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Language Lviv is the capital of western Ukraine and between 1939 till 1991 was ruled from Moscow and it was here that Ukrainian nationalism re-emerged in the late 1980s. The result is that many people speak and understand Russian but since its independence in 1991, a revival of the Ukrainian language has taken place and everybody now, as a norm, speaks Ukrainian. Signs are in Ukrainian, in contrast with those living in Crimea who speak Russian as their first language.
Ukrainian is written in Cyrillic script, which has strong similarities with the Greek alphabet, although there are additional letters to represent Slavonic sounds not found in Greek. Many younger Lvivians will have learned English at school. Today there is a lively interest in learning western European languages, now that the political barriers to travel have come down for most European countries, although (for Ukrainians) the economic barriers make it too expensive, in practice, for many people to be able to afford a holiday abroad.
If you don't speak Ukrainian or Russian, here are some tips for coping easily with the language challenge!
Interpreter / Guide
However, if you would prefer to let someone else do the work for you, |