Okay, there are a huge number of misconceptions in this thread.
First of all, Adder, Ukrainian is
nowhere near the point of dying out. You have cited two examples of Russian loanwords (one of which isn't even correct). Loanwords happen. It's completely natural even in thriving languages, and their existence means absolutely nothing with regards to whether a language is thriving or dying.
Second, if you hear Ukrainians using понимати for "understand", then yes, that does seem to be a Russian loan. However, любити is a completely native Ukrainian word; I don't think you'd find a dictionary without it. Don't assume that just because you learned кохати as "love" means that's the only way to express the concept.
Third, I don't understand your double standard. You decry Russian loanwords in the language, yet at the very same time you're praising how similar to Polish the language is (due to centuries of Polish rule, frequent contact with the Poles, and a great influx of Polish loanwords). Why is one okay but the other heretical?
Both are entirely natural.
adder wrote:It's funny though because they fought for independence so much in both World Wars but eventually Ukraine was ruled by Russia for so many years and gained independence not until 1990. I know during the period of Russian rule there were a lot of migrations (natural and forced) but anyway according to censuses Ukrainians make up over 75% of population in Ukraine and definitely there are more Ukrainians in the west than in the east by %.
Don't conflate ethnicity and language, at least in the sense of "To be Ukrainian you must speak Ukrainian". Many people in Ukraine self-identify as Ukrainian, but speak Russian as their mother tongue. Why does speaking a Ukrainian dialect of Russian make someone less of a Ukrainian? Why can't both be embraced as a part of Ukrainian identity?
adder wrote:Also, it's strange that officially the country organize various campaigns for people to manifest their nationality, mother tongue included. Maybe in reality it doesn't reach too many people. Another thing is education. If Russian is no longer obligatory in schools and Ukraine is an independent country with Ukrainian being the official language (not counting Russian for Crimea), subjects should be taught in Ukrainian, I'm guessing. But maybe it's also only official and subjects like maths, chemistry, etc. are taught in Russian by teachers who obviously know Russian. I don't understand it. If I were in a similar situation, I would prefer to speak my true mother tongue. And Ukrainian is a fully developed language so different from Russian.
But that's the thing:
Russian is the mother tongue of many Ukrainians. Ukrainian is also the mother tongue of many Ukrainians. Forced Ukrainianization of the entire population would be no better than the forced Russification that took place under Soviet rule. These millions of speakers of Russian
are speaking their "true mother tongue".
adder wrote:Now I wonder why I learnt Ukrainian (not that I'm a pro but I can handle a conversation in the language). I thought I would be welcomed better in Ukraine speaking Ukrainian rather than Russian. It seems I was so wrong. If I had learnt Russian instead, I could communicate easily not only in Ukraine but also in the majority of post-Soviet republics, not to mention Russia...
That sounds like an exaggeration to me. You're no worse off in Ukraine speaking Ukrainian than you are with Russian. That's like going to someplace like the Netherlands or Sweden and being disappointed that everyone can speak English. Many people
do speak Ukrainian (and many speak both Ukrainian and Russian); just because they happen to use a few Russian loans (which, by the way, is incredibly common in bilingual situations) doesn't mean that Ukrainian is a dying language.
And knowledge of Ukrainian
is increasing, by the way.
I'll steer clear of all the evolution/genocide/morality/Nazi/human nature detritus in this thread.