Germanizmy w języku białoruskim mające polskie ekwiwalenty: ich liczebność w ujęciu diachronicznym i charakterystyka jakościowa

Abstract

In Belarusian, different types of German loans are found. However, most of them did not come directly from German, but were passed on to Belarusian by other languages such as Polish, or later in history, Russian. In many cases, the path is unclear, especially with German loans found in all three Slavic languages mentioned. Apart from this, some of the (alleged) Germanisms are already loans in German itself, and hence could have taken different ways into Belarusian. This paper criticises older studies which comment on quantitative aspects of German loans in Belarusian, neglecting the “etymological” heterogeneity of the elements. Instead, an (approximate) quantitative analysis of German loans in Belarusian is offered, concentrating on those elements with Germanic etymology most probably mediated by Polish, the undoubtedly largest subset of Germanisms in Belarusian.