The Belarusian Latin alphabet or Łacinka (laˈt͡sinka, from for the Latin script in general) is the common name of the several historical alphabets to render the Belarusian (Cyrillic) text in Latin script.

Use

Łacinka was occasionally used in the Belarusian area mainly in the 19th century and first years of the 20th century. Belarusian was officially written only in the Latin script between 1941 and 1944, in the German-occupied Belarusian territories.

Actually 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

Diaspora

A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...

 press on the Internet.

It is not, as such, the Romanisation system, as it imposes knowing certain accompanying orthographic conventions. It is similar to the Sorbian alphabet

Sorbian alphabet

The Sorbian alphabet is based on the basic Latin alphabet but uses diacritics such as the acute accent and the caron, making it similar to the Czech and Polish alphabets...

, incorporating features of the Polish

Polish alphabet

The Polish alphabet is the script of the Polish language, the basis for the Polish system of orthography . It is based on the Latin alphabet, but includes certain letters with diacritics: the line or kreska, which is graphically similar to an acute accent ; the overdot or kropka ; the tail or...

 and Czech

Czech alphabet

The Czech alphabet is a version of the Latin script, used when writing Czech. Its basic principles are "one sound, one letter" and the addition of diacritical marks above letters to represent sounds alien to Latin...

 alphabets.

style="font-size:.67em;" | Belarusian Latin alphabet
(as seen in publications, c.1990s–2000s)

Łacinka Cyrillic IPA A a А а /a/ B b Б б /b/ C c Ц ц /ts/ Ć ć Ць ць* /tsʲ/ Č č Ч ч /tʂ/ D d Д д /d/ DZ dz Дз дз /dz/ DŹ dź Дзь дзь* /dzʲ/ DŽ dž Дж дж /dʐ/ E e Э э /ɛ/ F f Ф ф /f/ G g (Ґ ґ) /ɡ ~ ɟ/	Łacinka Cyrillic IPA H h Г г /ɣ ~ ʝ/ CH ch Х х /x ~ ç/ I i І і* /i/, /ʲ/ J j Й й, ь* /j/ K k К к /k ~ c/ L l Ль ль* /lʲ/ Ł ł Л л /l/ M m М м /m/ N n Н н /n/ Ń ń Нь нь* /nʲ/ O o О о /ɔ/ P p П п /p/	Łacinka Cyrillic IPA R r Р р /r/ S s С с /s/ Ś ś Сь сь* /sʲ/ Š š Ш ш /ʂ/ T t Т т /t/ U u У у /u/ Ŭ U U is the twenty-first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter U ultimately comes from the Semitic letter Waw by way of the letter Y. See the letter Y for details....  ŭ Ў ў /u̯/ V v В в /v/ Y y Ы ы /ɨ/ Z z З з /z/ Ź ź Зь зь* /zʲ/ Ž ž Ж ж /ʐ/
* Cyrillic е, ё, і, ю, я are equivalent to je, jo, ji, ju, ja initially or after a vowel,    to e, o, i, u, a after the consonants ć, dź, l, ń, ś, ź,    and to ie, io, i, iu, ia after other consonants.

History

In Medieval times (16th century), the first examples of the Latin renderings of the Belarusian (Cyrillic) text are known to occur, coming from the need to include the Old Belarusian quotes in the Polish and Latin texts. Those renderings were un-codified and, seemingly, were done by applying the Polish orthography to the Old Belarusian sounds.

In the 17th century, Belarusian Roman Catholics gradually increased their use of the Latin script, but still largely in parallel with the Cyrillic. Before the 17th century the Belarusian Roman Catholics had been using the Cyrillic script widely.

In the 18th century, the Latin script was used, in parallel with Cyrillic, in some literary works (e.g., dramatic), written in contemporary Belarusian.

Cyrillic
а	б	в	г	д	е	ё	ж	з	зь	і	й	к	л	ль	м	н	нь	о	п
р	с	сь	т	у	ў	ф	х	ц	ць	ч	ш	ы	ь	э	ю	я
c.1840s–c.1920s
As seen, e.g., in works of Dunin-Martsinkyevich, Kalinowski, Bahushevich, Tsyotka, the newspaper Nasha Niva, newspapers of the c.1917–1920s.
a	b	w	h	d	je1	jo1	ż	z	ź	i	j	k	ł	l	m	n	ń	o	p
r	s	ś	t	u	u2	f	ch	c	ć	cz	sz	y	–	e	ju1	ja1
c.1928-1929
As seen, e.g., in contemporary works of Yan Stankyevich, in the 5th (unofficial) edition of the Tarashkyevich Branislaw Tarashkyevich Branisłaŭ Adamovič Taraškievič was a Belarusian public figure, politician, and linguist.He was the creator of the first standardization of the modern Belarusian language in the early 20th century. The standard was later Russified by the Soviet authorities... 's Belarusian grammar (1929).
a	b	w	h	d	je1	jo1	ž	z	ź	i	j	k	ł	l	m	n	ń	o	p
r	s	ś	t	u	ŭ	f	ch	c	ć	č	š	y	–	e	ju1	ja1
c.1937-1941
As seen, e.g., in later works of Yan Stankyevich.
a	b	v	h	d	je1	jo1	ž	z	ź	i	j	k	ł	l	m	n	ń	o	p
r	s	ś	t	u	ŭ	f	ch	c	ć	č	š	y	–	e	ju1	ja1
Contemporary
As seen, e.g., in the newspaper Nasha Niva and journal Arche.
a	b	v	h	d	je1	jo1	ž	z	ź	i	j	k	ł	l	m	n	ń	o	p
r	s	ś	t	u	ŭ	f	ch	c	ć	č	š	y	–	e	ju1	ja1
Notes
Variant with "j" used at the start of words or after vowels, with "i" elsewhere. Dunin-Martsinkyevich used the u ("u" in cursive) to denote the "Short U". "Soft sign" is denoted not by the separate grapheme, but, alternatively, by using the "Ll" variant preceding it, or by the acute Acute accent The acute accent is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts.-Apex:An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels.-Greek:...  sign over the preceding consonant. The explosive Latin sound "g", which is absent in the Belarusian language (see also Ge with upturn Ge with upturn Ge with upturn is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. In Ukrainian, Urum and Rusyn, this letter is called "Ge", and the letter ⟨Г⟩ is called "He"... ), but had been proposed for introducing by some authors (notably, Yan Stankyevich), was either not distinguished in Latin renderings at all, or, variously, denoted by the "Gg" or by the "HGhg" digraph. Apostrophe Apostrophe The apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...  is not used.

