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From Stalking the Atomic City,

The police might be lying in wait, ready to ambush you, or they might not. I might notice the glow of a cigarette or the silhouette of their car. I might hear them speaking quietly in broken Ukrainian in the dark and change my route.

Why would a Ukrainian police officer only speak broken Ukrainian?

EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
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    When I visited Ukraine (Kiev and Odessa) a few years ago, most people spoke Russian. Airport personnel asked me if I spoke Russian. I also overheard many heated conversations (few of us had to spend an unexpected night in transit), and I specifically asked whether they spoke Russian or Ukrainian. Notably, it was the capital city, not the the famously Russian-speaking east or south. So, I imagine it's not uncommon for some people in Ukraine to speak Ukrainian rather poorly, as they do not use it on a daily basis. – Riwen Apr 15 '22 at 16:26
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    Imagine a (perfectly loyal) Irish policeman speaking only broken Irish. Is that so implausible? Languages are more complex than something you put on to choose your loyalty as if they were a national dress or flag: they're a complex combination of history, allegiance, education, economic and political reality, and so on. The way "Russian speaking" and "Ukrainian speaking" in this conflict are being used in the West is extremely Basic. – Dan Apr 15 '22 at 22:32
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    I would say 80% of the population of Wales does not speak Welsh, even though Welsh is an official language. – Tom Apr 16 '22 at 09:15
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    @DanSheppard or, my great-grandfather was a Scots speaker. I never learned to speak it (but only to listen and read), but I still consider myself Scottish. – Robert Columbia Apr 16 '22 at 12:31
  • @Riwen That could probably be an answer. – EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine Apr 16 '22 at 21:39

2 Answers2

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In Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian are both spoken, but neither language is universal. It’s not unreasonable that a Ukrainian police officer’s native tongue might be Russian¹ and his command of Ukrainian would be imperfect.

  1. In fact, Ukrainian president Volodymir Zelenskyy's native language is Russian and not Ukrainian.
Rand al'Thor
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D. A. Hosek
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    This is quite common, BTW. Switzerland has four official languages, but almost nobody speaks all four. Spain has three official languages, but practically nobody speaks all three. Finland has two. There is a region between Germany and Denmark where a Danish-speaking minority lives within German borders and vice-versa, and according to a treaty between the two countries, both languages are official languages in those regions. So, depending on which group they grew up in, government employees will likely speak one of the two languages as a second language. And so on. – Jörg W Mittag Apr 15 '22 at 11:57
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    In fact, in the German district of Nordfriesland, where the Danish minorities lives, no less than five different languages are spoken, every single one of which may or may not be an official language in a certain area within certain contexts on certain levels of government. (Except for German, which is an official language in all of Germany on every level of government.) – Jörg W Mittag Apr 15 '22 at 12:09
  • The only official language of Spain is Spanish but there are at least three other co-official languages which can be official in certain territories: Galician, Catalan, Basque. I recently learned that my friend from Spain learned Galician as a first language before Spanish and had not always considered themselves a confident Spanish speaker! – Tom Apr 16 '22 at 09:14
  • Similarly, you can travel around Canada and find towns where a significant percentage of the population don't speak English well, and would prefer to speak to you in French (which is an official language). Back in Europe, there are islands in Finland where the local language is Swedish and the vast majority of people you encounter are native Swedish speakers. Linus Torvalds (the creator of Linux) was born in Finland as a Finnish citizen but his native language is Swedish. – Robert Columbia Apr 16 '22 at 12:25
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    @Robert: Or as a Québécois might say, you can travel around Canada and find towns where a significant percentage of the population don't speak French well, and would prefer to speak to you in English (which is an official language) ;-) – Steve Jessop Apr 16 '22 at 15:20
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    @Tom There are are some that would say that Galician, Catalan, and Basque are all "Spanish", and the fourth language that you are referring to as "Spanish" is Castilian. – Acccumulation Apr 16 '22 at 22:21
  • @Acccumulation: You remind me of an experience in Barcelona (Catalona), where a bartender ignored our friend speaking to him in Castilian, as if he didn't exist, but promptly and nicely interacted with us when we spoke English. – Matthieu M. Apr 17 '22 at 11:07
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    @Acccumulation Galician and Catalan, yes, but does anyone really claim the non-Indo-European language isolate Basque to be a dialect of Spanish? – Rand al'Thor Apr 17 '22 at 12:43
  • Yes, you can refer to Spanish as ''castellano'' if you wish but it sounds slightly absurd and pompous. – Tom Apr 17 '22 at 12:58
  • I have heard people in Bolivia refer to the Spanish language as ''castellano'', so that has very little to do with being in Spain or regions of Spain. Was your friend who got disrespected by the bartender a native Spanish speaker? – Tom Apr 17 '22 at 14:10
  • @Randal'Thor It's a political statement, not a linguistic one. The point they're making is that Castillian is, in principle, not more deserving the moniker 'Spanish' than any other language natively spoken in Spain. – Denis Nardin Apr 18 '22 at 10:57
  • @MatthieuM. Was your friend a native Spanish speaker? People in Barcelona can be very rude in terms of ignoring people who speak Spanish with a foreign accent, so it may be that there was no politics involved. – Tom Apr 19 '22 at 21:57
  • @Tom: Interesting; he wasn't actually. He's a French who had been living in Madrid for a year at that point. We assumed it was a Castillian/Catalan thing, but it may not have been after all. – Matthieu M. Apr 20 '22 at 09:52
  • @MatthieuM. He probably either didn't understand or was just ignoring him because of his accent, people in the Spanish-speaking world can be rude to foreigners who are learning the language. – Tom Apr 20 '22 at 12:04
  • My friend from Malta said that sometimes when they are in England they ask passers-by for directions and get ignored because of their accent, so I think this probably happens everywhere unfortunately. – Tom Apr 20 '22 at 12:17
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For the same reason why most Irish police officers do not speak Irish at all. In a lot of cases, current national affiliation and its official language have little to do with what is being actually spoken. This situation is especially prominent in former Soviet Union.

Examples of countries where significant amount of residents do not speak the "official" language: Ireland, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Belarus.

James Tennessee
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    I would say 80% of the population of Wales does not speak Welsh, even though Welsh is an official language. – Tom Apr 16 '22 at 09:15
  • Depending on who you ask, English might not be an official language in New Zealand. (I have heard this is because it was so obviously "the" language that the government did not feel the need to pass a law making it so) – user253751 Feb 12 '23 at 15:59