Belarusian ( endonym : беларуская мова , romanized : bielaruskaja mova , pronounced [bʲɛɫaˈruskaja ˈmɔva] ) is an East Slavic language . It is one of the two official languages in Belarus , alongside Russian . Additionally, it is spoken in some parts of Russia , Lithuania , Latvia , Poland , and Ukraine by Belarusian minorities in those countries.
87-736: The Pina ( Belarusian : Піна , Russian : Пи́на ) is a river in Ivanava and Pinsk Raions in Belarus. The 40 kilometers long river flows into the city of Pinsk and is a left tributary of the Pripyat . The average gradient of the Pina is 0.1 ‰. Its largest tributaries are the Struha and Njaslucha. It forms part of the Dnieper-Bug Canal . This article related to a river in Belarus
174-551: A "doubled" letter, making the list BeGeD KePoReT . ( Sefer Yetzirah , 4:1) The following table contains the pronunciation of the Hebrew letters in reconstructed historical forms and dialects using the International Phonetic Alphabet . The apostrophe-looking symbol after some letters is not a yud but a geresh . It is used for loanwords with non-native Hebrew sounds. The dot in the middle of some of
261-416: A Hebrew text with these letters would require using the spelling in the language from which the transliteration to Hebrew was originally made). The non-standard " ו׳ " and " וו " are sometimes used to represent / w / , which like / d͡ʒ / , / ʒ / and / t͡ʃ / appears in Hebrew slang and loanwords. The Sound / χ / (as "ch" in loch ) is often transcribed "ch", inconsistently with
348-720: A cantillation mark used for Torah recitation, though its visual appearance and function are different in that context. In much of Israel 's general population, especially where Ashkenazic pronunciation is prevalent, many letters have the same pronunciation. They are as follows: * Varyingly Some of the variations in sound mentioned above are due to a systematic feature of Ancient Hebrew. The six consonants /b ɡ d k p t/ were pronounced differently depending on their position. These letters were also called BeGeD KeFeT letters / ˌ b eɪ ɡ ɛ d ˈ k ɛ f ɛ t / . The full details are very complex; this summary omits some points. They were pronounced as plosives [b ɡ d k p t] at
435-641: A central dot called dagesh ( דגש ), while the soft sounds lack a dagesh . In modern Hebrew, however, the dagesh only changes the pronunciation of ב bet , כ kaf , and פ pe , and does not affect the name of the letter. The differences are as follows: In other dialects (mainly liturgical) there are variations from this pattern. The sounds [ t͡ʃ ] , [ d͡ʒ ] , [ ʒ ] , written ⟨ צ׳ ⟩, ⟨ ג׳ ⟩, ⟨ ז׳ ⟩, and [ w ] , non-standardly sometimes transliterated ⟨ וו ⟩, are often found in slang and loanwords that are part of
522-438: A different final form used at the end of words, the final forms are displayed beneath the regular form. The block (square, or "print" type) and cursive ("handwritten" type) are the only variants in widespread contemporary use. Rashi is also used, for historical reasons, in a handful of standard texts. Following the adoption of Greek Hellenistic alphabetic numeration practice, Hebrew letters started being used to denote numbers in
609-704: A form of the paleo-Hebrew script called the Samaritan alphabet . After the fall of the Persian Empire in 330 BCE, Jews used both scripts before settling on the square Assyrian form. The square Hebrew alphabet was later adapted and used for writing languages of the Jewish diaspora – such as Karaim , the Judeo-Arabic languages , Judaeo-Spanish, and Yiddish. The Hebrew alphabet continued in use for scholarly writing in Hebrew and came again into everyday use with
696-583: A mixture of Russian and Belarusian, known as Trasianka ). Approximately 29.4% of Belarusians can write, speak, and read Belarusian, while 52.5% can only read and speak it. Nevertheless, there are no Belarusian-language universities in Belarus. The Belarusian language has been known under a number of names, both contemporary and historical. Some of the most dissimilar are from the Old Belarusian period. Although closely related to other East Slavic languages , especially Ukrainian , Belarusian phonology
783-467: A number of radical changes. A fully phonetic orthography was introduced. One of the most distinctive changes brought in was the principle of akanye (Belarusian: а́канне ), wherein unstressed "o", pronounced in both Russian and Belarusian as /a/ , is written as "а". The Belarusian Academic Conference on Reform of the Orthography and Alphabet was convened in 1926. After discussions on the project,
870-510: A number of reverse letter orders; such as vav - he , chet - zayin , pe - ayin , etc. A reversal to pe-ayin can be clearly seen in the Book of Lamentations , whose first four chapters are ordered as alphabetical acrostics. In the Masoretic text , the first chapter has the now-usual ayin-pe ordering, and the second, third and fourth chapters exhibit pe-ayin . In
