The Belarusian alphabet is based on the Cyrillic script and is derived from the alphabet of the Old Church Slavonic language. The alphabet exists in its modern form since 1918 and consists of thirty-two letters. See also Belarusian Latin alphabet and Belarusian Arabic alphabet. A Specimen of typeset fonts and languages, by William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (pronounced , also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages—Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian—and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... The Belarusian Latin alphabet (also known as Latsinka (in BGN/PCGN) or Łacinka (in itself), from Belarusian: , informal for the Latin alphabet in general) — the common name of the several historically existing systems of rendering the Belarusian (Cyrillic) text in Latin script. ... The Belarusian Arabic alphabet was based on the Arabic script and was developed in the 16th, possibly 15th, century from the need to write down the Belarusian language in the Arabic script. ... Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... The Cyrillic block In Unicode extends from U+0400 to U+052F. The characters in the range U+0400–U+045F are basically the characters from ISO 8859-5 moved upward by 864 positions. ... For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of sounds and the human voice. ... Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first letters) is an alphabet used to write six natural Slavic languages (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... Old Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian, Old Macedonian, and Old Slavic) is the first literary Slavic language, developed from the Slavic dialect of Thessaloniki (Solun) by the 9th century Byzantine missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius. ... The Belarusian Latin alphabet (also known as Latsinka (in BGN/PCGN) or Łacinka (in itself), from Belarusian: , informal for the Latin alphabet in general) — the common name of the several historically existing systems of rendering the Belarusian (Cyrillic) text in Latin script. ... The Belarusian Arabic alphabet was based on the Arabic script and was developed in the 16th, possibly 15th, century from the need to write down the Belarusian language in the Arabic script. ...

Layout

Notes

• Additionally, the «’» (U+2019 apostrophe sign, informal. «upper 9») is used to denote absence of palatalisation. It's not considered a letter and is not to be taken into account when, e.g., sorting. In pre-Second World War printing, the apostrophe sign in the form of «‘» (U+2018, informal. «upper 6») had been used. In practical computer use, it is frequently substituted with «'» (U+0027 apostrophe sign).
• The combination of letter «д» with letters «ж» or «з» may denote either two distinct respective sounds (e.g., in some prefix-root combinations: «пад-земны», «ад-жыць») or the Belarusian affricates «дж» and «дз» (e.g., «падзея», «джала»).
• In some representations of the alphabet, the Belarusian affricates, denoted by digraphs «дж» and «дз», are included in parentheses after the letter «д», to emphasis their special status, like shown here: «... Дд (ДЖдж ДЗдз) Ее ...».
• The letter «ґ» ((Cyrillic) GHE WITH UPTURN) never belonged to any standard codification of the Belarusian alphabet. See also Ge with upturn.

Look up apostrophe in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ... An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often an alveovelar, such as [t] or [d]) and that doesnt have a release of its own, but opens directly into a fricative (or, in one language, into a trill). ... An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often an alveovelar, such as [t] or [d]) and that doesnt have a release of its own, but opens directly into a fricative (or, in one language, into a trill). ... Ghe (Ґ, ґ, also called ge with upturn) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet pronounced like the G in go. Originally part of the Ukrainian and Belarusian alphabets, its function was replaced by the letter Ge (Г) in the Soviet Union after 1933. ...

History

The alphabet of the Medieval Cyrillics (11th cent.) included forty-three letters. During the evolution of B.A., fifteen letters were dropped, the last four of them going after the introduction of the first official Belarusian grammar in 1918, and four new letters were added, thus producing the modern layout of thirty-two letters. The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first letters) is an alphabet used to write six natural Slavic languages (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ...

The new letters were:

• Letter «э» ((CYRILLIC) EH) appeared in the Belarusian texts about the end of the 15th century.
• Letter «й» ((CYRILLIC) SHORT I) evolved from «и» ((CYRILLIC) I) combined with diacritical sign by the end of the 16th century (compare: in Russian alphabet since 1735).
• Letter «ё» ((CYRILLIC) IO) was adopted from Russian alphabet by the half of the 19th century (compare: in Russian alphabet since 1797).
• Letter «ў» ((CYRILLIC) SHORT U) was proposed by Russian linguist P. A. Bessonov in 1870.

B.A. in its modern form formally exists since the adoption of the Branislaw Tarashkyevich's Belarusian grammar for the use in the Soviet state school system in 1918 . Before that, several slightly different versions of the alphabet were informally used. The current norms of Belarusian grammar were adopted in 1959. ...

In the 1920s and, notably, at the Belarusian Academical Conference (1926), miscellaneous changes of the B.A. were being proposed. Notably, replacing «й» with «ј» ((CYRILLIC) JE), and/or replacing «е», «ё», «ю», «я» with «је» (or else with «јє»), «јо», «ју», «ја», respectively, and/or replacing «ы» with «и», and/or introducing «ґ» (see also Ge with upturn), and/or introducing special graphemes/ligatures for affricates «дж», «дз» etc. etc. Even the introducing of the Latin script was contemplated at one moment (e.g., proposal of Zhylunovich at the Belarusian Academical Conference (1926)). None of this was implemented, though. Ghe (Ґ, Ò‘, also called ge with upturn) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet pronounced like the G in go. Originally part of the Ukrainian and Belarusian alphabets, its function was replaced by the letter Ge (Г) in the Soviet Union after 1933. ...

Notable Belarusian linguist Yan Stankyevich in his later works suggested completely different layout of the B.A. (see also Belarusian Latin alphabet, Ge with upturn): The Belarusian Latin alphabet (also known as Latsinka (in BGN/PCGN) or Łacinka (in itself), from Belarusian: , informal for the Latin alphabet in general) — the common name of the several historically existing systems of rendering the Belarusian (Cyrillic) text in Latin script. ... Ghe (Ґ, ґ, also called ge with upturn) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet pronounced like the G in go. Originally part of the Ukrainian and Belarusian alphabets, its function was replaced by the letter Ge (Г) in the Soviet Union after 1933. ...

Note: proper names and places' names are rendered in BGN/PCGN romanization of Belarusian. BGN/PCGN romanization refers to the systems for romanization (transliteration into the Latin alphabet) and Roman-script spelling conventions adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) and the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use (PCGN). ...

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. ISBN 985-6599-46-6
• 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

• Introduction to Belarusian Alphabet
• Introduction to Belarusian Latin Script
• Belarusian language using Arabic script
• Letter Frequency in Belarusian and Russian