You're reading: Luminary of Ukrainian language Oleksandr Ponomariv dies at 84

Prominent Ukrainian linguist and professor Oleksandr Ponomariv died on Oct. 14, his wife told BBC Ukraine. Ponomariv passed away just three days before his 85th birthday on Oct. 17.

He spent his last year in a hospital, trying to recover after a back injury, according to Volodymyr Rizun, dean of the Institute of Journalism in Kyiv Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, where Ponomariv had been the head of the Ukrainian language and stylistics since 1979.

The farewell ceremony will take place on Oct. 17, Rizun said.

Ponomariv was a pioneering linguist and fervent advocate for the preservation of the Ukrainian language: he wrote over 250 scientific papers and translated Polish, Czech, Russian and Roman books into Ukrainian. Ponomariv coauthored at least six Ukrainian dictionaries.

He was also popularizing the language online — for years, Ponomariv had been a columnist for BBC Ukraine, writing about common grammar and language mistakes.

He encouraged Ukrainians to get rid of the so-called “surzhyk,” a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian languages used in every region of the country. Ponomariv called surzhyk a disease that destroys the language.

He also dismissed the language-based division of Ukraine that is believed to be the reason for its constant collisions with Russia. Although Ukrainian is the single official language of the country, over 30% of Ukrainians speak Russian in their everyday life; nearly 20% of citizens use both languages.

Ponomariv believed that Ukrainians should adjust foreign names and surnames to local spelling. For example, the Ukrainian for Russian Alexandr Pushkin should be Olexandr Pushkin and for Yevgeniy Onegin — Yevgen Onegin.

Although Ponomariv was born in Taganrog, a Russian city situated on the shores of the Azov Sea, he claimed that it is an ethnic Ukrainian territory where all citizens used to speak Ukrainian until they were forced to switch to Russian in schools.