Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, formerly known by its Russian name Byelorussia or Belorussia, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe bordered by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Over 40% of its 207,600 square kilometres (80,200 sq mi) is forested. Its major economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing. Until the 20th century, different states at various times controlled the lands of modern-day Belarus, including the Principality of Polotsk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire.
The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of Slavic languages, currently spoken throughout Eastern Europe, Northern Asia, and the Caucasus. It is the group with the largest numbers of speakers, far out-numbering the Western and Southern Slavic groups. The existing East Slavic languages are Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian; Rusyn is considered to be either a separate language or a dialect of Ukrainian.
Belarusians ; also Byelorussians, are an East Slavic ethnic group who are native to modern-day Belarus and the immediate region. There are over 9.5 million people who proclaim Belarusian ethnicity worldwide, with the majority residing either in Belarus or the adjacent countries where they are an autochthonous minority.
This article describes the history of Belarus. The Belarusian ethnos is traced at least as far in time as other East Slavs.
Belarusian is an official language of Belarus, along with Russian, and is also spoken in Russia, Poland and Ukraine.
Before Belarus gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the language was only known in English as Byelorussian or Belorussian, transliterating the Russian name, белорусский язык Belorusskiy yazyk, or alternatively as White Ruthenian or White Russian. Following independence, it has acquired the additional name Belarusian.
Ruthenian or Old Ruthenian was the group of varieties of East Slavic spoken in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later in the East Slavic territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The written form is also called Chancery Slavonic by Lithuanian and Western European linguists.
The Belarusian Latin alphabet or Łacinka is the common name of the several historical alphabets to render the Belarusian (Cyrillic) text in the Latin script. It is similar to the Sorbian alphabet and incorporates features of the Polish and Czech alphabets.
Ge or Ghe is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It is also known in some languages as He. It commonly represents the voiced velar plosive, like ⟨g⟩ in "go".
Trasianka refers to a mixed form of speech in which Belarusian and Russian elements and structures alternate in rapid succession. There is a similar phenomenon in Ukraine, a Ukrainian–Russian language mixture, called surzhyk.
The Belarusian Greek Catholic Church, sometimes called, in reference to its Byzantine Rite, the Belarusian Byzantine Catholic Church, is the heir within Belarus of the Union of Brest and Ruthenian Uniate Church. It is listed in the Annuario Pontificio as a sui iuris Church, an Eastern rite particular Church in full union with the Catholic Church.
The Belarusian Arabic alphabet, or Arabica (Арабіца), was based on the Arabic script and was developed in the 16th century. It consisted of twenty-eight graphemes, including several additions to represent Belarusian phonemes not found in the Arabic language.
Belarusian Americans, also known by the somewhat dated terms Byelorussian Americans, Whiteruthenian Americans and White-Russian Americans, are Americans who are of total or partial Belarusian ancestry.
Belarusian literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by speakers of the Belarusian language.
There are two Belarusian Wikipedias : one in the orthography of the Belarusian language which is official in modern Belarus, and another one in the pre-reform of 1933, classical orthography.
The official languages of Belarus are equally Belarusian and Russian.
Belarusization was a policy of protection and advancement of the Belarusian language and recruitment and promotion of ethnic Belarusians within the government of Belarusian SSR and the Belarusian Communist Party, conducted by the government of BSSR in the 1920s.
The Belarusian national revival is a social, cultural and political movement that advocates the revival of Belarusian culture, language, customs, and the creation of the Belarusian statehood at the national foundation. Revival refers to the Belarusian nationalism and the modern Belarusian national consciousness represented by several waves starting from the 19th century.
Belarusian Braille is the braille alphabet of the Belarusian language. It is based on Russian Braille, with a couple additional letters found in the print Belarusian alphabet.
