| Sumario: | In the recent past, particularly since 2021–2022, one can see a noticeable trend in online discourse on platforms with Belarusian and Ukrainian focus, where posts and comments deviate from the usual Cyrillic script. These posts and comments are written in Latin script (=Latinica or Łacinka, Latynka). This phenomenon can be explained by the interplay of several factors: a culturally and religiously rooted factor grounded in historical developments; a politically motivated factor, characteristic of the formation of conflict-based communities; and a digital-cultural factor, which becomes particularly relevant in the context of the internationalization of communal dynamics within digital spaces. This article investigates the use of Latinica in digital environments across multiple platforms (YouTube, Naša Niva, Reddit, Facebook, etc.) in Belarusian and Ukrainian. It identifies distinct Latinica variants and offers a discourse-analytical interpretation of the linguistic and sociocultural motivations for their use. The investigation is carried out in relation to the three factors mentioned, whereby similarities and differences between the two language communities are also addressed. The comments of the respective platforms, which are analyzed for the above-mentioned characteristics, serve as the basis for the study.
|
|---|