Belarusian alphabet

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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):

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

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External links

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

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