In modern texts, the language in question is sometimes called "Old Ukrainian" or "Old Belarusian" and. As Ruthenian was always in a kind of diglossic opposition to Church Slavonic, this vernacular language was and still is often called prosta mova, literally "simple speech".
Names in contemporary use
Ruthenian – by the contemporaries, but, generally, not in contemporary Russia.
* Simple Ruthenian or simple talk – publisher Grigoriy Khodkevich.
Lithuanian – possibly, exclusive reference to it in the contemporary Russia. Also by Zizaniy, Pamva Berynda.
Names in modern use
Ruthenian – modern collective name, covering both Old Belarusian and Old Ukrainian languages, predominantly used by the 20th-century Lithuanian, also many Polish and English researchers.
Belarusian – rarely in contemporary Russia. Also Kryzhanich. The denotation Belarusian when referring both to the 19th-century language and to the Medieval language had been used in works of the 19th-century Russian researchers Fyodor Buslayev, Ogonovskiy, Zhitetskiy, Sobolevskiy, Nedeshev, Vladimirov and Belarusian researchers, such as Karskiy.
Lithuanian-Slavonic – by 19th-century Russian researcher Baranovskiy.
Old Ukrainian or staroukrajinska mova.
Chancery Slavonic – for the written form of Old Church Slavonic, influenced by various Ruthenian dialects and used in the chancery of Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
ruski – used by Norman Davies in Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe.
Literature
Brogi Bercoff, Giovanna: “Plurilingualism in Eastern Slavic culture of the 17th century: The case of Simeon Polockij.” In: Slavia: Časopis pro slovanskou filologii, vol. 64. p. 3-14.
Danylenko, Andrii: "'Prostaja mova', 'Kitab', and Polissian Standard". In: Die Welt der Slaven LI, no. 1, p. 80-115.
Danylenko, Andrii: "On the Name of the prostaja mova in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth", In: Studia Slavica Hung., 51/1-2,p. 97-121
Dingley, Jim . “The two versions of the Gramatyka Slovenskaja of Ivan Uževič.’ In: The Journal of Byelorussian Studies, 2.4, p. 369-384.
Frick, David A. "'Foolish Rus': On Polish civilization, Ruthenian self-hatred, and Kasijan Sakovyč." In: Harvard Ukrainian studies 18.3/4, p. 210-248.
Martel, Antoine. La langue polonaise dans les pays ruthènes: Ukraine et Russie Blanche 1569/1667. Lille 1938.
Moser, Michael: "Mittelruthenisch : Ein Überblick." In: Studia Slavica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 50, no. 1-2, p. 125-142.
Mozer , Michaėl’. "Čto takoe 'prostaja mova'?". In: Studia Slavica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 47.3/4, p. 221-260.
Pivtorak, Hryhorij. “Do pytannja pro ukrajins’ko-bilorus’ku vzajemodiju donacional’noho periodu ”. In: Movoznavstvo 1978.3, p. 31-40.
Pugh, Stefan M.: Testament to Ruthenian. A Linguistic Analysis of the Smotryc’kyj Variant. Cambridge 1996.
Shevelov, George Y. “Belorussian versus Ukrainian: Delimitation of texts before A.D. 1569”. In: The Journal of Byelorussian Studies 3.2, p. 145-156.
Stang, Christian: Die westrussische Kanzleisprache des Grossfürstentums Litauen. Oslo 1935.
Strumins’kyj, Bohdan. “The language question in the Ukrainian lands before the nineteenth century”. In: Aspects of the Slavic language question. Ed. Riccardo Picchio, Harvey Goldblatt. New Haven 1984, vol. 2, p. 9-47.
