Rusyns and Their Language in Slovakia, Ukraine and other Central European Countries
The Rusyns represents ethnic minorities, living in contemporary Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland,
Rumania, Hungary and Serbia, and descendants of those emigrated from these countries in the late
19 c. reside in Australia, Canada, and The United States. The center of the best reputation for
researches in Rusyn culture and history has formed around Prof. Paul Robert Magocsi, chair of
Dept. Ukrainian Studies at Toronto University, and lately enriched by activities of the new
generation of scholars as P. Krafcik. There are three universities in Europe with departments for
Rusyn studies, in Preshov (Slovakia), Níregyháza (Hungary) and Novi Sad (Serbia).
Rusyns are officially recognized as ethnic minorities in almost every European countries they live
in, except for Ukraine. Though inhabitants in Western Ukraine, who identify themselves Rusyn,
represent the largest part of The Rusyn worldwide, according to the Ukrainian laws, there no such
ethnic minority exists. – The situation in neighboring Slovakia has become quite different since the
collapse of the socialism. For the last two decades, Rusyns in Slovakia have elaborated their
codified literary language (since it has been missing for centuries, thus Rusyn authors has written in
Latin, Church Slavonic, then Russian, a few of them in Ukrainian, and the most in various
vernaculars), they established a Department of Rusyn Studies (while in Hungary the Rusyn and
Ukrainian Dept., founded by the pioneer scholar Istvan Udvari, has significantly reduced soon after
the tragic death of the “founding father”), and, last but not least, a PhD program in Rusyn studies
has been accredited at Preshov University (chaired by Prof. Anna Plishková), being the unique as
such in the world.
Different circumstances in different countries are to be described in the paper, in comparative
approach, focusing on cultural history and linguistic questions.
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (to be more particular: Thu, November 19, 1:00 to 2:45 pm,
Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Conference Suite 1)
More Info: on the 47th Annual ASEEES Convention, in Panel: Dialects and Minority Languages of Eastern
Europe: At Home and Abroad
Event Date: Nov 19, 2015
Organization: Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) – former (before 2010)
“The American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS)”
Conference End Date: Nov 22, 2015
Conference Start Date: Nov 19, 2015
