Canadian Ukrainian
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Canadian Ukrainian (Ukrainian: украї́нська мо́ва, ukrayins'ka mova, [ukraˈjinsʲka ˈmɔva]) is a variation (considered also as a dialect by some linguists) of the Ukrainian language specific to the Ukrainian Canadian community descended from the first two waves of historical Ukrainian emigration to Canada.
Canadian Ukrainian was widely spoken from the beginning of Ukrainian settlement in Canada in 1892 until the mid-20th century. Because Ukrainian Canadians are largely descended from emigrants from the Austro-Hungarian provinces of Galicia and Bukovina it is most similar the dialects spoken in these areas, not in the Russian Empire- administered parts of the country. As such Canadian Ukrainian contains many more loanwords from Polish, German, and Romanian, and fewer from Russian, than does modern standard Ukrainian, which is mostly based on the dialect spoken in central Ukraine, particularly in the Cherkasy, Poltava and Kiev areas.
The first two waves of immigrants (1882—1914, 1918—1939) spoke the dialects of what is now western Ukraine, but they were cut off from their co-linguists by wars and social changes, and half the globe. Ukrainophones in Canada were also exposed to speakers of many other languages in Canada, especially English. As well, the mostly impoverished peasants were introduced to many new technologies and concepts, for which they had no words. Consequently Canadian Ukrainian began to develop in new directions from the language in the "Old Country".
Speaking Ukrainian in school was expressly forbidden by Anglo-Canadian authorities for most of the 20th Century. Ukrainian speakers in Canada tended lag behind others economically because of the need for English in most fields of labour. Ukrainian was associated with rural backwardness and went into decline. Ukrainians migrating from the Ukrainian Bloc Settlements to cities such as Edmonton and Winnipeg were quicker to lose their language.
In the present day, the number of speakers in Canada is still declining, however there are Ukrainian language schools, and Ukrainian is taught in public and Catholic elementary and high schools and Universities across Western Canada.
More recent Ukrainian immigrants to Canada, after the second world war, generally do not speak Canadian Ukrainian, but rather the modern dialects of Ukrainian indigenous to Ukraine. Many modern-day Ukrainian immigrants are more fluent in Russian than in Ukrainian.
Examples of Canadian Ukrainian words
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