The use of the Ukrainian language in everyday life increased significantly during 2022. The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted a survey and found out that Ukrainians began to speak their native language more often at home, at work, at school or when searching for information on the Internet. Learn more about the results of the new survey

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Over the past year, many more people began to speak Ukrainian. Such a surge in the popularity of the native language was caused by the terrible war that russia started.

The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted a survey last December, and the results showed that more Ukrainians began to use their native language in various situations. The obtained data were compared with the results of a similar study conducted in 2017.

What language do Ukrainians communicate in everyday life?

According to the results of the study, 41% of respondents confirmed that they use Ukrainian in everyday life, 17% use the state language in most situations, and only 6% speak russian. At the same time, 24% of Ukrainians reported that they use both languages equally.

As the Ukrainian service of the BBC reports, Ukrainian-speaking Ukrainians are increasing in the eastern and southern regions of our country - from now on, 29% of them are against 27% of russian-speaking ones.

Our citizens use Ukrainian more often at work or while studying than at home.

In business communication, 50% of respondents speak only Ukrainian, 4% speak russian. Ukrainian is mostly spoken by 18%, and russian by 7%. Let's add that there are Ukrainians who use their native language and russian equally - 19% of those surveyed.

Ukrainian is spoken in the family circle:

• Constantly – 50%

• Almost always – 12%

• 16% speak russian, and 19% speak both languages.

Communication in social networks and the Internet

In the virtual world, English is surprisingly popular. That is why 10% of respondents said that they use "another language" on the Internet. As for Ukrainian, 26% of Ukrainians use it constantly, and russian - from 2% to 4%.

Issues of identity and language

Up to 45 million people around the world speak Ukrainian. It is the second most mellow of all languages and has unique features that are absent in other Slavic languages. For example, only in Ukrainian there is a vocative case, which, for example, illustrates a line from the song of the band "Kalush": "Sing me a lullaby, mother."

Of course, language affects our identity and understanding of who we are and what nation we belong to. When the native language is so beautiful, unique and original, it can only be enjoyed. However, for many decades, the importance of the Ukrainian language was downplayed. The soviet authorities emphasized that our language is only a dialect of russian, thus spreading the expansion of russian on our territory. However, times have changed and so has the perception of the Ukrainian language. This is what the results of the survey indicate.

Currently, 58% of surveyed Ukrainians do not consider russian important. Let us add that 80% of our fellow citizens believe that the population of Ukraine should be Ukrainian-speaking, while only 15% are in favor of bilingualism.

Another trend is the use of Ukrainian in the service industry. This is supported by 63% of respondents. Only 25% said that they don't mind being answered in any language.

The vast majority of respondents associate themselves with Ukrainian nationality - 95%. Among them, 48% indicated a hereditary definition of nationality, 36% - civil, 3% - linguistic, and 7% - attitudinal (by attitude to nationality).

We would like to add that the survey was conducted by means of telephone interviews using a computer. Answers were provided by 2,005 respondents living in Ukraine.

Are Ukrainian and russian languages sisters?

Ofcourse not. In fact, our language shares more than 20 grammatical features with Bulgarian, Belarusian, Slovak, Polish, Czech and Croatian. And there are very few features with russian - only 11. Therefore, anyone who hints at the kinship of these languages can make strong arguments.

The Ukrainian language is studied all over the world

According to the popular application for learning languages "Duolingo", the attachment to Ukrainian has increased among foreigners as well. More than 1.3 million users wanted to learn Ukrainian. It is interesting that among the countries where Ukrainian is in the top, there are quite far from us: Argentina, Japan, Vietnam and the USA.

If your soul, like ours, blossoms from communication in Ukrainian, and your heart throbs from thoughts about the popularity of your native language - we invite you to our YouTube channel to learn more about the path of Ukrainian to popularity. Like and subscribe from you, interesting content from us!