How to distinguish Ukrainian from russian people, if both speak russian? Difference in pronunciation

[@marksawesomeadventures]

This was very Interesting, I think you should do more like this, gives us a better understanding of Russian in general, and this is not something everyone else is talking about, I only see you talk about this, so this is unique for your Channel. Thanks for your insight about this. 💖

[@maximchernikov3503]

Thanks for interesting video. Particle Мол has meaning of citation of words of another person and skepticism towards the words.

[@AnnaLanguages]

Yes, the meaning is exist. But in a lot of sentence it's like a "parasite word". In this video, I wanted to show more about difference between people. Ukrainian usually don't say "мол".

[@777elements]

Спасибо за информацию ❤🎉

[@GregEremeev]

The right question is not HOW but WHY 😂

[@AnnaLanguages]

Why compare the English language between the USA and the British? Why compare the Russian language in different parts of Russia (even russian channels do it)? Maybe because of curious? You didn't think about it? And yes, a lot of foreigners told they heard russian-speaking people abroad and just for curious, it's interesting.

[@GregEremeev]

@@AnnaLanguages It's a rhetorical question, dummy.

[@PGG-o6r]

Very accurate observations! Thank you!)

[@andreytolmachev1435]

Stressing "A" and swallowing some vowels is just a Moscow feature. In the Northern areas of Russia and in the Urals people tend to stress "O" instead. For instance, a Moscowite may pronounce the word "milk" as "m'lako" whereas a resident of the northern city of Vologda as "moloko". But in general the differences of local accents are very minor throughout Russia - incomparably smaller than those in the UK for example. As for the Ukrainians speaking Russian, their pronunciation is very similar to that of Southern areas of Russia. The most notable things there are "G" (like in the word "goose") pronounced as "Kh" (something like "khoose") and downward intonation of sentences.

[@AnnaLanguages]

Yes, I agree

[@utro_v_gorah]

Interesting observations. However, mol has a meaning.. Mol is a short form of the out-dated verb molvit (молвить) and means "to speak". Some use it to convey someone else's words. From my experience, mol is used by older generations more frequently whereas my generation and younger tend to say tipa (eng. typ of) instead of mol. When I was a kid, I used to say sho instead of tcho. But somehow tsho surpassed sho over time. Now, living in the EU, I encounter more Ukrainians so sho is finding its way back to my daily vocabulary. To me, "Na Ukraine" is just a common way to speak and there is no negative meaning in it. I personally find "na + country" much easier to say then "v + country" since the vowel "a" serves as a bridge. Apart from that, I was born "nA Urale"(in Ural). And I dearly love the na. "Na ukrAinskom" sounds unnatural to me. I rather say na ukraInskom. You mentiond e and i sounds. I feel you meant schwa sound and vowel reduction. Yes, you're right, some people in Russia can reduce unstressed vowels to e and some to i. And if anyone wish to learn how a Russian Ural accent, which differs from a Moscow accent, can sound then type "realnie pacani" (реальные пацаны) on KZbin. It's a tv series about a work/low class group of people but it got somehow popular in the country and it may have contributed to the growth of popularity of tcho.

[@AnnaLanguages]

Yes, about meaning of "мол" you are right. But for now, in a lot of sentence it doesn't make sense, it's like a "parasite word". Especially it's important for foreigners who try to learn russian. This word can confuse them. But if don't say this, we have the same meaning. Yes, "nA Urale"(in Ural) is correct. Ural is part of Russia. But Ukraine is country, so better to use preposition "в" (like to all countries). How will you say with countries like "Uruguay", "Uzbekistan"...? В or На? :)

[@EUGEN093]

​​@@AnnaLanguageswe say на Кубе, на Украине. It is arbitrary.

[@AnnaLanguages]

@@EUGEN093 на Кубе, на Мальте, на Мальдивах... Russian language has a rule with islands... but Ukraine isn't island...

[@EUGEN093]

@@AnnaLanguages в Гренландии, в Ямайке.

[@1midnightfish]

@@AnnaLanguages I get the impression that "мол" functions the way "like" functions in colloquial English nowadays - i.e. we say it too much, when we could say exactly the same thing without it. I'm only learning Ukrainian but I found this video really interesting, useful and well-produced: my first time watching one of your videos, and I subscribed immediately! Just the other day I had to school a friend of mine about the preposition used with the word "Ukraine" - he's very pro-Ukraine but had somehow missed out on the fact that, in English, we shouldn't say "in *the* Ukraine" (because it's a singular place name), and why. Whenever I explain that to people I always point out that this dynamic is also replicated in Slavic languages by way of those two prepositions, since articles don't exist.

