Languages of Belarus

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Languages of Belarus
Official Belarusian and Russian
Minority Polish, Ukrainian, Yiddish, Trasianka
Foreign English
Signed Russian Sign Language
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The official languages of Belarus are Belarusian and Russian.

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The pre-Slavic language of the area, as well as its geographic name was Sudovian and Sudavia, a Baltic language. Sudovian is believed to have gone extinct around the 17th century.

At present, Belarusian and Russian are considered the sole native languages of Belarus, as seen below.

The language situation in Belarus is characterized by a co-existence of several linguistic codes. The three most widespread codes are Belarusian, Russian and the so-called Trasianka, a mixed speech in which Belarusian and Russian elements and structures alternate arbitrarily. [1]

History

The earliest known documents from ethnic Belarusian territories date from the 12th century. [2] Most of them are saints' vitae and sermons written in the Church Slavonic language. In the 13th and 14th century an increasing number of texts, mainly official records and other types of documents, show phonetic, grammatical and lexical characteristics regarded as typically Belarusian. [3] There is an ongoing scientific discussion about the share of elements from, on one hand, Church Slavonic, on the other hand from autochthonous East Slavonic vernaculars in early East Slavonic texts. In general, however, it can be said that these shares depended on text genres and their evaluation as "high" or "low": In "high" - mainly religious - text genres Church Slavonic prevailed, while in "low" text genres - texts of an everyday nature - the influence of East Slavonic vernaculars dominated. [4]

In the late 14th and in the 15th century the Church Slavonic religious writings in East Slavonic territories underwent an archaization known as rebulgarisation. The purpose of this archaization was to counteract the "falsification" of the divine word which allegedly had been caused by the influence of vernaculars. [5] Rebulgarisation made Church Slavonic even less comprehensible to the population at large than it already was due to its complex syntax structures and its high share of abstract lexicon. This and the political rise of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with its Slavic majority population contributed to the emergence of a written language on an autochthonous East Slavonic basis. This language emerged as a Koiné language from vernaculars bordering the administrative centers of the Grand Duchy. [6] It was the official language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and was used in particular by the authorities, in offices and in diplomatic correspondence, but in the course of time it entered former "exclusive" domains of Church Slavonic as well. In contemporary sources it was referred to as "ruskij jazyk", which serves pro-Russian linguistic historiography as an argument to claim it as a part of the history of the Russian language. [7] On the other hand, pro-Belarusian linguistic historiography claims "ruskij jazyk" as "Old Belarusian language" ("starabelaruskaja mova"), which is problematic as well insofar as at that time no distinct Belarusian identity in today's sense of the term had evolved. [8] Apart from that the term Ruthenian language is in use, although the latter often refers only to the southern (from today's perspective: Ukrainian) variant of the state language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

After the Union of Lublin and the Union of Brest the influence of Polish language and culture in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania increased at the cost of Ruthenian, the use of which in official documents of the Grand Duchy was forbidden in 1696. Subsequently, linguistic elements of Belarusian were perpetuated mainly in vernaculars and folklore passed on by word of mouth. After the Partitions of Poland initially Polish remained the social dominant language in Belarus being more and more replaced in this role by Russian, in particular after the November Uprising.

As part of the movement of Romanticism in the 19th century poets and intellectuals with origin from today's Belarus were inspired by the language use of the peasantry and contributed to a new basis for a modern Belarusian literary language, which was only partly connected to the official language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. [9] The language policy of the Russian Empire treated Belarusian as a dialect of Russian. After the January Uprising of 1863, in which Belarusians participated as well, all - for the time being tentative - steps toward a Belarusian linguistic and cultural emancipation were blocked by the authorities. [10]

The efforts for the creation of a modern Belarusian literary language intensified after the liberalizations following the 1905 Russian Revolution when inter alia the ban on printed texts in Belarusian was lifted. [11] A fundamental role for the development of literary norms in modern Belarusian played the newspaper Nasha Niva (published 1906-1915), contributors of which were the leading intellectuals of the Belarusian national movement at that time. As a school subject and language of instruction Belarusian was first introduced under German occupation in the district Ober Ost, which existed from 1915 to 1918. [6]

