What did Ukraine's May 2019 spelling and shipbuilding news signal?
A look back at two public-life developments reported in the days before 28 May 2019: a new orthography and a record-sized vessel.
What was Ukraine's public agenda in the days leading up to 28 May 2019? Two items stand out in the reports from that period, one about language and one about industry.
On 22 May 2019, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the Ukrainian orthography in a new edition. The text had been prepared by the Ukrainian National Commission on Orthography. Approval by the government marked a formal step for a set of rules that touches schools, publishing and official writing, though the reports from the time say nothing further about how it would be applied.
A day later, on 23 May 2019, the self-propelled transshipper of project P-140 was launched at the Nibulon shipyard in Mykolaiv. It was described as the largest vessel in the history of independent Ukraine.
The two events are unrelated in subject. Together, they show that the days before 28 May 2019 brought decisions and achievements in very different fields: a state-endorsed standard for the written language, and a domestically built ship of unusual size.
