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The West Polesian language (захыднёполіськая мова) is the East Slavic language spoken in southwestern
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...
, in northwestern
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...
and adjoining regions of
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
. There is controversy regarding whether West Polesian is a dialect of Belarusian or Ukrainian, or a separate microlanguage (as has been proposed by linguist Alexander Dulichenko). Distinct variants or dialects of West Polesian are used in everyday speech. Attempts were made in the 1990s by
Nikolai Shelyagovich Nikolai Shelyagovich (born 21 July 1956, village Ogdemer, Drahichyn District, Brest Region, BSSR) is an initiator and proponent of the idea of the establishment of Polesian autonomy in Soviet Byelorussia in the 1980s. However, he and his asso ...
to develop a standard written language, although his efforts received almost no support and the campaign eventually ceased. In particular, writer
Nil Hilevich Nil Symonavich Hilevich ( be, Ніл Сымонавіч Гілевіч, Nil Symonavič Hilevič; russian: Нил Семёнович Гилевич, Nil Semyonovich Gilevich; 30 September 1931 – 29 March 2016) was a Belarusian poet, a professor ...
and some others spoke against Shelyagovich, claiming that he represented a threat to the national integrity of Belarus, and labelled "
Yotvingian Sudovian (also known as Yotvingian, or Jatvingian) was a Western Baltic language of Northeastern Europe. Sudovian was closely related to Old Prussian. It was formerly spoken southwest of the Nemunas river in what is now Lithuania, east of Gali ...
separatism".


History

Rare examples of irregular written use of local dialects were noted in Polesia in the 16th and 17th centuries already. In the 19th century, Franz Savich wrote poetry in Polesian, and later Nikolai Yanchuk. In 1901, certain Polesian words and phrases were used by
Alexander Kuprin Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin (russian: link=no, Александр Иванович Куприн;  – 25 August 1938) was a Russian writer best known for his novels ''The Duel'' (1905)Kuprin scholar Nicholas Luker, in his biography ''A ...
in his story "The Silver Wolf". In 1907, the first printed Polesian primer ''(Rusinski lemantar)'' in Latin script was published in Pinsk. The formation of the Polesian literary language itself began in 1988 thanks to the efforts of the philologist and poet
Nikolai Shelyagovich Nikolai Shelyagovich (born 21 July 1956, village Ogdemer, Drahichyn District, Brest Region, BSSR) is an initiator and proponent of the idea of the establishment of Polesian autonomy in Soviet Byelorussia in the 1980s. However, he and his asso ...
. Then the social and cultural association "Polisse" ''(Полісьсе)'' was created and the development of a written norm of a special Polesian ("Yotvingian" in the terminology of Shelyagovich and his supporters) language began. In 1990, a constituent conference was held, at which various ethnographic and linguistic problems of Polesia were discussed, and, in particular, the creation of a written Polesian language. In the newly created literary language in 1988-1990, several inserts with the title «Балесы Полісся» (Pages of Polesia) were published in the Belarusian newspaper «Чырвоная змена» (Chyrvona Zmena), several rotary issues of the "information bulletin" (small newspaper) "Zbudinne" ("Awakening" ). In 1990-1995, the newspaper "Zbudinne" was published every 2 weeks, was widely sold in newsstands in the
Brest Region Brest Region or Brest Oblast or Brest Voblasts ( be, Брэ́сцкая во́бласць ''(Bresckaja vobłasć)''; russian: Бре́стская о́бласть (''Brestskaya Oblast)'') is one of the regions of Belarus. Its administrative cen ...
and in
Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative stat ...
, and one could subscribe to it. The circulation of the newspaper averaged about 2-2.5 thousand copies. Also in this language were written several theses for the Yotvingian (Polesian) scientific-practical conference, held in Pinsk on April 13–14, 1990. The rest of the abstracts were written in Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian. In 1992, a book of chess miniatures "Jitvezha Shakhova mynyatyur" was published in the Western Polesian language in Shelyagovich's version.


Orthography


«Yotvingian»

In 1990, an alphabet was proposed by Nikolai Shelyagovich.


Klimchuk's script

Phonetic spelling, which is used by dialectologist Fedor Klimchuk to record spoken texts, as well as to write literary works and translations. Mostly the language of the texts is the dialect of the author's native village (Simanavichi, Dorogichyn district). Created on the basis of Belarusian orthography, the texts emphasize): The greatest literary work is the translation of the New Testament.


See also

*
Simple speech Simple speech ( uk, проста мова, prosta mova, pl, mowa prosta, po prostu, be, про́стая мова; па простаму, prostaya mova; "(to speak) in a simple way"), also translated as "simple language" or "simple talk", is an in ...


References

{{Authority control East Slavic languages