Ivan Uzhevych

Ivan Petrowytsch Uschewytsch (Ukrainian Іван Ужевич, scientific transliteration Ivan 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 and Jan Użewic, in the matriculation Cracow University, he stands as Ioannes Petri Uzewicz; * second decade of the 17th century; † after 1645), Ruthenian grammarian.

Very little is known about Uschewytschs biography. Since 1637 he studied at the Cracow University, 1643 he was a student of theology at the Sorbonne. He wrote a 1641 Polish printed ode on the occasion of the wedding of a certain Aleksander Przyłęcki with Ewa Rupniowa. Became known Uschewytsch for the history of the Ukrainian and Belarusian language as the author of the first grammar of a language ostslawischen.

The Grammatica sclavonica

From written in Latin Grammatica sclavonica two manuscripts have been preserved: the " Paris manuscript " of 1643 and the " Arras'sche handwriting " of 1645 (both named after their current repository, the first of the two has emerged, according to the title page in Paris, on the second is no origin given). Both manuscripts were made ​​available in a scholarly edition in 1970. Uschewytschs work, which seems to be gram matices of the Polish grammar Polonicae institutional (1568) influenced by Piotr Stojeński ( Peter Statorius ) and Meleti Smotryzkys Church Slavonic grammar Gramatiki slavenskija pravilnoje syntagma ( 1619), is the only known grammar of the Ruthenian language of 16. , and 17th century, the precursor of the modern Ukrainian and Belarusian language. The author himself calls this language " lingua popularis " ( " vernacular "). The grammar is thus also the first East Slavic language one (as opposed to the existing range in the Eastern Slavic grammars of Church Slavonic, the Uschewytsch " lingua sacra ," meaning " sacred language " is called ).

Both Ukrainian and Belarusian linguists have tried to show that the grammar Uschewytschs belongs to their own linguistic history and not to that of the other people. Thus, Ivan Bilodid (1972 ), Mykhailo Schowtobrjuch (1976) and Vasyl Nimtschuk (1985 ), the " Ukrainian" features of the language emphasized, while Alexander Sobolewski (1906 ), Vatroslav Jagić (1907 ), James Dingley (1972) and Yuriy Shevelov (1979 ) whose " Belarusian " have emphasized aspects. Olexa Horbatsch (1967 ) assumes that Uschewytsch came from the present-day Ukrainian- Belarusian border area, which of course was not yet a border area. The grammar contains a series of parallel forms, of which each is a part of today's Belarus and the other part of today's Ukrainian standards (eg, see there for ' what ' both що / schtscho as in today's Ukrainian and што / schto as in modern Belarusian ). This shows that Uschewytsch in his grammar did not want to describe its own dialect, but a common, at least partially standardized Ruthenian language.

Uschewytschs grammar reveals a distinct comparative approach. Presumably, in this context, is generally held to be entitled " Grammatica sclavonica " (instead about " ruthenica " ) to understand. So it seems much of what Uschewytsch writes about the Ruthenian to apply to the Church Slavonic with, and where the two idioms differ, it often leads to specific information about the Church Slavonic. In addition, the grammar contains comments to differences in Polish, Czech, Moravian and Croatian, and he leads the Lord's Prayer in Church Slavonic, Ruthenian and Croatian ( in Glagolitic script ) to.

As might be expected at that time, be read at the grammar, the difficulties arising from the transmission of Latin grammar in a completely different language. So there is on the one hand very long tables constructed verb forms without any practical relevance for the Ruthenian, eg the pluperfect optative бодай бымъ былъ ковалъ ' oh I would have cooked! ' ( Arras, 452 ). On the other hand knows no Uschewytsch locative and tried the endings this is not present in the Latin case that sometimes those of the dative and sometimes those of the instrumentals ( " ablative " ) are similar, as " casus vagabundi " ( " wandering " cases, Arras, 332 -341 ) to explain.

Rozmova · Beseda

As has been shown Keipert Helmut (2001), is also the anonymous and undated manuscript entitled " Rozmova " or " Beseda " ( had been incorrectly attributed to the late 16th century linguists ) an autograph Ivan Uschewytschs. Like the first manuscript of the grammar, it is now kept in the French National Library in Paris. The manuscript is a parallel translation of the popular conversation book ( Language Guide ) by Noël de Berlaimont the Ruthenian and the Church Slavonic. The left, Ruthenian column of each page is headed ' popularis ", the right, Church Slavonic the title of" Sacra ". Maybe this manuscript was intended to demonstrate those mentioned in the grammar difference between " vernacular " and Church Slavonic in practice. In any case, the conversation manual supplements the " Grammatica sclavonica " which, as it is written in Latin, itself contains relatively little material in the Ruthenian language. In addition, it contains very everyday, colloquial dialogues - not least this made ​​the Berlaimont the most popular phrasebook ever ( he was between the early 16th and reprinted the end of the 19th century more than 150 times in the whole of Europe, in versions from two to eight parallel arranged languages ​​).

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

Works

• Obraz cnoty y sławy w przezacney fámiliey I MM PP. Przyłęckich, wiecznemi czásy nieodmiennie trwájący. Ná wesoło fortunny nude małżeński przezacnych małżonkow Jego Mośći P. Alexandra z Przyłęka Przyłęckiego, y Jey Mośći Panny z Ewy Rupniowa Rupniowskiey, Aońskim Piorem odrysowány y ná ućiechę nowemu Stadłu ofiarowány przez Jana Użewica sławney Akademiey Krákowskiey studenta (Kraków 1641, 19 pages). Reprints and German translation in: Bunčić 2006, pp. 571-583.
• Grammatica sclavonica (Paris 1643; without location 1645).
• Rozmova · Beseda (without place, mid 17th century). Reprint in: Bunčić & Keipert 2005.