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Беларуская мова

THE ALPHABET

Cyrillic writing	Latin writing	Pronunciation (approximate)
A a	A a	ah (more open)
Б б	B b	b
B в	V v	v
Г г	H h	voiced h
Г г	G g	g in ‘gun ’
Д д	D d	d
Дж дж	Dž, dž	j in ‘Jack’
Дз дз	Dz, dz	d’z’ (palatalized)( like j in ‘jet ’ but instead the second element pronounce soft z)
E e	Je, je	ye in ‘yes ’
Ё ё	Jo, jo	yo in ‘yonder ’
Ж ж	Ž, ž	like s in ‘measure ’
З з	Z, z	z
I i	I, i	i in ‘meet ’
Й й	J, j	y in ‘toy ’
K к	K, k	k
Л(ь) л(ь)	L, l	l’ (palatalized) in ‘leap ’
Л л	Ł, ł	l (hard) in ‘claim ’
M м	M, m	m
H н	N, n	n
O o	O. o	o in ‘core ’
П п	P, p	p
P р	R. r	r (rolled)
C c	S, s	s
T т	T, t	t
У у	U, u	u in ‘book ’ (lips more rounded and stretched out)
Ў ў	Ŭ, ŭ	w
Ф ф	F, f	f
X x	Ch, ch	ch in Scottish ‘loch ’
С с	C. c	ts (pronounced together)
Ч ч	Č, č	ch in ‘church ’ (hard)
Ш ш	Š, š	sh (hard)
Ы ы	Y, y	i in ‘dig ’ (but the middle of the tongue farther back) sign of palatalization (softness) sound average to e in ‘bed ’ and a in ‘bad ’
Ю ю	Ju, ju	yu in ‘tune ’
Я я	Ja, ja	yah
'	J, j	y in ‘yes ’

NOTES

1) In Latin writing there are additional letters indicating palatalized consonants:

ń (нь), ś (сь), ź (зь), ć (ць)

They occure in final position or before other palatalized consonants. In Cyrillic writing this palatalization before soft consonants is not shown, e.g.:

лось‘elk’, in Latin script: łoś. But: госць‘guest’, in Latin script: hość.

In connection with this we should mention the fact that today we have two variants of the Belarusian language: 1) narkomaŭka (from the reform of 1933, initiated by Stalin (his official position sounded as Narkom (abbreviation from People’s Commissar))), which is in official use. 2) taraškievica (from Branisłaŭ Taraškievič, the author of the first Belarusian grammar).

The difference lies not only in syntax and morfology but also in writing. The described above rule of writing of the soft consonants in Cyrillic letters is not true for taraškievica, where the softness is shown in all positions. This point is one of the most debatable in Belarusian society. Taraškievica is used in several newspapers and by number of people. The Latin script was created for taraškievica.

2) Belarusian Tartars who settled in Belarus in 16th century wrote Belarusian in Arabic letters. The things written in Arabic letters are called Al-Kitabs (arab. books); the language of Al-Kitabs is different from that of official documents and represents the form of spoken Belarusian.

3) The pronunciation of Belarusian is more clearly indicated in the spelling of the vowels, which is ‘phonetic’, than in the spelling of the consonants, which follows ‘historical’ principles, as in most Slavic languages. There is no indication of voicing and unvoicing, and palatalization (in narkomaŭka).

4) Belarusian accent is a strong stressed one and can occur on any syllable of a word and may shift to others syllables in the course of flexion, e.g.:

галавá [hala'va] ‘head’ -- галóвы [ha'lovy] ‘heads’

пірóг [pi'roch] ‘pie’ -- пірагì [pira'hi] ‘pies’

кажỳ [ka'žu] ‘I say’ -- кáжа ['kaža] ‘he says’

5) In Belarusian there are sounds which always pronounced in a hard way and cannot be palatalized under any circumstances, they are: ж, ч, ш, р, дж and can be followed only by non-jotated vowels – а, э, ы,о,у (e.g.: рэвалюцыя [reva'lucyja]‘revolution’, Джэк [džek]'Jack’). The rest of the consonants may be whether hard or soft (быць [być]‘to be’ (б-hard) -- біць [bić]‘to beat’ (б-soft)).

6) The soft versions of т and д are soft affricates ц [t’s’] and дз[d’z’] and occur before soft consonants е, і, ю,я,ё and the sign of palatalization (softness) ь (e.g.: дзякуй ['dzjakuj] ‘thank you’, лапаць ['lapać] ‘bast shoe’). This feature is called ‘dzekanie/cekanie’ and it does not apply to foreign words (Аргентына [arhen'tyna]‘Argentine’).

7) Voiced consonants become unvoiced finally and in consonantal groups before other unvoiced consonants (e.g.: сад [sat], лыжка ['lyška]).

8) Unvoiced consonants become voiced in consonantal groups before voiced consonants (e.g.: касьба [kaź'ba] ‘mowing’).

9) Some groups of consonants undergo assimilation which is not shown in the spelling:

a) тч,дч → sound цц (ветцы ['vieccy] ‘to the branch’, качцы ['kaccy]).

b)тч,дч → sound чч (перакладчык [pierak'laččyk] ‘interpreter’, матчына ['maččyna] ‘of mother, mother’s’).

c) дзк → sounds цк (людзкі ['lucki] ‘human’).

10) In addition to the mentioned above ‘hidden’ double consonants Belarusian has double consonants reflected in the spelling цц (жыццё [žy'ććo] ‘life’), лл (наваколле [nava'kolle] 'surroundings'), нн (насенне [na'sieńe] 'seeds' (collective)), сс (двукоссе [dvu'kośśe] 'inverted commas'), зз (рыззe ['ryźźe] 'rags'), ддз (суддзя [su'dz`dz`a] 'judge'), жж (збожжа [z'božža] ‘corn’),