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Ruthenian (view source)

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Having been a kid, i often wondered, why is the way people of my region speak so differently from those who speak on television. Well, after entering school I found out, that "television people" spoke standard Ukrainian (or Polish, or Russian, depending on a TV channel), while I was speaking a western dialect. So I just thought it would be a great idea to standardize my own dialect (combining with its direct neighbours) into a separate language (and why not, Rusyn has almost done just the same thing). Now I can say, that I am a Ruthenian (or Halician) native speaker. So it's not just "another Slavic conlang" to me, it is trully personal.
Having been a kid, i often wondered, why is the way people of my region speak so differently from those who speak on television. Well, after entering school I found out, that "television people" spoke standard Ukrainian (or Polish, or Russian, depending on a TV channel), while I was speaking a western dialect. So I just thought it would be a great idea to standardize my own dialect (combining with its direct neighbours) into a separate language (and why not, Rusyn has almost done just the same thing). Now I can say, that I am a Ruthenian (or Halician) native speaker. So it's not just "another Slavic conlang" to me, it is trully personal.
===Internal history===
===Internal history===
The Ruthenian language developed from [[w:Ruthenian language|Old Ruthenian]], which itself is a descendant of [[w:Old East Slavic language|Old East Slavic]]. Old Ruthenian is seen as a predecessor of modern Belarusian, Ruthenian and Ukrainian (In modern texts, the language is sometimes called "Old Ukrainian" or "Old Belarusian"). It was the group of East Slavic dialects spoken in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later in the East Slavic territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. During this period many loanwords from Polish and other languages entered Ruthenian and influenced the phonology, like the adoption of /f/ and /g/ sounds, absent in the language earlier. After the rule of the Austrian Empire and formation of the [[w:Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria|Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria]] German and Yiddish words began entering the language. For much of the 19th century the Austrian authorities demonstrated some preference for Polish culture, but the Ruthenians were relatively free to partake in their own cultural pursuits in Halicia and Bukowyna, where Ruthenian was widely used in education and official documents, unlike in Ukraine, where the Ukrainian language was banned from schools, publication and importation of most Ukrainian-language books, public performances and lectures were prohibited.
For most of its history Ruthenian was written in the Cyrillic script and occasionally in the Latin one. In 1834 Josyp Łozynśkyj, a Ukrainian scholar and priest from Lwiw, introduce a new Latin script based on the Polish alphabet. The use of the Latin script for Ruthenian was promoted by authorities in Halicia under the Austrian Habsburg Empire, but it was not standardized until 1956.
By the time of the [[w:Austria-Hungary#Dissolution_of_the_Empire|collapse of Austro-Hungary]] in 1918, Ruthenians were ready to openly develop a body of national literature and form an independent state ([[w:West Ukrainian People's Republic|West Ukrainian People's Republic]]), however the period of independence was brief (from 1918 to 1921) after which Halicia became a part Poland. Unlike Belarus and Ukraine, this territory did not become a subject of extermination in the Soviet Union, e.g. during [[w:Holodomor|Holodomor]] and [[w:Great Purge|Great Purge]]. In 1961 Halicia became an autonomous region of the [[w:Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukrainian SSR]] via a non-legitimate referendum. Many Poles moved from this territory due to political reasons, but more than a half remained living there with the largest population in the city of [[w:Lviv|Lwiw]], which gained a special status within the region. Ruthenian language became recognized as a commonly spoken language. It became co-official language along with Ukrainian and Polish in 1990.
The use of the Ruthenian language is mostly stagnant with a bit of decline. Although there are 4 million ethnic Ukrainians in the territory, the Ruthenian language is prevalent only in western and southern Halicia. In Lwiw, Ukrainian, Polish and Ruthenian are spoken, a notable shift from the recent past when the city was primarily Polish-speaking. The shift is believed to be caused by a population influx and migrants from other regions of Ukraine. In rural areas Ukrainians also gradually shift from Ruthenian to Ukrainian.
==Dialects==
[[File:Halycka - Copy.png]]
#Dolinian Ruthenian is spoken in the [[w:Transcarpathian Oblast|Transcarpathian Oblasť]]. It is notable for the retention of a distinct phoneme /ɤ/, /a/ in places of /e/ or /i/ in the standard and a phoneme /y/ in some places of a regular /i/ in the standard.
#Upper Dnistrian (Kresowy) is considered to be the main Halician Ruthenian dialect, spoken in the [[w:Lviv|Lwiw]], [[w:Ternopil|Ternopiľ]], and [[w:Ivano-Frankivsk|Iwano-Frankiwsk]] and the standard is mostly based on this dialect. Its distinguishing characteristics are the influence of Polish and the German vocabulary, which is reminiscent of the Austro-Hungarian rule.
#Pokuttia is spoken in the [[w:Chernivtsi Oblast|Czerniwci]] and [[w:Ternopil Oblast|Ternopiľ Oblasť]] of Ukraine. This dialect has some distinct phonetic and lexical features, most notable of which is a shift of /ɛ/ into /æ/ in certain positions and /ɔ/ instead of /ɛ/ after some postalveolar fricatives (like in standard Ukrainian).
#Hutsul is spoken by the [[w:Hutsul people|Hucul people]] on the northern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains, in the extreme southern parts of the Iwano-Frankiwsk Oblasť and Transcarpathian Oblasťs. It also preserves the /ɨ~ɤ/ sound and have /d͡ʐ/ reduced to /ʒ/.
