The Belarusian alphabet is based on the
Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...
and is derived from the alphabet of
Old Church Slavonic. It has existed in its modern form since 1918 and has 32 letters. See also
Belarusian Latin alphabet
The Belarusian Latin alphabet or Łacinka (from be, лацінка or łacinka, BGN/PCGN: ''Latsinka'', ) for the Latin script in general is the common name for writing Belarusian using Latin script. It is similar to the Sorbian alphabet a ...
and
Belarusian Arabic alphabet
The Belarusian Arabic alphabet ( be, Беларускі арабскі алфавіт, ''Biełaruski arabski ałfavit'') or Arabitsa (, ''Arabica'') was based on the Arabic script and was developed in the 16th century (possibly 15th). It consiste ...
.
Letters
Details
Officially, the represents both and , but the latter occurs only in
borrowings and
mimesis. The is used by some for the latter sound but, with the exception of
Taraškievica
Taraškievica or Belarusian Classical Orthography (, be, тарашкевіца / клясычны правапіс) is a variant of orthography of the Belarusian language, based on the literary norm of the modern Belarusian language, the fir ...
, has not been standard.
A followed by or may denote either two distinct respective sounds (in some prefix-root combinations: пад-земны, ад-жыць) or the Belarusian
affricates
An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair ...
and (for example, падзея, джала). In some representations of the alphabet, the affricates are included in parentheses after the letter to emphasize their special status: .
is not a distinct phoneme but the
neutralization of /v/ and /l/ when there is no following vowel, like before a consonant or at the end of a word.
Palatalization of consonants is usually indicated through choice of vowel letter, as illustrated here with and , both written with the letter :
::
When a consonant is not palatalized and precedes , the apostrophe is used to separate the iotated vowel: . ( is the palatalizing version of , and arguably, they represent a single phoneme). The apostrophe is not considered a letter and so is not taken into account for alphabetical order. In pre-Second World War printing, the form was used. When computers are used, the form is frequently substituted by .
History
The medieval Cyrillic alphabet had 43 letters. Later, 15 letters were dropped, the last 4 after the introduction of the first official Belarusian grammar in 1918. Since four new letters were added, there are now 32 letters.
The new letters were:
* The (
(CYRILLIC) EH) appeared in Belarusian texts in about the late-15th century.
* The (
(CYRILLIC) SHORT I) evolved from (
(CYRILLIC) I), combined with a diacritical sign by the end of the 16th century.
* The (
(CYRILLIC) IO) came from the Russian alphabet that borrowed it from French in the 19th century.
* The (
(CYRILLIC) SHORT U) was proposed by Russian linguist
Pyotr Bezsonov in 1870.
The Belarusian alphabet, in its modern form, has formally existed since the adoption of the
Branislaw Tarashkyevich
Branislaw Adamavich Tarashkyevich, russian: Бронисла́в Ада́мович Тарашке́вич, lt, Bronislavas Taraškevičius, pl, Bronisław Adamowicz Taraszkiewicz (20 January 1892 – 29 November 1938) was a Belarusian public fi ...
's
Belarusian grammar, for use in Soviet schools, in 1918 Several slightly different versions had been used informally.
In the 1920s and notably at the
Belarusian Academical Conference (1926)
Belarusian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to Belarus
* Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent
* A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus
* Belarusian language
* Belarusian culture
* Belarusian cuisine
* Byelor ...
, miscellaneous changes of the Belarusian alphabet were being proposed. Notable were replacing with (
(CYRILLIC) JE), and/or replacing , , , with (or else with ), , , , respectively (as in the
Serbian alphabet
The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet ( sr, / , ) is a variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language, updated in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two alphabets used to write standard modern Serbian, th ...
), replacing with , introducing (see also
Ge with upturn
Ghe with upturn (Ґ ґ; italics: ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It is part of the Ukrainian alphabet, the Pannonian Rusyn alphabet and both the Carpathian Rusyn alphabets, and also some variants of the Urum and Belarusian (i.e. Bel ...
; both proposed changes would match the
Ukrainian alphabet
The Ukrainian alphabet ( uk, абе́тка, áзбука алфа́ві́т, abetka, azbuka alfavit) is the set of letters used to write Ukrainian, which is the official language of Ukraine. It is one of several national variations of the ...
) and/or introducing special graphemes/ligatures for affricates: , etc. Even the introduction of the Latin script was contemplated at one moment (as proposed by
Zhylunovich at the
Belarusian Academical Conference (1926)
Belarusian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to Belarus
* Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent
* A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus
* Belarusian language
* Belarusian culture
* Belarusian cuisine
* Byelor ...
). Nothing came of it.
Noted Belarusian linguist
Yan Stankyevich in his later works suggested a completely different form of the alphabet:
Note that proper names and place names are rendered in
BGN/PCGN romanization of Belarusian.
Keyboard layout
The standard Belarusian
keyboard layout
A keyboard layout is any specific physical, visual or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key-meaning associations (respectively) of a computer keyboard, mobile phone, or other computer-controlled typographic keyboard.
is the actua ...
for personal computers is as follows:
:
See also
*
Belarusian orthography reform of 1933
The orthography of the Belarusian language was reformed in 1933 during the Soviet era.
Differences between the old and the new orthography
# The soft sign is no longer written when denoting assimilation of 'softness': , instead of .
# The soft ...
*
Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...
*
Cyrillic alphabets
Numerous Cyrillic alphabets are based on the Cyrillic script. The early Cyrillic alphabet was developed in the 9th century AD and replaced the earlier Glagolitic script developed by the Byzantine theologians Cyril and Methodius. It is the b ...
*
Romanization of Belarusian
References
* Да рэформы беларускай азбукі. // Працы акадэмічнае канферэнцыі па рэформе беларускага правапісу і азбукі. – Мн. :
. м. 1927.
* Ян Станкевіч. Які мае быць парадак літараў беларускае абэцады
962
Year 962 ( CMLXII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* December – Arab–Byzantine wars – Sack of Aleppo: A Byzantine e ...
// Ян Станкевіч. Збор твораў у двух тамах. Т. 2. – Мн.: Энцыклапедыкс, 2002.
* Б. Тарашкевіч. Беларуская граматыка для школ. – Вільня : Беларуская друкарня ім. Фр. Скарыны, 1929 ; Мн. : <Народная асвета>, 1991
аксімільн. – Выданьне пятае пераробленае і пашыранае.
* Што трэба ведаць кожнаму беларусу. Выданне „Вольнае Беларусі“. – Менск : друк-ня А. Я. Грынблята, 1918 ; Менск : Беларускае коопэрацыйна-выдавецкае таварыства ″Адраджэньне″, 1991
аксімільн. – Зборнік артыкулау розных аутарау: М. Міцкевіча, Я. Лёсіка, В. Ластоўскаго, М. Багдановіча, Пётр
з Арленят і інш.
External links
Taraškievizer: Converts Belarusian text from official spelling (Narkamaŭka) to classical spelling (Taraškievica)Romanizer: Cyrillic to Latin script converter: BelarusianIntroduction to Belarusian AlphabetIntroduction to Belarusian Latin ScriptBelarusian language using Arabic scriptLetter Frequency in Belarusian and Russian
{{Language orthographies
Alphabet
An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...
Cyrillic alphabets