Jaroslav Rudnyckyj
Encyclopedia
Jaroslav Bohdan Rudnyckyj, OC
(*November 18, 1910 — †October 19, 1995) was a Ukrainian Canadian
linguist
, lexicographer with a specialty in etymology
and onomastics
, folklorist, bibliographer, travel writer, and publicist. He was one of the pioneers of Slavic Studies
in Canada
and one of the founding fathers of Canadian "Multiculturalism
". In scholarship, he is best known for his incomplete two volume Etymological Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language (1962–82), his Ukrainian-German Dictionary (1943), and his extensive study of the term and name "Ukraine" (1951).
, Habsburg Galicia, in what is today eastern Poland
near the border with Ukraine
, he received his M.A. in Slavistics
in 1934 and his Ph.D. (under Witold Taszycki) in this same field in 1937 from the University of Lviv. From 1938 to 1940, he was Research Associate at the Ukrainian Scientific Institute in Berlin. From 1941 to 1945 he was a professor at the Ukrainian Free University
in Prague
and he taught at the University of Heidelberg from 1945 to 1948.
In 1949 he emigrated to Canada where he organized and became head of the Department of Slavic Studies at the University of Manitoba
. He stayed there until his retirement in 1976. With the historian, Dmytro Doroshenko
and the literary scholar, Leonid Biletsky, he was a co-founder of the Canadian branch of the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences which is located in Winnipeg
. He became the third president (1955–1970) and one of the most important scholars in this emigre institution which carried out a wide-ranging publication program during his presidency. After his retirement from the University of Manitoba, he moved to Montreal
in eastern Canada from which he frequently commuted to Ottawa
to work in the National Archives of Canada and teach at the University of Ottawa
.
books on the origins of various Ukrainian placenames including "Galicia", "Volhynia
", and, in most detail, "Ukraine
". As well, he wrote on Canadian, especially Manitoban, placenames of Ukrainian origin.
During the Second World War, he published a short Ukrainian-German Dictionary which quickly went through four editions: (1940; 1941; 1942; and 1943). Together with Zenon Kuzelia, he also published a much larger Ukrainian-German Dictionary (1943; reprinted 1983) which was a pioneering effort in its day. (It contained over 100,000 words.)
era, Rudnyckyj published a series of books which chronicled his visits to various libraries and centres of Ukrainian cultural life and scholarship in the West. Among these his Ukrainian language
books on his "Travels Across Half the World" (1955), "Travels Through America" (1956), and "Travels Through Canada" (1959?) are especially notable.
His reports on various North American libraries, including the American "Library of Congress", which contained substantial Slavic and Ukrainian holdings, are also worthy of mention. These reports formed a supplement to his annual bibliographic reports on the progress of Slavic and Ukrainian scholarship and literature in Canada which he published throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
, and onomastics
naturally led to interests in folklore
, and during his Canadian period, he published numerous works on Ukrainian Canadian folklore. The source collection titled Ukrainian-Canadian Folklore and Dialectological Texts was published in Ukrainian in several volumes beginning in 1956. One volume even appeared in English translation.
and to various other countries.
On occasion, Rudnyckyj also approached more openly political topics, especially those connected with his professional interests as a linguist. Thus during the Cold War
, he was very concerned about the fate of the Ukrainian language under Soviet rule, and, comparing its situation with that of other languages under political pressure, pioneered the concept of "linguicide".
After his retirement from the University of Manitoba
and his move to Montreal
, he became active in the emigre government of the Ukrainian People's Republic
which had been forced from the territory of Ukraine in 1920 by its rival Soviet government. In 1992, after the emergence of an independent Ukraine, he took part in the transfer of the mandate of the Ukrainian People's Republic to the new Ukrainian state.
and with others promoted the idea of a multilingual Canada which recognized the importance of regional languages. His contribution to the Fourth Book of the Report of the Royal Commission, which dealt with the needs and contributions of "other ethnic groups" to Canadian society, was substantial and directly led to the promulgation of the new policy of "Multiculturalism
" by the federal government of Canada, and thereafter, by several provinces as well.
