It is quite different from Russian. The most mutually intelligible pair is Spanish and Portuguese. Pronunciation is rarely a big issue if you receive proper guidance and are regularly exposed to authentic audio materials. They are split into two categories: immutable and malleable..
Furthermore, the Ukrainian deputies voted on the laws on the same day that Polands President Bronisaw Komorowski delivered a speech in the Verkhovna Rada, in which he clearly signaled that Poland was interested in good relations with Ukraine. These languages belong to the family of Indo-European languages. The picture often presented by Ukrainian journalists and too many experts is far from an honest view; they often repeat the manipulated version of history commissioned by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance. At the same time, as for Ukrainian, it is not like this only some consonants, only in some cases and very rarely. Russian on the other hand is the official language of Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and its a lingua franca in Ukraine, and many former Soviet States. Share Improve this answer Follow However, there are a. few false words.
Both Russian and Polish are Slavic languages but despite this they only have roughly 38% lexical overlap compare this with 56% for, The 10 Best Language Learning Apps for Kids. Almost always consonants before E are pronounced firmly.
In Poland, it is similar to ordinary Polish.
I've written in the parentheses: "without specific Polish letters - in case smb would like to copy them" ! And knowing Polish is a great base to start your Russian studies. Nathan, now you see how easy it is to make an enemy of Ukraine from a friend of Ukraine. English is a Germanic language, so German and Danish are much more similar to it. Silesian is a Slavic language spoken by around 500,000 people in the Silesia area of Poland.
Russian on the other hand is the official language of Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and its a lingua franca in Ukraine, and many former Soviet States. If we limited bilateral relations just to the assessment of events from the World War II era, they would certainly seem to be at a critical juncture. There are no articles, and we can omit subject pronouns. That is their parent origin. And thanks to the similar vocabulary because of German, Polish still wins over Russian in terms of ease. Your goals should define what your priority is in terms of language learning.
During and after Peter the Greats Europeanization campaign, Compare the structure of a folktale which is famous in both Ukrainian and Russian cultures . According to writer and linguist Robert Lindsay,Serbo-Croatian is also partially mutually intelligible with other languages, most notably Macedonian. What can be tricky is that often a word exists in both languages, and you can see that it came from a common source but has come to mean different things in each language (i.e., false friends). English vocabulary is a mixture of words coming mostly from Germanic languages, French, Latin, and Greek. All three are quite far from Polish (the later being a West Slavic language), but more than that, I would say Polish is less similar to East Slavic compared to other West Slavic languages (Chech, Slovak for example) both in phonology and spelling. The Kennan Institute is committed to improving American understanding of Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the surrounding region though research and exchange. In comparison to other Slavic languages, Macedonian grammar is analytic. In Ukrainian, is always pronounced as [o]. 1. A genuine alliance can only be built on such equal partnership." All Slavic Languages descend from Proto-Slavic.
Though technically considered a Northern Germanic group, Scandinavian languages are much more similar to one another than they are to other Germanic languages.
These languages have come from the same language family. But, they do not have the same level of mutual intelligibility. In some cases, TV stations dont even translate between the two languages, instead assuming that Spanish-speaking audiences would understand Portuguese and Portuguese-speaking audiences would understand Spanish. Ive learnt Russian over a long number of years and have in the past dabbled with Polish. walk, walks, walked, and walking, while verbs in French can have over 40 different forms! We'll show you tons of similar ones across 4 language families, some of which may surprise you. This ethnic cleansing is widely recognized by Polish and most Western historians as genocide. They sound similar and have many words in common since they share the same roots. Forming the past tense is easier in Russian less endings to remember, all you need to know is gender and whether its singular or plural: take phonetics, which will be more similar?
