The Ruthenian language is a whole group of different dialects and linguistic formations distributed among the Ruthenian people who lived in Ukraine in Transcarpathia, in eastern Slovakia and in southeast of Poland. Also, representatives of the nationality lived in some areas of Serbia, Croatia, Hungary and even in Canada and the United States.
Nowadays, according to statistics, the number of Rusyns is about one and a half million people. Ruthenian language is similar to Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian, as it belongs to the same language group.
Linguists Opinions
This language is one of the official languages of Vojvodina - the autonomous region of Serbia, located north of the Danube. There is still no consensus on whether the Ruthenian language can be considered independent. Ukrainian linguists, however, like the authorities, do not recognize the Rusyns as a separate nation, considering them as an ethnographic group of Ukrainians, and their speech as a dialect of Ukrainian. However, not so long ago, in 2012, a resolution was adopted according to which Ruthenian became the language of the small peoples of Ukraine.
Of course, two related languages existing in the same country will be similar. This is a normal occurrence. The Ruthenian language is no exception. His dictionary, however, to a much greater extent than Ukrainian, is filled with Church Slavism. Its distinctive feature is the presence of polonisms, Slovaks, Germanisms and Magyarisms. Many lexical elements from Hungarian passed into the Ruthenian language.
Collision history
In the 19th and until the mid-20th centuries, three trends prevailed in the Ruthenian cultural society. As a literary language, Russophiles proposed introducing Russian, Ukrainophiles, respectively, Ukrainian. The third group attempted to form the literary Ruthenian language.
During the war years, Subcarpathia was under Hungarian occupation, and the Subcarpathian Society of Sciences played a large role in the cultural development of the region. In the first year of the war, "Grammar of the Russian Language" was published, authored by Dr. Ivan Garaida - teacher, translator, publisher, linguist and enlightener. It is he who creates the literary Subcarpathian Ruthenian. In the following years, magazines, newspapers, and books were published in this language in this region.
Legal language
Despite the fact that in the post-war period, literary Ukrainian was actively cultivated in Subcarpathia, it did not take root among the Rusyns. Moreover, the development of Ukrainian phonetic writing has become a big problem for many residents, in connection with which so far many Transcarpathian Rusyns do not consider themselves Ukrainians.
Despite all this, after the war in Transcarpathia, only Ukrainian was official, although literary Ruthenian was approved in Vojvodina in the twenties, and in 1923 the first grammar was released.
Until now, a common literary Ruthenian language has not developed. A translator may not even be needed to understand different dialects - the general essence of the text can be understood without even knowing the language (provided that you know another East Slavic, for example Russian), but this is not enough to fully understand a literary work.
Main dialects
In the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine and in the part of the Prešov region in the north-east of Slovakia, the so-called Subcarpathian Ruthenian dialects are widespread, which, in turn, are divided into Verkhovynsky and Dolinyansky. Dolinyansky is divided into western (Lematian) and eastern (Lisatsky, or Maramorosh). The Lemack dialect is distributed in the west of northeastern Slovakia. Rusyns who live in the territory from the Teresva Valley in the east to the Ricky Valley in the west speak the Lisak dialect.
In the Transcarpathian region, in the Volovets and Mezhgorsky districts, the Verkhovinsky dialect is widespread, which is something between the Dolinyansky and Boykovsky.
Lemkovsky dialect now exists in Slovakia on the southern side of the Carpathians. Some Lemcs consider themselves to be Ukrainians, and their language as dialect Ukrainian. The other part identifies itself as a separate people.
Features
The Ruthenian language, the history of which is so unusual, has absorbed many nuances characteristic of the dialects common in the border areas.
It distinguishes between two types of vowels o and e, which was observed in the Old Russian language and in most northern Russian dialects. In subcarpathian “e” it is pronounced in the same way as in Russian, if it is followed by a solid consonant (nebo, salo, derevo), but if the same vowel is in front of a softened consonant, the character of the sound changes. The tongue when it is pronounced approaches the front palate, and the lips are stretched, as with the sound "and". There is tension in the articulation of the language, and the vowel "e" takes on a completely different sound, the sound becomes tense, narrow, as in the German word see.
Also, two pronunciation variants can have the sound "o". In the usual version, it is no different from the Russian or Czech "o", but before soft consonants it is pronounced with extended lips, it turns out something between "o" and "y".
The consonant labial "p", "b", "c", "m" in Subcarpathian are pronounced with mitigation if they are followed by the mild "o" described above. The dental vowels "t", "d", "n" before this vowel do not soften completely, but become semi-soft, but the "c" and "z" become soft.
Other sounds
Since the labial sound “in” during the pronunciation is soft, it gradually disappeared altogether. In all subcarpathian dialects, the word "saint" began to be pronounced as "removed" in the western part and as "saturated" among the eastern dialect group.
But the sound "s" was kept separate from the "and". Subcarpathians are distinguished from Ukrainian dialects by the pronunciation of words with the ending “ayu”, for example: “give” instead of “give” and “know” instead of “know”, the rule is preserved in the third person plural (give, know).
Here are a few more characteristic features of the Ruthenian: iotated and (olayiti, doiiti), the presence of the sound G ', a unique combination of letters "ly" (upper, third). Twisted pronouns in this language are formed with the help of the particle "sya", which is added after the pronoun (we find it more accurately). These are the main features that distinguish the Ruthenian language.
Recognition history
As mentioned above, Subcarpathia was occupied by the Hungarians, and in 1939 the Ruthenian language was supported by the occupation government. They considered the Rusyns-Magyarons Russified Hungarians. This time can be called, to a certain extent, the flourishing of the Ruthenian language: "Grammar of the Russian language" is published, books are published, newspapers and magazines are printed. However, in 1944, Subcarpathia was annexed to the Ukrainian SSR, and the Soviet government forbade the cultural and educational activities conducted by the Rusyns. They are recognized only as a small ethnic group of Ukraine, and their language as a dialect, despite the fact that in Yugoslavia Rusyns were officially recognized as a separate people.
Country of Soviets
Only in 1991, after the fall of communism, the countries that are part of the USSR gradually recognized the Rusyns as a people. In Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania and Russia, Ruthenian is supported in the cultural and educational sphere, and more than twenty years later, Ukraine recognized the Rusyns.
It is interesting that the word "Rusyns" has been known for quite some time. Even in the Tale of Bygone Years this ethnonym was used to refer to people living in Russia. The word is found seven times in the contract between Oleg and the Greeks dated 911. From the 13th to the 18th century, so-called Ukrainians and Belarusians. In Lithuania and Poland at that time, any resident who professed Orthodoxy and spoke any Eastern Slavic language or dialect (the Poles and Lithuanians themselves were mostly Catholics) was called Rusyns.
Until 1945, the adjective "Rusynsky" did not exist, instead of it was used "Russian" (hence the name of the book "Grammar of the Russian language"). After the war, the word "Rusky" acquired the meaning "Russian", which was reflected in colloquial Rusyn and in literature.
Learning Ruthenian
This interesting archaic speech certainly attracts attention. There are many songs that Rusyns still sing in their native dialect, so for starters you can focus on them. It is not difficult for any native speaker of the East Slavic language to learn the Ruthenian language. The tutorial can be found on the relevant information resources, but communities on social networks dedicated to Ruthenian, where native speakers communicate directly, can learn more and learn from them.
In addition, taking a trip, you can spend some time in the area where they speak Russian. This will give a quick start in learning the language, will allow you to learn the phonetic features. But before undertaking training, it is necessary to determine the dialect, since there is still no general literary Ruthenian.