957-517: A perception that Belarusian was a "rural" and "uneducated" language. However, the census was a major breakthrough for the first steps of the Belarusian national self-awareness and identity, since it clearly showed to the Imperial authorities and the still-strong Polish minority that the population and the language were neither Polish nor Russian. The rising influence of Socialist ideas advanced
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#17327727535701044-424: A vowel instead of a consonant (which would be, respectively, /ʔ/, /ʕ/, /v/ and /j/ ). When they do, ו and י are considered to constitute part of the vowel designation in combination with a niqqud symbol – a vowel diacritic (whether or not the diacritic is marked), whereas א and ע are considered to be mute, their role being purely indicative of the non-marked vowel. Niqqud
1131-508: Is a phonemic orthography that closely represents the surface phonology, whereas Russian orthography represents the underlying morphophonology . The most significant instance of this is found in the representation of vowel reduction, and in particular akanje , the merger of unstressed /a/ and /o/, which exists in both Russian and Belarusian. Belarusian always spells this merged sound as ⟨a⟩ , whereas Russian uses either ⟨a⟩ or ⟨o⟩ , according to what
1218-562: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Belarusian language Before Belarus gained independence in 1991, the language was known in English as Byelorussian or Belorussian , or alternatively as White Russian . Following independence, it became known as Belarusian , or alternatively as Belarusan . As one of the East Slavic languages, Belarusian shares many grammatical and lexical features with other members of
1305-480: Is a high degree of mutual intelligibility among the Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian languages. Within East Slavic, the Belarusian language is most closely related to Ukrainian . The modern Belarusian language was redeveloped on the base of the vernacular spoken remnants of the Ruthenian language , surviving in the ethnic Belarusian territories in the 19th century. The end of the 18th century (the times of
1392-637: Is a true alphabet, with all vowels rendered in the spelling, except in the case of inherited Hebrew words, which typically retain their Hebrew consonant-only spellings. The Arabic and Hebrew alphabets have similarities because they are both derived from the Aramaic alphabet, which in turn derives either from paleo-Hebrew or the Phoenician alphabet , both being slight regional variations of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet used in ancient times to write
1479-476: Is called a gershayim and is a punctuation mark used in the Hebrew language to denote acronyms. It is written before the last letter in the acronym, e.g. ר״ת . Gershayim is also the name of a cantillation mark in the reading of the Torah , printed above the accented letter, e.g. א֞ . The following table displays typographic and chirographic variants of each letter. For the five letters that have
1566-486: Is chiefly characterized by the "soft sounding R" ( мякка-эравы ) and "strong akanye " ( моцнае аканне ), and the South-Western dialect is chiefly characterized by the "hard sounding R" ( цвёрда-эравы ) and "moderate akanye" ( умеранае аканне ). The West Polesian dialect group is separated from the rest of the country by the conventional line Pruzhany – Ivatsevichy – Tsyelyakhany – Luninyets – Stolin . There
1653-468: Is distinct in a number of ways. The phoneme inventory of the modern Belarusian language consists of 45 to 54 phonemes: 6 vowels and 39 to 48 consonants , depending on how they are counted. When the nine geminate consonants are excluded as mere variations, there are 39 consonants, and excluding rare consonants further decreases the count. The number 48 includes all consonant sounds, including variations and rare sounds, which may be phonetically distinct in
1740-408: Is mainly based on the Belarusian folk dialects of Minsk - Vilnius region. Historically, there have been several other alternative standardized forms of Belarusian grammar. Belarusian grammar is mostly synthetic and partly analytic, and overall quite similar to Russian grammar . Belarusian orthography, however, differs significantly from Russian orthography in some respects, due to the fact that it
1827-519: Is simply pronounced /t/. Likewise, historical /ð/ is simply pronounced /d/. Shin and sin are represented by the same letter, ש , but are two separate phonemes . When vowel diacritics are used, the two phonemes are differentiated with a shin -dot or sin -dot; the shin -dot is above the upper-right side of the letter, and the sin -dot is above the upper-left side of the letter. Historically, left-dot-sin corresponds to Proto-Semitic * ś , which in biblical-Judaic-Hebrew corresponded to
