Traśanka

Trasianka or trasyanka (, ) is a mixed form of speech in which Belarusian and Russian elements and structures are combined arbitrarily. Due to the negative connotation of the word trasianka it has been suggested that in the linguistic debate the term "Belarusian-Russian mixed speech" should be used.

== Etymology == In Belarusian, the word means a kind of low quality fodder: hay is mixed with cut straw (unlike hay, straw has no nutritional value) by thoroughly shaking the mixture (shake: , ) when the owner is low on hay supply. The word acquired the second meaning ("language mixture of low quality") relatively recently, in the second half of the 1980s, when a series of publications in the literary newspaper () criticized developments in the use of the Belarusian language under Soviet rule. Zianon Pazniak is often said to be the one who has popularized the use of the word for the Belarusian-Russian language mixture. For the Belarusian-Russian borderland it has been reported that the phenomenon usually referred to by the term is called (mixed-up [language]) instead (this information is based on an interdisciplinary research carried out in the district of Horki and Drybin in 2004).