My dear Lemko brother,
As Yuri Kulchitsky of Vienna used to say: Yak spravy, Bratiku-Serdenko?
Then I think I'm all for the Hutsuls going off on their own, as their dialect is absolutely too difficult for me!
I remember reading an epistle by St Andrew Sheptytsky to the Hutsuls in their dialect where he uses some Hutsul colloquialisms.
The Metropolitan was chiding the Hutsuls for their marial infidelity.
Some Hutsul husbands were actually in favour of their wives having as many lovers on the side as possible. Somehow, it made them value their masculinity more . . .
And St Andrew's response was:
"Durna to besida, yek Chlowiek kazhe zhintsi: Yaka ti mni zhona, yek ne mesh lubasiv?"
(What stupid a conversation it is when a husband asks his wife, 'What kind of a wife are you, if you don't have lovers?')
He then included a Hutsul phrase to indicate urgency, "Beyte v dzvon, shcho skazheny pes na seli babu kusaye."
(Ring the town bell to warn everyone that a rabid dog is biting a woman in the village!)
And I disagree with Stuart that the Lemko and other languages/dialects will disappear.
They show a remarkable resilience in the villages where life goes on without a care about what the city-folk do, TV's or not!
(The problem is, Lemko, that Stuart is an intellectual. He talks the talk, but doesn't walk the walk like we two do
Alex
