Ivan Uzhevych
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Ivan Petrovych Uzhevych (born 1610s, perhaps North
Volhynia Volhynia (also spelled Volynia) ( ; uk, Воли́нь, Volyn' pl, Wołyń, russian: Волы́нь, Volýnʹ, ), is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. Th ...
after 1645) was a
Ruthenia Ruthenia or , uk, Рутенія, translit=Rutenia or uk, Русь, translit=Rus, label=none, pl, Ruś, be, Рутэнія, Русь, russian: Рутения, Русь is an exonym, originally used in Medieval Latin as one of several terms ...
n grammarian. Very little is known about his biography: From 1637 he studied at Cracow
University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
, then in 1643 he was a student of
theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
at the
Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...
,
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. He wrote a Polish
ode An ode (from grc, ᾠδή, ōdḗ) is a type of lyric poetry. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structured in three majo ...
on the occasion of the marriage of a certain Aleksander Przyłęcki with Ewa Rupniowa, which was printed in 1641. Uzhevych is well known to East Slavic language historians as the author of the first
grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
of the
Ruthenian language Ruthenian ( Belarusian: руская мова; Ukrainian: руська мова; Ruthenian: руска(ѧ) мова; also see other names) is an exonymic linguonym for a closely-related group of East Slavic linguistic varieties, particularly th ...
. He wrote his name Іωаннъ Ужевичъ Словянинъ (''Ioann Uzhevych Slovyanyn''), ''Ioannes Usevicius Sclavonus'', ''Ioannes Ugevicius Sclavonus'', ''Jan Użewic''; in the student register of Cracow University he is written ''Ioannes Petri Uzewicz'', but is today best known as: be, Іван Ужэвіч (''Ivan Uzhevich''), pl, Jan Użewicz, russian: Ива́н Петро́вич Уже́вич (''Ivan Uzhevich''), uk, Іва́н Петро́вич Уже́вич (''Ivan Uzhevych'').


Life

Very little is known about his biography: From 1637 he studied at Cracow
University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
, then in 1643 he was a student of
theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
at the
Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...
, writing is indicated on the cover page.


The ''Grammatica sclavonica''

