etymology of Belarus

[curt fredric woolhiser]

> >
> > I was wondering whether someone from the list could offer me a
>brief explanation on etymology of the name Belarus?
> >
> > best,
> > ludomir lozny
>
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There are quite a number of different theories, most of them quite
fanciful, that have arisen over the years to explain the origin of
the "bel-" in "Belarus."  Here are the most common explanations:

1) the name reflects the typically fair complexion of the
Belarusians, as compared with the generally darker-complexioned
Ukrainians.
2) "bel-" refers to the predominance of white garments in the
traditional Belarusian folk costume
3) the name is derived from toponyms with the root "bel-" on the
Belarusian speech territory (especially its westernmost part (i.e.
now in Poland): Belastok -- Bialystok, Bielsk, Belavezha, etc.). (cf.
the medieval name "Chervonnaja Rus'" (Red Rus'), applied to the
western Ukrainian territories around the regional center of Cherven')
4) the name reflects the Tatar (or some other unspecified Oriental)
practice of associating the points of the compass with different
colors: "white" supposedly meaning "west" or "north".
5) the name is a reference to the more severe winters of Belarus as
compared with central Ukraine (the original Rus'skaja zemlja)
6) the name implies nobility/freedom as opposed to servitude (cf. the
Russian distinction between "belaja kost'" (white bone) = nobility
vs. "chernaja kost'" (peasantry)

Contemporary scholarly opinion (both in Belarus and abroad) leans
toward the view that the name "Belarus"/"Belaja Rus'" arose in the
14th century as a designation for those lands of the former Kievan
confederation that did not pay tribute to the Mongol-Tatars ("white"
here meaning "free from payment of tribute" -- so there is a certain
connection here with the "belaja kost'"/"chernaja kost'" distinction
mentioned above). Interestingly, however, the name "Belaja Rus'" was
not applied to the same territory throughout history; it is first
used in connection with some of the northeastern territories of Rus'
that had not yet been subjugated by the Mongols, and later came to be
applied to the eastern part of modern Belarus and the Smolensk region
of Russia (considered ethnolinguistically Belarusian by folklorists
and linguists in the 19th century). It was only in the second half of
the 19th century that the term "Belarus" came to be applied to the
entire Belarusian ethnographic and linguistic territory, including
areas that had previously been known simply as "Litva" (cf.
Brest-Litovsk; even "Minsk Litewski" in the Polish tradition, to
distinguish it from the town of Minsk in Mazovia).
        To make the situation even more complicated, the Navahradak
region in western Belarus, previously an outpost of the principality
of Halych-Volyn' on the Slavic-Baltic frontier, was known for a time
in the Middle Ages as "Black Rus'"  (Chornaja Rus') (Novhorodok >
Navahradak (Lithuanian Naugardukas) is considered by Belarusians to
have been the first capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, under
Mindovh/Mindaugas). Again, one finds a number of theories as to why
"Black" was used in the designation, although the most likely
explanation is that this was the first part of Belarusian territory
to be incorporated into the Grand Duchy, hence passing from "white"
(independent, free from payment of tribute) to "black" status, at
least from the standpoint of the as yet independent principalities of
Polatsk and Smolensk.
        As an ethnonym referring to the inhabitants of the entire
Belarusian ethnolinguistic territory, the term "Belarusian" is of
quite recent origin. In fact, before the late 19th century,
Belarusians were usually called by their neighbors, and sometimes
called themselves "Litviny" (based on their long association with the
historical Lithuania, this is not surprising), as well as "rusiny"
(particularly those of the Orthodox and Uniate as opposed to Roman
Catholic faith). The Old Belarusian/Ruthenian language that
functioned as the official chancellery language of the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania from the 14th to the 17th centuries was called by its users
"prosty ruski jazyk"/"prostaja ruskaja mova" (the simple Rus'
language, in contrast to Church Slavonic, the language of the
Orthodox church), although 16th-17th century Muscovite sources refer
to it as either "litovskii jazyk" or "belorusskij jazyk."
Interestingly, a Russian diplomat who visited Vilnius/Vilnia in the
early 18th century noted in his memoirs that in the surrounding
villages, some peasants spoke a "separate Lithuanian language"
(osobyj litovskij jazyk), evidently not Polish or the Belarusian
dialects that Russians were accustomed to calling "Lithuanian."
Incidentally, as recently as the early 20th century, ethnic Russians
and Ukrainians in border regions like Smolensk and west Polesie
referred to neighboring Belarusian dialect speakers as
"litviny/lytvyny" and their speech as "po-litovski/po-lytovs'komu".
Dal's dictionary also has an interesting example of this use of the
word "litvin" by Russians to refer to Belarusians: "tol'ko mertvyj
litvin ne dzeknet" ("only a dead Litvin won't say it with dzekan'e"
-- dzekan'e: a fairly salient (evidently, at least to Russians)
feature of Belarusian pronunciation: the pronunciation of palatalized
alveolar affricates in place of palalized dental stops, e.g.
Belarusian [dz"ec"i] 'children' vs. Russian [d'et'i]).
        The form "Belorusec," alongside "Litvin", also shows up in
17th-century Muscovite documents in reference to the Belarusian
merchants and craftsmen (both prisoners of war and voluntary emigres)
who were resettled in Moscow's "Meshchanskaja sloboda" in large
numbers during and after the 1654-1667 war between Muscovy and
Poland-Lithuania. While Belarusian-speaking (and after the mid-17th
century, mainly Polish-speaking) elites in the GDL often referred to
themselves as "Litviny/Litwini", most Belarusian-speaking peasants
simply identified themselves as "tutejshy" (local), and after the
abolition of the Uniate Church in 1839, may have added that they were
"ruskaj very" (of the Rus' faith) or "pol'skaj very" (of the Polish
faith) if they happened to be Roman Catholic. The use of the term
"Belarusian" for self-identification by Belarusians appears to have
become common only since the early 20th century with the
establishment of Belarus as a political entity (the Belarusian
Democratic Republic (1918) and the BSSR (1922)). Significantly, in
those parts of the Belarusian ethnolinguistic territory that lie
outside the borders of the modern Belarusian state, for example the
southern Vilnius region in Lithuania, the western Smolensk and
Brjansk regions of Russia, and the Bialystok region of Poland, the
percentage of Belarusian dialect speakers of local origin, whether
Orthodox or Catholic, who identify themselves as Belarusians is quite
small, probably less than 10% in the first two regions, and no more
than 20% in the latter.


========================================
Curt F. Woolhiser
Dept. of Slavic Languages
and Literatures
Calhoun 415
University of Texas
Austin, TX 78713-7217 USA

Tel. (512) 232-9133, (512) 471-3607
Fax: (512) 471-6710
Email: cfwoolhiser at mail.utexas.edu
Slavic Department Home Page:
http://www.dla.utexas.edu/depts/slavic/
========================================

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