r/belarus • u/[deleted] • 8d ago
Пытанне / Question What is the current situation of the Belarusian language? Has there been a revival of the language after independence?
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u/kitten888 8d ago
There has been a short period of language revival during the early years of independance, 1991-1995. But when Luka came to power, he reverted the changes. The current state of the Belarusian language is likely worse than during the Soviet era. Literally, once you speak Belarusian in Belarus people would ask if you're from Ukraine.
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u/No_Thanks2687 6d ago
Чего? Есть сеть АЗС где всё на белорусском. Да и других заведений хватает. Речь в городах слышал. Где-то больше, где-то меньше.
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u/smack_of 8d ago
What independence? Belarus is not independent atm.
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8d ago
Unfortunately, I think you're right. It's more accurate to say the post-Soviet period.
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u/smack_of 8d ago
I’d split it into several periods.
1991-1994 (first years after fall of USSR) - Renaissance
1994-2020 - Abandonment and forced replacement with Russian language (under Lukashenka)
2020-2025 - Belarussian language became a symbol of Rresistance/Revival for most of Belorussians and a symbol to fight with for the regime.
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8d ago
What happened in 2020?
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u/smack_of 8d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2%80%932021_Belarusian_protests
The largest anti-government protests in the history of Belarus, the demonstrations began in the lead-up to and during the 2020 presidential election, in which Lukashenko sought his sixth term in office
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u/Unique-Temporary2461 5d ago
Also, as a consequence of suppressing these protests, the regime in Belarus became much harsher than it was before 2020.
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u/Awichek 6d ago
Can the forced Belarusization, which was categorically opposed by the majority of the population, really be called a renaissance? I remember how parents, in a state of panic, transferred their children to Russian-language schools. In fact, this is one of the reasons why Lukashenko was chosen
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u/smack_of 6d ago
Yes, there were mistakes. But the problem was in the head of the fish. Government didn’t even try to popularize the state language (to not disappoint Russia I guess).
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u/Awichek 6d ago
How can you say they didn’t try? They sure did — for about five years, from 1990 until around 1995, everything was switched over to Belarusian. Textbooks, visual aids, posters — all of it was redone. Once, when we were cleaning out the storage room at our department, we tossed out a whole pile of those instructional posters labeled in Belarusian, such as “арыфметыка-лагiчныя прыстасаваннi”, and the professors were really grumbling, recalling the whole experience
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u/smack_of 6d ago
I wouldn’t call it “popularization” — it was quite the opposite.
Popularization means promoting and encouraging the use of a language, often through pop culture: young singers, movies, and so on.For many years, the Belarusian language was associated with low culture, villages, and backwardness. What was really needed was a Belarusian-speaking president and parliament, and eventually (though not immediately) making Belarusian mandatory for government workers.
Of course, there are people who know better how such a process should be done — perhaps the Israeli experience could serve as an example?
I should also admit that there were many mistakes made in the attempt to revive the Belarusian language.1
u/deaddyfreddy 6d ago
I remember how parents, in a state of panic, transferred their children to Russian-language schools.
Because of?
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u/hornofdeath 6d ago
Obviously it is harmful for children when their education is suddenly switched to a language unknown to them, they will likely learn less useful knowledge as a result.
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u/deaddyfreddy 6d ago
Obviously it is harmful for children when their education is suddenly switched to a language unknown to them,
According to the 1999 census, about seven million Belarusians considered Belarusian their native language. Additionally, at least, 300000 people of other ethnicities reported knowing Belarusian. Therefore, the language was not unknown to at least 73% of the population. And again, it had already been a few years since the Russification process began.
Another thing to consider is that children learn languages much more easily than adults do, so it wouldn't be a big problem for most of them (except for those whose parents, for example, regard Belarusian as a second-class language).
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u/hornofdeath 6d ago
At very early age, may be. From my own experience, I was completely unable to learn English at school. Only in university I was able to do it. Adult people have more discipline for such tasks. And you cannot be educated in a new language in any meaningful way before you know it well enough.
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u/deaddyfreddy 6d ago
I was completely unable to learn English at school.
Learning English is different from learning a language you are exposed to daily, such as the mother tongue of at least 70% of the population.
At least that was true in the 1990s, which is the time period we are discussing.
And you cannot be educated in a new language in any meaningful way before you know it well enough.
You know, in Serbia these days, it's common for children of Russian immigrants to learn Serbian much faster than their parents. Serbian is a foreign language for them (unlike Belarusian for children in Belarus in the 1990s), but after about a year, they are able to fully switch to using Serbian at school.
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u/Awichek 6d ago
They obviously considered education in Russian to be much more useful. Would you agree for your child to receive education in a language that is not used in everyday life?
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u/deaddyfreddy 6d ago
They obviously considered education in Russian to be much more useful.
why?
Would you agree for your child to receive education in a language that is not used in everyday life?
I would agree to have my child receive an education in the language of their grandparents. And it's not true that Belarusian was not used in real life or not known by 1994.
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u/Awichek 6d ago
Why do we have to learn the language of the grandfathers instead of our own mother tongue? None of my grandparents ever spoke Belarusian — Russian, Polish, at most they used the Polesian, even though they all lived in what is now Belarus. And I’ll go further: in the villages, I only heard Belarusian from the older generation a couple of times, and I’ve traveled all over the country.
So just for patriotic reasons, you make your child study in a language that nobody really speaks?
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u/deaddyfreddy 6d ago
None of my grandparents ever spoke Belarusian — Russian, Polish, at most they used the Polesian
Okay, good for them. But that's not the case for most of the population of Belarus.
Why do we have to learn the language of the grandfathers instead of our own mother tongue?
Again, according to the 1999 census results, 70% of the population of Belarus (and approximately 83% of Belarusians) reported that Belarusian was their native language. I can assume that in 1994 this percentage was even higher.
Edit: If Czechs and Slovaks had thought 100 years ago the same way you do now, their languages wouldn't exist anymore.
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u/gwynbleidd_s 5d ago
I will paraphrase the thing I came across today.
If Russian is no longer spoken in Belarus, it will not disappear. If Belarusian is no longer spoken in Belarus, it will disappear.
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u/WayAdmirable150 6d ago
Belarus is a country who lost thier language. A country who steals history, because never had thier own. Basically its a russias oblast. After bulbashenko death, Belarus, who had opportunity to become a civilized country, will be fully incorporated into russia
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u/lebron_james335 6d ago
There is no belarusian language, only dialect
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u/Raito505 6d ago
No.
Russian is a dialect of Ukrainian.
No. Belarusian may sound like Polish, but it is not a dialect of Polish.
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u/practical_absurdity 8d ago
The graphs of percentage of schoolchildren studying in Belarusian and books published in Belarusian speak for themselves.