The origin of the Belarusan Arabic alphabet
Infographics that demonstrates the genesis of the Belarusian Arabic alphabet and its three stages along with the introduced letters’ phonetic values in their respective languages: Arabic, Persian, Belarusian.
Text content of the image:
Letters of the Belarusan Arabic alphabet
Arabic alphabet (abjad)
Twenty eight letters with their phonetic values (IPA), since the 7th c.
[ʔ, а] [b] [t] [θ] [d͡ʒ] [ħ] [x] [d] [ð] [r] [z]
[s] [ʃ] [sˤ] [dˤ] [tˤ] [ðˤ] [ʕ] [ʁˤ]
[f] [q] [k] [l] [m] [n] [w, u:] [h] [j] [i:]
Perso-arabic script
Thirty two letters, since the 9th c.
Four Indo-European phone-mes [g, ʒ, t͡ʃ, p] were not present in the Arabic abjad, so Persians fashioned new letters from the most similar existing ones.
[b] [d͡ʒ] [z] [k]
[p] [t͡ʃ] [ʒ] [ɡ]
Belarusan Arabic alphabet
Two additional letters, since the 16th c.
Two specific Belarusan phonemes [d͡zj, t͡sj] could not be depicted with Perso-Arabic letters, so the Ruthenian- and then Belarusan-speaking Belarusan Tatars, citizens of the Grand Duchy, fashioned new letters from the most similar existing ones.
[d] [s]
[d͡zj] [t͡sj], [t͡s]
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