Standardisation

East Slavic language variations, i.e. those used in Ruthenia (Ruś) were generally called the Ruthenian language (руський языкъ). Until the 15th century, it was the so-called West Ruthenian chancery language which remained the written language within the borders of the Great Duchy of Lithuania, therefore also on the Belarusian territory; from the 16th century onwards the so-called простая мова (prostaya mova, lit. “simple language”) became widespread. “Simple language” survived until the 18th century in some Uniate (i.e. Eastern Christian churches in communion with the Roman Catholic Church) schools (Fałowski 2011: 147-149Fałowski 2011 / komentarz/comment/r /
Fałowski, Adam 2011. „Język białoruski”, w: Barbara Oczkowa & Elżbieta Szczepańska (red.) Słowiańskie języki literackie. Rys historyczny. Kraków: UJ, s. 145-160.
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Efforts at standardisation which led to the formation of the contemporary norm began no sooner than the beginning of the 20th century – in 1918, five grammars of the Belarusian language were published, with Branislaw Tarashkyevich’s publication achieving greatest recognition. The Tarashkyevich norm was at the foundation of all the subsequent standardization processes, although the reforms of the 1930s introduced some changes aimed at bringing the typical Belarusian language closer to Russian. These changes were not accepted by emigrants; they are also contested by the current political opposition in Belarus (Fałowski 2011: 155-156Fałowski 2011 / komentarz/comment/r /
Fałowski, Adam 2011. „Język białoruski”, w: Barbara Oczkowa & Elżbieta Szczepańska (red.) Słowiańskie języki literackie. Rys historyczny. Kraków: UJ, s. 145-160.
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The encyclopedic Internet portal Wikipedia functions in the Belarusian language in two separate editions: one based on the national Belarusian standard, the other based on Taraškievica. Puristic tendencies can be observed among some of the contemporary Belarusian elite. They are expressed in deleting elements corresponding with the Russian language, which are considered foreign even if accepted within the standards hitherto prevailing. On the other hand, this practice is opposed by the conservatives who accept the norms previously developed, including those originating in the Soviet times (Fałowski 2011: 155-156Fałowski 2011 / komentarz/comment/r /
Fałowski, Adam 2011. „Język białoruski”, w: Barbara Oczkowa & Elżbieta Szczepańska (red.) Słowiańskie języki literackie. Rys historyczny. Kraków: UJ, s. 145-160.
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Attempts are being made to standardize the language of Belarusians in the Podlasie region – however, because of the chosen dialectal base for this norm, the attempt in question is described as in the profile on Podlachian and West Polesian.