Attitudes toward the Belarusian language (based on discourse analysis of comments on Internet forums)

Abstract

This paper deals with the problem of attitudes toward the Belarusian language which were expressed by participants of Internet forums. The analysis is based on 10 discussions concerning sociolinguistic problems on three popular web sites in the .by domain. It is argued that attitudes to the national language derive from the language policy and language attitudes in families (first of all, expressed by the parents) and among peers. Attitudes toward language are often determined by personal events and are frequently formed at school.