Fundamentals of Modern Belarusian - Pravapis.org

Chapter 1
Spelling Rules
It is important to understand Belarusian spelling. It is quite complex and more
difficult than Russian. Most of the complexity of Belarusian morphology is a result of
spelling rules. This problem is aggravated by the competition between two existing
sets of spelling rules, hereafter referred to as the Phonetic and Official orthographies.
I have chosen the Official orthography for this work since it has more acceptance. I
have noted in this chapter those ways in which the Phonetic differs from the Official
orthography.
1.1 Vowels
Belarusian has 10 letters which represent vowel sounds. They can be divided
into two categories, non-iotized vowels, and their iotized counterparts. The letters in
the second column represent the same sounds as the vowels in the first, except they
have an initial “y” sound.
а я
о ё
у ю
ы і
э е
1.2 Invariably Hard Consonants
The letters д, ж, р, т, ч, and ш are always hard, they are never followed by any
letter from the second column. In a situation where a word’s morphology would
normally place an iotized vowel after a д or a т, those consonants are changed to дз
or ц respectively. In a situation where an iotized vowel would normally follow a ж, р,
ч, or ш, that vowel is changed to its non-iotized counterpart. The consonants г, к, х
are never followed by the letter ы. In a situation where an ы would normally occur, it
is changed to an і if following one of these three letters.
бяда misery у бядзе in misery
гара mountain на гары on the mountain
мяжа boundary на мяжы on the boundary
пірог pastry пірагі pastries
растуць they grow расце it grows
1