After I found out I was coming to Belarus, I soon discovered that there was the Belarusian, as well as the Russian, language. Unfortunately, the British tax payer can only afford to pay for me to learn one language, and that is Russian.
I’ve learnt a few words of Belarusian. I’ve enjoyed the months: Студзень (studzien or “cold” for January) has just finished, and we’ve entered Люты (luty “frosty”, or February). My favourite is November “Лiстапад” (Listapad) – “leaf fall”, the sort of poetic word that is easy to remember. But, confusingly, Listopad is October in some other Slavic languages, presumably a left over from the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
English is a hybrid language: of “old English” rooted from the Anglo-Saxons who came to the British Isles from what is today Germany in the fifth century AD; and French, brought over by the Normans after 1066. English has also assimilated words from many other languages, so that the lexicon is very wide.
Despite its success in the world, English still isn’t the only language spoken in Britain. About half a million still speak Welsh in Wales, and there are small communities who speak Scottish Gaelic in north-west Scotland and Cornish in south-west England. We sometimes call these regions the “Celtic fringe” of Britain.
Over the Christmas and New Year holiday, I read a biography of Pushkin. Although he may be “the founder of modern Russian literature”, his work is not as well known to British readers as Tolstoy or Chekov. That may be because it is difficult to capture all the meaning of his verse in translation, or that fewer people read poetry, especially nineteenth century poetry, but prefer reading novels instead.
The biography told me that Pushkin read Byron’s poetry in the original English, and Byron influenced Pushkin’s work, especially Eugene Onegin. I couldn’t find any references to show that Pushkin actually spoke English. He knew the British ambassador in St Petersburg, but they apparently conversed in French.
I wonder what Pushkin would have made of the primacy of the English language today? I can imagine he would be frustrated with the pronunciation. Unfortunately, English is not a phonetic language – the pronunciation doesn’t follow the spelling. My frustration in trying to improve my Russian is “ударение”, the stress in pronouncing a word, especially understanding when it changes.
Just as Pushkin read Byron, so I hope readers in Belarus will gain a better understanding of my country as a result of reading this blog. One great advantage of English is that words rarely change; for example nearly all words in the plural end in “s”, and grammar is straightforward. In that respect, English is very accessible, especially reading it. But, as an English speaker, I would say that, wouldn’t I?