W. R.
06-01-2011, 08:52 PM
Edited it for you mostly by removing most arguable statements. The original is here (http://www.pravapis.org/art_lac1.asp).
Introduction to Belarusian Latin Script
by Mikoła Pačkajeŭ
Łacinica is the name of the Belarusian writing system based on Latin alphabet. Although the first known book in Latin appears within the present Belarusian borders in the beginning of the 11th century, writing in Belarus remains predominantly in the Cyrillic script until mid-16th century. Due to the domination of the Greek Orthodox church in Belarus in early Middle ages, the writing standards remained strongly influenced by the sacred Old Church Slavonic language – the language of the Bible and liturgy in the Slavonic Greek Orthodox tradition.
However, in the middle of the 16th century Belarus underwent mass Reformation, first Lutheran but later mostly Calvinist (i.e. "Presbyterian" in the North American terms), although at that point there apparently was no strict differentiation. Reformation and the Western education seem to had been among the factors which led to quite considerable "cleansing" of the official Belarusian written language from the Old Church Slavonic features by the end of the 16th century. This was the epoch when Belarusian texts written in the Latin letters appear en mass.
A visitor to the National Historical Museum in Miensk may see a "Privileum of the King and Grand Duke Żygimont III Vaza" (for Poland, Sigismundus IV) to the city of Viciebsk (Vitebsk), granting it the right of self-rule according to the "Magdeburg Law". This document, dated 1597, illustrates the old-Belarusian Łacinica.
This Łacinica of the 16th-17th century was in several aspects similar to the Polish writing of that age: it used "cz" for [ch] (as in 'church'), "sz" for [sh] as in 'show', "ch" for the [ch]-sound as in 'loch', and "z" with upside down "^" for [zh] (pronounced like "s" in "pleasure"). Also, similarly to the Polish of the time, it uses "y" for both "y" and for what is now "j" (e.g. "moj" (my) was spelled as "moy"), and "w" for [v] as in 'very'.
However, unlike in Polish, it does not to employ the Polish "crossed L" letter (hard L), and assumes that every "L" is a firm sound: e.g. the Belarusian word for "lazy" would be spelled "lianiwy" not "laniwy." Also, the oldest Belarusian Łacinica, unlike the Polish, seem not to know the letter "g" at all, and uses only "h". For the [g] sound, for example in borrowed words, Belarusians used the "kh", such as in the King's title, where it reads as "Khotskii," whereas the Polish would spell it "Gotski". One may argue that the Belarusian Łacinica of that time was in a way a transliteration from the Cyrillic-based spelling, which could be close to the truth. <...>
In 1654-1667 the Russian invasion wiped out Belarusian cities, and the Belarusian cultural tradition was greatly disrupted. In 1690s-1710s, the Belarusian language becomes abandoned in the official use. Still, we have the written documents in Belarusian in the 18th century, when the Uniate (Roman-Catholic of Eastern Rite, or otherwise called Greek-Catholic) Church published the religious books, such as hymnals, in Belarusian Łacinica. Some manuscripts of the drama and verse kind in Belarusian Łacinica are known from the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century.
A well-known example of the Belarusian Latin-script writing is the "Mużyckaja Prauda" ("Simple Men's Truth") newspaper, attributed to Kastuś Kalinowski, which came out during the anti-Russian uprising of 1863-64. The outlook of that Łacinica is still quite Polish-like.
However, in the middle and second half of the 19th century, when the "founding fathers" of the modern Belarusian literary language and literature were publishing their works, the Łacinica evolved closer to what it is now: it acquired the non-syllabic "u"-character, i.e the distinct Belarusian "u nieskladovaje" ("u" with the upside down "^"). Apart from that, the traditional "Polish-looking" letters - "ż", cz, sz, and "crossed L" were preserved, as, for example, we can see in the Krakow edition of Franciszak Bahuszewicz's "Dudka Biełaruskaja" of 1891. Naturally, ć, ś, ź, ń (letters with a "´" on top) were used <...>.
Hence, as far as the modern Belarusian language and literature are concerned, they certainly originated in the Latin script.
Printing in Belarusian was prohibited in the Russian Empire. Acording to Jan Stankievič there was just one case, when someone published a collection of Belarusian songs in St. Petersburg, under the title of Bulgarian songs, in Łacinica (No, in Cyrillics! – WR) in 1890s. The liberalization of press after the 1905 Russian revolution made it possible to start Belarusian publishing.
