is full of directly borrowed English words especially from the business sphere.

[@Musicienne-DAB1995]

Yes, and as a native English speaker, I find this hilarious. Fundraiser, manager, businessman... all put into Cyrillic letters and given a Russian pronunciation.

[@ConorClyneTsarExperience]

Nice interview, Steve. BTW, I've also started learning Crimean Tatar ... 😉

[@Thelinguist]

Nice to hear from you. Good luck.

[@brianl6128]

Did you really have to publish this video on December 2022, out of all times 😂

[@athenapalladi1197]

As a Russian speaker I want to say that unfortunately if I am listening to a Ukranian radio station (and I am not familiar with the subject) I understand 5 %, if I am watching TV the comprehension certainly will be better, maybe 15 %, and only because you see what you are listening to.

[@user-cr5jw6pc2g]

Оце справжній стан речей, а не вигадки навіжених, які читаю тут про розуміння 90%

[@athenapalladi1197]

@@user-cr5jw6pc2g Да.

[@scpmr]

Да ну какие 5%. Я не украинец, на Украине никогда не был. Но научился понимать украинский просто слушая в интернете украинские видео. Понимая одни слова - другие угадывал по контексту - так мой словарный запас расширился до приемлемого уровня. Если бы я понимал изначально только 5 процентов, я бы так не смог. Думаю прцентов 30-40% сразу понятно без подготовки. Не, ну конечно если тебе мозгов не хватает чтобы понять что "хлиб" - это "хлеб", "силь" - это "соль", "вид" - это "от", "вогонь" - это "огонь", то да, наверно трудно. Но это надо быть совсем непонятливым (мягко говоря). Надо просто несколько простых правил усвоить: что там где в русском "е" в украинском может быть "и" (то есть i), там где в русском закрытый слог с "о", там тоже "и". Что во многих словах начинающихся в русском на "о" будет добавлено "в", что "л" может переходить в "в " и т.д. и сразу количество понимаемых слов расшириться

[@user-cr5jw6pc2g]

@@scpmr Это слова когнаты, которые есть общими для всех славянских языков. Есть много слов не похожих

[@scpmr]

@@user-cr5jw6pc2g я не спорю что что есть много непохожих слов. Просто человек говорить что он только 5% понимает. Ну наверно если не понимать что хлиб - это хлеб, а силь - это соль, а вовк - это волк и т.п., то да только 5% и будешь понимать. Но это надо быть совсем уж с неповортливым мозгами

[@ihavenoname6724]

They are as close as Dutch is to Afrikaans.

[@bertsanders7517]

Doubtful.

[@Musicienne-DAB1995]

How close are Dutch and Afrikaans?

[@ihavenoname6724]

@@Musicienne-DAB1995 they're almost identical

[@Musicienne-DAB1995]

@@ihavenoname6724 Interesting. I have found that although I can spot or guess certain words in Ukrainian, there are other words that are completely different. (I am learning Russian.)

[@ihavenoname6724]

@@Musicienne-DAB1995 You are right, but one would add that language proximity isn't only about words but also grammar, syntax, rhythm, etc. Good luck with your Russian learning by the way, as for me, I'm currently into German.

[@Erin49694]

my mom grew up in russia speaking russian but was raised by her grandmother who spoke ukrainian. to this day, she can’t speak ukrainian but she understands it. my dad speaks russian and when he hears ukrainian he maybe understands a word or two. i think they’re not as similar as people think.

[@khanitime]

I am from Poland :) I learn english :) Polish language was not influence by German language. We don't understand German language and vice versa.

[@APlusRussian]

Russians understanding 40% in Ukrainian is rather generous. I'd say 20-30% tops, radio _or_ conversational. The languages are VERY different in syntax, phonetics and, of course, vocabulary...

[@alexwhite3830]

20% is probably Serbo-Croatian to Russian. Ukranian is definitely 40% or even more than that

[@APlusRussian]

@@alexwhite3830 not for someone with no prior exposure to Ukrainian.

