Professor, Dr. Nonna Vladimirovna Stankevich

Portrait of Professor of Linguistics Nonna Vladimirovna Stankevich.

She is a person who has made many contributions to the research of linguistics, Vietnamese studies and Vietnamese linguistics.

That's the professor's full name, but we don't need to add any other formal terms, we usually just call her "Miss Nonna" (with two letters).nin the middle). I mentioned two wordsnIt was for a funny reason. When Mr. Nguyen Tai Can was still alive, in a letter sent to me and through me, he asked the University of Social Sciences and Humanities to certify the number of years of work at the school so that the teachers could send it to the pension management agency in Moscow. At the end of the letter, he added: "T/B: N. remember to write her name: Nonna - two letters e n in the middle. Many times we didn't pay attention, writing one letter n as Nona, when doing paperwork, especially going to the police, household registration... it's very troublesome".

She was one of the "Four Ladies" of the Faculty of Literature, Hanoi University in the past. The nicknameFour SeasonsThis name was invented and passed down by us students at that time to call the four teachers whom we loved and respected very much: Ms. Dang Thi Hanh, Ms. Le Hong Sam, Ms. Hoang Thi Chau and Ms. Nonna. Each one has her own style, but the depth and respectable elegance in academics are the same. Now,Four SeasonsOur teachers have retired for a long time. Even us, the rural, provincial students of those teachers back then, in our late teens and early twenties, are now "slowly aging". Ms. Hanh, Ms. Sam, Ms. Chau are still in Hanoi, while Ms. Nonna retired in the Russian Federation, her homeland. MagazineLanguageNo. 5-2015 recently published an article congratulating her on her 80th birthday (May 24), respectfully affirming and highly appreciating her contributions to linguistics, Vietnamese studies and Vietnamese linguistics research.

When we were students of the Faculty of Literature, the country was still at war and divided. Life was very poor. Everything was lacking. But strangely, why was the atmosphere at that time?learnandaskThere was no shortage of foreigners in school. Back then, in our country, it was rare to meet a foreigner. Yet we had a real Russian teacher, dressed in Vietnamese style, wearing a conical hat, teaching attentively in class like other Vietnamese teachers. The first time we met and listened to her lecture, it felt strange. In Vietnamese. Very gentle. Observant people could easily hear a little "Nghe accent". Concise, no sentence was redundant or repetitive. The names of famous scientists in the world in the field she taught such as Skalichka, Kasnelson, Iakhontov, Uspenskji, Greenberg... along with their thoughts, methods... came to us through her lectures onTypes of languagesfrom those days. Later, after finishing school, staying to train as a lecturer, working together in the department, I gradually understood more about her.

Her hometown is St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), where the blue Neva River reflects purple sunsets and casts shadows on golden, magnificent castles and palaces, withwhite nights of juneThe magical and the “Scarlet Sails” festival, there is the famous Leningrad University, now renamed St. Petersburg University. There, in 1964, she defended her doctoral thesis on “The category of adjectives in modern Vietnamese” under the guidance of Professor SE Jakhontov, a very familiar name in the international linguist community. At first, she studied Chinese literature, with the second foreign language being Tibetan. Because the teacher was sick, Tibetan was no longer taught; Vietnamese was taught instead. At the end of the course, she graduated with a degree in Chinese language and Chinese literature, but wrote her graduation thesis on Vietnamese studies.

She should have continued to research and teach Vietnamese studies there, along with those who laid the foundation for Vietnamese studies at St. Petersburg University at that time, such as ND Andreev, Nguyen Tai Can, IS Bystrov, MV Gordina, VS Panfilov, IP Zimonina, D. Letjagin; but fate brought her to marry the Nguyen Tai family in Thuong Tho village, Thanh Chuong, Nghe An; and her life partner was the famous linguist - Professor Nguyen Tai Can. Returning to her husband's homeland, Vietnam, she was recruited by the Ministry of Education to be a lecturer at Hanoi University, Faculty of Literature, in October 1961, and from then on, she devoted herself to the Linguistics department of the University (now the Linguistics Department of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, under the Vietnam National University, Hanoi) until her retirement. So she started her scientific career in Leningrad, but during her research and teaching, she was completely in Vietnam, mostly during the difficult, arduous, war-torn times of the country.

