Ivan Bobersky as the creator of the Ukrainian football terminology in Halychyna

Abstract

This article analyzes the football terms proposed for use in the Ukrainian football discourse by a well-known public figure, the founder of the national physical education and sports tradition Ivan Bobers’kyi. Emphasis is placed on the basic approach of Bobers’kyi to the development of the Ukrainian football terminology – the search for specific equivalents to foreign names (se-mantic derivation) and the creation of terms on national grounds (morphological and syntactic word formation), which would be clear to the general public, easily perceived and assimilated. The most important thematic groups of football vocabulary used by Bobers’kyi in his text-book Zabavy i Hry Rukhovi. Chast III. Kopanyi Miach (Entertainments and Moving Games) have been singled out. The content of these groups of names is demonstrated through a series of syno-nyms to outline a special concept at the initial stage of term formation. Also, modern analogues to the football terms of the early 20th century, unknown today to both football fans and profes-sionals and linguists, are presented. It is argued that the football terminology suggested by Bo-bers’kyi in the first Ukrainian football textbook Kopanyi Miach (Football) proved successful in the creation of the names of football concepts on a national basis. In fact, there are more Ukrai-nian names in all the thematic groups of football vocabulary used by the author in this manual than borrowings, barbarisms, and hybrid names found in the text. Bobers’kyi did not copy foot-ball terminology used in other European languages but searched for a verbal definition for foot-ball concepts trying to preserve the spirit of the native language. In an effort to demonstrate the richness of his native language and its word-formation potential, Bobers’kyi coined the Ukrai-nian term for football kopanyi miach (a kicked ball) – a term that most accurately conveys the dy-namics of the football game itself. It is emphasized that Ukrainians owe to Bobers’kyi not only the dissemination of informa-tion about football but also the beginning of the Ukrainian football discourse in the native lan-guage and the creation of football terminology on a national basis. Keywords: football discourse, Ukrainian football terminology, Ivan Bobers’kyi, native terms, loan-words.