1 33 Russian alphabet. Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary

Emperor Michael III streamlined writing for the Slavic language. After the appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet, which goes back to the Greek statutory (solemn) letter, the activity of the Bulgarian school of scribes develops (after Cyril and Methodius). Bulgaria becomes the center for the spread of Slavic writing. The first Slavic book school was created here - Preslav book school, in which Cyril and Methodius originals of liturgical books (Gospel, Psalter, Apostle, church services) are rewritten, new Slavic translations from Greek are made, original works appear in Old Church Slavonic ("On the writing of Chrnorizets the Brave"). Later, the Old Slavonic language penetrates into Serbia, and at the end of the 10th century it becomes the language of the church in Kievan Rus.

The Old Church Slavonic language, being the language of the church, was influenced by the Old Russian language. It was an Old Slavonic language with elements of lively East Slavic speech. Thus, the modern Russian alphabet originated from the Cyrillic alphabet of the Old Slavonic language, which was borrowed from the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet and became widespread in Kievan Rus.

Later, 4 new letters were added, and 14 old ones were in different time excluded as unnecessary, since the corresponding sounds have disappeared. First of all, the iotated yus (Ѩ, Ѭ) disappeared, then the big yus (Ѫ), which returned in the 15th century, but disappeared again at the beginning of the 17th century [ ], and the iotated E (Ѥ); the rest of the letters, sometimes slightly changing their meaning and shape, have survived to this day as part of the alphabet of the Church Slavonic language, which long time was mistakenly considered identical with the Russian alphabet. Spelling reforms of the second half of the 17th century (associated with the "correction of books" under Patriarch Nikon) recorded the following set of letters: A, B, C, D, E, E (with a spelling different variant Є, which was sometimes considered a separate letter and was put in the alphabet on place of the current E, that is, after Ѣ), F, Ѕ, Z, I (with a spelling different variant of Y for the sound [j], which was not considered a separate letter), I, K, L, M, H, O (in two orthographically different styles: "narrow" and "wide"), P, R, S, T, U (in two orthographically different styles:), F, X, Ѡ (in two orthographically different styles: "narrow" and "wide" , as well as as part of the ligature "from" (Ѿ), usually considered a separate letter), Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ъ, Ы, Ь, Ѣ, Ю, Я (in two weights: Ꙗ and Ѧ, which were sometimes considered different letters, sometimes not), Ѯ, Ѱ, Ѳ, Ѵ. Sometimes the alphabet also included a large yus (Ѫ) and the so-called "ik" (in the form of the current letter "y"), although they had no sound meaning and were not used in any word.

In this form, the Russian alphabet remained until the reforms of Peter I of 1708-1711 (and the Church Slavonic is still the same), when superscripts were abolished (which, incidentally, "abolished" the letter Y) and many doublet letters were abolished,

The modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The alphabet in its current form has existed since 1942. In fact, the year 1918 can be considered the year of the formation of the modern Russian alphabet - then it consisted of 32 letters (without the letter ё). The origin of the alphabet, according to historical documents, is associated with the names Cyril and Methodius and dates back to the 9th century AD. From the moment of its origin until 1918, the alphabet changed several times, including and excluding signs. At one time he had more than 40 letters. The Russian alphabet is also sometimes called the Russian alphabet.

Russian alphabet with letters title

On our site for each letter of the Russian alphabet there is a separate page with detailed description, examples of words, pictures, poems, riddles. They can be printed or downloaded. Click on the desired letter to go to her page.

A a B b C c D d E e E f Y F F G H H I I J y K k L l M m N n O O P p R r S s T t W w w w b b y y s b e e y y z

Often in writing, instead of the letter ё, the letter e is used. In most cases, the substitution is straightforward for the reader, but in some contexts it is necessary to use the letter ё to avoid ambiguity. Russian letters are a neuter noun. It should be borne in mind that the style of the letters depends on the font.

Numbering letters

In some logical tasks to determine the next element in a row, in games when solving comic ciphers, in competitions for knowledge of the alphabet and in other similar cases, you need to know serial numbers letters of the Russian alphabet, including numbers when counting from the end to the beginning of the alphabet. Our visual "strip" will help you quickly identify the letter number in the alphabet.