[@sweetlane1813]

There are three tests to distinguish Ukrainian people from russians. They are Crimea test, Khuilo test and Palyanytsya test. Most russians fail on the first one.

[@AnnaLanguages]

@@sweetlane1813 Yes, this also works, but it needs communication with them.

[@mikael4713]

Interesting topic. I'm always confused, I've met Ukrainians here who spoke Russian and at first I thought it was Ukrainian. Thanks for explaining the difference in accents and pronunciation!

[@dumitro]

Thank you for observations! Allow me to add some comments. 1) Yes, it covers moscow region variant, but because of the media coverage - this variant is growing more in young people across Russia. 2) switching “ch” to “sh” was old (XIX century) moscow variant, fixed by the Maly theatre - and later this variant was taken as standard by dictors on radio and TV. BuloSHnaya and pracheSHnaya is associated with the oldest Moscow inhabitants. But nevertheless it is a good point to determine russian speaker from RF. 3) “mol” is also a very old item. I haven’t heard it for a good 20 years. Previously in comments someone already said that it has a meaning “he said that..” and in modern English could be compared to “like” used as a , like, comma :) But from real usual russian I would expect to hear “bl..t’”, and not “mol”.

[@AnnaLanguages]

Thank you for your comments)

[@SadSomnambulist]

Hi. It's true that there are many local and mixed dialects of Russian language but there are only three major groups: Northern, Central, Southern. Google for more. I'm a St. Petersburg resident, Russia and I could never ever distinguish Ukrainian people from Russian people if they speak Southern dialect of Russian language except they use some "region" words. But at the same time I can hear if people are from Moscow, Perm or Novgorod very clear. So it wouldn't be an easy task for a foreigner even with this guide. BTW words "мол" and its syn. "дескать" are very informal, almost slang and never used here in St. Petersburg.

[@yrmgfra9267]

Many many thanks from India 🇮🇳 for uploading videos regularly 👍

[@yrmgfra9267]

Thank you so much ma'am for your honourable reply 👍

[@neotek8582]

Hello! I was born in Lvov/Lviv to a Ukrainian mother and Russian father, but reside in the USA meow. I grew up speaking both Russian and Ukrainian, and I partially disagree with you. Russians do not skip vowels. I was raised to say “magazine” for store, not “magzine”. I have never heard Russians skipping the vowels you mentioned. The “ahkat” and “ohkat” phenomena is unique to Russians and what I think was their attempt during the Czar era to “modernize” the Russian language and move away from what was perceived as a more rural and uneducated dialect from Mala Rassiya (Ukraine) and Bela Rassiya(Belarus). The one area I’ll agree with you 100% is the “g” vs. the “h”. That’s how I can mostly tell when someone is from Ukraine when they substitute the “g” with the Ukrainian “h” while speaking Russian. Old Russian was similar to other Slavic languages when pronouncing the “o’s” and had more similar words to old Ukrainian (kon vs. loshad for horse and pes vs. sabaka for dog, for example). I also think Lenin further separated the two languages when he removed a few letters from the Russian alphabet to curb illiteracy. And let’s not forget that Old Ukrainian was morphed during the domination by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Ukraine adopted many Polish words and mostly did not revert to its closer ties to Old Russian. Oh, and the elite in Russia during the Czar rule didn’t mostly speak Russian. French, German and English were the dominant language for them. The Serfs mostly spoke Old Russian prior to Lenin’s influence on the language. It’s fascinating actually and I appreciate your video. We are all one people and I hope we can live in peace someday soon.

[@Shamir.F]

From what I've heard, skipping vowels such as in M'gazine primarily happens in Moscow. Most Russians would pronounce all of the vowels.

