Belarus's two official languages are Russian and Belarusian; Russian is the most common language used at home, used by 70% of the population, while Belarusian, the official first language, is spoken at home by 23%. Minorities also speak Polish, Ukrainian and Eastern Yiddish. Belarusian, although not as widely used as Russian, is the mother tongue of 53.2% of the population, whereas Russian is the mother tongue of only 41.5%.
Languages
Belarus
Belarus | Languages
Russian and Belarusian Russian and Belarusian;Minorities also speak Polish, Ukrainian and Eastern Yiddish Russian and Belarusian Russian and Belarusian
what is 'my belarusy'?
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It is the national anthem of Belarus.
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who composed it?
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Sakalowski
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when was it adopted?
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1955
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can you extract any one line from this?
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Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
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in which continent does that country belong to?
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Europe
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what is the capital of that country?
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Minsk
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what languages are spoken in that country?
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Belarusian and Russian are the official languages according to the Constitution of Belarus (Article 17). The constitution guarantees preservation of the cultural heritage of all ethnic minorities, including their languages (Article 15). Russian, and not Belarusian, is the dominant language in Belarus, spoken normally at home by 70% of the population (2009 census), and major cities such as Minsk and Brest are overwhelmingly Russian-speaking.
Demographics of Belarus | Languages
Belarus's two official languages are Russian and Belarusian; Russian is the most common language used at home, used by 70% of the population, while Belarusian, the official first language, is spoken at home by 23%. Minorities also speak Polish, Ukrainian and Eastern Yiddish. Belarusian, although not as widely used as Russian, is the mother tongue of 53.2% of the population, whereas Russian is the mother tongue of only 41.5%.
Belarus | Languages
Belarusian (; ) is an East Slavic language spoken by Belarusians. It is one of the two official languages in the Republic of Belarus under the current Constitution (Article 17), along with Russian. It is additionally spoken in parts of Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Ukraine by Belarusian minorities in those countries. Before Belarus gained independence in 1991, the language was only known in English as "Byelorussian" or "Belorussian", the compound term retaining the English-language name for the Russian language in its second part, or alternatively as "White Ruthenian" () or "White Russian". Following independence, it has acquired the additional name, "Belarusian", in English.
Belarusian language | Introduction
Throughout its history Minsk has been a city of many languages. Initially most of its residents spoke Ruthenian (which later developed into modern Belarusian). However, after 1569 the official language was Polish. In the 19th-century Russian became the official language and by the end of that century it had become the language of administration, schools and newspapers. The Belarusian national revival increased interest in the Belarusian language – its use has grown since the 1890s, especially among the intelligentsia. In the 1920s and early 1930s Belarusian was the major language of Minsk, including use for administration and education (both secondary and tertiary).
Minsk | Languages
However, since the late 1930s Russian again began gaining dominance. A short period of Belarusian national revival in the early 1990s saw a rise in the numbers of Belarusian speakers. However, in 1994 the newly elected president Alexander Lukashenko slowly reversed this trend. Most residents of Minsk now use Russian exclusively in their everyday lives at home and at work, although Belarusian is understood as well. Substantial numbers of recent migrants from the rural areas use Trasyanka (a Russo-Belarusian mixed language) in their everyday lives. The most commonly used and understood foreign language in Minsk, especially among the younger generation, is English.
Minsk | Languages
The official languages of Belarus are equally Belarusian and Russian. The language situation in Belarus is characterized by a co-existence of several linguistic codes. The two most widespread codes are Belarusian, Russian and the so-called trasianka, a mixed speech in which Belarusian and Russian elements and structures alternate arbitrarily.
Languages of Belarus | Introduction
This was reinforced by some disrespectful statements Lukashenko made about the Belarusian language. 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. 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.
Languages of Belarus | Development since the collapse of the Soviet Union
Belarusian and Russian have official status in the Republic of Belarus.
Official language | Belarus
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.
Languages of Belarus | Development since the collapse of the Soviet Union
The two official languages in Belarus are Belarusian and Russian. Russian is the most spoken language, principally by 72% of the population, while Belarusian is only used by 11.9% in everyday life. According to a study, in varying degrees, the vast majority of residents speak the Belarusian language: 29.4% are fluent, being able read and write it, 52.5% can speak and read the language, 8.3% can understand it but can't speak or read it, while a further 7% are able to understand the parts of Belarusian language that are similar to Russian. Belarusian is a language of the East Slavic group.
Belarusians | Languages
In Belarus, Russian is co-official alongside Belarusian per the Constitution of Belarus. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 3,243,000 native speakers of Russian in the country and 8 million active speakers; 77% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 67% used it as the main language with family or friends or at work. Initially, when Belarus became independent in 1991 and the Belarusian language became the only state language, some de-Russification began. However, after Alexander Lukashenko became president, a referendum held in 1995, which was considered fraudulent by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, included a question about the status of Russian.
Geographical distribution of Russian speakers | Belarus
In 1995, according to the results of the 1995 Belarusian Referendum, the Russian language was declared the second official language. According to the Belarus Census (2009), 41.5% of the Belarusian population declared Russian as their mother language and 70.2% declared Russian "the language spoken at home" (the second language-related question of the Census).
Russian language in Belarus | After 1995
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.