Two manuscripts are known of Ivan Uzhevych’s ''Grammatica sclavonica'', written in
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
: The Paris manuscript from 1643 and the
Arras Arras ( , ; pcd, Aro; historical nl, Atrecht ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department, which forms part of the regions of France, region of Hauts-de-France; before the regions of France#Reform and mergers of ...
manuscript from 1645, called so because of the place it is kept now; no place of writing is indicated on the cover page. Both have been published in a scholarly edition in 1970. Uzhevych’s work, which seems to be influenced by the Polish grammar ''Polonicae grammatices institutio'' (1568) by Piotr Stojeński (Petrus Statorius) and by
Meletius Smotrytsky Meletius Smotrytsky ( uk, Мелетій Смотрицький, translit=Meletii Smotrytskyi; be, Мялецій Сматрыцкі, translit=Mialiecij Smatrycki; russian: Мелетий Смотрицкий, translit=Meletiy Smotritsky; pl, M ...
’s
Church Slavonic Church Slavonic (, , literally "Church-Slavonic language"), also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic or New Church Slavic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzeg ...
grammar ''Gramatiki slavenskija pravilnoje syntagma'' (1619), is the only grammar known of the
Ruthenian language Ruthenian ( Belarusian: руская мова; Ukrainian: руська мова; Ruthenian: руска(ѧ) мова; also see other names) is an exonymic linguonym for a closely-related group of East Slavic linguistic varieties, particularly th ...
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the predecessor of modern Ukrainian and Belarusian, which the author calls ''lingua popularis'', “vulgar tongue”. It is the first grammar of an East Slavic language (and not of Church Slavonic, which Uzhevych calls ''lingua sacra'', “sacred tongue”). Both Belarusian and Ukrainian linguistics have been trying to show that Uzhevych's grammar belongs to the history of their respective language and not the other one. Thus, Ivan Bilodid (1972), Mykhaylo Zhovtobryukh (1976), and Vasyl Nimchuk (1985) have stressed Ukrainian features of his language, whereas Aleksandr Sobolevskiy (1906), Vatroslav Jagić (1907), James Dingley (1972) and Yuriy Shevelov (1979) have pointed out its Belarusian aspects. Olexa Horbatsch (1967) assumes that Uzhevych came from the modern Ukrainian-Belarusian borderlands, which at that time, of course, were not a borderland at all. Uzhevych's grammar includes a lot of parallel forms that have later been incorporated into either the modern Belarusian or the
modern Ukrainian language Ukrainian ( uk, украї́нська мо́ва, translit=ukrainska mova, label=native name, ) is an East Slavic language of the Indo-European language family. It is the native language of about 40 million people and the official state langu ...
. For example, for ‘what’ both що (''ščo''), as in modern Ukrainian, and што (''što''), as in modern Belarusian, appear. This shows that Uzhevych's intention was to describe not his own dialect but a common, partially standardized, Ruthenian language (cf. History of the East Slavic languages). Uzhevych's grammar exhibits a distinctly comparative approach. It is probably not a coincidence that its title is ''Grammatica sclavonica'', not ''ruthenica''. Much of what is written about Ruthenian seems to be meant for Church Slavonic, too, and where the two languages differ, Uzhevych often includes specific information on Church Slavonic. Apart from that, he comments on differences in
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
,
Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...
, Moravian, and Croatian, citing, for example, the Lord's Prayer in Church Slavonic, Ruthenian, and Croatian (in the
Glagolitic alphabet The Glagolitic script (, , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed to have been created in the 9th century by Saint Cyril, a monk from Thessalonica. He and his brother Saint Methodius were sent by the Byzan ...
). As usual at that time, the grammar shows the difficulties of superimposing the Latin grammatical system on a very different language. Thus, on the one hand there are long lists of constructed verb forms that are of no practical relevance for Ruthenian, e.g. the optative pluperfect бодай бымъ былъ ковáлъ (''bodaj bym” byl” koval”'') ‘oh would I have had cooked!’ (Arras, 452), but on the other hand the locative case is not reflected, and Uzhevych tries to explain the respective endings, which sometimes resemble the dative, sometimes the instrumental (ablative) endings, as ''casus vagabundi'', “wandering cases” (Arras, 332-341).


Rozmova · Besěda

As Helmut Keipert (2001) has shown, the anonymous and undated manuscript titled ''Rozmova'' and ''Besěda'' (which linguists so far wrongly attributed to the end of the 16th century) is also an autograph by Ivan Uzhevych. Just like the first of the manuscripts of Uzhevych's grammar, it is now kept in the
French National Library French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...
at Paris. The manuscript is a parallel translation of the popular
phrasebook A phrase book or phrasebook is a collection of ready-made phrases, usually for a foreign language along with a translation, indexed and often in the form of questions and answers. Structure While mostly thematically structured into several c ...
by Noël de Berlaimont into Ruthenian and Church Slavonic. The left, Ruthenian column of each page (the ''Rozmova'' part) is titled “Popularis”, and the right, Church Slavonic one (the ''Besěda'' part) “Sacra”. Maybe the author wanted to demonstrate in practice the differences described in his grammar between the “vulgar” and the “sacred” tongue. Anyway, this phrasebook provides a lot of linguistic material to fill the gaps in the ''Grammatica sclavonica'', which itself contains only little actual Ruthenian text, as it is written in Latin. Apart from that, the phrasebook consists of very straightforward, colloquial, every-day dialogues — those that made Berlaimont's work the most popular phrasebook of all times. It was reprinted more than 150 times all over Europe between the beginning of the 16th and the end of the 19th century in versions with from two to eight language columns. The manuscript was published in a scholarly edition in 2005 together with the Latin original from 1613 and a translation of the same text into Polish from a print of 1646.


