Ukrainian edition of Shevelov's "A Historical Phonology of the Ukrainian Language" is published (05/18/03)

Ukrainian edition of Shevelov's "A Historical Phonology of the Ukrainian Language" is published

EDMONTON - Thanks to support from the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) and its affiliate at Kharkiv National University, the Kowalsky Eastern Ukrainian Institute (KEUI), the first Ukrainian-language edition of George Y. Shevelov's fundamental monograph "A Historical Phonology of the Ukrainian Language" was published in late 2002 in Kharkiv.

Support for the project was also received from the International Renaissance Foundation (IRF, Kyiv), the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences (U.S.), the Shevchenko Scientific Society (U.S.), and the Kharkiv Historical and Philological Society. The book was published by the Kharkiv-based publisher Akta under the title "Istorychna Fonolohiia Ukrainskoyi Movy."

The inaugural book launch of the Ukrainian translation of Shevelov's "historical Phonology," organized by the KEUI and Akta Publishers, was held at Kharkiv National University on February 7, heralding its arrival on the Ukrainian scholarly and cultural scene. The Kyiv launch of the monograph took place on February 11 at the offices of the IRF, with guest speakers including Dr. Zenon Kohut, director of the CIUS; Academician Mykola Zhulynsky, director of the Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU); Academician Vasyl Nimchuk, director of the NASU Institute of Linguistics; and other specialists. Also attending were the Kharkiv scholars Leonid Ushkalov and Volodymyr Kravchenko, as well as Halyna Fedorets, the director of Akta Publishers.

Dr. Shevelov (1908-2002) was a prominent Ukrainian linguist, whose monumental work, "A Historical Phonology of the Ukrainian Language," was published in 1979 with the support of the CIUS. Its appearance prompted the scholarly world to revisit not only the historical phonetics of the Ukrainian language but also the history of the language itself.

In his study, Shevelov opposed views hitherto dominant in the academic world-namely, that the Ukrainian language had developed in the period following the destruction of the Kyivan Rus' state by the Mongols from a supposedly common Old Rus' language, which was the forerunner of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian.

In the preface to the Ukrainian translation, the Polish Slavist Janusz Rieger summarizes Shevelov's thesis as follows: "The East Slavic world was already so differentiated at the beginning of the period following the adoption of writing that the existence of a 'common Rus' or ' 'proto-Rus' ' language is precluded - at least in the form usually imagined until now."

While it is unlikely that all Slavists will adopt Shevelov's views, they will have to be taken into account and considered. The same may be said with respect to historians - particularly specialists in Eastern European history - and the significance of Mykhailo Hrushevsky's views on the history of the Eastern Slavs. Just as Hrushevsky's seminal "Istoriia Ukrainy-Rusy" (History of Ukraine-Rus') demonstrates the independent historical development of the Ukrainian people, so Shevelov's work reveals a completely different understanding of the history of the East Slavic languages in general, and the Ukrainian language in particular. It is worth noting that his work remains the only fundamental study of the historical phonology of any Slavic language.

Given the circumstances in which the publication of the original "Historical Phonology" was published (i.e., in English, in the diaspora), the few linguists in Ukraine who knew about it had no real opportunity to make use of it, especially as the author was proscribed by the Soviet Ukrainian regime.

Once circumstances changed in Ukraine, the CIUS undertook to have this work published there in Ukrainian so as to make it accessible to Ukrainian scholars and researchers. "Historical Phonology" was translated into Ukrainian by the Kharkiv linguists Andrii Danylenko, who now resides in New York, and Serhii Vakulenko, from Kharkiv. The Ukrainian edition was edited by Prof. Ushkalov of Kharkiv. In the final stages of the project, work was coordinated and organized by the KEUI (Volodymyr Kravchenko, director).

The publication of the translated edition in the city of Kharkiv is symbolic. In contrast to present conditions, Kharkiv was once a leading center of Ukrainian culture and study of the Ukrainian language. It was here in the 19th century that the eminent Ukrainian linguist Oleksander Potebnia initiated Ukrainian scholarly linguistics. Shevelov spent the inter-war years of his childhood and youth in Kharkiv, and acknowledged the significance in his life of this city, which played such an important role in the formation of modern Ukrainian culture and national consciousness during the 19th and 20th centuries.

In fact, Shevelov's last publications were issued in Kharkiv while he was still alive - the three-volume collection of selected works "Porohy i Zaporizhia (The Rapids and Beyond the Rapids), published by Folio (1998), and the memoirs "Ia - Mene - Meni... i Dovkruhy (I - Myself - To Me... and Round About) in two volumes, published by M.P. Kots and Berezil magazine (2001). Until his final days, Shevelov was deeply involved in the publication of his "Historical Phonology" in Ukrainian translation, although he did not live to see the final result.

Slavists the world over, particularly in Ukraine, will appreciate the appearance of this epochal work in Ukrainian translation, which will afford Ukrainian scholars the opportunity to consider anew and rethink the origins and history of their language. The KEUI is to receive a number of copies of Shevelov's "Istorychna Fonolohiia Ukrainskoyi Movy" that it intends to disseminate at no charge to scholarly and educational institutions and organizations throughout Ukraine.

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