Editor of Belarusian-language weekly condemns authorities' intention to enact law to impose new uniform spelling standards

[Harold Schiffman]

 Editor of Belarusian-language weekly condemns authorities' intention to
enact law that would impose new uniform spelling and punctuation standards

*Andrey Dynko, editor-in-chief of the private Belarusian-language weekly
Nasha Niva, dismissed as politicized ignorance authorities' intention to
enact a law that would impose new uniform spelling and punctuation
standards.
*
"Some people want to politicize the Belarusian language and offer some
political disputes about linguistic matters," he commented to
*BelaPAN<http://belapan.com/>
*. "Neither the authorities, nor the nation need this."

Mr. Dynko noted that 55 percent of all Belarusian-language texts in the
Internet follow the classical spelling tradition known as Tarashkevitsa, the
traditional version of the written Belarusian language replaced in 1933 by a
Russianized version currently in predominant use. "This shows what type of
spelling is the most popular among the real speakers of the Belarusian
language," Mr. Dynko stressed. He noted that people who want to make the
Stalinist spelling obligatory continue Stalin's policy regarding Belarus.
"But we all know that that policy was aimed at erasing the national
peculiarities of the Belarusians," he said.

Mr. Dynko noted that there was "no tragedy" in what he described as a rather
expensive effort by a group of linguists who devised the new rules.
"However, they won't dare ban the Belarusian language. And all other things
wouldn't be fatal to the Belarusians, a nation that has seen much worse," he
said.

Mr. Dynko expressed confidence that uniform spelling would one day be
introduced in Belarus. "However, this may only be the result of joint
efforts by linguists and the Belarusian-speaking community, a consensus
among all the people who really speak Belarusian," he said.

According to Mr. Dynko, the Nasha Niva will be guided by the Belarusians'
national interests after new rules have been adopted.
 http://naviny.by/rubrics/inter/2007/07/13/ic_news_259_273825/

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