ANOTHER PERSPEKTYVA

Ukrainian's profound influence on the English language

by Peter Fedynsky

George Bernard Shaw said that Great Britain and the United States are two nations separated by a common language. If language is any indication of kinship between peoples, we should not overlook the relationship between the Anglo-Saxons and Ukrainians. Therefore, I submit that Ukrainian has exerted considerable influence not only on English, but also on Greek and Latyna and that Ukrainians should be given kredyt where kredyt is due for their achievements in the field of lingvistyka.

While my teoria may cause diskomfort among ivory tower akademiky, there is plenty of objiektivnyi evidence to support my positsia. Any adequatnyi review of the fakty should confirm this. I must also reject at the outset any krytyka suggesting that I am a fanatyk whose motivy are revizionism. Frankly, I feel quite komfortabylno with my opinia.

I realized the rightful place of Ukrainian in the Indo-European struktura as I donned my pulover and got in my pikup to drive to work as manadzher in charge of building the fuselazh of a new airliner for routes between the United States, Europe and offshorni zony in the Caribbean.

This airliner, incidentally, should provide special servis and komfort for wayward members of the Ukrainian establishment involved in korruptsia and the raket, such as money laundering, prostitutsia and kontrabanda, but that's neither here nor there.

Klienty for the liner include the world's leading plane kompaniyi. Moreover, the main konstruktor on the projekt is a Ukrainian imigrant. The plane's fashionabilny dezign will also improve the imidzh of kompaniyi, whose current flot consists of outdated and inefficient Soviet equipment. Granted, work on this proyekt was delayed because of a falsh start due to komputerni problemy, but all that has been taken care of. There were also some initial kredytni problemy, but we submitted a new biznesplan, which prompted the bank to issue a vaiver and even a new grent. Once we implement our marketing stratehia and the plane takes to the skies, we should earn a lot of bucksy. To get in on the ground floor, you should talk with your broker about trading your commodity fyoochers to make an investitsia in our korporatsia.

The reader may wonder what a new jet has to do with lingvistyka. Plenty. Try communicating the previous paragraf without the Ukrainian words and see how far English takes you. Also, try finding a sayt onlain without a brauzer or reading a vebpage without these Ukrainian words to describe what you're doing. And how do you expect to play vidio games without the use of a dzhoistyk? Try making kopiyi of your komputer file without a floppi disk. Keep in mind also the various interfeisy between your modem, monitor, display, kursor, printer and skenner, as well as the mikrochyp that makes it all work.

Thus, the messedzh is clear: the moderna language of teknologia, informatsia, biznes and masmedia is Ukrainian. There is more at stake here than just semantyka, because Ukrainians cannot begin to enjoy the high life they deserve until they receive kredyt for their know-how and contribution to world kultura.

If you agree with my thesa, please send your response to the editor of this publikatsia. However, if you disagree, your oppozytsia will not escape the scrutiny of a tsenzor. While censorship may not be considered a korrektny approach, it is a key element in a sekretna programma for manipulatsia of the demokratychnyi protsess. The lidery of Ukraine have learned over the centuries that it is an effektivny way of harnessing the native talant and maintaining the solidarnist of Ukrainians so they may enjoy the frukty of reformy which have led the natsia as far as it has gotten in the world arena of egalitarna polityka, decentralizovana ekonomika, progressivny socialny policy and, of course, language.

Peter Fedynsky is host of "Window on America," a weekly Voice of America TV newsmagazine broadcast in Ukraine. The views expressed are his own.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 1, 2001, No. 13, Vol. LXIX

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