Attempts to codify the Lemko dialects of Rusyn are making progress in the form of children's school texts, anthologies and dictionaries. Such projects strengthen and standardize the building blocks of a language -- its grammar, vocabulary, spelling -- and serve to spread the knowledge of and acceptance of the codification efforts among the general population in whose hands the fate of a language ultimately resides.
Among recent accomplishments: Lemko vernacular poet Petro Trochanovskij in 1995 completed his anthology of children's poetry, Mamko, kup mi knyzku - antologia ditocoj poeziji (Mommy, but me a book - anthology of children's poetry [the title of a famous Aleksander Duchnovyc poem]). The anthology, including poetry not just from Lemkovyna, but from all Carpatho-Rusyn regions of Europe, was published by the Association of Lemkos (Stovarysynja Lemkiv) with funds from the Polish Ministry of Culture and Art.
Myroslava Chomjak, Lemko language teacher and author of several children's grammar texts and readers, has likewise had a very productive year. Stovarysynja Lemkiv has published the completed second part of her colorfully illustrated 70-page children's primer, Vcyme i bavyme sja [We Learn and Play]. She is also at work on an Interregional Dictionary of the Rusyn Language, which compiles all of the dialectal variants of a given word for a given Carpatho-Rusyn region, and then contrasts them with the dialectal variants of the same word from other Carpatho-Rusyn regions. Chomjak expects to have a completed first draft of the Interregional Dictionary ready for peer review at the Fourth World Congress of Rusyns, to be held in Budapest, Hungary in 1997.
Ivan Parkanji, the last governor of Subcarpathian Rus' (under Czechoslovakia), turned 100 on January 1. He was born in 1896 in Teresova, Marmaros county, in Subcarpathian Rus'. After graduating from the Mukacevo gymnasium he continued his studies at the Law School in Budapest, where he earned a Doctor of Law degree. He now lives in Prague in the Czech Republic.
The 23rd annual Makovic'ka Struna Festival Rusyn folksong festival and competition began December 1 in Bardejov's sports hall. This year's theme was love songs - "Oj Hanicko, bile licko." 236 singers took part, and both concerts were sold out, with over 1600 in each audience. Laureates were Valentina Humenikova from Presov, and Jan and Ladislav Stefanysyn from Svydnyk. Ukrainian ambassador to Slovakia, Dmytro Pavlycko, was in the audience. For the 2nd straight year, the sponsoring organization, "Union of Rusyn-Ukrainians of Slovakia", did not have enough money as in past years to print the book Makovyc'ki nuty, a compilation of songs sung in the festival competitions.
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Last modified on September 27 1997
URL:http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/crs/europe5.htm
Greg Gressa
[ggressa@carpatho-rusyn.org]
The Carpatho-Rusyn Knowledge Base