Way to Russia Talk Lounge

manxi · Last edited by manxi on Sat Oct 29, 2005 12:07 pm; edited 1 time in total

Hi

Do people from Belarus speak a different form of Russian to people in Russia? (I know they have their own language too). I have found a teacher who is from Belarus and says her mother tongue is Russian but I'm not too sure about this. I did learn some Russian from a Ukrainian woman a few years ago who told me her mother tongue was Russian but a lot of what she taught me was actually Ukrainian or not quite correct Russian.

mss · Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:16 am Post subject:

Native russians can understand Belorussian and Ukranian languages quite good. But if you learned Russian and it is not your native languge - you will have a big problem understanding those languages.

But one more thing - nearly half of Ukrainian (eastern territories) and most Belorussian citizens speaks russian in everyday life. Though It's not pure russian - it is some dialect.

Rick · Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:27 am Post subject:

About 2 years ago i saw a documentary made by students from Groningen in Belarus, at their friend's university in Minsk. Besides the story on this student's organisation's activism for democratization, one of the subjects was repression of the native/traditional Belorussian language. It seemed that it was not even the formal language of the country, unlike in Ukraine.

manxi · Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 12:47 pm Post subject:

Hmm thanks for the replies. Still not sure whether this is a good idea. It will be difficult enough making myself understood with an English accent without using a dialect as well.

In Germany, different regions have their own dialect, in some cases pronounciation is just a bit different and a few words vary but in other regions dialects can be so strong that I found them almost impossible to understand at first. So when you learn German, it makes sense to learn Hochdeutsch which everyone understands and try to acquire an accent that is easily understood.

Is there a regional variety of Russian which is generally considered to be the purest or "best" in the sense that it is sounds good and is grammatically correct? For example, in the UK I would say standard English (grammar and vocab) with RP (received pronounciation) would be understood everywhere although that is not the spoken variety of the majority of the population. It would make more sense for a foreigner to try and learn an approximation of that variety of UK English.

Чебурашка · Talk Show Host Joined: 23 Sep 2005 Posts: 218

I believe in Russia it was St. Petersburg that has this reputation. But maybe let the Russian forumites quarrel over that for us Razz

Ekaterina · Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 5:25 pm Post subject:

There is no matter to quarrel about. It is definitely St. Petersburg.

manxi · Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 5:29 pm Post subject:

Ekaterina, I struggled along through my Assimil CD course with different sounding Russian voices on it but I wouldn't have a clue about the origin of the speakers. Can you explain what the difference is in the way Russian is spoken in Moscow and St. Petersburg?

I am a bit tempted to learn an obscurer variety though just to see the expression on people's faces. Love to hear a Russian speaking with a Glaswegian accent for example, not that I would understand a word of it!