PAVLO ZHYTETSKYI: THE HISTORY OF THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE IN THE GENERAL SLAVIC CONTEXT

Abstract

Frontal study of Slavic studies of the 19th century – 30s of XX century testified: the problem of the relationship between vocalism and consonantism in the history of Slavic languages (based on Ukrainian language material) was presented by the Ukrainian linguist Pavlo Zhytetskyi. P. Zhytetskyi put forward a concept within which each considered phonological phenomenon occupies a certain, logically justified place; it is organically included in the general concept, derives from it. According to P. Zhytetskyi, a certain phonological change (the decline of reduced vowels) is the cause of a number of other phonological changes: the decline of reduced vowels as a key process in the «prehistory» and history of the phonological systems of East Slavic languages causes a «chain reaction» in the corresponding vocal and consonant subsystems. P. Zhytetskyi’s thesis that in Slavic languages and their history «poor» vocalism is combined with «rich» consonantism and vice versa, laid the foundations of the historical typology of Slavic languages (on the phonological level) and proved to be very productive in linguistics of the 20th century. It became the basis for the division of Slavic languages into two types – vocalic and consonantal, which were interpreted both in the synchronic and in the diachronic aspect (А. Isachenko, K. Gorshkova, V. Ivanov, V. Kolesov). P. Zhytetskyi reconstructed systems of archetypes and systems of phonetic laws with a similar mechanism (united by a common cause). Thanks to this, the history of the phonetic system of the Ukrainian language in the interpretation of P. Zhytetskyi appears as a chain of causally connected phonetic processes at the level of subsystems (vocalism and consonantism) and signs of sounds (strength and weakness, deafness and sonority, hardness and softness of consonants). This led to the fact that the concept of the connection between vocalism and consonantism in the history of the Ukrainian language by P. Zhytetskyi retained its relevance in comparative-historical and typological linguistics of the 20th century – the beginning of the 21st century.