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Belarusian Language

Belarusian
беларуская мова
biełaruskaja mova
Native to Belarus, in 14 other countries
Ethnicity 8 million Belarusians in Belarus (2009 census)
Native speakers
3.2 million (2.2 million in Belarus) (ca. 2009 census)
Early forms
Cyrillic (Belarusian alphabet)
Belarusian Braille
Belarusian Latin alphabet
Official status
Official language in
 Belarus
 Poland (in Gmina Orla, Gmina Narewka, Gmina Czyże, Gmina Hajnówka and town of Hajnówka)
Recognised minority
language in
Regulated by National Academy of Sciences of Belarus
Language codes
ISO 639-1 be
ISO 639-2
ISO 639-3
Glottolog bela1254
Linguasphere 53-AAA-eb < 53-AAA-e
(varieties:
53-AAA-eba to 53-AAA-ebg)
Idioma bielorruso.png
Belarusian-speaking world
Legend: Dark blue - territory, where Belarusian language is used chiefly
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Belarusian (/bɛləˈrsiən/;беларуская мова bielaruskaja mova [bʲelaˈruskaja ˈmova]) is an official language of Belarus, along with Russian, and is spoken abroad, chiefly in Russia, Ukraine, and Poland. Before Belarus gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the language was known in English as Byelorussian or Belorussian, transliterating the Russian name, белорусский язык, or alternatively as White Ruthenian (/rˈθniən/) or White Russian (with the meaning Rus' but not Russia). Following independence, it also became known as Belarusian.

Belarusian is one of the East Slavic languages and shares many grammatical and lexical features with other members of the group. To some extent, Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian are mutually intelligible. Its predecessor stage is known as Old Belarusian (14th to 17th centuries), in turn descended from Old East Slavic (10th to 13th centuries).


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