Ghost Sign Vandalism
It's very sad to see ghost signs defaced. Graffiti is just one of the many threats to ghost signs. Recently I noticed that an interesting ghost sign in Lviv has been vandalized.
The Archaic Language of the Ukrainian Diaspora
Please go to my new website Forgotten Galicia to read this post (an updated version). Click here . Over the last several years my interest in languages and dialects has grown. I have become very fascinated by the way the Ukrainian language has developed in the diaspora vs. Ukraine. The Ukrainian language spoken in the diaspora is the language that was spoken in western Ukraine before WWII. The majority of Ukrainian immigrants who went to the West during and right after WWII were from Galicia and Western Ukraine. Galicia had had a long history of Polish rule and influence, thus the language spoken there had a lot of Polonisms. This language didn’t evolve much in the diaspora, so Ukrainians still speak this language. (Though there has been some English influence on the language.) Furthermore, it retained several archaic words relating to technology (for example, in the diaspora we still usually say загасити світло (extinguish the light) , which harks back to a time when fire was us...
Looks like football supporters to me, there's a team in London called West Ham. I really don't like this but there was an example in London in 2010 of a street artist pasting his work onto a lovely ghostsign. It started some debate but, in the end, the art came down and then the sign got covered again.
ReplyDeleteOh interesting. I didn't realize that's what it was. There is a lot of football graffiti in Lviv, but usually it's in support of local teams. And an interesting debate - the artist had some interesting arguments for the placement, but I still think it's a shame to cover up ghost signs like that.
DeleteI guess it was probably people who were in Ukraine for the European championships in the summer, England fans but these ones support West Ham too.
Delete... and I assume the graffiti is hard to be removed without tampering the original... In July I saw that the sign in the Chornovola bld. was graffitied also still, I am afraid that it is still not cleared ...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.studiolum.com/wang/galicia/walls/3/05.jpg
Yes, I believe that graffiti (on Kulisha St.) is still there. In this case, the sign was specifically targeted, while in the case I posted it was just done in ignorance. I remember seeing a picture of another Yiddish ghost sign with red paint splashed over it. (I think it was one on Nalyvaika St. that was painted over a few years ago.) Unfortunately there is still antisemitism in Lviv, and as such, the old Yiddish signs are not particularly safe.
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