New epoch needs new dictionaries

Dictionaries in the developed nations have the status of national possession and are considered to be symbols like the coat of arms, flag and hymn. If big nations have big dictionaries, then the most considerable achievement of Ukraine until now is the 11 volume explanatory dictionary published yet in 1970. Since then our linguistic environment has changed substantially: several scientific and technical revolutions has taken place, the independent state has appeared. And all that resulted in radical social transformations. The Ukrainian linguistic-informative fund of the National academy of sciences, which works on the series of academic dictionaries of the new generation, was appointed to fill the linguistic gaps. The first (orthographic) dictionary of independent Ukraine was published in 1994.

Yuriy MYKOLAYIV