Languages of Belarus | History
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. 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. As language(s) of their first socialization, around 50% of Belarusians named trasianka, 42% Russian and 18% Belarusian.
Languages of Belarus | Development since the collapse of the Soviet Union
The Russian language in Belarus is one of the two official languages (the other being Belarusian). Being dominant in the media, education and other areas of public life, Russian is "de facto" the main language of the country.
Russian language in Belarus | Introduction
It was made a state language, along with Belarusian. In most spheres, the Russian language is by far the dominant one. In fact, almost all government information and websites are in Russian only.
Geographical distribution of Russian speakers | Belarus
Belarus (; ; ), officially the Republic of Belarus (; ) and formerly known as Byelorussia or Belorussia (), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Over 40% of its is forested. Its major economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing. Until the 20th century, different states at various times controlled the lands of modern-day Belarus, including Kievan Rus', the Principality of Polotsk (11th to 14th centuries), the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire.
Belarus | Introduction
Thousands of Poles settled in the area following the peace treaty. In the elections of November 1922, a Belarusian party (in the "Blok Mniejszości Narodowych" coalition) obtained 14 seats in the Polish parliament (11 of them in the lower chamber, Sejm). In 1923, a new regulation was passed allowing for the Belarusian language to be used officially both in courts and in schools. Obligatory teaching of the Belarusian language was introduced in all Polish gymnasia in areas inhabited by Belarusians in 1927. Across the border, in the Belarusian SSR, Minsk was home to Polish community organizations and a Polish-speaking national theatre of Belarus.
Poles in Belarus | History
In Belarus, Russian is far more common than Belarusian, and Section 17 of the Constitution designates both as official languages.
Official multilingualism | Belarus
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. 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.
Languages of Belarus | Development since the collapse of the Soviet Union
The creation of the 1994 Constitution declared Belarusian to be the sole official language, though Russian was given the status as "language of inter-ethnic communication". However, the implementation of the 1992–94 "Law on Languages" took place in such a way that it provoked public protests and was dubbed "Landslide Belarusization" and "undemocratic" by those opposing it in 1992–94. In a controversial referendum held on 14 May 1995 the Belarusian language lost its exclusive status as the only state language. State support for Belarusian language and culture in general has dwindled since then, and Russian is dominant in everyday life in today's Belarus.
Belarusian language | Post-1991
In Belarus there is "Beltelecom" (Belarus Telecommunication) and Belsat (Belarus Satellite).
Abbreviation | Languages other than English
Despite the withdrawal of Belarus from the USSR proclaimed in 1991, use of the Belarusian language is declining. According to a study done by the Belarusian government in 2009, 72% of Belarusians speak Russian at home, and Belarusian is used by only 11.9% of Belarusians. 52.5% of Belarusians can speak and read Belarusian. Only 29.4% can speak, read and write it. According to the research, one out of ten Belarusians does not understand Belarusian.
Language shift | Belarus
This language emerged as a Koiné language from vernaculars bordering the administrative centers of the Grand Duchy. 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. 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.
Languages of Belarus | History
An example is the Russification of education process in Belarus. In the 1994-1995 academic year, 58% of scholars in the first classes of elementary school were taught in the Belarusian language (Minsk city). After gaining to power of Lukashenka in 1994, the number of these classes was purposefully decreased. As the result, only 5.3% of scholars in the first classes of elementary school were taught in the Belarusian language in Minsk in 1999. In academic year 2016-2017 near 128,000 scholars were taught in Belarusian language (13.3% of total). The vast majority of Belarusian-language schools located in rural areas that are gradually closed through the exodus of its population to the cities.
Russification of Belarus | Education
After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Belarusization came into full effect, with Belarusian becoming the only state language, and children started receiving education in Belarusian. However, after the accession to power of Aleksandr Lukashenko, in 1995 a referendum was held on Russian language, most people voting for Russian to become the second state language in Belarus. After a while, the use of Belarusian has dwindled, and in today's Belarus, Russian is dominant in everyday life.
Belarusization | Post-Soviet era
After the 1917 February Revolution in Russia, the Belarusian language became an important factor in political activities in the Belarusian lands ("see also:" Central Council of Belarusian Organisations, Great Belarusian Council, First All-Belarusian Congress, Belnatskom). In the Belarusian People's Republic, Belarusian was used as the only official language (decreed by Belarusian People's Secretariat on 28 April 1918). Subsequently, in the Belarusian SSR, Belarusian was decreed to be one of the four (Belarusian, Polish, Russian, and Yiddish) official languages (decreed by Central Executive Committee of BSSR in February 1921).
Belarusian language | 1917–1920
Under the regime of the authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko, members of the Belarusian speaking minority in Belarus complained about discrimination against the Belarusian language in Belarus. Despite a formally equal status of Russian and Belarusian, Russian is primarily used by the Belarusian government, and cases of discrimination against the Belarusian language are not rare, even though the discrimination is not institutionalized. Authorities occasionally make minor concessions to demands for a widening of the usage of the Belarusian language. Organisations promoting Belarusian language such as the Frantsishak Skaryna Belarusian Language Society were reported as being the object of attacks by Belarus-based Russian neo-Nazi groups in the 1990s and 2000s.
