Belarusian orthography reform of 1933 explained

The orthography of the Belarusian language was reformed in 1933 during the Soviet era.

Differences between the old and the new orthography

1. The soft sign Belarusian: ⟨ь⟩ pronounced as /link/ is no longer written when denoting assimilation of 'softness': Belarusian: ⟨песня⟩, ⟨свет⟩, instead of Belarusian: ⟨пес'''ь'''ня⟩, ⟨с'''ь'''вет⟩.
2. The soft sign is no longer written between double consonants: Belarusian: ⟨каханне⟩, instead of Belarusian: ⟨кахан'''ь'''не⟩.
3. The particle Belarusian: ⟨не⟩ and the preposition Belarusian: ⟨без⟩ are written unchanged, independently of pronunciation: Belarusian: ⟨'''не''' быў⟩, instead of Belarusian: ⟨'''ня''' быў⟩; and Belarusian: ⟨'''без''' мамы⟩, instead of Belarusian: ⟨'''бяз''' мамы⟩ (compare with English definite article "the").
4. Loanword orthography is regulated:
   • Akanye is preserved in all cases except ten words (such as Belarusian: ⟨рэволюцыя⟩, ⟨совет⟩ instead of Belarusian: ⟨рэв'''а'''люцыя⟩, ⟨с'''а'''вет⟩; these exceptions were abolished in 1959)
   • Central-European L is transmitted as hard pronounced as /link/ and not soft pronounced as /link/, as in Russian
   • The variants of writing the sound of Belarusian: ⟨ф⟩ with letters Belarusian: ⟨п⟩, ⟨хв⟩, ⟨х⟩, ⟨т⟩ are removed
   • The endings Belarusian: ⟨-тар⟩, ⟨-дар⟩ are replaced with Belarusian: ⟨-тр⟩, ⟨-др⟩, for example: Belarusian: ⟨літр⟩, instead of Belarusian: ⟨літ'''а'''р⟩
   • The endings Belarusian: ⟨-ый⟩, ⟨-iй⟩ are used where appropriate, for example: Belarusian: ⟨алюміні'''й'''⟩ instead of Belarusian: ⟨алюміні⟩.
5. The orthography of personal names is regulated so that vernacular forms are replaced with canonical Orthodox forms, for example: Belarusian: ⟨Юрый⟩ instead of Belarusian: ⟨Юрка⟩, ⟨Юры⟩, ⟨Юра⟩ or Belarusian: ⟨Юрась⟩.
6. In morphology, the ending Belarusian: ⟨-а⟩/⟨-у⟩ denoting genitive case is regulated as Belarusian: ⟨-а⟩, as in Russian, and not as Belarusian: ⟨-у⟩, as in certain modern dialects. Also unified is the spelling of names in dative and prepositional case.

See also

• Narkamaŭka
• Differences between Taraškievica and the official orthography

References

• Two Standard Languages within Belarusian: a Case of Bi-cultural Conflict by Ihar Klimaŭ (Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts) - École normale supérieure, 25 March 2006