Ukrainian term
Yanukisms (Ukrainian: янукізми, romanized: yanukizmy) is a Ukrainian colloquial term for various linguistic blunders and mistakes made by former President Viktor Yanukovych, who put up a façade of a well-educated man but frequently embarrassed himself with misspellings and other mistakes.[1]
One of the best known examples of a Yanukism is proffesor, which got started as Yanukovych misspelled the academic title in his registration form during the 2004 presidential election. It became an internet meme and a nickname of Yanukovych. In the same form, Yanukovych made in total 12 different mistakes: he misspelled the names of his wife and his hometown.[2] In addition, Yanukovych has made so many other mistakes that his doctor's degree in economics has been called into question.[3] Also, the fact that Yanukovych was among the best-selling authors of Ukraine in the early 2010s raised questions about the true author of his books due to all his past mistakes.[4]
Yanukisms can also be manifested by factual mistakes instead of misspellings or other mistakes language-wise. Yanukovych has said among other things that Mount Athos is located in Palestine (actually in Greece), called the 2022 Winter Olympics 'a World Championship' and said that Israel is a European country.[5][6]
Examples
Yanukism
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Explanation
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Ref.
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проффесор (proffesor [uk])
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extra ф (f)
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[2]
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Welcome in Ukraine!
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wrong preposition (to instead of in); Yanukovych uttered this while on a state visit to Japan in 2011
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[7]
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Isaak Bebel
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Yanukovych mixed up the Ukrainian author Isaac Babel and the German politician August Bebel
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[5]
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йолка (yolka)
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means 'a Christmas tree'. The correct Ukrainian term is ялинка (yalynka), which Yanukovych forgot.
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[7]
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прємьєр-міністр (premyer-ministr)
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correct spelling: прем'єр-міністр, means 'a Prime Minister' the incorrect spelling is derived from the Russian "Премьер-министр", substituting е and и with the Ukrainian letters є and і (which carry the same pronunciation in Ukrainian as е and и do in Russian — although е and и exist in the Ukrainian alphabet as well, they are pronounced differently).
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[2]
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курасани (kurasany)
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correct spelling: круасани (kruasany), means 'croissants'
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[8]
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Secretary General Clinton
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while meeting Hillary Clinton, Yanukovych mistitled her as 'Secretary General' instead of 'Secretary of State'
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[5]
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People from Lviv are "the country's best genocide"
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Yanukovych mixed up the words for gene pool (генофонд, henofond) and genocide (геноцид, henotsyd)
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[9]
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Anna Akhmetova
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correct spelling: Akhmatova
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[5]
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"when you see with your own hands (– –) you touch it with your own eyes"
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Yanukovych describes reports from regional governors
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[10]
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"revival and development of Pridnestrovie and all of Ukraine"
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Yanukovych mixed up the Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk (Ukrainian: Дніпропетровська область, romanized: Dnipropetrovska oblast) and the self-proclaimed unrecognized country of Transnistria (Ukrainian: Придністров'я, romanized: Prydnistrovia), which is a part of Moldova.
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[11]
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демілітація (demilitatsija)
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Yanukovych forgot the word делімітація (delimitatsiya), means ’delimitation’.
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[12]
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"Energoatom"
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while visiting a power engineering company called Turboatom, Yanukovych called it "Energoatom" thrice.
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[13]
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"low-enriched Iran"
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Yanukovych was meant to tell Barack Obama that a new research center in Kharkiv will focus on researching low-enriched uranium; he mixed up the words for "Iran" (Ukrainian: Іран, romanized: Iran) and "uranium" (Ukrainian: уран, romanized: uran).
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[14]
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uk:Астанавітєсь! (Astanavites!; Stop!)
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Russicism for proper Ukrainian Зупиніться!, another internet-meme associated with Yanukovich.[15] He uttered it addressing to the new Ukrainian government after he was removed from power in 2014
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[16]
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See also
References