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Western Poleshuks - Западные полешуки
- Western Polessian language/dialect
- Languages, etymology, etc.
- Western Poleshuks
Western Poleshuks are people living in the South-Western Belarus, in the area located approximately between Brest on the West and Luninets on the East.
Most of them are officially considered to be ethnic Belarussians, though they speak a specific dialect much closer to Ukrainian than to Belarussian. That is why some politicians in Ukraine call them 'Ukrainians of the Brest Region' ('Ukraintsi Beresteishchyny').
Usually, Western Poleshuks do not like being involved in any politics, including issues like that; however, there was a handful of them who claimed that Western Poleshuks should be recognized as a separate ethnic group with their own language (the fourth Eastern-Slavic language, along with Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarussian). In late 80's, these people organized a movement called Polisse and published a local-language newspaper called Zbudinne. They also tried to develop a standard for the 'literary Western-Polessian language'. However, they failed to stir up much enthusiasm among the local people, and the newspaper was eventually closed.
If you understand Belarussian, I would recommend an article called "The Modern History of Yatviagi" ("Найноўшая гісторыя яцвягаў)" by Andrei Dyn'ko published in ARCHE magazine (thanks a lot to the author for his permission to place it here, and to Mikola Ramanouski for letting me know about this article and sending me the text!)
I do not intend to discuss here if Western Poleshuks are ethnic Belarussians, or Ukrainians, or a separate group, I just want to give several examples of the language used in the newspaper Zbudinne. In my opinion, this language looks somewhat artificial, as if the authors tried to establish a standard of spelling and usage that should be as different as possible both from Ukrainian and from Belarussian. Nevertheless, it contains a lot of specific words and features actually used in the local dialects, and I believe these examples could be of interest for people studying Slavic languages.
The examples are in GIF files (unfortunately, I am not aware of any OCR software able to recognize texts in the Western-Polessian language :-) ).
Disclaimer: Inclusion of the examples below in this Web page does not necessarily mean my agreement with the views expressed therein.
Example 1 - ethnographical
Example 2 - political
Example 3 - J.Kraszewski and Pinsk
Example 4 - Some specific words from one village
Some links
- Заходнепалеская мікрамова на сайте
- Пра заходнепалескую літаратурную мікрамову (праект М. Шэляговіча)
- Problem samookreślenia narodowego Poleszuków w Polsce okresu międzywojennego
- Палессе ў канцэпцыях беларускіх палітычных партый Заходняй Беларусі
- Асвета на Палессі ў 1921-1939 гадах
- Śladami Józefa Obrębskiego po 60 latach. Raport z rekonesansu terenowego na Polesiu (Вельмі цікавае апытанне палешукоў наконт іх нацыянальнай прыналежнасці, месца, дзе яны жывуць, і г. д.)
- Феномен Палесся (Што такое Палессе і дзе яно знаходзіцца? Уяўленні жыхароў Палесся пра Палессе)
- Немецкая политика украинизации Белорусского Полесья. 1941 - 1944 годы
- Рэарганізацыя школьнай сеткі Заходняй Беларусі ў 1939-1941 гадах: нацыянальны аспект
- Моўная сітуацыя ў Берасцейска-Пінскім Палессі ў 19-20 стст.
- Палеская аўтаномія: сьмерць праекту? (Радыё Свабода)
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