THE HISTORICAL ASPECT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF UKRAINIAN WRITING

Abstract

The historical way of development and formation of Ukrainian writing is highlighted in the paper. The main types of writing: pictographic ideographic, syllabic are described. The oldest graphic writing is pictographic, the information in it was transmitted in the pictures, but for the transmission of the abstract concepts such type of writing was inappropriate. Each sign in the ideographic letter denoted the word within the concept associations. Syllabic writing refl ected the phonetic and grammatical features of the speech more precisely and became the basis for the appearance of the sound-literal (alphabetical) writing, where each alphabetic character (grapheme) transmitted a certain sound. The author of the article considers the chronicle version of the origin of Eastern Slavs’ writing and analyses the evidence of the existence of Ukrainian writing before the adoption of Christianity. In particular, the scientifi c research emphasised the issue of the origin of Ukrainian writing after the discovery of the Trypillian culture and highlighted the well-known facts, which prove the antiquity of writing, of the Austrian semitologist A. Irku, of the Roman Pompey Trog, of the Pole of M. Krasuskyi, of the Romanian archeologist N. Vlas, the texts in the caves of Stone Tomb, Trypillian signs. However, according to the author, these assumptions are only the basis for the formation of Slavic writing. The analysis of scientifi c sources revealed that the greatest popularity gained beliefs that the Slavic script arose at the end of 862, or after the religious reform of St. Vladimir in 988. Due to this, it can be argued that Ukrainian writing has a diffi cult way of development and formation. Today, having an alphabetical writing, we do not abandon pictographic and ideographic images, which is an indication that each well-known form of writing has its advantages and disadvantages, as well as its scopes.