[@scpmr]

Ukrainian is almost identical to Russian in syntax and grammar. The difference is in vocabulary.

[@APlusRussian]

@@scpmr are you fluent in both languages? Have you studied this extensively? Or is this just your opinion? Regardless, the person interviewed in _this_ video and I both disagree.

[@KarenSarkissian]

@@APlusRussian As for the grammar, it is pretty similar throughout all the Slavic languages. Believe me, I’ve studied a few. Ukrainian and Russian syntax IMHO is what makes these two languages close. I am a Russian speaker and I understand Ukrainian pretty well, having lived there for four years.

[@alx9385]

The Russian of a healthy person. Very cool video

[@lucyfromsiberia]

I have never studied Ukrainian. But when I started listening to Zelensky, I understand everything. But there is no Russian in Russia who has never heard the Ukrainian language. Because we have heard songs in Ukrainian on Russian radio stations. We had Ukrainian TV channels. For example, I watched a Ukrainian TV show. And at first I understood 90%, then 100%. But I can't speak fluently. Because I have never spoken Ukrainian.

[@user-cr5jw6pc2g]

Та звідки зрозуміле мовлення 90%? Хіба то можливе? За умови, якщо не чули ніколи

[@lucyfromsiberia]

@@user-cr5jw6pc2g Я в Росії живу. Звичайно я чула по радіо українські пісні. Я в дитинстві напам'ять знала"Підманула, підвела". Я чула дві пісні групи "Океан Ельзи". Каждый россиянин слышал украинские песни на российских радиостанциях. Нет такого россиянина, который ни разу не слышал украинскую мову, дети маленькие только не слышали. И на каком то телеканале в России показывали шоу "Панянка-селянка", еще было шоу про королеву и короля бала, там тоже на мове размовляли и я еще украинские серии "Пацанок" видела. Я их точно смотрела на украинском. Тож ми слухали и будемо слухати ваши писни и шоу. И немае никого, хто б не слухав.😂

[@user-cr5jw6pc2g]

@@lucyfromsiberia Ти ж знаєш українську. От і все. А той, хто не знає, не розуміє

[@lucyfromsiberia]

@@user-cr5jw6pc2g возможно, ты прав. В моей семье и среди моих знакомых никто мовою не размовлял. Но когда мне было 3 года я научилась читать, показывая взрослым журналы и спрашивая что там написано. Один из журналов был на украинском. Мама ради вышиванок выписывала, вышивать любила. Мама журнал этот не читала, а я читала в 4-5 лет интервью с вышивальщицами (вышивальницями). Потом я забыла про эти журналы. А сейчас я удивляюсь почему я Зеленского понимаю. Может быть из журналов слова какие то запомнила. Но я не говорю на украинском, только понимаю. Но я и в английском хорошо читаю, пишу, а говорю плохо. Я всем рассказываю, что все россияне понимают украинский.😂 Но я несколько лет назад доказывала, что все люди одинаково хорошо владеют правой и левой рукой, просто они не пробовали, а я попробовала. А потом оказалось, что я амбидекстр, а большинство людей правши.😂

[@user-cr5jw6pc2g]

@@lucyfromsiberia Та не розуміють росіяни українську. Це маячня

[@chickenbiscuit4525]

How close are Ukrainians with Ukrainians?

[@user-su1dp4jw8e]

Ukrainian and Russian it's like Bavarian and German. There is less difference between them than German dialects and standard German have.

[@oleksandrdemchyshyn2452]

You are very wrong....

[@Akinph]

Ukrainian is a sort of a dialect of Russian or prerussian slavic languages..... The truth is no one really knows, but we understand each other quite easily.... I mean there's no language gap between us.

