From February 6 to 26, 2024, the Yakub Kolas Institute of Linguistics of the Centre for the Belarusian Culture, Language and Literature Researches of the NAS of Belarus is holding events dedicated to the International Mother Language Day

From February 6 to 26, 2024, the Yakub Kolas Institute of Linguistics of the Centre for the Belarusian Culture, Language and Literature Researches of the NAS of Belarus is holding events dedicated to the International Mother Language Day, which is celebrated on February 21.

A number of events will take place over the course of almost three weeks. These are lectures, seminars, round tables, presentations, master classes, interactive classes, meetings and educational and entertainment events. All of them are devoted to the problem of preservation, development and popularization of the Belarusian language.

So, on February 6–10, the staff of the Institute of Linguistics will hold a series of lectures on the basis of the National Children's Educational and Health Center Zubryonok: The Old Belarusian Written Heritage (February 6th); The Life of a Word in Time. About Modern Processes in the Lexical System of the Belarusian Language and The World in Alphabetical Order: What Dictionaries Can Do (February 7th); Belarusian Folk Dialects (February 8th); Computer Technologies and the Belarusian Language (February 9th); Toponymy and anthroponymy of Belarus as part of the historical and cultural heritage of the people (February 10th). All lectures start at 3.00 p.m.
On February 15, at 4:35 p.m., the First Deputy Chairman of the Union of Writers of Belarus Y. A. Stelmakh and the director of the Yakub Kolas Institute of Linguistics I. L. Kopylov will hold a creative meeting with students of the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Belarus. The meeting will discuss the role of the writer in the development, preservation and popularization of the Belarusian language as the basic value of the nation.
On February 17, at 10.00 a.m., a meeting will be held with students and teachers of the Yakub Kolas Mikalajewshchyna secondary school (Stalbcowski district of Minsk region) on the dialogue platform Belarusian-language education as a factor of comprehensive personal development. The purpose of this event is to reveal the educational traditions of the ancestral home of the national poet of Belarus Yakub Kolas.
On February 19, at 2.00 p.m., a cooperation agreement will be signed between the Centre for the Belarusian Culture, Language and Literature Researches of the NAS of Belarus and the Secondary School No. 26 in Minsk within the framework of the School of a Young Linguist. At 4.35 p.m., a meeting will begin of the students of the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Belarus, and Chairman of the Union of Writers of Belarus Karlyukevich A. N., Head of the Publishing Department of the Ministry of Information Andrievich V. V., Director of the Yanka Kupala Institute of Literary Studies Saverchenko I. V., and Director of the Yakub Kolas Institute of Linguistics Kopylov I. L., dedicated to the International Mother Language Day.
On February 20, at 9.30 a.m., the Centre for the Belarusian Culture, Language and Literature Researches (Surganava str. 1, building 2, room 302) will host a round table on the topic Expansion of Foreign Words in the Belarusian and Russian Languages: Enrichment or Clogging of the Literary Language?, which will discuss the problem of widespread use of loanwords in state languages of Belarus. During the round table there will be a presentation of the book by V. I. Ulasevich and N. N. Dovgulevich “Dictionary of New Loanwords of the Belarusian Language”. The next event at 2.00 p.m. will be a meeting with Master’s students of the 1st year of the Philological Faculty of BSU Prospects for the Development of Belarusian Ethnolinguistics.
On February 21 (International Mother Language Day) at 10.00 a.m., dialectologists will hold a meeting with students of gymnasium No. 22 in Minsk on the topic Belarusian Dialects, during which they will talk about the peculiarities of Belarusian dialects, the film Belaruskiya Gavorki (Belarusian Dialects) will be shown. From 11.00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. there will be a presentation – workshop – master class Slavic-Language Texts in the Arabic Graphic Script of the Belarusian Tatars.
On the same day, from 1.00 to 2.00 p.m., the Yakub Kolas Central Scientific Library of the NAS (Surganava str., 15, Information and Exhibition Center, room 110) will host a Republican dictation on the Belarusian language, dedicated to the International Mother Language Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from Nazi invaders. The dictation will also be broadcast on the Kultura channel of the Belarusian Radio.
