Wikipedia:Romanization of Belarusian

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Belarusian-language text is written in the Belarusian alphabet (officially), a variant of Cyrillic, and Łacinka (unofficially), a variation of the Latin alphabet. Belarusian language for a certain period was an example of digraphia.

Nowadays Belarusian Latin alphabet is used occasionally in its current form by certain authors, groups and promoters. In the same time its basics are taught in school.

To be accessible to the readers of English-language Wikipedia, its Cyrillic form is usually romanized, or transliterated into the Latin alphabet.

In English Wikipedia, names of people and places in Belarusian are romanized using the BGN/PCGN romanization system.

Łacinka and Standard systems for romanizing Belarusian

Standard systems for romanizing Belarusian include:

BGN/PCGN romanization of Belarusian, 1979 (United States Board on Geographic Names and Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use), which is the US and Great Britain prevailing system for romanising of geographical information
British Standard 2979 : 1958
Scientific transliteration, or the International Scholarly System for linguistics
ALA-LC romanization, 1997 (American Library Association and Library of Congress)
ISO 9:1995, which is also Belarusian state standard GOST 7.79–2000 for non-geographical information
Instruction on transliteration of Belarusian geographical names with letters of Latin script, which is Belarusian state standard for geographical information, adopted by State Committee on land resources, geodetics and cartography of Belarus, 2000 and recommended^[1] for use by the Working Group on Romanization Systems of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN). It was significantly revised in 2007, then a new system was introduced in 2023.^[2]

Comparative table of some standard romanisations of the Belarusian letters
Cyrillic	Scholarly^[3]	ALA-LC	British^[4]	BGN/PCGN^[5]	ISO 9	National 2000^[6]	National 2007^[6]	National 2023^[6]
А а	a	a	a	a	a	a	a	a
Б б	b	b	b	b	b	b	b	b
В в	v	v	v	v	v	v	v	v
Г г	h	h	h	h	g	h	h	g
Ґ ґ^[7]	g	g	g	g	g̀
Д д	d	d	d	d	d	d	d	d
Е е	e	e	e	ye	e	je, ie	je, ie	je, ie
Ё ё	ë	i͡o	ë	yo	ë	jo, io	jo, io	jo, io
Ж ж	ž	z͡h	zh	zh	ž	ž	ž	zh
З з	z	z	z	z	z	z	z	z
І і	i	i	i	i	ì	i	i	i
Й й	j	ĭ	ĭ	y	j	j	j	j
К к	k	k	k	k	k	k	k	k
Л л	l	l	l	l	l	l	l	l
М м	m	m	m	m	m	m	m	m
Н н	n	n	n	n	n	n	n	n
О о	o	o	o	o	o	o	o	o
П п	p	p	p	p	p	p	p	p
Р р	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r
С с	s	s	s	s	s	s	s	s
Т т	t	t	t	t	t	t	t	t
Тс тс			t-s	t·s
У у	u	u	u	u	u	u	u	u
Ў ў	ŭ (w)	ŭ	w	w	ǔ	ú	ŭ	w
Ф ф	f	f	f	f	f	f	f	f
Х х	x (ch)	kh	kh	kh	h	ch	ch	h
Ц ц	c	ts	ts	ts	c	c	c	c
Ч ч	č	ch	ch	ch	č	č	č	ch
Ш ш	š	sh	sh	sh	š	š	š	sh
ʼ	-	-	ˮ, "	ʺ	ʼ	-	-	-
Ы ы	y	y	ȳ	y	y	y	y	y
Ь ь	ʹ	ʹ	ʼ, '	ʹ	ʹ	ʹ	combining acute	-
Э э	è	ė	é	e	è	e	e	e
Ю ю	ju	i͡u	yu	yu	û	ju, iu	ju, iu	ju, iu
Я я	ja	i͡a	ya	ya	â	ja, ia	ja, ia	ja, ia
Historical letters
И и		ī
Щ щ		shch
Ъ ъ		ʺ	ˮ, "
Ѣ ѣ		ě	ê
^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-08-24. Retrieved 2009-07-26.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) ^ "Instrukcija po peredache naimenovanij geograficheskih objektov s belorusskogo i russkogo jazykov na drugie jazyki i transliteracii naimenovanij geograficheskih objektov bukvami latinskogo alfavita". Gosudarstvennyj komitet po imushchestvu Respubliki Belarus. 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2024. ^ Parentheses ( ) denote older variants. ^ Diacritics may be omitted when back-transliteration is not required ^ "Romanization Systems Currently Approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) and the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use (PCGN)". National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 5 April 2017. ^ ^a ^b ^c For е, ё, ю, я, the digraphs je, jo, ju, ja are used word-initially, and after a vowel, apostrophe (’), separating ь, or ў. ^ The letter Ge (Ґ ґ) has never been part of the standard Belarusian alphabet.

[1] "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-08-24. Retrieved 2009-07-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[2] "Instrukcija po peredache naimenovanij geograficheskih objektov s belorusskogo i russkogo jazykov na drugie jazyki i transliteracii naimenovanij geograficheskih objektov bukvami latinskogo alfavita". Gosudarstvennyj komitet po imushchestvu Respubliki Belarus. 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2024.

[3] Parentheses ( ) denote older variants.

[4] Diacritics may be omitted when back-transliteration is not required

[5] "Romanization Systems Currently Approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) and the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use (PCGN)". National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 5 April 2017.

[national-6] For е, ё, ю, я, the digraphs je, jo, ju, ja are used word-initially, and after a vowel, apostrophe (’), separating ь, or ў.

[7] The letter Ge (Ґ ґ) has never been part of the standard Belarusian alphabet.

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