Rusyn language

Rusyn is an East Slavic language (along withofficial language was former Yugoslavia. In 1995,
Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian to which it sharesRusyn was recognized as a minority language in
a common linguistic ancestry) that is spoken bySlovakia, enjoying the status of official language in
the Rusyns. Opinions differ among linguistsmunicipalities where more than 20% of the
concerning whether Rusyn is a separate Eastinhabitants speak Rusyn.
Slavic language or a dialect of Ukrainian. TheThe Rusyn language is divided as follows:
political implications of the dispute add to theHutsul is spoken in the mountainous part of
controversy.Suceava County and Maramures County in
Rusyn is spoken in the Transcarpathian Region ofRomania and the extreme southern parts of the
Ukraine, in northeastern Slovakia, southeasternIvano-Frankivsk Oblast (as well as in parts of the
Poland (where it is often called lemkowski 'Lemko',Chernivtsi and Transcarpathian Oblasts, and on
from their characteristic word lem/??? 'only'), andthe northern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains.
Hungary (where the people and language areBoyko is spoken on the northern side of the
called Ruten). The Pannonian Rusyn language inCarpathian Mountains in the Lviv and
Serbia is sometimes considered part of the RusynIvano-Frankivsk Oblasts. It can also be heard
language, although some linguists consider thatacross the border in the Subcarpathian Voivodship
language to be West Slavic. In Ukraine, Rusyn isof Poland
usually considered a dialect of Ukrainian, as it isLemko is spoken outside Ukraine in the
very close to the Hutsul dialect, but speakersPrešov Region of Slovakia along the southern
sometimes prefer to consider themselves distinctside of the Carpathian Mountains.
from Ukrainians.Dolinian Rusyn or Subcarpathian Rusyn is spoken
Attempts to standardize the language sufferin the Transcarpathian Oblast.
from its being divided between four countries, soPryashiv Rusyn is the Rusyn spoken in the
that in each of these countries there has beenPrešov (in Rusyn: Pryashiv/Pryashuv) region
devised a separate orthography (in each caseof Slovakia, as well as by some
with Cyrillic letters) and grammatical standard,émigré communities, primarily in the
based on different Rusyn dialects. The culturalUnited States of America.
centres of Carpatho-Rusyn are Prešov inPannonian Rusyn is spoken in northwestern Serbia
Slovakia, Uzhhorod and Mukacheve in Ukraine,and eastern Croatia. Also called Backa dialect, it is
Krynica and Legnica in Poland, and Budapest inone of the official languages of the Serbian
Hungary. Many very active Rusyns also live inAutonomous Province of Vojvodina).
Canada and the USA.In the introduction to the book "Slavic languages,"
It is very difficult to count the speakers ofwritten in 1973, ten years before glasnost,
Rusyn, but their number is sometimes estimatedSamuel Bernshtein writes about "western
at almost a million, most of them in Ukraine andUkrainians" and the "literary language" which they
Slovakia. The first country to officially recognize"until recently [i.e., 1973]" had.
Rusyn, more exactly Pannonian Rusyn, as an