<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Fierman, William</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:wfierman@indiana.edu">wfierman@indiana.edu</a>></span><br>Date: Fri, Nov 7, 2014 at 2:54 PM<br>Subject: Ukraine Holds Politically Charged 'Dictation' Contest<br>To: Harold Schiffman <<a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</a>><br><br><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Ukraine Holds Politically Charged 'Dictation' Contest
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-national-dictation-contest-language-russian/26679931.html" target="_blank">http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-national-dictation-contest-language-russian/26679931.html</a><u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://gdb.rferl.org/D785E738-4B2C-4637-967F-AE0A5F13069F_cx0_cy2_cw0_mw1024_s_n_r1.jpg" title="""If 700 people were able to write it flawlessly, this would not be a competition," says respected Ukrainian linguist Oleksandr Avramenko." " target="_blank"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:blue;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="640" height="360" src="cid:image001.jpg@01CFFA9A.BBCC7500" alt=""If 700 people were able to write it flawlessly, this would not be a competition," says respected Ukrainian linguist Oleksandr Avramenko."></span></a><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"If 700 people were able to write it flawlessly, this would not be a competition," says respected Ukrainian linguist Oleksandr Avramenko.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 07, 2014
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">KYIV -- Ukraine's annual dictation contest has always carried political undertones.
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The competition, officially titled Ukrainian Dictation of National Unity, was launched in 2000 to promote the
Ukrainian language in a country where almost one-third of citizens consider Russian their mother tongue.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">With Kyiv struggling to stamp out a separatist insurgency in the country's predominantly Russian-speaking east,
this year's November 7 dictation was an opportunity for organizers and participants to show their support for Ukrainian territorial integrity.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The National Radio Company, which organizes the contest, said the cash prizes usually awarded to winners would
be redirected to Ukrainian soldiers battling the separatists.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"For the first time in 14 years, people are writing the dictation for the idea rather than for the prize," it
said in a statement.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The contest, held annually on the eve of Ukrainian Writing and Language Day, is popular in the country. Last
year, more than 13,000 participants sent in their copies.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">This year's dictation was broadcast live on radio as part of a two-hour show featuring politicians and cultural
luminaries.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The presenter, respected linguist Oleksandr Avramenko, read a 180-word text packed with grammatical traps and
complex spellings.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"The dictation is difficult," Avramenko, the author of schoolbooks on Ukrainian language and literature, told
RFE/RL. "If 700 people were able to write it flawlessly, this would not be a competition."<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Svitlana Dolesko, the head of the Kyiv-based Center of Ukrainian Culture and Art, was one of the guests invited
to take the dictation at the National Radio Company.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">She made seven mistakes, six of them tied to punctuation.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"I will come here every year from now on," she said, "until I can proudly say that I didn't make a single mistake."<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Language is a highly sensitive issue in Ukraine. <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">One of the first bills adopted by Ukraine's new Western-leaning parliament proposed stripping Russian of its
status as an official language in Ukraine.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Then-acting President Oleksandr Turchynov, facing a public outcry from Russian speakers but also from many Ukrainian
speakers, chose not to sign the bill into law. <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Moscow, however, has cited the move as part of what it denounces as the repression of Russian speakers in Ukraine
-- a notion it has invoked to justify its support of separatists in the country's east.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">A large proportion of the residents of eastern Ukraine have only superficial knowledge of Ukrainian and speak
either Russian or a mix of Russian and Ukrainian known as "surzhyk."<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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</div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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