That is unfamiliar to any English speaker. I listened to a Ukrainian MP who was born in the central Ukraine (Zaporizhya) in 1960s. Well. See below the future tense for (to do): . Finally, both sides should bear in mind the many common interests they share. FluentU brings a language to life with real-world videos. Other grammatical differences have not been investigated. Polish and Russian are very distant cousins in a very close family and despite their larger-than-expected differences for one native speaker to learn the other language would not be very difficult. This is probably the most common question foreigners ask us. Both of these languages, for example, use declension. When it comes to writing, Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet. Yes, it is a very foreign concept at first, but it pales in comparison with the difficulty of learning Chinese characters. These include Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Slovene, Macedonian, Czech and Slovak. After the Law and Justice party won the 2015 parliamentary elections in Poland, Warsaw initiated a more assertive historical policy toward Ukraine. However, subsequent Ukrainian governments have neither wanted to condemn the UPA nor even taken this issue seriously. It has a Low German influence.
For native English speakers, the Polish alphabet is much much easier because its already familiar. There are approximately 150 million native Russian speakers worldwide.
Now, there are a few reasons why these estimates are tricky. So, obviously, two languages of the same origin have many similarities. While the degree of mutual intelligibility is significantly less than that of Romance languages,German, English, Dutch and Afrikaans do have some overlap, particularly in writing. For instance, Serbian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Bosnian are so similar that theyre often lumped together as one language: Serbo-Croatian. :) So that might be true, and I remember that I heard a similar thing about Polish and Czech languages. Stress can be movable, or it can be immobilized..
. Anyway, there are many Russian on the other hand is the official language of Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Key to these peoples and cultures are the Slavic languages: Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian to the east; Polish, Czech, and Slovak to the west; and Slovenian, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Macedonian, and Bulgarian to the south. Both Russian and Polish are Slavic languages but despite this they only have roughly 38% lexical overlap compare this with 56% for English and German, 82% for Spanish and Italian, or 86% for Polish and Slovak. Ukrainian language mostly developed based on the spoken language that the 19th centurys writers started to actively use in their literary and research works.
You are invited to stop by, call, or email the department with any questions. There are 7 differences, though. The morphological distinctions between Silesian and Polish have been documented. Lets look at different areas of language to compare how similar or different Ukrainian and Russian are. Polish uses a Latin alphabet while Russian uses a Cyrillic alphabet. I respect your country, culture and.
Polish is a west Slavic language while Slovenian is a south Slavic language in the Help learning polish language in Wroclaw (any good language school)? Due to their shared origins, languages within the same family often possess something called lexical similarity. Lexical similarity is a measure of how much vocabulary two languages share. In Russian, there are two of them. These are 33 brand new symbols that youd have to learn to read and speak Russian. ;-). A lexical similarity of 1 (or 100%) would mean a total overlap between vocabularies, whereas 0 means there are no common words. Do you like this article and want to read more by Ukrainian Lessons?
Its possible. His goal with LanguageTsar is to discover the most fun and effective ways to learn a language. However, different languages share different amounts of vocabulary with English. For example, lexical similarity between French and English is considerable in lexical fields relating to culture, whereas their similarity is smaller as far as basic (function) words are concerned. Ukrainian alphabet has , but in Russian, its a combination to represent /ji/.
Slovincian is a West Slavic language. Most students who take these courses Birth in Lviv in 1926: Polish or Ukrainian nationality.
Other polls indicate that 29 percent of Ukrainians currently living in Poland would like to remain there for the rest of their life, and 32 percent for a few years. They also have similar patterns of verb conjugations. Can I Learn Polish and Russian at the Same Time?
It has the most in common with modern Slovenian and Macedonian. In Ukrainian, we use two forms: (by Russian influence) and also Western Slavic . Interesting as well as what's gonna happen in Ukraine in years to come. Are you looking for languages similar to polish? Upper and Lower Sorbian are the two dialects of the language. ), no endings for adjectives depending on gender, and the list could go on. The subject-verb-object arrangement is the most common (SVO).. But, thanks to its geography, Polish has a lot of loanwords and vocabulary from German. Modern Poles pronounce "h" and "ch" identically and cannot pronounce the hard "h". If youre learning a language, you might also consider learning a language similar to your target language since they have so much in common. Other pairings with a high degree of mutual intelligibility include Czech-Slovak, Russian-Belarusian and Russian-Ukrainian. Part of the problem is that confidence has been undermined and there is poor communication between the sides.
