Russian Spelling Rules to Be Reviewed

By Robin Munro

Changes to the spelling rules of the Rus­sian language are due to be approved this year — the first time the rules have been changed since 1956.

The Orthographic Commission, cre­ated in 1996 by the language and litera­ture section of the Academy of Sciences, in 2000 produced a limited, 394-page edi­tion of new spelling rules for experts to peruse, and the preprinting process is go­ing through the final stages.

Leonid Krysin, the deputy chairman of the commission and deputy director of Moscow’s Vinogradov Institute of Russian Language, said 99 percent of ex­perts consulted had approved the changes recommended by the commis­sion. Final approval of the rules is ex­pected to be given by a government committee on the Russian language by next summer.

However, Marina Remnyova, dean of the philology faculty at Moscow State University and one of the 60 or so mem­bers of the government committee that will consider the changes in February, said she will do all she can to stop the passage of the new rules.

People learned the rules in school and keep them for the rest of their lives, so they should not be changed lightly, she said in a telephone interview. Be­sides, the changes recommended by the Orthographic Commission had been poorly researched, she said.

As an example, Remnyova cited the commission’s plan to change the spelling of парашют (parachute) to парашym, on the basis that the “ ю ” is pronounced “у” after “ш” but had left the “ю” in the word жюри (jury), where is also pro­nounced “ у. ”

Yelena Dibrova, head of the Russian department at the Open Pedagogical University, criticized the process of re­vising the rules.

Vladimir Vinogradov, who led the process of change that resulted in the last new spelling rules in 1956, published sug­gestions in newspapers and sought pub­lic opinion before sending them to ex­pert linguists for evaluation, she said.

“There should be wide public consul­tation. A revision of the rules will only work if you first have a consensus.” Di­brova said.

Krysin said he was aware of opposition to the new rules, but said this is

merely a natural reaction to any change.

Only 23 rules have been changed, representing 1.5 percent to 2 percent of all the rules that govern Russian spelling, he said.

Furthermore, some changes have happened even before the new rules are printed. Krysin said. He cited the use of religious words such as Бог (God). Пасха (Easter) and Рождество (Christ­mas) that are now written with capital letters, whereas the 1956 rules say they should be lowercase.

Under the rules governing adjectives and participles, the commission has also proposed that a word such as “wounded,” which can currently be ren­dered ранены or раненный depending on its grammatical role, will in future have only one “н” in its ending in all cases.

“There is no reason for panic,” Krysin said. ”Essentially, this is a new edition of the rules that existed in 1956.”

The 1956 rules have not been reprinted for 30 years, leaving many writers and publishers to come up with their own instructions.

“At the moment it’s a hodgepodge and that’s not good for a civilized na­tion.” Krysin said.

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