Works

* Obraz cnoty y sławy w przezacney fámiliey Ich 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 ućiechę nowemu Stadłu ofiarowány przez Jana Użewica sławney Akademiey Krákowskiey Studenta (Kraków 1641).
Grammatica sclavonica
(Paris 1643; probably Paris 1645).
Rozmova · Besěda
(probably Paris, middle of 17th century; ).


Further reading

* Lunt, Horace. Review: “Hramatyka slov’jans’ka I. Uževyča”. In: ''Recenzija'' 1.2 (1971), pp. 47–49. * Dingley, James. “The two versions of the Gramatyka Slovenskaja of Ivan Uževič.” In: ''The Journal of Byelorussian Studies'', 2.4 (1972), pp. 369–384.


References

* Bilodid 1972 — Білоді́д ''(Белодед)'', Іва́н Костянти́нович. “«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. ''Die ruthenische Schriftsprache bei Ivan Uževyč unter besonderer Berücksichtigung seines Gesprächsbuchs Rozmova/Besěda. Mit Wörterverzeichnis und Indizes zu seinem ruthenischen und kirchenslavischen Gesamtwerk''. München 2006 (= ''Slavistische Beiträge'', Hg. Peter Rehder, Bd. 447).
English abstract.
* Daiber 1992 - Thomas Daiber. "Die Darstellung des Zeitworts in ostslavischen Grammatiken von den Anfängen bis zum ausgehenden 18. Jahrhundert". Freiburg i. Br. 1992 (= "Monumenta Linguae Slavicae Dialecti Veteris tomus XXXII) * 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 — Горбач, Олекса Теодорович. “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. ''Gesammelte Aufsätze.'' Vol. IV. München 1993, pp. 59-77. * Jagić 1907 —
Vatroslav Jagić Vatroslav Jagić (; July 6, 1838 – August 5, 1923) was a Croatian scholar of Slavic studies in the second half of the 19th century. Life Jagić was born in Varaždin (then known by its German name of ''Warasdin''), where he attended the elem ...
. “Johannes Uževič, ein Grammatiker des 17. Jh.” In: ''Archiv für slavische Philologie'' 29 (1907), pp. 154–160. * Keipert 2001 — Helmut Keipert. “‘Rozmova/Besěda’: Das Gesprächsbuch Slav. No. 7 der Bibliothèque nationale de France.” In: ''Zeitschrift für Slavische Philologie'' 60.1, pp. 9-40. * Nimchuk 1985 — Німчу́к, Васи́ль Васи́льович. ''Мовознавство на Україні в XIV-XVII ст.'' Київ 1985, pp. 155-198. * Shevelov 1979 — George Y. Shevelov. ''A historical phonology of the Ukrainian language.'' Heidelberg 1979. * Sobolevskiy 1906 — Соболевский, Алексей Иванович. “Грамматика И. Ужевича.” In: ''Чтенія въ Историческомъ обществѣ Нестора Лѣтописца.'' Vol. 19.V.2 (1906), pp. 3–7. * Zhovtobryukh 1976 — Жовто́брюх, Миха́йло Андрі́йович. “«Граматика словенская» Івана Ужевича — пам’ятка староукраїнської літературної мови." In: ''Слово і труд: До сімдесятиріччя академіка Івана Костянтиновича Білодіда.'' Київ 1976, pp. 167–179. {{DEFAULTSORT:Uzhevych, Ivan Petrovych 1610s births Year of birth uncertain Year of death unknown 17th-century Ukrainian people 17th-century Polish people 17th-century linguists Linguists from Ukraine Linguists from Poland Slavists Belarusian language Ruthenian people of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth People of Volhynia Ukrainians in Poland Polish expatriates in France Ukrainian expatriates in France Jagiellonian University alumni University of Paris alumni