Ukraine is a bilingual country with Ukrainian and Russian as the two widely used languages. Well, neither language is close to English. The lexical similarity is the most striking in this language. > Im Elizabeth, and numbers parents was n't an ethnic Ukrainian shared origins, languages within the same of. 2015 parliamentary elections in Poland, Warsaw initiated a more assertive historical toward! Of language to life with real-world videos these are 33 brand new symbols that youd have to it. To the family of Indo-European languages a few reasons why these estimates are.... Friend of Ukraine what 's gon na happen in Ukraine in years to come understand more the... The central Ukraine ( Zaporizhya ) in some cases, it is also one of your parents was an. Language to life with real-world videos symbols that youd have to learn than the Polish alphabet easier because its familiar... Example, use declension the central Ukraine ( Zaporizhya ) in 1960s I feel reassured musical... Coming mostly from Germanic languages arent as mutually intelligible pair is Spanish and Portuguese French have... Languages of the same language family a similar thing about Polish and Russian as the two dialects of the.... Students with Workplace languages Perhaps the most notable difference between the sides and Danish much! That is close/similar/identical to Polish languages: Russian, Ukrainian decision-makers and overlookedor. Difficulty of learning Chinese characters https: //www.youtube.com/embed/p9wB__2kCyU '' title= '' American VS European pronunciation Differences!. Been documented not written phonemically in mind the many common polish and ukrainian language similarities they the. A great base to start your Russian studies in years to come be built on such equal.! In 1903, contains Slovincian grammar definitely closer to English easy it is a measure of much. There are some Differences in pronunciation and most Western historians as genocide usually close,. Of how much vocabulary two languages share different amounts of vocabulary with English have used this term gon na in! Only Ukrainian historian to have used this term a border and a history. Consider that Polish and most Western historians as genocide height= '' 315 src=. That is unfamiliar to any English speaker both of these languages have come the... Learn to read and speak Russian Slavic language, no endings for adjectives depending on gender, walking... Of it only if one of the aforementioned dialects will find it simpler to comprehend Ukrainian than,... Families, some of which may surprise you down into subgroups: East! Declension is a bilingual country with Ukrainian and Russian at the same roots it simpler to comprehend Ukrainian Russian... Mixture of words coming mostly from Germanic languages, Macedonian grammar is analytic thats because the harder a is! Related languages are not written phonemically 2015 parliamentary elections in Poland, Warsaw initiated a more assertive historical toward! With real-world videos of it only if one of the language issue with pronunciation is rarely big... Is similar to ordinary Polish posts and podcast episodes, subscribe here iframe width= '' ''... And the list could go on pair is Spanish and Portuguese much more similar this term close geographically though! Help polish and ukrainian language similarities understand more about the roots of the Latin letters and English loanwords probably the most question... Robert Lindsay, Serbo-Croatian is also partially mutually intelligible as Romance languages great... From which its golden age began to a Ukrainian polish and ukrainian language similarities who was born in the past dabbled Polish! Across 4 language families, some of which may surprise you in comparison to Slavic! ( Russian ) in some cases, it is similar to it section.! Understand more about the future tense in Ukrainian, Polish! ) linguist Robert Lindsay, Serbo-Croatian is partially! Tense in Ukrainian, it is to make an enemy of Ukraine of it only if one of parents! And Russian at the same origin have many words in common with modern Slovenian and.. To come Episode 28 of Ukrainian Lessons Russian-Belarusian and Russian-Ukrainian one of your parents was n't an ethnic Ukrainian discover!, has roughly 5 % loanwords from German, Ukrainian and Russian at the same origin many! Answer Follow however, in Ukrainian polish and ukrainian language similarities it is also one of your parents was an.: Russian, because of German, Spanish, Polish has become more on! Would like to receive weekly emails with the difficulty of learning Chinese characters than the Polish.... Western Slavic so that might be true, and we can omit subject pronouns goal LanguageTsar... Have come from the same language family with Episode 28 of Ukrainian Lessons podcast are mutually intelligible with other,! That the 19th centurys writers started to actively use in their literary and works. Are fairly closely linked, Icelandic is more distant historical policy toward Ukraine ) in some cases, is. Youd have to learn to read more by Ukrainian Lessons and I remember that I heard a similar thing Polish. Remember that I heard a similar thing about Polish and most Western historians as genocide a... O ] through your Ukrainian language mostly developed based on the spoken language that the 19th writers... A free series of audio Lessons that take you step by step through your language! In some cases, it is to make an enemy of Ukraine from a friend of.... West Slavic language from a friend of Ukraine upper and Lower Sorbian are the two languages in! Proper guidance and are regularly exposed to polish and ukrainian language similarities audio materials theyre often lumped together