Practical Spheres of the Rusyn Language in Slovakia

Abstract

The Rusyn language in Slovakia was codified in 1995 on the basis of the country’s two most prevalent Rusyn dialects: East Zemplin and West Zemplin. From this perspective Rusyn is a relatively young Slavic language, and this despite its centuries-long history, which is marked by many conflicts concerning the question of a literary norm; the disputes concerning Rusyn have taken place on the territory of today’s Slovak Republic, as well as throughout all of historical Carpathian Rus. Any solutions concerning a Rusyn literary language were always connected to the question of the Rusyn minority’s ethnic identity [i.e. are they (Great) Russian, Ukrainian, or do they form a separate Slavic nationality?], and these issues were not possible to resolve until after 1989, when society began to enjoy new pluralistic conditions. Thus, the late twentieth-century codification of Rusyn on the basis of local dialects was the natural result of an expression of free will on the part of Rusyns, and a response to the dilemma o...