Belarusian language

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Belarusian беларуская мова BGN/PCGN: byelaruskaya mova
Spoken in:	Belarus, Poland, in 14 other countries
Total speakers:	4 mln. (alternatively, 7 mln. or 9 mln.)
Ranking:	68
Language family:	Indo-European  Balto-Slavic   Slavic    East Slavic     Belarusian
Writing system:	Cyrillic
Official status
Official language of:	Belarus; in official use in 12 communes of the Polish region Podlasie Voivodship
Regulated by:	National Academy of Sciences of Belarus
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	be
ISO 639-2:	bel
ISO 639-3:	bel
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

The Belarusian or Belorussian language (беларуская мова, BGN/PCGN: byelaruskaya mova, Scientific: bjelaruskaja mova) is the language of the Belarusian people and is spoken in Belarus and abroad, chiefly in Russia, Ukraine, Poland^[1]. It belongs to the group of the East Slavonic languages, and shares many grammatical and lexical features with other members of the group (see also: Various names of Belarusian language and Mutual influences of East Slavonic languages).

In Belarus, the Belarusian language is declared as a "language spoken at home" by ~3.686 mln. (36.7%) of inhabitants^[2] (1999).^[3] By the less strict criteria, ~6.984 mln. (85.6%) of Belarusians declare it their "mother tongue". Other sources put down the "population of the language" as 6.715 mln in Belarus and 9,081,102 in all countries^[4][5].

The history of the development of the Belarusian language is conventionally divided into the following periods:

• Pre-Belarusian - up to the 13th cent. (details in #Proto-language), with the traditional distinction of the Old East Slavonic (proto-Russian) phase, beginning c. 7th—8th cent. (the distinction being under some scientific contention since beg. 20th cent., details in Transition to Old Belarusian).
• Old Belarusian - 13th—18th cent., delimited by the the emergence of distinctive features in phonetics and by the practical extinction of its use in the middle and upper classes of society (details in History of Old Belarusian and in Transition to Modern Belarusian; definition Old Belarusian explained in Foundations of Old Belarusian).
• Belarusian (Modern Belarusian) - since the 19th cent. (details in History of Modern Belarusian).

[edit] Phonology

The phoneme inventory of the modern Belarusian language consists of 45 (54) phonemes: 6 vowels and 39 (48)^[6] consonants.

[edit] 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. Historically, the Glagolitic script had been used, sporadically, until 11th – 12th centuries. Historically, there also existed practices of rendering of the Belarusian text in Belarusian version of Latin script and in Belarusian version of Arabic script.

Main article: Belarusian alphabet

There exist several notable systems of romanizing (transliterating) of the Belarusian text:

Main article: Romanization of Belarusian

[edit] Grammar

Belarusian grammar in its modern form was adopted in 1959, with minor amendments in 1985. It was developed from its initial form set down by Branislaw Tarashkyevich (first printed in Vilnya, 1918). Historically, there had existed several other alternative Belarusian grammars.

Main article: Belarusian grammar

[edit] Vocabulary

In terms of vocabulary, Belarusian language is sometimes considered an intermediate between the Russian and Ukrainian languages.^[7] Historically, besides the adoptions from neighbouring Russian, Polish and Ukrainian, the Belarusian language includes words adopted from: Celtic languages — "бот" (bot), "тын" (tyn); Greek language — "кадка" (kadka), "крыніца" (krynica), "кмен" (kmjen), "мак" (mak), "аладка" (aladka), "хаўтуры" (haŭtury), "чабор" (čabor); Latin language — "байструк" (bajstruk), "бульба" (bul'ba), "коляды" (koljady), "кот" (kot), "ягня" (jahnja); Gothic language — "бондар" (bondar), "бочка" (bočka), "гурок" (hurok), "кацёл" (kacjol), "крупа" (krupa), "кульгаць" (kul'hac'), "лапік" (lapik), "меч" (meč), "пасма" (pasma), "піла" (pila), "рэмень" (remjen'), "сталь" (stal'); Daco-Thracian language — "каноплі (kanopli)"; Romanian language, and others.

See also: Mutual influences of the East Slavonic languages, Swadesh list for Belarusian language.

[edit] Dialects

Besides the literary norm, there exist two main dialects of the Belarusian language, the North-Eastern and the South-Western. Besides, there exist the inter-dialect, transitional Middle Belarusian dialect group and the separate West Palyesian dialect group.

The North-Eastern and the South-Western dialects are separated by the highly conventional imaginary line Ashmyany – Minsk – Babruysk – Homyel, with the areal of the Middle Belarusian dialect group to be placed on and along this line.

The North-Eastern dialect is chiefly characterised by the «soft sounding R» (Belarusian: «мягка-э́равы») and «strong sounding AH» (Belarusian: «моцнае а́канне»), and the South-Western dialect is chiefly characterised by the «hard sounding R» (Belarusian: «цвёрда-э́равы») and «moderate sounding AH» (Belarusian: «умеранае а́канне»).

