The
Belarusian language (?????????? ????,
BGN/PCGN byelaruskaya mova,
Scientific belaruskaja mova,
Lacinka bielaruskaja mova) is the language of the
Belarusian people and is spoken in
Belarus and abroad, chiefly in
Russia,
Ukraine,
Poland.
[1] It was formerly called "Belorussian". It belongs to the group of the
East Slavonic languages, and shares many grammatical and lexical features with other members of the group. Its predecessor was the
Old Belarusian language (up to the 19th cent., conventionally).
In Belarus, the Belarusian language is declared as a "language spoken at home" by about 3,686,000 people (36.7% of the population)[2] as of 1999.[3] By less strict criteria, about 6,984,000 (85.6%) of Belarusians declare it their "mother tongue". Other sources put down the "population of the language" as 6,715,000 in Belarus and 9,081,102 in all countries.[4][5]
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. Usually, the number is given as 39, which excludes the nine geminate consonants as "mere variations". Sometimes, rare consonants are also excluded, thus bringing the quoted number of consonants further down. The number 48 includes all consonant sounds, including variations and rare sounds, which may have a "phonetic" meaning in the modern Belarusian language.
The Belarusian alphabet is a form of the Cyrillic alphabet, which was first used for the Old Church Slavonic language. The modern Belarusian form was determined in 1918, and consists of thirty-two letters. Historically, the Glagolitic script had been used, sporadically, until 11th or 12th century. Historically, Belarusian has also been written in the Belarusian Latin alphabet and the Belarusian Arabic alphabet.
