In addition to the fairy tales, legends, myths, and our history that we have discussed, a significant part of the Belarusian heritage is the Belarusian language. But has it always been the same as it is today? How did our ancestors speak? Have other languages not influenced Belarusian? What about russian, for example? Recently, it has become increasingly common to hear that Belarusian is entirely derived from russian. Some people treat it as if it were merely a dialect. And as an example, people point to another common misconception: the idea that our swear words are “not Belarusian.”
By the way, this episode of the podcast will focus precisely on that topic. Because one of the most interesting ways to trace the history of a language and any influences on it, if there were any, is through profanity.
We spoke with Uladzislau Harbacki, who is a political scientist, sociolinguist, and gender studies researcher. He has lived in Vilnius for 11 years and teaches university courses on language and society. For the past six years, he has been working on one of his many academic projects: creating a comprehensive dictionary of curses (Belarusian: klyatsboniki) and other profanity. [Translator’s note: The term “klyatsboniki” has no direct English equivalent. It refers to inventive, metaphorical verbal “curses” that are expressive rather than magical or literal.] The dictionary is already in its final stage of preparation.
It would be a mistake to assume that cultured languages are free of profanity. Likewise, one cannot assume that a language with obscene vocabulary is uncivilized. These are stereotypes. “Profanity has always existed in all languages, both dead and living,” notes the linguist.
“Every language has its own unique set of profanity. From a scientific perspective, profanity is a form of lexical diversity. People always try to name, define, and categorize every phenomenon. Of course, though, we need to consider not only linguistic factors but also extralinguistic ones. Psychological factors, for example. Words are used for release and expression.”
Therefore, of course, Belarus has its own native swear words, too. The question is whether we truly know the language or just think we do.
Profanity is also a kind of map. By studying changes in profanity, one can trace historical, geographical, and everyday life changes. Additionally, profanity can reveal the existence of particular dialects or ways of thinking. For example, researcher have observed unique profanity usage patterns in Belarus. In some regions, more vulgar Common Slavic forms are used. In others, traditional curses called “klyatsboniki” are used that sound stronger yet are not related to ordinary profanity.
In his dictionary work and research, Uladzislau pays close attention to the language of those around him, taking note of all its unique features. This is why he has so many interesting stories about words being used in unexpected ways.
For example, he recalled a time when he was riding on a crowded tram in Vitebsk and a man was “manspreading,” taking up several seats. A woman approached the man and bluntly said, “Better do your airing at home. Let me sit.” And this word “airing” sounded funny and unexpected yet apt. As the researcher explained, such words may be somewhat coarse, but they are very much alive. They are born directly from the rhythm and context of people’s language.
[Translator’s note: The original Belarusian word prasushka means “drying” or “airing,” but in this context, it subtly refers to the male genital area. A more literal translation would introduce an offensive euphemism and diminish the humor. Here, it is translated as “airing” to preserve the humor associated with manspreading.]
Another example is the curse that Uladzislau heard while traveling through a village. A young tractor driver from Orsha had been sent there, but he was trying to figure out where everything was located. He arrived with his tractor and started digging not across the road, where the collective farm’s field was located, but right where an old woman had her garden. At that moment, she was talking with Uladzislau. Outraged by the young driver’s behavior, she turned to him and shouted, “What are you doing? Let them dig your grave like that!”
As you can see, these are neither typical insults nor modern expressions. They stem from the traditional Belarusian style of cursing, in which insults take the form of frightening yet metaphorical wishes rather than obscene language. Uladzislau considers these curses to be a true cultural phenomenon that endures in everyday life.
Dialectal features also comprise a significant portion of Belarusian profanity. In the Vitebsk region, for instance, there are words such as “shlykhats’” and “shlykhacca,” which carry coarse or brutal sexual connotations. Though rarely found in literary language, these words persist in local speech and are passed down from generation to generation. They create a unique layer of folk expressiveness. The researcher emphasizes that these “little golden pieces” of the dialect are an important element of our cultural memory because they help us understand how the linguistic consciousness of Belarusians was formed.
While discussing swearing, we also touched on a broader context: russification and the gradual disappearance of the Belarusian linguistic heritage.
On the one hand, we increasingly hear the opinion that some insults are “not ours” because they were supposedly borrowed from other languages, such as russian. However, Uladzislau’s research shows the opposite. We have our own systems, traditions, contexts, and even entire classes of ethnolinguistic phenomena that are not found in russian profanity. Words considered exclusively russian, Polish, Ukrainian, or Lithuanian are often actually common to all Slavic languages. In other words, these words did not originate in any particular country, but rather existed everywhere simultaneously. They were recorded in different languages’ dictionaries in the same form. For example, the well-known word “blyat’” is a common Slavic word, not specifically russian.
On the other hand, the disappearance of Belarusian words is still a problem. Young people are losing their ability to speak Belarusian, resulting in the gradual loss of cultural treasures. Even ordinary words are disappearing, not just swear words. People create new words when they could use ones that existed in the past but were lost because they were never recorded. If people do not understand the words they hear, those words may be lost over time. These words survive only because some grandparents in certain regions know them.
Uladzislau believes his mission is to collect material that was kept in archives, remembered by people, or only recorded in researchers’ notebooks due to self-censorship. These are words that have disappeared or were never recorded in dictionaries. His goal is to provide an opportunity for people to rebuild and restore our language.
Because we are talking about an incredible world of language that is more poetic and metaphorical than russian. There’s no need to carry around common Slavic words that russian has adopted as its own.
The Belarusian language is diverse. In this episode, we discussed obscene vocabulary to draw your attention, as well as that of young people, to issues such as russification and the gradual loss of cultural identity. Future episodes will explore other aspects of the language.
Don’t lose yourselves. Speak Belarusian, and make sure you listen to the whole episode, since we only covered part of our conversation.
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