Ruthene dialects (Rusyn)

Ruthene dialects
Several distinct dialects of the East Slavic branch are spoken in the Carpathian highlands and are called Ruthene (in German) or Rusyn (in Russian). These territories were subject to lengthy arguments between Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Russia for over a thousand years, today they are Ukrainian, though a part of Ruthene people live also in Slovakia, Romania and Hungary. Their culture is quite original, as well as their tongue which is usually subdivided into three dialects: Lemko, Bojko, and Hutsul.

The Ruthene language is part of the southwestern group of Ukrainian Ruthene dialects, which include Bojkian, Transcarpathian (Highlander or Verchovyna), Sjan (northeast of the Lemko Region), and Hutsul. The Lemko dialects are very similar to those on the southern slopes of the mountains (the Presov Region), also considered Ruthene dialects.

The Lemko dialects are characterized (and distinguishable from the Ukrainian language) by fixed stress on the penultimate syllable of words (as in Polish and eastern Slovak dialects, in contrast to movable stress in all other East Slavic languages); retention of the distinct vowel bl (y). Some verb conjugations are of the Slovak and Polish forms. Lemko dialects contain many unique forms, as well as words of Polish, Slovak, and even German or Hungarian origin.