Belarusian language

Alphabet

The Belarusian language was written not only in the Cyrillic alphabet, but previously also in its original ?acinka (??????? - "Latin alphabet"), and also in Arabica (Arabic script). Today, the Arabic script is no longer used, but some people continue to write in ?acinka, although officially only the Cyrillic script is supported. More articles on Belarusian alphabets are here.

Related Topics:
Cyrillic alphabet - ?acinka - Latin alphabet

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See also an article about the unique Belarusian letter ?.

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Belarusian Cyrillic alphabet

?? ?? ?? ?? ?? (???? ????) ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??

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In addition, the apostrophe is used between a consonant and the following "soft" (iotified) vowel (? ?, ?, ?) to indicate that no palatalization of the preceding consonant takes place, and the vowel is pronounced in the same way as at the beginning of the word. In lacinka this function is performed by the letter 'j'. Compare: "????" vs "Siamja" (Note: two different ways of matching the letter '?').

Related Topics:
Apostrophe - Iotified - Palatalization

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Before 1933, in addition to Ge (??), the Belarusian alphabet contained the letter Ghe (??). Some Belarusian promote restoring the letter, but the issue is not yet being considered in Belarus officially.

Related Topics:
Ge - Ghe

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Belarusian Latin alphabet

Aa Bb Cc ?? ?? Dd (D?d? DZdz) Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll ?? Mm Nn ?? Oo Pp Rr Ss ?? ?? Tt Uu ?? Vv Yy Zz ?? ??

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Transliteration

Transliteration of geographical names

In 2000, the rules of transliteration of geographical names into the Latin alphabet were decreed in Belarus.

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Main peculiarities:

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• ?/? ? H/h, and thus ?/? ? Ch/ch.
• ? ?, ? ?, ? ?, ? ? are treated according to the following two cases (this rule eliminate the necessity in the seperating apostrophe):
• after consonants: i?, i?, iu, i? (renders palatalisation)
• in all other cases (at the beginning of a word, after vowes and separators): J? j?, J? j?, Ju ju, J? j? (renders yotation).
• ?? ? Uu with Circumflex (Û/û)
• ? ? ? ? ?, ? ? ? ? ?, ? ? ? ? ?
• ? ? ? '
• ? ? ? Y y
• ? ? ? ? ?

This approach resembles ?acinka, but differs from it as well. Compare: Mahilo? (?acinka), Mahilioû (new).

Related Topics:
?acinka - Mahilo?

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