Editing Ukrainian language (section)

===Under Lithuania/Poland and Muscovy/Russia ===
[[File:Peresopnytske Gospel 04.jpg|thumb|upright|Miniature of [[St Luke]] from the [[Peresopnytsia Gospels]] (1561)]]

After the fall of the Kingdom of Ruthenia, Ukrainians mainly fell under the rule of Lithuania and then [[Crown of the Polish Kingdom|Poland]]. Local autonomy of both rule and language was a marked feature of Lithuanian rule. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Old East Slavic became the language of the chancellery and gradually evolved into the Ruthenian language. Polish rule, which came later, was accompanied by a more assimilationist policy. By the 1569 [[Union of Lublin]] that formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from Lithuanian rule to Polish administration, resulting in cultural [[Polonization]] and visible attempts to [[colonization|colonize]] Ukraine by the Polish nobility.<ref name="Mywebpages.comcast.net">{{cite web |url=http://mywebpages.comcast.net/mdemkowicz1/dobra/poloniz.html |title=The Polonization of the Ukrainian Nobility |publisher=Mywebpages.comcast.net |access-date=2012-05-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020602145938/http://mywebpages.comcast.net/mdemkowicz1/dobra/poloniz.html |archive-date=2002-06-02 }}</ref>

Many Ukrainian nobles learned the Polish language and converted to Catholicism during that period in order to maintain their lofty aristocratic position.<ref name="Mywebpages.comcast.net"/> Lower classes were less affected because literacy was common only in the upper class and clergy. The latter were also under significant Polish pressure after the [[Union of Brest|Union with the Catholic Church]]. Most of the educational system was gradually Polonized. In Ruthenia, the language of administrative documents gradually shifted towards Polish.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Polish has had heavy influences on Ukrainian (particularly in [[Western Ukraine]]). The southwestern Ukrainian dialects are [[Dialect continuum|transitional]] to Polish.<ref name="Hull">Geoffrey Hull, Halyna Koscharsky. "[http://miskinhill.com.au/journals/asees/20:1-2/lexical-divide-ukrainian.pdf  Contours and Consequences of the Lexical Divide in Ukrainian] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516033533/http://miskinhill.com.au/journals/asees/20:1-2/lexical-divide-ukrainian.pdf |date=16 May 2013 }}". ''Australian Slavonic and East European Studies''. Vol. 20, no. 1-2. 2006.  pp. 140–147.</ref> As the Ukrainian language developed further, some borrowings from [[Tatar language|Tatar]] and [[Turkish language|Turkish]] occurred. Ukrainian culture and language flourished in the sixteenth and first half of the 17th century, when Ukraine was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, albeit in spite of being part of the PLC, not as a result. Among many schools established in that time, the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium (the predecessor of the modern [[Kyiv-Mohyla Academy]]), founded by the [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Orthodox]] [[Metropolitan bishop|Metropolitan]] [[Peter Mogila]], was the most important. At that time languages were associated more with religions: Catholics spoke Polish, and members of the Orthodox church spoke Ruthenian.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

The 1654 [[Pereiaslav Agreement]] between [[Cossack Hetmanate]] and [[Alexis of Russia]] divided Ukraine between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia. During the following century, both monarchies became increasingly intolerant of Ukrainian own cultural and political aspirations.<ref>{{cite book|last=Magocsi|first=Paul Robert|title=A History of Ukraine|date=1996|publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]]|page=293|quote=}}</ref> Ukrainians found themselves in a colonial situation.<ref>{{cite AV media|first1=Timothy|last1=Snyder|first2=Arne|last2=Westad|title=The Making of Modern Ukraine. Class 21. Comparative Russian Imperialism|minutes=5|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWRXLrJhqA0|quote="Even though these areas, these countries are close to the imperial centers, Ireland and Algeria, their evolution has been an evolution driven in the 20th century by decolonization. And what I'm indicating here, of course, is that the relationship between Russia and Ukraine is in many ways similar – in character, not in every context of those relationships."|access-date=21 September 2023|archive-date=2 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702085119/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWRXLrJhqA0|url-status=live}}</ref> The Russian centre adopted the name ''Little Russia'' for Ukraine and ''Little Russian'' for the language,<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Michael S.|last1=Flier|first2=Andrea|last2=Graziosi|title=The Battle for Ukrainian: An Introduction|journal=Harvard Ukrainian Studies|volume=35|year=2017–2018|pages=11–30|url=https://www.husj.harvard.edu/articles/the-battle-for-ukrainian-an-introduction|access-date=5 September 2023|archive-date=5 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230905073704/https://www.husj.harvard.edu/articles/the-battle-for-ukrainian-an-introduction|url-status=live}}</ref> an expression that originated in Byzantine Greek and may originally have meant "old, original, fundamental Russia", and had been in use since the 14th century.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kohut|first=Zenon Eugene|title=The Development of a Little Russian Identity and Ukrainian Nationbuilding|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41036271|journal=Harvard Ukrainian Studies|year=1986|volume=10|issue=3/4|pages=559–576|jstor=41036271|quote=The reasons for choosing the terms remain obscure. They might simply have reflected that the Galician metropolitan had fewer eparchies than the Suzdal one, or they might have come about due to an ancient Greek practice of denoting the homeland as “minor” while the colonies were labelled as “major” (e.g., Megalê Hellas, or Magna Graecia in Latin, for the Greek colonies in Italy). Whatever the conceptual underpinnings, the terms gained acceptance in ecclesiastical circles and entered the political sphere by the 1330s. <...> As a political designation “Little Rus”” faded with the demise of the Galician Principality (1340), but it continued to be important in the expanded battles over the Rus’ metropolitanate.|access-date=13 November 2023|archive-date=27 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230527193501/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41036271|url-status=live}}</ref> Ukrainian high culture went into a long period of steady decline. The Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was taken over by the Russian Empire. Most of the remaining Ukrainian schools also switched to Polish or Russian in the territories controlled by these respective countries, which was followed by a new wave of Polonization and [[Russification]] of the native nobility. Gradually the official language of Ukrainian provinces under Poland was changed to Polish, while the upper classes in the Russian part of Ukraine used Russian.{{cn|date=June 2024}}