According with the principles of Lenin's nationality policy in the early years of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR), i.e. in the 1920s, a policy was carried out which aimed at the Belarusization of public life as well as at the terminological development of the Belarusian language. [11] In the early 1930s Soviet state and party leaders began their ideological struggle against alleged "local nationalisms", putting an end to Belarusization and resulting in grave repressions and physical elimination of the pro-Belarusian intelligentsiya in the 1930s and 1940s. [12] In 1934 Russian was declared language of interethnic communication for the whole territory of the Soviet Union, and in 1938 Russian was introduced as an obligatory subject in all schools in non-Russian Soviet republics. [6] In West Belarus, which in the inter-war period was part of the Polish territory, policy aimed at a long-term assimilation of Belarusians through the medium of Polish education and the influence of the Catholic Church. [13]

Of great importance for the development of the linguistic situation in the decades after World War II were the industrialisation and urbanization of the BSSR, part of which became the Western Belarusian territories formerly belonging to Poland. For the first time Belarusians became the majority population in the urban centers, in which Russian, Jewish and Polish influences had prevailed before World War II. [14] At the same time the BSSR became the Soviet republic with the highest share of immigrants from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Specialists from the RSFSR as well as other Russian-speaking "non-Belarusians" often held leadership positions in the post-war BSSR, thus contributing to the role of Russian as the language of social advance. This caused migrants from the Belarusian countryside to the cities to give up their dialectal Belarusian and adjust to the Russian-speaking environment. This way the Belarusian-Russian mixed speech trasianka spread and was perpetuated to the following speaker generation. [15] A law passed by the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR in 1959 allowed pupils taught in schools with Russian as medium of instruction to opt out of Belarusian as a school subject. In 1978 the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union decided to introduce Russian as a school subject already in all first grades of "non-Russian" schools, thus further weakening the position of Belarusian. [16]

At the time of perestroika an improvement of the legal and actual status of the Belarusian language became an important demand of the nationally orientated intelligentsiya, which began to organize itself in the Belarusian Popular Front and, with a narrower focus on language, the Frantsishak Skaryna Belarusian Language Society. Under the pressure of this "national rebirth" movement in 1990 the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR passed a language law which declared Belarusian the sole official language of the BSSR.

Development since the dissolution of the Soviet Union

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 the Belarusian language law remained in force, and a Belarusization policy was initiated which aimed at linguistic Belarusization of the most important areas of public life within ten years. Particular attention was drawn to the educational system. [17] This policy, however, was rejected by large parts of the society, and this prompted Alexander Lukashenko to take up the issue of allegedly "forceful Belarusization" in his first presidential campaign in 1994. After being elected, in 1995 Lukashenko initiated a controversial referendum in which according to official data 88.3% of the participants supported an equal status for the Russian and Belarusian language. [17] The revised language law names Russian in addition to Belarusian as official language of Belarus. Following the referendum, the policy of discrimination in favor of Belarusian came to an end, as according to the revised language law in all substantial domains of public life either Russian or Belarusian could be used. Due to the long-lasting dominance of Russian in Belarus this legal "equality" of the two official languages in fact resulted in an almost exclusive use of the Russian language in public life, except for few niches. In particular in the second half of the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s the public use of Belarusian outside the spheres of education and culture became a symbol of an oppositional ("Anti-Lukashenko") attitude. This was reinforced by some disrespectful statements Lukashenko made about the Belarusian language. [10] In light of several political and economic conflicts with Russia since the middle of the 2000s and, more recently, the role of Russia in the war in Donbass Belarusian officials have started to use a more favourable rhetoric with respect to the Belarusian language. However, this has not resulted in a fundamental change of the actual language policy in Belarus. [14]

