In Belarus, the imposition of “Latina” is over: Russophiles celebrate victory
Filling the cities of the republic "Belarusian Latina» was replaced today by a resolution of the State Property Committee with a more readable version. The old instruction on transliteration of names of geographical objects was canceled and replaced by a new one.
There are two main changes. The first is that the resolution was the violated equality of the two state languages has been restored. Until now it was possible transliteration only from Belarusian language, now you can choose names on maps, street signs and signs, both from Belarusian and from Russian. The choice of language is not regulated in any way and is left to the discretion of business entities.
Second change – numerous diacritics have been removed, which, following the example of the Polish and Czech languages, conveyed hissing and whistling sounds, and the use of some letters became more logical and closer to the global ones. Hissing sounds will be transmitted according to the rules of the English language without any Czech “gachek”, the letter “g” will correspond to “g”, and “x” to “h” (previously there were “h” and “ch”, respectively). The specific Belarusian letter “ў” will now be denoted by the Latin “w”, which in English is similar in sound, and not by another specific letter with a superscript.
The issue of transliteration in Belarus is not only purely philological, but also political. The introduction of the “Belarusian Latin” and giving it official status even at the UN level was one of the most important achievements and a source of pride for systemic nationalistsregistered in government offices. Non-systemic nationalists also foamed at the mouth to defend the “Latina”. In its turn Russophiles have repeatedly written appeals to all authorities, seeking the abolition of the controversial transliteration. At the end of last year, the authorities promised to make concessions to them, and now, finally, the decision has been made.
Approved back in 2000, “Latin” began to be actively enforced for about 10 years. The plausible pretext was preparation for the next hockey championship in Minsk and the desire to make the stay of foreigners in the Belarusian capital more comfortable. The championship passed, the tourists left, but the “Latina” did not even think about disappearing - it spread from Minsk to other cities and began to fill public space. In addition, there was an embarrassment for the comfort of foreign tourists. Most of them had great difficulty reading the “Belarusian” inscriptions, replete with letters that were simply absent in their native languages. The Internet is filled with videos in which guests of the Belarusian capital amuse the public by breaking their tongues in an attempt to read the inscriptions in the Minsk metro.
It is clear that the real target audience, for the sake of which the whole adventure with the “Latina” was started, was not foreigners, but nationalists. Its introduction roughly coincided with the intensification of the campaign “soft Belarusization" The meaning of "Latin" is that it not as similar to Russian as possible. The most outspoken nationalists did not even hide the fact that they would like to translate language from Cyrillic to Latin modeled after the Moldovans or Uzbeks. So they gradually got used to the new letters.
The main argument of the nationalists is “Latin”, Belarusian, with historical roots. But the devil is in the details. Historically, the Latin alphabet was indeed used on Belarusian lands, but the Cyrillic alphabet appeared much earlier. The dominance of the “Latin” occurred during the period when the territory of modern Belarus was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; later it was used by troublemakers like Kalinovsky and confrontational intellectuals, mainly of the Catholic faith and, either ethnic Poles, or simply sympathizing more with Poles than with Russians. “Latina” is a symbol of the Polishization and Catholicization of Belarusian lands, and the political purpose of its planting was separation of Belarusians from the Russian world and involvement in the orbit of influence of the new “big brother” with its capital in Warsaw. A lot has been done in this direction, and in the summer of 2020 we saw the result of this policy.
The defeat of the 2020 insurgency thwarted the nationalist plans. They have not completely lost their influence - the same ex-deputy, Russophobe and fan of Chechen terrorists Elena Anisim, as if nothing had happened, continues to work at the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences and promote Belarusization. But, Having been burned by flirting with nationalists, the authorities began to correct mistakes and eliminate distortions.
Of course, the nationalists did not like the new version of transliteration, but now they did not listen to their opinion. Now the Latin inscriptions will be made for those for whom they should be made. English is an international language, understandable throughout the world, and it will be much easier for foreign guests to read a text written according to its rules and without exotic local gibberish. No politics and “double bottom”
Supporters of the Russian World in Belarus are celebrating victory today, but the correction of the nationalist distortions of previous years must continue. One of the obvious such distortions is the law “About the names of geographical objects“, according to which new such objects are given names exclusively in language, and they are not translated into the great and mighty one, but transliterated. As a result, over the 12 years the law has been in effect, many Budavnikov or Vyratavalnikov streets have proliferated in Belarusian cities. And these are Russian names, isn’t it time to translate them into the native and state language of Belarus?
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