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#17327727535701914-487: Is the system of dots that help determine vowels and consonants. In Hebrew, all forms of niqqud are often omitted in writing, except for children's books, prayer books, poetry, foreign words, and words which would be ambiguous to pronounce. Israeli Hebrew has five vowel phonemes, /i e a o u/ , but many more written symbols for them: Note 1: The circle represents whatever Hebrew letter is used. Note 2: The pronunciation of tsere and sometimes segol – with or without
2001-573: The Ktav Ashuri , Jewish script , square script and block script , is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewish languages , most notably Yiddish , Ladino , Judeo-Arabic , and Judeo-Persian . In modern Hebrew, vowels are increasingly introduced. It is also used informally in Israel to write Levantine Arabic , especially among Druze . It is an offshoot of
2088-613: The Belarusian Democratic Republic , Belarusian was used as the only official language (decreed by Belarusian People's Secretariat on 28 April 1918). Subsequently, in the Byelorussian SSR , Belarusian was decreed to be one of the four (Belarusian, Polish, Russian, and Yiddish) official languages (decreed by Central Executive Committee of BSSR in February 1921). A decree of 15 July 1924 confirmed that
2175-536: The Dead Sea Scrolls version (4QLam/4Q111), reversed ordering also appears in the first chapter (i.e. in all the first four chapters). The fact that these chapters follows the pre-exilic pe-ayin order is evidence for them being written shortly after the events described, rather than being later, post-exilic compositions. The descriptions that follow are based on the pronunciation of modern standard Israeli Hebrew. pronunciation By analogy with
2262-604: The Divisions of Commonwealth ) is the usual conventional borderline between the Ruthenian and Modern Belarusian stages of development. By the end of the 18th century, (Old) Belarusian was still common among the minor nobility in the eastern part, in the territory of present-day Belarus, of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (hereafter GDL). Jan Czeczot in the 1840s had mentioned that even his generation's grandfathers preferred speaking (Old) Belarusian. According to A. N. Pypin,
2349-539: The Hebrew alphabet (by Belarusian Jews ). The Glagolitic script was used, sporadically, until the 11th or 12th century. There are several systems of romanization of Belarusian written texts. The Belarusian Latin alphabet is rarely used. Standardized Belarusian grammar in its modern form was adopted in 1959, with minor amendments in 1985 and 2008. It was developed from the initial form set down by Branislaw Tarashkyevich (first printed in Vilnius , 1918), and it
2436-634: The Imperial Aramaic alphabet , which flourished during the Achaemenid Empire and which itself derives from the Phoenician alphabet . Historically, a different abjad script was used to write Hebrew: the original, old Hebrew script, now known as the paleo-Hebrew alphabet , has been largely preserved in a variant form as the Samaritan alphabet , and is still used by the Samaritans . The present "Jewish script" or "square script", on
2523-592: The Proto-Canaanite alphabet , called the paleo-Hebrew alphabet by scholars, began to emerge around 800 BCE. An example is the Siloam inscription ( c. 700 BCE ). The paleo-Hebrew alphabet was used in the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah . Following the Babylonian exile of the Kingdom of Judah in the 6th century BCE, Jews began using a form of the Imperial Aramaic alphabet , another offshoot of
2610-550: The Russian Academy of Sciences refused to print his submission, on the basis that it had not been prepared in a sufficiently scientific manner. From the mid-1830s ethnographic works began to appear, and tentative attempts to study the language were instigated (e.g. Shpilevskiy's grammar). The Belarusian literary tradition began to re-form, based on the folk language, initiated by the works of Vintsent Dunin-Martsinkyevich . See also : Jan Czeczot , Jan Barszczewski . At
2697-412: The voiceless alveolar lateral fricative /ɬ/ (or /ś/). Historically, the consonants ב bet , ג gimmel , ד daleth , כ kaf , פ pe and ת tav each had two sounds: one hard ( plosive ), and one soft ( fricative ), depending on the position of the letter and other factors. When vowel diacritics are used, the hard sounds are indicated by
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2784-418: The "underlying" phoneme is (determined by identifying the related words where the vowel is being stressed or, if no such words exist, by written tradition, mostly but not always conforming to etymology). This means that Belarusian noun and verb paradigms, in their written form, have numerous instances of alternations between written ⟨a⟩ and ⟨o⟩ , whereas no such alternations exist in
2871-431: The 1897 Russian Empire census , about 5.89 million people declared themselves speakers of Belarusian (then known as White Russian). The end of the 19th century, however, still showed that the urban language of Belarusian towns remained either Polish or Russian. The same census showed that towns with a population greater than 50,000 had fewer than a tenth Belarusian speakers. This state of affairs greatly contributed to
