- Poleszuk
Poleszuk (Polish spelling; _be. Паляшук, "Palašuk"; _ua. Поліщук, "Polishchuk"; _ru. Полещук, "Poleshchuk") is the name given to the people who populated the swamps of
Polesia .The Poleszuk dialect is close to both Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish languages. Although recently most scholars assign it as a dialect of Ukrainian, it maintains many local peculiarities and is notably distinct from other
Slavic languages and dialects of the area.ThePrimary Chronicle uses the nameDregovichs for an ancient Slavic tribe settled between Pripyat andWestern Dvina rivers. The name comes from the Slavic word "dregva" or "dryhva" ("swamp"). This tribe is thought to be the ancestors of modern Poliszuks.Inhabitants of remote areas of modern
Belarus andPoland , the Poleszuks did not develop their own national identity until relatively recently. Hence when asked for their nationality in Imperial Russian and then Polishcensus es, many of them answered tutejszy ( _be. тутэйшы ≈ _en. local), and were categorized either as "other nationalities", Poles,Belarusians or Russians, depending mostly on their religion and political situation. In the Polish census of 1931 approximately 800,000 people declared themselves to be "locals" rather than Poles or Belarusians.During and after the
World War II , the Poleszuks along with Belarusian people developed a strong sense of identity and currently the Poleszuk group is one of the distinct cultural and ethnic parts ofBelarus , while most of the population of the Polish and Ukrainian parts of the region ofPolesie have assimilated with the respective nations. At the end of 1980s, there was a minor campaign in Soviet Belarus for the creation of a separate "Polesian language " based on the dialects of Polesia. However, they received no support and the campaign eventually melted away.ee also
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Polekhs References
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