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Belarusian (беларуская мова) is the language of the Belarusian people. It is one of the three East Slavic languages and is spoken in and around Belarus. It shares some vocabulary with the languages of the neighboring Slavic nations, most notably with Ukrainian, Polish, Russian and Slovakian.

It is also known as "Belarusan", "Byelorussian", "Belorussian", or "Belarusian". 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. "Belarusian" is the adjective in most common use today (but the Soviet or Russian version adjective "Byelorussian" can still be found in many texts).

History

The modern Belarusian language has evolved considerably from its early roots, the dialects of Old East Slavic (Common East Slavic) spoken in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rus' and Samogitia. On the basis of Belarusian (and Ukrainian) dialects a chancellery language was developed that afterwards became a fully-fledged Belarusian-Ukrainian literary language called Ruthenian (but in Belarusian context often also called Old Belarusian; the name used by the speakers themselves was the name inherited from Old East Slavic: ruskaja mova ‘language of Rus'’, or, in contrast to Church Slavonic and Polish, prostaja mova ‘simple language’). It was the official language of the chancellery and courts of the Grand Duchy until 1696. All of the documents of the Lithuanian Metrika (the whole archive of the State Chancellery of the Grand Duchy) and Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania are written in this language. Old Belarusian was actually the language of the first Bible to be printed in one of the Eastern Slavic languages – the achievement of Francysk Skaryna. The 16th century was the Belarusian golden age: many schools were active, and religious quarrels between Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants and Jews were fought using printing presses rather than 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 the The Deluge, the Belarusian population was halved, partly due to deaths, and partly due to the policy of deportations of skilled craftsman and workers to Russia by the occupying Russian army. Especially devastating was the 13-year war (1654–1667). In the process, most cities were burned down, almost all schools were closed, and the remaining educated people were attracted by Polish culture. By 1696, the language of the upper classes of society had switched to Polish, followed by a change of the official language. Belarusian was used both by peasants, and by nobles wishing to express their sympathy toward common people.

By the 16th century, the term "ruski" ("Russian" or "Ruthenian" in Latin) continued to refer to the language spoken in modern-day Ukraine and Belarus..

After partitions of Poland (1772–1796), the Belarusian territory was incorporated into Imperial Russia. Unlike Ukraine, Belarus has historically lacked a strong nationalistic drive. During the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth times, educated historical people of Belarus tended to identify themselves with Poland, and today some prominent persons are claimed both by Poland and Belarus for their nationality. For the peasents, however, most continued to refer to themselves as Russian.

Initially Imperial Russian athorities thought that the language spoken by Belarusian peasents was nothing but Polonised Russian, nevertheless as Polish influence over the territory slackened, the Russification of Belarusian peasents proved counter productive. In the 1897 most refered to their native language as Belarusian, not Russian as they did during the Polish rule.

MAP1 MAP2

In all respects the urban language of Belarusian towns remained either Polish or Russian and in the same census towns exceeding 50000 had Belarusian speakers of less than a tenth. This state of affairs greatly contributed to a perception that Belarusian is a "rural", "uneducated" language.

However the census was a major brakethrough for the first steps of the Belarusian nation, as it clearely showed that by this point the population and the language was neither Polish nor Russian. In 1904 the Russian Imperial athorities legalised the language and Belarusian schools along with communities switched their language of communication. Initially only in Rural areas, but in cities all schools too were mandatory to include Belarusian language.

On March 25, 1918, Belarusians proclaimed the independence of the Belarusian People's Republic, but it was short-lived and didn't manage to stay independent. The official language of all communication in the BNR was Belarusian. In 1918–1919, Soviets took control of the Belarusian lands and created the Belarusian SSR. In the 1920s, a campaign of Belarusization started, as a part of the all-Union campaign of "Korenizatsiya" and revival of national cultures. Some administration and legal affairs began to be carried out in Belarusian and a large number of books were printed in the Belarusian language by prominent Belarusian authors and publicists: Yakub Kolas, Yanka Kupala, Zmitrok Biadulia, Maksim Bahdanovich, and many others. Active discussions were carried out about the standardisation of the language.

The Belarusization was stalled and even reversed beginning in the 1930s. The orthographic reform of 1933 changed the Belarusian spelling rules and somewhat brought it closer to Russian. In 1938 Russian language become an obligatory subject in all Soviet schools. The final blow was the school reform of 1958, when parents were given the right to select the language of instruction for their children. After that, more and more people began to send their children to Russian-language schools, and the number of Belarusian-language schools began to diminish.

Under the Soviets, there was also the elimination of the Belarusian middle class between 1917 and 1941 by the Communist Party; in Kurapaty (a suburb of Minsk), the NKVD killed perhaps 100,000 people. Many thousands of people were sent to concentration camps (Gulag) or resettled to Siberia. Around 400 Belarusian authors were repressed during anti-nationalism campaigns that started around 1929 and culminated during the Great Purge. During the Second World War Belarus lost a large percentage of its population.

