Ukrainian Language Day, 9 November 2024

A good Ukrainian Language and Writing Day to everyone.

I came to this language as an adult and I will never speak it the way a child who grew up here does. What I can offer instead is the outsider's observation, which is sometimes useful.

It is a language with an unusual amount of tenderness built into its grammar. The diminutives do not only make things small; they make them loved, and they attach to almost anything — bread, rain, a name, a stranger you have decided to be kind to. You cannot translate that into most languages without adding a whole clause.

Every year I notice more people choosing to use it in places where they previously would not have. That is a choice being made a million times a day, and it is not one anybody can make on their behalf.

To the teachers, the translators and the people patiently correcting foreigners like me: thank you.