Rol' slavenorosskogo jazyka v istorii razvitija ukrainskogo i russkogo jazykov

The Language situation of the Ukrainian Lands, before the gradual diffusion of Russian towards the mid of the 18th century, and the rise of the new Ukrainian literary language at the end of that century (1798), was characterized by the coexistence of the two basic literary language varieties: the old Ukrainian literary language, also known in the Ukrainian tradition as “stara ukrajins’ka mova” or “prostaja mova”, and the Church Slavonic of Ukrainian redaction. The latter was designated by different terms. The most widespread definition until the publication of M. Smotryc’kyj’s Grammar (1619) was “slovenskij” or “slavjanskjj jazyk”. The constant interaction of Church Slavonic with the other traditional bookish variety “stara ukrajins’ka mova”, and the necessity for the Ukrainian scholars, especially after 1654 (Unification of the Left Dnieper Bank Ukraine with Muscovy) to be understood also in Russia, led to the gradual development of a specific kind of a literary language. This language was ideally aimed at being “commonly” understood by the all east Slavs, hence its designation being “slaveno-rosskij jazyk”. In this paper we tried to tackle this controversial terminological issue, particularly misleading for the western European scholars. We also attempted to provide an introductory cultural and linguistic characterization of this Church Slavonic language variety typical for Ukraine of the 16th – 18th century, whose influence was also being destined to partially affect the Russian literary writings.