Ukrainian Language - Classification and Relationship To Other Languages

Classification and Relationship To Other Languages

The question of whether contemporary Ukrainian and Russian (as well as Belarusian and Rusyn) are dialects of a single language or separate languages is not entirely decided by linguistic factors alone because there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility. As members of the East Slavic group of languages, they are descended from a common ancestor. Although Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian are usually listed by linguists as separate languages, some linguistic references list them as dialects of a single language.

Within East Slavic, the Ukrainian language is most closely related to Belarusian.

It is accepted that before the 18th century the precursor to the modern literary Ukrainian language was a vernacular language used mostly by peasants and petits bourgeois as no traces of earlier literary works could be found. It existed along with Church Slavonic, a literary language of religion that evolved from the Old Slavonic and which was the language usually used in writing and communication.