BETWEEN THE VERNACULAR AND SLAVENO-RUSYN: THE 'HUKLYVYJ CHRONICLE' AND THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTUARY RUSYN LITERARY LANGUAGE

he article deals with the problem of the formation of the Rusyn literary language in Subcarpathia. Critically assessing Paul Magocsi's periodization of the Subcarpathian language question, the author focuses on the pre-modern round, roughly from the late 17th to the late 18th cc., in which the vernacular predominated in the bulk of written texts. The author analyzes the language used by Mykhajlo Grygas(ij)/Hryhas(ij) (1758-1823) in the Huklyvyj Chronicle (1660-1830) against the backdrop of the administrative koiné of Grygasij's circulars as described by István Udvari. Unlike the contemporary jazycije, reflected in Grygasij's administrative koiné, the language of the Chronicle, though comiled in 'peripheral' Subcarpathian Rus', can be viewed as Ruthenian to its core. Based on an analysis of the text, he author treates Grygasij's non-administrative language as exemplary Ruthenian (Middle Ukrainian), the reflecting the Ukrainian perspective of the local Rusyn ethno-linguistic and literary identity throughout the 18th c.