Iazychie

See also: Rusyn language

Iazychie (Ukrainian: Язичіє, romanized: Yazychiie; Rusyn: Язычіє, romanized: Yazŷchiie) was an artificial literary East Slavic language used in the 19th century and the early 20th century in Halychyna, Bukovina, and Zakarpattia in publishing, particularly by Ukrainian and Carpatho-Rusyn Russophiles (Moskvophiles).[1][2] It was an unsystematic combination of Russian with the lexical, phonetic and grammatical elements of vernacular Ukrainian and Rusyn, Church Slavonic, Ruthenian, Polish, and Old Slavic.[1][2]

The term was introduced by Ukrainophiles, who used it pejoratively.[3] Nikolay Chernyshevsky called "Iazychie" a mutilation of the language and sharply condemned it.[1] Ivan Franko and other representatives of the contemporary territories of today's Western Ukraine's progressive intelligentsia also opposed "Iazychie".[1] The proponents of the language themselves called it the "traditional Carpatho-Rusyn language".[4] Russophiles saw it as a tool against Polish influence and a transition to Russian literary language, considering local dialects to be a "speech of swineherds and shepherds".[5]

  1. ^ a b c d Zhovtobryukh, M.A. Iazychie. Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia.
  2. ^ a b Magocsi, Paul R. (2015). With their backs to the mountains : a history of Carpathian Rus' and Carpatho-Rusyns. Budapest: Central European University Press. ISBN 978-963-386-107-3. OCLC 929239528.
  3. ^ Magocsi, P.R., Iazychie. World Academy of the Carpatho-Rusyn Culture. (in Ukrainian)
  4. ^ Paul Robert Magocsi; Ivan Pop (2005). "Iazŷchiie". Encyclopedia of Rusyn history and culture (2nd ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 210. doi:10.3138/9781442674431. ISBN 978-0-8020-3566-0. LCCN 2003541528. OL 22719419M. Wikidata Q105105620.
  5. ^ Орест Субтельний, Історія України [ Orest Subtelny, History of Ukraine], Section 6.3 (archived)