Support for Rusyn language

[Robert A. Rothstein]

As Professor Danylenko undoubtedly understands, codification is a
necessary step along the road to establishing a new literary or standard
language.  If the codified version is accepted by speakers and takes on
all the functions of a standard language, then there is reason to
recognize the existence of a new language.  In the case of the Rusyns of
Slovakia, Poland (the Lemkos), the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine,
Hungary and Romania, if they are successful in their process of language
building, outside observers should agree with the contention of many
Rusyns, that what they speak is not a dialect (or dialects) of Ukrainian
but a separate language.  The Macedonians were the last Slavs to go
through such a process, and nowadays almost all Slavists would grant
them the right to say that what they speak is not a Bulgarian dialect.
Similarly hardly anyone would now claim that Ukrainian is merely a
dialect of Russian.  In the new Europe the existence of regional
languages does not have to be a political question, although there are
those who would make it such.

To Professor Mills: Horace Lunt has argued convincingly that the Rusin
spoken in the Vojvodina, largely by the descendents of emigrants from
Eastern Slovakia, is
best analyzed as a kind of Serbianized East Slovak, and thus a variety
of West, not East, Slavic.

Bob Rothstein


Andriy Danylenko wrote:

>I thought everybody understood that this codification is a mere political action aimed at, guess what...
>
>Andriy Danylenko
>danylenko at juno.com
>adanylenko at pace.edu
>
>-- Charles Mills <cmills at KNOX.EDU> wrote:
>I thought Rusin was the fourth (or fifth or sixth or seventh) West
>Slavic language.
>
>
>Elaine Rusinko wrote:
>
>As many of you know, the Rusyn language was codified in Slovakia in 1995
>as the fourth East Slavic language ...
>
>
>

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