Belarusian Language - Classification and Relationship To Other Languages

Classification and Relationship To Other Languages

The question of whether contemporary Belarusian and Russian (as well as Ukrainian and Rusyn) are dialects of a single language or separate languages is not entirely decided by linguistic factors alone. This is because there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility. As members of the East Slavic group of languages, they are descended from a common ancestor. Although Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian are usually listed by linguists as separate languages, one source lists them, with Rusyn, as four inner-languages within a single outer-language.

Within East Slavic, the Belarusian language is most closely related to Ukrainian.