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New Jersey Chapter “What Makes the Rusyn Language So Special?” Saturday, March 12, 2005 2 – 4 PM Wayne Public Library 461 Valley Road Wayne, NJ 07470 Refreshments will be served Dr. Brian McHugh, Professor of Linguistics at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania will address the topic “What Makes the Rusyn Language So Special?” He will contrast popular and scientific notions of “language” and dialect” as they apply to Carpatho-Rusyn and its East Slavic sister languages (Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian) and its West and South Slavic linguistic “first cousins” with which it lives in daily contact (Polish, Slovak and Serbo-Croatian). Professor McHugh, who teaches in the Communications Sciences Department, received his B.A. degree from Yale University and Ph.D. from UCLA, both in Linguistics (the scientific study of human language). He speaks several foreign languages, primarily German, French, Russian, Polish and Hausa. He also speaks “ a smattering” of other languages such as Turkish, Swahili, Haitian Creole, Ukrainian and, last but not least, Carpatho-Rusyn, the language of his father’s birth parents. Dr. McHugh is a native of the Philadelphia area, the son of a Polish-American mother and a Carpatho-Rusyn-American father. His father, Raymond “Jack” McHugh, was originally baptized Roman Semanenko in a Russian Orthodox church in Connecticut, but quickly placed in an orphanage. An “Anglo” couple, John and Clara McHugh later adopted him. The McHughs then moved to the Philadelphia area where Brian’s father and mother later met. Little did they know though, how close their roots were back in “The Old Country”: his father’s birth parents hailed from the Lemko villages of Zhydivske and Rozstajne in Jaslo powiat; his mother’s family from the nearby Polish town of Krosno. It took Brian’s sleuthing on the Internet to solve the puzzle of his father’s true origins. Since this discovery he has joined the C-RS, presented scholarly papers on various aspects of the Rusyn language question, and served as a delegate to the most recent World Congress of Rusyns. For program information, and in the case of inclement weather, call John Mihalasky at (908) 459-9859) or email John Mihalasky. Do not call the Library. Directions: Take Route 46 to the Riverview Drive Exit in the direction of Wayne. Continue on Riverview Drive to the traffic light at Valley Road. Turn right onto Valley Road and proceed to the second traffic light at Nellis Drive at the Wayne Municipal Complex. Turn left and then right to access the Library and its parking lot. From Manhattan: From the Port Authority Bus Terminal at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, take New Jersey Transit bus number 197 to the Valley Road/Preakness Avenue stop in Wayne. The bus stop is located across the street from the Wayne Municipal Complex. The bus departing Manhattan at 1:00 PM arrives in Wayne at 1:47 PM. The round trip fare is approximately $10.
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