Discussion at the Imperial academy of sciences (1907) considering “The Dictionary of the Ukrainian language” spelling system

Abstract

The subject of the study is the discussion considering the spelling system of the Ukrainian part of the four-volume “The Dictionary of the Ukrainian language” (1907–1909), compiled and edited by Borys Grinchenko. Academician Alexei Shakhmatov initiated the discussion at the Imperial Academy of Sciences at the beginning of 1907. The lack of Ukrainian unified spelling was the reason for the discussion. The Imperial Academy of Sciences archival materials were found and systematized by historians Viktor Korotky and Vasyl Ulyanovsky, which is not widely known among the Ukrainian philological community. The procedure of the discussion as well as specific features of the archival materials have been studied in this research. The material of the paper includes the Imperial Academy of Sciences meeting minutes on Ukrainian spelling with the participation of Philip Fortunatov (chairman), Fyodor Volkov, Pavel Saladilov, Peter Stebnytsky and Alexei Shakhmatov (January 6, 1907); Peter Stebnytsky’s report on the spelling system of the Dictionary, compiled by Borys Grinchenko (January 6, 1907); Mykhailo Hrushevsky’s conclusion on the spelling of the dictionary (February 1907); Borys Grinchenko’s conclusion “On the question of the Ukrainian language spelling (for the Imperial Academy of Sciences Meeting on Ukrainian spelling)” (March 7, 1907); Kost Mykhalchuk’s letter to the Academic Commission (May 5, 1907). The article aims at linguistic, sociallinguistic, linguodidactic and other reasons of discussion about the spelling of a part of the “The Dictionary of the Ukrainian language” (1907‒1909) and choice of the Ukrainian language spelling system. The article relies primarily on the descriptive method, coupled with elements of the contrastive method and the biographical analysis. The result of the study is the statement that the meeting on spelling issues for the “Dictionary of the Ukrainian language” considered the choice of the Ukrainian language spelling system as a whole, but not for a separate printed work. It was Borys Grinchenko’s “Dictionary” that first revealed the scientific, educational and practical needs to create a standardized and unified Ukrainian spelling and its rules. The meeting materials demonstrate that the compiler reached a well-thought-out compromise between a purely scientific idea of etymological spelling and the practical, technical and pedagogical needs of that time society, for which it would be the easiest to master the phonetic principle of writing. The dictionary was printed taking into account the comments of the spelling meeting. It is worth mentioning that the given comments were constructive. The spelling meeting did not make a decision on its own, the opinions of Ukrainian scholars and Borys Grinchenko himself were taken into consideration, and some spelling principles were found expedient for the Ukrainian language in order to fully convey its sound system. The materials studied presuppose further thorough research of Borys Grinchenko’s autographs and reprints of his texts from the standpoint of textology, source studies, the history of Ukrainian linguistic thought, the history of the Ukrainian literary language and its spelling.