At that time, the Linguistics and Vietnamese Linguistics Department at Hanoi University was just beginning to be established. She and her colleagues worked hard to develop the department. She compiled textbooks and taught courses on translation theory and methods, on types of languages, and also taught Russian practice, researched Vietnamese grammar, and then she researched Nom script (with Mr. Can), Vietnamese Chinese literature, especially the linguistic exchange between Van Ngu and Vietnamese, researched Vietnamese prose language in the late 19th and early 20th centuries... In every field, she achieved remarkable results. Two books:Types of languages(written separately),Vietnamese Grammar(written with Bystrov, Nguyen Tai Can), along with over hundreds of her articles published in scientific journals and research books at home and abroad. ParticularlyTypes of languagesis the only book in this field, up to now, in Vietnam, that has been compiled and used as an official textbook for students majoring in Linguistics. It is thought that this work should be proposed to receive a worthy award. The bookVietnamese Grammarby three authors presents a system and method of description which, at the time of publication (1975), was considered quite new and practical.

Her contributions to Vietnamese studies are not limited to that. During the war, when international exchanges were difficult, she acted as a bridge, promptly introducing new achievements and research trends in world linguistics and Soviet linguistics to Vietnam, and introducing Vietnamese culture, literature, and Vietnamese linguistics abroad through many translated works and research articles. In 2005, Editor-in-Chief of the journalLanguage– Professor Nguyen Duc Ton – asked me to write a short article to introduce and celebrate Professor Stankevich’s 70th birthday. It was difficult, but I tried. And after finishing writing, I immediately thought of asking Mr. Can to check it again. Luckily, he was in Hanoi at that time. I remember asking him something like: Did you introduce or both translate and introduce many modern Vietnamese literary works into Russian, is that right? He paused for a moment and then said: “Yes. You translated and introduced works by Ngo Tat To, Nguyen Cong Hoan, Anh Duc, Nguyen Minh Chau”… Then he slowly stood up and went to look through the bookshelf. I followed him in and gave him a hand. A stack of works, quite a lot, by Ngo Tat To, Nguyen Cong Hoan, Anh Duc, Nguyen Minh Chau… and also by Huy Can, Nguyen Tuan, Hoang Trung Thong… with very respectful dedications and thanks. All were printed on straw paper that was either water-colored or dull yellow and gray, products that marked a time of hardship and deprivation.

Before and after 1970, she was the first person to introduce the linguistic and literary content of ancient Nom texts.Only the South Jade Sound can explain,Zen Buddhist scriptures…to the world of Soviet linguistics and Vietnamese studies; and these documents have received much attention. In particular, she was also the first person to discover and introduce Catholic texts.Distinguishing between right and wrongwritten in Vietnamese, extremely rare, in Leningrad, caused a great stir in the Vietnamese studies research community, especially in the Soviet Union at that time.

Besides such professional work, few people know that many important documents of the Party and the State, many documents of high-ranking delegations on business trips were translated into Russian by her. Once when talking about this, I asked Teacher Can, half-jokingly, half-seriously: "It seems that back then, there was probably no money or remuneration, Teacher." He just smiled and said: "When the superiors assign it, you have to try to do it. It's also a task. But in our country, there are many funny things. Especially the working documents of delegations from this ministry or that department, this association, that association... It's like dropping a bomb. Tomorrow or a few days from now, I'll bring it today to "ask you to help me". So she had to try again. Staying up all night and day. It's really hard." She was also the one who translated many articles of many high-ranking leaders into Russian, and was a member of the team that first translated President Ho Chi Minh's will into Russian. The late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong often requested that his articles published in Pravda newspaper be translated by her.

Just like that, she quietly did the “famous” and many “unknown” things, quietly contributed. The way she and Mr. Nguyen Tai Can worked was strangely persistent and patient. Back when there were no photocopiers,Vietnamese - Portuguese - Latin DictionaryA. De Rhodes's had not been translated and printed, but in order to have documents for work, she and partly Mr. Can took the trouble to copy the whole thing in Leningrad. Then before and after 1975, at a research institute, a Nom dictionary was compiled, but it had not been printed yet, so she and Mr. Can asked to copy the whole thing. Later, when talking to us about this, she and Mr. Can both said: "For precious and rare documents that have not been printed for use, we have to try to take the trouble to copy them. To have something to work with. That kind of thing is usually difficult to print. Who knows when it will take. If we work hard to copy them, we will have documents to work with a few years sooner"... In reality, that was true. Mr. Can once said with a laugh: "N., do you see that? I have had documents for work for two or three years now, but the book has not been printed yet. It's difficult."

