Ukrainians Finally Correct My Terrible Pronunciation

[00:00:00]All right, my friends. I've been telling you for some time that this was coming. Uh that is that you know how I mispronounce things. Not intentionally, just trying to do my level best and get tongue tied on large Ukrainian or Russian words. So Anna from Ukraine and uh Alex from Ukraine are here to coach me along and help me understand what I'm missing. So thank you to both of you, Anna and Alex.

[00:00:25]I greatly appreciate it.

[00:00:28]Thank you so much for inviting us and thank you for your desire to practice Ukrainian and to pronounce the names even better. That's super super cute of you.

[00:00:40]>> Yeah, thank you so much, professor, and nice to be here with you and with Anna.

[00:00:45]Thank you for this opportunity and this educational video. It's very important.

[00:00:50]>> So, I figure like there's no dumb questions uh unless you're off track.

[00:00:55]And I find I tell my students that like um like if you have a question, somebody else might have the question as well.

[00:01:01]And that's part of why we're doing the video is because if you can correct my pronunciation, well, that's helpful to other people that are trying to to do this while they're following along what's going on. Um so, so that that's part of the spirit of this. Now, I find you you said thank you for doing that or wanting to do that. And I find that it's like it's kind of like the Spanish within the United States, right? Like if I try to say like I had three years of high school Spanish and my Spanish is terrible. Like yo sudante in la. I know that that means something to the effect.

[00:01:37]>> Oh my gosh. You're just a show.

[00:01:41]>> You too. What on earth? Okay. So I know >> not you in Argentina.

[00:01:49]>> I I know enough like Spanish stuff to try to get some basic things but I I know that my pronunciation isn't like Spanish pronunci but Spanish people are very welcoming to that like hey he's trying all right whereas maybe the French might have been like how dare you not speak my language properly.

[00:02:09]Um but so I haven't detected that from Ukrainians. Ukrainians have been very like, hey, this is how you do it. You keep trying and you can do it. So that's how Ukrainian they've been very welcoming to me as I'm stumbling through it. So help me with basic concepts like let's even start with something very basic like Kev I and some somebody's correcting me trying to tell me it's two syllables for Kev like Kev. Am I like is is that correct or am I did I say Kev right? I know it's not Kiev. I mean I know that much. Right. So Keev, am I doing that one right?

[00:02:44]>> Well, uh, you've decided to start not with the easiest task, but perhaps one of the most important. But before we begin with practicing, I have to tell you, I'm a bit of professor in linguistics to myself. I'm a PhD in that end. uh you have to leave a little bit of your American accent even when we teach you everything because you know what I often come across that people tell me they trust me because I speak like a Ukrainian mispronouncing some things in English and that's what proves that I am a Ukrainian >> so you should keep some American accent too and at the same time uh k is a tricky word to pronounce because we don't want people to pronounce it KF that's the Russian way and that is what dominated uh the world for a very long period of time and maybe you've noticed how at the beginning of the full-scale invasion when lots of countries demonstrated their support to Ukraine a lot of airports a lot of uh countries actually on a state level changed the spelling from K I E V into K um I I V that's why uh in our language we have the difference in um vowel sounds that is e and e e is softer and e is uh just like e maybe it can remind you of a word I'm a bit confused you don't say it like meat you say it bit so the sound in K is close to that bit and I think it will be easier for you if you divide it into syllables indeed and say if >> oh okay so it's not so I didn't even understand that there were the two syllables I was just saying like >> no >> okay >> if you want to make it very Ukrainian it even has this y sound and it will sound like k Kiev.

[00:04:59]>> Yeah, because it's a name of a person, historical person who invented and found KE. It's a K. It's a historical person and it's a governor, our governor like now it's like a president maybe in K Roose.

[00:05:16]>> Gotcha. Okay. So, I did start with the hard one.

[00:05:19]Okay. So, >> but the most important one, you know, I uh once heard a comment that can make our viewers smile, don't smile when pronounced and you won't make it sound uh wrong. It's just no smiling, no long e.

