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Belarusian Arabic alphabet

Arabic-based alphabet for Belarusian From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Belarusian Arabic alphabet
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The Belarusian Arabic alphabet[a] or the Belarusian Arabica[b][1] was based on the Perso-Arabic script and was developed in the 15th or 16th century. It consisted of 28 graphemes, including several additions to represent Belarusian phonemes not found in the Arabic language.

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Kitab in Arabitsa, c. 1750-1800
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Basic summary of the letters and the functioning of Belarusian Arabic alphabet[1]

The Belarusian Arabic alphabet was used by the Lipka Tatars, who had been invited to settle in the eastern territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania—a region that now comprises modern-day Belarus. During the 14th–16th centuries they gradually stopped using their own language and started using the Ruthenian language (modern Belarusian and Ukrainian) rendered in the Belarusian Arabic alphabet. Books of that literary tradition are known in Belarusian as Kitab (Belarusian: Кітаб), which is Arabic for 'book' or 'written material'.

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Example of text in Arabitsa

Some Polish texts were also written in the Arabic script in the 17th century or later.[2]

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Additional graphemes

  • For the sounds /ʒ/ (ж), /t͡ʃ/ (ч) and /p/ (п), which are absent from the Arabic language, the following Persian graphemes were used:
ژ چ پ
  • For denoting the soft /d͡zʲ/ (дзь) and /t͡s/ (ц) sounds, the following newly constructed graphemes were used:
( )
These graphemes were used during the 16th–20th centuries to write Belarusian and Polish.[2]
  • The sounds /w/ (ў) and /v/ (в) were both represented by the same symbol:
و
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Equivalence chart

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Vowels

/a/ is consistently written long (that is, with a mater lectionis), while /e/ is consistently written short.

/o/ is most commonly written long.[3]

Consonants

More information Cyrillic, Latin ...

Ligature

More information Cyrillic, Latin ...

Sample text

Below is a sample text, Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[4]

More information English translation ...
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See also

Notes

  1. Belarusian: Беларускі арабскі алфавіт / بلاروسكى آرابسكى آلفاوىط, romanized: Biełaruski arabski ałfavit
  2. بلاروصقایا آرابیࢯا, Беларуская Арабіца, Biełaruskaja Arabica

References

Further reading

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