In Drohobych, the laureates of the 10th International Ivan Franko Prize have been announced. The award has gone to Ukrainian linguist Viktor Moisiienko and Polish philologist Joanna Getka for their joint monograph “In the beginning was the word… From linguistic usage to literary norm. An outline of the genesis of the Ukrainian literary language”.
The international jury, which included 12 scholars from Ukraine, Poland and Slovakia, distinguished the work devoted to the formation of Ukrainian linguistic identity on the basis of written records from the 11th–13th centuries. The researchers traced that as early as in texts from the 11th century up to 40 characteristic features of the Ukrainian language were recorded, which recurred consistently. In the 12th century their number grew to around 400, and in the 13th century to more than a thousand. These very features later became the norm of the Ukrainian literary language, which provided important scholarly confirmation of the continuity of the Ukrainian linguistic tradition.
The authors worked on the monograph intermittently. On 25 February 2022, Professor Viktor Moisiienko, who was then 56, voluntarily joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He served as a mortarman in the 138th Battalion of the 115th Separate Brigade of the Territorial Defence Forces, was a mortar commander, and later headed the brigade’s combat stress control group. In total, he has spent more than four years in military service.
The monograph contains a dedication proposed by Joanna Getka:
“To the Ukrainian soldiers who are forced to defend cultural and historical justice not with the force of scholarly argument, but with weapons”
It is noted that the authors will allocate a significant part of the monetary component of the prize to the needs of Viktor Moisiienko’s comrades-in-arms.
The shortlist of nominees for the 10th International Ivan Franko Prize also included Volodymyr Viatrovych and Lubomyr Luciuk with their work “Archives of the Enemy”, as well as Vladyslav Hrybovskyi with the monograph “Khan’s Ukraine”.
During the ceremony it was emphasised that for ten years the prize has been supporting high-quality research on Ukraine thanks to the work of the Ivan Franko International Fund, the international jury, scholars and patrons. In his speech, Viktor Moisiienko stressed that the true laureates of all Ukrainian distinctions are the soldiers now on the front line and those who have fallen for Ukraine, while scholars, cultural figures and athletes can only claim an honourable second place.
The organisers and participants of the event expressed their gratitude to Ukraine’s Defenders, both men and women, and called on society to support them and to work tirelessly for victory, recalling Ivan Franko’s injunction to “hew this rock”.