[00:05:38]>> Huh. Well, that's interesting. Well, I have an analog to that and that is that I grew up in New Jersey, just about 20 miles outside New York City and my wife tries to emulate the New York area accent and she it always comes out wrong. It always sounds like a like a Czechoslovakian immigrant. Like it just just doesn't come out right. It's like it's weird. I said, "Well, the problem is the attitude." Like you said, don't smile. Like people from New York, you just got to be angry while you're saying things. And it sounds right. I mean, it's it's just weird. it. But that's how it's kind of the attitude to it. Okay.

[00:06:11]So, as I look around like uh the map like so you're from L.

[00:06:15]>> No, no, no, no. Professor, please.

[00:06:18]>> Key.

[00:06:22]>> K. No.

[00:06:25]>> Key.

[00:06:26]>> Eve.

[00:06:27]>> Oh, >> it's closer.

[00:06:31]>> Okay.

[00:06:32]>> I'm trying. Did I get it? Wow. Okay. I'm trying. So, as I understand, you're from the Northwest. Some some names seem a lot easier like is that did I get that one right? Okay.

[00:06:45]>> Well, by the way, T sound is not the easiest for many.

[00:06:50]>> Yeah. And some of these the way that they put the consonants or whatever together, it's like I trip all over it.

[00:06:56]And people, one of the best pieces of advice, tell me if I'm wrong, is um that people have given me is like try to sound everything out in order like the English version of whatever the cerillic is. Does that make sense? Like like try to like really like don't don't roll things together. Just like try to sound your way through the thing in order to get there. So I'm starting with what I felt was easy with >> Kev.

[00:07:24]>> Yeah. Okay. I'm trying not to smile while I do that as well.

[00:07:28]>> Eastern European, Central Europeans, Israeli smile and I'm sure you can get why.

[00:07:32]>> So I thought that would be easy. Lutzk.

[00:07:35]Uh yeah, Liv.

[00:07:39]>> Sure. Maybe. Leviv.

[00:07:42]>> Is that okay or no? You're looking at me skeptically.

[00:07:46]>> Not skeptically. It's It's good.

[00:07:49]>> Okay. It's good. Okay. So, Ivano Frankisk.

[00:07:55]>> Yeah.

[00:07:57]>> Ukrainian R Ukrainian R is perhaps closer to some royal um British, you know, like they we don't we do not roll it. And actually, when Ukrainians want to mimic someone speak the American way, they will start speaking like with rots of R. And so, and our R is different. It's R. It's that. So it will sound as Ivano Franisk.

[00:08:26]>> Okay. So, wow. I was wildly off. Holy cow.

[00:08:30]All right. So, uh, like I can't roll the Rs either. Like I just I have a hard time with that kind of thing. Like my name is Gertis. It's It's actually like I'm supposed to roll the R. It's German.

[00:08:42]And I like I grew up never even pronouncing my own name right. So, >> you did well when you introduced us. And what is the name of my colleague today?

[00:08:51]>> Alex.

[00:08:53]>> No, no, no. Say it to the fool.

[00:08:55]>> Alex from Ukraine.

[00:08:58]>> You can see it right now. Alexandra.

[00:09:00]>> Oh, okay. Gotcha. I'm Yeah. Okay.

[00:09:04]>> Can you pronounce this way? It may be easier to reproduce this type of Alexandra.

[00:09:10]>> Alexandra.

[00:09:12]Did I get it?

[00:09:13]>> Okay. Uh, >> Alexandra is to evaluate. It's his name.

[00:09:19]Well, okay. So, I was wildly off on Ivano. How do you say the second part?

[00:09:25]>> Franisk.

[00:09:26]>> Franisk.

[00:09:28]>> Man, I was Yeah. Franisk. Okay.

[00:09:32]>> Yeah. Yeah. In the second part, we uh can use like in wrong uh spelling. Ke Ivana Fran, but yeah, you do.

[00:09:43]>> Great job.

[00:09:44]>> All right. Uh, Rivney seems like I I probably nailed that one, right? I can run a victory lap on that one. Or did I get it wrong?

[00:09:52]>> Riven.

[00:09:53]>> Oh god.

[00:09:55]>> Can you do it?

[00:09:58]>> You know, I have a lot of uh viewers who say they simply love it when we say a very bad word. Actually, calib. That's a type of missile Russians target on us.