In the 19th century, some Polish and Belarusian writers of Polish cultural background used the Latin script, exclusively or occasionally, in their works written in Belarusian, notably Czaczot

Jan Czeczot

Jan Czeczot of Ostoja was a noble of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of Belarusian origin, romantic poet and ethnographer. Fascinated by folk lore and traditional folk songs of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, confederal part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he recollected hundreds of...

, Bahrym, Dunin-Marcynkiewicz, Bahuszewicz, and Hurynowicz. The Revolutionary Democrat Kalinowski

Konstanty Kalinowski

Wincenty Konstanty Kalinowski , also known under his Polish and Lithuanian names of Konstanty Kalinowski or and Kostas Kalinauskas; 1838 – March 24, 1864) was a writer, journalist, lawyer and revolutionary...

 used the Latin script exclusively in his newspaper Peasants’ Truth .

Such introduction of the Latin script for the rendering of the language with far-reaching Cyrillic tradition is sometimes explained by the unfamiliarity of the 19th century writers with the history of the Belarusian language or with the language itself, or by the impossibility of either acquiring or deploying the Cyrillic type at the publishing sites those writers had been using.

The custom of using the Latin script for Belarusian text gradually ceased in the common practice, although at the beginning of the 20th century there were still several examples of exclusive or non-exclusive use of the Latin script in Belarusian printing:

• Newspaper Nasha Dolya (1906).
• Newspaper Nasha Niva (the issues during 10.11.1906 – 31.10.1912) — issues in both Cyrillic and Latin (in issues’ subheading: Printed weekly in Russian and in Polish letters (in Latin script: Wychodzić szto tydzień ruskimi i polskimi literami)).
• Tsyotka’s Belarusian Violin , Baptism to Freedom — books of poetry.
• Tsyotka’s First reading for Belarusian children — attempt at creating a Belarusian elementary reading book.
• Yanka Kupala
  Yanka Kupala
  Yanka Kupala — was the pen name of Ivan Daminikavich Lutsevich , a Belarusian poet and writer. Kupala is considered one of the greatest Belarusian-language writers of the 20th century.-Early life:...
  
  ’s Zither Player — book of poetry.
• rev. Baliaslau Pachopka’s Belarusian Grammar (1915, publ. in 1918) — Belarusian grammar, based entirely on Latin script; claimed by Belarusian linguists, however, to be prepared unscientifically and breaking the traditions of the Belarusian language. See also Belarusian grammar
  Belarusian grammar
  The norms of the modern Belarusian grammar were adopted in 1959. Belarusian Grammar is mostly synthetic and partly analytic. Belarusian orthography is constructed on the phonetic principle and is mainly based on the Belarusian folk dialects of the Minsk-Vilnius region, such as they were at the...
  
  .

In the 1920s in the Belarusian SSR, e.g., at the Belarusian Academic Conference (1926), some suggestions were made to consider transition of the Belarusian grammar to the Latin script (e.g., Zhylunovich, for the sake of "making the Belarusian grammar more progressive"). However, these suggestions were rejected by the Belarusian linguists (e.g., Lastowski).

In the 1920s-1939, after the partition of the Belarus (1921), use of the Latin script, in evolved form, was re-introduced 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 (unofficial) edition of the Tarashkyevich’s grammar (Vil’nya, 1929).

style="font-size:.83em; line-height:normal;" | Belarusian Latin alphabet
(Tarashkyevich, 1929)

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 during 1941–1944 in the German-occupied Belarusian territories, and by the Belarusian diaspora in Prague (1920s – c.1945).

After the Second World War, Belarusian was occasionally written in the Latin script by the Belarusian diaspora in non-Soviet Europe and the Americas (notably in West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 and the USA). In 1962, Yan Stankyevich proposed a completely different form of the Belarusian Latin alphabet.

style="font-size:.83em; line-height:normal;" | Belarusian Latin alphabet
(Stankyevich, 1962)

O o	A a	E e	B b	C c	Ć ć	Č č	D d	F f	G g
H h	Ch ch	I i	J j	K k	L l	Ł ł	M m	N n	Ń ń
P p	R r	Ś ś	Š š	T t	V v	U u	Ŭ ŭ	Dz dz	Dź dź
Dž dž	Z z	Ź ź	Ž ž

Note: all proper names and place names in this article are rendered in BGN/PCGN

BGN/PCGN romanization of Belarusian

The BGN/PCGN romanization system for Belarusian is a method for romanization of Cyrillic Belarusian texts, that is, their transliteration into the Latin alphabet....

, direct quotes excluded.

External links

• Essay on "Łacinka"
• English-language introduction to a web site previously dedicated to "Łacinka" and totally written in "Łacinka"
• "Łacinka" Wiki
• Keyboard Lithuaniae 1009—2009 i Litwinska-biełaruskaja lacinskaja abeceda
• лацiнка (раскладка клавіятуры) для "чайнікаў"