The West Palyesian dialect group is more distinct linguistically, close to Ukrainian language in many aspects, and is separated by the conventional line Pruzhany – Ivatsevichy – Tsyelyakhany – Luninyets – Stolin.

[edit] Names

Due to the course of history, there existed quite a number of various names and definitions under which the Belarusian language was known, both contemporary and historically, some of them quite dissimilar, esp. when referring to the Old Belarusian phase.

[edit] Official, romanised

• Belarusian (also used as Belarusan, Belarussian, Byelarussian) — derivative from the form of the name of the country «Belarus», officially approved for the use abroad by the Belarusian authorities (c.1992) and promoted since then.
• Byelorussian (also used as Belorussian, Bielorussian ) — derivative from the form of the name of the country «Byelorussia» (Russian: Белоруссия), used officially (in the Russian language) in the times of the USSR, and, later, in Russia.
• White Russian, White Ruthenian (and its equivalents in other languages) — literal, word-by-word translation of the parts of the composite word Belarusian.

[edit] Alternative

• Great Lithuanian (вялікалітоўская (мова)) — proposed and used by Yan Stankyevich since c.1960s, intended to part with the «diminishing tradition of having the name related to the Muscovite tradition of calling the Belarusian lands» and to pertain to the «great tradition of Belarusian statehood».

• Kryvian or Krivian (крывіцкая/крывічанская/крыўская (мова), Polish: język krewicki) — derivative from the name of the Slavonic tribe Krivichi, one of the main tribes in the foundations of the forming of the Belarusian nation. Created and used by 19th cent. Polish writers Jaroszewicz, Narbut, Rogalski, Jan Czeczot. Strongly promoted by Lastowski.

[edit] Vernacular

• Simple (простая (мова)) or local (тутэйшая (мова)) — used mainly in times, preceding the scientific, political and, following that, the common recognition of the existence of the Belarusian language, and nation in general. Supposedly, the definition still possible to meet up to the end of 1930s, e.g., in Western Belarus.

• Simple Black Ruthenian (Russian: простой чернорусский) — used in the beg. 19th cent. by Russian researcher Baranovskiy and attributed to contemporary vernacular Belarusian.^[8]

[edit] Old Belarusian

Historically, the Old Belarusian language had also been called:

[edit] In contemporary use

• Ruthenian (Old Belarusian: руски езыкъ) — by the contemporaries, but, generally, not in contemporary Muscovy.
  • (variant) Simple Ruthenian or simple talk (Old Belarusian: простый руский (язык) or простая молва) — publisher Grigoriy Khodkevich (16th cent.)
• Lithuanian (Russian: Литовский язык) — possibly, exclusive reference to it in the contemporary Muscovy. Also by Zizaniy (end 16th cent.), Pamva Byerynda (1653).

[edit] Both in contemporary and modern use

• Belarusian (language) — rarely in contemporary Muscovy. Also Kryzhanich. The denotation Belarusian (language) (Russian: белорусский (язык)) when referring both to the 19th cent. language and to the Medieval language had been used in works of the 19th cent. Russian researchers Buslayev, Ogonovskiy, Zhitetskiy, Sobolevskiy, Nedeshev, Vladimirov and had served as a basis for the Karskiy's denotation.

[edit] In modern use

• (Old) Ruthenian — modern collective name, covering both Old Belarusian and Old Ukrainian languages, prevailingly used by the 20th cent. Lithuanian, also some Polish and English researches.

• (Old) West Russian, language or dialect (Russian: (Древний) западнорусский язык, Russian: (Древнее) западнорусское наречие) — chiefly by the supporters of the concept of the Proto-Russian phase, esp. since the end of the 19th century, e.g., by Karskiy, Shakhmatov.

• Lithuanian-Russian (Russian: литовско-русский) — by 19 cent. Russian researchers Keppen, archbishop Filaret, Sakharov, Karatayev.

• Lithuanian-Slavonic (Russian: литово-славянский) — by 19 cent. Russian researcher Baranovskiy.^[9]

• Russian-Polish or even Polish dialect — Shtritter, Polish researcher Samuel Bogumił Linde, Polish writer Wisniewski. Notably, the definition had been used even when referencing to Skaryna’s translation of Bible.

Contents 1 Phonology 2 Alphabet 3 Grammar 4 Vocabulary 5 Dialects 6 Names 6.1 Official, romanised 6.2 Alternative 6.3 Vernacular 6.4 Old Belarusian 6.4.1 In contemporary use 6.4.2 Both in contemporary and modern use 6.4.3 In modern use 7 History 7.1 Proto-language 7.2 Transition to Old Belarusian 7.3 Old Belarusian 7.3.1 Foundations 7.3.2 Forming 7.3.2.1 Office language 7.3.3 1200s-1400s 7.3.4 1500s-1600s 7.3.4.1 Clerical literature 7.3.4.2 Grammars 7.3.4.3 Polonisation 7.3.5 1600s-1690s 7.3.6 1700s-1790s 7.4 Modern Belarusian 7.4.1 1900s-1910s 7.4.1.1 Grammar 7.4.2 1914-1917 7.4.3 1917-1920 7.4.4 1920-1930 7.4.4.1 Soviet Belarus 7.4.4.2 Western Belarus 7.4.5 1930s 7.4.5.1 Soviet Belarus 7.4.5.2 Western Belarus 7.4.6 1940s 7.4.7 1950s-1970s 7.4.8 1980s-2000s 8 References 9 See also 10 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Proto-language

