Belarusan or Belarusian

[William Ryan]

There is no 'correct' way in English to form adjectives from the names 
of places (England/English, France/French, Norway/Norwegian, 
Congo/Congolese, Liverpool/Liverpudlian, Glasgow/Glaswegian, Isle of 
Man/Manx, Switzerland/Swiss, Holland/Dutch). Since Belarus is a recent 
creation we shall just have to see which form wins out. At present both 
are in common use in print and on the Internet. Both -an and -ian are 
historically possible suffixes in English (deriving ultimately from 
Latin). 'Belarusan' seems like a logical formation, but 'Belarusian' is 
easier on the ear because of the earlier 'Belorussian' and the very 
large number of place adjectives ending in -ian. US and British official 
websites seem to use 'Belarusian' which gives it a kind of authority. 
What Belorusans/Belorusians think about it is neither here nor there - 
this is a question of English.
Will Ryan

nataliek at UALBERTA.CA wrote:
> Dear Fellow Slavists,
>
> I am resending this message since the first one did not seem to go 
> through.  If I end up sending this message twice, I apologize in advance.
>
> I need a ruling on correct usage.  What is the proper way to form an 
> adjective from Belarus?  (And also the proper way to refer to a person 
> from that country).  I thought it was Belarusan.  But a graduate 
> student who is doing some copy editing for me and is from Belarus 
> herself corrected it to Belarusian.  Which is correct?
>
>
>
> Natalie Kononenko
> Kule Chair of Ukrainian Ethnography
> University of Alberta
> Modern Languages and Cultural Studies
> 200 Arts Building
> Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E6
> Phone: 780-492-6810
> Web: http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/uvp/
>
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-- 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emeritus Professor W. F. Ryan FBA, FSA
Warburg Institute
(School of Advanced Study, University of London)
Woburn Square
LONDON WC1H 0AB

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