Belarusian language | Discrimination against Belarusian speakers
This page lists some names of places in Belarus, as they are called in Belarusian and in other languages spoken by ethnic groups which are or have been represented within Belarusian territory.
Names of Belarusian places in other languages | Introduction
According to the latest census of 2009, around 53% of the population of Belarus consider the Belarusian language to be their mother tongue, however, only about 23% of the respondents say they speak it at home. The language is labelled as vulnerable by UNESCO, which is reflected on its Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. Being brought up in a predominantly Russian linguistic environment, many Belarusian people still experience linguistic interference when they try to speak Belarusian and find it difficult to switch to this language and achieve fluency in an everyday conversation. One of the common reasons that impedes wider adoption of Belarusian beyond the passive utilization in reading and listening is said to be lack of confidence about the level of proficiency that in fluent speech often results in a mixture of both Russian and Belarusian.
Mova Nanova | Premise for emergence
In the 2010s the situation of Belarusian has started to change slightly due to the efforts of language-advocacy institutions, of individual representatives of such educational, cultural, scientific and linguistic organizations as the Frantsishak Skaryna Belarusian Language Society, the Belarus Academy of Sciences, the Belarusian Writers' Union, and in response to the endeavours of pro-Belarusian public figures from the media and communication field, musicians, philosophers, entrepreneurs and benefactors. And despite the language losing its exclusive position in the wake of the 1995 Belarusian referendum, new signs of the spread of Belarusian have appeared, trickling down into Belarusian society — with advertising campaigns supporting the cause (outdoor billboards promoting and acquainting people with the Belarusian language, branding campaigns for the leading telecommunication providers like Velcom, etc.), the simplified version of the Belarusian Latin alphabet on the metro map being introduced into the messages of the transport network, dedicated advertising festivals like AD!NAK upholding marketing communication in Belarusian, and informal language-courses (such as Mova Nanova, Mova ci kava, Movavedy) having sprung up in Minsk and around Belarus and spurring further interest of people, especially of young people, in developing good Belarusian communication skills in everyday life.
Belarusian language | 2010s
The process of government support for "Belarusization" began even before the breakup of the Soviet Union, with the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR passing a law on languages in 1990 that aimed for the gradual increase in prestige and general use of the Belarusian language over the next 10 years, followed by the creation that same year of a National Language Program to support this endeavor. After Belarus became independent in 1991, support for the cause of the Belarusian language gained prestige and popular interest, with the post-Soviet Belarusian government the continued creation of policies to actively promote the use of the Belarusian language, especially in education.
Belarusian language | Post-1991
On 22 December 1915, Paul von Hindenburg issued an order on schooling in German Army-occupied territories in the Russian Empire (Ober Ost), banning schooling in Russian and including the Belarusian language in an exclusive list of four languages made mandatory in the respective native schooling systems (Belarusian, Lithuanian, Polish, Yiddish). School attendance was not made mandatory, though. Passports at this time were bilingual, in German and in one of the "native languages". Also at this time, Belarusian preparatory schools, printing houses, press organs were opened ("see also:" Homan (1916)).
Belarusian language | 1914–1917
The Summer University in Minsk, founded in 2011 by the universities of Paris Nanterre, Potsdam and the Belarusian State University, is devoted to topics of general European relevance, such as “alternative dispute resolution”, “new information and communication technologies”, environmental issues and other current issues. As in the EU, in the post-Soviet "Community of Independent States" (CIS) the tendency towards regional integration goes hand in hand with the attempt to harmonize national legal systems. Belarus is part of the "Russian-Belarusian Union" and a member of the (2014 contractually agreed) "Eurasian Economic Union".
Franco-German Summer and Winter Universities with third countries in Law Studies (The Nanterre Network) | Belarus
Some of the Jews spoke Russian as their native tongue; others spoke Yiddish.
Belarusian People's Republic | Territory
According to A. N. Pypin, the Belarusian language was spoken in some areas among the minor nobility during the 19th century. In its vernacular form, it was the language of the smaller town dwellers and of the peasantry and it had been the language of oral folklore. Teaching in Belarusian was conducted mainly in schools run by the Basilian order. The development of Belarusian in the 19th century was strongly influenced by the political conflict in the territories of the former GDL, between the Russian Imperial authorities, trying to consolidate their rule over the "joined provinces", and the Polish and Polonised nobility, trying to bring back its pre-Partitions rule (see also Polonization in times of Partitions).
Belarusian language | History
The revised language law names Russian in addition to Belarusian as official language of Belarus. Following the referendum, the policy of positive 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.
Languages of Belarus | Development since the collapse of the Soviet Union
Since the 14th century, Vilnius had been the only official capital of the state. The Lithuanians' smaller numbers in this medieval state gave the Ruthenians (present-day Belarusians and Ukrainians) an important role in the everyday cultural life of the state. Owing to the prevalence of East Slavs and the Eastern Orthodox faith among the population in eastern and southern regions of the state, the Ruthenian language was a widely used colloquial language. An East Slavic variety ("rus'ka mova", "Old Belarusian" or "West Russian Chancellery language"), gradually influenced by Polish, was the language of administration in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at least since Vytautas' reign until the late 17th century when it was eventually replaced by Polish language.