In 1907 a publishing company, called "Zahlanie sonca i ŭ nasza wakonca" ("The Sun Will Look Into Our Window"), printed Belarusian elementary reading book, in which they reformed the Belarusian Latin script. For instance, they introduced the "č" ("c" with upside down "^") instead of the Polish "cz", for the sound of [ch] (as in "church"), an similarly "č" and "ž" for [sh] and [zh]. Still, they left in usage the "crossed L," as well as the "w" for [v]. As a result, their Łacinica, which soon after became the common standard, known as the "Naša Niva" Łacinica used less of letters in words, but more diacritics above letters. In general, it served the best to the requirements of the Belarusian pronunciation, and is used today with minor changes.
In 1900s the Belarusian publishing houses started printing in the Cyrillics as well. The Cyrillic version uses (vowel) [i] as written in the Latin "i", i.e. with a dot, while the [j] (the corresponding consonant) is written as the Russian Cyrillic with "^" on top. Overall, the alphabet was a mirror image of the Old Łacinica, reverted. As the Old-Belarusian Łacinica was initially a transliteration from the Old-Belarusian Cyrillics, the modern-Belarusian Cyrillics remains nothing but, essentially, a transliteration from the modern-Belarusian Łacinica script, and preserves all the Łacinica features up untill this day. <...>
In the 1910s the two systems coexisted. Half of the books' circulation was printed in Łacinica, and the other in Cyrillics. <...>
In the part of Belarus that belonged to the USSR after 1921, the Łacinica was, apparently, never used, at least officially. Although, the issue which system to use was debated in the press till 1926. <...>
Menawhile, in the Western part of Belarus belonging to Poland, the two scripts continued to coexist. Although, resisting the Polonization policies under Piłsudzki, Belarusians seemed to begin giving priority to the Cyrillic script. In the late 1930s some publishers, apparently struggling against the much-hated at that time "Polish features", began to abandon the historical "w" for the "v" (the [v]-sound like "very"). The process was completed during the World War II, when in the Elementary Grammar Books for the Belarusian schools printed in 1943 the "w" was not in use anymore.
From the early 1940s until the Belarusian Revival of the late 1980s-early 1990s, the Łacinica printing continued, but only in emigration. As Belarus became independent, some efforts have been made to revive the original script of the modern Belarusian literary language. Examples of such publications are "Naša Niva" newspaper revived in 1993, several issues of the "Chryścijanskaja Dumka" ("Christian Thought") journal, reprints from 1930s editions, and most recently the issues of the "Spadčyna" ("Heritage") magazine. <...>
http://i2.kurjer.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Alfavit.jpg
Introduction to Belarusian Latin Script
by Mikoła Pačkajeŭ
Łacinica is the name of the Belarusian writing system based on Latin alphabet. Although the first known book in Latin appears within the present Belarusian borders in the beginning of the 11th century, writing in Belarus remains predominantly in the Cyrillic script until mid-16th century. Due to the domination of the Greek Orthodox church in Belarus in early Middle ages, the writing standards remained strongly influenced by the sacred Old Church Slavonic language – the language of the Bible and liturgy in the Slavonic Greek Orthodox tradition.
However, in the middle of the 16th century Belarus underwent mass Reformation, first Lutheran but later mostly Calvinist (i.e. "Presbyterian" in the North American terms), although at that point there apparently was no strict differentiation. Reformation and the Western education seem to had been among the factors which led to quite considerable "cleansing" of the official Belarusian written language from the Old Church Slavonic features by the end of the 16th century. This was the epoch when Belarusian texts written in the Latin letters appear en mass.
A visitor to the National Historical Museum in Miensk may see a "Privileum of the King and Grand Duke Żygimont III Vaza" (for Poland, Sigismundus IV) to the city of Viciebsk (Vitebsk), granting it the right of self-rule according to the "Magdeburg Law". This document, dated 1597, illustrates the old-Belarusian Łacinica.
This Łacinica of the 16th-17th century was in several aspects similar to the Polish writing of that age: it used "cz" for [ch] (as in 'church'), "sz" for [sh] as in 'show', "ch" for the [ch]-sound as in 'loch', and "z" with upside down "^" for [zh] (pronounced like "s" in "pleasure"). Also, similarly to the Polish of the time, it uses "y" for both "y" and for what is now "j" (e.g. "moj" (my) was spelled as "moy"), and "w" for [v] as in 'very'.
However, unlike in Polish, it does not to employ the Polish "crossed L" letter (hard L), and assumes that every "L" is a firm sound: e.g. the Belarusian word for "lazy" would be spelled "lianiwy" not "laniwy." Also, the oldest Belarusian Łacinica, unlike the Polish, seem not to know the letter "g" at all, and uses only "h". For the [g] sound, for example in borrowed words, Belarusians used the "kh", such as in the King's title, where it reads as "Khotskii," whereas the Polish would spell it "Gotski". One may argue that the Belarusian Łacinica of that time was in a way a transliteration from the Cyrillic-based spelling, which could be close to the truth. <...>
In 1654-1667 the Russian invasion wiped out Belarusian cities, and the Belarusian cultural tradition was greatly disrupted. In 1690s-1710s, the Belarusian language becomes abandoned in the official use. Still, we have the written documents in Belarusian in the 18th century, when the Uniate (Roman-Catholic of Eastern Rite, or otherwise called Greek-Catholic) Church published the religious books, such as hymnals, in Belarusian Łacinica. Some manuscripts of the drama and verse kind in Belarusian Łacinica are known from the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century.
A well-known example of the Belarusian Latin-script writing is the "Mużyckaja Prauda" ("Simple Men's Truth") newspaper, attributed to Kastuś Kalinowski, which came out during the anti-Russian uprising of 1863-64. The outlook of that Łacinica is still quite Polish-like.
However, in the middle and second half of the 19th century, when the "founding fathers" of the modern Belarusian literary language and literature were publishing their works, the Łacinica evolved closer to what it is now: it acquired the non-syllabic "u"-character, i.e the distinct Belarusian "u nieskladovaje" ("u" with the upside down "^"). Apart from that, the traditional "Polish-looking" letters - "ż", cz, sz, and "crossed L" were preserved, as, for example, we can see in the Krakow edition of Franciszak Bahuszewicz's "Dudka Biełaruskaja" of 1891. Naturally, ć, ś, ź, ń (letters with a "´" on top) were used <...>.
Hence, as far as the modern Belarusian language and literature are concerned, they certainly originated in the Latin script.
Printing in Belarusian was prohibited in the Russian Empire. Acording to Jan Stankievič there was just one case, when someone published a collection of Belarusian songs in St. Petersburg, under the title of Bulgarian songs, in Łacinica (No, in Cyrillics! – WR) in 1890s. The liberalization of press after the 1905 Russian revolution made it possible to start Belarusian publishing.
In 1907 a publishing company, called "Zahlanie sonca i ŭ nasza wakonca" ("The Sun Will Look Into Our Window"), printed Belarusian elementary reading book, in which they reformed the Belarusian Latin script. For instance, they introduced the "č" ("c" with upside down "^") instead of the Polish "cz", for the sound of [ch] (as in "church"), an similarly "č" and "ž" for [sh] and [zh]. Still, they left in usage the "crossed L," as well as the "w" for [v]. As a result, their Łacinica, which soon after became the common standard, known as the "Naša Niva" Łacinica used less of letters in words, but more diacritics above letters. In general, it served the best to the requirements of the Belarusian pronunciation, and is used today with minor changes.
In 1900s the Belarusian publishing houses started printing in the Cyrillics as well. The Cyrillic version uses (vowel) [i] as written in the Latin "i", i.e. with a dot, while the [j] (the corresponding consonant) is written as the Russian Cyrillic with "^" on top. Overall, the alphabet was a mirror image of the Old Łacinica, reverted. As the Old-Belarusian Łacinica was initially a transliteration from the Old-Belarusian Cyrillics, the modern-Belarusian Cyrillics remains nothing but, essentially, a transliteration from the modern-Belarusian Łacinica script, and preserves all the Łacinica features up untill this day. <...>
In the 1910s the two systems coexisted. Half of the books' circulation was printed in Łacinica, and the other in Cyrillics. <...>
In the part of Belarus that belonged to the USSR after 1921, the Łacinica was, apparently, never used, at least officially. Although, the issue which system to use was debated in the press till 1926. <...>
Menawhile, in the Western part of Belarus belonging to Poland, the two scripts continued to coexist. Although, resisting the Polonization policies under Piłsudzki, Belarusians seemed to begin giving priority to the Cyrillic script. In the late 1930s some publishers, apparently struggling against the much-hated at that time "Polish features", began to abandon the historical "w" for the "v" (the [v]-sound like "very"). The process was completed during the World War II, when in the Elementary Grammar Books for the Belarusian schools printed in 1943 the "w" was not in use anymore.
From the early 1940s until the Belarusian Revival of the late 1980s-early 1990s, the Łacinica printing continued, but only in emigration. As Belarus became independent, some efforts have been made to revive the original script of the modern Belarusian literary language. Examples of such publications are "Naša Niva" newspaper revived in 1993, several issues of the "Chryścijanskaja Dumka" ("Christian Thought") journal, reprints from 1930s editions, and most recently the issues of the "Spadčyna" ("Heritage") magazine. <...>
http://i2.kurjer.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Alfavit.jpg