The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Center for Domestic Languages want to keep the name of Belarus unchanged. The word Belarus is rarely used in Finnish, and no one seems to demand it either.
Finland with these prospects, he does not intend to change the Finnish name he uses from Belarus, says the Counselor Minna-Mari Mourujärvi from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“I see no reason to change the name of Belarus. It is well-established, natural and appropriate for our language. All in all, that is the name of the country. ”
Lake Mourujärvi says the name has not been discussed recently and there is no political pressure to change the name that would justify starting a discussion.
“I have not heard the demand that the Finnish name of Belarus be changed. The name of the country has simply not been politicized in Finland. ”
On Sunday Norway said it would change its name from Belarus. Hereinafter, the name will be Belarus, while it used to be Hviterussland.
“We are doing this out of solidarity with the democracy movement in Belarus. They are not an extension of Russia, ”said the Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt justified the line.
Sweden and Denmark have also switched to Belarus.
Read more: Norway intends to change its name from Belarus
The Center for Domestic Languages (Kotus) also sees no linguistic need to change the established Finnish name used for Belarus. Kotus ’statutory function is language maintenance, so it views the name issue from the perspective of clear language use and communication.
“Very often the change of name of a state is in some way political. Less often, the use of the name would be associated with language problems that would require a change, ”says Kotus’ specialist. Ulla Onkamo.
If the issue is clearly political, it will be discussed with the State Department.
Soviet Union after the break-up in 1991, Belarus became independent and took the former name of the region Belarus as its official name. The word Bela in the name refers to the white and rus remnant to the historical area of the East Slavs. The former Russian name Belarus had become established when Belarus belonged to the Russian Empire.
Onkamo points out that, etymologically, the words Russian and Russian have the same origin, and they generally refer to Slavic peoples in the same way as the Finnish word for Russia. In modern language, however, the words are interpreted as separate, and the longer form easily merges with the Russian state. There is no etymological basis for this.
“The reason for the name debate is that there is no desire to confuse or unite the name of Belarus with the Russian state.”
Read more: Finland also needs to consider the name of Belarus
When in the fall of 2020, the authoritarian ruler of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko again won the presidential election, the result was widely considered fraudulent. The election result sparked widespread protests, which Lukashenko suppressed with his violent machinery.
“At that time, Belarus was mentioned in every program of discussion. A few commentators tried to launch the name Belarus, but it did not take off, ”says Counselor Mourujärvi.
At the same time, Kotus and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs were looking at the Finnish name for Belarus. At that time, it was decided that there was no need to amend the recommendation in the established name. Instead, Finnish-Swedish has adopted the name Belarus recommended by the Swedish Language Council.
The change of name in Belarus has been pushed by, for example, the leader of the democracy movement in Belarus Svyatlana Tsihanouskaya. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus has also resented the use of the form Belarus in its Russian-language messages on Twitter.
“Yes, I understand the arguments of Sweden, Denmark and Norway that Belarus is not an extension of Russia.”
However, according to him, the reason for changing the name is not enough that the name of the country includes part of the name of another country.
Home Onkamo believes that there are no linguistic reasons for updating the Finnish name.
“Belarus is an established name that locates its target and is easy to use in terms of inflection and pronunciation. Place names also work better in principle, the more permanent they are. The name changes almost invariably cause confusion and problems with the flow of information, ”explains Onkamo.
The recommendation is also influenced by the fact that Belarus is not widely used in the Finnish language.
“Widespread use could advocate a change of name. Kotus has considered that it is good to monitor the use of the Belarusian name in Finnish-language contexts. ”
Counselor Mourujärvi also calls for a pragmatic approach to the issue:
“Nobody in Finland says Belarus that, Belarus this.”
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