Belarusian alphabet

The Belarusian alphabet is based on the Cyrillic script 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 and Belarusian Arabic alphabet.

Letters

Belarusian Alphabet

Capital	Name	IPA	Unicode
А   а	а	Template:IPAslink	U+0410 / U+0430
Б   б	бэ	Template:IPAslink	U+0411 / U+0431
В   в	вэ	Template:IPAslink	U+0412 / U+0432
Г   г	гэ	Template:IPAslink	U+0413 / U+0433
Д   д	дэ	Template:IPAslink	U+0414 / U+0434
Е   е	е	, Template:IPAslink	U+0415 / U+0435
Ё   ё	ё	, Template:IPAslink	U+0401 / U+0451
Ж   ж	жэ	Template:IPAslink	U+0416 / U+0436
З   з	зэ	Template:IPAslink	U+0417 / U+0437
І   і	і	Template:IPAslink, ,	U+0406 / U+0456
Й   й	і нескладовае	Template:IPAslink	U+0419 / U+0439
К   к	ка	Template:IPAslink	U+041A / U+043A
Л   л	эл	Template:IPAslink	U+041B / U+043B
М   м	эм	Template:IPAslink	U+041C / U+043C
Н   н	эн	Template:IPAslink	U+041D / U+043D
О   о	о	Template:IPAslink	U+041E / U+043E
П   п	пэ	Template:IPAslink	U+041F / U+043F
Р   р	эр	Template:IPAslink	U+0420 / U+0440
С   с	эс	Template:IPAslink	U+0421 / U+0441
Т   т	тэ	Template:IPAslink	U+0422 / U+0442
У   у	у	Template:IPAslink	U+0423 / U+0443
Ў   ў	у нескладовае у кароткае	Template:IPAslink	U+040E / U+045E
Ф   ф	эф	Template:IPAslink	U+0424 / U+0444
Х   х	ха	Template:IPAslink	U+0425 / U+0445
Ц   ц	цэ	Template:IPAslink	U+0426 / U+0446
Ч   ч	чэ	Template:IPAslink	U+0427 / U+0447
Ш   ш	ша	Template:IPAslink	U+0428 / U+0448
Ы   ы	ы	Template:IPAslink	U+042B / U+044B
Ь   ь	мяккі знак	Template:IPAslink	U+042C / U+044C
Э   э	э	Template:IPAslink	U+042D / U+044D
Ю   ю	ю	, Template:IPAslink	U+042E / U+044E
Я   я	я	, Template:IPAslink	U+042F / U+044F
’	апостраф	–	U+2019 or U+02BC

Details

Officially, the Template:Angbr represents both Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink, but the latter occurs only in borrowings and mimesis. The Template:Angbr is used by some for the latter sound but, with the exception of Taraškievica, has not been standard.

A Template:Angbr followed by Template:Angbr or Template:Angbr may denote either two distinct respective sounds (in some prefix-root combinations: пад-земны, ад-жыць) or the Belarusian affricates Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr (for example, падзея, джала). In some representations of the alphabet, the affricates are included in parentheses after the letter Template:Angbr to emphasize their special status: Template:Angbr.

Template:Angbr 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 Template:Angbr:

palatalization
final	п	пь
before	па	пя
before	пэ	пе
before	пы	пі
before	по	пё
before	пу	пю

When a consonant is not palatalized and precedes , the apostrophe Template:Angbr is used to separate the iotated vowel: Template:Angbr . (Template:Angbr is the palatalizing version of Template:Angbr, 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 Template:Angbr was used. When computers are used, the form is frequently substituted by Template:Angbr.

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 Template:Angbr ((CYRILLIC) EH) appeared in Belarusian texts in about the late-15th century.
• The Template:Angbr ((CYRILLIC) SHORT I) evolved from Template:Angbr ((CYRILLIC) I), combined with a diacritical sign by the end of the 16th century.
• The Template:Angbr ((CYRILLIC) IO) came from the Russian alphabet and introduced by Nikolay Karamzin in 1797.
• The Template:Angbr ((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 Branislaw Tarashkyevich'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), miscellaneous changes of the Belarusian alphabet were proposed. Notable were replacing Template:Angbr with Template:Angbr ((CYRILLIC) JE), and/or replacing Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr with Template:Angbr (or else with Template:Angbr), Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, respectively (as in the Serbian alphabet), replacing Template:Angbr with Template:Angbr, introducing Template:Angbr (see also Ge with upturn; both proposed changes would match the Ukrainian alphabet) and/or introducing special graphemes/ligatures for affricates: Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr etc. Even the introduction of the Latin script was contemplated at one moment (as proposed by Zhylunovich at the Belarusian Academical Conference (1926)). Nothing came of it.

Noted Belarusian linguist Yan Stankyevich in his later works suggested a completely different form of the alphabet:

Layout of the Belarusian alphabet
(Stankyevich, 1962)

Оо	Аа	Ээ	Бб	Гг	Ґґ	Хх
Дд	Ее	Ёё	Яя	ДЗдз	ДЖдж	Зз
Жж	Іі	Йй	Кк	Лл	Мм	Нн
Пп	Рр	Сс	Шш	Тт	Вв	Уу
Ўў	Фф	Ьь	Цц	Чч	Ыы	Юю

Note that proper names and place names are rendered in BGN/PCGN romanization of Belarusian.

Keyboard layout

The standard Belarusian keyboard layout for personal computers is as follows:

Belarusian keyboard layout

See also

• Belarusian orthography reform of 1933
• Cyrillic script
• Cyrillic alphabets
• Romanization of Belarusian

References

• Да рэформы беларускай азбукі. // Працы акадэмічнае канферэнцыі па рэформе беларускага правапісу і азбукі. – Мн. : [б. м.], 1927.
• Ян Станкевіч. Які мае быць парадак літараў беларускае абэцады [1962] // Ян Станкевіч. Збор твораў у двух тамах. Т. 2. – Мн.: Энцыклапедыкс, 2002. Template:ISBN
• Б. Тарашкевіч. Беларуская граматыка для школ. – Вільня : Беларуская друкарня ім. Фр. Скарыны, 1929; Мн. : <Народная асвета>, 1991 [факсімільн.]. – 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 [факсімільн.]. – 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: Belarusian
• Introduction to Belarusian Alphabet
• Introduction to Belarusian Latin Script
• Belarusian language using Arabic script
• Letter Frequency in Belarusian and Russian
• Беларускі альфабэт