[@Dima-bg4cg]

There is no language barrier between Ukrainians and Russians only because most Ukrainians know Russian, but this is temporary, because today the number of Russian speakers in Ukraine is decreasing every day. As for the language, if you take a Ukrainian who knows only Ukrainian and a Russian who knows only Russian, they can understand a few words, but the essence is unlikely to be

[@melchiorclaromonte4570]

Czech and Ukrainian as far as I heard of are quite similar also the level of comprehension of Czech among Ukrainians is pretty high. Surprisingly even in light of war with Russia there is no idea in Ukrainian elites to switch to Latin script when both Czechs and Poles (closest allies) does use Latin alphabet for centuries.

[@Thelinguist]

To switch to Latin scripts would cut Ukrainians off from their history and literature. The Cyrillic script is a much Ukrainian as it is Russian. In terms of vocabulary, Polish, Czech and Slovak are closer to each other than each of them is to Russian. Russian is the outlier in terms of lexical distance.

[@kezgoblair]

Unfortunately, no. Despite some closeness of vocabulary (Czech is something closer in so-called "lexical similarity" to Ukrainian than Russian and we don't know completely what kinds of words belong to "common vocabulary" or "different vocabulary" from this point of view), the pronunciation of many common or close words is so changed that there a Ukrainian may just hear similar words here and there and cannot get the geest of the Czech speech. And Ukrainians may do so even with their exposure to Russian and Polish. The communication is possible only after relatively big number of months of watching Czech TV, or immediately but with using gestures, very slow speech and "occasionaly" similar words with completely identical meaning. Polish and Russian are closer to Ukrainian phonetically (it is disputed which one is closer) and Polish itself is closer lexically but it is from some point of view and from some respective. Ukrainians also need some (but relatively shorter) exposure to understand these two languages. Belarusian really is the closest, but it it is not as close as Ukrainians can see it from the point of view of today's situation, when this closeness much grown than naturally could be. And it grown up with total Ukrainians' long exposure to Russian. So, in the opposite case, there would be also necessary at least very short exposure to Belarusian and at least for good understanding this language.

[@mariaradulovic3203]

LIke Serbian and Slovenian.

[@squaretriangle9208]

This was a great interview and the Russian lady is so bright!!👏🏻 But of course she lives in the US now😢, but to learn Tatar this is really an effort👏🏻👏🏻

[@jaelob]

Having studied Russian previously, my first impression upon first learning Ukraine was that it sounded more Russian than Russian, because there seems more Russianesque consonant clusters, shchy, etc, and I loved it.

[@Musicienne-DAB1995]

I think I get what you are saying. Ukrainian sounds a lot more like it's written, according to Ukrainian KZbinr Olga Reznikova. I watched a video by the Russian (and Ukrainian)-speaking American, CollegeRussian, who explained that Ukrainian had retained more words from Old Russian, which tend to have more vowels, whereas Russian was, of course, heavily influenced by Old Church Slavonic and underwent a lot of "vowel-crunching". Case in point: Volodymyr (Ukrainian); Vladimir (Russian).

[@jaelob]

@@Musicienne-DAB1995 oh really? This is new to me, is Ukrainian like old Russian? That would explain why I thought Ukrainian sounds more interesting than Russian....afterall, I never thought that about any other slavonic languages, which all sound a bit more flat or plain to me compared to Russian. According to my Ukrainian friend, Russian vocabulary is often used to help supplement Ukrainian when talking about science, art, etc, and Ukrainian mostly just for conversation.

[@kirillvlasov9642]

«if you only know russian you don't understand ukrainian» this is absurd, I understand what Ukrainians say without any problems, Ukrainians like to emphasize differences due to political reasons. Even Belarusian is harder to understand, not to mention Polish.

[@pavelageykin8773]

Hello Steve, Thanks for the interesting interview but let me inform you if you don't know that Russian language is forbidden to speak in public places in Ukraine according to the state law. I think it's the main reason Ksenia switched to Ukrainian and she forgot to mention it.