Interest in the Belarusian language was revived at the end of 1980s during perestroika. In 1990, Belarusian became the only official language of Belarusian SSR, and a second campaign of Belarusization followed. The "Law on languages" (Закон аб мовах), ratified on 26 January 1990, envisioned a complete switch of all administrative and official documentation of the country into Belarusian by 2000. However, the Belarusization was halted following the election of Alexander Lukashenka in 1994. Also in 1995 there was a referendum which, among other things, gave Russian language an equal status with Belarusian. Currently, russification is taking place in Belarus on an ever-growing scale, and the government does not provide any support for the Belarusian language. The population of Belarus itself tends to identify as a close associate of Russia (if not considering themselves Russian outright). In this respect, a fact of note is that the official website of the Belarusian President is in two languages: Russian and English (as of 2005)

During Soviet times, the Belarusian language was viewed by many native speakers as a rural and peasant language as opposed to Russian's image as a modern and urban language. That image in the eyes of the public has changed somewhat in the years of Belarus independence: some perceive it as a language of the young emerging urban elite. Nevertheless, current Russification policies are seen by some as a serious threat that may lead to the eventual extinction of the Belarusian language in Belarus.

The largest centre of Belarusian cultural activity, in the Belarusian language, outside Belarus is in the Polish province of Belastok, which is home to a long-established Belarusian minority.

Orthography

The Belarusian language was written not only in the Cyrillic alphabet, but previously also in its original Łacinka (лацінка - "Latin alphabet"), and also in Arabica (Arabic script, used by Tatars). Today, the Arabic script is no longer used, but some people continue to write in Łacinka, although officially only the Cyrillic script is supported. More articles on Belarusian alphabets are here.

See also an article about the unique Belarusian letter Ў.

Belarusian Cyrillic alphabet

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 used between a consonant and the following "soft" (iotified) vowel (е ё, ю, я) 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. In lacinka this function is performed by the letter 'j'. Compare: "Сям'я" vs "Siamja" (Note: two different ways of matching the letter 'я').

Before 1933, in addition to Ge (Гг), the Belarusian alphabet contained the letter Ghe (Ґґ). Some Belarusians promote restoring the letter, but the issue is not yet being considered in Belarus officially.

Belarusian Latin alphabet

Aa Bb Cc Ćć Čč Dd (Dzdz Dźdź Dždž) Ee Ff Gg Hh Chch Ii Jj Kk Ll Łł Mm Nn Ńń Oo Pp Rr Ss Śś Šš Tt Uu Ŭŭ Vv Yy Zz Źź Žž

Transliteration

Transliteration of geographical names

In 2000, the rules of transliteration of geographical names into the Latin alphabet were decreed in Belarus.

Main peculiarities:

• Г/г → H/h, and thus Х/х → Ch/ch.
• Е е, Ё ё, Ю ю, Я я are treated according to the following two cases (this rule eliminates the necessity in the separating apostrophe):
  • after consonants: iе, iо, iu, iа (renders palatalisation)
  • in all other cases (at the beginning of a word, after vowes and separators): Jе jе, Jо jо, Ju ju, Jа jа (renders yotation).
• Ўў → Uu with Circumflex (Û/û)
• Ч ч → Č č, Ш ш → Š š, Ж ж → Ž ž
• Ь ь → '
• Ы ы → Y y
• Э э → Е е

This approach resembles Łacinka, but differs from it as well. Compare: Mahiloŭ (Łacinka), Mahilioû (new).

Grammar

Phonetics

The most prominent phonetic features of Belarusian are

• akannie (аканьне) – the tendency to pronounce unstressed "o" and "e" as clear open front unrounded vowel "a";
• dzekanie (дзеканьне) – the pronunciation of palatalized d as soft affricate dz' (dź);
• tsekanie (цеканьне) – the pronunciation of palatalized t as soft affricate ts' (ć);
• strong palatalization of ś (сь) and ź (зь).

Some Belarusian sounds in IPA

Vocabulary

In terms of lexicon, Belarusian is most closely related to Ukrainian, then to Polish, and only then to Russian.

