[mova] Y or I ? nezalezhnosty or nezalezhnosti ?

[K&I Bell]

Dear Mova Folks -
         I was grateful to receive the reply below to my query, and 
therefore assume that Y or I case endings differ as:
  - ' v chim?'  - v nezaleznostI
  - 'bez choho?' - bez nezalezhnostY
         I understand that in Russian the ending is always 'I' and 
that Ukrainian usage in Ukraine therefore often uses this as well ?
         However, I was interested to see in the August Independence 
issue of The Ukrainian Weekly,  that of the congratulatory ads eight 
used '15-ta richnytsia nezalozhnostY' and only one used 
'nezalezhnostI'.  Also, the UNIAN agency website, in Ukraine, uses 
'Maidan NezalezhnostY'. And Pora in Ukraine uses 'Y'.  But Ukraine 
Gov't websites use 'I'.
         Pity the poor diasporite, trying to figure out how to speak 
Ukrainian according to the precepts of the Ukrainian language...
                                         Irena B

-----------------------------------
         Reply:
>>>>I'm sure there are hugely passionate replies about this.
>>>>Hrinchenko (1908) and Holoskevych (1929) both give -ist' forms 
>>>>with the Gsg -ostY and Psg -ostI. Those are the historical 
>>>>reflexes you would expect in Ukrainian.
>>>>More recent orthographies and normalizing texts (1972, the 
>>>>11-volume dictionary, Antonenko-Davydovych, and the 1994 
>>>>orthography) give -ostI for Gsg and Psg. Some feel that is a 
>>>>Russism, with analogization to Russian -ost' > -ostI, where 
>>>>softness is retained. It could, however, represent analogization 
>>>>from Ukrainian Psg -ostI to the Gsg form (reinterpreting the 
>>>>whole declension series as soft, ignoring the historical 
>>>>hardening of the Gsg -ostI to -ostY... ).
>>>>A lot of this is what you feel the "real" language is--something 
>>>>that is codified now by academics and artists or something that 
>>>>was codified sometime in the past at a time when you feel 
>>>>political manipulation of the language was less than it is now.
>>>>
>>>>------------------------------
>>>>>Dear Mova-ites -
>>>>>         I have seen '15-ta richnytsia nezalezhnostY Ukrainy'. 
>>>>> However, I have also seen '15-ta richnytsia nezalezhnostI 
>>>>> Ukrainy' Which is the one that is correct according to rules of 
>>>>> proper Ukrainian, and not Russian-influenced ?
>>>>>                                         Irena ,  Ottawa
>>>>>PS Apologies - I have not yet figured out how to useUkrainian 
>>>>>script in my Eudora e-mail.
>>>>>_____________________________________
>>>>>mova mailing list
>>>>>mova at brama.com
>>>>>http://www.brama.com/mailman/listinfo/mova



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