Some properties of the Ukrainian writing system

SomepropertiesoftheUkrainianwritingsystemSolomijaBuk1,LvivJánMačutek2,BratislavaAndrijRovenchak3,LvivAbstract.Weinvestigatethegrapheme–phonemerelationinUkrainianandsomepropertiesoftheUkrainianversionoftheCyrillicalphabet.Keywords:Ukrainian,phoneme-graphemerelation,scriptanalysis.1.IntroductoryremarksUkrainianisanEastSlaviclanguagespokenbyabout40millionpeopleinUkraineandUkrainiancommunitiesinneighboringstates(Belarus,Moldova,Poland,Slovakia,Russia—especiallyintheso-calledZelenyjKlyn‘Greenwedge’intheFarEastSiberiafromtheAmurandUssuririverseastwardstothePacific),alsoinArgentina,Australia,Brazil,Canada,USA,andsomeothers.ThefeaturestypicalformodernUkrainianarefoundalreadyinthetextsfrom11th-12thcent.AD,theyhavebeenappearingsystematicallysince14th-15thcent.(Rusanivsjkyj2004).UkrainianusestheCyrillicscript.TheCyrillicalphabet,alsoknownasazbuka(fromoldnamesofitsfirsttwoletters()and()),hasbeentraditionallyusedtowriteEastandSouthSlaviclanguages(withtheexceptionofmodernCroatianandSlovenian),andalsoRomanianuntil1860(Jensen1969:491).Asaresultofpoliticaldecisionsitspreadoveramuchlargerareacoveringmost(butnotall)oflanguagesintheformerUSSR,manyofthemusingLatinorArabicscriptbefore(cf.Comrie1996bforamoredetailedhistoricaloverview).Obviously,beingappliedinsodifferentlanguageslikeRussian,Abkhaz,Tatar,TajikorChukchi(togivejustafewexamples)ithadtorepresentmuchmorephonemesthanthoseoccurringinSlaviclanguages,hencethereare/weremanylanguagespecificmodificationsofthealphabet(modifiedparticularletters,diacriticmarksorcompletelynewletters,cf.Comrie1996a).TheUkrainianversionoftheCyrillicalphabetiscalledalsoabetkainvernacularfromthenamesofthefirsttwolettersaandbe.Itconsistsof33letters:Аа,Бб,Вв,Гг,Ґґ,Дд,Ее,Єє,Жж,Зз,Ии,Іі,Її,Йй,Кк,Лл,Мм,Нн,Оо,Пп,Рр,Сс,Тт,Уу,Фф,Хх,Цц,Чч,Шш,Щщ,ь,Юю,Яя1DepartmentforGeneralLinguistics,IvanFrankoNationalUniversityofLviv,1UniversytetskaSt.,Lviv,UA-79000,Ukraine,e-mail:[e-mail].2DepartmentofAppliedMathematicsandStatistics,ComeniusUniversity,Mlynskádolina,84248Bratislava,Slovakia,e-mail:[e-mail].3DepartmentforTheoreticalPhysics,IvanFrankoNationalUniversityofLviv,12DrahomanovSt.,Lviv,UA-79005,Ukraine,e-mail:[e-mail],[e-mail].1Whenitalicized,thefollowinglowercaselettersdiffermoreorlesssignificantlyfromtheromantype:г—г,д—д,и—и,й—й,п—п,т—т,ш—ш.TwolettersareusuallyconsidereduniqueintheUkrainianalphabet:ҐandЇ.Thefirstonedenotesvelarplosive[g]andisusedmainlyinloan-words.Thisletterwasfirstattestedin16thcent.andincludedinthealphabetbyMeletiusSmotrytskyin1619(Pivtorak2004a).TheuseofҐwasabolishedbyStalin’sregimein1933andreintroducedintotheUkrainianalphabetonlyin1990.RegardingtheuniquenessofthisletteronemustnotehoweverthatҐwasinuseintheBelarusianorthographybefore1933butneverofficiallyreviveduntiltodayexceptinsomedissidenteditions(KatkouskiandRrapon.d.),cf.alsoBarry1997.TheletterЇinitsmodernphoneticvalue([ji],seedetailsbelow)wasfirstattestedin1875(Pivtorak2004b)becomingthusthelaststandardizedletteroftheUkrainianalphabet.Theapostrophe’isnotconsideredasapartofthealphabetbutitplaysanimportantroleintheorthography(similartothatofthehardsignъinRussian),asdescribedbelow.Ukrainianorthographyislargelyphonemicandthuscanbereferredtoasa‘shallow’one(Coulmas2004:380).Thedeviationsfromthe‘onelettertoonesound’correspondencearefewandthesoundchangesduetotheassimilationarequitepredictableandjustifiedonthemorphologicallevel.Theletterщalwaysrepresentsatwo-phonemecombination/ʃʧ/=/ʃ/+/ʧ/.Theletterь(‘softsign’)isnotgiveninacapitalform,asitneverstandsinaword-initialposition.Thisletterdoesnotrepresentanysoundbutindicatesthepalatalizationofaprecedingconsonant.Thelettersє,ю,яcanrepresentoneortwophonemes,dependingontheirposition.Whenimmediatelyfollowingaconsonant,theyindicatethepalatalizationoftheconsonantandcorrespondto/ɛ,u,ɑ/,respectively.Inaword-initialposition,afterа,е,и,і,о,у,є,ї,ю,я,ьandtheapostrophe’theselettersrepresenttwo-phonemecombinationswith/j/:/jɛ,ju,jɑ/.InmodernUkrainiantheletterїalwayscorrespondsto/ji/,nevertheless,itmustbeseparatedbytheapostrophefromtheprecedingconsonant.Historically,thisletteroriginatedfromolderѣandhadatwo-foldcorrespondencesimilartoє,ю,я,both/i/withpalatalizingaprecedingconsonantand/ji/.However,inmodernliteraryUkrainiantheletterіreplacedїinthefirstcase.Originally,thepalatalizationofapreceding(mainlydental)consonantbyіdidnotoccurifthisletteroriginatedfromolderо(thisfactisseeninоpreservedinsomeword-forms:стіл/стола,дім/дому,ніс/носаversusніс/нести).Atpresent,suchpronunciation,beinginfluencedbytheorthography,graduallybecomesmarginalthoughitisnotconsideredincorrect.Notethatthereisnospeciallettertoindicatethepalatalizationbefore/ɔ/,unlikeRussianorBelarusianё.InUkrainian,thecombinationьоisusedinthiscase.WewouldliketonotethatinUkrainiantheletterіisusedtorepresentthephoneme/i/.WithinSlaviclanguagesusingtheCyrillicscriptonlyBelarusianhasthesamepractice,inalltheotherorthographiestheletterиisusedtorepresentthisphoneme.InUkrain