Ukrainian language

Ukrainian, formerly known as Ruthenian, is an East Slavic language of the Indo-European language family. It is one of the Slavic languages, which are a subset of the wider Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. In addition to being the native language of Ukrainians, it also serves as the country's official state language. A version of the Cyrillic script is used to write Ukrainian in written form.

The origins of the Ukrainian language may be traced back to the Old East Slavic of the early mediaeval state of Kyivan Rus, according to historical linguists. Because of this development, after the collapse of the Kyivan Rus and the Kingdom of Ruthenia, the language evolved into a form known as the Ruthenian language. In addition to Ruthenian, the Kyiv variant (izvod) of Church Slavonic was also used in liturgical services in the region of current Ukraine, alongside the Ruthenian language. The Ukrainian language has been in widespread use since the late 17th century, when the Cossack Hetmanate was established, and is the official language of Ukraine. From 1804 until the outbreak of the Ukrainian War of Independence, the Ukrainian language was prohibited in schools across the Russian Empire, of which the majority of Ukraine (Central, Eastern, and Southern regions) was a part. It has long had a strong presence in Western Ukraine, where the language was never outlawed, and may be found in folk melodies, itinerant musicians, and notable writers, among other things.

The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NANU) regulates the standard Ukrainian language, in particular via its Institute for the Ukrainian Language, Ukrainian language-information fund, and Potebnia Institute of Linguistics, among other institutions. There is some mutual intelligibility between Ukrainian and Belarusian in terms of vocabulary and grammar structures.