2958-571: The 2006 precise transliteration system of the Academy of the Hebrew Language; for " צ " SBL uses "ṣ" (≠ AHL "ẓ"), and for בג״ד כפ״ת with no dagesh, SBL uses the same symbols as for with dagesh (i.e. "b", "g", "d", "k", "f", "t"). In transliterations of modern Israeli Hebrew, initial and final ע (in regular transliteration), silent or initial א , and silent ה are not transliterated. To
3045-562: The Belarusian grammar. In 1915, Rev. Balyaslaw Pachopka had prepared a Belarusian grammar using the Latin script. Belarusian linguist S. M. Nyekrashevich considered Pachopka's grammar unscientific and ignorant of the principles of the language. But Pachopka's grammar was reportedly taught in an unidentified number of schools, from 1918 for an unspecified period. Another grammar was supposedly jointly prepared by A. Lutskyevich and Ya. Stankyevich, and differed from Tarashkyevich's grammar somewhat in
3132-496: The Belarusian language is declared as a "native language" by about 55,000 Belarusians, which comprise about 19.7% of Belarusians living in Ukraine. In Poland , the Belarusian language is declared as a "language spoken at home" by about 40,000 inhabitants According to a study done by the Belarusian government in 2009, 72% of Belarusians speak Russian at home, while Belarusian is actively used by only 11.9% of Belarusians (others speak
3219-458: The Belarusian language was spoken in some areas among the minor nobility during the 19th century. In its vernacular form, it was the language of the smaller town dwellers and of the peasantry and it had been the language of oral folklore. Teaching in Belarusian was conducted mainly in schools run by the Basilian order . The development of Belarusian in the 19th century was strongly influenced by
3306-550: The Belarusian language, the North-Eastern and the South-Western. In addition, there is a transitional Middle Belarusian dialect group and the separate West Polesian dialect group. The North-Eastern and the South-Western dialects are separated by a hypothetical line Ashmyany – Minsk – Babruysk – Gomel , with the area of the Middle Belarusian dialect group placed on and along this line. The North-Eastern dialect
3393-706: The Belarusian, Russian, Yiddish and Polish languages had equal status in Soviet Belarus. In the BSSR, Tarashkyevich's grammar had been officially accepted for use in state schooling after its re-publication in unchanged form, first in 1922 by Yazep Lyosik under his own name as Practical grammar. Part I , then in 1923 by the Belarusian State Publishing House under the title Belarusian language. Grammar. Ed. I. 1923 , also by "Ya. Lyosik". In 1925, Lyosik added two new chapters, addressing
3480-554: The Commission had actually prepared the project for spelling reform. The resulting project had included both completely new rules and existing rules in unchanged and changed forms, some of the changes being the work of the Commission itself, and others resulting from the resolutions of the Belarusian Academic Conference (1926), re-approved by the Commission. Notably, the use of the Ь (soft sign) before
3567-663: The Conference made resolutions on some of the problems. However, the Lyosik brothers' project had not addressed all the problematic issues, so the Conference was not able to address all of those. As the outcome of the conference, the Orthographic Commission was created to prepare the project of the actual reform. This was instigated on 1 October 1927, headed by S. Nyekrashevich, with the following principal guidelines of its work adopted: During its work in 1927–29,
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3654-410: The Hebrew alphabet, and not loanwords . Geresh is also used to denote an abbreviation consisting of a single Hebrew letter, while gershayim (a doubled geresh ) are used to denote acronyms pronounced as a string of letters; geresh and gershayim are also used to denote Hebrew numerals consisting of a single Hebrew letter or of multiple Hebrew letters, respectively. Geresh is also the name of
3741-498: The Russian language and literature department of St. Petersburg University, approached the board of the Belarusian newspaper Nasha Niva with a proposal that a Belarusian linguist be trained under his supervision in order to be able to create documentation of the grammar. Initially, the famous Belarusian poet Maksim Bahdanovič was to be entrusted with this work. However, Bahdanovič's poor health (tuberculosis) precluded his living in
3828-545: The all-Russian " narodniki " and Belarusian national movements (late 1870s–early 1880s) renewed interest in the Belarusian language (See also: Homan (1884) , Bahushevich , Yefim Karskiy , Dovnar-Zapol'skiy , Bessonov, Pypin, Sheyn, Nasovič). The Belarusian literary tradition was also renewed ( see also : F. Bahushevich ). It was in these times that F. Bahushevich made his famous appeal to Belarusians: "Do not forsake our language, lest you pass away" (Belarusian: Не пакідайце ж мовы нашай, каб не ўмёрлі ). The first dictionary of
