Belarusan Language in Minsk
As many of you probably know, the dominating language in the capital, Minsk, is Russian. You can hear it on the streets all the time, and Belarusian is nowhere to be heard (although you can see it on billboards and street signs). Here’s a recent web survey which I think should be, if not scientifically precise, somewhat representative because it was posted in a blogging community minsk_by in Livejournal, with basically almost random people from Minsk who have internet access. The question of the survey was:
- How often do you hear Belarusan language spoken on Minsk streets?
140 people chose to answer, and the results are as follows: never - 2.9% (4), once - 0.7% (1), twice or thrice - 10.7% (15), from time to time - 45.7% (64), several times per month 20.0% (28), several times per week - 10.7% (15), every day - 9.3% (13).
December 31st, 2005 at 4:25 am
Interesting survey… Its nice to see its still spoken far more often than Luka would want. Hope in the future it will be spoken more… I mean… Belarus, Belarusian… why else would this language be called this way? It’s supposed to mach together, just like England - English, Spain - Spanish, Finland - Finnish etc etc. Or… is it just my twisted mind?
December 31st, 2005 at 4:49 am
Well, according to the survey, it is still there. “Nowhere to be heard” is a bit of an overstatement, don’t you think?
December 31st, 2005 at 1:31 pm
}T{Reme [Q_G]: Nice to see you back! X-mas vacations? ;)
Yes, that would be cool. I wish our language situation was developing at least like in other Central and East European countries such as Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Estonia, but that’s like an ideal case. More likely, we’ll end with something like Belgium or French-speaking areas of Canada.
December 31st, 2005 at 1:32 pm
> “Nowhere to be heard” is a bit of an overstatement, don’t you think?
Well, I hear Italian on Prague streets EVERY DAY. So, Italian in Prague is a more popular language than Belarusian in Minsk?
December 31st, 2005 at 5:18 pm
Actually no heh, I’m offline for a few weeks. Got a new appartment :) H appy Xmas and New Year everyone.
January 1st, 2006 at 7:58 pm
Let us just hope things will get better. Happy New Year!
November 19th, 2007 at 2:33 am
cadeau
Cadeaux de Noel 2007, questions sur jouets Chinois sur http://cadeauxde-noel.blogspot.com/