Rusyns are an Eastern Slavic ethnic group compactly residing in western Ukraine (Zakarpattia), eastern Slovakia (so-called Prešov Rus), southeastern Poland (Lemkovshchyna), northeastern Hungary, northwestern Romania (Maramureș), as well as in Serbian Vojvodina and Croatian Slavonia; significant Rusyn diasporas exist in the United States and Canada.[1]
Who are the Rusyns
Modern encyclopedic publications differ in their views on the affiliation of Rusyns. Soviet and modern Ukrainian science classify Rusyns as Ukrainians; European and North American scholars either consider them Ukrainians or recognize Rusyns as an independent ethnic group; Russian scholars, in most cases, regard them as a separate Eastern Slavic people. Some Rusyns and Rusyn organizations consider themselves a separate ethnicity, while others identify as Ukrainians. In the USSR, Rusyns were considered an ethnographic group of Ukrainians.[2]
The colloquial language used in Zakarpattia consists of closely related dialects of Transcarpathian valleys. In Slovakia and Poland, local codified Lemko dialects are used as the official Rusyn language. In Vojvodina, a variant of the Rusyn language is used, which, due to strong Slovak influence, some linguists classify as West Slavic.
For a long time, Church Slavonic was used as the literary language (even in the 19th century), which greatly influenced the colloquial vocabulary. Currently, there are various literary variants of the Rusyn language. Four variants of the Rusyn language are distinguished, which are conventionally referred to as Lemko (in Poland), Prešov (in Slovakia), Uzhgorod (in Ukraine), and Vojvodina (in Serbia). Each variant is strongly influenced by the language of the neighboring Slavic majority. Among non-Slavic lexical elements, the proportion of borrowings from the Hungarian language is particularly high.
Formation of Surnames
The primary sources for the formation of surnames were personal names, nicknames or the father's profession, place of origin or residence, occupation, individual characteristics of the first bearer of the surname (physical, psychological, and other traits), as well as affiliation with a particular ethnic group.[3]
Permanent surnames emerged relatively recently. Nickname surnames existed among privileged classes in the 13th-14th centuries. However, at that time, names were more commonly used. Documents from the Moldavian Principality in the 15th-16th centuries mention the names of Moldavian boyars, including those of Rusyn origin:
Researchers believe that the majority of the population received surnames in the late 18th - early 19th centuries. During mandatory military service in the armies of Austria (since 1868 - Austro-Hungary, which at that time included Subcarpathian (Hungarian) Rus', Galicia, and Bukovina) and Russia (administratively part of which was Bessarabian Governorate), recruits were assigned a surname. If they did not have one, they were given a nickname (street nickname). Among Slavs, surnames ending in -ov, -ich, -sky (-tsky), -im, -k are most common, covering over 4/5 of the entire Slavic population. For example, in contemporary Ukrainian Zakarpattia, there are no less than 600 surnames with the suffixes -uk/-yuk/-chuk. The first mentions of them date back to the 13th century. In Zakarpattia, 936 surnames end in -ak/-yak.
In Moldova, surnames with suffixes -uk/-yuk/-chuk, -ak/-yak, -ey, -sky (-tsky) are widespread, belonging to the southwestern branch of East Slavic (Rusyn) surnames.
Surnames originated from Rusyn often end with -yak, -ak, -yuk, -uk, -ey, and derivate from nicknames. Surnames like:
evolved from East Slavic ethnonyms and appellative names.
The surnames "Guts" and "Buts," and their derivatives, are derived from the ethnonym "Hutsul." Similarly, "Rayk" and "Rayko" are historical names "for Russian people (Rusyns) of northern Bessarabia." The surnames "Raylyan" and "Rayko" are worn by natives of the Hotin county (formerly Hotin district). The widespread surname "Rusnak" is the second self-designation of Rusyns.
See also
Explore more about Rusyn surnames
- Where in the World is Your Surname Located? at MyHeritage
- Historical records in Ukraine at MyHeritage
- New: Global Name Translation™ for DNA Matches