Classification and Relationship To Other Languages
The question of whether contemporary Belarusian and Russian (as well as Ukrainian and Rusyn) are dialects of a single language or separate languages is not entirely decided by linguistic factors alone. This is because there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility. As members of the East Slavic group of languages, they are descended from a common ancestor. Although Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian are usually listed by linguists as separate languages, one source lists them, with Rusyn, as four inner-languages within a single outer-language.
Within East Slavic, the Belarusian language is most closely related to Ukrainian.
Read more about this topic: Belarusian Language
Famous quotes containing the words relationship and/or languages:
“When a mother quarrels with a daughter, she has a double dose of unhappiness—hers from the conflict, and empathy with her daughter’s from the conflict with her. Throughout her life a mother retains this special need to maintain a good relationship with her daughter.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“Wealth is so much the greatest good that Fortune has to bestow that in the Latin and English languages it has usurped her name.”
—William Lamb Melbourne, 2nd Viscount (1779–1848)