As Belarusian is an Indo-European language, its most remote known ancestor is the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European. The breakup of PIE around 3000 BC led to various distinct dialects. Due to similarities between them, some scholars believe that the Baltic and Slavic languages are both descended from a common ancestor, a so-called Balto-Slavonic proto-language, while other scholars attribute similarities to areal convergence. The Belarusian language is along with the other Slavic languages descended from a common ancestor variously termed Proto-Slavic or Common Slavic.

[edit] Transition to Old Belarusian

There exist two main concepts of the next phase of the evolution of the Belarusian language:

• After the breakup of the Common Slavic language, a distinct Old East Slavonic language (or Proto-Russian) formed next (c. 7th–8th centuries AD), with the subsequent appearance of the (Old) Belarusian language. Some of the notable supporters of this concept: Karskiy, Shakhmatov, Vowk-Lyevanovich. The prevailing concept in Russia and USSR.
• That the (Old) Belarusian language was the direct evolvement from the Proto-Slavonic phase, with the earlier material evidences of this dated early 13th century. Some of the notable supporters of this concept: Buzuk, Nimchynaw, Yan Stankyevich. Yan Stankyevich claimed the separation of the (Old) Belarusian language had begun not later than 5th cent., claimed that Czech linguist-Indyist prof. Oldřich Hujer supported these deductions. [Stank 1939]

[edit] Old Belarusian

[edit] Foundations

The foundations of the Old Belarusian language were:

• The Proto-Slavic (alternatively, Proto-Russian) language.
• The particularities of the local Slavonic dialects (acc. to Karskiy: «the Western branch of the Middle Russian dialects»).
• The Old Church Slavonic literary tradition.
• Western and Polish influences, conducted mainly to the literary tradition.

The earliest known existing literacy artifacts, showing the distinctive features of the Old Belarusian language, the Charters of Smolensk (Belarusian: «Смаленскія граматы»), date back to 1229.

While the «Old Belarusian» (or, alternatively, «West Russian» (Karskiy)) literary language had gradually become, to an extent, artificial, still, the «Old Belarusian» vernacular language had been preserving the relative purity. The literary language had been permanently «leaning» upon the vernacular, so then, noticing the characteristic Belarusian features prevailing in the literary language had given the scientific grounds to rightfully call the Old Belarusian its name, Belarusian with the qualifier Old added to distinguish it from the modern Belarusian language (Karskiy 1893, 1903).

[edit] Forming

During the 13th–16th centuries, the phonetics and morphology of the Old Belarusian language had completed its forming, producing the specific features, distinctly absent before, e.g., the phonetics developing the «AH-ing» (Belarusian: «аканне» in the c.14th cent. and the «U shortening» in beg. 13th cent.,^[10] and the morphology developing the sporadic Old Belarusian particularities in the 14th – 15th cent. already. So, the Old Belarusian language had formed, as an entity, in the 14th – 16th cent., with the bulk of the development occurring during the 14th – 15th cent. and the pinnacle of the development reached in the 16th cent. [Karskiy 1903] The syntax and lexics, however, had continued changing, with the literary language being strongly influenced by the Polish language, since the 15th cent. and especially in the 16th–17th centuries. The vernacular language had been relatively free in that aspect, and had differed in its syntax and, especially, in its lexicon.

[edit] Office language

Of somewhat separate nature is the question of classification of the office, chancellery language and its variations. Generally, there exists a cardinal disagreement among the Slavists studying Medieval East Slavonics, whether to consider Medieval office literacy the manifestation of the appropriate literary language. In the case of Old Belarusian, Karskiy in 1900s (later, F. P. Filin in 1970s, L. M. Shakun in 1960s) had proved the sufficient extent of identity between the Old Belarusian literary language and the language of the office literacy of the GDL. However, later, various researchers (S. Kutrzeba (1914), J. Jakubowski (1912), A. Martel (1938), И. И. Лаппо (1936)) had contended the thesis of Karskiy and either played up the Church Slavonic component in the language of the office literacy of the GDL, or just moved the thesis of the office language just being Church Slavonic.

