question from student re Russian vs. Ukrainian language

[Robert Orr]

This one is skewed by the status of two or three of those forms as frequent
borrowings.

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of E Wayles Browne
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 5:29 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] question from student re Russian vs. Ukrainian
language

Why don't you give your student a sample of data, such as the 7 colors of
the rainbow (from the article "Rainbow" in Wikipedia):

Russian
krasnyi
oranzhevyi
zholtyi
z'el'onyi
goluboi
s'in'ii
fiol'etovyi

Ukrainian
chervonyi
oranzhevyi
zhovtyi
zelenyi
blakytnyi
syn'ii
fioletovyi

Spanish
rojo
naranja
amarillo
verde
azul
añil
violeta

Italian
rosso
arancione
giallo
verde
azzurro
indaco
violetto

English
red
orange
yellow
green
blue
indigo
violet

Between Russian and Ukrainian, 5 out of 7 of the words are similar, even
recognizable; 2 out of 7 are different.
Between Spanish and Italian, 5 out of 7 of the words are similar, even
recognizable; 2 out of 7 are different.
--
Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics Department of Linguistics Morrill
Hall 220, Cornell University Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.

tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)
fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE)
e-mail ewb2 at cornell.edu

On 22.03.12, Stefan Pugh <stefan.pugh at WRIGHT.EDU> wrote:

This is also amateurish, but I'd say Czech vs. Slovak, BUT add a large
lexical component to one (say Slovak) not
shared by the other one... appr. 30% of the total.   However,
Spanish-Portuguese works, as long as you still add
the lexical component!

Stefan

On 3/22/12 1:54 PM, Anne L Lounsbery wrote:

Hello all,

I realize that this is both an “amateurish” question and a loaded one, but
because a student is asking me and I have no answer for her, I thought I’d
present her question to the list:  “How different are the Russian and
Ukrainian languages? As different as, say, Spanish is from Portuguese?
Mandarin Chinese from Cantonese?”

What might be a good analogy to offer here?

Thanks.

--Anne

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------