The Belarusian Language is Doomed?

endrus   Fri Sep 05, 2008 11:03 am GMT
Hello fellow linguists and language learners! I was born in Belarus, the country the titular language of which has turned into a minority language. The indigenous language of Belarusians is losing its ground to Russian, the second official language in the country.

I have written an extensive essay on this problem - http://belarus.blogsome.com/2008/09/05/the-belarusian-language-is-doomed.

I argue that even if Belarus became more democratic the language problem would not go away, as the globalizing society would not necessarily care to preserve the mother's tongue. The language could be supported by the state, but this is a temporal remedy. Eventually, the language would hardly escape the demise.

I am raising this issue here, because I have seem many topics discussing small languages like Lithuanian and Estonian. I believe that all small languages are in danger as the world is globalizing.

And... There is absolutely nothing wrong about it. As to me, repressive language policy is worse.
Guest   Fri Sep 05, 2008 12:38 pm GMT
I guess it's happening what happened to Irish in Ireland, it become a low class language no one wants to learn.
Guest   Fri Sep 05, 2008 1:13 pm GMT
If there's no repression going on but the language is still disappearing, then that's life. Time to move one. If the people themselves don't want to speak it, you can't make them speak it. Sad in some ways, but reality in many other ways. The same has happened with Maori in New Zealand and native American languages.
endrus   Fri Sep 05, 2008 1:17 pm GMT
Indeed, Ihar Babkou, a Belarusian philosopher, has also mentioned Ireland as a nation with a similar language problem. If there's someone from Ireland here, maybe you could tell us whether the young generation of the Irish have ANY motivation to learn their mother's tongue. It would be interesting to hear.
Guest   Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:30 pm GMT
-The same has happened with Maori in New Zealand and native American languages.-

Maori has risen, from 0.5% to 5 % (1st language speakers) in NZ
in just 3 decades. Maori Tv helped a lot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZyGBR9DU1g
Guest   Fri Sep 05, 2008 11:35 pm GMT
Most people don't have time for sentimentality.