Biographical sketch: George Y. Shevelov, prominent Slavic linguist and philologist (09/20/98)

Biographical sketch: George Y. Shevelov, prominent Slavic linguist and philologist

George Y. Shevelov, professor emeritus, Columbia University, is an eminent Slavic linguist and philologist.

In the field of Slavic linguistics he devoted special attention to Old Church Slavonic, Belarusian, Polish, Russian, Slovak, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian and, above all, Ukrainian.

In his most important work, "A Historical Phonology of the Ukrainian Language "(1979), Prof. Shevelov demonstrated the historical continuity of the Ukrainian language.

Among his other important publications in linguistics are: "Do Henezy Nazyvnoho Rechennia" (On the Genesis of the Nominal Sentence, 1947); "Halychyna v Formuvanni Novoii Ukraiinskoii Literaturnoii Movy" (Galicia in the Formation of the Modern Ukrainian Literary Language, 1949, 1975); "Narys Suchasnoii Ukraiinskoii Literaturnoii Movy" (An Outline of the Contemporary Ukrainian Literary Language, 1951); "The Syntax of Modern Literary Ukrainian: The Simple Sentence" (1963; in Ukrainian, 1951); "A Prehistory of Slavic: The Historical Phonology of Common Slavic" (1964, 1965); "Die Ukrainische Schriftsprache, 1798-1965" (The Ukrainian Written Language, 1798-1965), (1966); "Teasers and Appeasers: Essays and Studies on Themes of Slavic Philology" (1971); and "The Ukrainian Language in the First Half of the 20th Century, 1900-1941: Its State and Status" (1989; in Ukrainian, 1987).

Professor of Slavic philology at Columbia University from 1958 to 1977, Prof. Shevelov served as associate professor at Columbia (1954-1958) and lecturer in Russian and Ukrainian at Harvard University (1952-1954).

He was born December 17, 1908, in Lomza, Poland. After studying under L. Bulakhovsky at Kharkiv University, he lectured there in Slavic linguistics from 1939-1943. Upon emigrating to Germany, he taught at the Ukrainian Free University in Munich (1946-1949) and obtained a doctorate there.

Prof. Shevelov was actively involved in organizing Ukrainian émigré literary life in postwar Germany. He was one of the founders and served as vice-president (1945-1949) of the MUR literary association (Mystetskyi Ukrainskyi Rukh/The Artistic Ukrainian Movement).

Prof. Shevelov's numerous articles in the field of literature, literary criticism and theater appeared in the following collections: "Ne Dlia Ditei" (Not for Children, 1964); "Druha Cherha: Literatura, Teatr, Ideolohiii" (The Second Round: Literature, Theater, Ideologies, 1978); and "Tretia Storozha" (The Third Watch, 1991).

Prof. Shevelov served as editor and co-editor of many scholarly and literary journals, books and other publications, among them, Arka (1947-1948); The Annals of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S. (1960-1961); Historical Phonology of the Slavic Languages (5 vols., 1973-1983); and the journal Suchasnist (1978-1987).

He was also linguistics subject editor for Ukrainian-language Entsyklopediia Ukraiinoznavstva (Encyclopedia of Ukraine), Ukraine: A Concise the Encyclopedia, and the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, to which he contributed numerous articles.

Prof. Shevelov has been a full member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society since 1949 and of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S. (UVAN) since 1945. He is also a founding member of the Slovo Association of Ukrainian Writers in Exile.

Source: Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Vol. 4 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993).

Scholarly symposium at Columbia to pay tribute to renowned linguist

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