Belarusian Arabic alphabet

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The Belarusian Arabic alphabet was based on the Arabic script and was developed in the 16th century (possibly 15th). It consisted of twenty-eight graphemes, including several additions to represent Belarusian sounds not found in Arabic.

The Belarusian Arabic alphabet was used by the Lipka Tatars, who had been invited to settle on Belarusian territories. During the 14th-16th centuries they gradually stopped using their own language and started using the Old Belarusian language rendered in the Belarusian Arabic alphabet. Books of that literary tradition are known as Kitab (Belarusian: "Кітаб"), which is the Arabic word for book.

Some Polish texts were also written in the Arabic script, dated not earlier than 17th century.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Additional graphemes

For the sounds [ʒ] (ж), [ʧ] (ч) and [p] (п), which are absent from the Arabic language, the following Persian graphemes were used:

پ چ ژ

For denoting the soft [ʣ] (дз) and [ʦ] (ц) sounds, the following newly-constructed graphemes were used:

and

These graphemes were used during the 18th-20th centuries.^{[citation needed]}

The sounds [w] (ў) and [v] (в) were both represented by the same symbol:

و‎

[edit] References

Д-р Я. Станкевіч. Беларускія мусульмане і беларуская літаратура арабскім пісьмом. [Адбітка з гадавіка Беларускага Навуковага Таварыства, кн. I.] – Вільня : Друкарня Я. Левіна, 1933 ; Менск : Беларускае коопэрацыйна-выдавецкае таварыства ″Адраджэньне″, 1991 [факсімільн.]. – 3-е выд.