Ukraine

Ruska Roma

also: Russian Romani, North Russian Romani, Xaladitka Roma

A Northern Romani variety spoken by the Ruska Roma across Russia and Ukraine, shaped by long and intensive contact with Russian. It was the basis of a short-lived literary standard developed in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s and remains one of the more vital Northern Romani dialects.

Crimean Romani

also: Krymitika Roma, Crimean Roma

A Balkan Romani variety spoken by Roma communities of the Crimean peninsula and the northern Black Sea coast, marked by heavy contact influence from Crimean Tatar and other Turkic languages in both lexicon and phonology.

Crimean Tatar

also: Qırımtatarca

A mixed Turkic language of the Crimean peninsula, descended from contact between Kipchak and Oghuz varieties. Critically endangered after the 1944 Soviet deportation; subject of an active revitalisation effort.

Mariupolitan Greek

also: Rumeika, Azov Greek

The Greek of the Mariupol region in Ukraine, descended from communities resettled from Crimea by Catherine the Great in 1778. Endangered; structurally close to Pontic Greek.

Standard Ukrainian

also: Kyivan Ukrainian

The Kyiv-based standard of Ukrainian. The state language of Ukraine and the second-largest East Slavic language by speakers.

Western Ukrainian

also: Galician Ukrainian, Lviv Ukrainian

The Ukrainian of Galicia and the western regions around Lviv. Carries contact features from Polish and Slovak and was historically the prestige variety in Habsburg-era Galicia.

Polissian

also: Northern Ukrainian, Polissky govir

The Northern Ukrainian dialect group of the Polissia region, straddling northern Ukraine and southern Belarus. Forms a transitional zone between Ukrainian and Belarusian.

Bukovinian

also: Bukovyna Ukrainian, Pokuttia–Bukovinian

The Southwestern Ukrainian variety of the Bukovyna region around Chernivtsi. Shaped by long contact with Romanian, German, and Polish under Habsburg rule.

Carpathian Rusyn

also: Rusyn, Ruthenian, Lemko

The East Slavic varieties of the Carpathian highlands across Zakarpattia, eastern Slovakia, and southeastern Poland. Often classified as a separate language; historically grouped with Ukrainian.

Sloboda Ukrainian

also: Slobozhansky, Slobozhanshchyna Ukrainian

The Southeastern Ukrainian variety of the Sloboda region around Kharkiv and Sumy. Close to the standard, but with a distinctive lexicon shaped by long contact with Russian.

Surzhyk

The Russian-Ukrainian mixed colloquial register, widely spoken across central and eastern Ukraine. Treated by linguists as a code-mixing continuum rather than a fixed dialect.

Yiddish

A High German language with substantial Hebrew, Aramaic, and Slavic vocabulary, written in the Hebrew alphabet. The historical vernacular of Ashkenazi Jewry; now spoken mainly by Hasidic communities in the United States, Israel, and Western Europe.