Belarusian

The roots of the Belarusian language can be traced back to its sister Slavic languages, including Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish. Since these languages developed in close proximity to one another and in similar contexts, they would come to be considered mutually intelligible to some degree, especially Russian and Ukrainian with Belarusian. The development of the Belarusian language faced obstacles, such as the suppression under the Kingdom of Poland in the late 1500s.

Under the formation of the Soviet Union, Belarusians became recognized as a unified state language, and Belarus as the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. However, Russian eventually took the place of Belarusian as the primary official language, especially in higher education. This limited the degree to which it was spoken as a primary language throughout the country. Now, efforts are put forth to promote the speaking of Belarusian among citizens and to preserve the language and culture.

Translation can be a difficult process, especially between languages that develop in different contexts. Many Slavic languages are relatively mutually intelligible as a result of developing in similar contexts, but languages that develop in separate contexts may describe the same concepts in entirely different ways.

This is what makes direct translations unreliable, and any multilingual person knows that direct translations are often silly at best and entirely incoherent at worst. A strong sense of cultural understanding, then, is crucial in ensuring that messaging is translated coherently and meaningfully. Otherwise, your brand and messaging might come off as unintelligible or, worse, offensive.