Differences between Eastern and Western Ukrainian

[Krafcik, Patricia]

Grover--

Just to add to Graham's response here: 

When you refer to western Ukraine, you are no doubt speaking at least in part of the westernmost 
oblast in Ukraine--Zakarpatia (Transcarpathia, or historically, Subcarpathian Rus')? If so, then it is 
understandable that you should perceive differences in language, even significant differences. This 
region was for centuries part of the Hungarian Kingdom and participated in the cultural, political, and 
social life of that body. After World War I, with the demise of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Subcarpathian 
Rus' became a third republic within the new Czechoslovakia. At the end of World War II, it was annexed
to the Soviet Union. Lying at the very center of the European continent, this region was a crossroads 
geographically and culturally, the place, for instance, where Eastern and Western Christianities 
encountered each other face to face. The Carpatho-Rusyns who resided and reside here are part of a 
continuum which stretches into eastern Slovakia (the Presov Region), southeastern Poland (the Lemko 
Region), including small pockets in Hungary and Romania. 

The Carpatho-Rusyn language spoken in eastern Slovakia was codified in 1995 as a distinct East 
Slavic language, and while very close to Ukrainian, it exhibits sufficient grammatical peculiarities 
such that Rusyn linguists and most Rusyn speakers feel their language to be distinct from standard 
Ukrainian. You would have noticed the same kind of situation with regard to language in neighboring 
Subcarpathian Rus' (Transcarpathia).  

Some reading that might help elucidate the situation historically and today are:
"Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus' 1848-1948" (Harvard Univ. Pr., 1978) by Paul R. Magocsi;

"The Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture" (Univ. of Toronto Pr., 2002; rev. and exp. 2005), Paul R. Magocsi and Ivan Pop, eds.;

"Straddling Borders: Literature and Identity in Subcarpathian Rus' (Univ. of Toronto Pr., 2003) by Elaine Rusinko;

"The Rusyn Language. A Grammar of the Literary Standard of Slovakia, with Reference to Lemko and Subcarpathian Rusyn." Languages
of the World/Materials Series, Vol. 476. Munich: Lincom, 2009, by Stefan Pugh; 
 
The Carpatho-Rusyn Research Center (1978), now an affiliate of the AAASS, publishes a series: Classics of Carpatho-Rusyn 
Scholarship (Columbia University Press: East European Monographs) which contains an impressive list of books on the
Carpatho-Rusyns. 

This summer for the very first time a program of Rusyn language, history, and culture will be held at the Institute for Rusyn
Language and Culture at Presov University in Presov, Slovakia--clearly a reflection of the growing cultural revival which the Carpatho-Rusyns in Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland, Serbia, and Croatia have been experiencing since 1989. 

Hope this response helps just a bit more in connection with your query about language. 

Patricia Krafcik
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, Washington 98505
krafcikp at evergreen.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list on behalf of Graham Wilkins
Sent: Tue 3/9/2010 7:07 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Differences between Eastern and Western Ukrainian
 
Grover,

I don't know of much in the way of academic analysis into the situation, but
having lived in Ukraine for 2 years, I feel that I have some level of
knowledge on the subject.  It is primarily a geographic tendency.
 Historically, places in the West have been under different spheres of
influence than in the East.  Lvov (or Lviv) has been under Polish rule at
times, etc.

Ukrainian language is in between Russian and Polish, maybe a little closer
to Polish (personal opinion on the closeness, could be way off there).

Most of the country, with the exceptions of some beds of Ukrainian or
Russian nationalism speak a unique blending of the two languages called
??????.  In my experience it, the range of the blend depended on where you
were - certain versions were slanted towards more Ukrainian, others to more
Russian - I very rarely, if ever, heard pure Russian or pure Ukrainian.

As far as politically, it tends to match the situation
linguistically/geographically.  You can look at any electoral map and see
for yourself.  A quick google search gave me this example:
http://www.shekhovtsov.org/misc/img/Ukrainian_Presidential_elections_2010.jpg

The Western most exception is likely due to Mukachevo, a more traditionally
Russian-leaning area.

Hope this helped somewhat.

Graham

On Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 9:57 PM, Grover Furr <furrg_nj at fastmail.fm> wrote:

> Dear fellow listmembers:
>
> Some 20+ years ago I was struggling to read some WW2-era Ukrainian
> materials, with a dictionary, etc.
>
> It seemed to me that I could perceive differences between Eastern and
> Western Ukrainian. Names of the months, for example.
>
> Western Ukrainian tended towards Polish and away from Russian (maybe "away
> from Russian" was the point?). Eastern Ukrainian seemed more Russian --
> easier to read, for me (I can read Russian well).
>
> Now I wonder what's going on in today's Ukraine, where the Eastern /
> traditionally Orthodox / closer to Russia and the Western / traditionally
> Uniate / closer to Poland has become an important cultural and political
> issue.
>
> What resources are there -- books, articles, even specifically linguistic
> analyses -- that study the differences between Eastern and Western
> Ukrainian?
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Grover Furr
> Montclair SU
>
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