History of Russian Language in Ukraine
East Slavic languages originate in the language spoken in Rus. Significant differences in spoken language in different regions began to be noticed after the division of the Rus lands between Golden Horde and Lithuania. Lithuania, in time united with Poland. Muscovites under the Golden Horde developed the modern Russian language, people in the northern Lithuanian sector developed Belorussian, and in southern Polish sector Ukrainian.
It is worth noting that the ethnonyms "Ukraine" and "Ukrainian" were not used until the 19th century. The land was known in the West as Ruthenia, and the people as Ruthenians. The Russian imperial centre, however, preferred the names "Little" and "White" Russias, so as to describe the culture and linguistic differences with that of the "Great" Russians.
There was no geographical border between people speaking Russian and Ukrainian but rather gradual shift in vocabulary and pronunciation along the line between the historical cores of the languages. Since the 20th century, however, people have started to identify themselves with their spoken vernacular and conform to the literary norms set by academics.
Although the ancestors of a small ethnic group of Russians - Goriuns resided in Putyvl region (what is modern northern Ukraine) in the times of Grand Duchy of Lithuania or perhaps even earlier, the Russian language in Ukraine has primarily come to exist in that country through two channels: the migration of ethnic Russians into Ukraine and through the adoption of the Russian language by Ukrainians.
Read more about this topic: Russian Language In Ukraine
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history, russian and/or language:
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“An enormously vast field lies between “God exists” and “there is no God.” The truly wise man traverses it with great difficulty. A Russian knows one or the other of these two extremes, but is not interested in the middle ground. He usually knows nothing, or very little.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“The writer’s language is to some degree the product of his own action; he is both the historian and the agent of his own language.”
—Paul De Man (1919–1983)