Yuri Shevchuk Publishes Say It in Ukrainian, a Pioneering Course in Ukrainian Pronunciation

Yuri Shevchuk, Senior Lecturer in Ukrainian, has published Say It in Ukrainian: A Practical Course in Ukrainian Phonetics—a pioneering resource that opens a new dimension in the study of Ukrainian by giving learners the tools to hear, distinguish, and speak the sounds of modern standard Ukrainian with confidence.

Pronunciation is the foundation on which spoken language comes alive, yet it has long remained one of the least systematically developed areas of Ukrainian-language pedagogy. Say It in Ukrainian addresses this gap directly. The book offers the first comprehensive learning resource specifically designed to help students acquire contemporary standard Ukrainian pronunciation and understand the distinctive soundscape of the language.

The book consists of two interconnected parts. The first presents a systematic introduction to the Ukrainian sound system, explaining the features that give Ukrainian its distinctive character among the Slavic languages, the pronunciation challenges most commonly encountered by native speakers of English, and the features that distinguish Ukrainian from Russian and other neighboring Slavic languages. The second contains 412 carefully sequenced phonetic exercises, providing focused practice with every phoneme of contemporary Ukrainian in word-initial, medial, and final positions and in the phonetic environments that can transform the quality of vowels and consonants.

The course brings Ukrainian's remarkable diversity into the language classroom. Its exercises are voiced by speakers representing a wide range of ages, regions, social backgrounds, genders, and other dimensions of contemporary Ukrainian pronunciation. Even more distinctively, the recordings feature some of Ukraine's most celebrated contemporary writers and poets—including Yuri Andrukhovych, Oksana Zabuzhko, Serhiy Zhadan, Taras Prokhasko, and Lyuba Yakimchuk. In this way, students encounter pronunciation not as an abstract system of rules, but as a living, many-voiced feature of Ukrainian culture.

The publication also brings to completion a remarkable trilogy of Ukrainian-language learning resources authored by Shevchuk, each devoted to one of the language's three principal systems: grammar—Beginner's Ukrainian (2011); lexicon—The Ukrainian-English Collocation Dictionary (2021); and phonetics—Say It in Ukrainian (2026). Together, these works offer learners a comprehensive path into Ukrainian, from its grammatical architecture and lexical richness to the very sounds through which the language is spoken and heard.

With Say It in Ukrainian, the Columbia University Ukrainian Language Program continues its tradition of innovation in Ukrainian-language teaching and further strengthens its position at the forefront of Ukrainian language studies in the West. More than a new textbook, the publication is an invitation to encounter Ukrainian on its own acoustic and linguistic terms—and to discover, through its sounds, the extraordinary richness and vitality of the language.