[@AnnaLanguages]

Not “magzine”, I mean "mgazine", the second syllable so strong that seems the first vowel is missed. Not everyone say it in Russia, of course, but really a lot of people say it in Moscow and near. When I was there it's first thing which I noticed: A and vowels. Even in some books of pronaunciation they write about it. History is other thing. I said about modern pronaunciation, what i met and heard now (in this century) :)

[@AnnaLanguages]

@@Shamir.F Yes

[@ilghiz]

_reside in the USA meow_ You're a cat and you've got paws. The cutest t9 typo ever 😸

[@ilghiz]

The ahkat and ohkat have never been political phenomena. Phonetic changes happen at random in the sense that no-one can control or predict those changes. But they're quite consistent: Moscovites naturally tended to reduce (weaken) unstresed vowels (о́ - а - ъ, э́ - и) and this became an official standard in Russia. This reduction trend is older than you might think: Eastern Slavs dropped their ъ and ь (these were vowels) reducing them to complete silence a thousand years ago or so. That's why: lev but lva (lion, of lion), son but sna (dream, of dream), len but lna (linen, of linen) - no stress, no vowel. That's why: Пушкинъ - there used to be a vowel after every consonant in Eastern Slavic (and the letter ъ had long been redundant in Пушкин's time). That's why во саду ли в огороде (not в саду). The trend further caught other unstressed vowels. There's no way to control it. It just happens like rain or snow. If a group of people splits into more groups that tend to communicate less than before, they inevitably develop their own variations of speech without any kind of intended control, whether internal or external. The further they isolate, the more differences they accumulate. And they end up speaking English in England and Hindi in India after millennia of such changes. Yes, these two languages share the same ancestor and are also related to Russian, Armenian (but not Georgian or Azeri), Greek, French, Persian, Ossetian, Albanian etc. These changes are not a political choice, they just happen and accumulate inside more or less united populations separated from other populations in space or time (sometimes socially). People can become aware of these changes and use them for political purposes (sibbolet / shibbolet), but they don't wilfully create and support them. Despite massive educational changes, intended control, Russia still has speech variations and new variations are being observed right now as you read this comment of mine. And I can observe how my parents speak Russian different from their siblings who live just 500 km away. And my Russian is different from my parents' and from my cousins' without any conscious intent. You can't create a difference in pronunciation but you can notice existing ones and use them to identify свой/чужой, friend or foe.

[@ira-mp3qh]

Intéressant ! Vraiment pour les linguistes ! 😮

[@dinasamashki2864]

Hi Anna. An interesting point about "На Украине" and "На Украину" being impolite. My family is Polish and most Polish people and even the Polish media still say " Na Ukrainie" and "Na Ukrainy".

[@AnnaLanguages]

But in Polish is also "na Słowacji, na Litwie, na Łotwie, na Węgrzech, na Białorusi"... In Russian with all indedendent countries should be preposition "в". Of course, there are exeptions, more often with islands...

[@ВасилийПупкин-б1ц]

Я бы кое-что добавил. Начнём с российского русского. Всё, что вы о нём говорите, характерно для Москвы и окрестностей и это понятно - вы об этом упомянули, но на севере и востоке России так не говорят. Там преобладает питерский диалект (если это можно так назвать), который ранее считался литературной нормой. Для него, описанные вами особенности, не характерны. Что касается украинского русского, то здесь тоже есть что добавить. Ваше описание верно для востока Украины, там действительно преобладает южно-русский диалект, но в центре и на западе это не так. Там такой же северно-русский, как и в самом Питере или в Новосибирске, например. Разница практически неуловима.

[@AnnaLanguages]

Спасибо за комментарий. Всё то, что я упомянула об украинском русском, я слышала именно в центре и на севере страны... а что именно, думаете, не характерно для центра Украины? Просто интересно, что вы заметили не так.

[@ВасилийПупкин-б1ц]

​@@AnnaLanguages Я прожил в Киевской области последние семь лет (я сам из Питера). По моим наблюдениям, местные жители, когда они говорили по-русски, использовали совершенно чистый русский язык, в отличие от жителей востока, у которых действительно явно выраженный южно-русский говор. Возможно, мне так показалось, или я просто привык к украинскому "г". Личные впечатления субъективны. Но, скажем, западно-украинцев можно отличить по некоторым отдельным словам вроде полонизмов. Люди со Львова, например, не говорят "пересичные", но скажут "посполитые" и т. д.. Одесситов можно опознать по словам типа "поц" и т. д., в Одессе очень специфический русский со своим еврейским жаргоном. Но жителей Киева или Днепра от россиян по говору отличить практически нереально. Ну или тоже по отдельным словам, типа "зрада", которые россияне обычно не употребляют (хотя лично я пользуюсь) или по каким-то жаргонам, типа юридических терминов (например, "запобіжний захід" вместо "мера пресечения").