Accompanying Mr. Can to work at the University of Paris 7 for a while, she and Mr. Can asked Mr. Ph. Langlet and Mr. Y. Hervouet to introduce them to Mr. LMJ Verinaud and LMCI. Lange so that these two men could introduce them to the archives of the Foreign Missions Center (Séminaire des Missions étrangères - built in 1663 at 128 Rue du Bac, Paris today) to exploit ancient archives. Then she discovered and described quite thoroughly, published and introduced a series of very valuable documents written in Vietnamese in the 17th - 18th centuries: how many volumes, the symbol of each volume, what each volume included, the current status of the text, content, specific date... (Article printed in the magazineScience- Hanoi University of Science and Technology and in the bookSome evidence of language, writing and cultureby Mr. Nguyen Tai Can in 2001).

In 1984, she was recognized and appointed as Professor of Linguistics. In 1992, she retired. But her professional work remained the same. She still wrote articles for international conferences, articles for scientific journals... and continued to research.Vietnamese Linguistic Tradition and Its Contact with Chinese Linguistic Tradition(book:History of language sciences, published in Berlin and New York, 2000), writes for the magazineLanguage(Vietnam) on function words and grammar in ancient Nom textsLegendary Romance, introducing new achievements and methods of Russian lexicography... Recently, the magazineLanguageNo. 1-2015 just published her article.Some thoughts on typology and Vietnamese typology- The article presents profound conclusions on this issue. In 2010, when I had the opportunity to visit her and Mr. Can in Moscow, she still asked her brothers at home who had researched and published what. And she also told me: "If you have the opportunity, please send it to us to read."

Professor of Linguistics Nonna Vladimirovna Stankevich is the wife of the famous linguist: Professor, Doctor, People's Teacher Nguyen Tai Can.

Back to the old story, it is known that when they first returned from the Soviet Union, the teachers were assigned by their superiors to live in a part of a rather beautiful villa on a central street in Hanoi. Then, at the University of Hanoi at that time, there suddenly happened a "cultural revolution" that was almost like a foreign country. It was only a "laboratory" scale, but it was already disastrous enough. Some scientists from the natural sciences and then the literature department were targeted first. Mr. Nguyen Tai Can was among them. That villa was also abandoned, no longer lived in. The teachers managed to buy a house near the flea market. On the opposite side of the street was a temporary detention camp of the police. At that time, the distance from the city center to the flea market was still considered remote. That was a story from the past, I heard from my superiors, but when we got to know the teachers, the scene had changed completely, that camp no longer existed.

Behind two iron gates, at the height of a person, slightly dilapidated, is the entrance to the teacher's house, which is also a small, narrow yard, clinging to the length of the house wall. Inside, there is a rather large magnolia tree standing next to a small bamboo clump planted for decoration but bushy and rarely trimmed. Under the magnolia tree is an old toad, who knows how long it has been lying there, its eyes staring at everyone, not knowing how afraid of anyone. A long time ago, when I was drinking tea and chatting with Mr. Can, I mischievously poured tea on his head, but he just raised his hand to wipe the water away and then stared blankly, saying nothing. The wooden table (it seems to be self-made, not like a professional craftsman), Mr. Can often places under the magnolia tree to work and receive guests in the summer. Her gifts for many friends, colleagues, and students are magnolia flowers that she picked, placed in a small envelope that she cut and pasted herself from newspaper. Free, serene, and fragrant...

Many of his students came to study at that house. Once, around 1985-1990, Mr. Can organized at his house a series of talks on each issue of linguistics and Vietnamese linguistics ("speaking words" are seminars) in which a number of teachers, students, and brothers enthusiastically volunteered to participate, present, and discuss. The teachers were pleased and self-deprecatingly called itscientific cooperative. I kept wondering: the so-called research groups that we are discussing today, perhaps were also once formed and formed in such a way?

