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Jogaila

Jogaila

:Jagello redirects here. If you are looking for the Jagiellon dynasty, click the link. Wladislaus II Jagiello (Polish: Władysław II Jagiełło, Lithuanian: Jogaila, Belarusian: Jahajla (Ягайла)) (c. 1351 – 1 June 1434 Gródek Jagielloński), Grand Prince of Lithuania from 1377 (or 1378) – 1381, 1382 – 1392 (or 1401), became King of Poland as Wladislaus II in 1386 after converting to Christianity and marrying Jadwiga, second of Poland's Angevin rulers. His original name was Jogaila (Jagiełło) and his Christian name was Wladislaus (Polish: Władysław also seen Vladislaus, Ladislaus, Ladislas or Vladislav). Lancelot, is an English version of the name.

Royal title

- Royal title in Latin: Wladislaus Dei gracia rex Polonie necnon terrarum Cracovie, Sandomirie, Syradia, Lancicie, Cuiavie, Lithuanie princeps supremus, Pomoranie Russieque dominus et heres etc.
- Lithuanian translation: Vladislovas, Dievo valia karalius Lenkijos ir žemių Krokuvos, Sandomiro, Sieradžo, Lenčycos, Kujavijos, Lietuvos didysis kunigaikštis, Pomeranijos ir Rusios valdovas ir paveldėtojas, etc..
- Polish translation: Władysław, z Bożej łaski król Polski, ziemi krakowskiej, sandomierskiej, sieradzkiej, łęczyckiej, kujawskiej, Nadrzędny Książe Litewski, pan i dziedzic Pomorza i Rutenii, etc
- English translation: Vladislaus by God's grace king of Poland, and lands of Kraków, Sandomierz, Sieradz, Łęczyca, Kuyavia, supreme-prince of Lithuania, lord and heir of Pomerania and Ruthenia, etc. Please note that Wladislaus' title was 'supreme duke/prince of Lithuania' while as the same time the traditional title of 'high duke/prince of Lithuania' was reserved for his cousin Vytautas. Vytautas

Biography

Vytautas Vytautas, New York, USA)]] Jogaila (or Jagiełło) was from the Gediminid dynasty of dukes and grand dukes of Lithuania. His father was Algirdas (or Olgierd, ruled 1345-1377), duke of Lithuania, a son of Gediminas. He was born in Vilnius, Lithuania. With the Union of Krewo in 1385, Jagiello married Queen Jadwiga of Poland (who was then only 11 years old) and established the Jagiellonian dynasty, which would rule in Poland and Lithuania until 1572. At the same time, Jagiello accepted Roman Catholicism, as did some other Lithuanian nobles. Thus he became King Władysław II Jagiełło (Wladislaus II) of Poland, and reigned 49 years. After the death of Jadwiga and their newborn daughter in 1399, Jagiello continued to rule, for yet 35 years. Many regarded that he had lost his entitlement to the crown with the death of Jadwiga. However, there were no obvious heirs of ancient Polish monarchs - all potential competitors, of which there existed a vast number, were distant relatives, and although Jagello faced from time to time difficulties, he remained king more or less by default. He tried to strengthen his position and rights by next marrying Anna of Cilli, granddaughter of Casimir III of Poland (d. 1370), whose mother Anna, Countess of Cilli (died 1425), daughter of king Casimir, tried to obtain influence. Anna of Cilli also died childless in 1416. Jegello did not yet have any heirs. His next marriages were with ladies from Polish and Lithuanian dominions, apparently having nothing to do with ancestors among Polish monarchs. The Jagiellonian era is usually characterised as the start of Poland's "golden age", and saw the country become a major European power and extend its frontiers to the north and east. Jagiello's conversion marked the establishment of Catholic Christianity as the official religion of Lithuania following a brief period of Catholic kingship in the 1250s. Though pagan beliefs continued in the country for some time, the Lithuanian nobility gave its support to the new order upon being promised (in 1401) a voice in the election of the future Polish-Lithuanian rulers. In military terms, his reign is noted for the crushing defeat inflicted on the Teutonic Knights in neighbouring Province of Prussia by Polish and Lithuanian forces at the Battle of Grunwald 1410 (the military leader of this battle was his cousin Grand Duke Vytautas of LIthuania). Jagiello was the first of the dynasty of Lithuanian princes who were also kings of Poland (1386-1572). He was succeeded by his son Wladislaus III, and after his death at the battle of Varna by second son Casimir IV. Previously rulers from this dynasty, called Gediminaičiai, were grand princes of Lithuania, and after the Krewo Union, Jogaila adopted both titles (Supreme duke of Lithuania and King of Poland). Later, however, up until the Union of Lublin, the title of Grand duke of Lithuania was sometimes under dispute and not always belonged to the King of Poland. However, both titles, if separate, were used to be held by members of same Gediminaičiai dynasty who were related to each other in close family ties. Before that the Piasts were monarchs of Poland, in last century intermitting with the Bohemian Przemysls and followed by a brief period of Angevins. Although Jagiellonian dynasty was not hereditary and in theory each king of this dynasty was elected, in reality every time when the father died, his son (or brother) was elected as new king. After the last male member of the Jagiellonian dynasty died out, the kings of Poland were elected by the Polish nobles.

Dynastic Relations

Jagiellonian of Poland with face of Władysław Jagiełło]] Jagiello was married in 1386 to Queen Jadwiga of Poland (1374-1399). Their only child was:
- Elzbieta-Bonifacja (born and died 1399) His second wife was Anna of Cilli (1386-1416), married in 1402, a Slovenian noblewoman, and (more importantly) the only child of Anna, a superseded daughter of Casimir III of Poland (d 1370). The mother, Anna Countess of Cilli died 1425 without surviving children. The only child of Jagiello and Anna of Cilli was:
- Jadwiga (1408-1431) The third wife was Elisabeth of Pilica (Granowska). No children. THe fourth wife was Sophia of Halshany, a noblewoman from Lithuanian nobility. Their children were:
- King Wladislaw III of Poland (1424-1444), King of Poland 1434-1444 and Hungary 1440-1444
- King Casimir IV of Poland (1427-1492), Grand Duke of LIthuania 1440-1492, King of Poland 1447-1492

Mother

:Juliana of Tver 1350 (ca 1325 - 1392)

Father

:Olgierd (ca 1304 - end of May 1377), Grand Prince of Lithuania 1345 - 1377

Wives

:Queen Jadwiga of Poland 1386 (1374 - 1399) :Anna of Cilli 1402 (1386-1416) :Elisabeth of Pilica 1417 (d. 1420) :Sophia of Halshany 1422 (d. 1461)

