Prof. Ivan Kanchev, Doctor of Philology, has three motherlands – Argentine, Bulgaria and Spain, more than the ancient Greek wiseman

His colleagues say about him with no envy that he honors and is a pride for every university in the world. It is no accident that with a decree of the King of Spain he was conferred the high distinction “Officer of the Order of Isabella de Castilla” (1992) and since 1988 is a foreign corresponding member of the Spanish Royal Academy. He is bearer of the Andres Bello Order with a special decree of the President of the Republic of Venezuela.

At the launch of the new book at St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia “Contemporary Spanish language: word classes and categories” (written in Spanish) in the overcrowded hall together with his colleagues, students, friends and admirers were present Mr. Alfredo Martines, vice ambassador of Spain, Mr. JosÎ Rosado Amador, Abmassador of the Republic of Cuba, Rafael Eredero, language matters counselor at the Spanish Embassy and Mr. JosÎ Ignacio, representative of Miguel de Servantes Institute in Sofia. The experts say that this years-long work, unique not only in Bulgaria but also abroad is a serious contribution to contemporary romance and general linguistics. In its cultural program for 2005, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain envisages an International linguistics symposium to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Prof. Ivan Kanchev.

This event was the occasion for our conversation with Prof. Ivan Kanchev. A man rich in three motherlands – Argentine, Bulgaria and Spain. Argentine comes first as he was born there. His parents fled so far away from their motherland in the hard days after the September 1923 Uprising. There he began to speak in two languages at the same time – in the local Spanish and in Bulgarian in which he heard his mother's songs.

“Sometimes I myself wonder which is my mother tongue?” Prof. Kanchev confesses. “Is it the one of the country I was born in or the one that my mother transmitted to me from the cradle? And it is hard to answer, but I am sure that I bear the two languages equally.

The languages are similar as they all represent a system for communication and knowledge. This is why my new book is divided in two parts – in the first I make a description of the Spanish language and its categories and in the second – a comparison with the Bulgarian language. My research activities come to confirm the thought of the great Spanish scientist Eujenio Coserio (whom I consider my teacher) ‘The languages are not similar by the same criteria they differ; they are similar because they are a system for communication, but are different as they reflect different knowledge of different societies about one and the same world.' What is abstract, is different and what is concrete is similar.”

…The family came back to Bulgaria when the boy was 12. And the motherland of his parents became his second motherland. Here he finished high school and graduated in philology from the University of Sofia. He says that his student years were the most interesting and beautiful time of his life. Because he chanced on talented professors and scientists. “This was the time of my growth with the flight of a future linguist during the lectures of Acad. Vladimir Georgiev, of the professors Lyubomir Andreychin and Kiril Mirchev, Stoiko Stoikov, Ivan Lekov, scientists of a universal dimension.”

It is no accident that with such teachers he embarked on the road of science. He dedicated himself to the studying and research of the Spanish language. He became an assistant professor at the University of Sofia in 1964 and after that Prof. Tomov, the founder of the Spanish Philology Department, assigned him the discipline phonetics and phonology. Later he moved on to morphology, from there to textlinguistics and semantics and today he reads lectures to the MA students on theory and philosophy of the language, particularly on language change. For 36 years he has been in the University of Sofia! But he has also been guest-lecturer to several foreign universities – in Helsinki, in Salzburg and Vienna, in Havana, in Jerusalem, in Spain – in the Madrid Complutence and the Autonomous University, in Granada and Victoria, the capital of Bascia.

He says that if he had to chose he would have chosen the same way in science. Because he remembers his mother's words: “Once a priest, a priest for life!” This perseverance made the fruits of his work abbundant and he says he has never felt unhappy. How many people could say without a hint of regret that they are completely happy with their road and deeds? Prof. Ivan Kanchev is enveloped in the love and respect of his colleagues, of the present and former students. No one passes him by without greeting and feeling happy to meet him…

When in 1992 he was awarded the royal order, the Spanish TV came to take an interview. They asked him “What is Spain for you?” and wanted him to answer with two words. He answered with three words: “One more motherland!”

Spain, Prof. Ivan Kanchev says, is the country where I have felt calmest and happiest. It is that part of Europe which can be compared to a mosaic of cultures, where rule tolerance and solidarity. Step by step I realized that this is a country where xenophoby can hardly appear anymore – something very characteristic of the Middle Ages – let us remember the persecution of the Jews, of the Arabs. Today in Spain it is unusual to call someone by the color of his or her skin. The Spaniard lives with the thought that he and his neighbor are just as capable of working, that they deserve to live and that there is no place for hate. It is not by accident that the countries of the whole Latin American continent call Spain Madre Patria, the motherland, something that cannot be said about the other former metropolises and their colonies.

Have you returned to Argentine after you left in your childhood?
After I graduated in philology from the University of Sofia I had the chance to see it again – the Argentine that had not yet suffered the blows of the military who destroyed everything that their predecessors had created. Let's remember that I grew in Argentine just when it was the savior of post-war Europe, which then needed everything that immense country could provide. When I came back I saw her content to have fulfilled her duty to Spain, Italy in particular and France and these countries in their turn repaid her – the Common Market was already established. This could have continued for a long time and today the country would have been at a different economic level if it hadn't been for those troublesome years after 1952 when Evita left them, Peron was ousted by a complot of the military and endless juntas came one after another that did nothing but plunder the rich country. And so it has been going on…

You have been invited as guest lecturer to deliver a cycle of lectures on comparative linguistics but also in another sphere that you call your old love – the language of the Spanish Jews from the end of the 15th c., transferred to Bulgaria and preserved through songs, romances, proverbs and sayings. How has this love originated? Do you have Jewish blood?
No, I have no blood connection. My interest arouse during my stay in Malaga in 1968. At the request of Prof. Tomov I was invited by Acad. Manuel Alvar to attend a summer course. There I heard that there was going to be a cycle of lectures “Sefarade Language and Culture in Morocco” delivered by Acad. Alvar himself, who had just come back from his ethnologic expedition in Morocco. A week later with a similar thesis about Romania came Prof. Mario Sela. I heard the two courses and I asked if something like that could be done in Bulgaria. They gave me their questionnaire with which they had questioned the Jews in Romania and Morocco. I returned and immediately began my expeditions to our big cities. It was 1969. The Sefarade community and the leaders of Shalom helped me a lot as they knew where the compact masses were – in Ruse, Plovdiv, Varna and especially in Sofia, in the former Yuchbunar – there lived the community called la juderia (Jewish quarter). I found understanding in the people I met. Their responsiveness and the lack of distrust made it easier for me. They often brought their neighbors along. They told me about their holidays, legends, sang live romances and wedding songs… And they were doing it so naturally, so spontaneously. I have 42 hours of recordings of these voices!

Your first award was for contribution to the research in the sefarade language and culture on the Balkans and not only for achievements in the field of comparative linguistics.
For me it was a real joy to collect these language proofs. They are pieces of a wisdom survived through the centuries about which one cannot speak calmly. This is why in such cases I give a loose to my feelings and step outside the calm academic tone. How could I not be excited? These are real gems, wisdom transferred and survived here in our lands and one must be filled with respect for these people.

Do you make plans for the future?
The last sentence of the book reads that it is only a grammar of the Spanish language at a word level. The words combine in word groups and these groups combine in sentences. So this book is to be complemented by another one made following the same methodology and theory but dedicated to syntax.

At the end of the year Prof. Ivan Kanchev will celebrate his 70th anniversary. Let us wish him to fulfil his plans, to be healthy and long-lived and continue to accumulate treasures of books and love.