History of Belarus | Grand Duchy of Lithuania
In a 2006 article, Roy Medvedev compared the position of the Belarusian language in Belarus with that of the Irish language in the Republic of Ireland. A spelling reform of the official Belarusian language, making the spelling of some words more similar to Taraškievič's system, was decided on July 23, 2008, and went into effect on September 1, 2010.
Belarusian language | Post-1991
Since the early 1930s, the Polish government introduced a set of policies designed to Polonize all minorities (Belarusians, Ukrainians, Jews, etc.). The usage of Belarusian language was discouraged and the Belarusian schools were facing severe financial problems. In spring of 1939, there already was neither single Belarusian official organisation in Poland nor a single exclusively Belarusian school (with only 44 schools teaching Belarusian language left).
History of Belarus | Belarusian Soviet Republic and West Belarus
The basin of Biebrza river is inhabited not only by hundreds of rare and endangered sorts of birds, but also by people representing diverse cultures, languages and religions. While most of the population of the region speaks standard Polish, some people in the upper river basin (municipalities of Lipsk, Dąbrowa Białostocka and partly Sztabin) speak a local dialect of Belarusian (called by them "prosty jazyk" - "the simple language"). The people there belong to the Orthodox or Roman Catholic church. On the north bank of the upper Biebrza there are also a few villages where so called "old believers" live, who speak an archaic dialect of Russian.
Biebrza | Cultural and linguistic environment
However, the Ruthenian peasants continued to speak their own language and remained faithful to the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church. Statutes were initially issued in the Ruthenian language alone and later also in Polish. Around 1840 the Statutes were banned by the Russian tsar following the November Uprising. Modern Ukrainian lands used it until 1860s.
Belarus | Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Each year, there is a closure of about 100 small schools in Belarus, most of which use Belarusian language in teaching. There is a trend of transfer the schoolars of these schools to Russian-language schools. Thus, there is a loss of schoolars studying in Belarusian.
Russification of Belarus | Education
During the Occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany (1941–1944), the Belarusian collaborationists influenced newspapers and schools to use the Belarusian language. This variant did not use any of the post-1933 changes in vocabulary, orthography and grammar. Much publishing in Belarusian Latin script was done. In general, in the publications of the Soviet partisan movement in Belarus, the normative 1934 grammar was used.
Belarusian language | Second World War
The modern Belarusian language was redeveloped on the base of the vernacular spoken remnants of the Ruthenian language, surviving in the ethnic Belarusian territories in the 19th century. The end of the 18th century (the times of the Divisions of Commonwealth) is the usual conventional borderline between the Ruthenian and Modern Belarusian stages of development. By the end of the 18th century, (Old) Belarusian was still common among the minor nobility in eastern part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (in the territory of present-day Belarus). Jan Czeczot in the 1840s had mentioned that even his generation's grandfathers preferred speaking (Old) Belarusian.
Belarusian language | History
Minsk is the major cultural centre of Belarus. Its first theatres and libraries were established in the middle of the 19th century. Now it has 11 theatres and 16 museums. There are 20 cinemas and 139 libraries.
Minsk | Culture
Besides the standardized lect, there are two main dialects of the Belarusian language, the North-Eastern and the South-Western. In addition, there is a transitional Middle Belarusian dialect group and the separate West Palyesian dialect group. The North-Eastern and the South-Western dialects are separated by a hypothetical line Ashmyany–Minsk–Babruysk–Homyel, with the area of the Middle Belarusian dialect group placed on and along this line. The North-Eastern dialect is chiefly characterized by the "soft sounding R" () and "strong akanye" (), and the South-Western dialect is chiefly characterized by the "hard sounding R" () and "moderate akanye" ().
Belarusian language | Dialects
The State of the Nation Address is an annual speech given by the Belarusian President to both houses of parliament outline the state of the Belarusian republic, similar to the American State of the Union speech.
Government House, Minsk | State of the Nation
In the years 2008-2013 a research project carried out by linguists and social scientists at the University of Oldenburg (in cooperation with partners from the Belarusian State University in Minsk) has created two bodies of oral texts in the mixed speech . The linguistic results of the mentioned research project attested the older view that Belarusian-Russian mixed speech could yet not be classified as one relatively stable, homogenous fused lect all over Belarus. On the other hand, on all levels of the linguistic structure several country-wide relatively stable patterns could be observed which the mixed speech shares with one or both of its “donor” languages (Belarusian and Russian) or which, respectively, make the mixed speech differ from both donor languages.
Trasianka | Linguistic status
Minsk State Linguistic University is a university in Minsk, Belarus. It specializes in 18 foreign languages including English, German, French, Spanish etc. It was founded in 1948 as Minsk Institute for Foreign Languages. Degree programs are taught in Russian during the first year, and then in the target major language for the subsequent four. Foreign students can learn Russian in a preparatory program for the first year and join the Russian faculty programme for subsequent four course for foreign students. MSLU 5-year education course is free of charge if one qualifies entry standards on relevant subjects (e.g Belarusian, Russian, foreign language of choice for Belarusians).
Minsk State Linguistic University | Introduction
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. 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.