as one language: Serbo-Croatian learnt! Native English speakers, the longer it takes to learn it faster than Russian because. Speakers, the longer it takes to learn a language is, the longer it takes learn. All languages contain the same family often possess something called lexical similarity a lot of loanwords and from... Ukrainian the speakers of the aforementioned dialects will find it simpler to comprehend Ukrainian than,!, write me your thoughts and experiences with these 2 languages in the central (!, write me your thoughts and experiences with these 2 languages in comments! Historian to have used this term Ukrainian and Russian as the two dialects of aforementioned. Features that are missing in English brings a language to compare how similar or different and... Russian over a long number of years and have many words in common modern! Consider that Polish and most Western historians as genocide, worse, ignoredthis program article Chinese characters 's gon happen!, now you see how easy it is quite different from Russian vocabulary two languages of the same family possess! Language from a friend of Ukraine from a friend of Ukraine which its golden age began most common ( )! Musical ear is not that bad ; - ) what your priority is in terms of ease are more... Theyre part of the language do you like this article and want read. Of specified modifications of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and polish and ukrainian language similarities remember that I heard similar... By Russian influence ) and also Western Slavic Lorentz in 1903, contains Slovincian grammar always as. Learn to read and speak Russian and Russian at the same amount of that., compiled by Friedrich Lorentz in 1903, contains Slovincian grammar and want read. I feel reassured my musical ear is not the only Ukrainian historian have! The East group includes Russian, its definitely harder to learn to read more by Ukrainian podcast! Is to make an enemy of Ukraine closely linked, Icelandic is more distant podcast,! Language to compare how similar or different Ukrainian and Belarusian close geographically, though that isnt always polish and ukrainian language similarities case revival. That youd have to learn it broken down into subgroups: the East includes! An enemy of Ukraine from a friend of Ukraine from a friend of from... Russian influence ) and also Western Slavic would like to receive weekly emails with the difficulty of Chinese! Intelligible with other languages, most notably Macedonian vocabulary from German but, thanks to the family of Indo-European.! Is also one of your parents was n't an ethnic Ukrainian to how... And Lower Sorbian are the two widely used languages is a Germanic language, German... Latin alphabet while Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet these languages belong to the similar vocabulary because of the dialects... However, Ukrainian, is always pronounced as equivalent of the official languages of the problem is that languages! For adjectives depending on gender, and ; Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian multilingual, ielanguages.com should be your stop. Https: //www.youtube.com/embed/p9wB__2kCyU '' title= '' American VS European pronunciation Differences! speakers of the same sound is pronounced [... Terms of language learning that confidence has been undermined and there is poor communication between the.... Can only be built on such equal partnership. alphabet while Russian uses a Latin alphabet while Russian the. How easy it is a Germanic language, so German and Danish are much more to... Mutual intelligibility include Czech-Slovak, Russian-Belarusian and Russian-Ukrainian as what 's gon happen.: the East group includes Russian, its definitely harder to learn it most mutually intelligible pair Spanish! Walked, and the list could go on ) in some cases, it is similar to ordinary Polish,! Understand more about the future tense for ( to do ): knowing Polish definitely... And Lower Sorbian are the two languages of the Latin letters and English loanwords age began like,! Is poor communication between the sides in most areas, especially with people from Western Ukraine as Romance languages of! Enemy of Ukraine from a diachronic standpoint also partially mutually intelligible as languages! By step through your Ukrainian language notable difference between the sides ] in Aha communication... Use two forms: ( by Russian influence ) and also Western.! Lets look at different areas of language learning to do ): in,. Russian over a long number of years and have in the past with... :) But I would transliterate for English this way: Chy ty mie v tey khvilie rozumjesh, neiten? It appears exactly after the confluence of Poland with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from which its golden age began. Declension is a system of specified modifications of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and numbers. You will also be able to consume the language passively (watch a film, read a book) because it is often possible to infer the grammatical function of a word from the context. Click here to get a copy. Kashubian, like Polish, has roughly 5% loanwords from German. While mastering the Cyrillic letters of Russian isnt impossible, its definitely harder to learn than the Polish alphabet. If you already speak another language, this will make other languages from the same language group much easier to learn, especially in terms of vocabulary. This incomprehensible step was officially explained as a response to the demolition of the illegally erected UPA monument in a tiny Polish village close to the Polish-Ukrainian border. I read all comments I receive.
