Belarusian, motherfucker! Do you speak it?!

[W. R.]

Whiteruthenian... which tribes of Rus came from Lachy according to the Nestor's chronicle?

Wikipedia says it were Radimiches and Vyatiches.

[W. R.]

<...> The most common process leading to language death is one in which a community of speakers of one language becomes bilingual in another language, and gradually shifts allegiance to the second language until they cease to use their original (or heritage) language. This is a process of assimilation which may be voluntary or may be forced upon a population. Speakers of some languages, particularly regional or minority languages, may decide to abandon them based on economic or utilitarian grounds, in favour of languages regarded as having greater utility or prestige.

<...> Once a language is no longer a native language - that is, if no children are being socialised into it as their primary language - the process of transmission is ended and the language itself will not survive past the current generation. This is rarely a sudden event, but a slow process of each generation learning less and less of the language, until its use is relegated to the domain of traditional use, such as in poetry and song. Typically the transmission of the language from adults to children becomes more and more restricted, to the final setting that adults speaking the language will raise children who never acquire fluency. <...>

During language loss—sometimes referred to as obsolescence in the linguistic literature—the language that is being lost generally undergoes changes as speakers make their language more similar to the language that they are shifting to. This process of change has been described in two categories, though they are not mutually exclusive. Often speakers replace elements of their own language with something from the language they are shifting toward. Also, if their heritage language has an element that the new language does not, speakers may drop it.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_death

In case you didn't know that: the Belarusian language is listed in the UNESCO red book of endangered languages as "potentially endangered".

Kažuć, mova maja adžyvaje
Viek svoj cichi: joj źniknuć para.
Dla mianie ž jana viečna žyvaja,
Jak rasa, jak ślaza, jak zara...

[Thulsa Doom]

In case you didn't know that: the Belarusian language is listed in the UNESCO red book of endangered languages as "potentially endangered".

Кажуць, мова мая аджывае
Век свой ціхі: ёй зьнікнуць пара.
Для мяне ж яна вечна жывая,
Як раса, як сьляза, як зара...

What´s wrong with that Lukasenko despot, what is it he trying to achieve? Is he trying to go to the history as the biggest traitor and sellout of all time?

[W. R.]

What´s wrong with that Lukasenko despot, what is it he trying to achieve? Is he trying to go to the history as the biggest traitor and sellout of all time?

Possibly.

But there also exists a possibility that he has way too primitive a personality to understand the necessity of care for the language.

As for the Belarusians themselves, they are trapped in the vicious cirlce (I described the situation a couple of times): on the one hand the Belarusian language would strengthen the Belarusian national identity, on the other hand if the Belarusian national consciousness were well-established the support for the Belarusian language among Belarusians would be much stronger.

The current neo-Soviet regime neither strengthens the Belarusian national identity, nor supports the Belarusian language. The vicious circle remains.

[poiuytrewq0987]

What´s wrong with that Lukasenko despot, what is it he trying to achieve? Is he trying to go to the history as the biggest traitor and sellout of all time?

Well, the Belarusian I know doesn't read a word of Belarusian (largely because she doesn't understand the alphabet and didn't care enough to learn it) mainly because she doesn't see herself to be any different to Russians. She said that she is from Belarus but she feels like Russian so... it might be the same with Lukashenko. Oddly enough, she doesn't like Lukashenko because of his closed borders policy and communist-era mentality.

Possibly.

But there also exists a possibility that he has way too primitive a personality to understand the necessity of care for the language.

As for the Belarusians themselves, they are trapped in the vicious cirlce (I described the situation a couple of times): on the one hand the Belarusian language would strengthen the Belarusian national identity, on the other hand if the Belarusian national consciousness were well-established the support for the Belarusian language among Belarusians would be much stronger.

The current neo-Soviet regime neither strengthens the Belarusian national identity, nor supports the Belarusian language. The vicious circle remains.

That's one way to look at the situation. However I think and I could be wrong but I think it is a case of Russophilism (is that even a word) gone far than Sovietophilism (is that even a word too? lol).

[W. R.]

However I think and I could be wrong but I think it is a case of Russophilism (is that even a word) gone far than Sovietophilism (is that even a word too? lol).

Well, maybe I chose a wrong word. I didn't mean allegiance to Lenin/Stalin/communism etc. I meant the adherence to Soviet symbols and myths, to the set of Soviet heroes, to the Soviet vision of history etc. That's what constitutes the Belarusian Soviet identity.

The Belarusian Soviet identity (which was implanted here by the Soviet Empire) has its direct ancestor - the West-Russian identity (which was implanted by the predecessor of the Soviet Empire - the Russian Empire), to turn the latter into the former only some accents had to be changed. Thus the latter does not contradict the former.

More details here: http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12091

[W. R.]

Share my happiness, brethren and sisters. I have just downloaded the full scanned translation (1970) of the Bible, made by doctor of Slavic philology and history Jan Stankievič himself. That's what I call "the Belarusian language".

Thank you, Dasoncapadobny. Thank you.