How Belarusian names new things - by borrowing, by building from its own roots, or by bringing an old word back - and why the choice is not only linguistic.
I can use modern Belarusian vocabulary for technology and institutions and choose consistently between competing names.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Спампуй файл і адкрый яго ў браўзеры.
Download the file and open it in the browser.
Спасылка на артыкул унізе старонкі.
The link to the article is at the bottom of the page.
Добры дзень, спадарыня Алеся.
Good afternoon, Ms Alesia.
Наклад кнігі - тысяча асобнікаў.
The print run is a thousand copies.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Every language meeting a new thing chooses between taking the foreign word, building one from its own material, and reviving something it already had. Belarusian uses all three, and unusually often uses two at once, so a concept may have competing names.
The default for technology: кампутар, сайт, файл, інтэрнэт, смартфон, браўзер. They are adapted to Belarusian phonetics and then decline normally.
| Coinage | Meaning | Built from |
|---|---|---|
| спампаваць | to download | пампаваць, to pump |
| сеціва | the web | сетка, a net |
| спасылка | a link | спасылацца, to refer |
| кіраўнік | manager, head | кіраваць, to steer |
| адлюстраванне | display, reflection | люстра, a mirror |
These are transparent: a speaker who has never met спампаваць can work it out. That transparency is the argument for coinage over borrowing.
Some words were not invented but brought back from older usage or from dialect because the gap they filled reopened: спадар and спадарыня as forms of address, установа for an institution, наклад for a print run. Revival is the strategy that carries the most weight outside linguistics, because choosing спадар over the alternatives is visibly a choice.
You will meet more than one word for the same modern thing, and neither is wrong: сеціва alongside інтэрнэт, кампутар alongside камп'ютар as spellings. Independent media tend to the coined forms, official and technical writing to the borrowed ones. Pick according to where you are writing, and be consistent.
New nouns are still being made with the ordinary machinery: -нік for an agent (спампоўшчык, наладнік), -ня for a place (кавярня, друкарня), -асць for a quality (даступнасць), -ванне for a process (абнаўленне).
Apply this grammar in C1 course exercises
Practice ExercisesTypical errors: mixing competing names within one text, and assuming a coined word is slang.
Mixing competing names within one text
Choose сеціва or інтэрнэт and keep to it.
Treating a coined word as slang
Спампаваць and спасылка are neutral working vocabulary.
Leaving a borrowing unadapted
Borrowings take Belarusian phonetics and decline.
Using a Russian suffix to coin a word
The productive set is -нік, -ня, -асць, -ванне.
Спампуй файл і адкрый яго ў браўзеры.
Download the file and open it in the browser.
A coinage and a borrowing in one sentence - both normal.
Спасылка на артыкул унізе старонкі.
The link to the article is at the bottom of the page.
<em>Спасылка</em> is built from <em>спасылацца</em>, and is transparent.
Добры дзень, спадарыня Алеся.
Good afternoon, Ms Alesia.
A revived form of address, and a visible choice.
Наклад кнігі - тысяча асобнікаў.
The print run is a thousand copies.
<em>Наклад</em> is a revived word, now standard in publishing.
У сеціве пра гэта ўжо пісалі.
This has already been written about online.
<em>Сеціва</em> from <em>сетка</em>, competing with <em>інтэрнэт</em>.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in C1 course exercises