[00:10:09]But they perhaps find this sound very unusual. Yeah.

[00:10:15]>> And our is just like like that. So >> ri do not do not roll it at all.

[00:10:25]>> Riven.

[00:10:27]>> Mhm.

[00:10:27]>> Okay.

[00:10:29]This is this is a remedial class here.

[00:10:32]Um no >> now turnipilopil >> turn.

[00:10:42]>> Mhm. Okay. Turn like Chern like Chernobyl. Is that I mean Chernobyl >> is is that helpful in that sense? Okay.

[00:10:52]Um Clemenski >> that is the city name after >> Milinsky. So just drop off the KH and just >> Milninski like >> Okay. So why does why does it do that?

[00:11:08]Like Hzan is not Kzison. Why why does the what's the K all about there?

[00:11:13]>> It's just the way we create a sound uh reproduce transliterate the sound H because we also have H and G and these are different sounds HG.

[00:11:27]>> Okay.

[00:11:28]>> So to show this difference in uh Latin alphabet that is not perfect for the reproduction of Slavic sounds, we introduced KH. It stands for H like and that is a similar.

[00:11:44]>> So there is a little H into the milinski.

[00:11:47]>> There's a little hook in the front of it.

[00:11:50]>> Mhm.

[00:11:54]>> Uh mil man. Say again.

[00:11:58]>> It's just like >> okay I All right. Ztomer.

[00:12:08]>> Ztomer.

[00:12:09]>> ZaR. Okay, that's I I think I can get that one.

[00:12:14]>> Good. All right. Uh, Venistia.

[00:12:22]Okay. Uh, help.

[00:12:24]>> Va. Va.

[00:12:26]>> Vignetta.

[00:12:28]Is that close? Vinetta. All right. Uh, earpin.

[00:12:35]It's close.

[00:12:38]>> Okay.

[00:12:39]>> I think I think all people right now from Vin like just Yeah, >> I'm I'm trying. Um, let's go back to >> KV K.

[00:12:59]>> No. Yes.

[00:13:01]>> Close. Yeah.

[00:13:02]>> Kev. Okay. Uh, churn churn.

[00:13:07]>> Churn. Just the stress is gone. The sounds are correct. Churn.

[00:13:11]>> Cherniv. Okay.

[00:13:13]>> Uh, let's see. Sumi is easy, right? Did I get that one right?

[00:13:20]>> Yeah. But again at the end of this uh name we have that very sound that is a little bit alien for the uh English and American ear. Sue me >> sumi like sue me like like a lawyer. Sue me.

[00:13:38]>> Okay.

[00:13:40]>> Sue me. Yeah.

[00:13:41]>> And that very me sound is in cave. It's even closer maybe even to add an e.

[00:13:48]>> Okay. It's hard e >> hard e. Okay. Sue me. Okay. Uh don't actually sue me, but okay. Uh okay. So I'm looking at uh mirharad and I'm looking at that and I hear people say with words with a h or a g. If I understand correctly, when we get to that kind of conflict, it's usually like the G is the way Russians say something.

[00:14:12]Is that is that a fair understanding of things or is that Yeah. I mean, I hear people say things with a Russian Russians don't like how we Russians don't like how we spell our G.

[00:14:28]They laughing about our G and telling just say G. I think I think that's their sound.

[00:14:37]>> That's that's their imperial attitude.

[00:14:40]they kind of mock the Ukrainian way to pronounce because they have only one version of the G sound and it's always hard and the Russian way for example uh the name of the city will will sound as mir G >> and in Ukrainian it's softer and we have different s different variations of that G sound uh and it will be mer >> closer to Mir. Okay. So now that's interesting and I do notice that there is a difference.

[00:15:16]You said softer in the language uh between and honestly before 2022 I didn't actually know that the there was a difference or enough of a difference like I I thought it was like Spanish and Portuguese where like you like it was >> as a language I can tell you that Spanish and Portuguese is pretty different.

[00:15:34]>> Well no I mean okay understand it does not mean they are similar.