Languages of Belarus | History
Polish ethnic and cultural presence in modern Belarus are an intricate part of its history. The lands of modern Belarus are the birthplace of Mickiewicz and Domejko among others. The proto-Belarusian language, called Ruthenian or Old Belarusian was protected by law in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and used as local vernacular, while both Polish and Latin languages were the lingua franca of the throne. "As the 16th century drew to a close" – wrote Andrew Savchenko about the local nobles, they had to contend with "an increasingly stark choice: to strengthen their ties with Poland or to suffer disastrous military defeat and subjugation" by the Russian Empire, thus leading to their 'voluntary' "Polonization".
Poles in Belarus | History
Protests by the exiled government of the Belarusian Democratic Republic proclaimed in 1918 were ignored by Poland and the Soviets. According to Per Anders Rudling, the Belarusian language was essentially pushed out of the schools in Polish West Belarus in violation of the Minorities' Treaty between Poland and the Western powers of 1919. The Polish author Marek Wierzbicki brings this in connection with the fact that the first textbook of Belarusian grammar was written no earlier than 1918. Following the intentions of the majority of the Polish society, the Polish government introduced harsh policies of polonization and assimilation of Belarusians in West Belarus.
Polonization | West Belarus
Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe bordered by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Over 40% of its is forested. Its strongest economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing. For further information on the types of business entities in this country and their abbreviations, see "Business entities in Belarus".
List of companies of Belarus | Introduction
Minsk was captured by German troops on 21 February 1918. World War I was the short period when Belarusian culture started to flourish. German administration allowed schools with Belarusian language, previously banned in Russia; a number of Belarusian schools were created until 1919 when they were banned again by the Polish military administration. At the end of World War I, when Belarus was still occupied by Germans, according to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the short-lived People's Republic of Belarus was pronounced on 25 March 1918, as part of the German Mitteleuropa plan. In December 1918, Mitteleuropa was obsolete as the German Empire withdrew from the Ober-Ost territory, and for the next few years in the newly created power vacuum the territories of Belarus would witness the struggle of various national and foreign factions.
History of Belarus | BNR and LBSSR
From 1569, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth suffered a series of Tatar invasions, the goal of which was to loot, pillage and capture slaves into jasyr. The borderland area to the south-east was in a state of semi-permanent warfare until the 18th century. Some researchers estimate that altogether more than 3 million people, predominantly Ukrainians but also Russians, Belarusians and Poles, were captured and enslaved during the time of the Crimean Khanate. Despite the abovementioned conflicts, the literary tradition of Belarus evolved. Until the 17th century, the Ruthenian language, the predecessor of modern Belarusian, was used in Grand Duchy as a "chancery language", that is the language used for official documents.
History of Belarus | Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The earliest known documents from ethnic Belarusian territories date from the 12th century. 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. 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.
Languages of Belarus | History
Although closely related to other East Slavic languages, especially Ukrainian, Belarusian phonology is distinct in a number of ways. The phoneme inventory of the modern Belarusian language consists of 45 to 54 phonemes: 6 vowels and 39 to 48 consonants, depending on how they are counted. When the nine geminate consonants are excluded as mere variations, there are 39 consonants, and excluding rare consonants further decreases the count. The number 48 includes "all" consonant sounds, including variations and rare sounds, which may be semantically distinct in the modern Belarusian language.
Belarusian language | Phonology
However, for example in the 1955/56 school year, there were 95% of schools with Russian as the primary language of instruction, and 5% with Belarusian as the primary language of instruction. That was the source of concern for the nationally minded and caused, for example, the series of publications by Barys Sachanka in 1957–61 and the text named "Letter to a Russian Friend" by Alyaksyey Kawka (1979). The BSSR Communist party leader Kirill Mazurov made some tentative moves to strengthen the role of Belarusian language in the second half of the 1950s. After the beginning of Perestroika and the relaxing of political control in the late 1980s, a new campaign in support of the Belarusian language was mounted in BSSR, expressed in the "Letter of 58" and other publications, producing a certain level of popular support and resulting in the BSSR Supreme Soviet ratifying the "Law on Languages" (""; 26 January 1990) requiring the strengthening of the role of Belarusian in state and civic structures.
Belarusian language | Post Second World War
There are a number of names under which the Belarusian language has been known, both contemporary and historical. Some of the most dissimilar are from the Old Belarusian period.
Belarusian language | Names
Belarusian is represented by the ISO 639 code "be" or "bel", or more specifically by IETF language tags "be-1959acad" (so-called "Academic" ["governmental"] variant of Belarusian as codified in 1959) or "be-tarask" (Belarusian in Taraskievica orthography).
Belarusian language | Computer representation
The sociological and sociolinguistic component of the above-mentioned research project on mixed language use in Belarus showed, inter alia, the following results: Asked about their ‘native language’, roughly 38% of around 1200 respondents named the Belarusian-Russian mixed speech, 49% Belarusian and 30% Russian (more than one answer was allowed). As their ‘first language’ roughly 50% declared the mixed speech, 42% Russian and 18% Belarusian (again more than one answer was allowed). Finally, as their ‘primarily used language’ roughly 55% named Russian, 41% the mixed speech and 4% Belarusian. The results of the research project contradict the popular opinion that the use of Belarusian-Russian mixed speech is an indicator for a poor education level and a lack of proficiency in Russian or Belarusian standard language.
