Ruthenian language
Spoken in
- Indo-European Slavic East Slavonic Ruthenian
-
Sla ( other Slavic languages)
Ruthenian ( Ruthenian: руский языкъ, also русский языкъ, руська мова, ie Russian language, or проста мова, that is, simple language, or slang ) was a historic East Slavic written language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and after 1569 in the Eastern Slavic territories the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth. It originated from the Altostslawischen and is the forerunner of today's Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian niches. Therefore, it is often referred to (especially from Eastern Slavs themselves) as " Altweißrussisch " ( Wr. старабеларуская мова ) or " Altukrainisch " ( Ukr староукраїнська мова ), in the Russian research primarily as "West Russian " (Russian западнорусский язык ). The historic speakers of this language they called themselves often prostaja mowa (literally " simple language ", in distinction from the Church Slavonic ) or Ruskaja mowa, which was reproduced in Latin texts with lingua ruthenica. " Ruthenian " is therefore the most neutral term for this pränationale language.
The history of the Ruthenian begins in the 14th century, when the western part of the East Slavic linguistic region fell to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was ruled in personal union with the Kingdom of Poland from 1386 from the Jagiellonian. Written language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was not the Lithuanian (whose first language monuments date from the 16th century), but a Slavic language, the features of which, which are characteristic of today's White Russian and Ukrainian. In addition to documents and legal texts and religious writings, inter alia, in a heavily -influenced variant of Church Slavonic translation of the Bible created the Franzischak Skaryna ( published in Prague from 1517 to 1519 ) or the more vernacular embossed Gospels Peressopnyzja ( 1556-1561 ). But above all was the Ruthenian language of the rich confessional polemics ( the literary exchange of blows between Orthodox, Uniate Catholics and Protestants ) in the second half of the 16th and the first half of the 17th century ).
The Prostaja mowa was written in the Cyrillic alphabet, from the end of the 16th century was rarely also the Latin alphabet in use. Furthermore, the resident in Belarus Tatars written until the 19th century Slavonic texts in Arabic script ( Belarusian Arabic alphabet ).
From the end of the 17th century Ruthenian was supplanted by the Polish, in 1699 it was officially banned in Poland - Lithuania as an official language.
In Austria - Hungary, it was still up to its collapse usual, the Eastern Slavic subjects of the monarchy, mainly Ukrainians, as " Ruthenians " and their language to refer to as " Ruthenian ".