ORTHOGRAPHY DISCUSSIONS AMONG UKRAINIAN DIASPORA (1940th–1980th)

Abstract

The paper aims to describe an orthography discussion in the Ukrainian diaspora in the second half of the XX century. Language processes that took place in the environment of the Ukrainian diaspora are an essential element of the history of the national language. The practice of language use among Ukrainians abroad is a unique source of data, part of the national linguistic fund.
Archive documents from the personal archive collections of M. Demkovych-Dobryanskyi (head of the Ukrainian editorial office of Radio Liberty), R. Chomiak (international journalist), and O. Horbach (a famous linguist) stored in the Manuscripts department of the V. Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv were used to prepare the presented paper.
Many diaspora publicists criticized Radio Liberty (Munich) broadcasts for using the orthography officially accepted in Soviet Ukraine. M. Demkovych-Dobriansky, as editor-in-chief, thought that norms of the Ukrainian language adopted in 1929 were dated and sounded weird to Ukrainian listeners. On the other hand, critics of Soviet orthography underlined that this version of the Ukrainian language was very russified and couldn't be used.
Spelling discussion of the second half of the XX century is an exciting and vital stage in developing the Ukrainian language. Disputes continued over the relevance of the so-called Kharkiv spelling of 1929 and the appropriateness of using the Soviet spelling, which many considered Russified. Although diaspora Ukrainians escaped the Russifying invasion of the USSR, they still failed to unify the norms of the Ukrainian language, so the spelling of independent Ukraine continued Soviet traditions. It practically did not use the achievements of diaspora linguistics.