The propagation of such views is generally attributed to the insufficient knowledge of the foreign researchers of the live Belarusian language, overlap of the areals of the Medieval Church Slavonic and Old Belarusian, identical graphical systems, close relations in the grammars and lexics. [Zhur 1978]

The research of Slavist Christian Stang in 1930s had distinguished several types of the office language of the GDL:

• In the 14th – beg. 15th cent., the Southern-Volhynian, Northern-Volhynian, Polatsk-Vitsyebsk-Smalyensk types.
• By the half 15th cent. ("King Casimir period" [sic]), the Southern-Belarusian and Northern-Volhynian types, with the Belarusian type prevailing, also token presence of the Southern-Volhynian type.
• By the beg. 16th cent., the office language (and language generally) had been reaching its better stabilised, normed, form.
• By the half 16th cent., the office language had been identical with the literary Old Belarusian, and had been closely related with the Belarusian dialects of contemporary Vil’na area, and the Polatsk type merged by then. The Southern types of office language had disappeared completely. [Zhur 1978]

[edit] 1200s-1400s

In the 14th cent., the emerging Old Belarusian language had already been enjoying the wide-scale ubiquity of use in the GDL, being spoken and written from the lower classes to the nobility, non-Slavonic included, to the Grand Dukes of Lithuania themselves, from the vernacular to the state documents.^[11]

See also: Mutual influences of the Old Belarusian and Ukrainian languages.

[edit] 1500s-1600s

In the 15th – 16th cent., and partially in the 17th cent., the Old Belarusian in the GDL had been the prevalent language of the state, diplomatic, business and private letters, the documents of the town, land, castle offices, town halls, magistrates, magdeburgies, the inventories and revisions of the estates, the indexes of the armed forces, even in the ethnic Lithuanian lands of the GDL. [Zhur 1993] The major part of the documents of the Lithuanian Metrica of the 15th – 16th cent. had been composed in Old Belarusian (see also: Lithuanian Metrica#Languages). The Royal Chancelleries of Krakow and Warsaw had been composing the official correspondence to the GDL in Old Belarusian. [Zhur 1993] The Codes of Law of the GDL had been written in the Old Belarusian. The Old Belarusian language had been highly esteemed abroad, too.

The Old Belarusian became the 3rd Slavonic language, after the Czech and Polish, in which the printing had begun. The first book in Old Belarusian had been printed by Skaryna in Prague (1517). Later in the 16th cent., the center of the printing activity done in the Old Belarusian had moved to the Vil’na.

The Old Belarusian had been the language of the belletristics, publicistics, memoirs, religious polemics, hamiletics, agiography etc. The Old Belarusian had seen the translations of the Western knight novels, historical chronicles and apocryphal works. [Zhur 1993]

[edit] Clerical literature

The trend of including the Old Belarusian language features into the Old Church Slavonic (clerical) texts is dating back to at least the end 15th cent., e.g., in the «Chetya», copied by Byarozka of Navahradak (1489). [AniZhur 1988]

Skaryna, while retaining the (Old) Church Slavonic basis in the language of his books, had introduced so much of the Old Belarusian lexics, that the language of his books had diverted considerably from the traditional (Old) Church Slavonic. [Karskiy 1893]

Further steps in the closing of the gap between the language of the religious literature and the vernacular had been attempted by Budny and Tsyapinski.

Summarily, in the 16th – beginning of the 17th cent., the Old Belarusian had, to a great extent, become the language of the liturgical literature printed in the GDL, in place of the Old Church Slavonic. [Karskiy 1903]

[edit] Grammars

In the 2nd half 16th – 1st half 17th cent., several attempts of codification of the Old Belarusian language were made. The most notable of them were grammar and elementary reading by Ivan Fyodorov (1574, 1578), grammar by Lavrentiy Zizaniy (1596) and grammar by Ivan Uzhevich (1645). [Yask 2001]

[edit] Polonisation

Since the end 14th cent., the wide-scale Polish and Catholic political, cultural and religious expansion into the East Slavonic lands had begun in the end 14th cent. The noticeable Polonisation, primarily of the GDL nobility, had been effected by the mid. 15th cent., already.^[13]

Initially, and up into the beg. 17th cent., there had existed significant political opposition to the expansion. Among some of its successes had been the amending the Code of Law (Statute) of 1566 with the clause, declaring the Ruthenian language (contemporary name) as the only allowed language of the office in the GDL. The clause had been maintained in the Code of Law of 1588, and even in its re-publication in Polish language (1614). See also: Golden age of Belarusian history.

The general decline of the Old Belarusian culture in the GDL in favour of Polish had been progressing, though, despite being decried and lamented by various publicists, like, e.g., by Tsyapinski in the foreword to his «Scriptures» (1570) The events had taken the especially unfavourable turn in the 1570s, with the beginning and progressing of the Counter-Reformation in Commonwealth, as the Orthodox and Protestants had constituted the major part of the Old Belarusian language userbase. The Commonwealth Inquisition’s «Index of Books Forbidden» (issued since 1603) had included many of the Old Belarusian and Lithuanian publications. [Halyen 1988]

[edit] 1600s-1690s

As more and more of the upper and, following them, middle classes had been embracing the Polonisation, the effective usage of the Old Belarusian had been dwindling. By the half the 17th cent., the only significant amount of printing in the Old Belarusian was done by Orthodox church. However, even the language of the Orthodox-written texts, in a pursuit of «attractiveness» had been by then heavily infested with Polonisms, diverting considerably not only from the vernacular language, but from the earlier Old Belarusian literary tradition as well. Notably, since 1626 all of the anti-Greek-Catholic Orthodox polemic had been published completely in Polish language.