In 1992, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada
.
, Forvyn Bohdan, and Stephen Holutiak-Hallick continued his work in onomastics and other fields.
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
(*November 18, 1910 — †October 19, 1995) was a Ukrainian Canadian
Ukrainian Canadian
A Ukrainian Canadian is a person of Ukrainian descent or origin who was born in or immigrated to Canada. In 2006, there were an estimated 1,209,085 persons residing in Canada of Ukrainian origin, making them Canada's ninth largest ethnic group; and giving Canada the world's third-largest...
linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, lexicographer with a specialty in etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
and onomastics
Onomastics
Onomastics or onomatology is the study of proper names of all kinds and the origins of names. The words are from the Greek: "ὀνομαστικός" , "of or belonging to naming" and "ὀνοματολογία" , from "ὄνομα" "name". Toponymy or toponomastics, the study of place names, is one of the principal branches of...
, folklorist, bibliographer, travel writer, and publicist. He was one of the pioneers of Slavic Studies
Slavistics
Slavic studies or Slavistics is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic areas, Slavic languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was primarily a linguist or philologist who researches Slavistics, a Slavic or Slavonic scholar...
in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and one of the founding fathers of Canadian "Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
". In scholarship, he is best known for his incomplete two volume Etymological Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language (1962–82), his Ukrainian-German Dictionary (1943), and his extensive study of the term and name "Ukraine" (1951).
Career
Born in PrzemyślPrzemysl
Przemyśl is a city in south-eastern Poland with 66,756 inhabitants, as of June 2009. In 1999, it became part of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship; it was previously the capital of Przemyśl Voivodeship....
, Habsburg Galicia, in what is today eastern Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
near the border with Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, he received his M.A. in Slavistics
Slavistics
Slavic studies or Slavistics is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic areas, Slavic languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was primarily a linguist or philologist who researches Slavistics, a Slavic or Slavonic scholar...
in 1934 and his Ph.D. (under Witold Taszycki) in this same field in 1937 from the University of Lviv. From 1938 to 1940, he was Research Associate at the Ukrainian Scientific Institute in Berlin. From 1941 to 1945 he was a professor at the Ukrainian Free University
Ukrainian Free University
The Ukrainian Free University is a private graduate university located in Munich, Germany.-History:The Ukrainian Free University was established in Vienna, January 17, 1921. The idea to organize a Ukrainian university-in-exile came from Ukrainian academics, some of whom had held chairs at...
in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
and he taught at the University of Heidelberg from 1945 to 1948.
In 1949 he emigrated to Canada where he organized and became head of the Department of Slavic Studies at the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
. He stayed there until his retirement in 1976. With the historian, Dmytro Doroshenko
Dmytro Doroshenko
Dmytro Doroshenko was a prominent Ukrainian political figure during the revolution of 1917-1918 and a leading Ukrainian emigre historian during the inter-war period.-Political career:...
and the literary scholar, Leonid Biletsky, he was a co-founder of the Canadian branch of the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences which is located in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
. He became the third president (1955–1970) and one of the most important scholars in this emigre institution which carried out a wide-ranging publication program during his presidency. After his retirement from the University of Manitoba, he moved to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
in eastern Canada from which he frequently commuted to Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
to work in the National Archives of Canada and teach at the University of Ottawa
University of Ottawa
The University of Ottawa is a bilingual, research-intensive, non-denominational, international university in Ottawa, Ontario. It is one of the oldest universities in Canada. It was originally established as the College of Bytown in 1848 by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate...
.
Philologist
His books include The Ukrainian Language and Its Dialects, in Ukrainian, (1937; 5th revised ed. 1978), a German-language textbook of Ukrainian (1940; 4th ed. 1964), A Modern Ukrainian Grammar for English speakers (1949; reprinted many times), and a pioneering but incomplete English-language Etymological Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language (2 volumes in 22 fascicles, 1962–1982). He also produced several smaller Ukrainian languageUkrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
books on the origins of various Ukrainian placenames including "Galicia", "Volhynia
Volhynia
Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...
