The 21 Names of Belarus

Uladzimir Katkoŭski, 2002-03-26

U.K. (inspired by <a href=»http://www.google.com/jobs/britney.html»>the intellgient Britney fans</a>)

No kidding about that. Inspired by <a href=»http://www.google.com/jobs/britney.html»>the misspellings</a> of Britney Spears’ first name I decided to find out how the name of our country is [mis-]spelled in the cyberspace. I guess this sounds somewhat crazy, but that was my idea of having fun on Belarus independence day (25th of March).

To make things easier, I decided to concentrate on the English-speaking part of the Net (as much as this was possible). Basically this means that I was only searching for spellings that could be used in English. I ignored other alphabets such as Cyrillics, extended Latin-based alphabets, Arabic, etc. I also ignored adjectives that could be used in Belarusian Latin script (e.g. bielaruski, bielaruskaja). Finally I ignored the variants from languages other than English even if they use Latin-based alphabet, e.g. <a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Belorusko»>Belorusko</a> (in Czech) or <a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Vitryssland»>Vitryssland</a> (in Swedish). And here is what is left over:

<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Belarus»>Belarus</a> 2,150,000 (93,355%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Belorussia»>Belorussia</a> 58,500 (2.540%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Bielorussia»>Bielorussia</a> 36,100 (1.567%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Byelorussia»>Byelorussia</a> 28,200 (1.224%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Belorus»>Belorus</a> 10,200 (0.443%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=%22White+Russia%22»>White Russia</a> 7,180 (0.312%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Byelarus»>Byelarus</a> 3,590 (0.156%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Belarussia»>Belarussia</a> 2,560 (0.111%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=White+Ruthenia»>White Ruthenia</a> 1,200 (0.052%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Bielarus»>Bielarus</a> 991 (0.043%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Great+Litva»>Great Litva</a> 921 (0.040%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Bielorus»>Bielorus</a> 881 (0.038%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Byelorus»>Byelorus</a> 826 (0.036%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Kryvia»>Kryvia</a> 760 (0.033%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Bellarus»>Bellarus</a> 470 (0.020%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=%22White+Rus%22»>White Rus</a> 224 (0.010%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Belaja+Rus»>Belaja Rus</a> 214 (0.009%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Ruthenia+Alba»>Ruthenia Alba</a> 86 (0.004%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Byelarussia»>Byelarussia</a> 59 (0.003%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Bielarussia»>Bielarussia</a> 48 (0.002%)
<a href=»http://www.google.com/search?hl=be&q=Bielaja+Rus»>Bielaja Rus</a> 22 (0.001%)

<span class=»small»> * searches performed on 25.03.2002</span>

So far the situation does not look bad at all! More than 90% of the time people spell it right. This is a big improvement in comparison with 1997-1998 when the form «Byelorussia» (promoted by the Russians) was much more popular. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the old data (but will definitely post it here, if I find it). In any case, I will repeat a similar «search rating» in a year’s time. And today’s bonus, the tips on how to make your Google «speak» in Belarusan, assuming that you are using Internet Explorer.

Google pa-bielarusku

In Internet Explorer go to «Tools | Internet Options...» dialog box, and click on the button «Languages».
In the «Language Preferences» dialog box that should appear, you should click «Add» button and select «Belarusian [be]» (this corresponds to the server variable http_accept_language)
Select «Belarusian [be]» and click «Move up» button as many times as needed to make «Belarusian [be]» the first item on the list
Just reload <a href=»http://www.google.com/»>Google</a> main page
The alternative way is to go to Google's settings from the main page and change the language settings there. In this case Google will set a cookie on your computer with your language preference.
Finally, yet another way of looking at Belarusian version of Google is to add a special variable »hl=be» to the URL, e.g. <a href=»http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=be»>http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=be</a>. This will be a temporary solution, since there are neither cookies nor changes in yout http_accept_language list.

- Uladzimir Katkoŭski