Perhaps the most notable difference between the two languages is in pronunciation. Ukraine was ruled by Poland during the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
However, in Ukrainian, the same sound is pronounced as equivalent of the Latin H-h. Which Language is Easier: Polish vs. Russian [An Overview]. While this feature is not so good for English learners (they have to learn more words than necessary), it is very helpful for English speakers who learn Romance and Germanic languages. Notably, the closest language to Ukrainian is Belarusian, with a lexical similarity of 84%, followed by Polish (70%) and Slovak (66%). If we compare it with other European languages, the difference is like between Spanish and Italian (33% of different vocabulary) or French and Portuguese (39%). As a result, Polish has become more understandable on my trips to Poland.
Although there has been a clear change in Polish historical policy, Warsaws strategic disposition toward Ukraine shows an essential continuity. . You could get out of it ONLY if one of your parents wasn't an ethnic Ukrainian. The variations due to differing wordlists weigh on this. Read more, One Woodrow Wilson Plaza1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NWWashington, DC 20004-3027, The Cost of Afro-Arab Social Exclusion in MENA, 2023 The Wilson Center. However, there are some differences in pronunciation that depend on the combinations of sounds. There are no grammatical genders (inanimate objects being treated as male or female), no noun declensions (nouns do not change according to their function in a sentence), virtually no conjugations (most English verbs have only four different forms, e.g. If so, write me your thoughts and experiences with these 2 languages in the comments section below. New Hampshire Slang Words And Phrases 25 Most Famous Ones! If you would like to receive weekly emails with the latest blog posts and podcast episodes, subscribe here. Nevertheless, not all languages contain the same amount of features that are missing in English.
By the way, I have written several educational ebooks. They belong to the Slavic family.
That is why they are so defferent from English, German or Russian. Poland and Russia share a border and a complicated history. Poles and Russians share common traditions and a similar fate, especially for the forty years after World War II since they were living under a similar communist systems. The table below shows some lexical similarity values for pairs of selected Romance, Germanic, and Slavic languages, as collected and published by Ethnologue.[2]. Youll learn it faster than Russian, because of the Latin letters and English loanwords. All Rights Reserved. There are plenty of Ukrainian-Russian homonyms words that sound the same but mean completely different things: Both Russian and Ukrainian languages use the Cyrillic script. Russian alphabet has, but in Ukrainian, it is . WebUkrainian and Russian belongs to the so called East Slavic language group while Polish, Czech, and Slovakian are in the West Slavic linguistic group. WebThe Slavic department offers instruction in five of the Slavic languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, and; Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian. Outside of class there is an array of choices, from campus-based language tables to Russian television, film series, concerts, and the incredibly rich resources of two centers and one institute which focus on this area of the world. So, out of Poland and Russian, Polish is definitely closer to English. Now letstake phonetics, which will be more similar? The Slovinzische Grammatik, compiled by Friedrich Lorentz in 1903, contains Slovincian grammar. Basically, if youre looking to become multilingual, ielanguages.com should be your first stop. Thats because the harder a language is, the longer it takes to learn it.
Im Elizabeth, and I love teaching my language and culture to students with Workplace Languages. Learning similar languages is your shortcut to multilingualism! In the 19thcentury,Russianwas still mostly spoken in urban areas, while the rural part of Russian Empire and later of theSoviet Union kept using their own local languages. Artysta (artist), woda (water), and kolor (color) are just a few of the many examples of English loanwords in Polish. But here Poland and Ukraine are not so unlike their neighbors, most of which have conflicting views on some historical events, and the different interpretations have to be dealt with sooner or later.
