Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5560 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona
| Message 105 of 162 17 March 2012 at 1:01pm | IP Logged |
Марк wrote:
Teango wrote:
It always strikes me as sad when people don't want to speak or learn about their own language and cultural heritage. So very sad.
I've often spoken at length about this subject with good Ukrainian friends of mine, as well as people from other countries. They tell me that the Ukrainian language was heavily oppressed in the Soviet Union. Children studied Ukrainian at school, but no-one really
spoke it or saw much use for it. |
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Do you believe them? All the Ukrainian revival is built on oppressing of Russian. |
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Do I believe the Ukrainians I've spoken to over the years who say that Ukrainian was oppressed? Yes I do, and furthermore, I think that it is wonderful that there is a revival of the Ukrainian language now.
Марк wrote:
But that doesn't say anything to the false statement that Ukrainian was suppressed during the Soviet period. It was strongly supported. |
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To clarify further on this, Ukrainian has weathered several different periods during the Soviet era. This ranges from periods of tolerance to suppression and persecution:
"During the seven-decade-long Soviet era, the Ukrainian language held the formal position of the principal local language in the Ukrainian SSR. However, practice was often a different story."
[ source: Ukrainian Language - Soviet Era ]
"Starting from the early 1930s, the Ukrainization policies were abruptly and bloodily reversed. "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism" was declared to be the primary problem in Ukraine. Many Ukrainian newspapers, publications, and schools were switched to Russian. The vast majority of leading scholars and cultural leaders of Ukraine were purged, as were the "Ukrainianized" and "Ukrainianizing" portions of the Communist party....
...In the following fifty years the Soviet policies towards the Ukrainian language mostly varied between quiet discouragement and suppression to persecution and cultural purges, with the notable exception for the decade of Shelest's leadership in the Soviet Ukraine (1963–1972)."
[ source: Ukrainian Language - Early-1930s to mid-1980s ]
And the oppression of the Ukrainian language began well before the Soviet era, which makes the achievement of reviving the language even more inspirational:
"...in the Russian Empire expressions of Ukrainian culture and especially language were repeatedly persecuted, for fear that a self-aware Ukrainian nation would threaten the unity of the Empire. In 1804 Ukrainian as a subject and as language of instruction was banned from schools."
[ source: Ukrainian Language - Under Lithuania/Poland, Muscovy/Russia, and Austro-Hungary (5th paragraph down) ]
I initially mentioned Ukrainian as I thought it was a good example of how a language can still be revived even after long periods of persecution, and this I believe offers hope for the Irish language too. However, as aodhanc rightly noted, this thread is about Irish and not Ukrainian, so I'd appreciate it if we could return to the topic, especially as it's St Patrick's Day today.
Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig! (Happy St Patrick's Day) :)
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Gallo1801 Diglot Senior Member Spain Joined 4906 days ago 164 posts - 248 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), Croatian, German, French
| Message 106 of 162 17 March 2012 at 3:57pm | IP Logged |
Why is this now a Russian v. Ukrainian thread?
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Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5060 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian*
| Message 107 of 162 17 March 2012 at 4:53pm | IP Logged |
Volte and Teango, you are using Ukrainian nationalistic and Russophobic resourses without
any critical analysis and without any knowledge of the historical, linguistic and social
situation.
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Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5560 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona
| Message 108 of 162 17 March 2012 at 5:11pm | IP Logged |
Once again, Happy St Patrick's Day!
(image by Supportstorm, source: Wikipedia)
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Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5060 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian*
| Message 109 of 162 17 March 2012 at 5:21pm | IP Logged |
Lá Phádraig sóna dhaoibh.
Edited by Марк on 17 March 2012 at 6:54pm
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Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5060 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian*
| Message 110 of 162 17 March 2012 at 5:33pm | IP Logged |
Irish is heavily oppressed in Ireland. Only 10 % of children study in irish medium
schools and so on.
Doesn't it seem stupid?
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aodhanc Diglot Groupie Iceland Joined 6264 days ago 92 posts - 130 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish
| Message 111 of 162 17 March 2012 at 6:07pm | IP Logged |
Марк wrote:
Irish is heavily oppressed in Ireland. Only 10 % of children study in
irish medium
schools and so on.
Doesn't it seem stupid? |
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Mapk, I wouldn't agree that it's oppressed. It's simply not promoted or encouraged.
However it was certainly oppressed during British colonial rule, which drove it to the
brink of extinction. For example, if a priest was found to be saying Mass in Irish, he
would be taken from the church to a nearby forest and executed.
While only 10% today study in Irish-medium schools, the remaining 90% still have Irish
as a compulsory subject for the duration of primary and secondary education. So in
theory at least, everyone should be proficient in it.
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Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5060 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian*
| Message 112 of 162 17 March 2012 at 6:36pm | IP Logged |
aodhanc wrote:
For example, if a priest was found to be saying Mass in Irish, he
would be taken from the church to a nearby forest and executed.
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Really? Could you give some proof? it's hard to believe.
Yes, that's why I strongly oppose the statement that Ukrainian was oppressed in the
Soviet time, because there were Ukrainian schools, institutes and universities, media,
books in Ukrainian (more than now), it was a copulsory subject at schools, documents were
written in Ukrainian too. But the general usage was smaller than Russian, because Russian
was a more useful language.
It seems to me that The Great Famine in Ireland suits to be a holodomor much more.
Edited by Марк on 17 March 2012 at 6:40pm
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