LL-L "Language politics" 2005.09.27 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 27.SEP.2005 (05) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West) Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Philip Ernest Barber <pbarber at loc.gov>
Subject: LL-L "Ethnicity" 2005.09.24 (09) [E]

The people are Rusyns. They are from both sides of the Carpathians, mostly 
south.  They speak a Western Ukrainian dialect.  In Europe most are 
now(after a Soviet annexation from Czechoslovakia in 1945)  in the 
Transcarpathian oblast of Ukraine.  Those in America came mainly to the 
Pennsylvania coal and steel towns beginning in the 1880's and up to WW I.

 Many are Ruthenian-rite Catholics indeed, but at least as many are members 
of the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church, which seceded from the Ruthenian 
group and entered into communion with Orthodoxy under the Ecumenical 
Patriarch of Constantinople so that they could return to the religion of 
their forefathers and retain a married priesthood.  Many others joined what 
was the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of North America and is now 
known as the Orthodox Church in America.

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

Rusyns everywhere overwhelmingly refuse to be classified as Ukrainians and 
their language as Ukrainian.  While Ukraine (not surprisingly) and Poland 
(which also has a real Ukrainian minority) steadfastly refuse to recognize 
this ethnicity and its language, Slovakia has done so, as has Yugoslavia 
within the context of Vojvodina. I am not aware of Hungary, which has a 
small Rusyn minority as well, officially recognizing any language besides 
Hungarian.

While this threatens to take us back to the tired, old question what 
constitutes a dialect and what a languages, the consensus these days is that 
a very important criterion is what the speakers themselves think.  In the 
case of Rusyns worldwide there ought to be no doubt that they insist on 
being recognized as an ethnicity in their own right and their language 
varieties as a language in its own right.

On a different note, does anyone know of any Low Saxon speakers and/or 
organizations in Poland?  I have written to several German organizations in 
Northern Poland but never received any reply.  The same goes for Denmark.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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