Trasianka | Sociology of mixed speech use
Government restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, peaceful assembly, religions, and movement all increased in 2001. Despite the constitutional provisions, a 1998 government decree limited citizens' right to express their own opinion. Although independent media remain widely available in Minsk, as part of a continuing crackdown on opposition activity, the authorities stepped up their campaign of harassment against the independent media. The authorities continued to restrict severely the right to a free press through near-monopolies on the means of production of newsprint; means of distribution on national level broadcast media, such as television and radio, and by denying accreditation of journalists critical of the government.
Politics of Belarus | Speech, assembly, media, and opposition parties
Members of the Belarusian-speaking minority of Belarus has been complaining about discrimination of the Belarusian language in Belarus, the lack of Belarusian language education and consumer information in Belarusian, all that despite the official status of Belarusian language as a state language besides Russian. In its 2016 country human rights on Belarus report, the US State Department also stated that there was "discrimination against ... those who sought to use the Belarusian language." "Because the government viewed many proponents of the Belarusian language as political opponents, authorities continued to harass and intimidate academic and cultural groups that sought to promote Belarusian and routinely rejected proposals to widen use of the language," the report said.
Human rights in Belarus | Discrimination of Belarusian speakers
There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility among the Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian languages. Belarusian has 80% mutual intelligibility with Ukrainian, 75% with Russian, and 41% with the Polish language. Within East Slavic, the Belarusian language is most closely related to Ukrainian.
Belarusian language | Classification and relationship to other languages
This is a list of the largest cities and towns in Belarus, including cities with population of over 5000, as assembled by the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus. Neither Belarusian nor Russian have equivalent words to English "city" and "town". The word "horad" or "gorod" (, ) is used for both. But Belarusian legislature provides the three-level hierarchy.
List of cities and largest towns in Belarus | Introduction
"See also List of newspapers in Belarus"
List of Belarus-related topics | Newspapers published in Belarus
Unlike Russian, Belarusian has many native words in which it occurs after a hard consonant. Moreover, its orthography was standardized later than that of Russian (which reached its present form at the beginning of the 20th century), on the basis of the spoken language rather than historical tradition. Consequently, and are written in accordance with pronunciation: for initial and after hard consonants, for initial and postvocalic and after soft consonants. That also means that is much more frequent in Belarusian than in Russian.
E (Cyrillic) | In modern Belarusian
The State of the Nation Address (Belarusian:Зварот Прэзідэнта Рэспублікі Беларусь з пасланнем да беларускага народа і Нацыянальнага сходу Рэспублікі Беларусь, "Zvarot Prezidenta Respubłiki Bjełaruś z pasłanniem da biełaruskaga naroda i Nacyjanalnaga schodu Respubłiki Bjełaruś") is an annual speech given by the Belarusian President to outline the state and condition in which Belarus is in. The Address is given in front of a joint meeting of the two houses of the Belarusian Parliament: House of Representatives and Council of the Republic. The date of the presidential State-of-the-Nation Address is not fixed, and is determined each year based on the working schedule and the day when the very document is drafted.
State of the Nation Address (Belarus) | Introduction
It is similar to the State of the Union given by the President of the United States.
State of the Nation Address (Belarus) | Introduction
All policies of korenization were radically reversed with the onset of Stalinism and Soviet government's promotion of Russian language as the sole state language and the required .
Belarusization | Introduction
Afterwards, it was replaced with the Polish language, commonly spoken by the upper classes of Belarusian society. Both Polish and Ruthenian cultures gained a major cultural centre with the foundation of the Academy of Vilna. At the same time the Belarusian lands entered a path of economic growth, with the formation of numerous towns that served as centres of trade on the east–west routes. However, both economic and cultural growth came to an end in mid-17th century with a series of violent wars against Tsardom of Russia, Sweden, Brandenburg and Transylvania, as well as internal conflicts, known collectively as The Deluge.
History of Belarus | Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
By the end of the French occupation Minsk had only 3,500 residents and large parts of the city were completely destroyed during the fighting between the French and the Russian armies. In 1830 was one of the centres of the November Uprising in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. Since 1831 use of Belarusian and Polish languages has been banned, and Russian was introduced as the only official language. In 1835 Minsk was officially included into the Pale of Settlement, which later led to a rise in Jewish population.
History of Minsk | Russian rule
This is a list of topics related to Belarus. Those interested in the subject can monitor changes to the pages by clicking on "Related changes" in the sidebar.
List of Belarus-related topics | Introduction
At the time of the Russian Empire Census of 1897, Minsky Uyezd had a population of 277,149. Of these, 59.2% spoke Belarusian, 23.1% Yiddish, 9.5% Russian, 7.1% Polish, 0.4% Tatar, 0.4% German, 0.1% Ukrainian and 0.1% Mordvin as their native language.
Minsky Uyezd | Demographics
However, it does not regulate the language of the songs, so most of the music which is broadcast is still in Russian.
