The current norms of Belarusian grammar were adopted in 1959. Belarusian Grammar is mostly synthetic and partly analytic. Belarusian orthography is constructed on the phonetic principle ("you write down what you hear") and is mainly based on the Belarusian folk dialects of the Myensk-Vil'nya region, such as they were at the beginning of the 20th century. Initially, Belarusian grammar was formalised by notable Belarusian linguist Branislaw Tarashkyevich and first printed in Vil'nya (1918). Historically, there had existed several other alternative Belarusian grammars. See also Belarusian language#History. Location Ethnographic region Aukštaitija County Vilnius County Municipality Vilnius city municipality Coordinates Number of elderates 20 General Information Capital of Lithuania Vilnius County Vilnius city municipality Vilnius district municipality Population 540,318 in 2005 (1st) First mentioned 1323 Granted city rights 1387 Vilna redirects here. ... Location Ethnographic region Aukštaitija County Vilnius County Municipality Vilnius city municipality Coordinates Number of elderates 20 General Information Capital of Lithuania Vilnius County Vilnius city municipality Vilnius district municipality Population 540,318 in 2005 (1st) First mentioned 1323 Granted city rights 1387 Vilna redirects here. ... Belarusian (беларуская мова) is the language of the Belarusian people. ...

Features

Phonetics

The most prominent phonetic features of Belarusian are

• akannye (Belarusian: аканне) – the tendency to pronounce unstressed "o" and "e" as clear open front unrounded vowel "a";
• dzyekanye (Belarusian: дзеканне) – the pronunciation of palatalized "d" as soft affricate "dz";
• tsyekannye (Belarusian: цеканне) – the pronunciation of palatalized "t" as soft affricate "ts";
• strong palatalization of "s'" and "z'".

Some Belarusian sounds in IPA

The voiceless alveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The voiceless palato-alveolar fricative or domed postalveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The voiced alveolo-palatal affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The voiced postalveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The breathy-voiced glottal fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The palatal nasal is a type of consonant, used in some spoken languages. ... The alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages (such as Russian, Spanish, Armenian, and Polish). ... The voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative or laminal postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The voiceless palato-alveolar fricative or domed postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... Short U (Ў, ў) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the short semi-vowel /u^/ in the Belarusian language. ... The labial-velar approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in certain spoken languages. ... Semivowels (also called semiconsonants or glides) are vowels that function phonemically as consonants. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... The voiced alveolo-palatal voiceless or laminal postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The voiced palato-alveolar fricative or domed postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...

Nouns

There are six cases in Belarusian:

• Nominative (Belarusian: назоўны, BGN/PCGN: nazowny)
• Genitive (Belarusian: родны, BGN/PCGN: rodny)
• Dative (Belarusian: давальны, BGN/PCGN: daval'ny)
• Accusative (Belarusian: вінавальны, BGN/PCGN: vinaval'ny)
• Instrumental (Belarusian: творны, BGN/PCGN: tvorny)
• Locative (Belarusian: месны, BGN/PCGN: myesny)

Historically, there also existed a vocative case (Belarusian: клічны, BGN/PCGN: klichny), but in modern Belarusian it's used rarely, generally in literature, and usually is not mentioned in textbooks.

For nouns (Belarusian: назоўнікі, BGN/PCGN: nazowniki) there are several types of declension:

• i-stem – feminine (feminine nouns ending in a hard consonant, soft consonant or ў: печ "stove", косць "bone", кроў "blood")
• a-stem – mostly feminine (subdivided into four subgroups: hard stems, guttural stems, soft stems, hardened stems)
• o-stem – masculine (subdivided into hard stem and soft stem) and neuter (вясло "oar", мора "sea")
• consonantal stem – mostly neuter (ягня "lamb", бярэмя "burden", семя "seed")
• irregular nouns (for example, вока "eye" and вуха "ear")

Pronouns

There are eight types of pronouns (Belarusian: займеннікі, BGN/PCGN: zaymyenniki) in Belarusian:

• Possessive (прыналежныя): мой (my, mine); твой (your(s)familiar); яго, ягоны (his); яе, ейны (her); наш (our(s)); ваш (your(s)); іх, іхны (their(s)), свой ((one's) own).
• Personal (асабовыя): я (I), ты (you (singular, familiar)), ён (he), яна (she), яно (it), мы (we), вы (you), яны (they);
• Negative (адмоўныя): ніхто (nobody), нішто (nothing), нічый (nobody's), ніякі (not of any kind), ніводзін, ніводны (no one);
• Definitive (азначальныя): сам (-self); самы (the very, - self); увесь (all, whole); усё (all, everything); усе (all, every, everybody); усякі, усялякі (every, any); кожны (each); іншы (other).
• Indefinite (няпэўныя): нехта, хтосьці (someone, somebody); нешта, штосьці (something); нечы, чыйсьці (someone's, somebody's, a); некаторы (some of); некалькі (a few, some, several); нейкі, якісьці (some, a kind of, something like); хто-небудзь, хто-колечы (anybody); што-небудзь, што-колечы (anything); чый-небудзь (anybody's); абы-што (smth.dickey); абы-чый (a, somebody's (negative)); абы-які (dickey).
• Interrogative-comparative (пытальныя): хто (who), што (what), які (which), каторы (which), чый (whose), колькі (how much);
• Demonstrative (указальныя): той (that); гэты (this); гэны (those); такі (such); гэтакі (such, of this kind); столькі, гэтулькі (that much);
• Reflexive (зваротны): сябе (-self).

Note: proper names and places’ names are rendered in BGN/PCGN

References

• Беларуская граматыка. У 2-х ч. / АН БССР, Ін-т мовазнаўства імя Я. Коласа; [Рэд. М. В. Бірыла, П. П. Шуба]. – Мн. : Навука і тэхніка, 1985.