Some very basic examples:

• вітаю (vitaju) – hello
• як (jak) – how
• як маесься? (jak majessia?) – how are you doing?
• добрай раніцы (dobraj ranicy) – good morning
• дабранач (dabranach) – good night
• дзякуй (dziakuj) – thank you
• калі ласка (kali laska) – please, you are welcome
• спадар / спадарыня (spadar / spadarynia) – mister / missis
• добра (dobra) – good
• кепска / дрэнна (kiepska / drenna) – bad
• выдатна (vydatna) – excellent
• цудоўна (cudouna) – wonderful
• дзе (dzie) – where?
• адкуль (adkul) – where from?
• чаму (chamu) – why?
• разумею (razumieju) – I understand
• нічога не разумею (nichoha nie razumieju) – I don't understand anything

Comparison

Belarusian (Беларуская мова)	Bulgarian (Български език)	Russian (Русский язык)	Polish	English
Вітаю/Vitaju	Здравейте/Zdraveite	Здравствуйте/Zdravstvuyte	Witam	Hello
Прывітаньне/Pryvitańnie	Здрасти/Zdrasti	Привет/Privet	Cześć	Hi
Так/Tak - Не/Nie	Да/Da - Не/Ne	Да/Da - Нет/Net	Tak - Nie	Yes / No
Дзякую вам/Dziakuju vam	Благодаря ви/Blagodarya vi	Спасибо/Spasibo	Dziękuję	Thank you
Спадар/Spadar Спадарыня/Spadarynia Спадарычна/Spadaryčna	Господин/Gospodin Госпожа/Gozpozha Госпожица/Gospozhitsa	Сударь/Sudar Сударыня/Sudarynya	Pan Pani	Mister / Missis / Miss
Выдатна/Vydatna; файна/fajna	Отлично/Otlichno	Отлично/Otlichno	Fajnie	Excellent; fine

Nouns (nazounik)

There are six cases:

• Nominative (nazouny)
• Genitive (rodny)
• Dative (davalny)
• Accusative (vinavalny)
• Instrumental (tvorny)
• Locative (mesny)

There is also a seventh case, vocative (klichny), but in modern Belarusian it's very rarely used, so in contemporary textbooks most often you'll see just the first six cases mentioned.

For nouns there are several types of declension:

• i-stem – feminine (feminine nouns ending in a hard consonant, soft consonant or ў: печ "stove", косьць "bone", кроў "blood")
• a-stem – mostly feminine (subdivided into four subgroups: hard stems, guttural stems, soft stems, hardened stems)
• o-stem – masculine (subdivided into hard stem and soft stem) and neuter (вясло "oar", мора "sea")
• consonantal stem – mostly neuter (ягня "lamb", бярэмя "burden", семя "seed")
• irregular nouns (for example, вока "eye" and вуха "ear")

Pronouns (zajmiennik)

In Belarusian there are eight types of pronouns (займеньнік):

• Possessive (прыналежныя): мой (my, mine); твой (your(s)familiar); яго, ягоны (his); яе, ейны (her); наш, наскі (our(s)); ваш (your(s)); іх, іхны (their(s)), свой ((one's) own).
• Personal (асабовыя): я (I), ты (you (familiar)), ён (he), яна (she), яно (it), мы (we), вы (you), яны (they);
• Negative (адмоўныя): ніхто (nobody), нішто (nothing), нічый (nobody's), ніякі (not of any kind), ніводзін, ніводны (no one);
• Definitive (азначальныя): сам (-self); самы ("the very", - self); увесь (all, whole); усё (all, everything); усе (all, every, everybody); усякі, усялякі (every, any); кожны (each); іншы (other).
• Indefinite (няпэўныя): нехта (someone); нешта (something); нейкі (some, а); нечы (somebody's, a); некаторы (some of); некалькі (a few, some, several); хтось, хтосьці (somebody); штось, штосьці (something); чыйсьці (somebody's); якісьці, які-кольвек (some, a kind of, something like); хто-небудзь, хто-кольвек (anybody); што-небудзь, што-кольвек (anything); чый-небудзь (some one's); абы-што (smth.dickey); абы-чый (a, somebody's (negative)); абы-які (dickey).
• Interrogative-comparative (пытальныя): хто (who), што (what), які (which), каторы (which), чый (whose), колькі (how much);
• Demonstrative (указальныя): той (that); гэты (this); гэны (this/that); такі (such); гэткі, гэтакі (such, of this kind); столькі, гэтулькі (that much);
• Reflexive (зваротны): сябе (-self).

See also

• Old Ruthenian language
• East Slavic languages
• Kievan Rus'
• Ruthenia
• Tarashkevitsa, Belarusian grammar of 1918 by Branislau Tarashkevich
• Narkomovka, Belarusian grammar of 1918 by reform of 1933
• Trasianka, a blend of Russian and Belarusian languages spoken by many in Belarus

External links

• Template:En icon Ethnologue report for Belarusian
• Template:En icon English-Belarusian dictionaries, in Lacinka
• Template:Be icon Łacinka.org
• Template:En icon Metrica of GDL
• Template:En icon Statutes of GDL
• Template:Be icon Template:En icon pravapis.org - Belarusian language
• Template:En icon Fundamentals of Modern Belarusian
• Belarusan English Dictionary from Webster's Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition

• Languages of Belarus
• Languages of Estonia
• Languages of Latvia
• Languages of Lithuania
• Languages of Poland
• East Slavic languages
• Belarusian language