{"id":199139,"date":"2026-08-07T20:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T17:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/199139\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T17:20:11","slug":"opposition-cabinet-warns-that-belarusian-language-may-disappear","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/199139\/","title":{"rendered":"Opposition cabinet warns that Belarusian language may disappear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>August 7,&nbsp;<em>Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong>&nbsp;Without a reversal of current trends, the Belarusian language may disappear entirely at the state level within one to two generations, surviving only in small communities, Pavie\u0142 Barko\u016dski, the national revival representative in the United Transitional Cabinet, said in Warsaw on August 7 ahead of the opposition-organized New Belarus Conference.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unveiling a policy paper at a side event titled \u201cLanguage, culture, education and media: invisible front for Belarus,\u201d Barko\u016dski noted that Belarusian language is on the UNESCO Atlas&nbsp;of the World&#8217;s&nbsp;Languages in Danger of Disappearing, despite being one of the two state languages in Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barko\u016dski blamed the current state of the Belarusian language on \u201cover two centuries of systemic Russification, which has intensified significantly over the last five years.\u201d The share of schoolchildren studying all subjects in Belarusian has dropped from around 40 percent after independence to less than eight percent at present, he said. Every year, such children decrease in number by 5,000, which may spell the end of Belarusian-language schooling in 15 or 20 years, he added.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barko\u016dski stressed the need for \u201creal independence\u201d as a precondition for the revival of the Belarusian language. He outlined his team\u2019s anti-crisis proposals, which include increasing funding for Belarusian-language information content, broadening the use of Belarusian in the independent media, and setting up a Belarusian scientific research foundation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barko\u016dski&nbsp;described&nbsp;transition to Belarusian as the&nbsp;only&nbsp;state language&nbsp;as the strategic&nbsp;goal&nbsp;of the opposition cabinet.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>August 7,&nbsp;Pozirk.&nbsp;Without a reversal of current trends, the Belarusian language may disappear entirely at the state level within one to two generations, surviving only in small communities, Pavie\u0142 Barko\u016dski, the national revival representative in the United Transitional Cabinet, said in Warsaw on August 7 ahead of the opposition-organized New Belarus Conference.&nbsp; Unveiling a policy paper [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":136215,"template":"","rubric":[16,15],"class_list":["post-199139","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-politics","rubric-society"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Opposition cabinet warns that Belarusian language may disappear | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"August 7,&nbsp;Pozirk.&nbsp;Without a reversal of current trends, the Belarusian language may disappear entirely at the state level within one to two\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/199139\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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