Russian and Ukrainian

[Shrager, Miriam]

Paul Gallagher wrote:

> Since the Russians and Ukrainians are from the same stock, the question
> becomes irrelevant if we go back far enough. The critical question is
> whether the Russians and Ukrainians already constituted separate ethnic
> (if not political) groups in Vladimir's/Volodymyr's time. If not, you
> can call them anything you like and you'll be right.

> Would you say the Russians are an offshoot of the Ukrainians, or that
> the Ukrainians are an offshoot of the Russians? Or would you simply say
> that two equal peoples diverged and one was (ÞÚÐ×ÐÛáï) more successful
> geopolitically over the next thousand years?

The situation in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus is more of a convergence 
than of a divergence. As the chronicles point out, the area of modern 
Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, was populated by different Slavic tribes 
(Poljane, Drevljane, Krivichi, Vjatichi, Slovene, etc.). At some point 
later they were unified for political and economical reasons. So 
linguistically it is impossible to say that either Russian or Ukrainian 
is an offshoot of the other. These languages developed from originally 
different dialects. (This view is, of course, contrary to the 
traditional view that there was one East Slavic language that later 
broke up into Russian, Belorussian, and Ukrainian. This view, however, 
is favored by several linguists and Slavists nowadays.)


Miriam Shrager
Indiana University, Bloomington

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