Journal Article

The Ukrainian Language in the Context of the Study of Sacred and Vulgar Tongues in Orthodox Slavdom

Goldblatt, Harvey

2007

Overview

1 The aim of these studies has been to elucidate certain fundamental language beliefs that not only reflected but actually conditioned the formation and development of the medieval literary civilization of Orthodox Slavdom (Slavia orthodoxa),2 that vast supranational community of peoples which for centuries shared not only a common confession (Orthodoxy) but also a common language (Church Slavonic).3 These studies have aimed to demonstrate, moreover, that in the premodern period new language questions-that is, innovative debates on (1) the status of the older supranational linguistic patrimony, and (2) the connections between national language and ethnolinguistic identity-played a central role among the Eastern Slavs in helping to establish a different type of relationship between supranational trends and national sentiments in Orthodox Slavdom.4 The present study, therefore, seeks to examine various aspects of Orthodox Slavic linguistic consciousness in general, as well as East Slavic language speculation in particular, against the broader background of the shifting perceptions in European culture that evolved during the Middle Ages, through the period of humanism and the Renaissance, in the age of the ideological conflict between the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, and finally during the period prior to the age of the Slavic national revivals.

• Publisher: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute,Harvard University, Ukrainian Research Institute,Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University
• Subject: Beliefs / Christianity / Cultural background / Cultural change / Cultural Factors / Cultural identity / Ethnolinguistics / History / Humanism / Ideology / Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.) / Language / Language History / Latin language / Linguistic research / Linguistics / Literary criticism / Literary Language / Liturgical language / Middle Ages / National languages / Old Church Slavonic / Orthodox Church / Orthographies / Religious Language / Religious literature / Religious missions / Sacred languages / Slavic culture / Slavic Languages / Slavic literature / Spirituality / Standard language / Ukrainian / Ukrainian language