Ukelish

I  have often made fun of the propensity of Ukrainian Canadians to speak in “Ukelish”, that interesting though linguistically improper mix of the Ukrainian and English languages that evolved in the aftermath of the various waves of immigration of Ukrainians to North America.  One example is a classic line I remember from my youth that was uttered by my father – “Бойсику – іди там в бейсменту- коло стерзи є кейс пива.  Принеси мені батлю”.

I am sure many of us remember something similar, and most are guilty of mangling the two languages ourselves.  Though some of this is a result of intellectual laziness, often it resulted from not knowing the Ukrainian equivalent of a commonly used English word or term. I remember as a teenager helping my father fix our family car and him asking me “Подай мені вайсґрипи”.  My father had left Ukraine when he was eighteen and had never seen anything like vice grip pliers in the old country, so I guess it was both practical and forgivable to adapt the English word for the tool.

There are many similar examples of words Ukrainianised from the English by immigrants here to denote things they had never been exposed to back in the villages where they came from – сайдвак, for sidewalk, гувер for vacuum cleaner (after the famous Hoover brand of the same), віскі for whiskey, прешор кукер for pressure cooker, ґараж for garage, etc.

However, there were also many words that came into common usage despite the fact that there were perfectly good Ukrainian words for them.  Some examples are сендвич for sandwich instead of бутерброд, ґара for car instead of авто, штор for store instead of магазин, бейсмент for basement instead of підвал, or трок for truck instead of вантажівка or грузовик. 

All languages borrow terms from others as a natural part of linguistic evolution, so it is hard to find fault with our parents’ creativity on this front. The English language for example, is a polyglot mixture of Celtic, Germanic, Scandinavian, Latin, French, and many other languages. 

Ukrainian is no different.  Those who would decry the pollution of the Ukrainian language with foreign terms should take a close look at the origins of many Ukrainian words. The word бутерброд cited earlier for instance has very obvious Germanic origins.  In fact, many of the words and terms used in business and administration in Ukraine have Germanic origins and come from that period of time when a good chunk of Ukraine was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  For example, the Ukrainian words for accountant, assets, liabilities and audit are бухгалтер, активи, пасиви and ревізія.  They come from the equivalent German terms which are buchhalter, aktiven, passive and revision.

What is more to the point is the large number of North American English terms that have become widely accepted in Ukraine in the past several decades as a result of the rapid growth of computer technology and the advent of the global economy.

Go to any Ukrainian web site dealing with technology and you will see a proliferation of words such as інтернет, веб сайт, веб гостинґ, персональний компютер, монітор, лазерний диск, компактний диск, дата центр and програміст.  In the world of business, the following have entered the realm of common usage – бізнес, менеджер, маркетінґ, дизайн, банкрутство, офіс, апартмент, компанія, телекомунікація, сервіс, оператор and even бізнес ланч.

Language is one of the most flexible, adaptable and rapidly changing aspects of any society.  All historical attempts to standardize, limit, purify or control it have failed abysmally.  It is undoubtedly the one sphere of life where absolute democracy prevails – what the majority dictates through common usage always prevails.  І то є окей!