Language Questions on 'Glavcom'
In the 'Language Question' column on the 'Glavcom' website, philologist Olha Vasylieva explores the nuances of the Ukrainian language and answers readers' queries. In a recent edition, the expert examined the agreement of the numerals 'two', 'three', and 'four' with adjectives. One question was whether it is correct to say 'dvi novykh knyzhky' (two new books). In modern standard Ukrainian, both forms ('dvi novi knyzhky' and 'dvi novykh knyzhky') are considered correct.
Topics Covered in the Column
The 'Language Question' column is published weekly, and readers can send their questions to the email address info@glavcom.ua with the subject line 'Language Question'. The previous 44th edition addressed the issue of agreement within ordinal fractions. It was noted that the adjectival form in the genitive plural with the numerals 'two', 'three', 'four' appeared under the influence of constructions with the numeral 'five', 'six', and higher as early as the 15th century.
The column also discusses feminized nouns, such as:
- 'mag' (mage) - 'mahynia' (female mage)
- 'ekstrasens' (psychic) - 'ekstrasensynia' (female psychic)
- 'medium' (medium) - 'mediumka' (female medium)
- the masculinized form from 'vorozhka' (fortune-teller) - 'vorozhbyt' (male fortune-teller)
Olha Vasylieva points out that the word 'typohrafiia' (printing house) is a Grecism (τύπογραφία), and adjectives derived from village names, for example, 'Mizhlisne' and 'Opishnia', sound like 'mizhlisnenskyi' and 'opishnianskyi', respectively.
The edition provides information on equivalents for the Russian 'udovletvoreniia' and the English 'satisfaction' - 'zadovilnennia'. According to orthographic rules, masculine nouns with the preposition 'po' can have variant endings -u (-iu) and -i (-ii), so expressions like 'po sviti' (around the world) are not an error. The word 'mymo' (past) is present in both old and modern academic dictionaries.
Among other lexical nuances, the word 'pidriad' (in a row) appears over 25 thousand times in the corpus of texts (HRAK). Orthography also indicates that in the names of events, we write the first word and proper nouns with a capital letter, for example, 'Olympic Games'. The year in the event's name should be written adjacent, without dashes or hyphens, as in the case of 'Olympic Games 2026'.
Thus, the 'Language Question' column continues to highlight important aspects of the Ukrainian language, providing answers to current questions and emphasizing the diversity of linguistic forms. This regular feature offers valuable insight into the living, evolving nature of Ukrainian, which has a rich history and complex grammar. The column is an important resource for those seeking to understand Ukrainian language rules more deeply. Publications cover a wide range of linguistic topics, allowing readers to obtain correct information and improve their language skills. Given the constant changes in the linguistic environment, such an initiative contributes to the development of language culture among Ukrainians.