3915-455: The beginning of a syllable, or when doubled. They were pronounced as fricatives [v ɣ ð x f θ] when preceded by a vowel (commonly indicated with a macron, ḇ ḡ ḏ ḵ p̄ ṯ). The plosive and double pronunciations were indicated by the dagesh . In Modern Hebrew the sounds ḏ and ḡ have reverted to [d] and [ɡ] , respectively, and ṯ has become [t] , so only the remaining three consonants /b k p/ show variation. ר resh may have also been
4002-584: The beginning of the 1860s, both the Russian and Polish parties in Belarusian lands had begun to realise that the decisive role in the upcoming conflicts was shifting to the peasantry, overwhelmingly Belarusian. So a large amount of propaganda appeared, targeted at the peasantry and written in Belarusian; notably, the anti-Russian, anti-Tsarist, anti-Eastern Orthodox "Manifesto" and the first newspaper Mužyckaja prauda ( Peasants' Truth ) (1862–1863) by Konstanty Kalinowski , and anti-Polish, anti-Revolutionary, pro-Orthodox booklets and poems (1862). The advent of
4089-496: The climate of St. Petersburg, so Branislaw Tarashkyevich , a fresh graduate of the Vilnya Liceum No. 2 , was selected for the task. In the Belarusian community, great interest was vested in this enterprise. The already famous Belarusian poet Yanka Kupala , in his letter to Tarashkyevich, urged him to "hurry with his much-needed work". Tarashkyevich had been working on the preparation of the grammar during 1912–1917, with
4176-477: The combinations "consonant+iotated vowel" ("softened consonants"), which had been previously denounced as highly redundant (e.g., in the proceedings of the Belarusian Academic Conference (1926)), was cancelled. However, the complete resolution of the highly important issue of the orthography of unstressed Е ( IE ) was not achieved. Hebrew alphabet The Hebrew alphabet ( Hebrew : אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי , Alefbet ivri ), known variously by scholars as
4263-530: The contrary, is a stylized form of the Aramaic alphabet and was technically known by Jewish sages as Ashurit (lit. "Assyrian script"), since its origins were known to be from Assyria ( Mesopotamia ). Various "styles" (in current terms, " fonts ") of representation of the Jewish script letters described in this article also exist, including a variety of cursive Hebrew styles. In the remainder of this article,
4350-439: The corresponding written paradigms in Russian. This can significantly complicate the foreign speakers' task of learning these paradigms; on the other hand, though, it makes spelling easier for native speakers. An example illustrating the contrast between the treatment of akanje in Russian and Belarusian orthography is the spelling of the word for "products; food": Besides the standardized lect , there are two main dialects of
4437-538: The educational system. The Polish and Russian languages were being introduced and re-introduced, while the general state of the people's education remained poor until the very end of the Russian Empire. In summary, the first two decades of the 19th century had seen the unprecedented prosperity of Polish culture and language in the former GDL lands, and had prepared the era of such famous Polish writers as Adam Mickiewicz and Władysław Syrokomla . The era had seen
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#17327727535704524-526: The effective completion of the Polonization of the lowest level of the nobility, the further reduction of the area of use of contemporary Belarusian, and the effective folklorization of Belarusian culture. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the 19th century "there began a revival of national pride within the country ... and a growth in interest [in Belarusian] from outside". Due both to the state of
4611-427: The emancipation of the Belarusian language even further ( see also: Belarusian Socialist Assembly , Circle of Belarusian People's Education and Belarusian Culture , Belarusian Socialist Lot , Socialist Party "White Russia" , Alaiza Pashkevich , Nasha Dolya ). The fundamental works of Yefim Karsky marked a turning point in the scientific perception of Belarusian. The ban on publishing books and papers in Belarusian
4698-425: The everyday Hebrew colloquial vocabulary. The symbol resembling an apostrophe after the Hebrew letter modifies the pronunciation of the letter and is called a geresh . The pronunciation of the following letters can also be modified with the geresh diacritic. The represented sounds are however foreign to Hebrew phonology , i.e., these symbols mainly represent sounds in foreign words or names when transliterated with
