Ruthenian language
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Ruthenian was a written language used from the 14th to the 18th centuries within the East Slavic-speaking regions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Literary
Ruthenian Bible printed in 1517
Ukrainian language
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Ukrainian is an East Slavic language, spoken primarily in Ukraine. It is the first language of a large majority of Ukrainians.
Ruthenian language
…of Lithuania and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Literary Ruthenian is considered to be a historical precursor to the modern Belarusian and Ukrainian languages (occasionally also to Rusyn), although neither standard language directly continues the Ruthenian written tradition. Several linguistic issues are…
"Lenten Triodion" of Kiev Metropolitan Petro Mohyla, 1646
While Russian was a de facto official language of the Soviet Union in all but formal name, all national languages were proclaimed equal. The name and denomination of Soviet banknotes were listed in the languages of all fifteen Soviet republics. On this 1961 1 Rbl note, the Ukrainian for "one rouble", один карбованець (odyn karbovanetsʹ), directly follows the Russian один рубль (odin rublʹ).
2007 sign in the Kyiv Metro in Ukrainian. The evolution in their language followed the changes in the language policies in post-war Ukraine. Originally, all signs and voice announcements in the metro were in Ukrainian, but their language was changed to Russian in the early 1980s, at the height of Shcherbytsky's gradual Russification. In the perestroika liberalization of the late 1980s, the signs were changed to bilingual. This was accompanied by bilingual voice announcements in the trains. In the early 1990s, both signs and voice announcements were changed again from bilingual to Ukrainian-only during the
Ukrainian language traffic sign for the Ivan Franko Museum in Kryvorivnia