• A
  1
  33
• B
  2
  32
• V
  3
  31
• G
  4
  30
• D
  5
  29
• E
  6
  28
• Yo
  7
  27
• F
  8
  26
• Z
  9
  25
• AND
  10
  24
• Th
  11
  23
• TO
  12
  22
• L
  13
  21
• M
  14
  20
• N
  15
  19
• O
  16
  18
• NS
  17
  17

• R
  18
  16
• WITH
  19
  15
• T
  20
  14
• Have
  21
  13
• F
  22
  12
• NS
  23
  11
• C
  24
  10
• H
  25
  9
• NS
  26
  8
• SCH
  27
  7
• B
  28
  6
• NS
  29
  5
• B
  30
  4
• NS
  31
  3
• NS
  32
  2
• I AM
  33
  1

Russian alphabet letters

Frequent questions about the letters of the Russian alphabet are: how many letters are in the alphabet, which of them are vowels and consonants, which are called uppercase and which are lowercase? Basic information about letters is often found in popular questions for students. primary grades, in tests for erudition and determination of the level of IQ, in questionnaires for foreigners on the knowledge of the Russian language and other similar tasks.

Number of letters

How many letters are there in the Russian alphabet?

There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet.

To memorize the number of letters in the Russian alphabet, some people associate them with popular phrases: “33 pleasures”, “33 misfortunes”, “33 cows”. Other people associate with facts from their lives: I live in apartment number 33, I live in region 33 ( Vladimir region), I play in team number 33 and the like. And if the number of letters of the alphabet is forgotten again, then the associated phrases help to remember it. Probably it will help you too ?!

Vowels and consonants

How many vowels and consonants are in the Russian alphabet?

10 vowels + 21 consonants + 2 do not mean sound

Among the letters of the Russian alphabet, there are:

• 10 vowels: a, o, y, s, e, i, e, e, u, and;
• 21 consonant letters: b, c, d, d, d, g, h, k, l, m, n, n, p, s, t, f, x, c, h, w, sch;
• 2 letters that do not mean sounds: b, b.

The letter means sound. Compare: "ka", "el" - the names of letters, [k], [l] - sounds.

Uppercase and lowercase

Which letters are uppercase and which are lowercase?

There are uppercase (or uppercase) and lowercase letters:

• A, B, V ... E, Y, Z - capital letters,
• a, b, c ... e, u, i - lowercase letters.

Sometimes they say: large and small letters. But this wording is incorrect, since it means the size of the letter, and not its style. Compare:
B is a large capital letter, B is a small capital letter, b is a large lowercase letter, b is a small lowercase letter.

WITH capital letter proper names are written, the beginning of sentences, an appeal to "you" with an expression of deep respect. In computer programs, the term "letter case" is used. Upper case letters are typed in upper case, lower case letters in lower case.

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We use letters in writing, in oral speech- sounds. With the help of letters, we designate the sounds that we pronounce. There is no simple and direct correspondence between letters and sounds: there are letters that do not denote sounds, there are cases when a letter means two sounds, and cases when several letters mean one sound. Modern Russian has 33 letters and 42 sounds.

Views

There are vowels and consonants in letters. Letters soft sign and hard mark do not form sounds, in Russian there are no words starting with these letters. The Russian language is "vociferous", in Russian words there are many vowels (o, e, u, a), voiced consonants (n, l, b, m, p). There are much less noisy, deaf, hissing (w, h, w, sch, c, f). The vowels yu, e, yo are also not used much. In writing, instead of the letter ё, they often write the letter e without losing the meaning.

Alphabet

The letters of the Russian language are listed below in alphabetical order. Uppercase and lowercase letters are shown, and their names are indicated. Vowel letters are marked in red, consonants - in blue, letters ь, ъ - in gray.

A a B b C c D d E e E f Y F F G H H I I J y K k L l M m N n O O P p R r S s T t W w w w b b y y s b e e y y z

The letter L is called "el" or "el", the letter E is sometimes called "E inverse".

Numbering

Numbers of letters of the Russian alphabet in forward and reverse order:

Letter	A	B	V	G	D	E	Yo	F	Z	AND	Th	TO	L	M	N	O	NS	R	WITH	T	Have	F	NS	C	H	NS	SCH	B	NS	B	NS	NS	I AM
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33
	33	32	31	30	29	28	27	26	25	24	23	22	21	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1

(alphabet) - a set of graphic characters - letters in the established sequence, which create a written and printed form of the national Russian language. Includes 33 letters: a, b, c, d, d, e, e, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, p, s, t, y, f, x, c, h, w, sch, b, s, b, e, y, i. Most letters in writing differs graphically from printed ones. In addition to b, s, b, all letters are used in two versions: uppercase and lowercase. In printed form, the variants of most letters are graphically identical (they differ only in size; compare, however, B and b), in writing, in many cases, the spellings of uppercase and lowercase letters differ from each other (A and a, T, etc.).

