18 Months After the Codification of the Rusyn Language: And in Elementary School Curricula?

from Podvihorlatske noviny (Humenne, Slovakia), 10 July 1996 translated by Richard D. Custer

In January 1995 the Rusyn language was codified in Slovakia. A year later in elementary schools in the Humenne district (okres) a survey was conducted to determine the interest and possibility for adding the teaching of Rusyn language and culture to the curriculum of elementary schools, in the amount of two class hours per week. Similarly, like the process of codification itself, so too the survey on instituting the teaching of the Rusyn language in elementary schools brings with it various polemics. Representatives of Rusyn'ska Obroda (Rusyn Renaissance society) and the Union of Rusyn-Ukrainians of Slovakia gave their viewpoints to Podvihorlatske noviny.

Mgr. Aleksander FRANKO, president of the Regional Committee of Rusyn'ska Obroda in Medzilabirci, and member of the Coordinating Commission of Rusyn'ska Obroda in Slovakia: "After codification our Rusyn language finally gained a means for renewal and revival. In the case of adding the teaching of Rusyn language and culture into the curriculum of elementary schools, I see a legal and statutory progress, creating the possibility of forming ethno-national pride and preservation of the cultural inheritance of our ancestors. We also acted with the reality of everyday life. Our surveys confirmed a decline in interest in the Ukrainian language. Written and spoken Ukrainian, which comes to us via the medium of broadcast media, is foreign to our people. In no case do we want to compel parents or children, and by no means do we wish to substitute [Rusyn] to the detriment of the Slovak language. But we are obliged to give our children in elementary schools the chance which was denied us. Many are asking if this is necessary. I answer with an example: If Magyars were to disappear, Hungary would still exist; if the Poles would disappear, Poland would still exist... What remains if we give up our mother tongue, if we forget that we are Rusyns?"

Ing. Jan MAGURA, president of SRUS in Humenne: "Our organization is a cultural-educational one, which takes in Rusyns as well as Ukrainians. We live in a democratic society in which we must respect the human dignity and views of others. With these principles comes the view of our organization on the question of education in the Rusyn language. We will respect the results of the survey, every parent deciding for their children would perhaps do well to ask these basic questions: Do I know the history of Rusynism from the viewpoint of dialectologists? Do I know which dialects were the foundation of the Rusyn language? Will there be enough qualified teachers of the Rusyn language, when individual codifiers are not united on this question? Will the Rusyn language be useful in the lives of my children, when our nearest neighbor is Ukraine? What guarantees that my children will have the option of learning the Ukrainian language? Am I familiar with the verbal syntax of the Rusyn language, which is 80% identical to the Ukrainian language? Finally, the Ukrainian language is striving to the utmost to become closer to the Rusyn-Ukrainian in Ublja, Runyna, Habura, Orjabyna, Chmel'ova (Komlosa), and Porac. Do parents know who profits from driving a wedge between Ukrainians and Rusyns? I myself hold my dialect in esteem, but I pose to myself the question whether it will suffice for my communication with the world. A Zemplincan is proud that he's a Zemplincan, a Zahorak is proud that he's a Zahorak... But all are proud that they are Slovaks. What would happen if each of these wanted the right to have their dialects codified?

The school administration evaluated the above-mentioned survey in March. The parents of 292 students indicated their interest in the teaching of the Rusyn language in the elementary schools in the Humenne district (okres).