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Ruthenian: Difference between revisions
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===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]]. 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 its phonology, such as the adoption of the /f/ and /g/ sounds, absent in the language prior to that. 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, primarily its | The Ruthenian language developed from [[w:Ruthenian language|Old Ruthenian]], which itself is a descendant of [[w:Old East Slavic language|Old East Slavic]]. 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 its phonology, such as the adoption of the /f/ and /g/ sounds, absent in the language prior to that. 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, primarily its Southwestern variety, called Red Ruthenian. For most of its history Ruthenian was written using both the Cyrillic and Latin scripts with Cyrillic being dominant. The use of the Latin script for Ruthenian was promoted by authorities in the Polish-Lituanian Coomnwealth (and later in the RTN), until it became the dominant script instead. But it was only at the end of the XIXth century, when the Ruthenian language became recognized as a co-official language of the state, along with Lithuanian and Polish (which prior to that was the only official language of the Commonwealth). | ||
The use of the Ruthenian language is mostly stagnant with a bit of decline. All the countries neighbouring the RTN historically have regions with a sizable Ruthenian population and therefore Ruthenian language speakers, although many identify as Rusyn speakers instead. Ruthenian is also spoken by a large emigrant population, particularly in Canada, the United States, Australia and several countries of South America like Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. The founders of this population primarily emigrated from Galicia and to a slightly lesser extend from [[w:Podlachia|northern]] part of Ruthenia. | The use of the Ruthenian language is mostly stagnant with a bit of decline. All the countries neighbouring the RTN historically have regions with a sizable Ruthenian population and therefore Ruthenian language speakers, although many identify as Rusyn speakers instead. Ruthenian is also spoken by a large emigrant population, particularly in Canada, the United States, Australia and several countries of South America like Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. The founders of this population primarily emigrated from Galicia and to a slightly lesser extend from [[w:Podlachia|northern]] part of Ruthenia. | ||
==Written language== | ==Written language== | ||
Ruthenian has two alphabets: Latin and Cyrillic. The Cyrillic alphabet consists of 33 letters and an apostrophe. The standardized variant, used nowadays, was proposed in 1952 with the letter "Ё" (and "ё") being introduced to mark the vowel, pronounced /ɔ/ and /jɔ/ in the Northern Ruthenian dialects, and the letter "Щ" (and its lowercase "щ") being excluded from the alphabet. The letter "ѕ" which looks the same as a Latin "s" was occasionally used to represent /d͡z/ and sounds respectively, but it was substituted with a digraph "дз". The apostrophe acts like a letter in Ruthenian and marks the /j/ sound after consonants. | Ruthenian has two alphabets: Latin and Cyrillic. The Cyrillic alphabet consists of 33 letters and an apostrophe. The standardized variant, used nowadays, was proposed in 1952 with the letter "Ё" (and "ё") being introduced to mark the vowel, pronounced /ɔ/ and /jɔ/ in the Northern Ruthenian dialects, and the letter "Щ" (and its lowercase "щ") being excluded from the alphabet. The letter "ѕ" which looks the same as a Latin "s" was occasionally used to represent /d͡z/ and sounds respectively, but it was substituted with a digraph "дз". The apostrophe acts like a letter in Ruthenian and marks the /j/ sound after consonants. | ||