The Russian alphabet conveys the phonemic and sound composition of Russian speech: 20 letters convey consonants (b, p, c, f, d, t, h, s, w, w, h, c, w, g, k, x, m, n, l, r), 10 letters - vowels, of which a, e, o, s, i, y - only vowels, i, e, e, u - the softness of the preceding consonant + a, e, o, y or combinations j + vowel ("five", "forest", "ice", "hatch"; "pit", "go", "tree", "young"); the letter "y" conveys "and non-syllable" ("fight") and in some cases the consonant j ("yogi"). Two letters: "ъ" (hard sign) and "ь" (soft sign) do not denote separate independent sounds. The letter "ь" serves to denote the softness of the preceding consonants, paired in hardness - softness ("mol" - "mol"), after the hissing letters "ь" is an indicator in the writing of some grammatical forms (3rd declension of nouns - "daughter", but "brick", imperative mood - "cut", etc.). The letters "b" and "b" also act as a dividing mark ("rise", "beat").

The modern Russian alphabet in its composition and basic outlines of letters goes back to the ancient Cyrillic alphabet, the letter signs of which are from the 11th century. changed in form and composition. Russian alphabet in modern form was introduced by the reforms of Peter I (1708-1710) and the Academy of Sciences (1735, 1738 and 1758), the result of which was to simplify the outlines of letters and to exclude some obsolete characters from the alphabet. So, the letters Ѡ ("omega"), Ꙋ ("uk"), Ꙗ, Ѥ (iotated a, e), Ѯ ("xi"), Ѱ ("psi"), digraphs Ѿ ("from") were excluded , OU ("y"), accents and aspirations (forces), abbreviations (titles), etc. New letters were introduced: i (instead of Ꙗ and Ѧ), e, y. Later N. M. Karamzin introduced the letter "e" (1797). These changes served to transform the old Church Slavonic press for secular publications (hence the name of the printed type - "civil"). Some of the excluded letters were later restored and excluded, some of the extra letters continued to be used in Russian writing and printing until 1917, when by the decree of the People's Commissariat of Education of December 23, 1917, confirmed by the decree of the Soviet People's Commissars dated October 10, 1918, the letters Ѣ, Ѳ, І ("yat", "fita", "i decimal") were excluded from the alphabet. The use of the letter "ё" in print is not strictly obligatory, it is used mainly in dictionaries and educational literature.

The Russian "civil" alphabet served as the basis for most of the writing systems of the peoples of the USSR, as well as for some other languages ​​that have a writing based on the Cyrillic alphabet.

Modern Russian alphabet

Aa	[a]	Kk	[ka]	Xx	[Ha]
Bb	[bae]	LL	[ale]	Tsts	[tse]
BB	[veh]	Mm	[Em]	Hh	[what]
Yy	[uh]	Nn	[en]	Shsh	[sha]
Dd	[de]	Oo	[O]	Shch	[ucha]
Her	[e]	PP	[peh]	Bb	[hard mark, old. ep]
Her	[yo]	Pp	[er]	Yy	[NS]
LJ	[well]	Ss	[es]	Bb	[soft sign, old. er]
Zz	[ze]	TT	[teh]	Uh	[uh revolving]
Ai	[and]	Ooh	[y]	Yuyu	[NS]
Yi	[and short]	Ff	[eff]	Yaya	[I am]

• Bylinsky K. I., Kryuchkov S. E., Svetlaev M.V., The use of the letter ё. Handbook, M., 1943;
• Diringer D., Alphabet, translation from English., M., 1963;
• Istrin VA, The emergence and development of letters, M., 1965;
• Musaev K. M., Alphabets of the languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR, M., 1965;
• Ivanova V.F., Modern Russian language. Graphics and spelling, 2nd ed., M., 1976;
• Moiseev AI, Modern Russian alphabet and alphabets of other peoples of the USSR, RYASH, 1982, No. 6;
• see also literature at article

The Khmer alphabet has the largest number of letters in the Guinness Book of Records. It has 72 letters. This language is spoken in Cambodia.

but the largest number letters contains the Ubykh alphabet - 91 letters. The Ubykh language (the language of one of the Caucasian peoples) is considered one of the record holders in terms of sound diversity: according to experts, there are up to 80 consonant phonemes in it.

