Ruthenian
9.9
An old East Slavic language that developed into Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Rusyn
- noun
- Literature
:
ruteno (idioma)
- Linguists study Ruthenian to understand its influence on modern Belarusian and Ukrainian.
Examples
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In the 19th century, Ruthenian served as a literary language for several communities.
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The ancient texts reveal that Ruthenian was spoken in parts of Central and Eastern Europe.
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Some claim that Ruthenians have a distinct language.
Academic text (1996)
Surface Forms
Ruthenian singular
Ruthenians plural
Morphology
Ruthenian = Ruthenia (semi-transparent) = Ruthen + ian
The language name is a regular derivation from the place/demonym using '-ian', but knowing the specific historical region is required to infer the reference.
Etymology
Ruthenian as the name of a language comes from Ruthenia, the Latin name for the lands of Rus, the early East Slavs. So when a text is called Ruthenian, it means it was written in the old East Slavic speech that later became Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Rusyn.
