Ivan Uschewych

Ivan Petrowytsch Uschewytsch ( Ukrainian Іван Петрович Ужевич , scientific. Transliteration Ivan Petrovyč Uževyč , Belarusian Іван Ужэвіч , scientific transliteration. Ivan Užėvič ; Polish January Użewicz he himself wrote his name Іωаннъ Ужевичъ Словянинъ, Ioannes Usevicius Sclavonus , Ioannes Ugevicius Sclavonus or January Użewic ; in the register of the Cracow University he is named Ioannes Petri Uzewicz ; * second decade of the 17th century; † after 1645), Ruthenian grammarian.

Very little is known about Uschewytsch's biography. From 1637 he studied at the Cracow University , in 1643 he was a theology student at the Paris Sorbonne . He wrote a Polish ode printed in 1641 on the occasion of the wedding of a certain Aleksander Przyłęcki with Ewa Rupniowa. Uschewytsch became known for the history of the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages ​​as the author of the first grammar of an East Slavic language .

The Grammatica sclavonica

From that in Latin written Grammatica sclavonica two manuscripts have been preserved: the "Paris manuscript" from 1643 and "Arras'sche handwriting" of 1645 (both named after its current storage location, the first of the two was born in Paris, according to the title page, on the second no place of origin is given). Both manuscripts were made accessible in a scientific edition in 1970. Uschewytsch's work, which seems to be influenced by the Polish grammar Polonicae grammatices institutio (1568) by Piotr Stojeński (Petrus Statorius) and by Meleti Smotryzky's Church Slavonic grammar Gramatiki slavenskija pravilnoje syntagma (1619), is the only known language of the 16th- century Ruthenian grammar and 17th centuries, the forerunner of modern Ukrainian and Belarusian languages. The author himself calls this language "lingua popularis" ("popular language"). The grammar is thus at the same time the first of an East Slavic language (in contrast to the Church Slavonic grammars already existing in the East Slavonic area, which Uschewytsch calls “lingua sacra”, ie “holy language”).

Both Ukrainian and Belarusian linguists have tried to show that Uzhevytsch's grammar belongs to their own linguistic history and not to that of the other people. Ivan Bilodid (1972), Mychailo Schowtobrjuch (1976) and Wassyl Nimtschuk (1985) emphasized the “Ukrainian” features of the language, while Alexander Sobolewski (1906), Vatroslav Jagić (1907), James Dingley (1972) and Yuriy Shevelov (1979) have underlined the “Belarusian” aspects. Olexa Horbatsch (1967) assumes that Uschewytsch came from what is now the Ukrainian-Belarusian border area, which of course was not a border area at that time. The grammar contains a number of parallel forms, one of which is part of today's Belarusian and the other part of today's Ukrainian standard (e.g. for 'what' there are both що / shcho as in today's Ukrainian and што / schto as in today's Belarusian). This shows that Uschewytsch did not want to describe his own dialect in his grammar, but rather a common, at least partially standardized Ruthenian language.

Uzhevytsch's grammar reveals a clear comparative approach. His general title “Grammatica sclavonica ” (instead of “ ruthenica ”) is probably to be understood in this context . Much of what Uzhevytsch writes about Ruthenian seems to also apply to Church Slavonic, and where the two idioms differ, he often cites specific information about Church Slavonic. The grammar also includes comments on differences in Polish , Czech , Moravian and Croatian , and he cites the Lord's Prayer in Church Slavonic, Ruthenian and Croatian (in Glagolitic script ).

As was to be expected at that time, the grammar reveals the difficulties that arise from the transfer of Latin grammar to a completely different language. On the one hand, there are long tables of very constructed verb forms without any practical relevance for Ruthenian, e.g. B. the optative past perfect бодай бымъ былъ кова́лъ 'oh would I have cooked!' (Arras, 45 ₂ ). On the other hand, Uschewytsch knows no locative and tries the endings of this case, which does not exist in Latin, which sometimes resemble those of the dative and sometimes those of the instrumental ("ablative"), as "casus vagabundi" ("wandering cases", Arras, 33 ₂ -34 ₁ ) to explain.

