Byelorussian-English/English Byelorussian Dictionary

By Alexandra Zezulin, Alexander Uskevich, Alexander Ushkevich

With the collapse of the USSR, this official language of Byelorus is becoming increasingly prominent. This language is spoken by over 10 million people. Pronunciation for both languages is included. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870521144
• ISBN13: 9780870521140
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 0.8" x 4.5"

Customer Reviews

Review of Byelorussian-English Dictionary

For what it is -- and knowing how hard it is to obtain a Byelorussian (Belarusian)-English dictionary, this one is pretty good. It seems that it was originally written on a typewriter and then printed on "dictionary-like paper," but you get used to it after a while. It includes two main sections: a Byelorussian-English and an English-Byelorussian one. Then, in the back, there are the Byelorussian as well as the English alphabets, followed by a "code" to what each letter in Byelorussian and English sounds like, with examples. Alongside every word in the dictionary, there are phoenitics, too; so those who are too lazy to learn the actual Byelorussian alphabet (which is actually very useful, because learning it will also mean you're learning the Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian, and current Mongolian alphabets, albeit some minor differences). This dictionary defines and uses the post-1933 Byelorussian (Narkomovka), which is similar to the Byelorussian before that (Taskarevitza), with the exception of some minor spelling differenences (most notably the "soft sign" (miakki znak) is used a lot less in the Narkomovka version). The reason the language was "updated" in 1933 is because Stalin wanted to Russify the Byelorussian language to make it more like Russian, although it already is (and was) close enough to Russian that both were, for the most part, mutually intelligable. Overall, knowing how hard it's to find a Byelorussian dictionary of any kind here, I'll give this a 4 out of 5.

Review of Byelorussian-English Dictionary

For what it is, and knowing how hard it is to obtain a Byelorussian (Belarusian) dictionary, this is a great book. It has 2 main sections: The Byelorussian-English and the English-Byelorussian. In the back, there's also the English alphabet, as well as the Byelorussian one (the Cyrillic one, not the original Lacinka). It's kind of hard to read it (the dictionary) at first, because it seems like it was originally written on a typewriter, but you get used to it and find it convenient. There's also a phoentic section for the ones who are too lazy to learn the Byelorussian alphabet, which is helpful if you're one of those kind of people. Overall, a pretty good book for what it is.