By the 2nd quarter 17th cent., the Old Belarusian (literary) language had effectively incorporated the multitude of the Polish language’s elements, and therefore had become highly artificial and partially just unfit for the real live use, losing the connection with its live vernacular foundations. The literary language of the epoch, especially after the transfer of the center of the Orthodox printing to Kiev (c.1610s), could not even be considered truly Old Belarusian anymore. [Karskiy 1903]

In 1696, the General Confederation of Estates had decreed the cancellation of the use of the Old Belarusian language in the role of the language of office and court.

[edit] 1700s-1790s

The Belarusian language hadn't seen much development in the 18th cent. The printing in the Belarusian had been all but extinct. In 1787, however, two interesting publications had happened, which, while belonging to the small genre of the clerical school dramaturgy, may be viewed as a first approaches to form the modern Belarusian language.

[edit] Modern Belarusian

The end 18th cent. (times of the Divisions of Commonwealth) is the usual conventional borderline between the Old Belarusian language and Modern Belarusian language stages.

By the end 18th cent., the (Old) Belarusian language still enjoyed some popularity among the smaller nobility in the GDL. Jan Czeczot in 1840s had mentioned that even his generation’s grandfathers preferred speaking (Old) Belarusian.^[14] (According to A. N. Pypin, the Belarusian language was still being spoken here and there among the smaller nobility during the 19th cent.^[15]) The Belarusian, in its vernacular form, was the language of the smaller town dwellers and of the peasantry. It had been the language of the oral forms of the folk lore. The teaching in Belarusian was conducted mainly in the schools run by the Basilians order.

The development of the Belarusian language in the 19th cent. was strongly influenced by the major political conflict taking place on the territories of the former GDL, between the Russian Empire authorities, trying to consolidate their rule over the "joined provinces" and the Polish and Polonised nobility, trying to bring back its pre-Divisions rule^[16] (see also: Polonization in times of Partitions).

One of the important manifestations of this conflict was the struggle for the ideological control over the educational system. The Polish and Russian language were being introduced and re-introduced in it, while the general state of the people's education remained appaling until the very end of the Russian Empire^[17].

Summarily, the 1800s–1820s had seen the unprecedented prosperity of the Polish culture and language in the former GDL lands, had prepared the era of such famous «Belarusians by birth – Poles by choice», as Mickiewicz and Syrokomla. The era had seen the effective completion of the Polonisation of the smallest nobility, the further reduction of the areal of use of the contemporary Belarusian language, and the effective folklorisation of the Belarusian culture^[18].

Due both to the state of the people's education and to the strong positions of Polish and Polonised nobility, it was only since the 1880s–1890s, that the educated Belarusian element, still shunned because of "peasant origin", began to appear in the state offices^[19].

In 1846, ethnographer Shpilevskiy prepared the Belarusian grammar (using Cyrillic alphabet) on the basis of the folk dialects of the Minsk region. However, the Russian Academy of Sciences refused to print his submission, on the basis that it had not been prepared in a sufficiently scientific manner.

Since mid.1830s, the ethnographical works began to appear, the tentative attempts of study of language were uptaken (e.g., Belarusian grammar by Shpilevskiy). The Belarusian literature tradition began to re-form, basing on the folk language, initiated by the works of Vintsent Dunin-Martsinkyevich. See also: Jan Czeczot, Jan Borszczewski.^[20]

In beg. 1860s, both Russian and Polish parties in Belarusian lands had begun to realise the that the decisive role in the upcoming conflicts was shifting to the peasantry, overwhelmingly Belarusian. So, quite an amount of propaganda appeared, targeted at peasantry and prepared in Belarusian language.^[21] Notably, the anti-Russian, anti-Tsarist, anti-Orthodox "Manifest" and newspaper "Peasants' Truth" (1862 – 1863) by Kalinowski, the anti-Polish, anti-Revolutionary, pro-Orthodox booklets and poems (1862).^[22]

The advent of the all-Russian "narodniki" and Belarusian national movements (end 1870s – beg. 1880s) renewed the interest in Belarusian language (see also: Homan (1884), Bahushevich, Yefim Karskiy, Dovnar-Zapol'skiy, Bessonov, Pypin, Sheyn, Nosovich). The Belarusian literary tradition was renewed, too ((see also: F. Bahushevich). It was in these times that F. Bahushevich made his famous appeal to Belarusians: «Do not forsake our language, lest you pass away» (Belarusian: «Не пакідайце ж мовы нашай, каб не ўмёрлі»).

In course of the 1897 Russian Empire Census, about 5,89 mln. people declared themselves speakers of Belarusian language.

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-conscience and identity, as it clearly showed to the Imperial authorities, and the still strong Polish minority that the population and the language was neither Polish nor Russian.

