The Belarusian Latin alphabet or Łacinka for the Latin script in general is the common name for the several historical alphabets that render Belarusian text in the Latin script. It is similar to the Sorbian alphabet and incorporates features of the Polish and Czech alphabets.
Use
Łacinka was occasionally used in the Belarusian area mainly in the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century. Belarusian was officially written only in the Latin script between 1941 and 1944, in the Nazi German-occupied Belarusian territories. It is used occasionally in its current form by certain authors, groups and promoters in the Nasha Niva weekly, the ARCHE journal, and some of the Belarusian diaspora press on the Internet. The system of romanisation in the Łacinka is phonological rather than orthographical, and thus certain orthographic conventions must be known. For instance, the Łacinka equivalent to Cyrillicе can be e, ie or je, depending on its pronunciation and on that of the sound preceding it. Also, as there is no soft sign in Łacinka; palatalisation is instead represented by a diacritic on the preceding consonant. The official Belarusian Romanisation 2007 system is similar to Łacinka but transliterates Cyrillic л: л = ł = l, ль = l = ĺ, ля = la = lia.
History
In the 16th century, the first Latin known renderings of Belarusian Cyrillic text occurred, in quotes of Ruthenian in Polish and Latin texts. The renderings were not standardised, and Polish orthography seems to have been used for Old Belarusian sounds. In the 17th century, Belarusian Catholics gradually increased their use of the Latin script but still largely in parallel with the Cyrillic. Before the 17th century, the Belarusian Catholics had often used the Cyrillic script. In the 18th century, the Latin script was used, in parallel with Cyrillic, in some literary works, like in drama for contemporary Belarusian. In the 19th century, some Polish and Belarusian writers of Polish cultural background sometimes or always used the Latin script in their works in Belarusian, notably Jan Czeczot, Paŭluk Bahrym, Vincent Dunin-Marcinkievič, Francišak Bahuševič, and Adam Hurynovič. The Revolutionary Democrat Konstanty Kalinowski used only the Latin script in his newspaper Peasants’ Truth. Such introduction of the Latin script for the language broke with the long Cyrillic tradition and is sometimes explained by the unfamiliarity of the 19th century writers with the history of the language or with the language itself or by the impossibility of acquiring or using the Cyrillic type at the printers that the writers had been using. The custom of using the Latin script for Belarusian text gradually ceased to be common, but at the beginning of the 20th century, there were still several examples of use of the Latin script in Belarusian printing:
Newspaper Nasha Dolya.
Newspaper Nasha Niva — issues in both Cyrillic and Latin.
Tsyotka’s Belarusian Violin, Baptism to Freedom — books of poetry.
Tsyotka’s First reading for Belarusian children — an attempt at creating a Belarusian elementary reading book.
Yanka Kupala’s Zither Player — book of poetry.
rev. Baliaslau Pachopka’s Belarusian Grammar — Belarusian grammar, based entirely on Latin script, but is claimed by Belarusian linguists, however, to be prepared unscientifically and breaking the traditions of the Belarusian language. See also Belarusian grammar.
In the 1920s in the Belarusian SSR, like the Belarusian Academic Conference, some suggestions were made to consider a transition of the Belarusian grammar to the Latin script. However, they were rejected by the Belarusian linguists. From the 1920s to 1939, after the partition of Belarus, the use of a modified Latin script was reintroduced to Belarusian printing in Western Belarus, chiefly for political reasons. The proposed form of the Belarusian Latin alphabet and some grammar rules were introduced for the first time in the 5th edition of Tarashkyevich's grammar.
A a
B b
C c
Ć ć
Č č
D d
E e
F f
G g
H h
I i
J j
K k
L l
Ł ł
M m
N n
Ń ń
O o
P p
R r
S s
Ś ś
Š š
T t
U u
Ŭ ŭ
W w
Y y
Z z
Ź ź
Ž ž
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Belarusian was written in the Latin script in 1941 to 1944 in the German-occupied Belarusian territories and by the Belarusian diaspora in Prague. After the Second World War, Belarusian was occasionally written in the Latin script by the Belarusian diaspora in Western Europe and the Americas. In 1962, Yan Stankyevich proposed a completely new Belarusian Latin alphabet.
