Official Spelling and Taraškievica

Level 5Sounds Like narkamaŭka í taraškevíca

Official spelling: снег, план, Еўропа. Taraškievica: сьнег, плян, Эўропа. Learn to read both, and write one consistently.

How It Works

Belarusian is written in two spelling traditions.

  • The official orthography, set by the Правілы беларускай арфаграфіі і пунктуацыі (2008). It grew out of the 1933 reform, so its opponents call it наркамаўка, after the Soviet наркам (people's commissar). It is used in schools, the state and most books. This course writes it.
  • Taraškievica, or the classical spelling (клясычны правапіс), named after Branislaŭ Taraškievič, whose grammar appeared in 1918. Some independent media, publishers and one edition of the Belarusian Wikipedia use it.

Main differences you will see:

  • Soft sign for softening before a soft consonant: снег → сьнег, свет → сьвет, песня → песьня
  • Soft л in loanwords: план → плян, клуб → клюб
  • Э in loanwords: газета → газэта, Еўропа → Эўропа

What to do. Read taraškievica texts without worry: the words and grammar are almost the same. When you write, choose one system and keep to it. Mixing them, for example сьнег in an otherwise official text, looks like a spelling error to readers of both.

Examples (6)

  1. снег → сьнег

    snow (official → taraškievica)

  2. свет → сьвет

    world, light (official → taraškievica)

  3. план → плян

    plan (official → taraškievica)

  4. Еўропа → Эўропа

    Europe (official → taraškievica)

  5. газета → газэта

    newspaper (official → taraškievica)

  6. Сёння ў Еўропе ідзе снег.

    It is snowing in Europe today.

    Word by Word: Today in Europe goes snow.

    In taraškievica the same sentence is spelled Сёньня ў Эўропе ідзе сьнег.

Common Mistakes

  • Mixing the two systems in one sentence.

    Сёння ў Эўропе ідзе снег.
    Сёння ў Еўропе ідзе снег.

    Эўропа is the taraškievica spelling, but the rest of the sentence uses the official one. Keep to one system: this course uses Еўропа.

  • Using a taraškievica soft sign in an official text.

    Учора ішоў сьнег, і наш план змяніўся.
    Учора ішоў снег, і наш план змяніўся.

    Сьнег is the taraškievica spelling, but план and змяніўся are official (taraškievica writes плян and зьмяніўся), so the sentence mixes the two systems. The official rules do not mark this softening with ь: write снег.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Official Spelling and TaraškievicaLevel 5

Learn This First

The two Belarusian spelling traditions differ in soft-sign use and other regular spelling choices.

Words in This Pattern

наркамаўкатарашкевіца