At 1.00 p.m. there will be a seminar How to Win a Scientific Competition: 10 Tips from Experts (Gymnasium No. 22 in Minsk, Gamarnika str., 8). At 14.00, the staff of the Institute of Linguistics will deliver a lecture Statehood of the Belarusian Language: History and Modernity to the cadets of the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus. There will also be a round table Slavistics. Etymology. Ethnolinguistics (2.25 p.m.) and a meeting of academic linguists with Belarusian writers (3.00 p.m.), during which scientists of the Yakub Kolas Institute of Linguistics will talk about the results of scientific research in the field of Belarusian linguistics, organize an exhibition of the Institute's publications.
On February 22, at 11.00 a.m., there will be an interactive lecture and a master class on the Old Belarusian language on the topic Priviley, Chronicle, Vita: on the Pages of the Old Belarusian Written Heritage and a presentation of the Russian-Belarusian System Semantic Dictionary, which is the first domestic experience in compiling a translated dictionary of the original type. A joint event of the Yakub Kolas Institute of Linguistics of the Centre for the Belarusian Culture, Language and Literature Researches of the NAS of Belarus and the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Belarus will be held at 1.30 p.m. dedicated to the International Mother Language Day. During it, in order to form the interest and respect for the Belarusian language among the younger generation, a meeting will be held with the editor-in-chief of the Maladosc magazine Olga Ratsevich and the popular songwriter Kastus Tsybulsky, with the teacher of the Belarusian language and literature, writer Vera Bulanda, a student Belarusian-language quest, etc. At 3.00 p.m., an educational and entertaining event High School Students and First-Year Students: Linguistic Brain-Ring will be held (with the participation of high school students of gymnasium No. 25 in Minsk and 1st year students of the Faculty of Primary Education of the Maxim Tank BSPU).
On February 23, there will be held: a round table Translation and Ethnocultural Specificity of Artistic Discourse (11.00 a.m.), within which it is planned to discuss the theoretical and practical aspects of one of the central problems of literary translation – the problem of preserving the national identity of an artistic work when transmitting it by means of another language, to identify ways to solve this problem; a lecture for schoolchildren of grades 10–11 of the Secondary school No. 26 in Minsk – The Belarusian Language in the Context of State Bilingualism (Minsk, Liew Sapiega str., 15; 1.55 p.m.); meeting with students of the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts (2.00 p.m.). The purpose of the meeting will be the presentation of new publications of academic linguists devoted to the problems of modern Slavic studies, the materials of which give a comprehensive idea of the main directions, achievements, problems of the modern Belarusian language, methodological research in the field of Slavic philology, introduce the first creative tests of the pen of students. The participants of the poetry club of BSUCA "БУКет" are also scheduled to perform at the meeting.
On February 25, at 12:00 p.m., at the Sunday school of the parish of Princess Olga, Equal to the Apostles in Minsk (Minsk, 17 Partyzanski Ave.), the staff of the Institute of Linguistics will hold a quest game Belarusian Treasury. It will offer questions on the Belarusian language and literature, ethnography and culture of Belarus, aimed at improving the culture of communication, expanding the horizons of participants.
On February 26, the National Cultural Autonomy Belarusians of Moscow Regional Public Organization holds an event dedicated to the Mother Language Day – Language is the Soul of the People. Within the framework of this event, employees of the Yakub Kolas Institute of Linguistics will speak about the problem of preserving and popularizing Old Belarusian written records.

International Mother Language Day is an annual holiday established in 1999 by the decision of the UNESCO General Session. Its main goal is to preserve linguistic and cultural diversity in the world, support national languages and cultures, and ensure the right of every citizen to use their native language. The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (Yakub Kolas Institute of Linguistics) traditionally holds events dedicated to the International Mother Language Day, including a large number of events dedicated to the preservation, development and popularization of the Belarusian language.
The Yakub Kolas Institute of Linguistics of the NAS of Belarus is the leading scientific institution in the country, which is engaged in ensuring the successful functioning of the Belarusian language in all spheres of public life. The Institute provides coordination and systematic research in the field of Belarusian linguistics.