", and, in most detail, "Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
". As well, he wrote on Canadian, especially Manitoban, placenames of Ukrainian origin.
During the Second World War, he published a short Ukrainian-German Dictionary which quickly went through four editions: (1940; 1941; 1942; and 1943). Together with Zenon Kuzelia, he also published a much larger Ukrainian-German Dictionary (1943; reprinted 1983) which was a pioneering effort in its day. (It contained over 100,000 words.)
Travel writer
During the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
era, Rudnyckyj published a series of books which chronicled his visits to various libraries and centres of Ukrainian cultural life and scholarship in the West. Among these his Ukrainian language
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
books on his "Travels Across Half the World" (1955), "Travels Through America" (1956), and "Travels Through Canada" (1959?) are especially notable.
His reports on various North American libraries, including the American "Library of Congress", which contained substantial Slavic and Ukrainian holdings, are also worthy of mention. These reports formed a supplement to his annual bibliographic reports on the progress of Slavic and Ukrainian scholarship and literature in Canada which he published throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
Folklorist
Rudnyckyj's work in Ukrainian dialect studies, etymologyEtymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
, and onomastics
Onomastics
Onomastics or onomatology is the study of proper names of all kinds and the origins of names. The words are from the Greek: "ὀνομαστικός" , "of or belonging to naming" and "ὀνοματολογία" , from "ὄνομα" "name". Toponymy or toponomastics, the study of place names, is one of the principal branches of...
naturally led to interests in folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
, and during his Canadian period, he published numerous works on Ukrainian Canadian folklore. The source collection titled Ukrainian-Canadian Folklore and Dialectological Texts was published in Ukrainian in several volumes beginning in 1956. One volume even appeared in English translation.
Publicist
Rudnyckyj was a prolific contributor to the Ukrainian-language press in North America, especially in Canada. In these shorter pieces, he popularized his various scholarly researches, informed the public about academic affairs, and wrote on his extensive travels across CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and to various other countries.
On occasion, Rudnyckyj also approached more openly political topics, especially those connected with his professional interests as a linguist. Thus during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, he was very concerned about the fate of the Ukrainian language under Soviet rule, and, comparing its situation with that of other languages under political pressure, pioneered the concept of "linguicide".
After his retirement from the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
and his move to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, he became active in the emigre government of the Ukrainian People's Republic
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic or Ukrainian National Republic was a republic that was declared in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Revolutionary Wave:...
which had been forced from the territory of Ukraine in 1920 by its rival Soviet government. In 1992, after the emergence of an independent Ukraine, he took part in the transfer of the mandate of the Ukrainian People's Republic to the new Ukrainian state.
Canadiana
From 1963 to 1971, Rudnyckyj was a member of the Canadian Royal Commission on Bilingualism and BiculturalismRoyal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism was a Canadian royal commission established on 19 July 1963, by the government of Prime Minister Lester B...
and with others promoted the idea of a multilingual Canada which recognized the importance of regional languages. His contribution to the Fourth Book of the Report of the Royal Commission, which dealt with the needs and contributions of "other ethnic groups" to Canadian society, was substantial and directly led to the promulgation of the new policy of "Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
" by the federal government of Canada, and thereafter, by several provinces as well.
In 1992, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
.
Legacy
Rudnyckyj's personal bibliography, was published in four parts beginning in 1975; in the last part published in 1995 under the title J.B. Rudnyckyj: Repertorium Bibliographicum Addenda 1984-1994, the list reaches a very impressive 2967 titles, although most of these are short pamphlets and newspaper articles. Among his numerous students, John Pauls (Sydoruk), Volodymyr Zhyla, Robert KlymaszRobert Klymasz
Robert Bohdan Klymasz is the premier Ukrainian-Canadian folklorist. Educated at the University of Toronto , the University of Manitoba , Harvard University , and Indiana University , he was a long-time Curator of the Slavic and East European...
, Forvyn Bohdan, and Stephen Holutiak-Hallick continued his work in onomastics and other fields.