Editing Ruthenian language (section)

== Development ==
=== Early Ruthenian ({{circa}} 1300–1550) ===
According to linguist Andrii Danylenko (2006), what is now called 'Ruthenian' first arose as a primarily administrative language in the 14th and 15th centuries, shaped by the [[Chancery (medieval office)|chancery]] of the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]] in [[Vilnius]] (''Vilna'').{{sfn|Danylenko|2006a|p=83}}{{efn|It is unknown [[History of Vilnius|when Vilnius emerged]] as capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but its oldest mentions in texts date to the [[Letters of Gediminas]] of the early 1320s.}} He identified the Polissian (Polesian) dialect spoken on both sides of the modern Belarusian–Ukrainian border as the basis of both written Ruthenian (''rusьkij jazykъ'' or Chancery Slavonic) and spoken dialects of Ruthenian (проста(я) мова ''prosta(ja) mova'' or "simple speech"),{{sfn|Danylenko|2006a|p=109}} which he called 'two stylistically differentiated varieties of one secular vernacular standard'.{{sfn|Danylenko|2006a|p=108}}

From the second half of the 15th century through the 16th century, when present-day Ukraine and Belarus were part of the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]], the [[Renaissance]] had a major impact on shifting culture, art and literature away from Byzantine Christian [[theocentrism]] as expressed in [[Church Slavonic]].{{sfn|Peredriyenko|2001|p=18}} Instead, they moved towards [[Renaissance humanism|humanist]] [[anthropocentrism]], which in writing was increasingly expressed by taking the vernacular language of the common people as the basis of texts.{{sfn|Peredriyenko|2001|p=18}} New literary genres developed that were closer to secular topics, such as poetry, polemical literature, and scientific literature, while Church Slavonic works of previous times were translated into what became known as Ruthenian, Chancery Slavonic, or Old Ukrainian (also called проста мова ''prosta mova'' or "simple language" since the 14th century).{{sfn|Peredriyenko|2001|pp=18–19}} It is virtually impossible to differentiate Ruthenian texts into "Ukrainian" and "Belarusian" subgroups until the 16th century; with some variety, these were all functionally one language between the 14th and 16th century.{{sfn|Danylenko|2006a|pp=108–110}}

=== High Ruthenian ({{circa}} 1550–1650) ===
The vernacular Ruthenian "business speech" ({{langx|uk|ділове мовлення|dilove movlennya}}) of the 16th century would spread to most other domains of everyday communication in the 17th century, with an influx of words, expressions and style [[Middle Polish|from Polish]] and other European languages, while the usage of Church Slavonic became more restricted to the affairs of religion, the church, hagiography, and some forms of art and science.{{sfn|Peredriyenko|2001|p=19}}

The 1569 [[Union of Lublin]] establishing the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] had significant linguistic implications: the [[Crown of the Kingdom of Poland]] (which now included Ukraine) had previously used [[Latin]] for administration, but switched to [[Middle Polish]]  (standardised {{circa}} 1569–1648{{sfn|Snyder|2003|p=110}}), while the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]] (including Belarus, but no longer Ukraine) gave up Chancery Slavonic (Ruthenian) and also switched to [[Middle Polish]].{{sfn|Snyder|2003|p=110}} Much of the [[Szlachta|Polish]] and [[Ruthenian nobility]] briefly converted to various kinds of [[Protestantism]] during the [[Reformation]], but in the end all of them either returned or converted to [[Catholicism]] and increasingly used the Polish language; while Ukrainian nobles thus [[Polonisation|Polonised]], most Ukrainian (and Belarusian) peasants remained [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Orthodox-believing]] and Ruthenian-speaking.{{sfn|Snyder|2003|p=111}}

=== Late Ruthenian ({{circa}} 1650–1800) ===
When the [[Cossack Hetmanate]] arose in the mid-17th century, [[Polish language|Polish]] remained a language of administration in the Hetmanate, and most Cossack officers and [[Szlachta|Polish nobles]] (two groups which overlapped a lot) still communicated with each other using a combination of Latin, Polish and Ruthenian.{{sfn|Snyder|2003|p=116}} On the other hand, the language barrier between Cossack officers and [[Tsardom of Russia|Muscovite officials]] had become so great that they needed translators to understand each other during negotiations, and hetman [[Bohdan Khmelnytsky]] 'had letters in [[History of the Russian language#The Moscow period (15th–17th centuries)|Muscovite dialect]] translated into Latin, so that he could read them.'{{sfn|Snyder|2003|p=116}}

The 17th century witnessed the [[Standard language|standardisation]] of the Ruthenian language that would later split into [[Ukrainian language|modern Ukrainian]] and [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]].{{sfn|Peredriyenko|2001|pp=21–22}} From the 16th century onwards, two regional variations of spoken Ruthenian began to emerge as written Ruthenian gradually lost its prestige to Polish in administration.{{sfn|Danylenko|2006a|pp=108–110}} The spoken ''prosta(ja) mova'' disappeared in the early 18th century, to be replaced by a more Polonised (central) early Belarusian variety and a more Slavonicised (southwestern) early Ukrainian variety.{{sfn|Danylenko|2006a|pp=108–110}} Meanwhile, Church Slavonic remained the literary and administrative standard in Russia until the late 18th century.<ref name="Encarta Russische taal">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Russische taal |encyclopedia=Encarta Encyclopedie Winkler Prins |date=2002 |publisher=Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum |language=nl}}</ref>