Stanowisko ks. Josyfa Łewyćkiego (1801-1860) w sporze o alfabet języka ruskiego (ukraińskiego) w Galicji w latach 30. i 40. XIX wieku
Position of father Josyf Levytskyi (1807-1860) in the „alphabet war" of Ruthenian (Ukrainian) language in Austrian Galicia in 30s and 40s of 19th century

Summary/Abstract: In the 30s of 19th century the Ruthenian (Ukrainian) national movement in the Austrian Galicia was dominated by the dilemma of so called azbuchna vijna (Ukrainian „alphabet war”). The dispute among the national activists was about the change the Cyrillic script to the Latin alphabet adopted from Polish language. This paper presents the arguments of Greek-Catholicfather Josyph Levytskyi, who was the most influential critic of the idea of latinization. He publi- shed his ideas in a small booklet that was distributed together with the Polish weekly „Rozmaitości”. Levytskyi stressed on long history of the Cyrillic alphabet and its uniqueness. Moreover, he claimed that new alphabet will not make Ruthenian literature more European and will only give the Poles another reason to call Ruthenian language a variety of Polish. On the other hand, Levytskyi did not appraised very much the usage of grazhdanka by the „Rus Trinity” and critici- sed the new orthography, which was based on phonetic principle.

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