Rozmova · Besěda

As Helmut Keipert (2001) has shown, the anonymous and undated manuscript with the title “Rozmova” or “Besěda” (which linguists had previously wrongly assigned to the end of the 16th century) is an autograph by Ivan Uschewytsch. Like the first grammar manuscript, it is now kept in the French National Library in Paris. The manuscript is a parallel translation of Noël de Berlaimont's popular conversation book ( phrasebook ) into Ruthenian and Church Slavonic. The left, Ruthenian column on each page bears the heading "Popularis", the right, Church Slavonic column the title "Sacra". Possibly the purpose of this manuscript was to demonstrate in practice the difference between “vernacular” and Church Slavonic mentioned in the grammar. In any case, the conversation book complements the “Grammatica sclavonica”, which, being written in Latin, contains relatively little material in Ruthenian itself. It also contains very everyday, slang dialogues - not least of all, this made the Berlaimont the most popular phrasebook of all time (it was reprinted over 150 times across Europe between the beginning of the 16th and the end of the 19th century, in versions from two to eight parallel arranged languages!).

The manuscript was made available in 2005 through a scholarly edition, which also contains the Latin translation from 1613 and a translation of the same text into Polish from a Warsaw print from 1646.

Works

• Obraz cnoty y sławy w przezacney fámiliey I MM. PP. Przyłęckich, wiecznemi czásy nieodmiennie trwájący. Ná wesoło fortunny akt małżeński przezacnych małżonkow Jego Mośći P. Alexandra z Przyłęka Przyłęckiego, y Jey Mośći Panny Ewy z Rupniowa Rupniowskiey, Aońskim piorem odrysowány y ná ućiechuęka prziaremułów. Reprint and German translation in: Bunčić 2006, pp. 571–583.
• Grammatica sclavonica (Paris 1643; no location 1645).
• Rozmova · Besěda (no place, mid 17th century). Reprinted in: Bunčić & Keipert 2005.

literature

• Bilodid 1972 - Иван Константинович Белодед. Славянская грамматика Ивана Ужевича 1643 г. In: Известия Академии Наук СССР. Серия литературы и языка. Vol. 31.1, pp. 32-40.
• Bunčić 2006 - Daniel Bunčić. The Ruthenian written language with Ivan Uževyč with special consideration of his conversation book Rozmova / Besěda. With vocabulary and indices for his Ruthenian and Church Slavonic works . Munich 2006 (=  Slavic articles , Ed. Peter Rehder, Vol. 447). ISBN 3-87690-932-5 .
• Bunčić & Keipert 2005 - Rozmova Besěda. The Ruthenian and Church Slavonic Berlaimont Conversation Book by Ivan Uževyč. Edited with parallel text in Latin and Polish by Daniel Bunčić and Helmut Keipert. Munich 2005 (=  Sagners Slavistic Collection , Ed. Peter Rehder, Vol. 29). ISBN 3-87690-892-2 .
• Dingley 1972 - James Dingley. “The two versions of the Gramatyka Slovenskaja of Ivan Uževič.” In: The Journal of Byelorussian Studies , 2.4 (1972), pp. 369-384.
• Horbatsch 1967 - Олекса Горбач. Рукописна Граматыка словенская Івана Ужевича з 1643 й 1645 років. In: Наукові Записки Українського Технічно-Господарського Інституту (Мюнхен) , 16 (17), pp. 3–22. - Reprinted in: Olexa Horbatsch. Collected Essays. Vol. IV. Munich 1993, pp. 59-77.
• Jagić 1907 - Vatroslav Jagić. Johannes Uževič, a grammarian of the 17th century. In: Archive for Slavic Philology 29 (1907), pp. 154–160.
• Keipert 2001 - Helmut Keipert. “Rozmova / Besěda”: The Slav Conversation Book. № 7 of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. In: Zeitschrift für Slavische Philologie 60.1, pp. 9–40.
• Nimchuk 1985 - Василь Васильович Німчук. Мовознавство на Україні в XIV-XVII ст. Київ 1985, pp. 155-198.
• Shovtobryuch 1976 - Михайло Андрійович Жовтобрюх. Граматика словенская Івана Ужевича - пам'ятка староукраїнської літературної мови. In: Слово і труд: До сімдесятиріччя академіка Івана Костянтиновича Білодіда. Київ 1976, pp. 167-179.
• Shevelov 1979 - George Y. Shevelov. A historical phonology of the Ukrainian language. Heidelberg 1979.
• Sobolewski 1906 - А. И. Соболевскій. Грамматика И. Ужевича. In: Чтенія въ Историческомъ обществѣ Нестора Лѣтописца. Vol. 19.V.2 (1906), pp. 3-7.