On Lukashenka: some tangents

[KatkouskiV]

Dear Tsuji,

What a wonderful message! You managed to express yourself rather
clear! To summarize your message: (1) The question of Belarusan
language's existence is purely political, (2) and thus it is not
a topic worth dicussing by wise linguists like yourself.

Got the point. Thank you very much, sir, for your invaluable input.
The only way out for me now is to withdraw from this useless
discussion I suppose. Which I will do.

Iskrenne Vash,
VLADIMIR KATKOVSKI

>Hello everyone,
>as is already mentioned, the matter started purely as a political
>issue (a government forbidding a certain method of expression) and
>there seems to be little to be gained by extending the discussion
>into whether Belarusan is a "language" or not, which is also a
>political discussion.
>
>Political matters are always emotional matters as well. The distance of
>two speaks/Sprache or "linguistic family units" may be measured by
>so many ways (typically by the assumed date when they were separated), but
>there are also "emotional distance" as well. Look at Chinese. Their dialects
>were already noticeable thousands of years ago, yet they are considered to
>be part of a language. And English. People in Devonshire are heard to
>speak "hart" for "hot" which reminds us of a rival foreign language, and
>people with a broad dialect still say "be" for "am". But West countries are
>inseparable from England and the English language, no doubt about that.
>
>As  to the question why Japanese adopted Chinese civilization, the answer is
>easy: the Japanese language was be a primitive language (eighth century) and
>could not cope with civilization on its own. Switching to Chinese was the
>only choice. Anomalies began when the official written language ceased to
>be Chinese but English did not take its place (at about 1870). A minister
>of education proposed a reform to that effect, but no one else in the cabinet
>took it seriously. Incidentally, he also encouraged intermarriage -- sorry,
>to have sounded too old-fashioned -- with British women, which will remain
>as a utopia. The last attempt took place when the British
>Empire was dissolved and a new Commonwealth of Nations was to be formed:
>the then prime minister of Japan, an Etonian, sent a letter (to the Queen,
>I think) asking to let Japan in it. Too bizzar an idea, that was. Never mind,
>Japan is going to be an unwelcome 51st State of America soon.
>
>  Lukashenko should not be blamed for using Russian or heading towards
>integration with Russia, but for depriving people of basic human rights.
>If Lukashenko's policy were supported by the majority and the right of the
>minority were well respected, there shouldn't be a problem at all whatever
>the language policy may be. The problem has nothing to do with linguistics.
>Is that clear?
>
>Cheers,
>Tsuji

 Uladzimir Katkouski
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