Olena Kurylo (7 October 1890 – 1946) was a Ukrainian linguist and specialized in Ukrainian

dialects A dialect is a variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standardized varieties as well as vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardized varieties, such as those used in developing countries or iso ...

and

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

. She helped in codifying the

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

in 1928-1929. Her contributions in Ukraine linguistics include both theoretical as well as practical. She was the author of textbooks in Ukrainian language, and compiled the Ukrainian scientific terminology.

Biography

Born as Olena Borysivna Kurylo in a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family on 7 October 1890 in

Slonim Slonim is a town in Grodno Region, in western Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Slonim District. It is located at the junction of the Shchara and Isa (river), Isa rivers, southeast of Grodno. As of 2025, it has a population of ...

, Grodno Region in

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

, Russian Empire, Olena Kurylo studied philosophy at the

university of Königsberg The University of Königsberg () was the university of Königsberg in Duchy of Prussia, which was a fief of Poland. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant Reformation, Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke A ...

. In 1911 she enrolled at department of Slavic Studies in the

university of Warsaw The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public university, public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well ...

where she graduated with a teacher's certificate in 1913 which qualified her to teach

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

, history of pedagogy, and methods of the

Russian language Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...

. In 1921 she became a lecturer at the Institute of the People's Education,

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, Ukraine. She later joined as a senior associate at the All Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (VUAN) where she served as a member of its Ethnographic, Regional Studies and Dialectological commissions. She also worked as a consultant of the Institute of the Ukrainian Scientific Language. She played an instrumental role in the normalization of Ukrainian language and Ukrainian scientific terminology. Her Ukrainian grammar textbook for children was widely used. In the early 1930s, she sought refuge in Moscow and started teaching there until her arrest in 1937. She was later released and was allowed to stay in the northern part of Russia, where she died in 1946.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kurylo, Olena 1890 births 1946 deaths Women linguists 20th-century Ukrainian linguists 20th-century Ukrainian Jews Jewish linguists University of Königsberg alumni University of Warsaw alumni Linguists of Ukrainian