Ukrainophone
Encyclopedia : U : UK : UKR : Ukrainophone
Usage in Ukraine
In the modern nation of Ukraine almost all people can speak Ukrainian. However, many people are more fluent in Russian than in Ukrainian.
Therefore the nation is sometimes divided into Ukrainophones and Russophones. In English these terms are used to indicate a person's language usage but not their ethnicity.
The majority of ethnic Russians and partially other minorities in Ukraine (Jews, Tartars, etc.) speak Russian, since it was the official language of "inter-ethnic communications" in the Soviet Union.
Many ethnic Ukrainians also speak Russian because of the Imperial Russian and Soviet legacies. Ukrainophones tend to be the majority in the western and central part of the country, and in the countryside, while many people, including ethnic Ukrainians, in the east and the large cities are Russophones.
Usage in the Canada
In Canada the term Ukrainophone is also used to differentiate Ukrainian language-speakers from ethnically Ukrainian Canadians in general. It refers to speakers of both the local Canadian Ukrainian dialect and Standard Ukrainian.
Most Ukrainian Canadians are assimilated to the North American majority and speak English. In the nomenclature of Canadian and Quebec language politics this makes them Anglophones, but some Ukrainian Canadians may also be Francophones (French-speakers). If Ukrainian is a person's mother tongue then they are considered "allophone" (neither English- nor French-speaking). Therefore a Ukrainohpone in Quebec is also an allophone.
See also
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