Hello in Ukrainian

Well hello random 7 people from UT 4 from California and 1 from DC! Also I would not want to forget my special 2 readers from Taiwan and India! I do this for you! Well actually more for myself but I am glad you look at it, it would be even better to see some feedback:) just saying!

Today I would like to tell you more than you will ever want to know about how to say Hello in Ukrainian. As you could already guess, it will be a long quote from one of the articles I found in my research. I thought that this guy did a really good job describing cultural and psychological particularities of such simple event as greeting. Enjoy!

Another manifestation of the power distance in the Ukrainian community is traceable in native patterns of greeting. Unlike most West European languages, Ukrainian and Russian contain practically no greetings to be used universally in all communicative contexts. There is no direct equivalent in either of the languages to the one-word Germanic and Romanic correspondents, such as Hello! (English), Hallo! (German), Hej! (Swedish), Salut! (French), etc. With great reserve, I could regard the Ukrainian greetings Dobroho ranku / dnya / vechora! ("Good morning! / afternoon! / evening!") as neutral to the roles of communicants. According to the research results, these forms definitely bear a tint of formality for young Ukrainians.

Among the greetings selected by the interviewees for addressing a friend or person of an equal status, the form Dobroho dnya! (the least bound to the time of the day) occupies only 2% of the selection. As the first rates the Russian greeting Privyet! (65.5% of all the participants) and as the second — its Ukrainian equivalent Pryvit! (23%). The two are the most popular patterns in the youth environment, with the Russian form considerably prevailing. The Ukrainian correspondent was originally modelled on the Russian one, spread all over the Russian-speaking territory of the CIS. The increase in popularity of the two forms in the last 2-3 decades may be explained by their brevity. Both Privet! and Pryvit! serve to emphasize casualness of the situation in practically all age groups of the Ukrainians, though when coming from the elderly, these greetings sound a bit playful.

The research statistics exhibit some gender-based peculiarities of the informal greetings. Young Ukrainian females are more prone to greet with the Russian Privet! (72%) than young males (59%). The males also selected the Russian pattern Zdorovo! (12%), which is regarded as a highly familiar one, bearing a street-culture connotation, and thus is usually avoided by females.

There is also a noticeable difference in the choice of appropriate greeting patterns with respect to the criterion of one's mother tongue. Those who descend from Russian-speaking families favour Privet! in a considerably bigger representation (81.1.%) than the native speakers of Ukrainian (46.3%). Meanwhile, the Ukrainian form Pryvit! won 41.5% of all the young people holding the Ukrainian language as their mother tongue and 8% of the born Russian speakers. Kyiv native residents proved to be more active users of the Russian Privet! (73.6%) than the migrants to Kyiv (58.7%).

Due to the high popularity of the Russian informal greeting Privet!, most authentic counterparts have become marginal in use. In the obtained selection there is only one truly Ukrainian form of unofficial greeting Yak sya mayesh? ("How are you?"), which constitutes only 1% of the answers. Like other native historic greetings, this one had grown obsolete in Soviet times and acquired a rural or/and dialectal (predominantly West Ukrainian) colouring.

The fate of oblivion has also befallen a wide range of official forms of indigenous Ukrainian greetings. Judging by the interview results, young Ukrainians have quite a narrow choice of the relevant patterns at their disposal. In the model situation of meeting a university professor or a person of a superior status, 40.5% of all the respondents opted out for the Russian greeting Dobryi den! ("Good afternoon!"). Twice as few participants preferred the Ukrainian equivalent Dobroho dnya! in the same situational context. There are also two more popular alternatives, such as the Russian Zdravstvuite! (18.5%) and the Ukrainian Zdrastuite! (12%). Both forms, closest to the English Hello! in meaning, are confined to addressing either more than one person or a superior individual. On the whole, the two obtained selections of informal and formal greeting patterns do not intersect with each other, apart from the relatively neutral form Dobroho dnya! having a very low representation (2%) among the familiar forms.

Native patterns of greeting often involve attendant questions about one's interlocutor's state of affairs, health, news, etc. The most customary of them are the Ukrainian Yak spravy? and its Russian equivalent Kak dela? ("How are the things with you?"). The answers given to these reciprocal questions are usually more expanded and intimate in content than they are supposed to be in the classical English-speaking social talk. A curt response like Dobre. ("Fine.") may be taken for a sign of one's aloofness or arrogance.

If on close terms with the addresser, the Ukrainian communicant is normally expected to say some special words about himself/herself, demonstrating in such a way appreciation of the other person's concern. At least, one has to colour one's minimal standard answer like Dobre. in a warm tone and accompany it with a direct friendly look. The eye contact is historically given much significance in the Ukrainian culture, as the etymology of the native name for politeness vvichlyvist (literally "looking into somebody's eyes") suggests.

Slight nods, smiles and waves of the hand often accompany verbal greetings of Ukrainians. These paralinguistic elements also serve to substitute repeated greetings within one day's period. At their first encounter during the day Ukrainian men exchange handshakes, as a rule. To greet a woman with a handshake is considered to be a very uncommon and even tactless gesture.

When making an acquaintance, Ukrainian men invariably shake hands with each other. A local woman may volunteer to stretch out her hand to a male stranger, though it is quite a limited practice out of business circles. Today, you may watch Ukrainian young people saluting each other with kisses and hugs. Still, with those over 30 such a behaviour is more habitual on special occasions, for example at seeing each other after a long period of time.

Warmness of salutation is more typical of the traditional greeting patterns used by rural residents, especially those of the older generation. As a matter of fact, it is mainly due to the Ukrainian countryside that some authentic initial-sequence forms have been recalled from oblivion during the last decade. Recently, it has become a habit with both city and country dwellers to greet each other on the Orthodox Christmas Day (January 7th) after the following dialogue pattern: Khrystos rozhdayetsya! ("Christ is being born!") — Slavite Yoho! ("Hail Him!"). Similarly, on Easter Sunday modern Ukrainians usually exchange religious greetings after the old folk scenario: Khrystos voskres! ("Christ has risen!") — Voistynu voskres! ("He has truly risen!").

Podolyan, I. (2005, June). How Do Ukrainians Communicate?. Journal of Intercultural Communication