A Linguistic Analysis of Ivan Mazepa's Universals and Letters Author(S): Michael A
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The President and Fellows of Harvard College A Linguistic Analysis of Ivan Mazepa's Universals and Letters Author(s): Michael A. Moser Source: Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 31, No. 1/4, POLTAVA 1709: THE BATTLE AND THE MYTH (2009-2010), pp. 391-411 Published by: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41756509 . Accessed: 08/09/2014 00:17 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and The President and Fellows of Harvard College are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Harvard Ukrainian Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 162.38.186.136 on Mon, 8 Sep 2014 00:17:17 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions A Linguistic Analysis of Ivan Mazepa's Universais and Letters Michael A. Moser Ukrainian as the Official Language of the Hetmanate under Hetmán Ivan Mazepa In terms of both functionality and language status, it is obvious thatthe sphereof administrationis a particularlyimportant domain of any writtenlanguage. Studies on thehistory of languages, however, often pay scarce attentionto administrativedocuments, especially if they deal with periods when otherdomains, in particularthose of belles-lettres, are alreadyrepresented in thecorpus quite well. As forthe Ukrainian case, earlier documents, such as the chartersof the late fourteenth century and earlypart of the fifteenth, have been ratherthoroughly analyzed by linguists,and theirsignificance for the study ofthe Ukrainian language is widelyacknowledged. Philological and linguistic researchon the languageof laterofficial documents, including those of the Hetmanatein Left-BankUkraine, has been much less intense,though, and informationon thistopic is usuallyreduced to a fewremarks in textbooks.1 As a result,little is knownabout Ukrainianas a chancerylanguage dur- ingthe Hetmanate. However, a generallook at theUkrainian situation in the eighteenthcentury makes it plausibleto assumethat it was nota new forma- tion,but a continuationof earlierRuthenian traditions. Like othervarieties of Ukrainian,the languageof administrationwas stillexposed to the rather strongimpact of the Polish language despite the political divide, while the role of Russianas a contactlanguage gradually became more importantduring thatperiod, too.2 Althoughwe arenot dealing with Ivan Mazepa's personal language but with thatof his chancery,a brieflook at Mazepa's own linguisticprofile is apropos here. Born on 20 March 1639 in Mazepyntsinear Bila Tserkva,Mazepa, a descendantof émigrésfrom the morewestern parts of Ukraine,studied at the KyivanMohyla College in Kyivand the JesuitCollege in Warsaw.After spendingsome timein the Germanand Italianlands, the Netherlands,and This content downloaded from 162.38.186.136 on Mon, 8 Sep 2014 00:17:17 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 392 MOSER France,he became a royalcourtier in Warsawbefore returning to Ukrainein 1663.Based on thesebiographical data, it is safeto assumethat Mazepa was fluentin both Ukrainianand Polishand thathe knewChurch Slavonic and Latinwell; his excellent command of Latin was praisedby his contemporaries.3 Back in Ukraine,Mazepa forgedan impressivecareer. After being captured duringone of his manydiplomatic missions to the CrimeanTatars by the ZaporozhianCossacks in 1674,he was handedover to theLeft-Bank hetmán, Ivan Samoilovych.From that time onward he "quicklygained the confidence of Samoilovychand Tsar PeterI, was made a 'courtierof the hetmán/and was senton numerousmissions to Moscow....In 1682Mazepa was appointed Samoilovych'sgeneral osaul,"4 and in July1687 he was electedthe new hetmán. Fromthen on, Mazepa was in continuouscontact with Muscovite officials and theirRussian language, but this does notnecessarily mean that Mazepa had a verygood activecommand of Russian. If Oleksander Ohloblyn maintained in hisfundamental book that,"along with Polish, Muscovite, and Tatar,he had a commandof Latin, Italian, and German,and knewFrench,"5 this might seem to be too boldan assumption.However, Tatiana Tairova-Iakovleva, obviously rely- ingon thememoirs of Mazepa's French contemporary, Jean Casimir de Baluze, partlyagrees that Mazepa, "alongwith Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish,knew Latinperfectly... and spokeItalian and German,"adding that it was PylypOrlyk who maintainedthat Mazepa also knewthe Tatar language "very well."6 The Sources One ofthe crucial problems of studying the language of Ivan Mazepa's chancery becomesevident