Canadian Ukrainian

Canadian Ukrainian (Ukrainian: канадський діалект української мови, romanized: kanadskyi dialekt ukrainskoi movy, IPA: [kɐˈnɑdzʲsʲkɪj d⁽ʲ⁾iɐˈlɛkt ʊkrɐˈjinʲsʲkoji ˈmɔwɪ], lit. 'Canadian dialect of Ukrainian') is a dialect of the Ukrainian language specific to the Ukrainian Canadian community descended from the first three waves of historical Ukrainian emigration to Western Canada. Canadian Ukrainian was widely spoken from the beginning of Ukrainian settlement in Canada in 1892 until the mid-20th century, when the number of its speakers started gradually declining.^[1]

Today the number of native speakers of Canadian Ukrainian is significantly lower than its peak in the late 1800s and early 1900s. According to the last Canadian census of 2016, out of the entire Canadian population of 35 million people, only 69,500 Canadian residents said that they speak Canadian Ukrainian at home.^[2] However, the latest, fourth wave of historical Ukrainian emigration to Western Canada, which started after Ukraine regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, has resulted in a slight increase in the number of Canadian Ukrainian speakers; the 1991 Canadian census showed that the number of Canadian Ukrainian speakers at home was even lower at 39,500.^[3]