Belarusan Language

The Belarusian language, or the Belarusan (Беларуская мова, BGN/PCGN: byelaruskaya mova, Scientific: belaruskaja mova, łac.: biełaruskaja mova) is the language of the Belarusian people and is spoken in Belarus and abroad, chiefly in Russia, Ukraine, and Poland. Prior to Belarus gaining its independence from the Soviet Union in 1992, the language was called "Byelorussian" or "Belorussian" (in accordance with the ethnicity and country names: Byelor... more

The Belarusian language, or the Belarusan (Беларуская мова, BGN/PCGN: byelaruskaya mova, Scientific: belaruskaja mova, łac.: biełaruskaja mova) is the language of the Belarusian people and is spoken in Belarus and abroad, chiefly in Russia, Ukraine, and Poland. Prior to Belarus gaining its independence from the Soviet Union in 1992, the language was called "Byelorussian" or "Belorussian" (in accordance with the ethnicity and country names: Byelorussians, Byelorussia, the latter being a transliteration from the Russian language). It belongs to the group of the East Slavic languages, and shares many grammatical and lexical features with other members of the group. Its predecessor was the Old Belarusian language. According to the 1999 Belarus Census, the Belarusian language is declared as a "language spoken at home" by about 3,686,000 people (36.7% of the population) as of 1999. Upon the second Belarus census question related to language, about 6,984,000 (85.6%) of Belarusians declared... less