The Ukrainian language has been around for a long time. As in any other language, it has its own historical eras, borrowings, dialects. Now, many copies are breaking down about its origin and development. Since the separation of Ukraine from the USSR, this issue has not left the arena of political debate. The self-name of the Ukrainian language is "mov." What is mov in an academic sense? How rich is its vocabulary? What are the origins?
The word "mov": translation into Russian
Numerous dictionaries and phrasebooks are united in the translation into Ukrainian of the concept of "language":
- Ukrainian language - Ukrainian mov.
- Russian language - rosyska mov.
- English language - English.
- Belarusian language - bіloruska mov.
At this, the unanimity of the translators ends. What is mov in the academic sense, from a scientific point of view, no one can say yet. Firstly, the vocabulary of the Mova is unclear. Even the Galician dialect is an established dialect, which cannot be said about the Ukrainian language, which is still undergoing innovations.
What dictionaries say
The explanatory dictionary of the Ukrainian language explains the meaning of the word mov:
- The inherent ability of a person to make sounds to express thoughts, informed speech.
- The composition of speech and the rules of use and pronunciation, adopted in a particular society.
- The manner of speaking, speaking, style of speech.
- Conversation, conversation.
- Speech, speech, report.
- In a figurative sense - an expression of opinion.
- In programming - a language of machine codes, algorithms.
Regarding the second point, many questions arise. The composition of speech for communication on a city street, in a rural outback, in government and cultural institutions does not have a single base.
From the textbook of the Ukrainian language
In modern Ukrainian pedagogy, great importance is attached to students studying the national literary language. By virtue of its recognition as a state, the need to express thoughts not in the vernacular language, but in the language of Taras Shevchenko, arose especially sharply. This writer is considered the founder of a competent written Ukrainian language.
The textbook itself is called "Ukrainian Literary Movement". That is, the word “mov” does not display the difference between the vocabulary of vernacular and literary expressions.
What is mov? In the Russian language there are distinguished concepts such as dialect, phraseology, vernacular, dialect, jargon, professionalism, vulgarism. Spoken in Russian, such words, however, are not classified as the correct Russian language. If you apply this tactic to the definition of Mova, we will see the same terms written in Ukrainian. Why is the Ukrainian language explained in Russian? There are several reasons for this.
National speech is divided into two categories:
- The highest form (literature) is a new language, formed by Kotlyarevsky in 1794 on the basis of dialects of the south of Russia and the intentional distortions of some words for parody purposes.
- Lower form (dialects). These are three large groups divided into several dialects.
It seems that mov is a combination of dialects and a lot of borrowings due to the poverty of the dictionary.
MOV borrowing
Each independent language is a living developing organism, generating branches, dialects, leaving literary monuments, having the ability to grow old and even die. What is mov - language or dialect? Much depends on the answer to this question.
Learning a language is learning its roots. Both figuratively and literally. The roots of the words tell about the origin of the nation much more than the story written by people. It is always interpreted as beneficial at a given historical moment. And the roots of words do not lend themselves to such juggling.
If the ancient Mowa dialects came from Indo-European, Baltic-Lithuanian, Proto-Slavic words, it will be easy to prove to scientists specializing in such studies. What did they find out? Unfortunately, mov was not allowed to develop naturally. Perhaps this would lead to a small number of speakers in the modern world, but it would be a living language that cannot but be harmonious and beautiful. The very concept of Mova as the language of the people is distorted.
Numerous root borrowings are supported by such examples:
- Spouses on the move are called a member and a squad. Lyudina is friends, the woman is getting married. At the same time, the word “husband” does not exist on the mov, this is a borrowing from the Russian language.
- The second day of the week - repeat, repeat - repeat. But the word “second” is not in the mov; there is a “other”. The root is borrowed, prefixes and endings are Ukrainian. There is visibility of the Ukrainian word, but the root is Russian. In fact, in the Slavic languages, this root is still found in the Bulgarians, Macedonians and Belarusians. The rest - Polish, Serbian, Slovenian, Slovak, Croatian - have the root "friend".
There are many such examples.
How did mov develop
A serious step in the development of the Ukrainian language was the creation in 1906 of the Ukrainian-Russian dictionary. It was called “Dictionary of Ukrainian Movi” until 1917, when it was renamed into a Polish dictionary. Four of its volumes contain 68 thousand words. Several sources and special studies were used to collect words, define spelling, and explain etymology.
This work was recognized by philologists. It recorded a living language that people spoke. Some of the dialects mentioned in it are very narrowly used, but still found their place in the dictionary. Recommendations for spelling the Little Russian language were discussed at the level of the Academy of Sciences. Until 1997, the dictionary of Ukrainian language was repeatedly reprinted. Its value is still difficult to overestimate.
From the twenties of the last century, they began to teach the Ukrainian language. But Russian continued to be the language of communication, the city and the intelligentsia. After Ukraine gained independence as a state, the language begins to actively develop, in many ways artificially. Some Russian words and roots are replaced, Anglicisms are traced. To everything else, globalization is taking place, which greatly affects the lexical composition of the whole world, not just Ukraine.
Conclusion
How will the language of Ukraine develop further, time will tell. So far, there is a significant stratification of vocabulary, which turns the mov into the language of professionalism: scientific, political, economic and many others.
The Ukrainization of the language is too fast to become natural. Errors, alterations, cancellation of previous laws, and the introduction of long-forgotten ones into circulation occur. It is a pity if, in order to just communicate, people will resort to English words. It remains only to look at it philosophically.