Publications · 23 August 2013
Kurt Woolhiser’s Lecture at the Flying University on 27 August 2013
PUBLIC LECTURES “URBI ET ORBI”
KURT WOOLHISER
AMBIVALENT NATIONAL LANGUAGES: HOW IS BELARUSIAN SIMILAR TO SCOTS?
27 August, 18:30
Ў Gallery (Nezavisimosti Ave., 37a)
On 27 August, the Flying University invites you to a public lecture by the well-known Slavicist and professor at Brandeis University, USA, Kurt Woolhiser. Drawing on many years of research and the results of sociological surveys, the lecturer will consider a number of sociolinguistic parallels between the Belarusian and Scots languages, from their historical development to common contemporary tendencies. The lecture consists of three main parts:
– an overview of the historical development of written administrative and literary languages in premodern multilingual states, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Scotland, and their subsequent functional dialectisation in relation to dominant closely related languages: Polish and Russian in the case of Belarusians, and English in the case of Scots, along with accompanying ideologically charged debates over their status as independent languages. The lecture will identify certain common features in the functions and social evaluations of the stylistic range of spoken varieties that emerged as a result of linguistic convergence.
– an analysis of certain common tendencies in the development of modern written Belarusian and Scots. In particular, this concerns their prominent role in literary and cultural life alongside predominantly symbolic or formal use in the public sphere; problems in the development of unified written standards; and certain similarities regarding the ambiguous, ambivalent role of Belarusian and Scots as markers of national identity.
– an outline of certain parallels in the results of recent national studies on language use, attitudes toward language, and language policy preferences, including the Scottish Government’s 2010 study “Public Attitudes to the Scots Language” and the results of the 2011 Scottish census, as well as studies conducted in Belarus in 2009, 2010, and 2012 by the NOVAK and IISEPS research agencies.
According to the American Slavicist, such an analysis of similarities and differences in the contemporary situation of Belarusian and Scots leads to interesting conclusions that could be useful for supporters of the Belarusian language and their Scottish partners in developing effective language-management strategies for the future.
The lecture “Ambivalent National Languages: How Is Belarusian Similar to Scots?” will take place on 27 August at Ў Gallery. It begins at 18:30. Admission is free!