Editing Ruthenian language (section)

{{Short description|Historical Slavic language, ancestor of Belarusian, and Ukrainian}}
{{about|15th–18th–century East Slavic language varieties used in present-day Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania|other languages sometimes called "Ruthenian"|Ruthenian (disambiguation)#Languages{{!}}Ruthenian § Languages}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Ruthenian
| altname          = 
| nativename       =
| states           = [[East Slavs|East Slavic]] regions of the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]]
| nation           = [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Magocsi |first1=Paul Robert |title=A History of Ukraine |date=1996 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |isbn=0802008305 |pages=131, 140}}</ref><ref name="Kamusella"/> (later replaced by [[Polish language|Polish]]<ref name="Kamusella">{{cite book |last1=Kamusella |first1=Tomasz |title=Politics and the Slavic Languages |date=2021 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-367-56984-6 |page=127}}</ref>)
| extinct          = Developed into [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] and [[Rusyn language|Rusyn]]
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Balto-Slavic languages|Balto-Slavic]]
| fam3             = [[Slavic languages|Slavic]]
| fam4             = [[East Slavic languages|East Slavic]]
| ancestor         = [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]]
| ancestor2        = [[Proto-Balto-Slavic language|Proto-Balto-Slavic]]
| ancestor3        = [[Proto-Slavic language|Proto-Slavic]]
| ancestor4        = [[Old East Slavic language|Old East Slavic]]
| isoexception     = historical
| iso3             = none<!-- There is no ISO 693-3 code for the group of languages referred to by *historic* exonym "Ruthenian language". Do not add ISO 693-3 code 'rsk'. 'rsk' refers to the extant [[Pannonian Rusyn]] language (translated into English applicants of the following change request as "Ruthenian" or "Rusnak"). Please review documentation on the change request available here before editing this line: https://iso639-3.sil.org/request/2021-005 -->
| linglist         = orv-olr
| glotto           = none
}}

'''Ruthenian''' (see also [[#Nomenclature|other names]]) is an [[exonym]]ic [[linguonym]] for a closely related group of [[East Slavic languages|East Slavic]] linguistic [[Variety (linguistics)|varieties]], particularly those spoken from the 15th to 18th centuries in the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]] and in [[East Slavs|East Slavic]] regions of the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]]. Regional [[Sprachraum|distribution]] of those varieties, both in their [[Literary language|literary]] and [[Vernacular language|vernacular]] forms, corresponded approximately to the territories of the modern states of [[Belarus]] and [[Ukraine]]. By the end of the 18th century, they gradually diverged into regional variants, which subsequently developed into the modern [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], and [[Rusyn language|Rusyn]] languages, all of which are mutually intelligible.{{sfn|Frick|1985|p=25-52}}{{sfn|Pugh|1985|p=53-60}}{{sfn|Bunčić|2015|p=276-289}}{{sfn|Moser|2017|p=119-135}} 

Several [[Linguistics|linguistic]] issues are debated among linguists: various questions related to classification of literary and vernacular varieties of this language; issues related to meanings and proper uses of various [[endonym]]ic (native) and [[exonym]]ic (foreign) [[Linguonym|glottonyms]] (names of languages and linguistic varieties); questions on its relation to modern East Slavic languages, and its relation to [[Old East Slavic]] (the colloquial language used in [[Kievan Rus']] in the 10th through 13th centuries).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ukrainian-language |title=Ukrainian Language |website=Britannica.com|date=17 February 2024 }}</ref>