Brothers

:Theodor (14th century - 1394/1400), Prince of Rylsk 1370 - 1399, Ratna 1387 - 1394, Briansk 1393 :Andrew (14th century - 12 August 1399), Prince of Pskov 1342 - 1349, Polock 1349 - 1387, governor of Novgorod 1394 - 1396 :Demetrius I the Elder (Dmitry; 1327 - 12 May 1399 Battle of the Worskla River), Prince of Trubchevsk 1357 - 1399, Briansk 1357 - 1379, Starodub 1370 - 1399, Druck 13?? - 13?? :Wladimir (14th century - after October 1398), Prince of Vitebsk till [1367]], Kiev 1367-1394, Kopyl and Sluck 1394-1398 :Skirgaila (Iwan; ca 1354 - 11 January 1397 Kiev), Prince of Trakai 1382 - 1392, Polock 1387-1394, Kiev 1394 - 1397, regent of Lithuania 1387 - 1392 :Kaributas (Korybut Demetrius, Dmitry; ca 1355 - after 1404), Prince of Novgorod-Seversky 1386 - 1392/93 :Lengvenis (Lingwen Simon; ca 1356 - after 19 June 1431), Prince of Mscislaw, regent of Great Novgorod :Karigaila (Korygiello Kazimierz (Casimir); ca 1364/67 - 1390), Prince of Mscislaw, regent :Mingaila (Minigiello; ca 1365]]/68 - before 1382 :Vygantas (Wigunt Aleksander; ca 1372 - 28 June 1392), Prince of Kernavė :Švitrigaila (Swidrygiello, Svitrigaylo, Boleslaw; ca 1370 - 10 February 1452 Luck), Prince of Vitebsk 1392 - 1393, 1430 - 1436, Podolia 1400 - 1402, Novgorod-Seversky 1404 - 1408, 1420 - 1438, Chernigov 1419 - 1430, Grand Duke of Lithuania 1430 - 1432, lord of Volynia 1437 - 1452

Sisters

:Agripina (1342 or earlier - 1393?) :Kenna (Joanna; ca 1351 - 27 April 1367), married to Kazko of Slupsk :Euphrosina (ca 1352 - 1405//06, married to OLeg of Rezan :Theodora (Fedora; 14th century), married to Sviatoslav of Karachev :Helen (ca 1357/60 - 15 September 1437), married to Vladimir of Moscow in 1372, Princess of Borowsko-Sierpuchowsk and third part of the Principality of Moscow, Princess of Wolock and Rzewsk 1389 - 1405, Horodeck and Uglick 1405 - 1410 :Maria (born ca 1363), Princess of Lithuania, married to Vaidila, favorite of Algirdas and [Jagiello|Jogaila]] in 1379, then to David of Horodec. :Aleksandra (ca 1368/70 - 19 June 1434), married to Siemowit IV of Masovia, Princess of Czersk, Rawsk, Sochaczewsk, Plock, Gostynin, Plonsk, Wisk, Kujawsk and Belsk :Katherin (Katarzyna; ca 1369/74 - after 4 April 1422), married to Johan II, duke of Meklemburg in 1388 :Jadwiga (ca 1375 - after 1407), married to Duke Johan III of Oswiecim in 1394

Sons

:King Wladislaus III of Poland (1424 - 1444) :Casimir (1426 - 1427) :King Casimir IV of Poland (1427 - 1492)

Daughters

:Elzbieta-Bonifacja (1399 - 1399) :Jadwiga (1408 - 1431)

Bibliography

Dlugosz, Jan, The Annals of Jan Dlugosz, translated and abridged by Maurice Michael, commentary by Paul Smith (Chichester, UK: IM Publications, 1997). Drabina, Jan, “Die Religionspolitik von König Wladyslaw Jagiello im polnisch-litauischen Reich in den Jahren 1385-1434,” Zeitschrift für Ostforschung vol. 43 (1994), p. 161-173. Jogaila, parašė J. Jakštas, Z. Ivinskis, S. Sužiedėlis, A. Šapoka, P. Šležas; redagavo A. Šapoka, Kaunas, 1935, 333 p. Sruogienė-Sruoga, Vanda, “[http://www.lituanus.org/1987/87_4_04.htm Jogaila (1350-1434)],” Lituanus, vol. 33 (4) (Winter 1987), p. 23-34. Tęgowski, Jan. Pierwsze pokolenia Giedyminowiczow, Poznań-Wrocław, 1999, 319, [1] p.

External links

- [http://www.istorija.net/ Pages and Forums on Lithuanian History]
- [http://www.probelarus.ru/ Belarusian history club]
- [http://www3.dcs.hull.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gedlkup/n=royal?royal05545 "Wladyslaw II" at the Directory of Royal Genealogical Data]
- [http://www.sp1.szubin.net/patron/jagiello.html Władysław II Jagiełło] Category:Lithuanian nobility Jogaila Category:Polish monarchs Category:Polish nobility Wladislaus II of Poland Category:1350 births Category:1434 deaths Category:History of Poland Category:History of Belarus Category:History of Lithuania ja:ヴワディスワフ2世 (ポーランド王)

Jagiellon dynasty

The Jagiellons were a royal dynasty which reigned in some Central European countries between the 14th and 16th century. Members of the dynasty were grand dukes of Lithuania 1377–1392 and 1440–1572, kings of Poland 1386–1572, kings of Hungary 1440–1444 and 1490–1526, and kings of Bohemia 1471–1526. The family was a branch of the Lithuanian Gediminids dynasty. The name (other variations used in English include: Jagiellonians, Jagiellos, Jogailos) comes from Jogaila (Polish Jagiełło), the first Polish king of that dynasty. In Polish, the dynasty is known as Jagiellonowie (singular: Jagiellon); in Lithuanian it is called Jogailaičiai (sing.: Jogailaitis), in Belarusian Ягайлавічы (Jagajłavičy, sing.: Ягайлавіч, Jagajłavič), in Hungarian Jagellók (sing.: Jagelló), and in Czech Jagellonci (sing.: Jagellonec; adjective: Jagellonský). In all variations of that name, the letter J should be pronounced as in "Hallelujah" (or as Y in "yes"), and G – as in "get". Czech to the Adriatic Sea.]] The dynastic union between the two countries (converted into a full administrative union only in 1569) is the reason for the common appellation "Poland-Lithuania" in discussions about the area from the Late Middle Ages onwards. Two Jagiellonians also ruled Hungary and Bohemia, which briefly (1440–44) shared their king with Poland. Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania and the founder of the dynasty in Poland, became king of Poland as Ladislaus II after converting to Christianity and marrying Jadwiga, second of Poland's Angevin rulers. The former Polish ruling house of Piast (c.962–1370) had ended with the death of Casimir III. Jagiellons were hereditary rulers of Poland and Lithuania. The Jagiellon rulers of Poland-Lithuania (with dates of ruling in brackets) were:
- Ladislaus II (in Lithuania 1377–1401; in Poland 1386–1434)
- Ladislaus III (1434–1444)
- Casimir IV (1447–1492)
- Jan Olbracht (1492–1501)
- Alexander (1501–1505)
- Sigismund the Elder (1506–1548)
- Sigismund Augustus (1548–1572) 1572 Sigismund's heir was his sister, Catherine Jagiellonica, who married Duke John of Finland the later king John III Vasa of Sweden; as a result, the main branch of the Jagiellons merged with the House of Vasa, which ruled Poland from 1587 until 1668. The Jagiellons at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary, with Ladislaus Jagiello followed by his son Louis Jagiello. However, after Louis' sudden death, that royal line was extinguished.

External links

- [http://www.istorija.net/ Pages and Forums on the Lithuanian History] Category:Royal families Category:Lithuanian rulers Category:History of Lithuania Category:History of Poland ja:ヤギェウォ朝

Polish language

Polish (język polski, polszczyzna) is the official language of Poland. Polish is the main representative of the Lechitic branch of the Western Slavic languages. It originated in the areas of present-day Poland from several local Western Slavic dialects, most notably those spoken in Greater Poland and Lesser Poland. Polish was once a lingua franca in various regions of Central and Eastern Europe, mostly due to the political, cultural, scientific and military influence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Although no longer having as great an influence outside of Poland, due in part to the dominance of the Russian language, it is still sometimes spoken or at least understood in western border areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania as a second language.

