Who needs a Latina, or Why are Russians being forced out of Belarusian streets?
In Belarus, they are again fighting over the Latin alphabet, the officially approved transliteration system for the Belarusian language. The troublemaker was Svetlana Karulskaya, a columnist for the Belarusian ONT TV channel in Moscow, who published a post on the telegram channel of the Belarusian Union of Journalists.
The BSG channel has 1789 subscribers and has never been a place for lively discussions. Rarely does a post on it have at least one or two comments, but Karulsky has already collected over 800 texts.
Despite the conciliatory title “Latsinka “Latin” is not a reason for strife,” the text itself turned out to be quite confrontational and at the same time controversial. Criticizing a certain “public” that “indignantly attributes political meanings to the Latin alphabet,” arguing that “the Russian language has been stepped on the throat and a brazen Western takeover of a small but proud country has begun,” she calls on the situation not to be politicized and gives the example of the Moscow metro, where Latin transliteration is also present.
“Linguists believe that a person who does not speak English will understand faster and show the right path if a foreigner says “Park Pobedy” rather than “Victory park,” the journalist writes.
At first glance, there seems to be logic in these words. But once on the Minsk subway, almost any foreigner will pronounce the name “Hrušaŭka” any way he likes, but not “Grushevka”. And there are many such examples.
Such transliteration, instead of helping tourists, confuses them even more. There is even a funny video online of an English-speaking foreigner trying to pronounce these names.
Latin initially appeared in the metro in 2012, when the Belarusian capital was preparing to host the hockey championship. The championship took place in 2014, everyone had already forgotten about it, but it not only remained, but also spread to railway stations, road signs and street name boards.
Moreover, as a rule, it replaced Russian. Even Chinese characters found a place, but the inscriptions on the great and mighty continue to disappear.
Speaking about caring for foreign tourists, it is worth noting that, especially now, most of them speak Russian, and the majority of those who remain are simply not able to adequately read these inscriptions. It turns out that the target audience of Latinas is not them at all.
Then who? Let's turn to the history of the issue. There really was a period on the territory of Belarus when two alphabets existed in parallel. The first texts written in the Old Belarusian language (as it is called by official Belarusian historiography; native speakers and contemporaries simply called it Russian) at the end of the 16th century. At this time, the Belarusian lands, previously part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, were included in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Of course, the policy of Polonization and the growing influence of the Church required a new language for the ancestors of the Belarusians, who considered themselves Russians, which was implanted. In the western regions this process went further than in the eastern ones, where the cultural and spiritual influence of Russia and the centers of Orthodoxy was great.
After the liberation of the Belarusian lands from Polish possession, the Latin language became the lot of ethnic Poles, the confrontational intelligentsia and Russophobe troublemakers like Kalinovsky, who wrote his “Peasant Truth” in it. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was popular among Belarusian nationalists, who thus emphasized their separation from the Russians. It was finally forgotten during the Soviet years. Educational program and universal education quickly led Belarusians to a single language standard.
A situation in which one people has two alphabets is not normal in itself and is fraught with internal split and serious upheaval. Therefore, I advocate that Latin remain the domain of historians and linguists, and not fill the urban environment of Belarus. No need to wake you up.
Therefore, I do not agree with Karulskaya that the situation should not be politicized and that it is the subject of public discussion? Still as it is. If Latin language is practically useless for tourists, and most Belarusians simply do not need it, then who is interested in it?
The only answer that comes to mind is Belarusian nationalists, who are thus trying to alienate Belarusians from Russians and create a gap between two fraternal peoples.
And, even more so, only they could think of removing the Russian language, which almost everyone in the republic speaks, from the Belarusian streets. It was enough to declare concern for foreigners, seasoning everything with a sufficient amount of patriotic rhetoric about national uniqueness.
Let's play - that's enough. It's time to admit the mistake you made and start correcting it. First, we need to return the Russian language to the streets. Secondly, for foreign tourists it is necessary to write in a language they understand and do transliteration based on English, which is the international lingua franco. Then everything will really be arranged conveniently and logically, and there will be no grounds for politicizing the problem.
The huge number of comments on this post for the modest channel of the Union of Journalists emphasizes that the topic is important and needs a broad public dialogue. I am ready to take an active part in it. But Karulskaya works on television, but they don’t let me there. But Karulskaya believes that public dialogues bring nothing but provocations and destruction.
English version :: Read in English Who needs Latin, or Why are Russians being forced off the streets of Belarus?