Grandmothers-granddaughters

Under one cover, 32 Ukrainian authors have united: writers, teachers, journalists, bloggers, and activists — granddaughters of their grandmothers from different regions of Ukraine. Each told a story in the living dialect of her region, so that a book would emerge from them that sounds in different voices and different dialects, but speaks to us all in one common language — Ukrainian.

The authors of the book are: Mariia Krystopchuk, Yaryna Pryshliak, Kateryna Shchadylo, Zoriana Dzera, Tetiana Zhydak, Diana Horban, Uliana Maliar, Vitaliia Vasylchuk, Tsiia Sviderska, Taisiia ​​Nakonechna, Zhanna Khoma, Iryna Maliuk, Yuliia Mak, Slava Svitova, Tetiana Bezushko-Hrab, Ksenia Shpak, Olha Olkhova, Tania Dobrianska, Sofiia Bezverkha, Sasha Voitsekhivska, Svitlana Vertola, Olha Pinchuk, Tetiana Verbytska, Mariika Tavriiska, Sieda Vlasova, Nataliia Moroz, Maia Tulchynska, Elzara Halimova, Liliia Chekh, Viktoriia Romanchenko, Oksana Borovets, Yaryna Zhukovska.

These texts are written to remind us: the language we speak from the Carpathian foothills to the Black Sea steppes, from the waves of the Azov Sea to the Crimean Mountains, is diverse, ancient, original, rich and… alive. Because the language lives as long as people continue to speak it, quarrel, pray quietly, declare their love, sing lullabies, write poems, shout “Glory to the Heroes!”. Because the language is passed down from generation to generation, from great-grandmother to grandmother, from grandmother to mother, from mother to daughter, and so on to infinity.

To work with dialect texts, the project involved scientific editors and dialectologists from different parts of Ukraine: Halyna Hrymashevych (Middle Polissia dialect), Valentyna Liesnova (Slobozhanshchyna, steppe dialect), Yana Lytvynenko (Eastern Polska dialect), Tetiana Tyshchenko (Podillia, Middle Dnieper dialect), Tetiana Shcherbyna (Middle Dnieper-steppe borderland), Liudmyla Riabets (Middle Dnieper, Middle Polissia dialect), Liudmyla Koliesnik (Pokuttia, Bukovyna dialect), Halyna Shkurko (Transcarpathian dialect), Nataliia Hibeba (Boikivskyi), and Tetiana Yastremska (Transnistrian, Hutsul dialect). The scientific dialectologists made sure that each story preserved the authenticity of the dialect — so that the voices of all our women could truly sound again.