In the Belarusian population censuses of 1999 and 2009 respondents were asked about their native language and about the language they usually speak at home. In 1999 85.6% of the citizens with Belarusian nationality declared Belarusian, 14.3% declared Russian as their native language, in 2009 these shares were 60.8% for Belarusian and 37.0% for Russian. As language they usually speak at home in 1999 41.3% of Belarusians declared Belarusian, 58.6% Russian, in 2009 these shares were 26.1% for Belarusian and 69.8% for Russian. [14] A recent research project at the University of Oldenburg has pointed out the unreliability of the language-related questions in the Belarusian censuses and included in its own surveys "Belarusian-Russian mixed language" (commonly known as "trasianka") as an answer variant in addition to Russian and Belarusian. Moreover, multiple answers were allowed. Asked about their native language, around 49% of Belarusians chose Belarusian, 38% trasianka and 30% Russian. [18] As language(s) of their first socialization, around 50% of Belarusians named trasianka, 42% Russian and 18% Belarusian. As language predominantly used - in this category multiple answers were not allowed - 55% of the respondents with Belarusian national identity chose Russian, 41% trasianka and 4% Belarusian.

Apart from Russian, Belarusian and trasianka the languages of national minorities are used in Belarus, but to a much lesser extent. According to the Belarusian census of 2009 the overwhelming majority of non-Belarusians use Russian in their everyday life.

2009 Census: Language normally spoken at home, % of population in respective ethnic group [19]
EthnicityPopulation, thousands of peopleBelarusianRussian
Total9,50423.470.2
Belarusians 7,95726.169.8
Russians 7852.196.5
Poles 29540.950.9
Ukrainians 1596.188.4
Jews 132.095.9
Languages of Belarus according to 2009 census (green - Belarusian, blue - Russian)
BelarusNativeLanguages2009.PNG
BelarusHomeLanguages2009.PNG
Native languages Spoken languages
2019 Census: Language normally spoken at home, % of population in respective ethnic group [20]
EthnicityPopulation, thousands of peopleBelarusianRussian
Total9,4132671.3
Belarusians 7,99028.571
Russians 7062.597.2
Poles 2874652.4
Ukrainians 1596.589
Jews 132.196.6

Knowledge of Belarusian and Russian languages by region and Minsk City

Source: Belstat Census 2009 [21]

Population classified by knowledge of the Belarusian and Russian languages by region and Minsk City (thousand)
EntityAll populationOf total population persons who indicated as
Mother tongueLanguage normally spoken at homeOther language they have good knowledge of
BelarusianRussianBelarusianRussianBelarusianRussian
Republic of Belarus9503.85058.43948.12227.26673.01281.71305.4
Brest Region 1401.2751.9597.4374.2982.4209.6236.1
Vitebsk Region 1230.8646.8543.7276.1900.8207.7176.9
Gomel Region 1440.7786.4602.8326.41037.6154.8166.5
Grodno Region 1072.4634.7386.9375.9606.1145.6230.4
Minsk City 1836.8645.9966.0106.11508.7321.654.3
Minsk Region 1422.5987.2390.5553.0796.6127.4343.9
Mogilev Region 1099.4605.5460.8215.5840.8115.097.3

In Belarus on the whole 70.21% of the population indicated they speak Russian at home, 23.43% indicated Belarusian, 3.13% did not indicate a language, 1.51% indicated Trasianka, 1.47% indicated several languages and the remaining 0.23% indicated another language. The area where Belarusian is used the least at home is Minsk City (6% of people) while the area where it is used the most is the Minsk region (39% of people; note that Minsk region administratively excludes the city of Minsk).  

