Editor of Belarusian-language Weekly Condemns New Spelling Standards
BelaPAN
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. "Neither the authorities, nor the nation need this."
Andrey 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," Andrey 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.
Andrey 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.
Andrey 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 Andrey Dynko, the Nasha Niva will be guided by the Belarusians' national interests after new rules have been adopted.