RUTHENIANS AND THE RUTHENIAN LANGUAGE: THEIR HISTORY AND THE PRESENT

Abstract

The population of Transcarpathia, Eastern Slovakia, Serbian Vojevodina, Southeastern
Poland and Northwestern Rumania is known under the general ethnic name of Ruthenians
(Rusyns). In their religious faith they are Eastern Orthodox Church believers and
Greсo- Catholics. Their status of an ethnic minority was recognized by the United Nations,
the European Union and European countries, with the exception of Ukraine. Not having any
statehood, they use four koines (linguae franca) Lemkovian, Prjashevian, Uzhgorodian and
Vojevodian. Their alphabet is mainly Cyrillic. The Ruthenian language differs from Ukrainian
and Slovakian on the lexical level. The koines differ from each other phonetically and grammatically.
The same differences can be found when compared with neighboring languages.