2019 Census: Population classified by knowledge of the Belarusian and Russian languages by region and Minsk City (thousand) [22]
EntityAll populationOf total population persons who indicated as
Mother tongueLanguage normally spoken at home
BelarusianRussianBelarusianRussian
Republic of Belarus9413.45094.93983.82447.86718.6
Brest Region 1348.11037.7270.5218.71103.0
Vitebsk Region 1135.7514.0585.6142.8965.6
Gomel Region 1388.5652.7693.7201.11156.3
Grodno Region 1026.8559.9427.8389.1616.7
Minsk City 2018.3982.1980.1689.11292.6
Minsk Region 1471.2876.1548.3549.6884.6
Mogilev Region 1024.8472.4477.7257.2698.9

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belarus</span> Country in Eastern Europe

Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Covering an area of 207,600 square kilometres (80,200 sq mi) and with a population of 9.2 million, Belarus is the 13th-largest and the 20th-most populous country in Europe. The country has a hemiboreal climate and is administratively divided into six regions. Minsk is the capital and largest city; it is administered separately as a city with special status.

The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of the Slavic languages, distinct from the West and South Slavic languages. East Slavic languages are currently spoken natively throughout Eastern Europe, and eastwards to Siberia and the Russian Far East. In part due to the large historical influence of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, the Russian language is also spoken as a lingua franca in many regions of Caucasus and Central Asia. Of the three Slavic branches, East Slavic is the most spoken, with the number of native speakers larger than the Western and Southern branches combined.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belarusians</span> East Slavic ethnic group

Belarusians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Belarus. More than 9.5 million people proclaim Belarusian ethnicity worldwide. Nearly 8 million Belarusians reside in Belarus, with the United States and Russia being home to more than half a million Belarusians each.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Belarus</span>

The lands of Belarus during the Middle Ages were split between different principalities, including Polotsk, Turov, Vitebsk, and others. Following the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, these lands were absorbed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which later was merged into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Following the Partitions of Poland, Belarusian territories became part of the Russian Empire. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, different states arose competing for legitimacy amid the Russian Civil War, ultimately ending with the consolidation of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union when it was founded in 1922. Belarus became an independent state in 1991 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belarusian language</span> East Slavic language

Belarusian is an East Slavic language. It is one of the two official languages in Belarus, alongside Russian. Additionally, it is spoken in some parts of Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Ukraine by Belarusian minorities in those countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minsk</span> Capital of Belarus

Minsk is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administrative centre of Minsk Region and Minsk District. As of 2023, it has a population of two million, making Minsk the 11th-most populous city in Europe. Minsk is one of the administrative capitals of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic</span> Republic of the Soviet Union

The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known simply as Byelorussia, was a republic of the Soviet Union (USSR). It existed between 1920 and 1991 as one of fifteen constituent republics of the USSR, with its own legislation from 1990 to 1991. The republic was ruled by the Communist Party of Byelorussia and was also referred to as Soviet Byelorussia or Soviet Belarus by a number of historians. Other names for Byelorussia included White Russian Soviet Socialist Republic and Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Ruthenian is an exonymic linguonym for a closely related group of East Slavic linguistic varieties, particularly those spoken from the 15th to 18th centuries in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in East Slavic regions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Regional distribution of those varieties, both in their literary and vernacular forms, corresponded approximately to the territories of the modern states of Belarus and Ukraine. By the end of the 18th century, they gradually diverged into regional variants, which subsequently developed into the modern Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Rusyn languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National emblem of Belarus</span> National emblem of Belarus

The national emblem of Belarus features a ribbon in the colors of the national flag, a silhouette of Belarus, wheat ears and a red star. It is sometimes referred to as the coat of arms of Belarus, although in heraldic terms this is inaccurate as the emblem does not respect the rules of conventional heraldry. The emblem is an allusion to one that was used by the Byelorussian SSR, designed by Ivan Dubasov in 1950, with the biggest change being a replacement of the Communist hammer and sickle with a silhouette of Belarus. The Belarusian name is Dziaržaŭny hierb Respubliki Biełaruś, and the name in Russian is Gosudarstvennyĭ gerb Respubliki Belarusʹ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trasianka</span> Mixed Belarusian–Russian language

