Thread: Volodymyr vs. Vladimir

by Volodymyr:
Okay first post here, looking forward to spending some time here. Short introduction, I am a student in Spokane, WA (USA). Russian/Ukrainian heritage on my dad's side, we think from Nycolaev (forgive the spelling) but can't confirm. I spent three weeks in Eastern Europe this summer, a week each in Estonia (Tallinn), Ukraine (Kyiv), and Russia (St. Petersburg) and had a blast.

I am an Orthodox convert and my patron saint is St. Vladimir/Volodymyr. I hear different things, so was hoping I could get some sort of consensus. I understand Volodymyr is a traditional Ukrainian spelling, would they be pronounced the same way? Or do you emphasize the O's a little bit.

Vla-duh-meer vs. Vah-lah-dee-meer

Or none of the above?

My Gamertag on Xbox LIVE is V0L0DYMR and I have a lot of fun with it, to-date two people have gotten it right off the bat. Everyone else tries to call me something ridiculous, everything from Voldemort to anything else you can imagine.

Oh, also taking my first year of Russian this year. Took me forever to find it, really enjoying it thus far!


by Zaya:

Nycolaev

Николаев in Russian
Миколаїв in Ukrainian

Володимир (Ukrainian)
Владимир (Russian)

would they be pronounced the same way?

Of course not. First, in Russian and Ukrainian и represents different sounds. Ukrainian [и] is closer to Russian [ы] although it is not the same sound.

Or do you emphasize the O's

I wouldn't say that we emphasise them but in Ukrainian we pronounce unstressed o's distinctly. It is definitly [o] (and in Russian unstressed o becomes a sound that is similar to [a]).
Sorry, I am not good at writing down pronunciation using English alphabet.

everything from Voldemort

P. S. (to all) If you will correct my mistakes, I'll be extremely grateful to you.


by gRomoZeka:

Vla-duh-meer vs. Vah-lah-dee-meer

Nicolaev is Russian-speaking city, so it's safe to say that your father (as well as everybody else) called himself Владимир (Vla-dee-meer, last "и" is UNstressed).
In all official papers nowadays he would be called Володимир (as you've already said it's a Ukrainian spelling of the same name). It's pronounced "Voh-loh-dy-myr" (where "y" is "ы" sound) - there's no reduction of the unstressed vowels in Ukrainian, so unstressed "o" is still "oh".


by Volodymyr:

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Vla-duh-meer vs. Vah-lah-dee-meer

Nicolaev is Russian-speaking city, so it's safe to say that your father (as well as everybody else) called himself Владимир (Vla-dee-meer, last "и" is UNstressed).
In all official papers nowadays he would be called Володимир (as you've already said it's a Ukrainian spelling of the same name). It's pronounced "Voh-loh-dy-myr" (where "y" is "ы" sound) - there's no reduction of the unstressed vowels in Ukrainian, so unstressed "o" is still "oh".

I tend to stick to the Russian for several reasons, more recently because its the language I can pronounce and am learning lol.

My great-grandpa never really talked about his past, and always just introduced himself as Russian. He gave a presentation to a 5th grade class once, and the thank you letters are about all we know. Two students tried to spell the name of the town he is from, they looked nothing alike (poor cursive writing), one looked like Nicolaev. So its our best guess.

Either way, though we don't know the exact year he left, chances are he left Russia and not an independent Ukraine.

So once we discovered that I tend to refer to my heritage as Russian/Ukrainian. Like I said I tend to stick to Vladimir over Volodymyr for the reasons above. But often times Vladimir is taken as a name on forums or such and so then I go for Volodymyr

Still undecided if I am going to have my name changed to reflect the Orthodox conversion.

Thanks for the responses... anyone able to do an English pronunciation of Volodymyr, or was I close in my guess?

Thanks again!

EDIT: Oh I do try stick to Ukrainian spellings for things like Kyiv or Chornobyl because it just seems more accurate. I know the whole thing has its complications.

by TATY:
FYI the English rendering of Николаев is Nikolaev or Nikolayev. The rendering of the Ukrainian is Мykolayiv.

In Ukrainian you don't reduce the pronunciation of unstressed Os, so unlike in Russian where it reduces to an A sound, an O is always an O in Ukrainian.

Still undecided if I am going to have my name changed to reflect the Orthodox conversion.

Are you under the ROCA or the AOC?

Originally Posted by MasterAdmin

by Volodymyr:

I am an Orthodox convert and my patron saint is St. Vladimir/Volodymyr.

you are a convert so what were you originally?

Originally Posted by xRoosterx

Still undecided if I am going to have my name changed to reflect the Orthodox conversion.

Are you under the ROCA or the AOC?

what is the difference between ROCA and AOC? and what are they exactly?

