What is "boykos"

Boykos (, , ), or simply Highlanders (verkhovyntsi) are a Ukrainian ethnographic group located in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine and Poland. Along with the neighboring Lemkos and Hutsuls, the Boykos are a sub-group of the Ukrainian people and speak a dialect of the Ukrainian language. Boykos differ from their neighbors in dialect, dress, folk architecture, and customs.

In Ukraine, the classification of Boykos and other Rusyns as an East Slavic ethnicity, distinct from Ukrainians is controversial. (The deprecated and archaic term Ruthenian, while it is also derived from Rus', is ambiguous, as it technically may refer to Rusyns and Ukrainians, as well as Belarusians and even Russians, depending on the historical period.) According to the 2011 Ukraine census only 131 people identified themselves as Boykos, separate from Ukrainians. However, this figure is distorted for two reasons: some people otherwise identifiable as Boykos regard that name as derogatory, In the Polish census of 2011, 258 people identified their nationality as Boyko, with 14 people listing it as their only national identification.