4785-459: The eye of readers orientating themselves on Latin (or similar) alphabets, these letters might seem to be transliterated as vowel letters; however, these are in fact transliterations of the vowel diacritics – niqqud (or are representations of the spoken vowels). E.g., in אִם ("if", [ʔim] ), אֵם ("mother", [ʔe̞m] ) and אֹם (" nut ", [ʔo̞m] ), the letter א always represents the same consonant: [ ʔ ] ( glottal stop ), whereas
4872-470: The group. To some extent, Russian, Ukrainian , and Belarusian retain a degree of mutual intelligibility . Belarusian descends from a language generally referred to as Ruthenian (13th to 18th centuries), which had, in turn, descended from what is referred to as Old East Slavic (10th to 13th centuries). In the first Belarusian census in 1999, the Belarusian language was declared as a "language spoken at home" by about 3,686,000 Belarusian citizens (36.7% of
4959-558: The help and supervision of Shakhmatov and Karskiy. Tarashkyevich had completed the work by the autumn of 1917, even moving from the tumultuous Petrograd of 1917 to the relative calm of Finland in order to be able to complete it uninterrupted. By the summer of 1918, it became obvious that there were insurmountable problems with the printing of Tarashkyevich's grammar in Petrograd: a lack of paper, type and qualified personnel. Meanwhile, his grammar had apparently been planned to be adopted in
5046-628: The juxtapositions ת״ק , ת״ר , ת״ש , ת״ת , and תת״ק respectively. Adding a geresh (" ׳ ") to a letter multiplies its value by one thousand, for example, the year 5778 is portrayed as ה׳תשע״ח , where ה׳ represents 5000, and תשע״ח represents 778. The following table lists transliterations and transcriptions of Hebrew letters used in Modern Hebrew . Clarifications: Note: SBL's transliteration system, recommended in its Handbook of Style , differs slightly from
5133-468: The language to children. The Tiberian system also includes a set of cantillation marks , called trope or te'amim , used to indicate how scriptural passages should be chanted in synagogue recitations of scripture (although these marks do not appear in the scrolls). In everyday writing of modern Hebrew, niqqud are absent; however, patterns of how words are derived from Hebrew roots (called shorashim or "triliterals") allow Hebrew speakers to determine
5220-544: The late 2nd century BC, and performed this arithmetic function for about a thousand years. Nowadays alphanumeric notation is used only in specific contexts, e.g. denoting dates in the Hebrew calendar , denoting grades of school in Israel, other listings (e.g. שלב א׳ , שלב ב׳ – "phase a, phase b"), commonly in Kabbalah ( Jewish mysticism ) in a practice known as gematria , and often in religious contexts. The numbers 500, 600, 700, 800 and 900 are commonly represented by
5307-489: The letter yod – is sometimes ei in Modern Hebrew. This is not correct in the normative pronunciation and not consistent in the spoken language. Note 3: The dagesh , mappiq , and shuruk have different functions, even though they look the same. Note 4: The letter ו ( waw/vav ) is used since it can only be represented by that letter. By adding a vertical line (called Meteg ) underneath
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#17327727535705394-517: The letter and to the left of the vowel point, the vowel is made long. The meteg is only used in Biblical Hebrew , not Modern Hebrew . By adding two vertical dots (called Sh'va ) underneath the letter, the vowel is made very short. When sh'va is placed on the first letter of the word, mostly it is "è" (but in some instances, it makes the first letter silent without a vowel (vowel-less): e.g. וְ wè to "w") The symbol ״
5481-776: The letter is combined with a previous vowel and becomes silent, or by imitation of such cases in the spelling of other forms. Also, a system of vowel points to indicate vowels (diacritics), called niqqud , was developed. In modern forms of the alphabet, as in the case of Yiddish and to some extent Modern Hebrew , vowels may be indicated. Today, the trend is toward full spelling with the weak letters acting as true vowels. When used to write Yiddish , vowels are indicated, using certain letters, either with niqqud diacritics (e.g. אָ or יִ ) or without (e.g. ע or י ), except for Hebrew words, which in Yiddish are written in their Hebrew spelling. To preserve
5568-408: The letters י ו ה א can also function as matres lectionis , which is when certain consonants are used to indicate vowels. There is a trend in Modern Hebrew towards the use of matres lectionis to indicate vowels that have traditionally gone unwritten, a practice known as " full spelling ". The Yiddish alphabet , a modified version of the Hebrew alphabet used to write Yiddish,
5655-628: The letters, called a " dagesh kal", also modifies the sounds of the letters ב , כ and פ in modern Hebrew (in some forms of Hebrew it modifies also the sounds of the letters ג , ד and/or ת ; the "dagesh chazak" – orthographically indistinguishable from the "dagesh kal" – designates gemination , which today is realized only rarely – e.g. in biblical recitations or when using Arabic loanwords ). س א alef , ע ayin , ו waw/vav and י yod are letters that can sometimes indicate