I go to a Greek Orthodox parish actually, but consider myself mostly just "Eastern Orthodox," it just happens that the Greek parish here was the convenient and most welcoming. Not sure if there is a Russian parish here either (the majority of our parish is actually Slavic I think).

My family joined a Covenant Protestant church when I was 10 or 11. I was sort of "in the market" for a new church once I got to college because I never really felt "spiritual," and I had put a lot of time in with teaching Sunday school and going on missions and whatnot. The fates sort of aligned and as I was studying Medieval Russian History (and growing interested in Orthodoxy) my university advisor recommended I attend an Orthodox church as part of my attempts to "explore my roots"- unfortunately my dad could hardly care less what his ancestry is and my grandma, whose father was from Ukraine, is dead so there isn't really any cultural connection left in my family. My aunt does take a lot of interest in it though, we are planning on trying to visit his town someday and see if we can dig anything up on who he was- but its doubtful we will find anything.

Anyone able to provide a pronunciation of Volodymyr (in English [or Russian] characters?! heh) thanks!

Oh and Tamerlane, I'm not sure what ROCA is (OCA is the Orthodox Church of America), I am familiar with the ROCOR (Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia- I think it has been reunited with the Russian Orthodox Church, though I'm not sure how completely) and AOC is probably the Antiochian Orthodox Church. The primary differences between the different churches are historical development and patriarchies, traditional differences exist (such as in worship) but as far as I know the doctrine of most Orthodox churches in communion are almost identical.

EDIT: I'm not much of an expert on doctrine and such though. I go because as Vladimir's emissaries supposedly said, during the Divine Liturgy you cannot tell if you are in heaven or on earth. Never felt that in any other service I have been to!

Originally Posted by Volodymyr

I go to a Greek Orthodox parish actually, but consider myself mostly just "Eastern Orthodox," it just happens that the Greek parish here was the convenient and most welcoming. Not sure if there is a Russian parish here either (the majority of our parish is actually Slavic I think).

My family joined a Covenant Protestant church when I was 10 or 11. I was sort of "in the market" for a new church once I got to college because I never really felt "spiritual," and I had put a lot of time in with teaching Sunday school and going on missions and whatnot. The fates sort of aligned and as I was studying Medieval Russian History (and growing interested in Orthodoxy) my university advisor recommended I attend an Orthodox church as part of my attempts to "explore my roots"- unfortunately my dad could hardly care less what his ancestry is and my grandma, whose father was from Ukraine, is dead so there isn't really any cultural connection left in my family. My aunt does take a lot of interest in it though, we are planning on trying to visit his town someday and see if we can dig anything up on who he was- but its doubtful we will find anything.

Anyone able to provide a pronunciation of Volodymyr (in English [or Russian] characters?! heh) thanks!

Oh and Tamerlane, I'm not sure what ROCA is (OCA is the Orthodox Church of America), I am familiar with the ROCOR (Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia- I think it has been reunited with the Russian Orthodox Church, though I'm not sure how completely) and AOC is probably the Antiochian Orthodox Church. The primary differences between the different churches are historical development and patriarchies, traditional differences exist (such as in worship) but as far as I know the doctrine of most Orthodox churches in communion are almost identical.

EDIT: I'm not much of an expert on doctrine and such though. I go because as Vladimir's emissaries supposedly said, during the Divine Liturgy you cannot tell if you are in heaven or on earth. Never felt that in any other service I have been to!

sorry...ROCIA - Russian Orthodox Church In America ( forgot that the 'in' is acronymized ) It is autocephalous, although it was originally chartered under the Moscow Patriarchate.
OCA = AOC - also autocephalous.
ROCOR is now officially linked with the Moscow Patriarchate after a long history of political factors delayed the reunion.

Basically, Patriarch Tikhon caused this mass division when he ordered all the orthodox churches autonomous and on their own accord after the Bolshevik Revolution. Most of these new churches are simply products of Soviet Diaspora.

Anyone able to provide an English pronunciation "guide" for Volodymyr yet?

Originally Posted by Volodymyr

Anyone able to provide an English pronunciation "guide" for Volodymyr yet?

There was

It's pronounced "Voh-loh-dy-myr" (where "y" is "ы" sound) - there's no reduction of the unstressed vowels in Ukrainian, so unstressed "o" is still "oh".

What else? I can add only that the third syllab is stressed.

BTW if you plan to walk around Russian-spoken forums with a nick like this you always risk to be dragged into the traditional Russian-Ukrainian political bickering.

Oh crap I missed it, thanks!

So both "y"s are like "ы"?

Yeah I know, I tend to stick to Vladimir unless its taken, which it normally is .

Originally Posted by Volodymyr

So both "y"s are like "ы"?

Right. It's like in Polish language, which has the same sound y=ы and use latin-based alphabet.