Thread: belarus and the ukraine

In that respect, I think it's actually culturally credible to keep the different names for each respective language, rather than mimick the homeland's self-titling.It tells a story about the relationship of the target country and the country whose doing the refering.It says something about Russia's relationship with German people.I can see that value.It'd actually be good to have a book which tells the story of how all our (in my case English) names for countries came into being.What they meant in the old tongue at the time of the title's conception.

Originally Posted by Pravit

Agreed. Most Americans think that Thai refers to Taiwan.

ROTFL!

Oh, that was so funny, I had to show it to my dear old Mum. She was nearly rolling!!

Bandera, that is really funny!

Sorry to press, but; are Ukranian, Russian and Belorussian mutually intelligible?

Yes and no. Russians can understand written Ukrainian and Belorussian with some effort, although from what I've heard it's harder for them to understand these languages when they're spoken.

Is it true that belarussian language is officialy forbiden in Belarus? Many Belarussians living in Poland sticks to it more than to russian.

Originally Posted by Michal 23 PL

Is it true that belarussian language is officialy forbiden in Belarus? Many Belarussians living in Poland sticks to it more than to russian.

I don't think so. Most people in Belorussia speak both belorussian and russian except of some old folks who live in villages far from large cities, they speak belorussian only.

Originally Posted by Pravit

Agreed. Most Americans think that Thai refers to Taiwan.

It's not? Then what the hell does it mean?

Originally Posted by Евгения Белякова

Bandera, that is really funny!

Yea it's also really really old too. Someone else posted it literally like 2 years ago. *yawn*.

anywayz, all this talking about Belarus & Ukraine.....I'm wondering why
"white" Russia.....(the bela thing)
does anyone here know its origin?

How do you actually spell Belorus in English? Is it Belorus, or Belarus?

Belarus, Belarusian

if you really think about it all slovinic languages basiclly stem from
one old cryillic language, but after years of closed boarders have allowed each country to change in its own way, I also have
heard that many people from ukraine only speak russian, but the difference is very small. is this language disappearing? does anyone know??

I think in ukrain most people speak russian and know some ukrainian. There are probably not too many people who don't know any russian at all... but they could be found mostly in the western side of the country, around lvov'.

I know people from belarus, russia and ukraine, and they all speak to
eachother in white russian, but when native speakers speak to eachother in a western ukraininan toung, no one will understand, if at all, very little.
and they like it like that!

Originally Posted by tim

but after years of closed boardersquote]
These countries were all a part of the Soviet Union. I don't think it would have been that difficult to go from Kiev to Moscow back in 1980.

they all speak to
eachother in white russian

Seriously?

Originally Posted by Pravit

Originally Posted by tim

but after years of closed boardersquote]
These countries were all a part of the Soviet Union. I don't think it would have been that difficult to go from Kiev to Moscow back in 1980.

they all speak to
eachother in white russian

Seriously?

Most Belorussians don't even speak Belorussian, so finding a Russian and Ukrainian who speak it aswell is highly unlikely.

I'm afraid, Tim, you were misled - probability of this happening is very low, as if Irish, Scottish and Englander (if such name exists) would start talking in Gaelic when they meet.

Quote=taty. no. what I ment was they speak standard " white" russian,
not belarussian, I disagree on the fact that belarussians dont speak belarussian, they take great pride in the difference between the two, but when they speak they almost always use standard russian and never bellarussian, I find that very weird. but yes. I have heard the republic
of belarus is trying to take bellarussian out of schools. quote " closed boarders" not in 1980, maybe the year 1200 a.d.! russian was creathe by a monk around that time, and from then on people started to create their own dialect of it. eg.polish, slovak. ukrine....

sorry for the misunderstanding.