[@MJ-gu6uu]

As ukrainian living in Ukraine I can tell you that you are wrong. I can speak russian freely in any public place. It’s forbidden for TV hosts, newspapers, and maybe official statements. And to be precise it’s incorrect to say “forbidden russian”. I’d say it’s not about prohibition russian language, It’s about promotion Ukrainian language. And we all love this trend. Ukraine doesn’t forbids any language, we just support Ukrainian language.

[@maikeru19]

@@MJ-gu6uu Yeah, it's completely true. It's not forbidden, we can freely use it in public places. Sometimes even TV people using it.

[@pavelageykin8773]

@@MJ-gu6uu Please, answer the simple question - is there prohibition state law or not?

[@pavelageykin8773]

@@maikeru19 Please, answer the simple question - is there prohibition state law or not?

[@MJ-gu6uu]

@@pavelageykin8773 No, there is SUPPORTING law for Ukrainian language. If you want to be TV host in Ukraine please do you hosting in Ukrainian. Not arabic, not japan, not russian. It’s the same thing like in any other country.

[@knackeredalien]

Russian English Always Makes Me So happy and Proud ❤️

[@oleksander]

Great video, thanks! Just a small remark: there are approximately 10-20% of russian native speakers in Ukraine due to the latest sociology studies before the 24th of Februrary

[@oleksander]

@@gee8883 who are "they"? Reptilians?

[@vladimirgorbachev9969]

Let me tell you, I am Russian. The first time I heard Ukrainian was when I was 5 years old. From the point of view of a child, it was a funny twisted Russian language. It was funny to me and I was waiting for the adults to give out another batch of funny phrases in Ukrainian. And so it remained for life. Funny rural language.

[@tschewm1353]

У п"ять років мозок дитини відкритий до будь-якої мови. Тому вона починає розуміти її так само, як і рідну мову. Якщо для Вас українська мова - твістед, то це, можливо, щось трішки твістед у вашій персонально голові. Я би на Вашому місці не дуже вихвалявся тим Вашим твістом.

[@oshitjazzboi6612]

Let me tell you, I am Ukrainian. The first time I heard Russian was when I was 5 years old. From the point of view of a child, it was a funny twisted Ukrainian language. It was funny to me and I was waiting for the adults to give out another batch of funny phrases in Russian. And so it remained for life. Funny rural language.

[@vladimirgorbachev9969]

@@tschewm1353 Читаю и смеюсь от души!

[@oshitjazzboi6612]

​@@vladimirgorbachev9969 I don't understand you. Can you speak a formal language instead of this weird dialect of Ukrainian?

[@tschewm1353]

@@vladimirgorbachev9969 Дам Вам ещё один повод посмеяться. Почему в украинском языке - дієслово, слово, означающее действие, а в русском - глагол, слово, означающее глаголить, разговаривать и ничего не делать? Почему в украинском языке период в семь дней - тиждень (тот же день спустя семь дней), а в русском семь дней - это неделя, семь дней ничего не делать? Почему в украинском выходной день называются неділя - день, когда ничего не делают, а отдыхают, а после этого дня следует понеділок - день по неділі, после неділі, а в русском - понедельник, он-то есть, конечно, но вот он почему-то не называется повоскресник, а вот каждые семь дней в русском кто-то в воскресенье воскресает. Не подскажете, кто? Легко видеть на этом примере, что русский язык развивался как-то в смешном направлении. Еще один пример: в украинском логично естьтермин дієприслівник, а вот в русском почему-то нет глаголопричастия, зато есть позаимствованное из украинского деепричастие. Легко видеть, что первично, а что вторично, и у кого больше поводов посмеяться от души.

[@ricardovargas2516]

This "russian"woman is not russian. She is from Ukraine.

[@Thelinguist]

Actually she is from Russia. I don't know what her passport says but I think she is Russian although not in any way in sympathy with Putin's government and policies. She lives in the US now.

