Rusyn (; ) is an East Slavic language (along with Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian, with which it shares a common linguistic ancestry) that is spoken by the Rusyns. Opinions differ among linguists concerning whether Rusyn is a separate East Slavic language or a dialect of Ukrainian.^[1] The political implications of the dispute add to the controversy.

Rusyn is spoken in the Transcarpathian Region of Ukraine, in northeastern Slovakia, southeastern Poland (where it is often called ?emkowski 'Lemko', from their characteristic word lem/??? 'only'), and Hungary (where the people and language are called Ruten). The Pannonian Rusyn language in Serbia is sometimes considered part of the Rusyn language group, although some linguists consider that language to be West Slavic. In Ukraine, Rusyn is usually considered a dialect of Ukrainian, as it is very close to the Ukrainian Hutsul dialect, but some speakers sometimes prefer to consider themselves distinct from Ukrainians.

Attempts to standardize the language suffer from its being divided among four countries, so that in each of these countries there has been devised a separate orthography (in each case with Cyrillic letters) and grammatical standard, based on different Rusyn dialects. The cultural centres of Carpatho-Rusyn are Pre?ov in Slovakia, Uzhhorod and Mukacheve in Ukraine, Krynica and Legnica in Poland, and Budapest in Hungary. Many very active Rusyns also live in Canada and the USA.

It is very difficult to count the speakers of Rusyn, but their number is sometimes estimated at almost a million, most of them in Ukraine and Slovakia. The first country to officially recognize Rusyn, more exactly Pannonian Rusyn, as an official language was former Yugoslavia. In 1995, Rusyn was recognized as a minority language in Slovakia, enjoying the status of official language in municipalities where more than 20% of the inhabitants speak Rusyn.

• The Rusyn language is divided as follows:
  • Hutsul is spoken in the mountainous part of Suceava County and Maramures County in Romania and the extreme southern parts of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast of Ukraine (as well as in parts of the Chernivtsi and Transcarpathian Oblasts), and on the northern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains.
  • Boyko is spoken on the northern side of the Carpathian Mountains in the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk Oblasts of Ukraine. It can also be heard across the border in the Subcarpathian Voivodship of Poland
  • Lemko is spoken outside Ukraine in the Pre?ov Region of Slovakia along the southern side of the Carpathian Mountains. It was formerly spoken on the northern side of the same mountains, in what is now southeastern Poland, prior to Operation Wis?a, but is being revived.
  • Dolinian Rusyn or Subcarpathian Rusyn is spoken in the Transcarpathian Oblast of Ukraine.
  • Pryashiv Rusyn is the Rusyn spoken in the Pre?ov Region (in Rusyn: Pryashiv/Pryashuv) of Slovakia, as well as by some émigré communities, primarily in the United States of America.
  • Pannonian Rusyn is spoken in northwestern Serbia and eastern Croatia. Also called Ba?ka dialect, it is one of the official languages of the Serbian Autonomous Province of Vojvodina).

Boiko, Hutsul and Dolinian are identified (and for the same speakers) as Ukrainian dialects and not Rusyn for several speakers that they are identified themselves Ukrainians.

In the introduction to the book "Slavic languages," written in 1973, ten years before glasnost, Samuel Bernshtein writes about "western Ukrainians" and the "literary language" which they "until recently [i.e., 1973]" had.

Alphabet

See also

• Old Ruthenian
• Pannonian Rusyn
• Rusyns
• Pannonian Rusyns
• Alexander Duchnovi?'s Theatre
• Metodyj Trochanovskij, Lemko Grammarian

References

Further reading

• A new Slavic language is born. The Rusyn literary language in Slovakia. Ed. Paul Robert Magocsi. New York 1996.
• Magocsi, Paul Robert. Let's speak Rusyn. . Englewood 1976.
• ?????????, ????????? ??????????. Jugoslavo-Ruthenica. ?????? ? ?????? ?????????. ???? ??? 1995.
• Taras Kuzio, "The Rusyn question in Ukraine: sorting out fact from fiction", Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism, XXXII (2005)
• Elaine Rusinko, "Rusinski/Ruski pisni" selected by Nataliia Dudash; "Muza spid Karpat (Zbornik poezii Rusiniv na Sloven'sku)" assembled by Anna Plishkova. Books review. "The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 42, No. 2. (Summer, 1998), pp. 348-350. JSTOR archive
• Marta Harasowska. "Morphophonemic Variability, Productivity, and Change: The Case of Rusyn", Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 1999, ISBN 3110157616.
  • Book review by Edward J. Vajda, Language, Vol. 76, No. 3. (Sep., 2000), pp. 728-729
• I. I. Pop, Paul Robert Magocsi, Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, University of Toronto Press, 2002, ISBN 0802035663

External links

• Rusyn language at the World Academy of Rusyn Culture
• Ethnologue report for Rusyn
• ????? ????? (Ruska Matka), the central cultural organization of the Pannonian Rusyns
• Transliterating Rusyn into the Latin alphabet
• ???????? ?????. ???????? ??????????? ?????
• '''Rusyn Greco Catholic Church in Novi Sad''' (Vojvodina-Serbia)

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