[@simonyang-pe3ux]

So can these 2 group of people communicate with their own language ?

[@nibunimu]

Ukrainians can understand Russians, but Russians have big problems with understanding Ukranians. If you are well-educated Russian, it can help you understand Ukrainians, because they have many old Slavic words, which you could know from books.

[@AnnaLanguages]

If Ukrainian will speak in Ukrainian, Russian will not understand. But if both will speak in Russian, of course they will understand each other.

[@ИванИванов-я9ы8н]

​@@AnnaLanguagesну нет, если на украинском говорите медленно и четко, то понятно 95%

[@mitchyoung93]

@@AnnaLanguages I once saw a video of Zhirinovski taking questions from people speaking Ukrainian and answering them in Russian.

[@ВладиславБондаренко-х5е]

​@@ИванИванов-я9ы8н То ти кажеш про розуміння суржику,а не української

[@forpublic777]

they all have рязанский accent, when use english😢

[@СтепанБеркутов]

Thank you very much for the video! I am a moskovite and i was very skeptical at first opening your video, but more i listened more i understood you were completely right, i even got goosebumps on more than one ocasion, i didn't notice all those features in my speach)) All those a's and i's. But it is true only for the Moscow region, the whole country speaks in the way you do)) this is called Piterburg norm of pronuncation and it is used in the whole country (exept Moscow) as well as in Ukraine. The only thing i disagree is the right way to say ukranian and in-to Ukraine in russian. The old generation even in Ukraine say на Украине and укрАинский, because it is correct historical way to say it, and you see it offensive only because you want it to see as such

[@AnnaLanguages]

Instead of "correct historical way" - because of influence of Russian Empire and Soviet Union:) Preposition "в" use for countries. Preposition "на", when we say about parts of country (for example, "на Кавказе"). "Все названия государств в русском языке сочетаются с предлогом «в» (кроме кратких названий некоторых островных государств, которые в первую очередь ассоциируются с островами, а не странами: «на Кубе», «на Кипре», «на Гаити» - но «в Ирландии», «в Исландии», потому что они воспринимаются в первую очередь как страны, а не как острова). Поэтому в современном русском языке предлог «в» подчёркивает независимость государства, предлог «на» подчёркивает принадлежность территории другому государству."

[@СтепанБеркутов]

@@AnnaLanguages Those two paragraphs contradict one another. How it can be influence of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union if Ukraine became independant in 1991. That means that preposition на is a historical version without any relation neither to the empire, nor the USSR. It is just how it was before 1991. We, russians, don't feel any need to use neologism, because it is just excessive.

[@AnnaLanguages]

@@СтепанБеркутов Because Ukraine was not perceived as an independent state by Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, that's why they often said "на Украине". But both variants existed. Now better to use preposition "в", like for all countries.

[@СтепанБеркутов]

​@@AnnaLanguages It is the rule of the russian language to say на Украине, as well as we say на Гаити and в Доминикане. You are free to use any variation you want, you'll just sound as a person who is from Ukraine and who cares. Here we don't really care what you think, we speak as we used to speak, and wont change our language the same way you are changing ukranian so it would look less russian

[@militaryman111]

Polish: na Ukrainie Czech: na Ukrajině Slovak: na Ukrajine All nearby countries say the same way. South Slavic countries use “u” or a variant of “v” It’s just grammar

[@KarenSarkissian]

Очень много хороших наблюдений! Сам многого не знал. Сам из Воронежа - всегда ставил ударение на И в слове УкраИна, украИнский и т.д. Какие красивые девушке на Украине! Прошу не обижаться на нас за то, что говорим НА Украине вместо В. Это просто так принято. Я живу в Чехии. Здесь тоже говорят na Ukrajině, правда возможно под влиянием русского.

[@bigsoap186]

i met many russians who say шо

[@AnnaLanguages]

More possible they grew up far from moscow

[@elenamolihua8955]

There are a lot of dialects in ukraine as well, don't you know?

[@AnnaLanguages]

Of course, I know. Where I said I don't know?

[@elenamolihua8955]

@@AnnaLanguages your video is useless, because there are a lot of dialects in Russia and even more in ukraine.

