LL-L "Language politics" 2005.09.24 (01) [E]

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From: mike <botas at club-internet.fr>
Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2005.09.20 (14) [E]

Ron quoted me
"even the Encyclopedia Brittannica doesn´t know the
Rusyns." and then informed
"Might they be listed under "Ruthenians," the older name?"
Ach so!
I have to take my criticism of the EB back, partly.
Very good article on "Ruthenia" but when it comes
to "Ruthenian language", to the EB it is simply a
synonym for "Ukranian language".
Reminds me of "plattdeutsch a variant of deutsch"...
Greetings, Mike Wintzer

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language politics

Thanks, Mike.

The misrepresentation doesn't surprise me.  Similarly, Kashubian is still
described as a part of Polish, since that has been the official version in
Poland.  This is partly because, at least until recently, reference works
tended to rely on official sources, thereby buying virtually unquestioningly
misrepresentations from various countries' official versions of the truth,
versions that to various degrees are based on wishful thinking.  Thus, Low
Saxon ("Low German") is still described as a German dialect group in many
works, even after official recognition (under pressure from the European
Union), because reference works feed each other, and Germanics departments
throughout the world, having recruited from and sheepishly followed German
and Austrian universities' materials and curricula, have not yet caught up,
lecturers and textbooks continuing their traditions, because changing the
material takes effort, and then there is the old "Pah! Newfangled hogwash!"
attitude.

Rusyn (Ruthenian) varieties are still described as dialects of Ukrainian, 
sometimes even of Polish or Slovak.  Yes, it *is* fairly easy to read Rusyn 
if you have knowledge of Russian and/or Ukrainian and a bit of West 
Slavonic, but you soon figure out that it is a unique, integral whole.  In 
Europe, Rusyn is used in Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine (in the area in which 
the three languages meet).  There are also many Rusyns in the Americas and 
in Australia, especially in North America.  (In Larry Granberg we have at 
least of of them on the List.)  It is an East Slavonic language like 
Ukrainian and Russian (and it uses mostly the Cyrillic script).  By treating 
Rusyn as a negligible appendage of Ukrainian and thereby not focussing on it 
in its own right, you are, among other things, missing out on a lot of 
interesting linguistic and cultural material. (Rusyn folk music can be 
exquisit, for instance.)  This applies to other "obscure" minority languages 
and cultures as well, and we have a bunch of examples of this in the 
Lowlands.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

P.S.: Some interesting Rusyn links for your edification:
Resource guide: http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/
Resource guide: http://www.rusyn.org/
Lemko-Rusyn resource guide: http://www.lemko.org/index.html (built-in song 
file)
News guide: http://www.rusynmedia.org/
Liturgical music: http://www.acrod.org/music.html (sound files)

Music of many ethnicities, including "obscure" ones:
http://learning.lib.vt.edu/slav/national_anthems.html

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