The myths and realities of the 1928 orthography process: documentary evidence

Abstract

An attempt to analyze unclear facts and processes that took place during adoption of the Ukrainian spelling of 1928, is made. A previously commonly unknown letter of the State Spelling Commission Presidium member is taken into account. This letter states that Mykola Skrypnyk, Head of the Spelling Commission, repeatedly acted in the unfair manner in order to adopt unjustified and «revolutionary» changes to the Ukrainian spelling: he used to involve stranger persons to vote for the spelling, insisted on the ill-grounded expansion of the use of «ґ» in spite of the Ukrainian language practice, entered into Presidium a person who was not an expert in linguistics, and did not invite a Presidium member to the sessions. The author of this letter expresses displeasure by these actions and estimates the changes to the Ukrainian spelling carried out by Mykola Skrypnyk, as a «revolution». It is conjectured that there are no grounds to treat the Pravopys-1928 as legitimate and scholarly justified.

Keywords

• historical facts, state spelling commission, spelling legitimacy, scholarly approach, phonetic characteristics.