Editing Belarusian language (section)

== Phonology ==
{{Belarusians}}
{{main|Belarusian phonology}}
Although closely related to other [[East Slavic languages]], especially [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], Belarusian [[phonology]] is distinct in a number of ways. The [[phoneme]] inventory of the modern Belarusian language consists of 45 to 54 phonemes: 6 vowels and 39 to 48 [[consonant]]s, depending on how they are counted. When the nine [[gemination|geminate]] consonants are excluded as mere variations, there are 39 consonants, and excluding rare consonants further decreases the count. The number 48 includes ''all'' consonant sounds, including variations and rare sounds, which may be phonetically distinct in the modern Belarusian language.