略说乌克兰语

［水巷苇编］普京爱强调俄罗斯人与乌克兰人同种同文亦同教，不必分得那么细。讲到同文，他引述十七世纪的基辅加里奇大总主教鲁茨基（Josyf Rutsky）的观察，指出两地人书面语一样，仅仅口语上有微不足道的偏差，就好比意大利中部与北部居民之别。现今拥护普京的人多持类近想法，有人说乌克兰语纯属虚构，正如乌克兰族子虚乌有一样。

讲到两语异同，最近读到耶鲁大学教授施奈德（Timothy Snyder）别开生面的见解。他认为乌克兰就与世上其他国族一般，或许更加有趣。而乌克兰的特色正正体现在全国上下都掌握双语，随时可「语码转换」（code switch）。他形容乌克兰基本上就是个语码转换国，而这种常态于俄国及美国却属例外。

And if anything, like what makes Ukrainians a bit different than, let's say, Americans and for that matter, Russians, is that they are bilingual and they will code switch. And so it's not so much like the Ukrainian language. I mean, they have the Ukrainian language, and that does make them different. It's their language and it has a beautiful literary tradition and it's a beautiful spoken language. But they also have the capacity which the Russians lack, which we lack, is the ability to code switch. I shouldn't say we because some Americans can, there are plenty of Americans that are bilingual. But Ukraine is basically a whole nation of code switchers. And it's that thing also which makes them a little bit different and hard for us to understand.

欲知现状，必具史识。普京却成长于一九七零年代，正值苏联努力抹走乌克兰特色之时。因此普京会视普天之下皆俄罗斯，会觉得人人心底都渴望做俄国人操俄国语，也就不足奇怪了。

But when Brezhnev takes control from the late 60s and especially from the early 70s forwards, ou have a policy of a very deliberate Russification in Ukraine. And it's at that moment the 1970s that are so important for understanding the present, because that's when people like Putin grew up. You know, so Putin's perspective that everything is basically Russian and like, you know, eveyone really speaks Russian, and even if they seem not to, they really want to. That's a very 1970s perspective on all of this.

所谓乌克兰的特色当然非乌克兰独有。受大国压迫的角落天下何其多？