Outside Influence

Polish has been influenced by contact with foreign languages (foremost Latin, Czech, French, German, Italian, Old Belarusian, Russian and recently it has been virtually bombarded by English, especially American English language elements). Many words have been borrowed from German as a result of heavy contact with Germans and the German language. This process has been going on since medieval times. Examples include szlachta (from German Adelsgeschlecht=nobility), rachunek (Rechnung=account), ratusz (Rathaus=town hall), burmistrz (Bürgermeister=mayor; word used only for mayors of smaller cities), handel (Handel=commerce), kac (Kater=hangover), kartofel (Kartoffel=potato; this word is dialectal: most Poles use the word 'ziemniak' for potato, but both words are understood anywhere), cukier (Zucker=sugar), kelner (Kellner=waiter) and malarz (Maler=painter; also the word 'malować' has entered Polish as the verb "to paint"). This is especially true of the regional dialects of Upper Silesia. There are also several words of French origin in the language, most likely dating from the Napoleon era, such as ekran (écran=screen), rekin (requin=shark), meble (meuble=furniture), fotel (fauteuil=armchair), plaża (plage=beach) and koszmar (cauchemar=nightmare). Some place names have also been adapted from French, such as the two Warsaw boroughs of Żoliborz (joli bord=beautiful riverside) and Mokotów (mon coteau=my cottage), as well as the suburb of Żyrardów (from the name Girard, with the Polish suffix -ów attached to form the town's name). Other words are borrowed from other Slavic languages, for example "hańba" and "brama" from Czech. When borrowing international words, Polish often changes their spelling. For example, the Latin suffix spelled '-tion' in English corresponds to '-cja'. To make the word plural, -cja becomes -cje. Examples of this include "inauguracja" (inauguration), dewastacja (devastation), konurbacja (conurbation) and konotacje (connotations). Also, the digraph 'qu' becomes 'kw' (kwadrat=quadrant; frekwencja=frequency). Since 1945, as the result of mass education and mass migrations (which affected several countries after the Second World War, with Poland being an extreme case) standard Polish has become far more homogeneous, although regional dialects persist, particularly in the south and south-west in the hilly areas bordering the Czech and Slovak Republics. In the western and northern territories, resettled in large measure by Poles from the territories annexed by the Soviet Union, the older generation speaks a dialect of Polish characteristic of the former eastern provinces.

Classification

The Polish language is the most widely-spoken of the Slavic language subgroup of Lechitic languages which include Kashubian (the only surviving dialect of Pomeranian language) and the extinct Polabian language. The three languages, along with Upper and Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovak, belong to the West branch of Slavic languages. To English ears, it sounds virtually indistinguishable from Russian, and indeed the two languages have a very similar grammar; however, Polish and Russian speakers cannot understand each other without training due to a very different vocabulary. In other words, to a speaker of one, the other sounds to them about how the first stanza of the poem Jabberwocky would sound to an English-speaker.

Geographic distribution

Polish is mainly spoken in Poland. In fact, Poland is one of the most homogenous European countries in terms of its mother tongue, as close to 97% of Polish citizens declare Polish as their mother tongue. After the Second World War the previously Polish territories annexed by the USSR retained a large amount of the Polish population that was unwilling or unable to migrate toward the post-1945 Poland and even today ethnic Poles in Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine constitute large minorities. In Lithuania 9 percent of the population declared Polish to be their mother tongue. It is by far the most widely used minority language in the Vilniaus Apskritis (Vilnius region) (26% of the population, according to the 2001 census results), but it is also present in other apskritis. In Ukraine, Polish is most often used in the Lwów and Łuck regions. Western Belarus has an important Polish minority, especially in the Brześć and Grodno regions. There are also significant numbers of Polish speakers in Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, UAE, the UK and the United States. In the U.S. the number of people of Polish descent is over 9 million, see: Polish language in the United States, but most of them do not use Polish in their everyday communications. According to the United States 2000 Census, 667,414 Americans of age 5 years and over reported Polish as language spoken at home, which is about 1.4% of people who speak languages other than English or 0.25% of the U.S. population.

Dialects

It has several dialects that correspond in the main to the old tribal divisions; the most significant of these (in terms of numbers of speakers) are Great Polish (spoken in the west), Little Polish (spoken in the south and southeast), Mazovian (Mazur) spoken throughout the centre and east of the country, and Silesian spoken in the southwest. Mazovian shares some features with the Kashubian language, whose remaining speakers (53.000, according to 2002 Census) live around the city of Gdańsk near the Baltic Sea, predominantly to the west of the city. There are also several, now mostly extinct, regional dialects of Polish, including the Warsaw dialect. Small numbers of people in Poland also speak Belarusian, Ukrainian, and German as well as several varieties of Romany.

Phonology

Orthography

The Polish alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet but uses diacritics such as kreska (graphically similar to acute accent), superior dot and ogonek. Polish orthography also includes seven digraphs: Note that although the Polish orthography is mostly phonetic, some sounds may be written in more than one way:
- as either h or ch
- as either ż or rz (though rż denotes a cluster)
- as either u or ó
- some soft consonants as either ć, dź, ń, ś, ź, or ci, dzi, ni, si, zi Unlike in English, if consonants are doubled in script, it means that they are also doubled in pronunciation, for example: wanna , not ('bathtub'); motto , not .

Grammar

Polish is often said to be one of the most difficult languages for non-native speakers to learn; of course, this depends on one's native language. While difficult for English speakers, it is relatively easy for speakers of Russian and other Slavic languages. It has a complex gender system with five genders: neuter, feminine and three masculine genders (personal, animate and inanimate). There are 7 cases and 2 numbers. Nouns, adjectives and verbs are inflected, and both noun declension and verb conjugation are highly irregular. Every verb is either perfective or imperfective. Verbs often come in pairs, one of them imperfective and the other perfective (usually imperfective verb plus a prefix), but often there are many perfective verbs with different prefixes for single imperfective words. Tenses are: Movable suffix is usually attached to verb or to the most accented word of sentence, like question preposition. Sometimes the sentence may be emphasised with a particle -że- (-ż). So what have you done ? can be:
- Co zrobiliście?
- Coście zrobili?
- Cóżeście zrobili? (It could be derived from Cóż zrobiliście? which actually sounds odd and is not used) All the above examples show inflected forms of the verb "zrobić" for the subject "you" informal plural ("wy"). However, it is of note that none of the above examples include the subject itself. The inclusion of the subject is not necessary here because Polish is a pro-drop language. This means that a subject does not need to be used with an inflected verb. Instead, the reader or listener can tell which subject is implied through the type ending on the verb. This is different for each pronoun in Polish with the exceptions of on/ona/ono (he/she/it) which all have the same verb ending as each other and oni/one (they - of a group including male humans/they - of a group of people or things not including male humans) which also have the same verb ending as each other. Because the subject can be dropped, if the subject is used with an inflected verb it places the emphasis of the sentence on the subject. Of the above three examples, a native speaker would not include the subject in the middle sentence and would be unlikely to include a subject in the last one. The below examples show how the subject could be included in such sentences, where possible:
- Co wy zrobiliście?
- Coście zrobili? (a native speaker would not use a subject here)
- Co wyście zrobili? (this example places the stress strongly on "you" -- "wy"+ście)
- Co żeście zrobili? (this example includes the use of the że- particle - considered very colloquial) Past participle depends on number and gender, so 3rd person, singular past perfect tense can be:
- zrobił (he made/did)
- zrobiła (she made/did)
- zrobiło (it made/did)

Word order

From Wikibooks' Polish Language Course. Basic word order in Polish is SVO, however it is possible to move words around in the sentence, and to drop subject, object or even sometimes verb, if they are obvious from context. These sentences mean the same ("Ala (Alice) has a cat"):
- Ala ma kota
- Ala kota ma
- Kota ma Ala
- Ma Ala kota
- Kota Ala ma
- Ma kota Ala Yet only the first of these sounds natural in Polish, and others should be used for emphasis only, if at all. If a question mark is added to the end of those sentences they will all mean "does Ala have a cat?"; an optional 'czy' could be added to the begining but native speakers don't use it. The first is usually used as a reassuring question (really, Ala has a cat?). The fourth would be used as a standard question (does Ala have a cat?) If apparent from context, you can drop the subject, object or even the verb:
- Ma kota - can be used if it's obvious who is being talked about
- Ma - answer for "Czy Ala ma kota?" ("Does Ala have a cat?")
- Ala - answer for "Kto ma kota?" ("Who has a cat?")
- Kota - answer for "Co ma Ala?" ("What does Ala have?")
- Ala ma - answer for "Kto z naszych znajomych ma kota?" ("Which of our friends has a cat?") Note the marker "czy" which is used to start a yes/no question, much as the French use "est-ce que". There is a tendency in Polish to drop the subject rather than the object and you rarely know the object but not the subject. If the question was "Kto ma kota ?" (who has a cat ?), the answer should be "Ala" alone, without a verb. In particular, "ja" (I) and "ty" (you, singular), and also their plural equivalents "my" (we) and "wy" (you, plural), are almost always dropped.

Conjugation

Conjugation of "iść" ("walking" in Present Continuous):
- Ja idę – I am walking
- Ty idziesz – You are walking
- On/ona/ono idzie – He/she/it is walking
- My idziemy – We are walking
- Wy idziecie – You are walking (Plural)
- Oni/one idą – They are walking ("Oni" masculine, "one" feminine or neuter)

Vocabulary

Singular:
ja - I
ty - you
on - he
ona - she
ono - it
Plural:
my - we
wy - you (Plural)
oni - they (mixed group, both men and women)
one - they (group of only women and children or things) pies - dog
krowa - cow
świnia - pig
mucha - fly
osa - wasp
pszczoła - bee
drzewo - tree
kwiat - flower
Anglia - England
Szkocja - Scotland
Walia - Wales
Irlandia - Ireland
Wielka Brytania - Great Britain
Zjednoczone Królestwo - United Kingdom
Niemcy - Germany
Japonia - Japan
Stany Zjednoczone Ameryki - The United States of America
Francja - France
Hiszpania - Spain
Wenezuela - Venezuela
Polska - Poland
Polak - Pole
polski - Polish
Konstantynopolitańczykowianeczka - a little girl from Constantinople (the longest word in Polish)

Notes

¹ You can hear the voice samples by clicking on the Polish example (ogg format).

External links

- [http://slownik.web-monkeys.com/ słownik polski - polish dictionary]
- [http://www.polishgrammar.com/ 1,000 free multi-choice Polish grammar drills online]
- [http://www.polish-dictionary.com/ Basic English-Polish Dictionary]
- [http://www.polish-translations.com/PolishTranslation/ Articles about Polish Language]
- [http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=pol Polish language on Ethnologue]
- [http://www.fdicts.com/dictlist1.php?k1=75 All free Polish dictionaries]
- [http://sjp.pwn.pl/ PWN Polish-Polish Dictionary]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Polish-english/ Webster's Online Polish-English Dictionary]
- [http://www.dict.pl Polish-English dictionary]
- [http://www.anglik.net/polish.htm Free Polish Translation]
- [http://www.poltran.com/ Online translation Polish<->English]
- [http://golem.umcs.lublin.pl/users/ppikuta/lessons/less0.htm Polish language course]
- [http://www.langsites.com/Polish.htm Polish On-line]
- [http://seelrc.org:8080/grammar/pdf/compgrammar_polish.pdf A Concise Polish Grammar, by Ronald F. Feldstein (110-page 600-KB pdf)]
- [http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu Univ. of Pittsburgh: Polish Language Website] Category:Languages of Poland Category:West Slavic languages ko:폴란드어 ja:ポーランド語 th:ภาษาโปแลนด์

Lithuanian language

Lithuanian is the official language of Lithuania, spoken by about 4 million native speakers (Lithuanians). The Lithuanian name for the language is lietuvių kalba.

History

Lithuanian still retains many of the original peculiarities of phonetics and nominal morphology of the prototypical Indo-European language and has therefore been the focus of much study in the area of Indo-European linguistics. Evidence suggests the existence of a Balto-Slavic language group after the breakup of Proto-Indo-European, with the Slavic and Baltic languages then splitting perhaps around the 10th century BC. However, this is still disputed by some linguists and, for reasons of nationalism, many Lithuanians. While the possession of many archaic features is undeniable, the exact manner by which the Baltic languages have developed from the Proto-Indo-European language is not clear. The Eastern Baltic languages split from the Western Baltic ones (or, perhaps, from the hypothetic proto-Baltic language) between 400 and 600. The differentiation between Lithuanian and Latvian started after 800, with a long period of being one language but different dialects. At a minimum, transitional dialects existed until the 14th century or 15th century, and perhaps as late as the 17th century. As well, the 13th and 14th centuries occupation of the western part of the Daugava basin (almost coinciding with the territory of modern Latvia) by German Sword Brethren had a significant influence on the languages' independent development. The earliest-known written Lithuanian text is a hymnal translation from 1545. Printed books exist from 1547, but the level of literacy among Lithuanians was low through the 18th century and books were not commonly available. In 1864, following the January Uprising, Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov, Governor General of Lithuania, instituted a complete ban on the use of the Latin alphabet and education and printed matter in Lithuanian. Books written using the Latin alphabet continued to be printed across the border in East Prussia and in the United States. Smuggled into the country despite stiff prison sentences, they helped fuel growing nationalist sentiment that finally led to the lifting of the ban in 1904. Lithuanian has been the official language of Lithuania since 1918. During the Soviet occupation (see History of Lithuania), it was used in official affairs alongside Russian which, as the official language of the USSR, took precedence over Lithuanian.

Classification

Lithuanian is one of two living Baltic languages (along with Latvian). The Baltic languages form their own distinct branch of the Indo-European languages.

Geographic distribution

Lithuanian is spoken mainly in Lithuania. It is spoken also by native ethnic Lithuanians living in today's Belarus, Latvia, Poland, Russia. It is also spoken by emigrant communities in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Estonia, Ireland, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Uruguay and the United States. 2,955,200 in Lithuania (including 3,460 Tatar) or about 80% of the population (1998) are native Lithuanian speakers, most of Lithuanian inhabitants of other nationalities speak Lithuanian to some extent too. The population total speaking Lithuanian for all countries is 4,000,000 (1993 UBS).

Official status

Lithuanian is the official language of Lithuania.

Dialects

The Lithuanian language has two main dialects: Aukštaitian (Aukštaičių, Highland Lithuanian) and Samogitian (Samogitian, Žemaičių/Žemaitiu, Lowland Lithuanian). See maps at [http://samogitia.mch.mii.lt/KALBA/girdstr.en.htm#Map]. Standard Lithuanian is based on Western Aukštaitian. Intelligibility between Aukštaitian and Samogitian is considered difficult by most Lithuanians.

Sounds

Vowels

Lithuanian has 12 written vowels. In addition to the standard Roman letters, the ogonek accent is used to indicate long vowels, and is a historical relic of a time when these vowels were nasalized (as ogonek vowels are in modern Polish).

Consonants

Lithuanian uses 20 consonant characters, drawn from the Roman alphabet. In addition, the digraph "Ch" represents a velar fricative (IPA [x]); the pronunciation of other digraphs can be deduced from their component elements.

Phonology

Consonants

All consonants (except /j/) have two forms: palatalized and non-palatalized. The consonants and their palatalized versions are only found in loanwords. (Adapted from [http://www.lituanus.org/1982_1/82_1_02.htm http://www.lituanus.org/1982_1/82_1_02.htm].)

Vowels

There are two possible ways to posit the Lithuanian vowel system. The traditional pattern has six long vowels and five short ones, with length as the distinctive feature: (Adapted from [http://www.lituanus.org/1982_1/82_1_02.htm http://www.lituanus.org/1982_1/82_1_02.htm].) However, at least one researcher suggests that a tense vs lax distinction may be the actual distinguishing feature, or at least equally important as length. Such a hypothesis yields the chart below, where 'long' and 'short' have been preserved to parallel the terminology used above. (Adapted from [http://www.lituanus.org/1972/72_1_05.htm http://www.lituanus.org/1972/72_1_05.htm].)

Historical sound changes

Grammar

The main article is the Lithuanian grammar. The Lithuanian language is a highly inflected language where relationship between parts of speech and their roles in a sentence are expressed by numerous flexions. There are two grammatical genders in Lithuanian - feminine and masculine. There is no neutral gender per se, however there are some forms which are derived from the historical neutral gender, notably attributive adjectives. It has a free, mobile stress and is also characterized by pitch accent. It has five noun and three adjective declensions and three verbal conjugations. All verbs have present, past, past iterative and future tenses of the indicative mood, subjunctive (or conditional) and imperative moods (both without distinction of tenses) and infinitive. These forms, except the infinitive, are conjugative, having two singular, two plural persons and the third person form common both for plural and singular. Lithuanian has the richest participle system of all Indo-European languages, having participles derived from all tenses with distinct active and passive forms, and several gerund forms. Nouns and other declinable words are declined in seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative. In older Lithuanian texts three additional varieties of the locative case are found: illative, adessive and allative. The most common are the illative, which still is used, mostly in spoken language, and the allative, which survives in the standard language in some idiomatic usages. The adessive is nearly extinct. The first prescriptive grammar book of Lithuanian was written in Latin by Daniel Klein and published in Königsberg in 1653. The first scientific Compendium of Lithuanian language was published 1856/57 by August Schleicher, a professor at Prague University. Today there are two definitive books on Lithuanian Grammar: in English - "Introduction to Modern Lithuanian" (called "Beginner's Lithuanian" in newer editions) by Leonardas Dambriūnas, Antanas Klimas and William R. Schmalstieg and in Russian - Vytautas Ambrazas' "Grammatika Litovskogo Jazyka" (an English translation of it is in production).

Vocabulary

Lexical borrowings in the language

Purists strongly believe that foreign influence on their native language is a bad thing, and while the basic vocabulary of the Lithuanian language does not possess many loan words, there are some that are called senieji skoliniai (old loans) which were borrowed from close neighbours a long time ago. Such words include stiklas, "glass" (Slavic origin; cf. Russian "steklo"), muilas, "soap" (Slavic origin; cf. Russian "mylo"), gatvė, "street" ("gatvo", Slavic; "paved road", esp. in wetlands), spinta ("der Spind", German; a generic term for storage furniture, such as cupboard, wardrobe, bookcase, etc.). These words are not likely to be changed because of their antiquity. Other borrowed words are international words that can be found in many languages like telefonas, ciklas, schema etc. These words come from Latin or Ancient Greek and are not "dangerous" from the point of view of language purists (since those languages do not exist anymore). However, there are many words of foreign origin that have Lithuanian counterparts, and thus should not be used. Such words previously came from Russian in the past, but now that Lithuania has regained its independence in 1991, English is starting to have increasingly stronger influence over Lithuanian and many words have recently flooded the language (like dispenseris, hakeris or singlas). The influence of loan words is being discussed at present, but finding appropriate Lithuanian counterparts for these words is often a difficult job.

Writing system

Like many of the Indo-European languages, Lithuanian employs a modified Roman script. It is comprised of 32 letters. The collation order presents one surprise: "Y" is moved to occur between I Ogonek (Į) and J. Acute, grave, and macron/tilde accents can be used to mark stress and vowel length. However, these are generally not written, except in dictionaries and where needed for clarity. In addition, the following digraphs are used, but are treated as sequences of two letters for collation purposes. It should be noted that the "Ch" digraph represents a velar fricative, while the others are straightforward compositions of their component letters.

Examples

- Lithuanian: Lietuviškai ("lietuvishkai", simplified Lithuanian transcription [lĭetuviʃkaĭ])
- Hello (informally): labas ("lahbas", [lābas])
- Goodbye (informally): ate! ("ateh'", [atæ])
- Please: prašau ("prashau", [praʃaŭ])
- Thank you: ačiū ("ahchjooh", [ātʃⁱū])
- That one: tas (masculine), ta (feminine) ("tas, ta")
- How much?: kiek? ("kjek", [kĭek])
- Yes: taip ([taĭp])
- No: ne ("ne")
- Sorry: atsiprašau ("Atsiprashau", [atsipraʃaŭ])
- I don't understand: nesuprantu ([nesuprantu])
- Do you speak English?: (ar) kalbate angliškai? ([/ar/ kalbate āngliʃkaĭ ?])
- Where is ...?: Kur yra? ([kur īra?])

External links

- [http://www.lituanus.org/IndexLanguage.htm Lithuanian linguistics]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=lit Ethnologue report for Lithuanian]
- [http://www.istorija.net/ Pages and Forums on the Lithuanian History]
- [http://diacritics.typo.cz Diacritics Project — All you need to design a font with correct accents]
- [http://www.lkz.lt The Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language]
- [http://indoeuro.bizland.com/project/grammar/grammar11.html The Historical Grammar of Lithuanian language]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Lithuanian-english/ Lithuanian English Dictionary] from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition Category:Baltic languages Category:East Baltic languages Category:Languages of Lithuania Category:Lithuanian language ja:リトアニア語

Belarusian language

Belarusian (беларуская мова) is the language of the Belarusian people. It is one of the three East Slavic languages and is spoken in and around Belarus. It is also known as "Belarusan", "Byelorussian", "Belorussian", or "Belarusian". The word "Byelorussian" is an adjective derived from the transliteration of the Russian name of the country (Byelorussia). It was in predominant use in English earlier. The adjectives "Belarusian" and "Belarusan" and many other forms emerged in the 1990s by English-speaking people to denote something or somebody of or pertaining to present-day name of Belarus, its people and the language they speak, whereas in Russian and Belarusian no new forms of the adjective appeared in those days. "Belarusian" is the adjective in most common use today (but the Soviet or Russian version adjective "Byelorussian" can still be found in many texts).

History

The modern Belarusian language has evolved considerably from its early roots, the dialects of Old East Slavic (Common East Slavic) spoken in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rus' and Samogitia. On the basis of Belarusian (and Ukrainian) dialects a chancellery language was developed that afterwards became a fully-fledged Belarusian-Ukrainian literary language called Ruthenian (but in Belarusian context often also called Old Belarusian; the name used by the speakers themselves was the name inherited from Old East Slavic: ruskaja mova ‘language of Rus'’, or, in contrast to Church Slavonic and Polish, prostaja mova ‘simple language’). It was the official language of the chancellery and courts of the Grand Duchy until 1696. All of the documents of the Lithuanian Metrika (the whole archive of the State Chancellery of the Grand Duchy) and Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania are written in this language. Old Belarusian was actually the language of the first Bible to be printed in one of the Eastern Slavic languages – the achievement of Francysk Skaryna. The 16th century was the Belarusian golden age: many schools were active, and religious quarrels between Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants and Jews were fought using printing presses rather than violence. Many Belarusians were people of the Renaissance, educated at the universities of Western Europe or the Lithuanian university in Vilnius that was founded in 1579. After the series of wars known in Polish history as the Deluge, the Belarusian population was halved, partly due to deaths, and partly due to the policy of deportations of skilled craftsman and workers to Russia by the occupying Russian army. Especially devastating was the 13-year war (1654–1667). In the process, most cities were burned down, almost all schools were closed, and the remaining educated people were attracted by Polish culture. By 1696, the language of the upper classes of society had switched to Polish, followed by a change of the official language. Belarusian was used both by peasants, and by nobles wishing to express their sympathy toward common people. By the 16th century, the term "ruski" ("Russian" or "Ruthenian" in Latin) continued to refer to the language spoken in modern-day Ukraine and Belarus, not the language of Muscovy (the modern Russians). After partitions of Poland (1772–1796), the Belarusian territory was incorporated into Imperial Russia. Unlike Ukraine, Belarus has historically lacked a strong nationalistic drive. During the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth times, educated people of Belarus tended to identify themselves with Poland, and today some prominent persons are claimed both by Poland and Belarus for their nationality. More recently, the population of Belarus tends to identify itself as a close associate of Russia (if not considering themselves Russian outright). One of the reasons for this situation is the minority status of Belarusian speakers in urban areas—traditional cultural centers. For example, according to the 1897 Imperial Russian census, in Belarusian towns of more than 50,000 residents, only 7.3% respondents reported Belarusian as their mother tongue (the criterion in defining nationality for the purposes of the census). This state of affairs greatly contributed to a perception that Belarusian is a "rural", "uneducated" language. In the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, very few people wrote in Belarusian, peasants being mostly illiterate, and urban dwellers preferring Russian, Polish or Yiddish. Still there existed a minor movement for returning to the Belarusian language; it was important in the circle of friends of Adam Mickiewicz. On March 25, 1918, Belarusians proclaimed the independence of the Belarusian National Republic, but it was short-lived and didn't manage to stay independent. The official language of all communication in the BNR was Belarusian. In 1918–1919, Soviets took control of the Belarusian lands and created the Belarusian SSR. In the 1920s, a campaign of Belarusization started, as a part of the all-Union campaign of "Korenizatsiya" and revival of national cultures. Some administration and legal affairs began to be carried out in Belarusian and a large number of books were printed in the Belarusian language by prominent Belarusian authors and publicists: Yakub Kolas, Yanka Kupala, Zmitrok Biadulia, Maksim Bahdanovich, and many others. Active discussions were carried out about the standardisation of the language. The Belarusization was stalled and even reversed beginning in the 1930s. Hundreds of people were shot or sent to Siberia. The orthographic reform of 1933 clearly "russified" the Belarusian spelling rules. In 1938 Russian language become an obligatory subject in all Soviet schools. The final blow was the school reform of 1958, when parents were given the right to select the language of instruction for their children. After that, more and more people began to send their children to Russian-language schools, and the number of Belarusian-language schools began to diminish. Under the Soviets, there was also the elimination of the Belarusian middle class between 1917 and 1941 by the Communist Party; in Kurapaty (a suburb of Minsk), the NKVD killed perhaps 100,000 people. Many thousands of people were sent to concentration camps (Gulag) or resettled to Siberia. Around 400 Belarusian authors were repressed during anti-nationalism campaigns that started around 1929 and culminated during the Great Purge. Interest in the Belarusian language was revived at the end of 1980s during perestroika. In 1990, Belarusian became the only official language of Belarusian SSR, and a second campaign of Belarusization followed. The "Law on languages" (Закон аб мовах), ratified on 26 January 1990, envisioned a complete switch of all administrative and official documentation of the country into Belarusian by 2000. However, the Belarusization was totally stopped following the election of Alexander Lukashenka in 1994. Also in 1995 there was a referendum which, among other things, gave Russian language an equal status with Belarusian. Currently, russification is taking place in Belarus on an ever-growing scale, and the government does not provide any support for the Belarusian language. In this respect, a fact of note is that the [http://www.president.gov.by/ official website of the Belarusian President] is in two languages: Russian and English (as of 2005) . During Soviet times, the Belarusian language was viewed by many native speakers as a rural and peasant language as opposed to Russian's image as a modern and urban language. That image in the eyes of the public has changed somewhat in the years of Belarus independence: some perceive it as a language of the young emerging urban elite. Nevertheless, current Russification policies are seen by some as a serious threat that may lead to the eventual extinction of the Belarusian language in Belarus. The largest centre of Belarusian cultural activity, in the Belarusian language, outside Belarus is in the Polish province of Białystok, which is home to a long-established Belarusian minority.

Orthography

The Belarusian language was written not only in the Cyrillic alphabet, but previously also in its original Łacinka (лацінка - "Latin alphabet"), and also in [http://www.pravapis.org/art_kitab1_en.asp Arabica] (Arabic script, used by Tatars). Today, the Arabic script is no longer used, but some people continue to write in Łacinka, although officially only the Cyrillic script is supported. More articles on Belarusian alphabets are [http://www.pravapis.org/articles.asp here]. See also an article about the unique Belarusian letter Ў.

Belarusian Cyrillic alphabet

Аа Бб Вв Гг Дд (ДЖдж ДЗдз) Ее Ёё Жж Зз Іі Йй Кк Лл Мм Нн Оо Пп Рр Сс Тт Уу Ўў Фф Хх Цц Чч Шш Ыы Ьь Ээ Юю Яя In addition, the apostrophe is used between a consonant and the following "soft" (iotified) vowel (е ё, ю, я) to indicate that no palatalization of the preceding consonant takes place, and the vowel is pronounced in the same way as at the beginning of the word. In lacinka this function is performed by the letter 'j'. Compare: "Сям'я" vs "Siamja" (Note: two different ways of matching the letter 'я'). Before 1933, in addition to Ge (Гг), the Belarusian alphabet contained the letter Ghe (Ґґ). Some Belarusians promote restoring the letter, but the issue is not yet being considered in Belarus officially.

Belarusian Latin alphabet

Aa Bb Cc Ćć Čč Dd (Dzdz Dźdź Dždž) Ee Ff Gg Hh Chch Ii Jj Kk Ll Łł Mm Nn Ńń Oo Pp Rr Ss Śś Šš Tt Uu Ŭŭ Vv Yy Zz Źź Žž

Transliteration

Transliteration of geographical names

In 2000, the rules of transliteration of geographical names into the Latin alphabet were decreed in Belarus. Main peculiarities:
- Г/г → H/h, and thus Х/х → Ch/ch.
- Е е, Ё ё, Ю ю, Я я are treated according to the following two cases (this rule eliminates the necessity in the separating apostrophe):
- after consonants: iе, iо, iu, iа (renders palatalisation)
- in all other cases (at the beginning of a word, after vowes and separators): Jе jе, Jо jо, Ju ju, Jа jа (renders yotation).
- Ўў → Uu with Circumflex (Û/û)
- Ч ч → Č č, Ш ш → Š š, Ж ж → Ž ž
- Ь ь → '
- Ы ы → Y y
- Э э → Е е This approach resembles Łacinka, but differs from it as well. Compare: Mahiloŭ (Łacinka), Mahilioû (new).

Grammar

Phonetics

The most prominent phonetic features of Belarusian are
- akannie (аканьне) – the tendency to pronounce unstressed "o" and "e" as clear open front unrounded vowel "a";
- dzekanie (дзеканьне) – the pronunciation of palatalized d as soft affricate dz' (dź);
- tsekanie (цеканьне) – the pronunciation of palatalized t as soft affricate ts' (ć);
- strong palatalization of ś (сь) and ź (зь).

Some Belarusian sounds in IPA

Vocabulary

In terms of lexicon, Belarusian is most closely related to Ukrainian, then to Polish, and only then to Russian. Some very basic examples:
- вітаю (vitaju) – hello
- як (jak) – how
- як маесься? (jak majessia?) – how are you doing?
- добрай раніцы (dobraj ranicy) – good morning
- дабранач (dabranach) – good night
- дзякуй (dziakuj) – thank you
- калі ласка (kali laska) – please, you are welcome
- спадар / спадарыня (spadar / spadarynia) – mister / missis
- добра (dobra) – good
- кепска / дрэнна (kiepska / drenna) – bad
- выдатна (vydatna) – excellent
- цудоўна (cudouna) – wonderful
- дзе (dzie) – where?
- адкуль (adkul) – where from?
- чаму (chamu) – why?
- разумею (razumieju) – I understand
- нічога не разумею (nichoha nie razumieju) – I don't understand anything

Comparison

Nouns (nazounik)

There are six cases:
- Nominative (nazouny)
- Genitive (rodny)
- Dative (davalny)
- Accusative (vinavalny)
- Instrumental (tvorny)
- Locative (mesny) There is also a seventh case, vocative (klichny), but in modern Belarusian it's very rarely used, so in contemporary textbooks most often you'll see just the first six cases mentioned. For nouns there are several types of declension:
- i-stem – feminine (feminine nouns ending in a hard consonant, soft consonant or ў: печ "stove", косьць "bone", кроў "blood")
- a-stem – mostly feminine (subdivided into four subgroups: hard stems, guttural stems, soft stems, hardened stems)
- o-stem – masculine (subdivided into hard stem and soft stem) and neuter (вясло "oar", мора "sea")
- consonantal stem – mostly neuter (ягня "lamb", бярэмя "burden", семя "seed")
- irregular nouns (for example, вока "eye" and вуха "ear")

Pronouns (zajmiennik)

In Belarusian there are eight types of pronouns (займеньнік):
- Possessive (прыналежныя): мой (my, mine); твой (your(s)familiar); яго, ягоны (his); яе, ейны (her); наш, наскі (our(s)); ваш (your(s)); іх, іхны (their(s)), свой ((one's) own).
- Personal (асабовыя): я (I), ты (you (familiar)), ён (he), яна (she), яно (it), мы (we), вы (you), яны (they);
- Negative (адмоўныя): ніхто (nobody), нішто (nothing), нічый (nobody's), ніякі (not of any kind), ніводзін, ніводны (no one);
- Definitive (азначальныя): сам (-self); самы ("the very", - self); увесь (all, whole); усё (all, everything); усе (all, every, everybody); усякі, усялякі (every, any); кожны (each); іншы (other).
- Indefinite (няпэўныя): нехта (someone); нешта (something); нейкі (some, а); нечы (somebody's, a); некаторы (some of); некалькі (a few, some, several); хтось, хтосьці (somebody); штось, штосьці (something); чыйсьці (somebody's); якісьці, які-кольвек (some, a kind of, something like); хто-небудзь, хто-кольвек (anybody); што-небудзь, што-кольвек (anything); чый-небудзь (some one's); абы-што (smth.dickey); абы-чый (a, somebody's (negative)); абы-які (dickey).
- Interrogative-comparative (пытальныя): хто (who), што (what), які (which), каторы (which), чый (whose), колькі (how much);
- Demonstrative (указальныя): той (that); гэты (this); гэны (this/that); такі (such); гэткі, гэтакі (such, of this kind); столькі, гэтулькі (that much);
- Reflexive (зваротны): сябе (-self).

External links

- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=bel Ethnologue report for Belarusian]
- [http://www.belarusguide.com/dictionaries/engblr/index.html English-Belarusian dictionaries, in Lacinka]
- [http://www.lacinka.org/ Łacinka.org]
- [http://www.belarusguide.com/culture1/texts/Metrika.html Metrica of GDL]
- [http://www.belarusguide.com/culture1/texts/Statut.html Statutes of GDL]
- [http://www.pravapis.org/ pravapis.org - Belarusian language]
- [http://vitba.org/ Fundamentals of Modern Belarusian]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Belarusan-english/ Belarusan English Dictionary] from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition Category:Languages of Belarus Category:Languages of Estonia Category:Languages of Latvia Category:Languages of Lithuania Category:Languages of Poland Category:East Slavic languages Category:Belarusian language ja:ベラルーシ語

1 June

June 1 is the 152nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (153rd in leap years), with 213 days remaining.

Events

- 193 - Roman Emperor Marcus Didius is assassinated in his palace.
- 1283 - Treaty of Rheinfelden: Duke Rudolph II of Austria has to waive his right to the Duchies of Austria and Styria.
- 1485 - Matthias of Hungary took Vienna in his conquest of Austria (from Frederick III) and made the city his capital.
- 1495 - Friar John Cor records the first known batch of scotch whisky.
- 1533 - Henry VIII of England's new wife, Anne Boleyn, is crowned as queen.
- 1660 - Mary Dyer is hanged in Boston, Massachusetts, for defying a law banning Quakers from the colony. She is considered to be the last religious martyr in what would become the United States.
- 1779 - American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold is court-martialed for malfeasance in his treatment of government property.
- 1792 - Kentucky becomes the 15th state of the United States.
- 1796 - Tennessee becomes the 16th state of the United States.
- 1812 - War of 1812: U.S. President James Madison asks the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom.
- 1813 - The United States Navy gains its motto as the mortally wounded commander of the frigate Chesapeake, Capt. James Lawrence, said, 'Don't give up the ship'.
- 1815 - Napoleon swears fidelity to the Constitution of France.
- 1831 - James Clark Ross discovers the position of the North Magnetic Pole on the Boothia Peninsula.
- 1855 - American adventurer William Walker conquers Nicaragua and reinstates slavery.
- 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Fair Oaks ends, with both sides claiming victory.
- 1869 - Thomas Edison of Boston, Massachusetts, receives a patent for his electric voting machine.
- 1879 - Napoleon Eugene, Prince of France, is killed in the Anglo-Zulu War.
- 1890 - The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns.
- 1898 - The Trans-Mississippi Exposition world's fair opens in Omaha, Nebraska, United States.
- 1907 - Cricket: Colin Blythe takes 17 wickets for 48 runs against Northamptonshire at Northampton in one day. It is the best analysis ever recorded either for a county cricket match or a single day's bowling, and not bettered in first-class cricket until 1956.
- 1909 - The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition world's fair opens in Seattle, Washington, United States.
- 1910 - Robert Falcon Scott's South Pole expedition leaves England.
- 1918 - World War I: Battle for Belleau Wood begins.
- 1921 - Tulsa Race Riot: A race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, kills at least 85 people.
- 1922 - Official founding of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
- 1925 - Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees plays the first game in his record streak of 2,130 consecutive games, an endurance record in major league baseball that stands till Cal Ripken, Jr. broke it in 1995.
- 1935 - First driving tests introduced in Britain.
- 1938 - Baseball: Protective helmets are worn by batters for the very first time.
- 1941 - World War II: Battle of Crete ends as Crete capitulates to Germany.
- 1943 - A civilian flight from Lisbon to London is shot down by the Germans during World War II, killing all aboard, including actor Leslie Howard.
- 1954 - The Peanuts comic strip character Linus van Pelt is shown with a security blanket for the first time. [http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/peanuts/meet_the_gang/meet_linus.html]
- 1958 - Charles De Gaulle is brought out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months.
- 1967 - The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is released; Don Dunstan becomes Premier of South Australia
- 1971 - Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace, claiming to represent the majority of U.S. veterans who served in Southeast Asia, speak against war protests.
- 1974 - Flixborough disaster: An explosion at a chemical plant in Flixborough, UK, kills 28 people.
- 1978 - The first international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty are filed.
- 1979 - The first black-led government of Rhodesia in 90 years takes power, ousting Ian Smith and changing the country's name to Zimbabwe.
- 1980 - The Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.
- 1990 - U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty to end chemical weapon production and start destroying each of their nation's stockpiles.
- 2000 - The multilateral Patent Law Treaty (PLT) is signed.
- 2001 - Crown Prince Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev of Nepal slaughters his family during a royal dinner. Diprenda was also shot, and was proclaimed king in his hospital bed, dying three days later.
- 2003 - The People's Republic of China begins filling the reservoir behind the massive Three Gorges Dam, raising the water level near the dam over 100 metres.
- 2005 - The Dutch referendum on the European Constitution results in its rejection.

Births

- 1076 - Prince Mstislav of Kiev (d. 1132)
- 1265 - Dante Alighieri, Italian poet (d. 1321)
- 1300 - Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk, son of Edward I of England (d. 1338)
- 1480 - Tiedemann Giese, Polish Catholic bishop (d. 1550)
- 1503 - Wilhelm von Grumbach, German adventurer (d. 1567)
- 1563 - Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, English statesman and spymaster (d. 1612)
- 1633 - Geminiano Montanari, Italian astronomer (d. 1687)
- 1653 - Georg Muffat, French composer (d. 1704)
- 1675 - Francesco Scipione, marchese di Maffei, Italian archaeologist (d. 1755)
- 1771 - Ferdinando Paer, Italian composer (d. 1839)
- 1780 - Carl von Clausewitz, Prussian general (d. 1831)
- 1790 - Ferdinand Raimund, Austrian playwright (d. 1836)
- 1796 - Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, French mathematician (d. 1832)
- 1801 - Brigham Young, Mormon church leader and American western settler (d. 1877)
- 1804 - Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer (d. 1857)
- 1815 - Philip Kearny, American general (d. 1862)
- 1815 - King Otto of Greece (d. 1862)
- 1831 - John Bell Hood, American Confederate general (d. 1879)
- 1843 - Dr. Henry Faulds, Scottish fingerprinting pioneer (d. 1930)
- 1878 - John Masefield, English novelist and poet (d. 1967)
- 1881 - Charles Kay Ogden, English writer and linguist (d. 1957)
- 1890 - Frank Morgan, American actor (d. 1949)
- 1898 - Molly Picon, American actress (d. 1992)
- 1899 - Edward Charles Titchmarsh, English mathematician (d. 1963)
- 1901 - John Van Druten, English screen writer (d. 1957)
- 1915 - John Randolph, American actor (d. 2004)
- 1917 - William S. Knowles, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1921 - Nelson Riddle, American orchestra leader and arranger (d. 1985)
- 1922 - Povel Ramel , Swedish musician
- 1924 - Dr. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., American clergyman
- 1926 - Andy Griffith, American actor
- 1926 - Marilyn Monroe, American actress (d. 1962)
- 1928 - Georgi Dobrovolski, cosmonaut
- 1928 - Bob Monkhouse, English comedian and game show host (d. 2003)
- 1930 - Edward Woodward, English actor
- 1933 - Charles Wilson, American politician
- 1934 - Pat Boone (Charles Eugene Boone), American singer
- 1936 - Gerald Scarfe, British cartoonist and illustrator
- 1937 - Morgan Freeman, American actor
- 1939 - Cleavon Little, American actor (d. 1992)
- 1939 - Jackie Stewart, British race car driver
- 1940 - René Auberjonois, American actor
- 1940 - Kip Thorne, American physicist
- 1945 - Frederica von Stade, American mezzo-soprano
- 1946 - Brian Cox, Scottish actor
- 1947 - Jonathan Pryce, British actor
- 1947 - Ron Wood, English guitarist, (Jeff Beck Group, The Faces, and The Rolling Stones)
- 1956 - Lisa Hartman American actress
- 1959 - Martin Brundle, British race car driver
- 1960 - Simon Gallup, English Bass guitarist, (The Cure)
- 1961 - Paul Coffey, Canadian hockey player
- 1964 - Mark Curry, American comedian and actor
- 1965 - Nigel Short, English chess player
- 1968 - Jason Donovan, Australian actor
- 1970 - Alexi Lalas, American football player
- 1973 - Adam Garcia, Australian actor
- 1973 - Heidi Klum, German model
- 1973 - Derek Lowe, American baseball player
- 1974 - Alanis Morissette, Canadian singer
- 1977 - Danielle Harris, American voice actress
- 1980 - Oliver James, British actor
- 1981 - Carlos Zambrano, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
- 1982 - Justine Henin-Hardenne, Belgian tennis player

Deaths

- 195 BC - Gaozu of Han of China
- 193 - Marcus Severus Didius Julianus, Roman Emperor (b.133)
- 1434 - King Wladislaus II of Poland
- 1571 - John Story, English Catholic (martyred)
- 1625 - Honoré d'Urfé, French writer (b. 1568)
- 1639 - Melchior Franck, German composer
- 1660 - Mary Dyer, English Quaker (hanged)
- 1710 - David Mitchell, British admiral (b. 1642)
- 1740 - Samuel Werenfels, Swiss theologian (b. 1657)
- 1769 - Edward Holyoke, American President of Harvard University (b. 1689)
- 1795 - Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon (b.