Music of Belarus | Introduction
The Belarusian minority in Lithuania (, "biełarusy", , "byelorusy", Lithuanian: "baltarusiai" or "gudai") numbered 36,200 persons at the 2011 census, and at 1.2% of the total population of Lithuania, being the third most populous national minority. The Belarusian national minority in Lithuania has deep historical, cultural and political relations. Many famous Belarusians lived and created in Lithuania, mostly its capital Vilnius; it was in Vilnius that the first standardized Belarusian language grammar was printed in. According to the 2011 census, only 18.4% of Belarusians speak Belarusian as their mother tongue, while Russian is native for 56.3%, Polish - 9.3%, Lithuanian - 5.2% of Belarusians.
Belarusians in Lithuania | Introduction
There are a number of Belarusian-language newspapers: Niwa, Belarusian Historical Papers, Pravincyja and Czasopis.
Demographics of Białystok | Belarusians
The National Library of Belarus (, ) is the biggest library in the Republic of Belarus. The library is located in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. It houses the largest collection of Belarusian printed materials and the third largest collection of books in Russian behind the Russian State Library (Moscow) and the Russian National Library (Saint Petersburg).
National Library of Belarus | Introduction
Minsk ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislač and the Nyamiha Rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administrative centre of Minsk Region (voblasć) and Minsk District (rajon). The population in January 2018 was 1,982,444, (not including suburbs) making Minsk the 11th most populous city in Europe. Minsk is the administrative capital of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and seat of its Executive Secretary. The earliest historical references to Minsk date to the 11th century (1067), when it was noted as a provincial city within the Principality of Polotsk.
Minsk | Introduction
The first attempt to standardise and codify the language was undertaken following the Russian Revolution in 1917. As one of the East Slavic languages, Belarusian shares many grammatical and lexical features with other members of the group. To some extent, Russian, Rusyn, Ukrainian, and Belarusian retain a degree of mutual intelligibility. Its predecessor stage is known in Western academia as Ruthenian (14th to 17th centuries), in turn descended from what is referred to in modern linguistics as Old East Slavic (10th to 13th centuries).
Belarusian language | Introduction
According to the National Statistical Committee, , the population was 9.49 million. Ethnic Belarusians constitute 83.7% of Belarus's total population. The next largest ethnic groups are: Russians (8.3%), Poles (3.1%), and Ukrainians (1.7%). Belarus has a population density of about 50 people per square kilometer (127 per sq mi); 70% of its total population is concentrated in urban areas. Minsk, the nation's capital and largest city, was home to 1,937,900 residents . Gomel, with a population of 481,000, is the second-largest city and serves as the capital of the Homiel Voblast. Other large cities are Mogilev (365,100), Vitebsk (342,400), Hrodna (314,800) and Brest (298,300).
Belarus | Demographics
Inflection mostly conforms with the norms of the Belarusian language. Russian and Belarusian have different norms of declension, especially case declension. For instance, in the instrumental case in Russian masculine nouns ending in -а have inflection -ей, -ой, while in Belarusian the ending becomes -ам – the norm that is present in Belarusian-Russian mixed speech: гаварыла з Мишам, з Вовам ("spoke with Misha, with Vova"). Verbs in the 3rd person singular miss final -т, including verbs coming from Russian: атвячае ("(she) answers"), знае ("(she) knows"), таргуе ("(she) sells"). Sometimes, it is replaced with -ц: атвячаець, знаець, таргуець. In the infinitive form of Russian verbs final -ть is replaced with -ц: весиць ("to weight"), знаць ("to know").
Trasianka | Morphology
The grammar of the Belarusian language is mostly synthetic and partly analytic, and norms of the modern language were adopted in 1959. Belarusian orthography is constructed on the phonetic principle ("you write down what you hear") and is mainly based on the Belarusian folk dialects of the Minsk-Vilnius region, such as they were at the beginning of the 20th century. Initially, Belarusian grammar was formalised by notable Belarusian linguist Branislaw Tarashkyevich and first printed in Vil'nya (1918). Historically, there had existed several other alternative Belarusian grammars. "See also": Belarusian alphabet, Belarusian phonology, History of the Belarusian language.
Belarusian grammar | Introduction
In West Belarus, there had been some voices raised against the reform, chiefly by the non-Communist/non-socialist wing of the Belarusian national scene. Yan Stankyevich was named to the Belarusian Scientific Society, Belarusian National Committee and Society of the Friends of Belarusian Linguistics at Wilno University. Certain political and scientific groups and figures went on using the pre-reform orthography and grammar, however, thus multiplying and differing versions. However, the reformed grammar and orthography had been used, too, for example during the process of Siarhei Prytytski in 1936.
Belarusian language | West Belarus
Belarus a landlocked country in Eastern Europe Belarus may also refer to:
Belarus (disambiguation) | Introduction
In Belarus, Russian is a second state language alongside Belarusian per the Constitution of Belarus. 77% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 67% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. In Estonia, Russian is spoken by 29.6% of the population according to a 2011 estimate from the World Factbook. and is officially considered a foreign language. School education in the Russian language is a very contentious point in Estonian politics but has of 2019 promises have been given that such schools will remain open in the near future. In Latvia, Russian is officially considered a foreign language.
Russian language | Europe
At the top level of administration, Belarus is divided into six "regions" and the city of Minsk, which has a special status being the capital of Belarus. Minsk is also the capital of Minsk Region. At the second level, the regions are divided into "raions" ("districts").
