Belarusian is a Slavic language with around 9.3 million native speakers. It shares countless similarities with the Ukrainian and Russian languages. Despite the small speaking population, Belarusian is the language of many Nobel prize laureates, including the well-known writer Svetlana Alexievich.
Did you know the Belarusian language was the official language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a vast state encompassing Lithuania, Belarus, parts of Poland, Ukraine, and Russia? The language was first mentioned in records from the 14th century. In later centuries this Slavic language changed under Russian and Polish influences.
The Belarusian language initially used the Latin alphabet but later replaced it with the Cyrillic Belarusian language alphabet, which is widely used in East and some South Slavic languages. The language has many dialects, and the standard version became the official language of the Republic of Belarus in 1918. However, in recent history, the country's president, Lukashenko, elevated the Russian language to official status. Consequently, almost two-thirds of native Belarusian speakers use Russian in daily communication, endangering the future of Belarusian.
An English speaker is expected to need about 1100 hours to learn Belarusian.
It’s not easy to learn the Belarusian language, but it only takes a few minutes to learn popular greetings and other terms and phrases. However, if you need content writing in Belarusian, you might need a professional to help you out!
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Unlike the English language, which has a 26-letter alphabet, the Belarusian alphabet has 32 letters.
The popular game World of Tanks was translated into Belarusian by the renowned organization Warming to show its appreciation for the Belarusian language.
Modern Belarusian has two variants: “classical” or “Tarashkevich” based on the first standardized form of Belarusian devised by the linguist Branislaw Adamavich Tarashkyevich in the early 20th century and a reformed spelling known as “Narcomovka” that came into force in 2008.
We can find many similarities when comparing Belarusian vs. Russian languages. Both languages belong to the East Slavic language group. Over 80% of written Belarussian is similar to Russian.
Although Belarusian and Ukrainian have the same East Slavic origin and share more than 84% of the vocabulary, these are two different languages.
The closest language to Belarusian is Ukrainian, with only a 16% difference in vocabulary. However, when it comes to written language, Belarusian shares many similarities with Russian.
Belarusian is an officially endangered language, mainly because Russian is more commonly used for everyday communication. Moreover, enrollment in Belarussian language schools is declining. However, Belarusian is used in television and radio programs, and campaigns and informal language courses to support the preservation of Belarusian are increasing.
Belarusian has a complex system of phonetics with many vowel and consonant sounds. It has sounds that are not found in English or other languages, such as "ы" and "ь".