5742-823: The modern Belarusian language authored by Nasovič was published in 1870. In the editorial introduction to the dictionary, it is noted that: The Belarusian local tongue, which dominates a vast area from the Nioman and the Narew to the Upper Volga and from the Western Dvina to the Prypiac and the Ipuc and which is spoken by inhabitants of the North-Western and certain adjacent provinces, or those lands that were in
5829-673: The modern Belarusian language. The Belarusian alphabet is a variant of the Cyrillic script , which was first used as an alphabet for the Old Church Slavonic language. The modern Belarusian form was defined in 1918, and consists of thirty-two letters. Before that, Belarusian had also been written in the Belarusian Latin alphabet (Łacinka / Лацінка), the Belarusian Arabic alphabet (by Lipka Tatars ) and
5916-429: The normal form in the following table (letter names are Unicode standard ). Although Hebrew is read and written from right to left, the following table shows the letters in order from left to right: As far back as the 13th century BCE, ancient Hebrew abecedaries indicate a slightly different ordering of the alphabet. The Zayit Stone , Izbet Sartah ostracon , and one inscription from Kuntillet Ajrud each contain
6003-528: The orthography of compound words and partly modifying the orthography of assimilated words. From this point on, Belarusian grammar had been popularized and taught in the educational system in that form. The ambiguous and insufficient development of several components of Tarashkyevich's grammar was perceived to be the cause of some problems in practical usage, and this led to discontent with the grammar. In 1924–25, Lyosik and his brother Anton Lyosik prepared and published their project of orthographic reform, proposing
6090-484: The other dotted/dotless pairs, dotless tav, ת , would be expected to be pronounced /θ/ ( voiceless dental fricative ), and dotless dalet ד as /ð/ ( voiced dental fricative ), but these were lost among most Jews due to these sounds not existing in the countries where they lived (such as in nearly all of Eastern Europe). Yiddish modified /θ/ to /s/ (cf. seseo in Spanish), but in modern Israeli Hebrew, it
6177-422: The particularities of different Belarusian dialects. The scientific groundwork for the introduction of a truly scientific and modern grammar of the Belarusian language was laid down by the linguist Yefim Karsky. By the early 1910s, the continuing lack of a codified Belarusian grammar was becoming intolerably obstructive in the opinion of uniformitarian prescriptivists. Then Russian academician Shakhmatov , chair of
6264-567: The past settled by the Kryvic tribe , has long attracted the attention of our philologists because of those precious remains of the ancient Ruthenian language that survived in that tongue. In 1891, in the preface to the Belarusian Flute , Francišak Bahuševič wrote, "There have been many peoples, which first lost their language… and then they perished entirely. So do not abandon our Belarusian language, lest we perish!" According to
6351-509: The people's education and to the strong positions of Polish and Polonized nobility, it was only after the 1880s–1890s that the educated Belarusian element, still shunned because of "peasant origin", began to appear in state offices. In 1846, ethnographer Pavel Shpilevskiy prepared a Belarusian grammar (using the Cyrillic alphabet) on the basis of the folk dialects of the Minsk region. However,
6438-523: The political conflict in the territories of the former GDL, between the Russian Imperial authorities, trying to consolidate their rule over the "joined provinces", and the Polish and Polonized nobility, trying to bring back its pre-Partitions rule (see also Polonization in times of Partitions ). One of the important manifestations of this conflict was the struggle for ideological control over
6525-472: The population). About 6,984,000 (85.6%) of Belarusians declared it their "mother tongue". Other sources, such as Ethnologue , put the figure at approximately 3.5 million active speakers in Belarus. In Russia , the Belarusian language is declared as a "familiar language" by about 316,000 inhabitants, among them about 248,000 Belarusians, comprising about 30.7% of Belarusians living in Russia. In Ukraine ,
6612-540: The proper vowel sounds, scholars developed several different sets of vocalization and diacritical symbols called nequdot ( נקודות , literally "points"). One of these, the Tiberian system , eventually prevailed. Aaron ben Moses ben Asher , and his family for several generations, are credited for refining and maintaining the system. These points are normally used only for special purposes, such as Biblical books intended for study, in poetry or when teaching