==Phonology==
===Vowels===
Standard Ruthenian has six vowel phonemes:
{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
!
![[w:Front vowel|Front]]
![[w:Back vowel|Back]]
|-
![[w:Close vowel|Close]]
| i /i/
| u /u/
|-
![[w:Close-mid vowel|Close-mid]]
| y /e~ɪ/
|
|-
![[w:Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]]
| e /ɛ/
| o /ɔ/
|-
![[w:Open vowel|Open]]
|
| a /ɑ/
|-
|}
/ɪ/ may be classified as a close-mid front vowel, transcribed in the IPA as [e]. /ɔ/ is usually somewhat rounded [ɔ̜], but sometimes, it is pronounced with neutral lips [ʌ], while the lack of rounding is compensated for by a stronger retraction of the tongue. Unstressed /ɛ/ can be raised to [ɛ̝] near [e].
Despite Ruthenian having long vowels, the distinction between them and short vowels is not phonemic. Long vowels originated from the acute accent in Old East Slavic and from the shortening of endings. They are no longer distinguished in spelling, but in linguistic papers they are marked with an acute or a macron above a vowel. Unstressed vowels are somewhat reduced in time and, as a result, in quality. The table below represents all major allophones of the standard:
{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
|-
! rowspan=2 |
! colspan="2" | [[w:Front vowel|Front]]
! colspan="2" | [[w:Back vowel|Back]]
|- class=small
! short
! long
! short
! long
|-
! align="left" | [[w:Close vowel|Close]]
| align="center" | {{IPA|i}}
| align="center" | {{IPA|iː}}
| align="center" | {{IPA|u}}
| align="center" | {{IPA|uː}}
|-
! align="left" | [[w:Close-mid vowel|Close-mid]]
| align="center" | {{IPA|ɪ}}, {{IPA|e}}
| align="center" | {{IPA|eː}}, {{IPA|ɪ̯e}}
|
|
|-
! align="left" | [[w:Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]]
| align="center" | {{IPA|ɛ}}, {{IPA|ɛ̝}}
| align="center" | {{IPA|ɛ̝ː}}
| align="center" | {{IPA|ɔ̜}}, {{IPA|o}}
| align="center" | {{IPA|ɔ̝ː}}
|-
! align="left" | [[w:Open vowel|Open]]
|
|
| align="center" | {{IPA|ɑ}}, {{IPA|ä}}
| align="center" | {{IPA|äː}}
|}
===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
|-
! colspan="2" |
! [[w:Labial consonant|Labial]]
! [[w:Dental consonant|Alveolar]]
! [[w:Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]]
! [[w:Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! [[w:Velar consonant|Velar]]
! [[w:Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! colspan="2" | [[w:Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| m
| n
|
| ń /ɲ/
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[w:Plosive consonant|Plosive]]
! {{small|[[w:voicelessness|voiceless]]}}
| p
| t
|
| ť /c/
| k
|
|-
! {{small|[[w:voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}}
| b
| d
|
| ď /ɟ/
| ɡ
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[w:Affricate consonant|Affricate]]
! {{small|[[w:voicelessness|voiceless]]}}
|
| c /ts/
| cz /t͡ʂ/
| ć /t͡ɕ~t͡sʲ/
|
|
|-
! {{small|[[w:voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}}
|
| dz /d͡z/
| dž /d͡ʐ/
| dź /d͡ʑ~d͡zʲ/
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[w:Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
! {{small|[[w:voicelessness|voiceless]]}}
| f
| s
| sz /ʂ/
| ś /ɕ~sʲ/
| ch /x/
|
|-
! {{small|[[w:voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}}
|
| z
| ž /ʐ/
| ź /ʑ~zʲ/
|
| rowspan=2| h /ɦ/
|-
! colspan="2" | [[w:Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
| w /w~ʋ/
| l /l̪/
|
| ľ /ʎ/, j
|
|-
! colspan="2" | [[w:Trill consonant|Trill]]
|
| r
|
|
|
|
|}
The palato-alveolar fricatives and affricates are pronounced in a range between alveolar palatalized (like Ukrainian /sʲ/ and /t͡sʲ/) and trully palato-alveolar (like Polish /ɕ/ and /t͡ɕ/) depending on a speaker. Unlike Ukrainian palatalized consonants, Ruthenian ones are trully palatal. Phoneme written "w" is pronounced [ʋ] before front vowels and [w] elsewhere. The friction of /x/ is weaker than in Ukrainian and intervocally is closer to English /h/. The approximants /j/ and /w/ may be regarded as non-syllabic vowels when not followed by a vowel. For example, kraj "land, state" [krɑi̯], awtor ('author') [ˈɑu̯.tɔr]. Velar plosives /k/ and /g/ are palatalized to /kʲ/ and /gʲ/ before a front vowel. /x/ can also be palatalized in the northern parts of Ruthenian-speaking territory. /f/ may often be pronounced as /xʷ/ or /ʍ/
Unlike Ukrainian, in Ruthenian final devoicing  can occure for stops, for example, in ''ďid'' "grandfather", which can be pronounced either [ˈɟiːd] or [ˈɟiːt]. Word-medially this fenomenon occures very often: ''bereza'' "birch" [bɛ.ˈrɛ.z̪ɑ] - ''berizka'' "small birch" [bɛ.ˈris̪.kɑ].


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Slavic languages]]
[[Category:Slavic languages]]
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