very quickly: Only a fewtexts have been editedin a waythat can be calledmore or lesssatisfactory from a philologicalor linguistic perspec- tive.As forthe many editions of Mazepa's letters,for example, even the most fundamentalmatters of text tradition often remain unclear. Time and againone cannotbe certainwhether the edited text is based on an originalmanuscript fromthe Hetmanate'schancery, a copy,or simplyanother edition, and very oftenit is noteven clearif the edition is based on theversion that was issued in thehetman's chancery or on a translationmade forRussian addressees. Fortunately,questions like these have not been neglectedby Ivan Butych in hiseditions of Mazepa's universais (MU, MU II) orby V'iacheslav Stanislavs'kyi in hisedition of Mazepa's letters of 1687-91 (ML). Sincea numberof important documentsfrom the Hetmanate, particularly the universais, have been recently editedmore carefully than ever (XU, HU ), one mightbe quiteoptimistic.7 New studiescould significantly deepen our knowledge of the official Ukrainian lan- guageof the Hetmanate in thesecond half of the seventeenth century and the beginningof the eighteenth (although, admittedly, a closer look soon reveals This content downloaded from 162.38.186.136 on Mon, 8 Sep 2014 00:17:17 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions LINGUISTICANALYSIS OF MAZEPA'SUNIVERSALS AND LETTERS 393 a considerableamount of dubious or clearlyerroneous renderings in some of theserecent editions, too). Afterall, the importance of this topic for Ukrainian historicalsociolinguistics is obvious.In theend, we are dealingwith an idiom thatrepresents the last historicalvariety of Ukrainianfunctioning as a vital officiallanguage prior to the firstnew stepsthat were taken in the Austrian Empireafter the Revolution of 1848.8 My presentsmall contributionfocuses on one major question:To what extentdid the Muscoviteofficial language already exert an influenceon the languageof the Hetmanate's chancery under Ivan Mazepa? My tentative answer willbe based on an analysisof two universais from Mazepa's chancery,dating fromdifferent periods of his hetmancy,and a comparisonwith the language of some officialletters to Muscoviteaddressees. While Mazepa's universais representthe internalofficial written language of the Hetmanateat the turn ofthe eighteenth century and offeran answerto thequestion of whether the Hetmanate'slinguistic traditions remained intact, Mazepa's externalcorre- spondencewith Muscovite addressees is situatedin a ratherdifferent context becausethis communication constellation is multilingualfrom the very outset. Againstthe background of upcoming developments it is thefactors of Russian- Ukrainianlinguistic adaptation and comprehensionthat are of significant interest:Was the languageof the hetman'sletters to Muscoviteaddressees basicallyidentical to theinternal official language of the Hetmanate, and was it understoodas such in Muscovy?Or was the Hetmanate'sofficial language maintainedon theUkrainian side, but translated in orderto be understoodby theRussian side? Or didthe Hetmanate's chancellery adapt its correspondence withMuscovites to Russianlinguistic traditions already at thisrather early stage?9 Two Universals In Butych'sedition one of the firstuniversals, which is based on an original manuscript,was issuedby Ivan Mazepa on 9 October1687 in Baturyn: IoaHT>Ma3ena, reTMaHZ» 3 Bowckomt> mxt> íjapcKoro npecBfcTAoro BeAwnecTBa3anopo3CKHAi. Bcew CTa/miMHfcm nepHfc Bowcica mxt> ij^pcKoro npecB^TAoro BeAwnecTBa3anoposcKoro, a MeHOBMTenany ikmkobhmkobm npwAyíjKOMy,0603H0My, cydw m ocayAOAíncMKOBbw, cothmkom [sic]aTaMaHOAí, bomtomt» mKO>KAOMy, KOMy Kcußeicb o tom Bl>AaTM HaAAe>KMm, 03HawMyeAí: wacb 3axoByioHH mm npaBa M<ZH<zcTMpeBM IyCTMHCKOMyripMAyíJKOMy OT ÓblBlllbDCb aHTeijeCapOBT» HtflUMXTí HaAaHbiecmmt> hâihmmtj yHfcBe/JcaAOivrb OHbie CTBe/^KaeM-bm This content downloaded from 162.38.186.136 on Mon, 8 Sep 2014 00:17:17 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 394 MOSER I103B0AH6AÍnpeBeAetfHOMy b Bory omy AßKceHTiioHkmmobmhk), iryMeHOBMMonacrupa MeHewHoro FycTMHCKoro FlpMAyijKoro m no HeMT>óyAynbiAí omußM iryMeHOAí mbcèmi» Toew oõmtcam 3aKOWHMKOAí AAHyCTaBMHHOM B[aUiUX] MUAOCTBZX10 llJOACHHbl# XBaAbl BOKOU M AAH Bcna/?THBcerAaniHbix pocxoAOBi» M0H<zcTbipcKM* ceAOm AewMaHOBKOio BAaA^TMm3 MAbiHOBiïAaBWAewKOBoro o abo* KaMeHfl* B CeAb BaUKaXT> m nod M-fccTOMiíBapBOK) iBaHa ToneHoro m IßaHaAjmnca o aboxï» KaMeHH^c3 CTynaMM Hapeqfc YAaio, a b ceAfeAewMaHOBiJfc XßecKOBoro mKocTMHoro >KMTeAeiï TaMoniHJC, ace o aboxi»KaMeHH# 3 CTynaMM Ha pfcHIJ-fcAwcoropi^t CTOHHMXTj BIIieAHKM# p03Mljp0BM3: