Native Language Week 2020

Within the framework of the Native Language Week many events were held by the teachers of the department of Belarusian philology and students of the specialty “Belarusian philology”.

The action under the slogan “Flowers of the native language” was held on February 17. First-year students prepared wonderful bouquets, drawings with flowers, compositions with statements about the native language.

The contest of Belarusian language experts “Borders of the word” was held, which was attended by students of BrSU and Brest schools. The aim of the contest was to reveal creative potential and level of linguistic competence of students and pupils. While performing the contest tasks, the students and pupils explained the meanings of words related to the equivalent vocabulary of the language, displayed the subjects of the world literature recorded in the phraseologists, formed the names of the inhabitants of Belarusian and foreign cities.

Brain-ring “Language is interesting, fascinating” was held on February 18. Yellow, green and red teams were performing linguistic tasks of different levels. The green team won.

On February 19 a presentation of a new compilation of Nikolai Alekhnovich's “Spring Reflection” took place. Our guests were Nikolai Alekhnovich, chairman of the regional department of the Union of Belarusian Writers, and Nikolai Prokopovich, poet, TV journalist. The lines of many poems from the new compilation of Nikolai Alekhnovich were in a depressing mood. The lyrical hero of the book is extremely delicate nature, who tries to comprehend the passed path, remembers with gratitude and love those people who helped to survive, to remain themselves. Through the images of seasons the author's attitude to different stages of human life is manifested: childhood, youth, maturity. The collection raises many philosophical problems: parents and children, eternal and essential, life and death. Despite the dominant elegant mood, the general pathos of the book is optimistic. The lyrical hero believes in humanity.

On the same day there was a presentation of the works of young poets “Young Voices of Brest region”. The students of the department of philology read their poems about native language, Motherland, about love: Mizeriya Catherine, Ilyuchik Dasha, Semeyka Alina, Bernatsky Serafim, Antonovich Marina. Their creativity was appreciated by listeners and Brest poets. Young poets were invited to the creative session “Letters”, offered to print in “Zhyrandolya” magazine.

During breaks, the 3^rd year students of the specialty “Belarusian philology” conducted a blitz-quiz “Talk Belarusian” and a master class “Philological kaleidoscope”. Students were “tested” on the knowledge of the meanings of the Belarusian words, for example: biraszen, bouletka, grabar, lesnicovna, mounitsa, pamalogiya and others. Students were asked to make rhymed poetic lines by “supporting” words.

The results of the IV correspondence Olympiad in the Belarusian language for pupils of X-XI forms of Brest and the region were summed up. In total 762 answers to the Olympiad tasks were sent. The correct answers to all the tasks were given by 24 pupils.

On February 20, there was an event called “You'll be ringing, our native language!” The participants were the students of State Educational Institution “Brest Secondary School № 13 named after V. I. Hovan”. At the beginning of the event diplomas were awarded to the winners of the contest “Borders of the word”. The celebration began with the song “O Belarus, my rose” performed by the 3^rd year students. The participants of the theatre circle “U-neskladovik” showed a performance based on Korotkevich's work “The cradle of four wizards”. There were poems about the native language of the Belarusian poets, as well as the author's student poems.

One of the final events of the Belarusian Language and Literature Week was the oral magazine “Don't be shy, Belarusian, speak your own language”, aimed at forming a strong social motivation and civic position among students, a sustainable interest and positive attitude to the Belarusian language, a desire to master it. The event was held at the Scientific and Educational Center named after V. A. Kolesnik on February 21, International Mother Language Day. One of the pages of the magazine was devoted to the history of this holiday. The content of the oral journal highlighted the state of the Belarusian language and culture in Belarus and abroad.

On February 21, a national scientific-practical conference “National cultural component in literary and dialectal language” was held. During the plenary session, reports were delivered on various aspects of interaction between language, literature and culture. Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor Z. P. Melnikova outlined the role of Polish culture and Poles in the life and work of V. Korotkevich. The state of Belarusian terminology of the first half of the 20th century – the ways of material presentation, its amount in the first terminological dictionaries – were presented in D. V. Detko's speech, Head of the department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Head of the department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Head of the Department of Linguistics and Linguodidactics of the M. Tank Belarusian State Pedagogical University. The means of the Belarusian language in the creation of modern professional vocabulary fixed on the Belarusian-language websites, printed mass media, professional vocabulary textbooks for university students were considered in the speech of K. D. Goncharenko, senior research fellow at the Yakub Kolas Institute of Linguistics of the Center for Research of Belarusian Culture, Language and Literature of the NAS of Belarus. The subject of analysis in the report of I. V. Hetman, editor-in-chief of the Ivanovo district newspaper "Yanauski Krai", was the Belarusian-language component in the modern print media of Brestchina. S. F. But-Gusaim, Associate Professor of the Belarusian Philology Department, examined the reflection in the anthroponymicon of V. Ipatova's historical prose of the material and spiritual culture of Belarus.

We thank all participants of our events and hope for the next fruitful meetings!

Chair of Belarusian Philology