Belarusian language

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Belarusian (беларуская мова, Bielaruskaja mova) 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, and Russian.

It is also known as "Belarusan", "Byelorussian", or "Belorussian". 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 Rus' and parts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania territories. 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: ruskaya 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)[citation needed] and Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were 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. During the 16th century, the language culturally developed with many active schools teaching it. Moreover 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 Deluge, the Belarusian population was halved, partly due to deaths, and partly due to the emigration of skilled craftsman and workers to Russia. 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 end of the 18th century, however, very few Belarusian nobles existed.

Following the partitions of Poland (1772–1796), the Belarusian territory was incorporated into the Russian Empire. 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. For the peasents, however, most continued to refer to themselves as Ruski, as well as to their language.

This latter fact can be interpreted differently. From one side, it caused many nobles of Imperial Russian authorities to assume that the language spoken by Belarusian peasents was nothing but Polonised Russian. From the other side, by the 16th century, the term "Ruski" (Ruthenian in Latin or Russian in Russian language) was referred to the language spoken in modern-day Ukraine and Belarus, but not the language of Muscovy (the modern Russian). Though the Polish influence over the territory slackened, the Russification of Belarusian peasants proved counter-productive. In the 1897 Imperial census most referred to their native language not as Ruthenian as they did during the Polish rule, but as White Ruthenian or Belarusian.

All Empire 125640021 5885547 55667469 7931307
Guberniya Total Population Belarusian (Beloruskij) Russian (Velikoruskij) Polish (Poslkij)
Vilna 1591207 891903 78623 130054
Vitebsk 1489246 987020 198001 50377
Grodno 1603409 1141714 74143 161662
Minsk 2147621 1633091 83999 64617
Mogilev 1686764 1389782 58155 17526
Smolensk 1525279 100757 1397875 7314
Chernigov 2297854 151465 495963 3302
Forevisla guberniyas 9402253 29347 335337 6755503

MAP1 MAP2

The end of the 19th century however still showed that 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" and "uneducated" language.

However the census was a major breakthrough for the first steps of the Belarusian national self-consiounce and identity, as it clearely showed to the Imperial authorities, and the still strong Polish minority that the population and the language was neither Polish nor Russian. In 1904 the Russian Imperial authorities 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, under German occupation the Belarusian People's Republic was proclaimed and although its period in history was brief, its inspiration lived on, and for once the official language of all communication in the BNR was Belarusian. In 1918–1919, the Belarusian lands were divided between Poland and the RSFSR where the Belarusian SSR was created. In the 1920s, a campaign of Belarusization started, as a part of the all-Union campaign of Korenizatsiya (revival of national cultures). Some administration and legal affairs began to be carried out in Belarusian. A significant amount of books were printed in the Belarusian language by prominent Belarusian authors and publicists including 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 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 as the President of Belarus 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 2006)

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. Yakub Kolas National State Humanities Lyceum, closed down by the authorities, continues to work underground, visiting Lithuania and Poland. 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 Białystok (Belastok in Belarusian), which is home to a long-established Belarusian minority. Primary and Secondary Schools with Additionial Teaching of the Belorussian Language are available in Hajnówka. Belarusian Association of Students organizes rock festival Basovišča. Radio Racja broadcasts in Belarusian.

Orthography

Belarusian alphabet

Main article: Belarusian alphabet

The Belarusian alphabet is based on the Cyrillic script, from the alphabet of the Old Church Slavonic language. Its modern form was determined in 1918, and consists of thirty-two letters, plus the apostrophe ( ’ ).

The Belarusian alphabet
А а Б б В в Г г Д д Е е Ё ё Ж ж З з І і Й й
К к Л л М м Н н О о П п Р р С с Т т У у Ў ў
Ф ф Х х Ц ц Ч ч Ш ш Ы ы Ь ь Э э Ю ю Я я ’

Historically, Belarusian text was also rendered in Latin (Łacinka alphabet) and Arabic scripts (Belarusian Arabic alphabet).

Transliteration

Main article: Romanization of Belarusian

Standardized systems for romanizing Belarusian from the Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin include:

  • Scientific transliteration, or the International Scholarly System for linguistics
  • American Library Association and Library of Congress (ALA-LC)
  • United States Board on Geographic Names and Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use (BGN/PCGN)
  • National System of Romanization (NSR), 2000
  • ISO 9:1995

The Łacinka alphabet is another method of rendering Belarusian in Latin letters, but its rules of transcription are different from the Cyrillic alphabet's, so it is not the same as a transliteration from the Cyrillic.

National System of Romanization

The official National System of Romanization for geographical names into the Latin alphabet were approved by the Government Committee on Land Resources, Geodesy and Cartography of Belarus, in 2000. This approach resembles Łacinka, but differs from it as well. Compare: Mahiloŭ (Łacinka), Mahilioú (NSR).

External links

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).
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Some Belarusian sounds in IPA

Łacinka letter Cyrillic letter IPA IPA definition English approximation Example in Belarusian
c ц [ʦ] voiceless alveolar affricate pizza cehła (цэгла) – brick
ć ць [ʨ] voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate what's your ćvik (цьвік) – nail
č ч [ʧ] voiceless postalveolar affricate kitchen čas (час) – time
dź дзь [ʥ] voiced alveolo-palatal affricate would you dźmuć (дзьмуць) – to blow
dž дж [ʤ] voiced postalveolar affricate jam uradžaj (ураджай) – harvest
h г [ɦ] voiced glottal fricative hockey huś (гусь) – goose
ń нь [ɲ] palatal nasal el Niño koń (конь) – horse
r р [r] alveolar trill rolled (vibrating) r as in arriba krok (крок) – step
ś сь [ɕ] voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative between see and sheer śnieh (сьнег) – snow
š ш [ʃ] voiceless postalveolar fricative sheer špalery (шпалеры) – wallpaper
ŭ ў [w] labial-velar approximant (semivowel) window daŭ (даў) – gave
y ы [ɪ] near-close near-front unrounded vowel tick akacyja (акацыя) – acacia
ź зь [ʑ] voiced alveolo-palatal fricative where's your źmiena (зьмена) – change
ž ж [ʒ] voiced postalveolar fricative treasure žach (жах) - horror

Vocabulary

In terms of lexicon, Belarusian is very closely related to Ukrainian, Polish, and Russian as well as other slavic languages.

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) Ukrainian (Українська мова) Russian (Русский язык) Bulgarian (Български език) Polish English
Вітаю/Vitaju Вітаю/Vitaju Здравствуйте/Zdravstvuyte Здравейте/Zdraveite Witam Hello
Прывітаньне/Pryvitańnie Привіт/Pryvit Привет/Privet Здрасти/Zdrasti Cześć Hi
Так/Tak - Не/Nie Так/Tak - Ні/Ni Да/Da - Нет/Net Да/Da - Не/Ne Tak - Nie Yes - No
Дзякую вам/Dziakuju vam Дякую вам/Diakuju vam Спасибо/Spasibo Благодаря ви/Blagodarya vi Dziękuję Thank you
Спадар/Spadar - Спадарыня/Spadarynia - Спадарычна/Spadaryčna Пан/Pan - Пані/Pani - Панна/Panna Господин/Gospodin - Госпожа/Gozpozha Господин/Gospodin - Госпожа/Gozpozha -Госпожица/Gospozhitsa Pan - Pani - Panna Mister - Missis - Miss
Выдатна/Vydatna; файна/fajna Відмінна/Vidminna; файна/fajna Отличная/Otlichnaja 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

External links

Belarusian edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Belarusian_language&oldid=57941042"