[edit] 1900s-1910s

The rising influence of the Socialist ideas advanced the process of emancipating of the Belarusian language still further (see also: Belarusian Socialist Circle, Circle of Belarusian People's Education and Belarusian Culture, Belarusian Socialist Lot, Socialist Party "White Russia", Tsyotka, Nasha Dolya). The fundamental works of Yefim Karskiy marked a turning point in the scientifical perception of Belarusian language. The ban on the publishing in Belarusian was officially raised (1904-12-25). The unprecedented surge of the national feeling, especially among the workers and peasants, coming in the 1900s, esp. after the events of 1905,^[23] gave momentum to the intensive development of the Belarusian literature and press (see also: Nasha niva (1906), Yanka Kupala, Yakub Kolas).

[edit] Grammar

During the 19th - beg. 20th cent., there was no normative Belarusian grammar. Authors wrote as they saw fit, usually representing the particularities of different Belarusian dialects. The scientific groundwork for the introduction of a truly scientific and modern grammar of the Belarusian language was laid down by linguist Yefim Karskiy.

By the beg. 1910s, the continuing lack of a codified Belarusian grammar was becoming intolerably obstructive. Then Russian academician Shakhmatov, chair of the Russian language and literature department of St. Petersburg University, approached the board of the Belarusian newspaper "Nasha niva" with such a proposal, that the Belarusian linguist would be trained under his supervision in order to be able to prepare the grammar. Initially, famous Belarusian poet Maksim Bahdanovich was to be entrusted with this work. However, Bahdanovich's poor health (tuberculosis) precluded his living in the climate of St. Petersburg. So, Branislaw Tarashkyevich, a fresh graduate of the Vilnya Liceum No.2, was selected for the task.

In the Belarusian community, great interest was vested in this enterprise. The already famous then Belarusian poet Yanka Kupala, in his letter to Tarashkyevich, urged him to "hurry with his much-needed work". Tarashkyevich had been working on the preparation of the grammar during 1912–1917, with help and supervision of academicians Shakhmatov and Karski. Tarashkyevich had completed the work by the Fall 1917, even having to go from the tumultuous Petrograd of 1917 to relatively calm Finland in order to be able to complete it uninterrupted.

By Summer 1918, it became obvious, that there were insurmountable problems with the printing of Tarashkyevich's grammar in Petrograd — a lack of paper, type and qualified personnel. Meanwhile, Tarashkyevich's grammar had apparently been slated for adoption in the workers' and peasants' schools of Belarus that were to be set up. So, Tarashkyevich was permitted to print his book abroad. In June 1918, Tarashkyevich arrived in Vil'nya, via Finland. The Belarusian Committee petitioned for the administration to allow the book to be printed. Finally, the 1st edition of the «Belarusian grammar for schools» was printed (Vil'nya, 1918).

There existed at least two other contemporary attempts at codification of the Belarusian grammar. In 1915, rev. Balyaslaw Pachopka had prepared a Belarusian grammar using the Latin script. Belarusian linguist S. M. Nyekrashevich considered B. Pachopka's grammar unscientific and ignorant of the principles of the Belarusian language. In 1918, for an unspecified period, the B. Pachopka's grammar was reportedly taught in an unidentified number of schools. Another grammar was, supposedly, jointly prepared by A. Lutskyevich and Ya. Stankyevich, and differed from Tarashkyevich's grammar somewhat in resolution of some key aspects.

[edit] 1914-1917

On 1915-12-22, Hindenburg issued an order on schooling in German Army occupied territories (of contemp. Russian Empire), banning the schooling in Russian and including the Belarusian language in the exclusive list of the four languages being mandatory in the respective native schooling systems (Belarusian, Lithuanian, Polish, Yiddish). The attending to school wasn't made mandatory, though. The passports in these lands were being issued bi-lingual, in German and in one of the "native languages". [Turonek 1989] The certain numbers of the Belarusian preparatory schools, printing houses, press organs were opened (see also: Homan (1916)).

[edit] 1917-1920

After the 1917 February Revolution in Russia, the Belarusian language became an unprecedentingly important factor in the political activities in the Belarusian lands (see also: Central Council of Belarusian Organisations, Great Belarusian Council, I All-Belarusian Congress, Belnatskom). In the Belarusian People's Republic, the Belarusian was used as its only official language (decreed by Belarusian People's Secretariat, 1918-04-28). In the Belarusian SSR, the Belarusian was decreed to be one of the four (Belarusian, Polish, Russian, Yiddish) official languages (decreed by Central Executive Committee of BSSR, February 1921).

[edit] 1920-1930

[edit] Soviet Belarus

In BSSR, the Tarashkyevich’s grammar had been officially accepted for use in state schooling after its re-publishing in the unchanged form by Yazep Lyosik under the name «Ya. Lyosik. Practical grammar. P[art]. I» (1922). This grammar had been re-published once again, unchanged, by the Belarusian State Publishing House under the name «Ya. Lyosik. Belarusian language. Grammar. Ed. I. 1923» (1923).

In 1925, Yazep Lyosik introduced two new chapters to the grammar, addressing the orthography of combined words and partly modifying the orthography of assimilated words. Hence, the Belarusian grammar had been popularised and taught in the educational system in that form.

