There is indeed a specific word Ukrainians are asking people to pronounce! This is what happens

[Swede]

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=tPBFt0bFdujbs6_Q-ZVaWA

[WarGamer]

1. ill help

sukha = female dog

blyat = f**

yupt = mixture of sh*t and f***, exclamatory word

[LisaL]

3. Same as a bitch.

But that's neither here nor there.

[WarGamer]

4. I didn't want to say it... thought it was on the Du naughty list lol

[Swede]

5. DU has a naughty list?

R'oh fucking r'oh!

[WarGamer]

6. the 4-5 "Alert Karens" who troll me daily would look for an excuse to alert.

[Iggo]

11. .

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. "Sukha" is dry.

"Suka" is the word you're looking for, although there are certainly regional variants and jocular mispronunciations. And it's more "yob" than "yupt," especially because it's often only the start of a long string. Swearing in Slavic languages should be its own minor within the study.

[LisaL]

8. Well if you watch videos coming out of Ukraine they appear to be mostly swearing.

NT

[WarGamer]

9. since it's all in Cyrillic, the English phonetic spelling is pretty pointless, lol...

[LisaL]

10. Yep.

In Cyrillic it's: сука.
Just so there are no questions left.

[FM123]

13. What is the proper pronunciation of the word "yupt"?

I think I would like to learn to say that word.....

[LisaL]

2. Maybe the people who are eager to go to Ukraine and fight might think about

this.
Looks like Ukrainians are rounding up people who they think have an accent. Fun times.
They are clearly in a very suspicious mood right now. And might not appreciate your efforts if you show up there to fight.

[FakeNoose]

12. It helps to have a US Passport though (if you're American)

I'm not sure how many Ukrainians can speak or understand English. The younger ones probably got some English in school, and the internet.

[Swede]

14. Russian speakers from other than Ukraine will have a distinctive accent.

They are looking for Russians.

[LisaL]

15. Well I guess you will have to trust that they won't mistake your accent for that of a Russian.

Good luck.

[Swede]

18. I don't speak Russian or Ukrainian.

If I did I would have a Canadian accent. Ukrainians are looking for Russian speakers with a Russian accent.

[Igel]

22. Russian speakers will make obvious mistakes.

If they're not locals.

They'll do stupid things like pronounce "Kyiv" "Keef." That first vowel ... so not Russian.

There are also differences in aspiration and palatalization. Then the whole lenited / g / as a pharyngeal that DU's interface doesn't like.

There are differences in voicing sandhi.

Some things are easy to get right. But others are completely unconscious and deep-seated in Russian speech patterns by age 3. Hard to recognize them, much less undo them.

Curious back in the '90s, I dug up a bunch of the scholarly writings on the differences. A lot of the distinctions are subtle, exactly where in vowel space you put Ukrainian / y / and how it contrasts with / i / in Russian and Ukrainian.

I can read a fair bit of Ukrainian, but I open my mouth to read it and Ukrainian speakers want to know if I'm speaking Bulgarian. Or Serbian. They're too nice to suggest that it's Russian-botched Ukrainian overlaid with an American English accent.

As for mimicking a Ukrainian Russian accent? Just not even thinkable in my case.

[crickets]

24. Interesting! Thanks for the explanation. nt

[Treefrog]

23. If you find a DU member who goes to fight, please

let us know.

I saw a person mention it on one thread, but I assume they changed their mind. Not that I blame them, but still.

[canuckledragger]

16. Try harder.

You haven't outed yourself yet

[abqtommy]

17. Hold my lemonade while I pin this guy down...nt

[Swede]

19. That may be a vodka cooler?

[abqtommy]

20. Could be, but it's the guy on the ground who's gettin' cooled! nt

[Xipe Totec]

21. Shiboleth - a use of language regarded as distinctive of a particular group

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shibboleth