[00:15:40]Uh it might be interesting for those who watch us to know that um Ukrainian is quite different from Russian. It's not the closest to Russian language. First uh the closest to our Ukrainian language goes Bellarus, then Slovak, then Polish and Russian ranks four.

[00:15:59]>> Really?

[00:16:00]>> No, it's not that similar. And another very beautiful moment to prove me right is when Russians cannot understand Ukrainian. They say it's one language, but when they see people speaking the language, they simply do not understand what's happening. And Putin demonstrated that a hundred of times.

[00:16:19]>> Yeah. And linguists estimate that Ukrainian and Russian share approximately 60 65% of their vocabulary. Uh which is comparable to the similarity between Spanish and Italian. Yeah. Uh we have Italian words like uh chinqatro uh dizzy dha but it's also different in the their own and uh 60% of the difference.

[00:16:49]>> So now that's a really >> it may be even the amount of the norman borrowings in the English language.

[00:16:56]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:57]>> So it's not that close at all.

[00:17:00]>> Okay. So, um, help me understand how how they evolve from one another. So, um, like Latin, you you brought up Spanish and Italian, and they bu both come from the Latin base, right? So, I I my kids were learning Latin, I learned some Latin along along the lines. And so, that's really helpful to understand like other languages. And so Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, those kind of Romanian, Romanian is actually closest as I understand to the original to and French to the original Latin. Um, so Ukrainian was the earlier iteration before you got to >> Absolutely. Because Ukraine older than Russia and Russian language more similar to the Hungarian folks uh like how how and how we can say nar >> they had a lot of Turk influence and um well first of all when Russians do love uh using the word Slavic and they somehow want people to think that all Slavic people are the same. Just like saying that all Germanic people are the same and we know that English is a Germanic language but this does not make you German, right?

[00:18:15]>> So Slavic actually means the unity more based on linguistic than anthropological, historical or ethnic things. Plus there are a lot of languages that belong to Slavic. It goes not just about Ukrainian, Russian or Belarus. It also goes about Polish language which spelled in lating. It goes about Bulgarian, Slovak language and uh Croatian and a lot of them. And the thing is that we can understand each other linguistically and the very term comes from uh like Slavic there or people who understood to the words of each other and uh this when I travel to Poland or when I travel to Slovakia or and I'm sure Alexandra Alex will confirm that we can understand something not perfectly it's not that we can speak but when I watch Polish news I understand almost everything without learning the language.

[00:19:16]>> Really?

[00:19:16]>> Uh yeah, >> that's fascinating because I I slaughter every Polish word that I come across. I have the hardest time with Polish when I see like I like the extra symbols in it like the slash through the the letter kind of thing. Like I I just man I >> But again the fact that uh these languages originated from similar territories then as nations began separating and shaping each went under different influences and perhaps Ukrainian as Alex has stated remained uh less changed than the rest and Russia Moscowi then was under great influence of the golden o and they actually had a lot of Finnish uh borrowings, a lot of Turk borrowings and uh uh their language has lost a lot of this ancient stuff that we still have in Ukrainian. For example, every every foreigner who begins learning Ukrainian hates the number of cases that we have. We have seven cases in Ukrainian language and we have the vocal case and Russians don't have it. And like it seems to me that the only the older the language, the more like cases it has. And there are al lots of other stuff that proves it. But most importantly, Russians who were never exposed to Ukrainian the way we were to Russian cannot understand what we're talking about. Uh Ukrainian children who were brought up in diaspora without access to the Russian language do not understand uh Russian. So the fact that me or Alex can understand Russian, read Russian or I personally don't speak but I can um it is only because we were made and exposed to that. It's not by choice. It's not because the languages are the same. It's just like people I don't know in India knew English if they were educated.

[00:21:14]>> Right. Yeah.

[00:21:15]>> Yeah. And I want to prove one thing. Uh Anna said absolutely right things and the most easily to understand Bellar Russians for me uh Bellar Russians uh on the second side is a Poland and about Russian language is more like a Finugreek dialect that originated from the barbarian tribes of the Fins and Ugreek peoples and it have a more uh influence from the Golden Arda uh in Mongolic Tatars and Turks but Some part of Turks influenc it on our Ukrainian and we have words like Basak, Kazak and others. And in Russia this language is borrow borrowed heavily from church Sloanic which was uh in Ukraine firstly and later Alexander Pushkin uh the Ethiopian the scandid Russian writer uh refined this language by introducing French phonetics. He added French phonetics in Russian language and they said that their literature is the most powerful and then uh this language is the most powerful language in the whole world.

