- Hey, hey! This is Conor the Language Tsar so
I'm back here my friend Tonya who is from Belarus and today we're going to talk about
the Belarusian language and ... Belarusian
is not exactly like Russian. It's pretty
close. It's kind of in between Ukrainian
and Russian and Polish a little bit and
I was recently in Belarus so that's why I'm so interested in learning a
little bit more about the language
because I went to Minsk and to Grodno. So Tonya I
noticed when I was in Minsk and in Grodno that while I can read and see a lot
of Belarusian you know on buses, on signs a little
bit, I didn't really hear very many
people speak it.
So in what social context in Belarus do
people actually speak in Belarusian?
- Ok first maybe when we go to the theater and feel closer to the actors. - So the
actual plays are in Belarusian or you speak to
other people in Belarusian? - Yes, they are.
- So it's really popular to go to the theater in
Belarusian as opposed to Russian?
-Yeah. Also I would speak Belarusian if I would date
an actor or a student of the philological department probably.
- Ok and does that happen very often?
- Not really! - You can transform your love life ...
Sid you have to learn before in order to
pick up the guys from the philological
department. It that a tactic? - That might be the key to his
heart actually. Why not? - Languages being the key to someone's heart.
Definitely a strategy that I've also implemented but not in Belarus. - I would also probably
use the Belarusian language when I go to
visit my grandma in the village.
- In the villages - is that because people are a little
more traditional? Is that sense? - Or maybe because
education is worse and they don't actually know proper Russian. It's a mixture of Belarusian and Russian.
- Is this similar to Surzhyk, like they have
between Ukrainian and Russian?
- Yes, we have a word for Surzhyk. It's more like 'Trasianka'. - Trasianka! Ok,
close enough - not really! So it has grammar from
one and words thrown in from the other and
endings ... - Or incorrect pronunciation!
- Because that's quite common in Ukraine along the linguistic border
between Russian and Ukrainian. You have this Surzhyk phenomenon. - It's also very popular in Belarus.
I know exactly one person who always uses Trasianka. - What are the other social
contexts do you use it in? For example if I'm
involved in the political opposition or I want to create my own opposition
party or I want to be elected. - It's an
idea to speak in Belarusian and if there is
a special day in the country that the language
is spoken on? - Yeah. There's a day of the native language or
the National Language Day. - So it's Родной Язык
in Russian? - Міжнародны дзень роднай мовы
- Роднай мовы, ok and then everybody just
suddenly switches from Russian to Belarusian
on that day? - Yeah they kind
of encourage you to do so. Most people just
put on their status on their
social networks. - Okay so for one day of the year
Belarusian is cool. - Yeah, okay and the
other 364 then not so cool.
Okay that's great. So they were the five social
contexts in Belarus that people normally
speak in Belarusian as opposed to
Russian now when I was there in
reality everybody spoke in Russian so
in the contexts I was in so this is
definitely a good informative video about
when you would actually use the language
and maybe maybe I'm going to go back to
Belarus and learn some
Belarusian. When I go back to Belarus I
know Belarusian is used for one day of the
year, if I went up in prison for being a
political opponent, if I want to pick up
the chicks philological department,
- Or the theater department. - Or if I want to go to the
theater and enjoy that you know very
rich Belarusian literature and culture, if I
happen to find my long-lost grandma
(бабулая) who lives in a village! - Да пабачэння! - Да пабачэння! (Goodbye in Belarusian)