At Soviet power serious changes were made to the alphabets of all peoples living on the territory of the USSR: in the Russian language, in the direction of a decrease in the number of letters, and in other languages, mainly in the direction of their increase. After the restructuring in the alphabets of many peoples living in the territory of the former Soviet republics, the number of letters decreased.

There are 33 letters in modern Russian. According to official sources, before the reform of Cyril and Methodius, there were 43 letters in the Russian language, and according to unofficial sources - 49.

The first 5 letters were thrown out by Cyril and Methodius, because there were no corresponding sounds in the Greek language, and for four they gave Greek names. Yaroslav the Wise removed one more letter, 43 remained. Peter I reduced it to 38. Nicholas II to 35. As part of the Lunacharsky reform, the letters "yat", "fita" and "and decimal" were excluded from the alphabet (instead of them E, F should be used , I), and the hard sign (b) at the end of words and parts would also be excluded compound words but kept as separator mark(rise, adjutant).

In addition, Lunacharsky removed the images from the Drop cap, leaving only the phonemes, i.e. language has become without figurative = ugly. So instead of the Primer, the Alphabet appeared.

Until 1942, it was officially believed that there are 32 letters in the Russian alphabet, since E and E were considered as variants of the same letter.

The Ukrainian alphabet includes 33 letters: in comparison with the Russian one, Ёё, Ъъ, Ыы, Ээ are not used, but Ґґ, Єє, Іі and Її are present.

The Belarusian alphabet has 32 letters today. Compared with Russian alphabet and, u, b are not used, but the letters i and ў are added, and are also sometimes considered to have the status of the digraph letters j and dz.

The Yakut language uses the alphabet based on Cyrillic, which contains the entire Russian alphabet, plus five additional letters and two combinations. 4 diphthongs are also used.

The Kazakh and Bashkir Cyrillic alphabet contains 42 letters.

The current Chechen alphabet contains 49 letters (compiled on a graphical basis Russian alphabet in 1938). In 1992, the Chechen leadership decided to introduce an alphabet based on the Latin alphabet of 41 letters. This alphabet was used to a limited extent in parallel with the Cyrillic alphabet between 1992 and 2000.

The Armenian alphabet contains 38 letters, however, after the reform in 1940, the ligature “և "Undeservedly received the status of a letter that does not have a capital letter - thus the number of letters became, as it were," thirty-eight and a half. "

The Tatar alphabet after the translation of the Tatar writing in 1939 from romanized alphabet on alphabet based on Russian graphics contained 38 letters, and after 1999, an alphabet based on the Latin script of 34 letters is widely used.

The Kyrgyz Cyrillic alphabet, adopted in 1940, contains 36 letters.

The modern Mongolian alphabet contains 35 letters and differs from the Russian by two additional letters: Ө and Ү.

In 1940, the Uzbek alphabet, like the alphabets of other peoples of the USSR, was translated into Cyrillic and contained 35 letters. In the 90s of the last century, the Uzbek authorities decided to translate the Uzbek language into the Latin alphabet, and the alphabet became 28 letters.

The modern Georgian alphabet consists of 33 letters.

The Macedonian and Moldavian Cyrillic alphabets have 31 letters. The Finnish alphabet also consists of 31 letters.

The Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet includes 30 letters - compared to the Russian one, it lacks the letters Ы, Э and Ё.

The Tibetan alphabet consists of 30 letters-syllables, which are considered consonants. Each of them, making up the initial letter of a syllable and not having another vowel with them, is accompanied by the sound "a" when pronounced.

The Swedish and Norwegian alphabets have 29 letters.

The Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters. V Spanish alphabet- 27 letters.

The Latin, English, German and French alphabets have 26 letters.

The Italian alphabet "officially" consists of 21 letters, but actually has 26 letters.

There are 24 letters in the Greek alphabet and 23 letters in the standard Portuguese alphabet.

The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters; there is no difference between uppercase and lowercase letters.

Least number of letters in the Rotokas alphabet from Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea. There are only eleven of them (a, b, e, g, i, k, o, p, t, u) - of which 6 are consonants.

Taking into account how many letters there are in the language of one of the Papuan tribes, it is interesting that in all alphabets the number of letters gradually changes, usually in the direction of decreasing.

The change in the number of letters in the alphabet in all countries of the world, as a rule, occurs with the advent of a new government so that the younger generation is cut off from the language, literature, culture and traditions of their ancestors, and after a while they speak a completely different language.