The subsidy period. Then the destructive war of the US Air Force. Bombs. Evacuation. Hardship, struggle, lack of everything. The superiors worried about her, advised her to temporarily evacuate to the Soviet Union. She thanked them, and then the whole family evacuated with the school to Dai Tu - Thai Nguyen. When they had to evacuate a second time to avoid enemy bombs, it was the same, returning to the countryside without any hesitation.

Just think: suppose (justsupposeThat day, she evacuated to her hometown to avoid the bombs, while Mr. Can was facing difficulties in the background and working atmosphere, what was it like?… The day he was awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize for Science, and was conferred the noble title of People's Teacher… everyone who knew him and was close to him was happy and congratulated him. But it seemed like he could still hear it somewhere… “I only see people smiling now”… - a sentence in the translation of an ancient poem from far away in the North, used as the introduction to a historical drama series, which has been occasionally shown on TV every evening for a long time.

A while ago, I went to work at Cornell University (NY, USA). She also went with Mr. Can to work there for a few months. One day I went to visit her. We talked about work, then she advised me to take care of my health when I had to be away from my family. She also taught me how to cook and take care of children (my first son was only three years old at that time). She said: “You know, during the evacuation, Viet and Nam [her two sons] were still young. At night, of course, there was only oil lamps. She sat working, putting them to sleep next to her. When the children cried, the first thing she had to do was check to see if they were bitten by ants or insects, if not, they might wet the bed, if not, they might be hungry, or in winter, they might be cold”… I listened, not only saw and learned experiences in taking care of children, but also saw her and other teachers and students with books and oil lamps of winter nights in the evacuation area…, saw my hometown again, a rural area near the sea, the gateway for American planes at that time. The sound of alarm bells. The sound of anti-aircraft guns. The sound of bombs exploding in the city or somewhere else, sometimes near, sometimes far. Some nights, I even heard the sound of artillery fire from American warships at sea. We were children, growing up, but hunger was always rumbling in our stomachs. At night, two or three siblings, each in a corner of a rickety wooden bed in the house, huddled together to study, yawning around the oil lamp in the middle, with a small speaker made from the cover of an old notebook blocking the light from shining out, afraid of being discovered by American planes...

In today's terms, she has integrated with us. Returning to Vietnam, a foreign country, at a time when it was still very poor and struggling, having just emerged from the resistance war against colonialism, she quickly overcame her initial confusion and calmly and confidently joined the fight. When the US air force bombed, she also evacuated to the forest to avoid bombs and bullets, working and raising a young child. In a recent article about Professor Nguyen Tai Can (2012, in the magazineLexicography and Encyclopedia), she recalled: “Evacuation far from Hanoi became an opportunity to live close to each other: colleagues could easily visit each other, students often visited teachers' houses; classrooms were not far from houses, the school library was within walking distance, the Faculty library was also very close... As for me, the evacuation time in Dai Tu, Bac Thai was very useful. For the first time, I was exposed to Vietnamese nature; saw the four seasons changing in the midlands, with mountains, hills, valleys, and streams flowing between fields; was exposed to rural life: thatched houses next to fields, farmers plowing or sowing rice, harvesting rice, celebrating Tet in the countryside... Before, when I was still in the city, I translated prose, found it difficult to imagine the reality that writers and journalists described, or difficult to understand the comparisons and metaphors of the authors. Now that I have heard and seen it, I understand. The scene of male buffaloes goring each other is really scary. A mad buffalo can be compared to a tank. The sound of a B52 flying far away is also like the sound of a rice mill... The scent of ripe rice in the fields, the scent of areca flowers and grapefruit flowers in the garden... The bland taste of guava leaves, the astringent taste of fresh green tea leaves..."

After the American air war ended, she returned to Hanoi, still with ration stamps for everything; the monthly standard was 13 kilos of food mixed with noodles and corn... but she still focused on research and teaching... I couldn't tell if she and her teacher were "poor" and "poor enough", but "lost their way" was clear. If they weren't "lost their way", how could they have found such research results in that situation?

