A History of Language Use and Scripts in the Ruśan Lands During the Second Half of the First Millennium: A Tentative Survey

Description

Due to the persisting political significance of language in present-day Central and Eastern Europe, much attention is lavished on the history of languages, mainly their coalescence and ethnic provenance. Often, findings are sorted and interpreted in line with an obtaining Geschichtspolitik (politics of history). The talk, first, introduces the concepts of speech (evolutionary capacity), language (actualizations of this capacity), writing (scripts) and dialect continuum. Subsequently, a survey is offered—hopefully, without favor or prejudice—of the use of languages and scripts in relation to ethnic, political, and economic developments between the 5th and 10th centuries. Little evidence is preserved from the period (though more than in the areas west and east of Ruś). Gaps can be usefully filled up with anthropological, genetic and archeologic research.

Period	2 Apr 2026
Held at	Ukrainian Catholic University, Ukraine
Degree of Recognition	International