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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]
| Yanukism | Explanation | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| проффесор (proffesor) | extra ф (f) | [2] |
| Welcome in Ukraine! | wrong preposition (to instead of in); Yanukovych uttered this while on a state visit to Japan in 2011 | [7] |
| Isaak Bebel | Yanukovych mixed up the Ukrainian author Isaac Babel and the German politician August Bebel | [5] |
| йолка (yolka) | means 'a Christmas tree'. The correct Ukrainian term is ялинка (yalynka), which Yanukovych forgot. | [7] |
| прємьєр-міністр (premyer-ministr) | 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). |
[2] |
| курасани (kurasany) | correct spelling: круасани (kruasany), means 'croissants' | [8] |
| Secretary General Clinton | while meeting Hillary Clinton, Yanukovych mistitled her as 'Secretary General' instead of 'Secretary of State' | [5] |
| People from Lviv are "the country's best genocide" | Yanukovych mixed up the words for gene pool (генофонд, henofond) and genocide (геноцид, henotsyd) | [9] |
| Anna Akhmetova | correct spelling: Akhmatova | [5] |
| "when you see with your own hands (– –) you touch it with your own eyes" | Yanukovych describes reports from regional governors | [10] |
| "Розмовляють угорською, румунською, болгарською, грецькою, єврейсько тощо (Rozmovlyayut ugorskoyu, rumunskoyu, bolharskoyu, hretskoju, yevreysko toshcho)" | Yanukovych lists down languages spoken by Ukrainians but forgot what's "Hebrew" in Ukrainian. Yanukovych said yevreysko while the correct word is ivrytom (івритом). | [11] |
| "revival and development of Pridnestrovie and all of Ukraine" | 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. | [12] |
| демілітація (demilitatsija) | Yanukovych forgot the word делімітація (delimitatsiya), means ’delimitation’. | [13] |
| "Energoatom" | while visiting a power engineering company called Turboatom, Yanukovych called it "Energoatom" thrice. | [14] |
| "low-enriched Iran" | 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). | [15] |
| uk:Астанавітєсь! (Astanavites!; Stop!) | Russicism for proper Ukrainian Зупиніться!, another internet-meme associated with Yanukovich.[16] He uttered it addressing to the new Ukrainian government after he was removed from power in 2014 | [17] |
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