Why the same Belarusian word has two accepted spellings, what the differences actually are, and which one you will meet where.
I can write consistently in наркамаўка and read тарашкевіца without difficulty.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Сёння выпаў першы снег.
The first snow fell today.
Ён вывучае класічную філасофію.
He studies classical philosophy.
Гэтая песня вядомая ў кожнай вёсцы.
This song is known in every village.
У незалежных выданнях часта пішуць інакш.
Independent publications often spell things differently.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
The first widely accepted Belarusian grammar was published by Branislau Taraskievic in Vilnia in 1918. A state reform in 1933 changed the spelling, moving it closer to Russian. The reformed spelling became the official standard and is known as наркамаўка, after the People's Commissariat that issued it. The pre-reform system continued in emigration publishing and was revived inside the country from the late 1980s under the name тарашкевіца, or, since the 1990s, the classical orthography.
| Feature | Тарашкевіца | Наркамаўка |
|---|---|---|
| Assimilative softness marked | сьнег, песьня, зьмена | снег, песня, змена |
| Soft л in Western loans | клясычны, філязофія | класічны, філасофія |
| Loan vowels | often я where the source has a | closer to the Russian rendering |
| Foreign г | distinguishes г and ґ | one letter г |
The first row is the one you will notice immediately, and it is also the clearest: тарашкевіца writes the soft sign where the consonant is softened by the one after it; наркамаўка does not.
This course, like the state education system, the press inside the country and the academic grammars, uses наркамаўка. That is the standard you should learn to write.
You will nonetheless meet тарашкевіца constantly, because a large share of independent publishing, emigration literature and online writing uses it. Reading it is a skill worth having, and the differences are regular enough that once you know the four rows above, an unfamiliar spelling stops being an obstacle.
Neither system is a dialect, and neither is incorrect Belarusian. They are two ways of writing the same language, differing in how much of the pronunciation the spelling shows and how foreign words are adapted. Mixing them within a single text, however, is an error in both systems - pick one and be consistent.
Converting mentally is mostly mechanical. Drop the soft signs that mark assimilation, harden the л in loanwords, and you have the official form: сьвет → свет, клясык → класік, філязофія → філасофія.
Apply this grammar in C1 course exercises
Practice ExercisesTypical errors: mixing the two systems within one text, and treating an unfamiliar spelling as a mistake.
Mixing the two orthographies in one text
Choose one and hold to it.
Treating a classical spelling as a mistake
It is a different norm for the same language.
Writing the assimilative soft sign in official spelling
Наркамаўка has снег, песня, змена.
Writing the soft л in loans in official spelling
Класічны, філасофія.
Сёння выпаў першы снег.
The first snow fell today.
Official spelling; the classical orthography would write <em>сьнег</em>.
Ён вывучае класічную філасофію.
He studies classical philosophy.
Both loanwords in the official form; the classical orthography has <em>клясычную філязофію</em>.
Гэтая песня вядомая ў кожнай вёсцы.
This song is known in every village.
<em>Песня</em> without the soft sign - the 1933 change in one word.
У незалежных выданнях часта пішуць інакш.
Independent publications often spell things differently.
Where you will meet the classical orthography most often.
У адным тэксце трэба трымацца аднаго правапісу.
One text should keep to one orthography.
Mixing is an error under both systems.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in C1 course exercises
The first widely accepted grammar of Belarusian, and the codification the classical orthography is named after. Cited here for its existence, date and authorship, which are what this article claims about it: it is the 1918 school grammar by Branislau Taraskievic that the later norm took its name from.
Cited for the specific change this article describes and for nothing beyond it: the article states that after the 1933 reform the soft sign is no longer written to denote assimilative softness, giving песня and свет in place of the earlier песьня and сьвет, and that the reform moved Belarusian spelling closer to Russian.
The state orthographic norm in force since 1 September 2010, cited as the law itself. It is what makes the written forms of akanne and jakanne, the obligatory ё, ў after a vowel and the apostrophe in place of a hard sign normative rather than conventional. No URL is given deliberately: the rules text is not published at a stable public address - the pages that carry the law show only its enacting articles - so a link here would imply a verification a reader cannot perform.