[00:22:28]>> Well, they sure they sure do love their language like they're help me understand that. Why is it that I like every other week Lavro is talking about how, you know, we we have to go and and make sure that in Ukraine they speak Russian and that what what is that all like I don't I'm not trying to impose English anywhere. I mean like like you understand what I'm saying like what that that's a political play, right? I mean or is there something I'm missing about the linguistic something about it?

[00:22:59]>> It's a myth of greatness. If Anna could approve this, >> unfortunately, yes, I can approve it.

[00:23:07]It's a kind of imperialism and they say that the borders of Russia end where the borders of the Russian language end.

[00:23:14]>> And uh the problem is that they are not just for learning this language and introducing people to their culture, but they are also about the denial of other languages. And when Ukraine was occupied by the USSR, it's not that we didn't have Ukrainian language writers or Ukrainian books, they were simply either executed as writers, many of them were in labor camps like Gulag and their books were not printed in Ukrainian. So it's not the natural process that people chose Russian because they loved something. No, they were made to speak uh this language. Plus, now they actively use uh this excuse that they invade countries to protect the Russian speaking population that is never suffering and they constantly threaten to do the same in Estonia for example right now in Latia. This is their typical uh tool to whitewash their invasion. Yeah. But I think that all sane people that even know very little about our languages or histories understand that the way they protect Russian speaking regions of Ukraine destroying Donets Luhans destroying Zapuria Molive and bombing harki which were predominantly Russian speaking is the best demonstration how they really feel towards uh their culture. They simply use it as an instrument of denial of our difference and the existence of our state as a separate one. So Russian speaking is a a opportunity to say they're actually Russian and that's ours.

[00:24:43]>> Yeah.

[00:24:44]>> Yeah. It's just like as I'd say that you're English and you would say American but >> it's a great analogy. It's so jolting to me to hear you say that that like you know we just celebrated 250. Imagine >> and this is their propagandist statement that uh as Anna said when they occupied Crimea, occupied uh east of Ukraine, they said that uh if their people uh speak on Russian language, this is our land.

[00:25:15]>> Okay. All right. So man, we only got halfway through the country. Let's do a second video here where uh on we'll start. Now, these are the going to be the places like battlefield kind of places that I pronounce every day. Uh, so we'll see if I'm how I'm doing there. Um, and so let's do part two. We'll finish with the pronunciation of places on the ground and then talk about the names of uh weapons systems because uh I I understand there's >> Alex takes drone interceptors as he is.

[00:25:53]>> And and by the way, >> I'm a boy. I'm Ukrainian young boy.

[00:25:57]>> No, I mean that's just like I am not some interceptors have really funny names, you know.

[00:26:02]>> Ah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. as well as one of the uh passed away uh Lindy Graham uh visit the our factory and take this as an last picture. Yeah.

[00:26:18]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:19]>> I can spell it and I can I can spell it right now.

[00:26:25]>> Yeah. No, I can spell it. The problem who will explain it? I don't want to.

[00:26:29]>> Ah, okay. I can I can explain because >> Okay. Well, at any rate, we'll get to that in the next video. By the way, if you're only watching this one and you haven't gotten to the second one, please go and check out Anna from Ukraine's channel and Alexander's channel. Uh, Alex from Ukraine. Uh, Alex has just like these tremendous interviews. And I've said this before. I don't know if you've heard me say this, Anna, but like when I want to feel what Ukrainians are feeling, that's when I go to your channel. When I want to ex like you understand what I'm saying? Like I I I feel something from it rather than just getting facts. I'm like, what? like I I mean I feel within myself what you're explaining, the the intensity of what you're explaining and and so you do a really good job with that. Okay, so that's all for this video and uh we'll come to part two and go through the battlefield side of the country and see how how the pronunciation works. So thank you for your time.

[00:27:23]>> Thank you.

[00:27:24]>> Thank you.