See main article: Belarusian language.
See also: Cyrillic alphabets and Cyrillic script.
| Belarusian alphabet | |
| Type: | Alphabet |
| Time: | 10th century to present (Old East Slavic); modern orthography: since 1918 |
| Languages: | Belarusian |
| Fam1: | Egyptian hieroglyphs[1] |
| Fam2: | Phoenician alphabet |
| Fam3: | Greek alphabet (partly Glagolitic alphabet) |
| Fam4: | Early Cyrillic alphabet |
| Sisters: | Belarusian Latin Belarusian Arabic Russian Ukrainian |
| Sample: | Belarusian alphabet in capital letters.svg |
| Unicode: | subset of Cyrillic (U+0400...U+04FF) |
| Iso15924: | Cyrl |
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.
| Capital | Name | IPA | Unicode | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| А а | а in Belarusian pronounced as /a/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0410 / U+0430 | |
| Б б | бэ in Belarusian pronounced as /bɛ/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0411 / U+0431 | |
| В в | вэ in Belarusian pronounced as /vɛ/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0412 / U+0432 | |
| Г г | гэ in Belarusian pronounced as /ɣɛ/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0413 / U+0433 | |
| Д д | дэ in Belarusian pronounced as /dɛ/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0414 / U+0434 | |
| Е е | е in Belarusian pronounced as /jɛ/ | pronounced as //jɛ//, pronounced as /link/ | U+0415 / U+0435 | |
| Ё ё | ё in Belarusian pronounced as /jɔ/ | pronounced as //jɔ//, pronounced as /link/ | U+0401 / U+0451 | |
| Ж ж | жэ in Belarusian pronounced as /ʐɛ/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0416 / U+0436 | |
| З з | зэ in Belarusian pronounced as /zɛ/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0417 / U+0437 | |
| І і | і in Belarusian pronounced as /i/ | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as //ʲi//, pronounced as //ji// | U+0406 / U+0456 | |
| Й й | і нескладовае in Belarusian pronounced as /i nʲɛsklaˈdɔvajɛ/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0419 / U+0439 | |
| К к | ка in Belarusian pronounced as /ka/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+041A / U+043A | |
| Л л | эл in Belarusian pronounced as /ɛl/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+041B / U+043B | |
| М м | эм in Belarusian pronounced as /ɛm/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+041C / U+043C | |
| Н н | эн in Belarusian pronounced as /ɛn/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+041D / U+043D | |
| О о | о in Belarusian pronounced as /ɔ/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+041E / U+043E | |
| П п | пэ in Belarusian pronounced as /pɛ/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+041F / U+043F | |
| Р р | эр in Belarusian pronounced as /ɛr/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0420 / U+0440 | |
| С с | эс in Belarusian pronounced as /ɛs/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0421 / U+0441 | |
| Т т | тэ in Belarusian pronounced as /tɛ/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0422 / U+0442 | |
| У у | у in Belarusian pronounced as /u/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0423 / U+0443 | |
| Ў ў | у нескладовае in Belarusian pronounced as /u nʲɛsklaˈdɔvajɛ/ у кароткае in Belarusian pronounced as /u kaˈrɔtkajɛ/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+040E / U+045E | |
| Ф ф | эф in Belarusian pronounced as /ɛf/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0424 / U+0444 | |
| Х х | ха in Belarusian pronounced as /xa/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0425 / U+0445 | |
| Ц ц | цэ in Belarusian pronounced as /t͡sɛ/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0426 / U+0446 | |
| Ч ч | чэ in Belarusian pronounced as /t͡ʂɛ/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0427 / U+0447 | |
| Ш ш | ша in Belarusian pronounced as /ʂa/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+0428 / U+0448 | |
| Ы ы | ы in Belarusian pronounced as /ɨ/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+042B / U+044B | |
| Ь ь | мяккі знак in Belarusian pronounced as /ˈmʲakʲːi znak/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+042C / U+044C | |
| Э э | э in Belarusian pronounced as /ɛ/ | pronounced as /link/ | U+042D / U+044D | |
| Ю ю | ю in Belarusian pronounced as /ju/ | pronounced as //ju//, pronounced as /link/ | U+042E / U+044E | |
| Я я | я in Belarusian pronounced as /ja/ | pronounced as //ja//, pronounced as /link/ | U+042F / U+044F | |
| апостраф in Belarusian pronounced as /aˈpɔstraf/ | – | U+2019 or U+02BC |
Officially, the (г) represents both pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/, but the latter occurs only in borrowings and mimesis. The (ґ) is used by some for the latter sound but, with the exception of Taraškievica, has not been standard.
A (д) followed by (ж) or (з) may denote either two distinct respective sounds (in some prefix-root combinations: пад-земны, ад-жыць) or the Belarusian affricates (дж) and (дз) (for example, падзея, джала). In some representations of the alphabet, the affricates are included in parentheses after the letter (д) to emphasize their special status: (… Дд (ДЖдж ДЗдз) Ее …).
(Ў) 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 pronounced as //p// and pronounced as //pʲ//, both written with the letter (п):
| palatalization | pronounced as //p// | pronounced as //pʲ// | |
| final | п | пь | |
| before pronounced as //a// | па | пя | |
| before pronounced as //ɛ// | пэ | пе | |
| before pronounced as //i// | пы | пі | |
| before pronounced as //ɔ// | по | пё | |
| before pronounced as //u// | пу | пю |
When a consonant is not palatalized and precedes pronounced as //j//, the apostrophe (') is used to separate the iotated vowel: (п'я п'е п'і п'ё п'ю) pronounced as //pja pjɛ pi pjɔ pju//. ((і) is the palatalizing version of (ы), 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 (‘) was used. When computers are used, the form is frequently substituted by (').
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 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 (й) with (ј) ((CYRILLIC) JE), and/or replacing (е), (ё), (ю), (я) with (је) (or else with (јє)), (јо), (ју), (ја), respectively (as in the Serbian alphabet), replacing (ы) with (и), introducing (ґ) (see also Ge with upturn; both proposed changes would match the Ukrainian alphabet) and/or introducing special graphemes/ligatures for affricates: (дж), (дз) 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:
| 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.
The standard Belarusian keyboard layout for personal computers is as follows: