Boyko or Boiko (Ukrainian: Бойко) are a distinctive group of Ukrainian highlanders or mountain-dwellers of the Carpathian highlands. The Boykos inhabited the central and the western half of the Carpathians in Ukraine, including the Dolynskyi and a part of the Rozhniativskyi Raions (districts) in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (province), the Skolivskyi, Turkivskyi, and parts of the Drohobytskyi, Sambirskyi and Starosambirskyi Raions in the Lviv Oblast, and parts of the Mizhhirskyi Raion in the Zakarpattia Oblast), as well as the adjacent areas of southeast Poland and northeast Slovakia.
Boykos identify themselves as part of the Ukrainian ethnos. Indeed, in the 19th century and in the first part of the 20th century Boykos, as well as most of the population of the present day's Western Ukraine called themselves Ruthenians (Ukrainian: Русини, Rusyny). Then the term "Ukrainian", that replaced the term "Ruthenians" in Eastern Ukraine a century earlier, became more common among Western Ruthenians/Ukrainians, including Boykos, as well. According to the recent census practically all Boykos in Ukraine declared their ethnicity as Ukrainian. Only 131 people distinctly identified as Boyko.
The Boyko language is based on the Ruthenian language, much influenced by the liturgic Old Church Slavonic language.[1]
The name "Boyko" is thought by some to originate in their patterns of speech, specifically the use of the affirmative exclamation "bo-ye!", meaning the only or because it is so. Example: "Nu, bo vono tak i ye.", "This is the way it is." In this instance the word bo is unusual for the common Ukrainian language. It was first coined by the priest Joseph Levytsky in the foreword of his Hramatyka (1831).
On the origins of the Boyko there are two opposing views. Boykos, Lemkos and Hutsuls live in an area that was known as White Serbia and White Croatia, their folk costumes as well as music, show strong similarities to the South Slavs (Serbs, Croats, Bulgars). White Serbia adjacent to White Croatia is called Bojka (Serbian: Белa Србиja; Archaic: Бојка, Greek: Boiki), it's the mythical homeland of the ancestors of the Serbs, of the White Serbs (Serbian: Бели Срби, Beli Srbi). One view proposed by Soviet scholars considers the Boykos an autochthonous population with specific language and dialectal features, of which their use of bo ye meaning "yes" is a prominent example (hypothesis of I. Verkhratsky).[2] An older view proposed by the 19th century authors I. Vahylevych, Ya. Holovatsky, and P. Šafárik links the Boyos to the Celtic Boii, a tribe unattested since the beginning of the Common Era.
Most Boykos belong to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, with a minority belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The distinctive wooden church architecture of the Boyko region is a three-domed church, with the domes arranged in one line, and the middle dome slightly larger than the others.
Boyko (Cyrillic: Бойко, Polish: Bojko) is also a common surname among people with origins in Western Ukraine, including in Canada and the United States. It is very often found in South Slavic countries, as a form of the name Бојан/Bojan (Boyan). The prime minister of Bulgaria is called Boyko Borisov.