Rusyn language

[19] The majority of speakers live in an area known as Carpathian Ruthenia that spans from Transcarpathia, westward into eastern Slovakia and south-east Poland.

[26] Other names are sometimes also used to refer to the language, mainly deriving from exonyms such as Ruthenian or Ruthene (UK: /rʊˈθiːn/ RUUTH-een, US: /ruːˈθiːn/ ROO-theen),[27] that have more general meanings, and thus (by adding regional adjectives) some specific designations are formed, such as: Carpathian Ruthenian/Ruthene or Carpatho-Ruthenian/Ruthene.

From those questions, three main theories emerged:[31] In spite of these linguistic disputes, official terminology used by the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy that ruled the Carpathian region remained unchanged.

For Austro-Hungarian state authorities, the entire East Slavic linguistic body within the borders of the Monarchy was classified as Ruthenian language (German: ruthenische Sprache, Hungarian: Rutén nyelv), an archaic and exonymic term that remained in use until 1918.

As with any language, all three major varieties of Rusyn vary with respect to phonology, morphology, and syntax, and have various features unique to themselves, while of course also containing their own, more local sub-varieties.

These varieties reflect the culmination of nearly two centuries of activist and academic labor, during which a literary Rusyn language was desired, discussed, and addressed (time and again) by a dedicated intelligentsia.

Linguist Stefan M. Pugh notes, "...at every stage someone was thinking of writing in Rusyn; approximately every generation a grammar of some sort would be written but not find wide acceptance, primarily for reasons of a political nature (and of course logistical practicalities).

From 1939 through 1944 an estimated 1,500 to 3,000 Rusyn-language publications (mostly centered around Uzhhorod, Ukraine) entered print and from 1941 onward, Harajda's grammar was the accepted standard.

In Slovakia, the Prešov literary variety has been under continuous codification since 1995[40] when first published by Vasyl Jabur, Anna Plíšková and Kvetoslava Koporová.

Specifically, the variety is based on the language spoken in the area between the West Zemplin and East Zemplin Rusyn dialects (even more specifically: a line along the towns and villages of Osadne, Hostovice, Parihuzovce, Čukalovce, Pcoline, Pichne, Nechvalova Polianka, Zubne, Nizna Jablonka, Vysna Jablonka, Svetlice, and Zbojne).

And though the many Rusyn dialects of Slovakia entirely surpass the limited set of features prescribed in the standard, this comparatively small sample size was consciously chosen by codifiers in order to provide a structured ecosystem within which a variety of written and spoken language would inevitably (and already did) thrive.

In Poland, a standard Lemko-Rusyn grammar and dictionary, Gramatyka języka łemkowskiego, 'Grammar of the Lemko Language' (Rusyn: Ґраматыка лемківского языка, romanized: Gramatŷka lemkivskoho jazŷka), was published in 2000 by Mirosława Chomiak and Henryk Fontański [pl; rue], with a second edition issued in 2004.

[41][42] In Transcarpathia, Ukraine, M. Almašij's and Igor Kerča's Материнськый язык: Писемниця русинського языка, Materyns'kyj jazyk: pysemnycja rusyns'koho jazyka, serves as the de facto literary standard for Subcarpathian, though "unofficial".

[citation needed] The modern standard has been continuously developed since the 1980s by Julian Ramač, Helena Međeši and Mihajlo Fejsa of Serbia, and Mihály Káprály of Hungary.

The Niagovo Postilla (Njagovskie poučenija), dated to 1758, is one of the earliest texts possessing significant phonetic and morphological characteristics of modern Rusyn (specifically the Subcarpathian variant) and is potentially "linguistically traceable" to the 16th century.

Under his direction, the printshop at the University of Trnava published a catechism (Katekhisis dlia naouki Ouhorouskim liudem, 1698) and an elementary language primer (Boukvar’ iazyka slaven’ska, 1699).

[50][51] Finally, under Bishop Andriy Bachynskyi's tenure (r. 1773 – 1809) in the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo, new texts for Rusyn student readership were published.

These several editions of Ioann Kutka's primer and catechism were published in Rusyn vernacular, though with heavy influence from Church Slavonic.

Notably, Myxajlo Lučkaj's grammar of the Subcarpathian variety of Church Slavonic, Grammatica Slavo-Ruthena, of 1830 had a "distinctly Rusyn flavor".

[47][53] In 1847, Greek Catholic priest Alexander Dukhnovych published the first textbook written almost fully in common Rusyn vernacular, Knyzhytsia chytalnaia dlia nachynaiushchykh (A Reader for Beginners).

During the next twenty years, linguistic debates were continued between the same three options (pro-Russian, pro-Ukrainian, and local Rusyn), with Czechoslovak state authorities occasionally acting as arbiters.

Poland employed similar policies,[59] using internal deportations to move many Eastern Slavs from southeastern to newly acquired western regions (Operation Vistula),[60] and switch their language to Polish, and Ukrainian at school.

[61] After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, modern standards of minority rights were gradually applied throughout Eastern Europe, thus affecting the attitude of several states towards the Rusyn language.

Furthermore, like those languages, Rusyn uses a seven-case system of nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative, instrumental, and vocative cases.

This phenomenon is in contrast to grammatically feminine nouns of ambiguous gender where a particular role was not historically male-oriented, such as сирота, orphan.

[84] Verbs with stem formant -IJ- are typically derived from adjectives and thus indicate the acquisition of a given property i.e. зеленый, zelenŷj, 'green' → зеленї́ти, zelenjity, 'to (turn) green'.

In the Prešov Rusyn community, the -A(J)- conjugation is recommended for the written system, while the -AJ- type is limited and occurs primarily with specific verb stems like "maj-", "znaj-", and "staj-".

[89] While this stem type follows a conjugation structure similar to other East Slavic languages, it is completely unique in that -j- (normally in the form of suffixes -ю, -єш, -є, -єме, -єте, -ют) is truncated—except for in the 3rd person plural.

In the Ukrainian alphabet, however, и precedes і and ї, and the Pannonian Rusyn alphabet (which does not have і) follows this precedent by placing и before ї. Lemko Rusyn Того року одбыла ся уж друга стрича габурскых родаків, котрых на Сільському уряді в Габурі 8. липця 2006, на ридни земли привитав староста села М. Ющік.

Щирі слова подяки й гордості за поширення доброї слави свого села, вітання довго не бачених земляків, спомини давніх часів, Габури, родини і традицій мали місце не лише на зустрічі земляків, але й на дводенному культурно-суспільному і спортивному святі, яке відбувалося під назвою «Габура співає і займається спортом».

An announcement at the Orthodox Church of St. Volodymyr in Lemko-Rusyn language and Polish in Krynica-Zdrój , Poland
Official usage of Pannonian Rusyn in Vojvodina , Serbia