The ambiguousness and insufficient development of several components of Tarashkyevich’s grammar had been the cause of some problems in practical mass usage and stirred a certain discontent with the grammar.

In 1924 – 1925, Yazep Lyosik and Anton Lyosik prepared and published their project of the reform of the orthography, proposing the radical change in the principle of «AH-ing» (Belarusian: а́канне) and introducing the fully phonetical orthography.

The Belarusian Academic Conference on Reform of the Orthography and Alphabet (1926) had been called, and after discussions on the project the Conference had made resolutions on some of the problems. However, as the project of Lyosik brothers hadn’t been addressing all of the problematic issues, so the Conference hadn’t been able to address all of those, either.

As the outcome of the conference, the Orthographical Commission created to prepare the project of the actual reform was formed on 1927-10-01, headed by S. Nyekrashevich, with the following principal guidelines of its work adopted:

• To consider the resolutions of the Belarusian Academical Conference (1926) non-mandatory, although highly competent material.
• To simplify Tarashkyevich’s grammar where it was ambiguous or difficult in use, to amend it where it was insufficiently developed (e.g., orthography of the assimilated words), and to create new rules if absent (orthography of the proper names and geographical names).

During its work in 1927-12-7 – 1929-4-7, the Commission had actually prepared the project of the reform of the orthography. The resulting project had included both completely new rules and existing rules in unchanged and changed forms, with those changed being, variously, the outcome of the work of the Commission itself, or the resolutions of Belarusian Academical Conference (1926), re-approved by the Commission.

Notably, the use of the Ь (soft sign) before the combinations «consonant+iotified vowel» («softened consonants»), which had been denounced as highly redundant before (e.g., in the proceedings of the Belarusian Academic Conference (1926)), had been cancelled. However, the complete resolvement of the highly important issue of the orthography of the un-stressed Е (IE) had not been achieved.

It is worth noticing, that both the resolutions of the Belarusian Academic Conference (1926) and the project of the Orthographical Commission (1930) caused much disagreement in the Belrusian academic environment. Several elements of the project were to be put under appeal in the «higher (political?) bodies of power».

[edit] Western Belarus

In Western Belarus, under Polish rule, the Belarusian language was at a disadvantage. Schooling in the Belarusian language was obstructed, and printing in Belarusian experienced political oppression.

The prestige of the Belarusian language in the Western Belarus of the period hinged significantly on the image of the BSSR being the "true Belarusian home".^[24] This image, however, was strongly disrupted by the "purges" of "national-democrats" in BSSR (1929 – 1930) and by the following grammar reform (1933).

Tarashkyevich's grammar was re-published five times in Western Belarus. However, the 5^th edition (1929)^[25] was the version diverting from the previously published, which Tarashkyevich had prepared disregarding the Belarusian Academic Conference (1926) resolutions.^[26]

[edit] 1930s

[edit] Soviet Belarus

See also: Political events in USSR in 1929-1930.

In 1929 – 1930, the Communist authorities of the Soviet Belarus had brought out the drastic crackdowns against the supposed «national-democratic counter-revolution» (inf. «nats-dems» (Belarusian: нац-дэмы)). Effectively, the entire generations of the Socialist Belarusian national activists of the 1st quarter of the 20th cent. had been wiped out from the political, scientifical, in fact, from any real social existence. Only the most famous, cult figures, like, e.g., Yanka Kupala, had been spared.

However, the new power group in the Belarusian science had quickly formed, or, possibly, had emerged after the power shifts, under the virtual leadership of the Head of the Philosophy Institute of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences, academician S. Ya. Vol’fson (Belarusian: С. Я. Вольфсон). The book published under his editorship «Science in service of nats-dems’ counter-revolution» (1931), represented the new spirit of the political life in Soviet Belarus.

The Reform of Belarusian Grammar (1933) had been brought out quite unexpectedly, supposedly, [Stank 1936] with the project published in the central newspaper of the Belarusian Communist Party «Zvyazda» on 1933-06-28 and the decree of the Council of People’s Commissaries (Council of Ministers) of BSSR issued on 1933-08-28, to gain the status of law on 1933-09-16.

There had been some post-factum speculations, too, that the 1930 project of the reform (as prepared by the people no longer politically «clean»), had been given for the «purification» to the «nats-dems» competition in the Academy of Sciences, which would explain the «block» nature of the differences between the 1930 and 1933 versions. Peculiarly, Yan Stankyevich in his notable critique of the reform [Stank 1936] didn’t mention the project prepared by 1930, dating the project of the reform to 1932.

The officially announced causes for the reform were:

• The pre-1933 grammar was maintaining artificial barriers between the Russian and Belarusian languages.
• The reform was to cancel the influences of the Polonisation corrupting the Belarusian language.
• The reform was to remove the archaisms, neologisms and vulgarisms, supposedly introduced by the «national-democrats».
• The reform was to simplify the grammar of the Belarusian language.

The reform had been accompanied by the fervent press campaign directed against the «nats-dems not yet giving up».