Trasianka refers to a mixed form of speech in which Belarusian and Russian elements and structures alternate arbitrarily. There is a similar phenomenon in Ukraine, a Ukrainian–Russian language mixture, called Surzhyk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belarus–Ukraine relations</span> Bilateral relations

Belarus–Ukraine relations are foreign relations between Belarus and Ukraine. Both countries are full members of the Baku Initiative and Central European Initiative. In 2020, during the Belarusian protests against president Lukashenko, the relationship between Ukraine and Belarus began to deteriorate, after the Ukrainian government criticized Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. In the waning days of 2021, the relationship between both countries rapidly deteriorated, culminating in a full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022. Belarus has allowed the stationing of Russian troops and equipment in its territory and its use as a springboard for offensives into northern Ukraine but has denied the presence of Belarusian troops in Ukraine. Even though part of the Russian invasion was launched from Belarus, Ukraine did not break off diplomatic relations with Belarus, but remain frozen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belarusian literature</span> Literature written in the Belarusian language

Belarusian literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by speakers of the Belarusian language.

The name Belarus can be literally translated as White Ruthenia.

Belarusization was a policy of protection and advancement of the Belarusian language and recruitment and promotion of Belarusian nationalists within the government of the Belarusian SSR (BSSR) and the Belarusian Communist Party, conducted by the government of the BSSR in the 1920s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belarusian nationalism</span> Belief that Belarusians should constitute an independent nation

Belarusian nationalism refers to the belief that Belarusians should constitute an independent nation. Belarusian nationalism began emerging in the mid-19th century, during the January Uprising against the Russian Empire. Belarus first declared independence in 1917 as the Belarusian Democratic Republic, but was subsequently invaded and annexed by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1918, becoming part of the Soviet Union. Belarusian nationalists both collaborated with and fought against Nazi Germany during World War II, and protested for the independence of Belarus during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russification of Belarus</span> Process of replacing Belarusian culture with Russian

The Russification of Belarus is a policy of replacing the use of the Belarusian language and the presence of Belarusian culture and mentality in various spheres of public life in Belarus by the corresponding Russian analogs. Russification is one of the major reasons of low rate of adoption of the Belarusian language by Belarusians.

Soft Belarusization or soft Belarusification is an element of the domestic policy of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko aimed at the gradual increase of the presence of Belarusian language and partial reversal of the ages of Russification of Belarus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Litvinism</span> Pseudohistorical theory according to which Belarusians founded the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Litvinism is a branch of nationalism, philosophy and political current in Belarus, which bases the history of its state on the heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and emphasizes the Baltic component of the Belarusian ethnic group. According to this branch of Belarusian nationalism, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a Slavic or Belarusian state, the medieval Lithuanians were Belarusians, and modern Lithuania is a consequence of a falsification of history. Opponents of Litvinism consider it a fringe pseudohistorical theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-red-white flag</span> Historical flag of Belarus

The white-red-white flag is a historical flag used by the Belarusian Democratic Republic in 1918 before Western Belarus was occupied by the Second Polish Republic and Eastern Belarus was occupied by Soviet Union. The flag was then used by the Belarusian national movement in Western Belarus followed by widespread unofficial use during the German occupation of Belarus between 1941 and 1944, and again after it regained its independence in 1991 until the 1995 referendum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belarus–Germany relations</span> Bilateral relations

Belarus–Germany relations are the bilateral relations between Belarus and Germany. Germany has an embassy in Minsk. Belarus has an embassy in Berlin, a consulate general in Munich, and two honorary consulates in Cottbus and Hamburg.

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  19. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-18. Retrieved 2012-08-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  20. (PDF) https://www.belstat.gov.by/upload/iblock/345/34515eeb3bb5f4ea5ca53b72290e9595.pdf.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  21. "Just a moment".
  22. (PDF) https://www.belstat.gov.by/upload/iblock/345/34515eeb3bb5f4ea5ca53b72290e9595.pdf.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)