The Documentation Attempts of Rusyn in Ukraine’s Transcarpathia

Abstract

Rusyn belongs to the Eastern Slavic language family and is considered a minority language. It is spoken across various countries, such as Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Each of these countries has a standardized variant of this language, with the exception of Ukraine. The Rusyn people in Transcarpathia are the last group of people without a standardized variant of their language because it is not recognized. Given the conflict in Ukraine and the general attitude toward Rusyn people, language documentation is not a priority. There have been various attempts in the past to codify the language, but all have failed to be adopted, mainly due to a lack of support, both by the Rusyn community and the Ukrainian government. This paper compares the documentation attempts of six resources, of which the aim was to document the Transcarpathian Rusyn language. The paper compares their differences, similarities, weaknesses, and strengths and concludes with suggestions for future research projects.