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Shocking! Belarusian President Speaks Belarusian
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<div class="" style="width:640px"><div class=""><a href="http://gdb.rferl.org/3AB44A4B-0F6F-42F3-86E4-75071EA81942_mw1024_s_n.jpg" rel="ibox" title="The last time Lukashenka addressed the nation in Belarusian was in 1994."><img class="" alt="The last time Lukashenka addressed the nation in Belarusian was in 1994." src="http://gdb.rferl.org/3AB44A4B-0F6F-42F3-86E4-75071EA81942_w640_r1_s.jpg" border="0"></a></div>
<span class="">The last time Lukashenka addressed the nation in Belarusian was in 1994.</span></div>
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<div class=""><font color="#666666">By <span class="">Alyaksandra Dynko</span> and <span class="">Claire Bigg</span></font></div>
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July 02, 2014
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<p><span style="font-size:1em;line-height:1.45em"><span class="">B</span>elarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has stunned his nation by giving a speech...in Belarusian. </span></p>
<p>The speech, delivered to a packed audience ahead of the country's
Independence Day, was a startling departure from his longstanding habit
of belittling the language. It marks the first time in 20 years that the
iron-fisted leader formally addresses his nation in Belarusian rather
than Russian.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:1em;line-height:1.45em"></span><span style="font-size:1em;line-height:1.45em">The
move has sparked intense speculation in Belarus, with some commentators
suggesting that Lukashenka is seeking to assert his autonomy from
Russia -- a close trading and diplomatic ally -- in the wake of Moscow's
annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.</span></p>
<p>The timing -- one day before Russian President Vladimir Putin landed
in Belarus to take part in celebrations marking the 70th anniversary on
the country's liberation from Nazi troops -- has certainly raised
eyebrows.</p>
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<a href="<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w50kXWUxNe8&&">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w50kXWUxNe8&&</a>;">YouTube</a>
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<p>But Alyaksandr Fiaduta, a former spokesperson for Lukashenka, says people shouldn't read too much into it.</p>
<p>"One shouldn't assume that he's turning his back on Russia," says
Fiaduta, who parted ways with Lukashenka in 1995 and is now a respected
political analyst. "He has his own course."</p>
<p><strong>Distaste</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-size:1em;line-height:1.45em">Fiaduta actually
wrote Lukashenka's first -- and until now only -- speech in Belarusian,
which the newly elected president delivered on Independence Day in 1994.</span></p>
<p>But according to Fiaduta, the intense media scrutiny that followed had the effect of deterring Lukashenka from using Belarusian.</p>
<p>"Unfortunately, after Alyaksandr Lukashenka's first speech in
Belarusian, everyone started analyzing what it meant and how he
performed," he says. "After reading all these comments, he refused to
speak Belarusian again."</p>
<p>Since then, Lukashenka has done little to conceal his distaste for the language.</p>
<p>"People who speak in Belarusian cannot do anything other than speak
it, because you can't express anything lofty in Belarusian," he said in
1994. He went on to describe Belarusian as a "poor language" and hail
Russian and English as the two only "great languages."</p>
<p>The next year, in 1995, he elevated Russian to the status of a state
language, alongside Belarusian, following a controversial referendum.</p>
<p>Critics accuse Lukashenka of overseeing a clampdown on Belarusian
language over the past two decades, with the number of
Belarusian-language schools and publications plummeting under his rule.</p>
<p>Belarusian has a long history of being frowned upon as a substandard
language. In Soviet times, Belarusian was regarded as the language of
peasants, and those who sought to climb the social ladder spoke only
Russian, at least in public. </p>
<p>Nowadays, Belarusian is favored mostly by opposition sympathizers, nationalists, and intellectuals.</p>
<p>Most other Belarusians tend to use a hybrid of both languages called "trasianka."</p>
<p>Lukashenka's historical speech in Belarusian this week, although
slightly accented, has disproved rumors that he can't actually speak the
language.</p>
<p>It has nonetheless sparked a barrage of sarcastic comments online.</p>
<p>Political analyst Fiaduta, however, urges Belarusians to be more lenient with Lukashenka this time around.</p>
<p>"Stop joking about the president's Belarusian," Fiaduta wrote on
Facebook. "Don't scare him, or else we'll have to wait another 20
years."</p>
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<a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/shocking-belarusian-president-speaks-belarusian-lukashenka/25443432.html">http://www.rferl.org/content/shocking-belarusian-president-speaks-belarusian-lukashenka/25443432.html</a><br>
</div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br>
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