Principles and methodology of “Ukrainian spelling”

Kateryna Horodenska, Dr. Sci. (Philol.), Professor, Head of the Department of Grammar and Scientific Terminology
Institute of the Ukrainian Language of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
4 Mykhailo Hrushevskyi St., Kyiv 01001, Ukraine

E-mail: ukr.grammar@meta.ua
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2638-9037

Heading: Discussions
Language: Ukrainian

Abstract: This article addresses the methodology of creating a new, national “Ukrainian Spelling” free from foreign spelling influence. The author substantiates the need to use such methodological principles as scientificity, Ukrainian-centricity, consistency, logic, orien ta tion to the needs of language practice and stability. The essence of each of these prin ciples and the peculiarities of their implementation are clarified, and typical metho do logical violations in the spellings of the Soviet and post-Soviet periods are determined.

Based on a comparison of spelling codes of the 20th—21st centuries the author concludes the most complete observance of the specified methodological principles in the “Ukrainian Spelling” of 1928 and the complete disregard of Ukrainian-centricity, scientificity, logic and consistency in the “Ukrainian Spelling” of 1933. The spelling codes of 1990 and 1993 are recognized as the first attempts to return some specific spelling rules, which became possible as a result of the change in the political system in Ukraine and the expansion of the sphere of use of the Ukrainian language. The author notes partial corrections and numerous variant additions to the rules for transferring words of foreign origin in the “Ukrainian Spelling” of 2019, which did not contribute to the restoration of those spelling norms that are part of the Ukrainian orthographic tradition.

The author emphasizes that the national basis of Ukrainian orthography should be a complex of principles, the main of which should be phonetic (phonemic), which is determined by the history of the formation of orthographic systems of the Ukrainian language.

The paper substantiates the «broad» (and not purely orthographic) format of the Ukrainian spelling code.

Keywords: Ukrainian spelling, methodology, basis of spelling, principles of spelling, orthographic norms.

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