page_title: Belarusian language
hierarchical_section_title: Belarusian language
caption_attribution_description: Español: &#160; Donde es mayoritario&#160; Donde es minoritarioEnglish: Belorussian speakers:&#160; Majority&#160; Minority
context_page_description: Belarusian is an East Slavic language spoken by Belarusians. It is the official language of Belarus, along with Russian. It is additionally spoken in parts of Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Ukraine by Belarusian minorities in those countries.
  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.
  As one of the East Slavic languages, Belarusian shares many grammatical and lexical features with other members of the group. To some extent, Russian, Rusyn, Ukrainian, and Belarusian are all mutually intelligible, effectively forming a dialect continuum. Its predecessor stage is known as Ruthenian, in turn descended from Old East Slavic.
  In the first Belarus Census of 1999, the Belarusian language was declared as a "language spoken at home" by about 3,686,000 Belarusian citizens. About 6,984,000 of Belarusians declared it their "mother tongue".
context_section_description: Belarusian (/bɛləˈruːsiən, -ʒən, -ʃən/; беларуская мова biełaruskaja mova [bʲelaˈruskaja ˈmova]) is an East Slavic language spoken by Belarusians. It is the official language of Belarus, along with Russian. It is additionally spoken in parts of Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Ukraine by Belarusian minorities in those countries.
  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 (/ruːˈθiːniən/) or White Russian. Following independence, it has acquired the additional name Belarusian.
  As one of the East Slavic languages, Belarusian shares many grammatical and lexical features with other members of the group. To some extent, Russian, Rusyn, Ukrainian, and Belarusian are all mutually intelligible, effectively forming a dialect continuum. Its predecessor stage is known as Ruthenian (14th to 17th centuries), in turn descended from Old East Slavic (10th to 13th centuries).
  In the first Belarus Census of 1999, the Belarusian language was declared as a "language spoken at home" by about 3,686,000 Belarusian citizens (36.7% of the population). About 6,984,000 (85.6%) of Belarusians declared it their "mother tongue". Other sources, such as Ethnologue, put the figure at approximately 2.5 million active speakers.
  According to a study done by the Belarusian government in 2009, 72% of Belarusians speak Russian at home, while Belarusian is actively used by only 11.9% of Belarusians. Approximately 29.4% of Belarusians can write, speak, and read Belarusian, while 52.5% can only read and speak it.
  In the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, the Belarusian language is stated to be vulnerable.
caption: Belarusian-speaking world
  Legend: Dark blue - territory where Belarusian is the primary language; Light blue - historical range[5]
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