Writing system Cyrillic Alphabet | Glottolog None | |
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Language family Indo-European
Slavic
East Slavic
West Polesian | ||
The West Polesian microlanguage, (Native name: Заходышнополіська волода, Zakhodyshnopoliska voloda; Ukrainian: Західнополіська мікромова, Zakhidnopolis'ka mikromova, Belarusian: Заходнепалеская мікрамова, Zakhodniepalieskaya mikramova) or dialect is spoken in Southwestern Belarus, in Northwestern Ukraine and in the bordering regions of Poland. It is also considered a Slavic microlanguage, in effect a transitional language between the Ukrainian and the Belarusian.
If you want to know about Polesian, I can tell you the exact composition of our language. It is 40 percent Ukrainian, 5 percent Belarusian, 5 percent Polish, and 50 percent Polesian. — Vasily Ptashitz (Василий Пташиц), Intermarium
West Polesian dialects are mostly used in everyday speech, though attempts have been made in 1990s by efforts of Nikolai Shelyagovich to develop a standard written language for the dialect.