| West Polesian | |
|---|---|
| захыднёполіськая мова | |
| Native to | Belarus,Ukraine,Poland |
| Region | SouthwesternBelarus, northwesternUkraine, bordering regions ofPoland |
Indo-European
| |
Early forms | |
| Dialects | |
| Cyrillic | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | west2977 |
West Polesian (захыднёполіськая мова,zakhydnyopolis'kaya mova[citation needed]) is theEast Slavic dialect group (orvariety) spoken in southwesternBelarus, in northwesternUkraine and adjoining regions ofPoland. There is controversy regarding whether West Polesian belongs to Belarusian or Ukrainian, or is a separatemicrolanguage (as has been proposed by linguistAleksandr Dulichenko).
Various variants or dialects of West Polesian are used in everyday speech. Attempts were made in the 1990s byNikolai Shelyagovich to develop a standard written language,[1] although his efforts received almost no support and the campaign eventually ceased.[2] In particular, writerNil Hilevich and some others spoke against Shelyagovich, claiming that he represented a threat to the national integrity of Belarus, and labelled "Yotvingian separatism".[3]
The formation of the Polesian literary language itself began in 1988 thanks to the efforts of the philologist and poetNikolai Shelyagovich. Then the social and cultural association "Polesie"(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.[4]
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" (Chyrvonaja 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 theBrest Region and inMinsk, 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 "Jitveža Šaxova mynjatjura" was published in the Western Polesian language in Shelyagovich's version.[5]
In 1990, an alphabet was proposed by Nikolai Shelyagovich.
| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Ґ ґ | Д д | Е е | Ё ё | Ж ж | З з | И и |
| І і | Ј ј | К к | Л л | М м | Н н | О о | П п | Р р | С с | Т т |
| У у | Ф ф | Х х | Ц ц | Ч ч | Ш ш | Ы ы | Ь ь | Э э | Ю ю | Я я |
Belarusian dialectologistFyodar Klimchuk [be] recorded spoken texts and wrote translations in the dialect of the author's native village (Simanavichy, Drahichyn District [be]).[6] Among other things, he did translation of theNew Testament.[7]
| Official languages | ||
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| Sign language | ||
