the two mirs

[Andrij Hornjatkevyc]

At 01:06 AM 09/22/00 +0200, you wrote:
>The two "mirs" raise several questions for me:
>
>1) when and how did the "i desjaterichnoe" disappear in Russian?

It was abolished in the orthographic reform that had been prepared by the
Imperial Academy of Sciences, but not implemented in 1913 because the
Romanovs were busily celebrating their tricentennial, and then other events
took precedence. The orthographic reform was implemented only after the
October Revolution.

When Peter I introduced the "grazhdanka" for secular texts, he proposed
that "i desjaterichnoe" be used throughout and the "i vos'merichnoe" be
eliminated from the alphabet, but this detail of his decree did not take
hold, and both "i"s continued to be used.

>2) am I right, that it has been retained in Ukrainian?

It is retained in Ukrainian for the /i/ phoneme, while the "i
vos'merichnoe" designates the /y/ phoneme.

>3) How can it be explained, that such an important difference between both
>languages has developed apparently during the Soviet era, of all eras?

While in the pre-reform Russian orthography both 'i's designated the same
phoneme - /i/, in Ukrainian they designate different phonemes, and this
difference in practice antedates Soviet times by at least a century, and
actually much longer.

>4) When did the "i desjaterichnoe" appear in the first place, since it
>didn't seem to exist in old church Slavic?

As a matter of fact, the "i desjaterichnoe" can be found in the oldest
classical Old Church Slavic Cyrillic MSS. Furthermore, even the glagolitic
alphabet had three characters for the /i/ phoneme.

>5) How were "peace" and "world" written before the appearance of the "i
>desjaterichnoe"?

See above.



Dr. Andrij Hornjatkevyc
Associate Professor
Canadian Institute of           Modern Languages and
Ukrainian Studies               Cultural Studies
352 Athabasca Hall              200 Arts Building
University of Alberta           University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB T6G 2E8    Edmonton, AB T6G 2E6
phone (780) 492-3765    phone (780) 492-0733
fax (780) 492-4967              fax (780) 492-9106

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                http://members.home.net/lists/seelangs/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------