[@AnnaLanguages]

@elenamolihua8955 you say, you know something about our dialects, but you don't know even about russia 😆 in Ukraine 3 main group, but maximum 14 dialects (most of them isn't common). And this is citation from your government website: "193 народа, проживающих в России, используют приблизительно 277 языков (по другим данным - 295) и диалектов. Такая статистика приводится в Стратегии государственной национальной политики РФ на период до 2025 года и официальных данных Института языкознания РАН соответственно." Or you forgot about Kavkaz, Tatarstan, Yakytia, Buratia and others?? It's even logically, your country is bigger with more different nations.

[@elenamolihua8955]

​@@AnnaLanguages Where did I say that I know about dialects in ukraine? I asked you. Or did you forget that Kavkaz, Tatarstan, Yakytia, Buratia etc. have their own languages not dialects... And my country is becoming bigger everyday))) Thanks to your stupid government and people like you)))

[@herbalife899]

Yeap, and if you hear a person who speaks one half phrases like russia and another half like Ukrainian it can be Belarusian person ;-)

[@AnnaLanguages]

Maybe :)

[@poohoff]

Spelling "Russian" with a lowercase R is quite pathetic

[@sitting_nut]

totally agree . only craven nns do that.

[@AnnaLanguages]

but starting a war on our territory, is it normally??

[@sitting_nut]

​@@AnnaLanguages yes. it is required , "normal" and inevitable, when nns rule in Kiev. Russians are not going to allow nns and nato to rule in Kiev after taking power through a coup and banning Russian language and prosecuting Russian speakers( and dehumanizing them such as by using lowercase r) . Russians defeated ns of Germany, they are defeating nns of Kiev. What else did you expect ? that Germans and Americans will fight for you? Or win? Germans have never won in history. and American have not won even one real war since ww2.

[@AnnaLanguages]

​@@sitting_nut "banning Russian language and prosecuting Russian speakers"?? Do you know it from TV?? 🤣 Here people speak how they like. And you swollow everything what you see on TV))) Ok, another questions. Why Russians kill Ukrainian in occupation? I mean children, women, usual people?? How children can rule politics?? Why russians kill people who replied in Ukrainian language (it's just national language)?? Why russians kill when some Ukrainian have Ukrainian flag at home (it's just national flag as every country has it)?? Why russians shooted cars where was written "Дети" in russian language?? And I know it not from TV... "Russians defeated ns of Germany" - Do you know that there was the Soviet Union that time? Not just Russian was on war. If you would be alone, you would speak German already. And USA also helped that time... "Germans have never won in history." And you will not win!!! Because you act like a fascist, came to other territory for killing people who speak in other language (other nation) for taking land (like in stone age).

[@mitchyoung93]

@@AnnaLanguages It's self defeating. Why would anyone wanting to learn Russian view the videos of a teacher that disrepects the language? I mean, there's dozens of other Russian language teachers out there --even anti-Putin ones (the 'Easy Russian' dude for one); students will watch their videos. Maybe just stick to Ukrainian.

[@proskurin]

Nazi manual? How to recognize a jew among true german aryans?

[@unknown-otter]

Well, no? I guess that's just the context, otherwise that would just feel like a normal video about different dialects of one language

[@proskurin]

@TheXopcLabs because of the stupid title. there is almost no difference in russian dialect between people from Kiev or Kharkov or Odessa and people from Moscow. There is much more difference in a way of speaking between South russian regions and central Russian. So, the title of the video has no sense and works for idiots who are trying to distinguish the same nation and support the war. Russia and Ukraine are parts of one nation with common, history language etc

[@unknown-otter]

@@proskurin well, I can't agree with your first part of your message. Probably can't agree with the second too, I feel like even ukrainians that do not blame russian people completely (those who mostly blame the corrupt and deranged government) would still be a little bit offended by not being distinguished as a different nation (albeit a very closely related one) About the differences in dialects, I feel it's more pronounced in pronunciation (pun intended?), letter г as an obvious example. I also found that eastern ukrainians are using "так" instead of "да" when speaking Russian in orders more frequently than russian speakers do Well, it's still easier for me to distinguish someone from Moscow from someone from Kharkiv than someone from Krasnodar (remote villages excepted)

[@proskurin]

@TheXopcLabs i was in Prague last autumn where meet a lot of Ukrainians. And was surprised how close their pronunciation to mine. My wife is from Siberia, and she also use a lot of words which are different of i used to. But it has no sense to say 'how to distinguish Siberian from Moscowian' it is the same nation

[@unknown-otter]

@@proskurin "мультифора" вместо "файлика", да..? Сам из Сибири и все ещё не до конца переучился