In ruby1.9.1, "1.9.1" is the ruby compatibility version. You can see it as the SONAME, even if I'm not completely sure whether it matches the definition of SONAME exactly. (I don't think that anybody knows, really ;)
via bugs.debian.org
They aliased the 1.9.2 package to install 1.9.1 -- should've gone the other way 'round, in my opinion.