Dispute about orthography of the Ukrainian language
The Alphabet War (Ukrainian: Азбучна війна, romanized: Azbuchna viina), also called the Alphabet Blizzard (Ukrainian: Азбучна завірюха, romanized: Azbuchna zaviriukha), was a controversy in the 19th century among Galician Ukrainians. It concerned attempts to Latinize the Ukrainian alphabet.
The name may be derived from the discussions that took place in the early 1830s about the orthography of the Slovenian language ― the term (in German: ABC-Krieg) was first used by Matija Čop in an article of the same name, published July 27, 1833 in the magazine "Illyrisches Blatt".[1] It is still unclear when the term was first used in the context of linguistic and orthographic discussions in Galicia.[2]
The first stage of the Alphabet War began in 1834 after the publication of a work by Joseph Lozynskyi in which it was argued that Latin letters, in contrast to the "dead" Cyrillic alphabet, could more fully and accurately reflect the nature of the Ukrainian language. Its second stage began in 1859 after the publication of a proposal by Josef Jireček to remake the Ukrainian writing system on the basis of the Czech alphabet.[3] Discussions of the alphabet question lasted until the 1880s,[4] but fell in and out of public discourse.[3]
The competition between the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets acquired the features of an interethnic confrontation between Poles and Ukrainians. For Ukrainians, Cyrillic was a symbol of identity: first religious identity, as Cyrillic was associated with the Eastern Orthodox liturgical rite, and then national identity.[5] Both sides did not take into account the fact that Latin conveyed the peculiarities of Western Ukrainian speech much more accurately.[6]
Despite its small scale, the Alphabet War somewhat revived the cultural life of Galicia[7] and became an important event in both the scientific and socio-political arenas.[8]
The Alphabet War became one of the pretenses for the intensification of the Ukrainian national movement in Galicia, contributing to the consolidation of forces in the struggle against Polonization and the development of national culture.[8] This common vernacular and ethnic awareness united the Ukrainian population of Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire,[8] but distracted the Ukrainian national movement from solving other problems.
The Alphabet War contributed to the emergence of Russophilia[9] and Ukrainophilia in Galicia. Russophiles believed that the introduction of Latin was aimed at destroying the "all-Russian unity" of Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians, which, in their opinion, was ensured through the use of Cyrillic.[10] Proponents of Latin separated the Cyrillic Church Slavonic language from the living Ukrainian vernacular, thus becoming the predecessors of Ukrainophiles - proponents of the development of the Ukrainian language on a folk basis.[3]
^Fellerer Jan (2010). Re-contextualising East Central European History: Nation, Culture and Minority Groups. p. 106. ISBN 978-1-906540-87-6.
^Савчук Б. П., Билавич Г. В. (2019). "THE "ALPHABET WARS" OF 1830–1850s IN GALICIA IN CONTEMPORARY SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE". Rusin. 56: 58–76. doi:10.17223/18572685/56/4. ISSN 1857-2685.
^ abcЛесюк М. П. (2014). Становлення і розвиток української літературної мови в Галичині: Монографія (500 экз ed.). ISBN 978-966-428-342-4.
^Nowacka Dagmara (2014). Studia wschodniosłowiańskie: Literatura i język. ISBN 978-83-62352-24-1.
^Struve Kai (2005). Bauern und Nation in Galizien: über Zugehörigkeit und soziale Emanzipation im 19. Jahrhundert. ISBN 3-525-36982-4.
^Остапчук О. О. Ukraïns'ka Mova: Naukovo-Teoretičnij Žurnal (2). ISSN 1682-3540. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^Рудницький Я.-Б. А. Vol. 1: Абаза Микола – Голов′янко Зиновій. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^ abcРайківський І. Я. (2012). Idea of the ukrainian national unity in the community life of Galicia in the XIXth century (300 экз ed.). ISBN 978-966-640-371-4.
^Wendland Anna Veronika. Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas. Neue Folge (2). ISSN 0021-4019. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^Голик Р. Slavica Slovaca (1). ISSN 0037-6787. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
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