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Belarusian is the language of the Belarusian nation. It
is one of the three East Slavic languages and is spoken
in and around Belarus.
It is also known as "Byelorussian", "Belarusan", "Belorussian", or "Balarusian". The word "Byelorussian" is an adjective
derived from the transliteration of the Russian name of the country (Byelorussia). It was in predominant
use in English earlier. The adjectives "Belarusian" and "Belarusan"
and many other forms emerged in the 1990s by English-speaking people to denote something
or somebody of or pertaining to present-day name of Belarus, its people and the
language they speak, whereas in Russian and Belarusian no new forms of the adjective appeared in those days. Both "Belarusian"
and "Byelorussian" are in most common use today.
History
The modern Belarusian language has evolved considerably from its early roots, the dialects of Ruthenian (East Slavic Orthodox) spoken in the territory of the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rus' and Samogitia. A
version of Ruthenian, which may be considered to be the Old Belarussian, became the official language of the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania and was official language of chancellery and courts until 1696. In particular,
the two most importand documents of this epoch, the Lithuanian Metrika (archive of the State Chancellery) and Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania are written in this language. Belarusian
was actually the language of the first printed Bible in Slavic languages — the achievement of Francysk Skaryna. The following century was the Belarusian golden age: there were active many schools, and religious quarrels between Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants and Jews were fought using printing presses rather then violence. Many Belarusians were people of the Renaissance, educated at the universities of Western Europe or the Lithuanian university in Vilnius that was
founded in 1579.
After the series of wars known in Polish history as Deluge, the Belarusian population was halved, partly due to deaths, partly to the
policy of deportations of the skilled cratftsman and work force to Russia by the occupying Russian army. In the process schools
were closed, and the remaining educated people were attracted by Polish culture. By the 1696 the language of the upper classes of society switched to Polish, followed by a change of the official language.
Belarussian was used both by peasants and by nobles wishing to express their sympathy toward common people.
The movement of return to the Belarusian language was important in the circle of friends of Adam Mickiewicz.
By the 16th century, the term "Ruthenian" referred to the language spoken in
modern-day Ukraine and Belarus; a process of divergence that accelerated in the 17th
century created a new division between the languages spoken in the south (Ukraine) and north (Belarus) of Ruthenian-speaking
territory.
Like Ukraine, Belarus and the Belarusian language has been subject to heavy russification. Unlike Ukraine, Belarus has historically lacked a strong nationalistic drive. During the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth times,
educated people of Belarus tended to identify themselves with Poland, and today some
prominent persons are claimed both by Poland and Belarus for their nationality. More recently, the population of Belarus tends to
identify itself as a close associate of Russia (if not considering themselves Russian
outright). This lack of a strong ethnolinguistic identity, along with the popular association of Belarusian dialects as rural,
peasant languages as opposed to Russian's modern/urban connotations, is seen by some as a threat that may lead to the eventual
extinction of the Belarusian language in Belarus.
One of the reasons for this situation is minority of Belarusian population in urban areas -- traditional cultural centers. For
example, according to 1897 census of Imperial Russia, in Belarusian towns of more than 50,000 residents only 7.3% respondents reported
Belarusian as their mother tongue (the criterion in definig nationality
for the purposes of the census). This state of affairs greatly contributed to a perception that Belarussian is a "rural",
"uneducated" language.
Another reason was extermination of Belarusian middle class between 1917 and 1941 by communists. Only in Kuropaty
(suburbs of Minsk) NKVD killed more than 100,000 people. Many thousands people were sent to
concentration camps (Gulag) or resettled to Siberia. The Soviet campaign for "flourishing of all brother nations" quickly ended, and around 400 Belarussian
authors were repressed during anti-nationalism campaigns that started around 1929 and culminated during the Great Purge.
Perhaps the largest centre of Belarusian cultural activity, in the Belarusian language, outside Belarus is in the Polish province of Bialystok, the home to a
long-established Belarusian minority.
Alphabet
The Belarusian language was written not only in the Cyrillic
alphabet (with several unique letters), but previously also in its original Łacinka (Latin alphabet), and also in
Arabica (Arabic script). Nowadays, the Arabic script is no
longer used, but many people continue to write in Łacinka, although officially only the Cyrillic script is supported. More
articles on Belarusian alphabets are here .
These are the current Belarusian Cyrillic and Latin alphabets:
Аа Бб Вв Гг Дд (ДЖдж
ДЗдз) Ее Ёё Жж Зз Іі Йй
Кк Лл Мм Нн Оо Пп Рр Сс
Тт Уу Ўў Фф Хх Цц Чч Шш
Ыы Ьь Ээ Юю Яя
(In addition, the apostrophe is sometimes put between a
consonant and the following "soft" (iotified) wovel (е, ё, ю, я) in order to indicate that no palatalization of the preceding consonant takes place, and the vowel is pronounced in the same way as
at the beginning of the word. Some people interpret this as "voice stop".
Aa Bb Cc Ćć Čč Dd (DŽdž DZdz) Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Łł Mm Nn Ńń Oo Pp Rr
Ss Śś Šš Tt Uu Ŭŭ Vv Yy Zz Źź Žž
Related articles
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