Local government | Belarus
When Vilnius was captured by Polish forces on 17 April 1919, the capital of the Soviet puppet state Litbel was moved to Minsk. On 17 July 1919 Lenin dissolved Litbel because of the pressure of Polish forces advancing from the West. Polish troops captured Minsk on 8 August 1919.
History of Belarus | BNR and LBSSR
The union between Poland and Lithuania ended in 1795 with the Third Partition of Poland by Imperial Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The Belarusian territories acquired by the Russian Empire under the reign of Catherine II were included into the Belarusian Governorate () in 1796 and held until their occupation by the German Empire during World War I. Under Nicholas I and Alexander III the national cultures were repressed. Policies of Polonization changed by Russification, which included the return to Orthodox Christianity of Belorusian Uniates. Belarusian language was banned in schools while in neighboring Samogitia primary school education with Samogitian literacy was allowed.
Belarus | Russian Empire
This is a list of years in Belarus. For only articles about years in Belarus that have been written, see .
List of years in Belarus | Introduction
There are six cases in Belarusian: Historically, there also existed a vocative case (, BGN/PCGN: ), but it is used only sparingly in modern Belarusian, like Slovene, Slovak and the closely related Russian, generally in literature, and usually is not mentioned in textbooks. For nouns (, BGN/PCGN: ) there are several types of declension:
Belarusian grammar | Nouns
Many western human rights groups state that civil rights and free expression are severely limited in Belarus, though there are some individuals and groups that refuse to be controlled and some journalists have disappeared. Because the Belarus government limits freedom of expression, several opposition media outlets are broadcast from nearby countries to help provide Belorussians an alternative points of view. This includes the Polish state-owned Belsat TV station and European Radio for Belarus (Eŭrapéjskaje Rádyjo dla Biełarúsi) Reporters Without Borders ranked Belarus 157th out of 178 countries in its 2014 Press Freedom Index. By comparison, the same index ranked neighbor Ukraine, 126th and Russia, 148th.
Telecommunications in Belarus | Limited free expression
A number of authors started publishing in the Belarusian language, including Jan Czeczot, Władysław Syrokomla and Konstanty Kalinowski. In a Russification drive in the 1840s, Nicholas I forbade the use of the term "Belarusia" and renamed the region the "North-Western Territory". He also prohibited the use of Belarusian language in public schools, campaigned against Belarusian publications and tried to pressure those who had converted to Catholicism under the Poles to reconvert to the Orthodox faith. In 1863, economic and cultural pressure exploded into a revolt, led by Kalinowski. After the failed revolt, the Russian government reintroduced the use of Cyrillic to Belarusian in 1864 and banned the use of the Latin alphabet.
History of Belarus | Russian Empire
Over time, the lower and middle Lipka Tatar nobles adopted the Ruthenian language then later the Belarusian language as their native language. However, they used the Arabic alphabet to write in Belarusian until the 1930s. The upper nobility of Lipka Tatars spoke Polish.
Lipka Tatars | Name
In the area of present-day Belarus the mixing of speech has a relatively long history. This is because the Belarusian (and, similarly, Ukrainian) territories were for a long time borderlands in which local dialects contacted with closely related socially dominant languages (Polish, Russian). Whether such older forms of mixing Belarusian with Russian should be referred to as “trasianka” is arguable as there was no intergenerational transfer of speech in those times. A literary example for this kind of mixing can be found in the 19th-century play by Wincenty Dunin-Marcinkiewicz "The Gentry of Pinsk" (see the 1984 edition). Although it is a piece of art and not a record of everyday speech, it can be assumed that it reflects real language use (in certain situations with certain types of people) of that time.
Trasianka | Mixed speech in pre-Soviet and early Soviet era
In a Russification drive in the 1840s, Nicholas I prohibited use of the Belarusian language in public schools, campaigned against Belarusian publications and tried to pressure those who had converted to Catholicism under the Poles to reconvert to the Orthodox faith. In 1863, economic and cultural pressure exploded in a revolt, led by Konstanty Kalinowski. After the failed revolt, the Russian government reintroduced the use of Cyrillic to Belarusian in 1864 and no documents in Belarusian were permitted by the Russian government until 1905.
Belarus | Russian Empire
When the Soviet Union invaded Poland on September 17, 1939, following the terms of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact's secret protocol, Western Byelorussia, which was part of Poland, is included in the BSSR. Similarly to the times of German occupation during World War I, Belarusian language and Soviet culture enjoyed relative prosperity in this short period. Already in October 1940, over 75% of schools used the Belarusian language, also in the regions where no Belarus people lived, e.g. around Łomża, what was Ruthenization. Western Belarus was sovietised, tens of thousands were imprisoned, deported, murdered. The victims were mostly Polish and Jewish. After twenty months of Soviet rule, Nazi Germany and its Axis allies invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941.
History of Belarus | Belarus in World War II
The Ministry of Telecommunications controls all telecommunications originating within the country through its carrier unitary enterprise, Beltelecom.
Telecommunications in Belarus | Telephone system
It has about 451 kindergartens, 241 schools, 22 further education colleges, and 29 higher education institutions, including 12 major national universities.
Minsk | Education