본고에서는 벨라루스와 우크라이나의 역사적, 언어적 유사점과 차이점을 고찰하고, 이것이 1990년대 이후 두 나라의 언어 상황 및 언어정책, 그리고 주-민족어의 지위 변화에 어떠한 영향을 끼쳤는지 비교분석한다.
우크라이나와 벨라루스는 오랫동안 주변 슬라브 국가들의 정치적, 문화적 영향하에 놓여 있었으며, 러시아어와 매우 유사한 민족어를 가지고 있다. 20세기 이전에는 오랫동안 주-민족어의 사용이 금지되었고, 20세기에는 소련의 일부로 당시 공용어였던 러시아어에 밀려 위축되었다. 소련 붕괴 이후 독립한 두 동슬라브 국가는 주-민족어의 지위를 재정립하고 진흥정책을 시작했다.
20여년이 흐른 현재, 두 나라 모두 법적 혹은 실제적 이중 언어 국가이지만, 우크라이나어는 사용 영역을 점차 확대해가고 있는 반면, 벨라루스어는 점점 축소되어 사멸의 위기에 직면해 있다. 이것은 벨라루스어와 우크라이나어 간 언어적 차이, 벨라루스인과 우크라이나인의 민족의식의 차이, 그리고 벨라루스 정부와 우크라이나 정부의 언어정책 수립과 실행의 차이에 기인한다.
Ukraine and Belarus have many things in common from geographical, historical and linguistic perspectives. First, both countries were deprived of the right to use their titular languages under Polish and Russian rule for a long time. Second, in the 20<sup>th</sup> century they were members of SSSR where the Russian language played a role of lingua communis, and other national languages were rarely employed both in public and private lives. Third, their titular languages that are linguistically very close to Russian have been under its influence, and the hybrid forms mixed with Russian, such as surzhyk (Uk) and trasjanka (Bel) have been widespread in an informal communication.
Right before the collapse of the former Soviet Union, Ukraine and Belarus made a law on language that would give the official state language status to the titular language. Now, after a couple of decades from then, their titular languages are in a different situation. The Ukrainian government made some subsequent laws containing the articles to help the Ukrainian language becoming dominant in Ukraine. As a result, now Ukrainian is more widely and frequently used than before, and the number of schools where the subjects are taught in Ukrainian has been constantly increased. Meanwhile, the Belarusian government headed by the populist Lukashenka gave the official language status to Russian as well, amending the law on language and creating a new Constitution. After that, Russian that had been dominant in Belarus for centuries was more chosen by people, while Belarusian became a even less used, unpopular language. Now Belarusian is on the edge of becoming a dead language.
There are some reasons that caused the titular languages’ current status in Ukraine and Belarus. First, linguistically Belarusian is closer to Russian than Ukrainian is, and Belarusian rural inhabitants even regard Russian that is widely used in the cities, as a standard variant of their regional dialects. Second, Ukrainians and Belarusians have different attitudes toward their own native languages. For Ukrainians, the Ukrainian language is the symbol of their soul and identity, but for Belarusians, the Belarusian language seems to be a political manifestation of the radical opponent. Belarusians are characteristic for patience, resignation and tolerance, and they usually do not like a radical change in their life. The language policy in 1992-1994 was not an exception and they generally did not support the Belarusian promotion movement lead by “nationally conscious” intellectuals. Third, the Ukrainian and Belarusian governments were different in making laws and realizing them. The Ukrainian government has been aggressive in their language policies, not giving Russian a special language status for a long time, whereas the Belarusian government has been indifferent for the fall of Belarusian, passively watching how the fittest’s survival’s law is realized in the competition between Russian and Belarusian.