i convert belarusian cyrillic into the latin script: classic łacinka, or the 2000 and 2023 instructions for geographic names. free, no sign-up, as you type.
łacinka is the belarusian latin alphabet. it was used alongside cyrillic from the 16th century; kalinoŭski's «mužyckaja praŭda» and the first years of «naša niva» were printed in it, and bahuševič, kupała and kołas wrote in it. its modern form — with ł, ŭ, č, š, ž and the soft ś, ź, ć, ń — settled in the first third of the 20th century.
today łacinka appears in print and on signage; it was used for minsk metro station names and road signs, and musicians and designers keep using it. this converter (a romanization tool for belarusian) transliterates cyrillic into latin automatically and takes context into account: softening before ь, iotation after vowels, and how л behaves before е, ё, і, ю, я.
the traditional belarusian latin alphabet. л becomes ł before hard sounds and l before е, ё, і, ю, я, ь; ў is ŭ; the hushing consonants are č, š, ž; soft зь, сь, ць, нь are ź, ś, ć, ń; г is h, х is ch.
the «instruction on transliteration of belarusian geographical names with letters of the latin script», adopted in 2000. in 2013 the united nations recommended it as the international romanization system for belarusian place names. it differs from classic łacinka in how л is rendered: always l, and ĺ before ь; there is no ł.
in 2023 the 2000 instruction was repealed and replaced by a new one without diacritics: ш is sh, ч is ch, ж is zh, г is g, х is h, ў is w, and the soft sign is dropped. the geo-2023 style reproduces these rules.
| cyrillic | lacinka | geo-2000 | geo-2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Шчучыншчына | Ščučynščyna | Ščučynščyna | Shchuchynshchyna |
| Беларусь | Biełaruś | Bielaruś | Bielarus |
| Гомель | Homiel | Homieĺ | Gomiel |
| Ляхавічы | Lachavičy | Liachavičy | Liahavichy |
| Жодзіна | Žodzina | Žodzina | Zhodzina |
| Свіслач | Svisłač | Svislač | Svislach |
| Ельск | Jelsk | Jeĺsk | Jelsk |
| Ганцавічы | Hancavičy | Hancavičy | Gancavichy |
| Ўладзімір | Ŭładzimir | Ŭladzimir | Wladzimir |
this is how bel-lat renders each letter. for е, ё, ю, я two forms are shown: after a consonant, and word-initially / after a vowel, ь or an apostrophe. the soft sign and the apostrophe are not rendered on their own.
| cyrillic | lacinka | geo-2000 | geo-2023 | note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| а | a | a | a | |
| б | b | b | b | |
| в | v | v | v | |
| г | h | h | g | Гомель: Homiel / Gomiel |
| ґ | g | g | g | plosive g |
| д | d | d | d | |
| е | ie / je | ie / je | ie / je | лес: les (lacinka) / lies; Ельск: Jelsk |
| ё | io / jo | io / jo | io / jo | Лёс: Los (lacinka) / Lios |
| ж | ž | ž | zh | |
| з | z / ź | z / ź | z | ź before ь |
| і | i | i | i | |
| й | j | j | j | |
| к | k | k | k | |
| л | ł / l | l / ĺ | l | lacinka: l before е ё і ю я ь; geo-2000: ĺ before ь |
| м | m | m | m | |
| н | n / ń | n / ń | n | ń before ь: пень — pień |
| о | o | o | o | |
| п | p | p | p | |
| р | r | r | r | |
| с | s / ś | s / ś | s | ś before ь: Беларусь — Biełaruś |
| т | t | t | t | |
| у | u | u | u | |
| ў | ŭ | ŭ | w | |
| ф | f | f | f | |
| х | ch | ch | h | |
| ц | c / ć | c / ć | c | ć before ь |
| ч | č | č | ch | |
| ш | š | š | sh | |
| ы | y | y | y | |
| ь | — | — | — | softens the preceding letter |
| э | e | e | e | |
| ю | iu / ju | iu / ju | iu / ju | Юля: Jula (lacinka) / Julia |
| я | ia / ja | ia / ja | ia / ja | мяч: miač; яма: jama |
| ’ | — | — | — | з’езд: zjezd |
the same engine is available as an http api: one POST with json, the answer carries result. swagger docs are at /bel-lat/docs; the code and the python library are at github.com/Kickoman/bel-lat.
# transliterate through the api $ curl -X POST https://www.kanstancin.net/bel-lat/translate \ -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \ -d '{"text": "Шчучыншчына", "style": "geo-2000"}' {"result": "Ščučynščyna"} # the same from python $ pip install git+https://github.com/Kickoman/bel-lat >>> from bel_lat import translate >>> translate("Лацінка", style="lacinka") 'Łacinka'