Q & A

Why do some use the spelling "Rusin" and some "Rusyn" in English? Which is correct? I know there is more than one opinion/theory on this - I would like to hear all opinions. (Karen Varian)

Essentially, Rusin was the spelling traditionally used in the United States because they transliterated Rusyn the way they transliterated Church Slavonic prayer books, i.e., и = i, і = i, ы = y. So Rusin is more traditional, but Rusyn is now more widespread. The word Rusin wasn't even used much in English except by a few authors, all of whom were Greek Catholics, or rarely, Johnstown Diocese. Carpatho-Russian was the English term used by everyone else.

In his works, Paul Robert Magocsi decided to follow the transliteration for Ukrainian (і = i, и = y) with a modification for ы (ŷ), perhaps because Rusyn-language works (what few there were, from Lemko Sojuz and anything from pre-WWII Europe) in the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library were already cataloged using the Ukrainian standard rather than Russian. Magocsi started the usage of Rusyn. Even the Ukrainians, as far as I know, never used the word to describe their old name, only "Ruthenian," so it wasn't so much an issue there. Rich Custer.

I am interested in learning how to read literary Rusyn. I am familiar with Paul Robert Magocsi's books, but they lend themselves more toward conversation. Do you have any suggestions on how I might go about doing this? I have a background in Russian and Ukrainian. I hope to eventually read Rusyn literature and Rusyn cultural studies coming out of Europe. Pat Onufrak

I think someone who already has a background in Russian and Ukrainian just needs to start READING Rusyn. Grammatical patterns and lexical peculiarities become clear with practice. A good set of dictionaries of the surrounding languages would help, along with the reference books from Slovakia and Poland.

I would suggest starting with something relatively easy like Marija Mal'covska's stories. It's not hard to pick up meaning from the context. By the time you've worked your way through a few stories, you have a pretty good Rusyn vocabulary and sense of the language – at least for that variety of Rusyn. Once you get used to one version, you can begin to learn the patterns that differentiate the main dialects.

I also found it helpful to read Rusyn accounts of something that I'm already familiar with – a biography of Duchnovyč, for example – so I don't have to search for content but can concentrate on how it's expressed in Rusyn. Certainly a Rusyn-English dictionary would help, but we seem to be a long way from that. Elaine Rusinko.