6699-583: The rebirth of the Hebrew language as a spoken language in the 18th and 19th centuries, especially in Israel . In the traditional form, the Hebrew alphabet is an abjad consisting only of consonants , written from right to left . It has 22 letters, five of which use different forms at the end of a word. In the traditional form, vowels are indicated by the weak consonants Aleph ( א ), He ( ה ), Waw/Vav ( ו ), or Yodh ( י ) serving as vowel letters, or matres lectionis :
6786-605: The resolution of some key aspects. On 22 December 1915, Paul von Hindenburg issued an order on schooling in German Army-occupied territories in the Russian Empire ( Ober Ost ), banning schooling in Russian and including the Belarusian language in an exclusive list of four languages made mandatory in the respective native schooling systems (Belarusian, Lithuanian , Polish , Yiddish ). School attendance
6873-637: The same family of scripts, which flourished during the Achaemenid Empire . The Samaritans , who remained in the Land of Israel, continued to use the paleo-Hebrew alphabet. During the 3rd century BCE, Jews began to use a stylized, "square" form of the Aramaic alphabet that was used by the Persian Empire (and which in turn had been adopted from the Assyrians ), while the Samaritans continued to use
6960-646: The term "Hebrew alphabet" refers to the square script unless otherwise indicated. The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters. It does not have case . Five letters have different forms when used at the end of a word. Hebrew is written from right to left . Originally, the alphabet was an abjad consisting only of consonants , but is now considered an " impure abjad ". As with other abjads, such as the Arabic alphabet , during its centuries-long use scribes devised means of indicating vowel sounds by separate vowel points, known in Hebrew as niqqud . In both biblical and rabbinic Hebrew,
7047-426: The text being transliterated), resulting in "im", "em" and "om", respectively. The diacritic geresh – " ׳ " – is used with some other letters as well ( ד׳ , ח׳ , ט׳ , ע׳ , ר׳ , ת׳ ), but only to transliterate from other languages to Hebrew – never to spell Hebrew words; therefore they were not included in this table (correctly translating
7134-461: The various Canaanite languages (including Hebrew, Moabite, Phoenician, Punic, et cetera). The Canaanite dialects were largely indistinguishable before around 1000 BCE. An example of related early Semitic inscriptions from the area include the tenth-century Gezer calendar over which scholars are divided as to whether its language is Hebrew or Phoenician and whether the script is Proto-Canaanite or paleo-Hebrew . A Hebrew variant of
7221-549: The vowel-structure of a given word from its consonants based on the word's context and part of speech. Unlike the Paleo-Hebrew writing script, the modern Hebrew script has five letters that have special final forms , called sofit ( Hebrew : סופית , meaning in this context "final" or "ending") form, used only at the end of a word, somewhat as in the Greek or in the Arabic and Mandaic alphabets . These are shown below
7308-444: The vowels /i/, /e/ and /o/ respectively represent the spoken vowel, whether it is orthographically denoted by diacritics or not. Since the Academy of the Hebrew Language ascertains that א in initial position is not transliterated, the symbol for the glottal stop ʾ is omitted from the transliteration, and only the subsequent vowels are transliterated (whether or not their corresponding vowel diacritics appeared in
7395-437: The workers' and peasants' schools of Belarus that were to be set up, so Tarashkyevich was permitted to print his book abroad. In June 1918, he arrived in Vilnius , via Finland. The Belarusian Committee petitioned the administration to allow the book to be printed. Finally, the first edition of the "Belarusian grammar for schools" was printed ( Vil'nya , 1918). There existed at least two other contemporary attempts at codifying
7482-584: Was not made mandatory, though. Passports at this time were bilingual, in German and in one of the "native languages". Also at this time, Belarusian preparatory schools, printing houses, press organs were opened ( see also: Homan (1916) ). After the 1917 February Revolution in Russia, the Belarusian language became an important factor in political activities in the Belarusian lands ( see also: Central Council of Belarusian Organisations , Great Belarusian Council , First All-Belarusian Congress , Belnatskom ). In
7569-462: Was officially removed (25 December 1904). The unprecedented surge of national feeling in the 20th century, especially among the workers and peasants, particularly after the events of 1905, gave momentum to the intensive development of Belarusian literature and press (See also: Nasha Niva , Yanka Kupala , Yakub Kolas ). During the 19th and early 20th century, there was no normative Belarusian grammar. Authors wrote as they saw fit, usually representing
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