Life was so deprived, but in teaching and research, she always set the highest requirements under possible conditions. When I first stayed at the school, she and Mr. Can, in a conversation, opened my mind to what a research paper is, what are the criteria for evaluating a research paper, what are the standards required for a research paper, how does it differ from a newspaper article... what requirements must a student majoring in the training field meet, what do they know how to do... More than ten years later, when I was at Cornell University, one day I introduced two of my friends to her, including P., a Thai, pretty, cheerful and dynamic, who spoke Vietnamese fluently with a strong Hanoi accent, who was a graduate student at that time, and had worked for a number of international organizations. Having met her a few times, she was very fond of P. and told me: "We must try to train students like that."

Returning to her hometown to retire, she, like other teachers, left the School and Faculty all of her research and teaching achievements. When she retired, among the "family heirlooms" she brought with her, were a steel helmet that was given to her during the war, destroyed by the US air force, and a medal.Medal of Resistance War against America for National Salvation(A medal, for sure, but I don't remember what class. I'm afraid to ask. Because if I send a letter to ask now, I know you're also afraid to talk about commendations, so... never mind).

I kept thinking: It turns out that all her time and energy in science, teaching, and training, until her retirement, was always in a state of "when here, I miss the other side, when there, I miss this place". But normally, "... at both ends of the longing, the affection is more profound..." as the lyrics of a song that people still sing recently. When she was in Hanoi, that far away place was her hometown. When she was in St. Petersburg or Moscow now, Hanoi, hadThe ancient tree road has protruding canopy,There is a small alley with a side view of the rain, there are hot summer days, a few autumn days with a gentle breeze, then December at the end of the year, bustling with peach and kumquat trees, because... Tet is here; Hanoi with her research and teaching work on linguistics and Vietnamese studies has a hot summer afternoon with golden honey sunlight, teaching in class where the sound of cicadas on the old tree next to the classroom drowns out the voices of the teachers, we scoop water and splash water on the tree to chase the cicadas away... perhaps it has become impossible to fade away. That is why every time Teacher Can returns to Hanoi, he brings a camera to take a series of photos: the alley leading to the teachers' house before, the small tea shop on the side of the road near the house, the stairs in the apartment building, the electric pole at the beginning of the alley, someone's house window in the distance, the tangled electric wires in the sky... To relieve my probably curious look about taking photos like that, Teacher explained: "She said to take photos to bring to her so she won't miss me so much". And I was silent.

In August 2010, I had the opportunity to visit my teachers in Moscow. I asked them many things, then said: “You and I try to take care of our health, and when we have the opportunity, we will come to Hanoi again. Hanoi has changed a lot now.” She looked out the window for a moment, her eyes seemed distant, then turned back and said: “I really want to, but the doctor won’t let me.” I knew she had health problems when flying. That day, I was taken to my teacher’s house by Mr. Hoang (a new, sincere friend who, together with his wife, Ms. Hanh, took care of the business trip of Ms. Thu Ha, Mr. Pham Ngoc Thanh and me). By chance, she learned that Ms. Hanh’s house in Nghe An was right next to Mr. Can’s house before, and Mr. Hoang knew many relatives on his side. She mentioned and asked him about any uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews... whether they were still doing anything, where they were... I listened and understood why the teacher's relatives loved her, as I had heard and seen.

Vietnamese life and soul were very profound and seemed to have merged with her Russian soul. That's why I can tell you another little story below.

In February 2011, Mr. Nguyen Tai Can passed away. His remains were brought back to his hometown. Before returning to Nghe An, he stopped in Hanoi. After welcoming him from the airport to his home, his family, relatives, and students set up a coffin to pay their respects. While everyone was starting to burn incense and prepare to put it in the incense bowl, I suddenly saw Mr. Nguyen Tai Viet, the eldest son of the teacher, hurriedly walking from outside into the room, while walking he quickly opened a small roll of newspaper, wrapped it tightly, took out three incense sticks brought from Russia, put them in the incense bowl first, then continued to burn incense. A strange feeling suddenly flashed through my mind, I couldn't determine what it was, I didn't know how to describe it... There is a saying "blessings and virtues come from the mother". I vaguely saw behind him, behind his actions, the shadow of his mother - Professor Nonna Vladimirovna Stankevich./.