The Russian alphabet - Русский алфавит - Russkiy alfavit
The Russian language uses the Cyrillic alphabet. This alphabet wat created in the ninth century by missionaries Cyril and Methodius (or possibly their students). They left Greece to preach the gospel to the Slavic tribes. The problem was that most of the Slavic people were illiterate, although some some sort of Greek-derived alphabet might have been in use by the Slavic people before their mission. In order to read the stories of the Bible, they needed an alphabet. At first they created the Glagolithic alphabet, which was quite different from Cyrillic. Later on, they or their disciples created the Cyrillic alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet soon became more popular than the Glagolithic alphabet.
The Cyrillic alphabet is based on the Greek alphabet. This alphabet was changed and expanded to suit the phonological needs of the Slavic languages. This ancient Cyrillic alphabet consisted of 43 letters. Over the centuries, more and more letters were dropped in the evolution towards the modern Russian alphabet. Peter the Great carried out a spelling reform that caused some letters to fall into disuse in the 18th century. In 1918, the alphabet was further simplified by the Bolsheviks. The current Russian alphabet has 33 letters.
There exist several different Cyrillic alphabets, just as there exist several different Roman alphabets (Ukrainian Cyrillic, for example, is slightly different from Russian Cyrillic, just like the Spanish alphabet is slightly different from the Norwegian alphabet).
Myth: Russian is a difficult language, just because it has another alphabet.
This is definitely not true. After some initial difficulties with mastering a new alphabet, Russian is actually easier to read in the Cyrillic alphabet. This alphabet suits the phonological needs of the Slavic languages. The alphabet is a perfect fit for the language. The spelling of Polish, a Slavic language with a Latin alphabet, is far more complicated.
Nr.
Capital letter
Lower case
Listen
Pronunciation
Remarks
1
А
а
a
As in father or long as in the German city Aachen.
2
Б
б
b
As in bed.
3
В
в
v
As in vast.
4
Г
г
g
As in good.
5
Д
д
d
As in dark.
6
Е
е
ye
As in yes.
7
Ё
ё
yo
As in yoghurt.
8
Ж
ж
zh
As in pleasure.
9
З
з
z
As in zoo.
10
И
и
i
As in he
11
Й
й
y
As in York.
12
К
к
k
As in key.
13
Л
л
l
As in left.
14
М
м
m
As in mother.
15
Н
н
n
As in next.
16
О
о
o
When an o is not stressed, it sounds like an a.
17
П
п
p
As in post.
18
Р
р
r
As in rock.
19
С
с
s
As in size.
20
Т
т
t
As in table.
21
У
у
u
As in mood.
22
Ф
ф
f
As in father.
23
Х
х
kh
As ch in German Bach, or
as in Scottish loch. Usually transliterated as kh in English.
