rusyn. lemkovska/rusynska besida, pol. język łemkowski, ISO 639-3 rue
The history of the Lemko people and their language is perhaps one of the saddest of post-war Poland. The Lemko language is best described as a periphery dialect of Ukrainian spoken until 1947 in the Polish and Slovakian mountainous region of the Lower Beskids. Along with such closely-related ethnicities like the Huculs and Boykos, they are sometimes referred to as Carpathian Ruthenians. Squeezed in-between the Polish and Slovak communities, Lemkos developed many traits similar to these languages (such as a stress on the penultimate syllable).
The centuries-old traditional Lemko culture was almost fully destroyed in the years following WWII, when the entire Lemko population of Poland was forced to leave their homes and resettle in the western lands that were newly incorporated into Poland after WWII (Silesia, Pomerania). It is estimated that over the course of three resettlements (the most famous of them being Akcja Wisła in 1947), 105-120,000 people were resettled against their will, leaving behind their houses and villages. In the ensuing years, the region became desolate and to this day remains one of the most sparsely-populated regions in Poland.
Fortunately, after the Stalinist era ended in 1956, the Lemkos were allowed to return, and some of them did. Others preserved some of their culture in the West, with Szczecin and Wrocław becoming new centres of Lemko culture. Today, the Lemko language is being spoken again in the villages of Lemkovyna, like Gorlice. It is estimated that around 10,000 Lemkos returned, with another 50,000 living in Western and Northern Poland.
Famous Lemkos include artists like Nikifor Krynicki, Jerzy Nowosielski and... Andy Warhol, born Andrei Varhola, whose parents emigrated to the US from the small Slovakian village of Mikova.
6. Romani language