Classification
The first scholars to recognize the existence of Rusyn as a separate language were with the former Institute of Slavic and Balkan Studies in Moscow in 1992 (now the Institute of Slavonic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences), which also trained the first scholars to study Rusyn. These studies were financially supported by the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Ukrainian scholars and politicians do not recognise Rusyns as a separate ethnicity, even though some Rusyn speakers consider themselves ethnically distinct from Ukrainians. Ukrainian linguists consider Rusyn a dialect of Ukrainian, related to the Hutsul dialect in the neighbouring Carpathian region of Ukraine.
Attempts to standardise variants of Rusyn have been unsuccessful. Rusyns live in four countries, and efforts are hampered because Rusyns living outside the traditional home region often do not speak the language fluently. Different orthographies have been developed (in most cases using variants of the Cyrillic script), and a number of different grammatical standards exist, based on regional dialects.
It is not possible to estimate accurately the number of fluent speakers of Rusyn; however, their number is estimated at almost a million, primarily living in Ukraine and Slovakia.
Serbia has recognized Rusyn, more precisely Pannonian Rusyn in Vojvodina, as an official minority language. Since 1995, Rusyn has been recognized as a minority language in Slovakia, enjoying the status of an official language in municipalities where more than 20 percent of the inhabitants speak Rusyn.
Rusyn is listed as a protected language by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia and Romania.
Read more about this topic: Rusyn Language