Belarusian

Belarusian (also known as Belarussian, Belorussian, Byelorussian, White Russian, and White Ruthenian) belongs to the East Slavic group of the Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family.

The name derives from bel- "white" + rus "Russia." Its closest relatives are Ukrainian and Russian. According to Ethnologue, there are 6.7 million speakers of Belarusian in Belarus. It is also spoken in Russia and in the former republics of the Soviet Union, as well as in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. It is estimated that the total number of speakers of Belarusian worldwide is around 10 million.
Belarusian has a long and complicated history:

•   In the early 14th century, Belarus and areas of Poland were part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. An old form of Belarusian, heavily influenced by Old Church Slavonic, was used as the liturgical language.

•   In 1569, Poland took over the Duchy, and Polish became the dominant language. The use of Belarusian was outlawed in 1696.

•   When the Russians took control of Belarus in the late 18th century, Belarusian continued to be suppressed and the use of Russian became widespread. However, some literature in Belarusian appeared during this period.

•   In the 18th and 19th centuries, Belarusian was considered a dialect of Russian and called "White Russian" while Belarus itself was called " White Russia." Scholars considered Belarusian to be a mixture of Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian. Belarusian had no official status, and the country's elite used Polish and Russian. However, there was a heated debate about a need to revive Belarusian, reform the alphabet, use it in education, and purge the language of Russian and Polish words.

•   In 1933, Stalin attacked the language reformers and the purist movement, which aimed to remove Russian and Polish elements from Belarusian, by calling it "nationalistic." Since the breakup of the USSR , the use of Belarusian as the national language has again been promoted.

•   During the Soviet rule from the 1920s to the late 1980s, literacy increased but the percentage of Belarusian speakers in Belarus declined with the immigration of Russians into the republic and the emigration of Belarusians to Central Asia and Siberia. The number of Belarusian publications also declined, as Russian became more dominant. This period is also characterised by 'russification' of Belarusian which consisted of replacing Belarusian words of Polish origin with Russian words.

•   When Belarus became independent in 1991, the use of Belarusian was actively encouraged in government, the media, and education. Belarusian was made the national language of the new republic. For instance, all place names and personal names had to be renamed in Belarusian; civil servants were given five years to learn Belarusian, and in ten years it was to become the sole language of government and education. But this policy created too much of an upheaval and as the government aligned itself more and more with Russia, Russian was given an equal official status in 1995. Today, those who are aligned with Russia are discouraging the use of Belarusian and mandating the use of Russian which currently is more widely used in public life and in education than Belarusian, even though over 75 percent of the population consider Belarusian to be their first language.

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