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Cyrillic Alphabet

The document summarizes key aspects of the Russian alphabet and language in 4 paragraphs. It notes that Russian has 33 letters including 10 vowels and 21 consonants. It describes the origins of the Cyrillic alphabet from the 9th century work of Cyril and Methodius to translate texts to Slavic languages. It provides context on the development and modernization of the written Russian language. It concludes with notes on pronunciation rules regarding vowel sounds depending on preceding hard or soft consonants.

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Vera Sapozhnikova
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173 views4 pages

Cyrillic Alphabet

The document summarizes key aspects of the Russian alphabet and language in 4 paragraphs. It notes that Russian has 33 letters including 10 vowels and 21 consonants. It describes the origins of the Cyrillic alphabet from the 9th century work of Cyril and Methodius to translate texts to Slavic languages. It provides context on the development and modernization of the written Russian language. It concludes with notes on pronunciation rules regarding vowel sounds depending on preceding hard or soft consonants.

Uploaded by

Vera Sapozhnikova
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Group 1. True friends Group 3.

New friends
(sa
(look+,sound+) (look-, sound+)

A a, O o, K к, М Б б, И и, Л л, Г г, П
м, Т т п, Д д, Ф ф, З з, Э э
Cyrillic
alphabet
Group 2. False friends
(look+, sound-) Group 4. Strangers (look-,
sound -)
С с, Р р, У у, В в,
Х х, Е е, Н н Ж ж, Ч ч, Ц ц, Ш
ш, Щ щ, Ю ю, Я я,
Ё ё, Й й, ы, ь, ъ
Group
Russian Alphabet

There are 33 letters in the Russian Alphabet: 10 vowels, 21 consonants, and 2 signs (ь, ъ).

Russian is an Eastern Slavonic language closely related to Ukrainian and Belorussian with about 277
million speakers in Russia and 30 other countries.

The Cyrillic alphabet was introduced into Russia (Kievan Rus' ) at the time of its conversion to
Christianity (988 AD). The alphabet, the Cyrillic script is named in honor of the Byzantine scholar and
monk, Cyril (827-869 AD), who, together with his brother Methodius (826-885 AD), created the first
Slavic writing system in the second half of the ninth century in order to translate the Bible and other
Christian texts into the Slavic languages.

More About Russian Alphabet


Cyril and Methodius called their alphabet Glagolitsa, or the Glagolitic alphabet. The name comes from the

Old Slavic word glagolŭ, which means ‘sound’. The Glagolitic alphabet was used for Slavonic manuscripts for a

relatively short period of time (no more than a century) before the development of the Cyrillic. The Cyrillic alphabet

was derived from Glagolitic by Cyril’s pupils and named after him. Cyrillic letters are different from the Glagolitic

ones and have lots in common with the Greek letters.

Until the 17th century, the only written language in Russia was Church Slavonic. Civil Russian language started

appearing in writing during the reign of Peter the Great (1672-1725). The dialect of Moscow was used as the basis

for written Russian. The new civil alphabet was introduced by Peter the Great himself in order to write civil books,

books on science and other texts not related to the church.

Four letters were eliminated from the alphabet in a 1918 language reform. Since 1918 the alphabet remains

unchanged.

7-letter spelling rule


For an English speaking person it is often hard to hear the difference between ы and и sounds.
Having learned the following spelling rule you will avoid some common mistakes in your written Russian.
! After consonants г, к, х, ж, ш, щ, ч do not write the letter ы. Whenever an [ы] or [и] sound
follows one of these letters, it is spelled и. This is called 7-letter spelling rule.
d and Soft Consonants

For almost every consonant letter Russian has two sounds: a hard consonant and a soft consonant. The hard/soft distinction ca
make a difference in the meaning of some Russian words. Click the pair of words to listen. Compare:
угол - уголь (corner - coal)

The letter ь has no sound of it's own. It indicates the softness of the preceding consonant when there is no vowel after the conso
When a vowel appears after the consonant, it indicates whether that consonant is hard or soft.
Click the pair of words to listen. Compare:
лук - люк (onion - manhole)

The five Russian vowel sounds are spelled with one set of letters (а, о, у, э, ы) after hard consonants and with an alternative set
letters (я, ё, ю, е, и) after soft consonants.
Memorize both sets of letters in order to read Russian correctly:

а о у э ы - indicate that the preceding consonant is hard.


я ё ю е и and ь - indicate that the preceding consonant is soft.

 The following consonants can be hard or soft: б- б'; в- в'; д- д'; з- з'; л- л'; м- м'; н- н'; п- п'; р- р'; с- с', т- т'; ф- ф'. (We
agree to indicate the softness of a consonant by means of [ '] in the phonetic transcription).

 After these consonants, the letter pairs а/я, о/ё, у/ю, э/е, ы/и represent the same vowel sound but the letters я, ё, ю, е,
и indicate that the preceding consonant is soft.

Vowel Reduction Rule 3

In the first syllable before the stress the letters е, я are pronounced like и [ih]:
we spell сестра мечта река далеко
we say [с'истра] [м'ичта] [р'ика] [д л'ико]
translation sister dream river far away
Vowel Reduction Rule 4

Anywhere after the stress and more than one syllable before the stress е, я are pronounced like ' [yuh]
we spell номер учитель десять дядя

we say [ном' р] [учит' л'] [д'ес' т'] [д'ад' ]

translation number teacher ten uncle

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