In Memory of the Forgotten

 "...small epitaphs to the often overlooked bits of history that lie rotting all around us."

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The Vanishing Galician Accent and How it Lingers in the Diaspora

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Please go to my new website Forgotten Galicia to read this post. Click here.

The vocabulary (which I wrote about here and more recently here) and accent of the diaspora community in North America (specifically the community that descended from the third wave of immigration (1940s-50s), many of which came from Galicia) differs somewhat from the vocabulary and accent heard today in western Ukraine. In the diaspora this vocabulary and accent remained rather stagnant while in Ukraine due to various factors (such as Russification and just due to the natural evolution of languages), the language, both its vocabulary and the sound, has changed. Thus the language spoken in Galicia before WWII has been better preserved in the diaspora than it has in Ukraine (in western Ukraine it can be heard only a little in rural areas/from the oldest generation.)
The Ukrainian Historical and Educational Center of New Jersey has on its website historical audio recordings where the early 20th century Galician…
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Abandoned Kościółs in the Galician Countryside

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The makeup of the population of Galicia changed drastically after WWII, one reason being the Soviet-Polish population exchanges in the years right after war, during which most of the Poles that lived in Eastern Galicia moved or were deported to the territory of current day Poland.

The traces of these Polish communities can be found in the countryside, where abandoned Roman Catholic churches (kościół in Polish or kostel in Ukrainian) can be found in many villages.

Under the Soviets, churches and synagogues were re-purposed, used often as warehouses, stables, museums, etc. While some of the Greek Catholic churches were renovated and today are used by the communities for worship, very few kościółs were resurrected as there are few practicing Roman Catholics in the villages.

A kościół in a village near Zolochiv
St. Maria Magdalena Kościół (built in 1924) in Vovkiv During Soviet times the church served as a mineral fertilizer warehouse. In 1993 the first Ukrainian detective series "Zloc…
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Dakha Brakha: Ethno-Chaos Band

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DakhaBrakha is an "ethno-chaos" band from Kyiv, created in 2014. They have gained a following around the world, have toured extensively, and have even performed an NPR Tiny Desk Concert and as well as on KEXP.

"Having experimented with Ukrainian folk music, the band has added rhythms of the surrounding world into their music, thus creating bright, unique and unforgettable image of DakhaBrakha. It will help to open up the potential of Ukrainian melodies and to bring it to the hearts and consciousness of the younger generation in Ukraine and the rest of the world as well," from their website.

One of the songs that stands out most to me, due to the music as well as the lyrics, is the song "Ванюша" (Vaniusha), the events of which take place during the Seven Years' War (1754-1763). I wonder whether this song was truely passed down for two and half centuries. The lyrics are quite dark and gruesome, however, so it is hard to believe it is documenting true ev…
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