The decree had been named «On changing and simplifying of the Belarusian orthography» (Belarusian: «Аб зменах і спрашчэнні беларускага правапісу»), but the bulk of the changes had been introduced into the grammar. Yan Stankyevich in his critique of the reform talked about 25 changes, with 1 of them being strictly orthographical, and 24 relating to both orthography and grammar. [Stank 1936]

It is worth noticing, that many of the changes in the orthography proper («stronger principle of AH-ing», «no redundant soft sign», «uniform ’’nye’’ and ’’byez’’») had been, in fact, just implementations of the earlier propositions of the by then repressed persons (e.g., Yazep Lyosik, Lastowski, Nyekrashevich, 1930 project). [BAC 1926][Nyekr 1930][Padluzhny 2004]

The morphological principle in the orthography had been strengthened, which also had been proposed in 1920s. [BAC 1926]

The «removal of the influences of the Polonisation» had been represented, effectively, by the:

• Reducing the use of the «consonant+non-iotified vowel» in assimilated Latinisms in favour of «consonant+iotified vowel», leaving only «Д», «Т», «Р» unexceptionally «hard».
• Changing the method of representation of the sound «L» in the Latinisms to another variant of the Belarusian sound «Л» (of 4 variants existing), rendered with succeeding non-iotified vowels instead of iotified.
• Introducing the new preferences of use of the letters «Ф» over «Т» for «fita», and «В» over «Б» for «beta», in Hellenisms. [Stank 1936]

The «removing of the artificial barriers between the Russian and Belarusian languages» (virtually the often-quoted «Russification of the Belarusian language», which may well occur to be the term coined by Yan Stankyevich) had, indeed, moved the normative Belarusian morphology and syntax closer to their Russian counterparts, often removing from the use the indigenous features of the Belarusian language. [Stank 1936]

Peculiarly, some components of the reform had moved the Belarusian grammar to the grammars of other Slavonic languages, which would hardly be its goal. [Stank 1936]

[edit] Western Belarus

In Western Belarus, there had been some voices raised against the reform, chiefly by the non-Communist/non-Socialist wing of the Belarusian national scena. Yan Stankyevich named Belarusian Scientific Society, Belarusian National Committee, Society of the friends of Belarusian linguistics in the Wilno University. [Stank 1936] Certain political and scientifical groups and figures went on with using the pre-reform orthography and grammar, however, in succeedingly multiplying and differing versions.

However, the reformed grammar and orthography had been used, too, e.g., during the process of S. Prytytski (1936).

[edit] 1940s

[edit] 1950s-1970s

In 1949 – 1957, the discussion on problems of the Belarusian orthography had been hold. On 1957-05-11, the Council of Ministers of BSSR had approved the project of the Commission on Orthography «On making more precise and on partially changing the acting rules of Belarusian orthography» (Belarusian: «Аб удакладненні і частковых зменах існуючага беларускага правапісу»). The project had served as a basis for the normative «Rules of the Belarusian orthography and punctuation» (Belarusian: «Правілы беларускай арфаграфіі і пунктуацыі»), published in 1959. The 1959 reform had partly amended the drastic changes of the 1933 reform, still getting its share of general anti-Russification critique. [Sstank 1962]

In 2006, the 1959 revision is still the normative Belarusian orthography.

The BSSR counterpart of the USSR law «On strengthening of ties of school with real life and on further development of the popular education in USSR» (1958), adopted in 1959, along with introduction of the mandatory 8-year school education, made it possible for the parents of pupils to opt for non-mandatory studying of the «second language of teaching», which would be Belarusian in Russian language school and vice versa. However, e.g., in 1955/1956 schooling year there had been 95% of schools with Russian as the primary language of teaching, and 5% with Belarusian as the primary language of teaching. [Sstank 1962]

The poor state of the teaching in the Belarusian language, the low numbers of Belarusian books printed had been causing the concerns of the civically active part of the society. In 1957 – 1961, those concerns had been numerously voiced in the BSSR press, notably by then young writer Barys Sachanka.

[edit] 1980s-2000s

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 Belarusianization 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 Lukashenko 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 (Беласток 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. The Belarusian Association of Students periodically organizes the Belarusian rock festival Basovishcha, and Radio Ratsya broadcasts in Belarusian.

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[edit] References

[edit] See also

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

[edit] External links

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

Slavic languages and dialects
East Slavic	Belarusian | Old East Slavic† | Old Novgorod dialect† | Russian | Rusyn (Carpathians) | Ruthenian† | Ukrainian
West Slavic	Czech | Kashubian | Knaanic† | Lower Sorbian | Pannonian Rusyn | Polabian† | Polish | Pomeranian† | Slovak | Slovincian† | Upper Sorbian
South Slavic	Banat Bulgarian | Bulgarian | Church Slavic | Macedonian | Old Church Slavonic† | Serbo-Croatian (Bosnian, Bunjevac, Croatian, Montenegrin, Serbian, Šokac) | Slavic (Greece) | Slovenian
Other	Proto-Slavic† | Russenorsk† | Slavoserbian† | Slovio
	†Extinct