Liliya Plygavka, Republic of Lithuania, Vilnius
The modern cultural map of the Republic of Lithuania is characterized by polyphony, which on the one hand strives to comprehend the value of each national minority in complex combination with the culture of the titular nation, and on the other hand, by active integration processes.
In this regard, Southeastern Lithuania (the Vilnius region) stands out significantly — a unique multicultural region where representatives of different ethnic groups have lived side by side for centuries in relatively compact communities. United by a common fate as a result of various circumstances and having experienced certain mutual influences of cultural traditions and values, they have preserved their national distinctiveness.
Thanks to this, a special type of local culture has formed, based on mutual tolerance and excluding ethnic and religious conflicts. It is also characterized by a distinctive type of personality, one that freely navigates several cultures, speaks several languages, and is more open to cultural innovations.
Each national group in Lithuania lives a rich cultural life and thus significantly influences the cultural-civilizational space of the country, primarily through the transmission of certain elements that depend quantitatively and qualitatively on the political, economic, and other circumstances. National traditions, the native language, and education serve as such defining components.
At present, Belarusians in Lithuania are the third largest national minority and predominantly reside in Vilnius, Klaipeda, Siauliai, Visaginas, Druskininkai, Kaunas, and Palanga.
By length of residence, they can be conditionally divided into two groups: 1. the autochthonous population, which has preserved its traditional culture and authentic folklore; 2. those who came to Lithuania after World War II for work or study.
The specificity of the multicultural region leaves its mark on the relationships between people in cultural, everyday, political, and economic spheres. In the culture of Belarusians of the Vilnius region, we find certain features of Polish, Russian, Lithuanian, and other cultures, and in the cultures of these peoples — certain features of Belarusian culture.
The traditional culture of Belarusians manifests itself in the preservation of national customs and their introduction into the foreign national cultural environment. In such cases, integration creates a distinctive socio-cultural backdrop against which cultural features do not stand out but rather create a synthesized picture of worldview.
The existence of national culture is impossible without the realization of national image-symbols and ethnic stereotypes reflecting national mentality. These images retain the ethno-cultural information characteristic of the people and, being a national feature, simultaneously transition into the category of general cultural structures. The invariant signs of Belarusians in Lithuania reflect folklore, natural-climatic features (forest, field, swamp), archaic features of paganism, pages of history, ethnographic features of the region
(cuisine, clothing, everyday life), and certain character traits (industriousness, kindness, equanimity, tolerance, etc.).
The sphere of Belarusian language use in the republic can be defined in three aspects: 1. the manifestation of Belarusian linguistic element influence in the speech of representatives of all national groups of the Vilnius region; 2. the use of the Belarusian literary language in professional cultural-educational institutions; 3. the functioning of the Belarusian dialectal language in the area of the Belarusian-Lithuanian borderland.
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Belarusian influence in the speech of non-Belarusian informants is observed at all levels, but most notably at the lexical and syntactic levels, for example: the use of lexemes bulba, buraki, tsybulya, agrast for the names of agricultural crops, skhodki “steps,” farby “paint,” falbony “ruffles”; syntactic interference constructions in prepositional government: khodit pod galstukom: Bel. khoddzits pad galshtukom, Russ. khodit v galstuke (the preposition pod in the meaning of the preposition v “in”); mne golova bolit: Bel. mne galava balits, Russ. u menya golova bolit (preposition u + gen. case of noun + verb).
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Speaking of the realization of the Belarusian literary language, first and foremost it should be noted that it is used in the sphere of education: this includes not only the teaching of most school subjects in the Belarusian school and some subjects (History of Belarus, History of Belarusian Culture) at the pedagogical university, but also partially in record-keeping, extracurricular educational, and other pedagogical activities.
Since any language is a means of perceiving reality by a specific people, the tasks of teaching the Belarusian language as a native or foreign language are addressed separately depending on the learner cohort. The latter concerns higher education, since for the majority of students — graduates of Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian schools — it is not their native language and they did not study it at school.
Therefore, Belarusian language programs take into account such factors as the priority of the state language and culture, the polylinguistic and polycultural features of the region, and the specifics of its teaching in a foreign-language environment.
Mass media, alongside the school, are one of the most effective means of spiritual and intellectual influence on the individual, which is why it is important for a specific national group to exercise this influence in its native language. The Belarusian language is actualized in Lithuania in print, on radio, and television in volumes corresponding to the quantitative ratio of Belarusians to the rest of the nationalities in the country.
- The Belarusian dialectal language has a stable area of distribution in the districts adjacent to Belarus and exerts significant influence practically across the entire territory of the Vilnius region, although it is often perceived as a dialect of Polish. In this zone, it functions as a means of communication as a native language, with a large advantage or on equal footing with the regional Polish language, and is used predominantly in everyday contacts.
Under the influence of the Catholic church, the Belarusian language is perceived as “simple” Polish speech and is often called by the neutral words “local,” “tutejshaya” (from here), “simple.” The speakers of the “simple language” mostly identify themselves as Poles and their language as a dialect of Polish, although upon closer examination one can assert that it corresponds to the dialect of the Belarusian language of the western regions of Belarus.
It was precisely on the basis of the Minsk-Vilnius dialects that B. Tarashkevich for the first time in his “Belarusian Grammar for Schools” (Vilnius, 1919) formulated the regularities and orthographic norms of the Belarusian language and designated its national nature.
Performing a social function, language on the one hand influences the formation and development of the national self-consciousness of the individual, and on the other hand, promotes the integration of cultures and their spiritual values.
The Belarusian education system, which includes such important elements as education in the native language, teaching of the native language, and the study of Belarusian history and culture, gives the right to acquire knowledge in the native language to all who wish, helps Belarusians adapt to a foreign-language environment, and obtain further professional training not only in Lithuania but also in Belarus.
Currently, the Belarusian education system includes the following components: the Belarusian department of the Faculty of Slavistics at the Vilnius Pedagogical University, the F. Skaryna secondary school, primary classes and two general education classes with Belarusian language instruction as a subject at a Russian school in Visaginas, and a number of study groups, elective courses, and Sunday schools in various cities of Lithuania.
Certain guarantees for the successful functioning of the entire system of education in the Belarusian language in Lithuania are provided by interstate agreements in the field of education and protection of the rights of national minorities, for example: cooperation agreements between the Ministries of Education and Science (December 1997) and the Departments for National Affairs (March 2000) of the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Lithuania.
Thus, the Belarusian cultural space in Lithuania represents itself in the general cultural panorama of the country on equal terms with others, primarily in the traditional-folklore, linguistic, and educational spheres. Its comprehensive study allows us to identify how Belarusians evaluate themselves as a national identity and determine their place among other national groups, as well as how their culture, by influencing the formation and development of national consciousness of the individual, promotes the integration of spiritual values of different cultures.
References
A. Lis. Pesniu — u spadchynu. Mn., 1989, pp. 75—104.
Plyhawka, L.: Determinanty funktsyyanavannya belaruskay natsyyanalnay shkoly w ahulinaadukatsyynay prastory Litvy // Determinanty hramadskikh pratsesau i natsyyanalnyya patrebby lyudzyey. Brest-Plotsk, 2001, pp. 51—60.
Savich, M.: Utvarennie, mezhy raspavsyudzhannya i asnowyya kharaktarystyki belaruskikh havorak Litvy // Vestsi ANM. 1997. No. 2, pp. 28—31.
Sudnik, T.: Dialekty litovsko-slavyanskogo pogranichya. Opyt fonologicheskikh sistem. Mn., 1975.