Latin alphabet for Ukrainian languuge?

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[slowukrainian]

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[estebanr]

I prefer Cyrillic. One of the reasons Cyrillic was created in the first place is because old Slavic language had sounds, consonant clusters and other patterns that just didn’t fit the Latin alphabet well.

[tbwrjvs]

Personally, I have always used this system for writing Ukrainian in the Latin alphabet, it is based mainly on Belorusian Łacinka and it's quite popular in some internet communities:

ш ж ц ч = š ž c č

ть дь ль нь сь зь ць = ť ď ľ ń ś ź ć

ґ г х и = g h ch y

я є ї йо ю = ja je ji jo ju

To indicate consonant palatalization you just write "i" instead of "j":
любов, життя, свят = liubov žyttia sviat

To transcribe words with the apostrophe you just write "j" before the vowel to indicate that it is not palatalized:
м‘ясо п‘ю з‘їзти = mjaso pju zjisty

This is how Ševčenko's poem "Мені однаково чи буду" looks like written in the Latin alphabet:

Meni odnakovo, čy budu
Ja žyť v ukrajini, čy ni.
Čy chto zhadaje, čy zabude
Mene v snihu na čužyni —
Odnakovisińko meni.
V nevoli, plačučy, umru,
I vse z soboju zaberu —
Maloho slidu ne pokynu
Na našij slavnij Ukrajini,
Na našij — ne svojij zemli.
I ne pomjane baťko z synom,
Ne skaže synovi: — Molyś.
Molysia, synu: za Vrajinu
Joho zamučyly kolyś. —
Meni odnakovo, čy bude
Toj syn molytysia, čy ni...
Ta ne odnakovo meni
Jak ukrajinu zliji liudy
Pryspliať, lukavi, i v ohni
Jiji, okradenuju, zbudiať...
Och, ne odnakovo meni.

If you want to write on your phone using this alphabet, you will find all the letters with diacritics on the standard Slovak google keybord.

You can find an automatic translator on the Slovak site BaltoSlav (latinizator ćirilica u latinicu)

[Welikebananas]

Video appreciated. I think you picked a good one today, judging by the number of comments in 17hrs.

[TobiasLindh]

I am against using the Latin alphabet in the Ukrainian language. The Ukrainian Cyrillic alphabet fits the language perfectly and if you don't know the language, knowing the alphabet doesn't help much anyway, other than reading names of cities, maybe. But even that doesn't help much, as the Latin alphabet is not consistent throughout the languages anyway, and every language speaks the letters differently. The Ukrainian language also would need a lot of special characters or character combinations, for which foreigners still wouldn't know how to pronounce them.
When learning Ukrainian, the Cyrillic alphabet is the easiest part, and when you know the letters you immediately get a very good sense of how the words are pronounced. As a German learning Ukrainian, it's much easier for me to read Ukrainian words in Cyrillic alphabet than for example Polish or Czech words in Latin alphabet. For example, even though I have been in Przemyśl a few times, I still have no Idea how to pronounce it. And it's actually the same with Ukrainian in Latin alphabet. I still can't read it. That's why I also try to avoid learning material that includes the Latin alphabet, because it doesn't help at all, I can't read it, it's overly complecated and just causes confusion. It's so much easier in Cyrillic alphabet after you've learned those few characters.

[brianahoffman]

In general, I think it's best to just use the Cyrillic for Ukrainian since it's better suited for the language. It took me about a week to learn the alphabet which is a small investment. Using the Latin alphabet means you have to write more letters and it's not well suited for Ukrainian. The only place I think it really makes sense to write Ukrainian in Latin is when you are targeting an audience who needs to speak Ukrainian now and is not going to learn the whole language - for example in a booklet for people who will be hosting Ukrainian refugees. Having the words written in Ukrainian and Latin in that case is very important. But for most other cases, I find it difficult and distracting to try to read Ukrainian written in Latin letters. Use the right tool for the right job - You could remove a screw with a hammer, but wouldn't it be better to use a screwdriver? You can read and write Ukrainian in Latin letters, but it's much better to just use Cyrillic.

[jasminka_music]

Ja do reči za latynku. Bo todi bude lipše vidbuvatys’ spilkuvannja miž inšymy krajinamy.

[geotipsie]

Because I am Romanian but speak Czech I say it is an excellent idea. But orthodoxies countries except Romania and Moldova use Greek or Russian alphabet '- Greek, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Russia.

[piotrwodkowski]

коли я починав вчитися української - транслітерація іноді була корисна. Зараз коли я бачу її - я просто думаю: заберіть це гі*но! ))

[hakanacar]

privet nice subject my opinion for future probably you may need to change to latin alphabet

[DobleD]

Don't never, ever change it, please.

[zuzannatruba]

I think the diacritics easily solve the problem you're mentioning (of having to use several letters). For example, Latvian "ŝ" = Ukrainian "ш", "ž" = "ж".

Also, some letters in Latin alphabet are pronounced differently in different languages. For example, in English "c" sometimes is pronounced as k ("cake"), sometimes as s ("Lucy"). In other languages, for example, in Latvian, it's pronounced as Ukrainian "ц".

In addition, it is not true that in Ukrainian each sound is represented by a single letter – for example, the soft "L" needs two letters: ль (or has to have a certain vowel after л), same with the soft "n", "d" or "t". In Latvian, these letters are represented by a single letter with a diacritic: Ļ, Ņ, etc.

In my opinion, the real issue is not that Latin alphabet wouldn't be able to accommodate the Ukrainian language sounds, because it certainly does, as these examples show. The real issue, in my opinion, would be that if a writing system is changed, the future generations are less likely to be able to read past texts that are not published in a new writing system, or feel less connection to things like writings of letters in historic icons, etc. That is not to say, that it shouldn't be done - many nations have made the decision to change their writing systems for different reasons. But I think this is the aspect to think about, not about Latin alphabet not having certain sounds.

[forkenstein-]

будучи російськомовною, звичайно мені набагато легше, коли українці пишуть кирилицею)) звичайно до всего можна звикнути, у тому числі й до латиниці. але чи це насправді потрібно? мені здається, що кирилиця вже чудово працює в української (до речі, цікаво, чи буде вона також працювати у наприклад польської або хорватської...)

що стосується іноземців, мені здається що кирилиця досить проста, тому вивчити її не має бути складно, особливо якщо ви вже знайомі з латиницею, але навіть це не обов'язково)

[dv]

Ja duže pidtrymuju perechid ukraїnśkoї abetky na latynyću, ja važaju tak bude nabahato krašče, my viddalymos'a vid moskoviï, ta stanemo blyšče do Poľšči ta v cilomu do Єvropy 🇺🇦

[onninaappa]

можливо досі є старі люди яким важко... Відео переривається! Цікава тема!