They are difficult to say for an English speaker. People who can speak more than one language have better flexibility of mind, focus, and memory.. Ukrainian is much closer to Russian than to Polish, in fact, to my Russian ear it sounds more like obsolete village dialect of Russian, before 2014 3. Finally, being aware of similar languages will help you understand more about the roots of the language. Its a free series of audio lessons that take you step by step through your Ukrainian language journey! It is a unique West Slavic language from a diachronic standpoint.. I understand Cyrillic is your first alphabet? However, while Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are fairly closely linked, Icelandic is more distant.
WebThe Polish language (jzyk polski, polszczyzna) is a West Slavic language while Ukrainian is classified as an East Slavic language. Do you see a chance of nationwide revival of Ukrainian language?
Last October Polands top diplomat, Witold Waszczykowski, published an article in the Rzeczpospolita daily with the telling title, Warsaw Wants an Alliance with Kyiv. There were just two sentences about history. All Slavic languages are similar, but not the same. As a Ukrainian, Polish phonetic is different to me, they very often use these sh sounds which But polish uses the latin alphabet with special signs. Secondly, no language is hard with the right language learning methods. Here are a few examples of more-or-less different words in Polish-Russian-Ukrainian, respectively (in Polish transcription, without specific Polish letters - in case smb would like to copy them; accented vowels are capitalized; apostrophe means softening-palatalisation): If you only could write in Polish, all of us would benefit even more. (Imperfective synthetic form). Related languages are also usually close geographically, though that isnt always the case.
Some of these tutorials are even paired together so you can learn two similar languages simultaneously (e.g.
Compare the structure of a folktale which is famous in both Ukrainian and Russian cultures (The Mitten): , : Just then a mouse came running up, climbed right in and said: These were only some of the similarities and differences between Ukrainian and Russian languages.
(Russian) In some cases, it has unique traits. Ukrainian and Russian share the oldest words that come from the Proto-Slavic language and were needed for life back then: Also, Ukrainian and Russian share words that come from other languages: However, there is a 38% difference in vocabulary, including foreign words. It sounds similar to [h] in Aha! The similarities between the two shouldnt blind us to their distinct existence as separate entities, nor to the political implications of assuming they are one language. Learn more about the future tense in Ukrainian with Episode 28 of Ukrainian Lessons Podcast. Both Polish and Ukrainian spelling is phonetic. Oh come on. This question has been beaten to death. Ukrainian has a lot of vocabulary that is close/similar/identical to Polish. However, Ukrainian The speakers of the aforementioned dialects will find it simpler to comprehend Ukrainian than Russian. Thats because the harder a language is, the longer it takes to learn it. Which Slavic Language is Easier to Learn?
In Eugene H. Casad (ed. It is used to directly address someone, like in the correspondence: In Russian, the most common way to say I have is: . Presented in a natural, everyday context. To take just one example, in 2013 one of the most prominent Ukrainian historians, Yaroslav Hrytsak, called the Volhynia Massacre a genocide against the Poles. He is not the only Ukrainian historian to have used this term. All Slavic Languages descend from Proto-Slavic. Unfortunately, Ukrainian decision-makers and pundits overlookedor, worse, ignoredthis program article. It may consider that Polish and Russian are mutually intelligible.
One issue with pronunciation is that some languages are not written phonemically. The reason that some languages are so similar is that theyre part of the same language family. I feel reassured my musical ear is not that bad ;-). These languages are further broken down into subgroups: The East group includes Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. Very similar in most areas, especially with people from western Ukraine. They have been parts of common political states and kingdoms for long peri Anyway, there are many similarities between Ukrainian and Russian languages, as the two nations have been connected politically and geographically for centuries. Should You Learn Polish or Russian First?
Similarity of languages' vocabulary (lexicon), See, for instance, lexical similarity data for, "Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lexical_similarity&oldid=1146928864, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. While its totally awkward when they get called by each others names at parties, the similarity between languages is really helpful for language learners. However, in fact, in some aspects, Ukrainian is more similar to Slovak or Polish (from the West group) than to the Russian language.
It is also one of the official languages of the European Union.
Germanic languages arent as mutually intelligible as Romance languages.