[@ARTT0M]

🐹in🗑️⚗️≠🐟⛲⚗️. 🤣🤣🤣 🛂≠🐖 🛂≠🐻

[@pavelageykin8773]

@@gee8883 Russia adopted 2,8 million Ukrainians after the war started. It's more than any other country.

[@ProleCenter]

​@@Thelinguist She is in sympathy with Nazis and imperialists. Coming to America, to the belly of the beast, says a lot.

[@couranbell]

there are no Russian-speaking Ukrainians. There are Ukrainians, whose ancestors were killed, tortured and forced to speak Russian. Due to such traumas, which were not reflected on, they did not convey to their children the understanding that Ukrainian is extremely important.And as a Ukrainian, it is very unpleasant for me to see a video comparing two languages, one of which has been trying to be destroyed for centuries. I would like to ask you, do you know that during the occupation by the Soviet Union, the Russians specially changed many words in the Ukrainian language or simply deleted them forever? This is a very inappropriate video during the terrible war in Ukraine, which has actually been going on for centuries

[@nickpavia9021]

Hi Karen.

[@couranbell]

@@nickpavia9021 happy to see you Mike

[@oshitjazzboi6612]

I second this

[@couranbell]

@@gee8883 no need to distort and lie. Ukraine did not exterminate the Tatars, and Ukrainians respect and remember this nation. We know about the events of 1944, namely the relocation of the Crimean Tatars to Russia. Also, Ukrainians are well aware that many nationalities live in the country. But Ukraine has one language, and if you imply that Ukrainians repress other nations, then this is an absolute lie

[@pavelageykin8773]

Hi, will you answer why in the Soviet Union Ukrainian was taught in schools, there were a lot of newspapers and books in Ukrainian? Not likely Ukrainians were "tortured and forced" to speak Russian.

[@ivanmolero7829]

English: An educated person should use independent sources. Russian: Образованный человек должен пользоваться независимыми источниками. Obrazovannyy chelovek dolzhen pol'zovat'sya nezavisimymi istochnikami. Ukrainian: Освічена людина має користуватися незалежними джерелами. Osvichena lyudyna maye korystuvatysya nezalezhnymy dzherelamy. Polish: Osoba wykształcona powinna korzystać z niezależnych źródeł. Here we see that the words "use" and "independent" are similar in Ukrainian and Polish and maybe "source" also, which is źródło (Polish) to compare with dzherelo/джерело (Ukrainian). A synonym to людина/lyudyna is особа/osoba which is the same as in Polish. But in the phrase above the word чоловік could have been used instead, which corresponds to человек/chelovek in Russian and człowiek in Polish. Finally enlightened in Polish is oświecony which is similar to osvicheny which means educated in Ukrainian. In Russian enlightened is просвещенный/prosveshchennyy. Educated and enlightened are by the way close concepts. People in Polish is ludzie which is similar to Russian and also Ukrainian люди/lyudi.

[@kezgoblair]

Actually, джерело and zrodlo are "similar" vocabulary (common root, "regular" sound changes and meaning). However, Ukr. людина on one side and Rus. люди and Polish" ludzie" on the other side are "not similar words" because of the different meanings. Also, людина has the alien morpheme - suffix "-и)на" as well as просвещенный" and освічений have alien prefixes which are the irregular sound changes and not the results of the natural evolution of sounds. Both pairs do not have irregular sound changes in the roots which could make them "non-cognates", but they are "partial cognates" (however, just in origin). But, if the latter pair has completely identical meaning, it can be "similar" vocabulary. But людина has not identical but simply "close" meaning and it is forbidden in the Swadesh list calculations to call the words with not identical meaning "similar vocabulary". Also, людина is not simple grammar "singular" form of люди, as щука for щуки (plural). It's independent Ukrainian word and lexical innovation. So, only Russian and Polish words for "person" are similar vocabulary between each other.