Boyko

Boyko or Boiko (Ukrainian: Бойко) are a distinctive group of Ukrainian highlanders or mountain-dwellers of the Carpathian highlands. The Boykos inhabit the central and the western half of the Carpathians in Ukraine, including the Dolynskyi and a part of the Rozhniativskyi Raions (districts) in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (province), the Skolivskyi, Turkivskyi, and parts of the Drohobytskyi, Sambirskyi and Starosambirskyi Raions in the Lviv Oblast, and parts of the Mizhhirskyi Raion in the Zakarpattia Oblast), as well as the adjacent areas of southeast Poland and northeast Slovakia.

Boykos identify themselves as part of the Ukrainian ethnos. Indeed, in the 19th century and in the first part of the 20th century Boykos, as well as most of the population of the present day's Western Ukraine called themselves Ruthenians (Ukrainian: Русини, Rusyny). Then the term "Ukrainian", that replaced the term "Ruthenians" in Eastern Ukraine a century earlier, became more common among Western Ruthenians/Ukrainians, including Boykos, as well. According to the recent census practically all Boykos in Ukraine declared their ethnicity as Ukrainian. Only 131 people distinctly identified as Boyko.

The Boyko language is based on the Ruthenian language, much influenced by the liturgic Old Church Slavonic language.