aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- RE: [aaus-list] russification ... G, H and X

Dear Colleagues:

In keeping with Professor Chernetsky's all too reasonable request to maintain an appropriate scholarly tone to our discussions, I offer the attached journal article that Victor Chudowsky and I published in 2005. Using methods of statistical inference, we demonstrate that, as early as the 1994 presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine, linguistic and ethnic variables were less important factors than economic self-interest in determining the outcome. Note that we did not conclude that linguistic and ethnic factors were unimportant; clearly they were. Only that economic self-interest also was important, and arguably, more important.

Concerning the apparent assault on the Ukrainian tongue which has been the subject of our most recent exchanges, Russian self-interest would propel them to employ all available tools of cultural and social disruption to achieve their ultimate ends.

The citation for the Kravchuk & Chudowsky piece is: Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38 (2005) pp. 131-165. All comments and reactions are most welcome.

Collegially,

-Bob Kravchuk

-----Original Message-----
From: aaus-list-bounces@ukrainianstudies.org [mailto:aaus-list-bounces@ukrainianstudies.org] On Behalf Of Chernetsky, Vitaly A. Dr.
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 6:14 PM
To: aaus-list@ukrainianstudies.org
Subject: RE: [aaus-list] russification ... G, H and X

Dear Colleagues,

This "discussion" is beginning to look less and less appropriate for an academic forum, as the information-to-noise ratio exhibited by these posts has fallen precipitously low. May I remind you that this is supposed to be a scholarly e-mail discussion list, not an after-dinner social club. There are other Internet forums within the North American Ukrainian community that fulfill the function of an informal chat list; from individual messages I have received from several other subscribers to the list, I felt that many of them would like to see this kind of e-mail exchange taken to such social chat sites, and not carried on at the AAUS-list.

Also, with all due respect, did you notice that with the exception of Dr. Danylenko (who did refer you to his published research on this topic--indeed his article in _Die Welt der Slaven_ won the best article prize from the AAUS when it came out), no other specialist on the history of the Ukrainian language has contributed so far to this discussion? Could this be because they felt that the discussion was somehow lacking in scholarly decorum? Also, please note that postings to the AAUS-list are archived on the web. Therefore please think twice before sending knee-jerk responses to the list. Is this how we'd like the US Ukrainian Studies community to be represented on the Web?

The modification of words borrowed from other languages (including personal and geographic names) is a fraught and complex topic in any language (English, French, Chinese, or Swahili for that matter fare no better than Ukrainian). Also, there are several phonological distinctions mixed in in the postings: why do the respected contributors Messrs. Rubchak, Serbyn et al. are so certain that the plosive/fricative distinction is more important/weightier than the voiced/voiceless one (the Ukrainian "h" is voiced, the English "h" is voiceless; these ARE NOT one and the same phoneme)? In Dr. Serbyn's contributions, I was also surprised to see his insistence of rendering the English-language "o" as "a" in Ukrainian; Ukrainian orthography is not based on "hooked-on-phonics" phonetic spelling principles; additionally, some of the words in question were borrowed into Ukrainian from languages other than English.

Respectfully,

Vitaly Chernetsky

Vice President of the AAUS (the American Association for Ukrainian Studies)

________________________________________

From: aaus-list-bounces@ukrainianstudies.org [aaus-list-bounces@ukrainianstudies.org] On Behalf Of LGawur@aol.com [LGawur@aol.com]

Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 4:50 PM

To: aaus-list@ukrainianstudies.org

Subject: Re: [aaus-list] russification ... G, H and X

May I inject some humor into this discussion? (It is not silly. We should REVEL in the sheer discussion-ness of our right to think and speak and communicate! ) -

When I lived in New York in the early 90's, I met some newly-arrived Russians (from Moscow), one of whom dreamed of attending ---

Garvard!

________________________________

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