Some 20 years ago, I visited the area of where Rusyns (Carpatho-Rusyns, Ruthenes) live near Uzhgorod (Transcarpathian Region of Ukraine), - in one of the valleys away from big cities.
They were affected by many major European wars (that territory was changing hands many times and _practically_ never had its own statehood), but, surprisingly, not wiped away. I think absence of natural resources and being somewhat hidden away from the major army routes helped their survival and the survival of their ethnical characteristics, including their language. (At least in the part I visited) Their language consists of a wild mixuter of Ukrainian (~50%), Hungarian, Chech or/and Slovakian, Polish and Russian. A lot of questions related to the ethnicity of Rusyns is highly political (even with some separatists movement(s)), and thus, - some are contraversial. E.g. Rusyn language (or dialect) was formally recognized only in 1990s. The same happened with the formal recognition of the ethnicity in different European countries that have Rusyns. I suspect that some might even about some details of the short description I wrote here. Igor Thu Aug 2 05:35:30 EDT 2012 mike wilson wrote: > I know a few folks here are of this background. A friend of mine > (excellent English, dry sense of humour) in Central Europe is thinking > of starting a company to help people research and provide guidance to > visit ancestral homes. > > If anyone would be interested in such a service, please contact me > offlist. You can also pass my email address to other interested parties. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
