their efforts. This First Congress of the Rusyn Language allowed the development of four standards based on dialects in the countries where Rusyns live: Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia. The participants also agreed to meet periodically to exchange views on their own codifying work as well as to agree on as many as possible principles that will form the basis of an eventual "fifth" Rusyn literary standard, or koine that would be common to all regions. One of the results of the Congress was also the creation of the Institute of Rusyn Language and Culture in Presov. Since January of 1993, this Institute has been serving as a coordinating center for the work of Rusyn language codifiers in all countries where they live. The institute has published Rules for Rusyn Orthography, as well as a primer and a reader for elementary schools in Slovakia. This activity culminated with the recognition of Rusyn as an literary language. The event marking this remarkable change in the status of Rusyn language took place on January 27, 1995 at the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava. 1
The Most Reverend Michael J. Dudick, D.D., Bishop of the Byzantine Catholic Diocese of Passaic, New Jersey began to aquire materials for the Episcopal and Heritage Institute Museum and Library some twenty-five years ago. In 1986, the Institute moved into a new building, occupying part of the Episcopal residence and Diocesan center in West Patterson, NJ. Bishop Dudick's primary concern was for the preservation of the rich ethnographic and religious cultural tradition of the people under his jurisdiction, both in the United States and the homeland. Carpatho-Rusyns make up the overwhelming majority of the members of the diocese. Hence, the greater portion of the valuable objects in the museum and library materials related to the history and religious experience of Carpatho-Rusyns. 2
One of the highlights of Bishop Dudick's library is the collection of language books written for Carpatho-Rusyns. This collection was microfilmed, deposited and made available to the general public in the Slavic and Baltic Division of the New York Public Library as a gift from Bishop Michael J. Dudick.
Carpatho-Rusyns belong to the Slavic branch of Indo-European peoples. They speak a series of distinct but related dialects which are classified as East Slavic. The Rusyns' Carpathian homeland is a boundary region in many ways. As a result of the historical process of contact, Carpatho-Rusyn dialects are heavily influenced by Polish, Slovak and Hungarian vocabulary. These influences, together with numerous terms from the Church Slavonic liturgical language and dialectical words unique to Carpatho-Rusyns, are what distinguish their spoken language from other East Slavic languages.
The question of formulating a literary language was most challenging for Carpatho-Rusyns. It was closely relayed to the question of an ethnonational identity. The Carpatho-Rusyn intelligentsia was troubled by divisions over these two questions and attempted to resolve them.
Hence, these ethnonational debates were often conducted in the context and form of ethnonational debates. Paul R. Magocsi 3 divides the disputants into five groups.
The described below typology will be used to organize the following discussion.
In the collection, one can find examples of the writings of the first four groups, and of one more, which was not described above. That oldest group called upon Carpatho-Rusyns to use in their writings Church Slavonic (or more precisely Subcarpathian recession of Church Slavonic, called Slaveno-Rusyn). It was, among others, Michael Luchkai 4 (1789-1843) who argued for the use of Church Slavonic in Subcarpathian cultural life. This language was favored by Carpatho-Rusyns in the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century, but increasingly lost its influence after 1848.
The first standardization of the common-Russian (obshcherusskii) language for use in Subcarpathian Rus' appeared in Kirill A. Sabov's (1838-1914) grammar and Aleksander Mitrak's (1837-1913) dictionary. Works by Illarion S