# "що" vs "шо" in Ukrainian



## Drakonica

I've just discovered that "що" is an Urainian word for "what". But it's a supprise for me, because at home, I allways heard, that "шо" is one of most charasteristic words of Ukrainian speakers (different from Polish "co").

Is it just a mistake of my Polish parents or mayby is it an regional form in viliges of  western Ukraine (on former territory of Second Polish Republic) before WWII?


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## pimlicodude

Drakonica said:


> I've just discovered that "що" is an Urainian word for "what". But it's a supprise for me, because at home, I allways heard, that "шо" is one of most charasteristic words of Ukrainian speakers (different from Polish "co").
> 
> Is it just a mistake of my Polish parents or mayby is it an regional form in viliges of  western Ukraine (on former territory of Second Polish Republic) before WWII?


I'm interested to see what reply you get to this. I think you could find dialectal isoglosses of что, шо, що across the Ukraine and indeed southern Russia (Voronezh, Rostov, et al) that showed these forms are quite widespread. But  in the Russian Wikipedia ru wikipedia org there is a page entitled Поднестровский диалект украинского языка, and the discussion shows that in that area of the Ukraine що is шо - and the area of  поднестровье is area 9 on the map shown, i.e. around Lviv and Ternopil'.

On Lingvoforum.net in 2011 someone wrote: "Овер 90% украинцев шокает. «Що» — так только дикторы по телевизору говорят."

As the linguistic situation in the Ukraine is related to that in southern Russia - a dialect continuum of some type, a PDF on the Internet entitled РУССКАЯ ДИАЛЕКТОЛОГИЯ: ТЕОРИЯ И ПРАКТИКА is of interest. Artamonova writes there: "Вопросительно-относительное местоимение что в говорах может иметь ряд вариантов: што, ште, цо, це, що, шо, шчо и др., появление большого числа которых происходит в результате фонетических изменений. Парадигма склонения местоимений кто, что устойчива по говорам и мало отличается от литературной. Местоимение 
кто (вариант хто) в косвенных падежах может иметь форму куго, коуо, ково, кому (куму) и др."


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## Drakonica

pimlicodude said:


> I'm interested to see what reply you get to this. I think you could find dialectal isoglosses of что, шо, що across the Ukraine and indeed southern Russia (Voronezh, Rostov, et al) that showed these forms are quite widespread. But  in the Russian Wikipedia ru wikipedia org there is a page entitled Поднестровский диалект украинского языка, and the discussion shows that in that area of the Ukraine що is шо - and the area of  поднестровье is area 9 on the map shown, i.e. around Lviv and Ternopil'.


Thank you.
I've found. It's Волинський говір where from exactly my family comes from.

Поднестровский диалект украинского языка — Википедия

"варианты союзов что, чтобы: шо — же и шо; шоб и шоби — жеб, жеби и шоб, шоби;"

So, the great mysteries have been solved


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## Yaroslav Fadeev

I'm not a linguist, so I can answer how I use them  For me "шо" is a slang word for communication with friend or family, for example, but when I communicate with colleagues, I use "що", cause it's the correct word.  We use "шо" all around Ukraine, it's not a dialect, or maybe it's not anymore. Hope this's somehow helps you


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## Drakonica

Yaroslav Fadeev said:


> I'm not a linguist, so I can answer how I use them  For me "шо" is a slang word for communication with friend or family


Djakuju


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## cHr0mChIk

Yaroslav Fadeev said:


> I'm not a linguist, so I can answer how I use them  For me "шо" is a slang word for communication with friend or family, for example, but when I communicate with colleagues, I use "що", cause it's the correct word.  We use "шо" all around Ukraine, it's not a dialect, or maybe it's not anymore. Hope this's somehow helps you


So it seems to be like how чё is used in Russian


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## Yaroslav Fadeev

cHr0mChIk said:


> So it seems to be like how чё is used in Russian


Yes)


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## tamadekk

cHr0mChIk said:


> So it seems to be like how чё is used in Russian


as for me, че sounds rougher than шо.
I use шо 24/7 because it is easier to pronounce


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