Russian letters in Latin table. General notebook

Online service: text transliteration- writing Russian characters in Latin.

About transliteration of Russian names and surnames

When filling out registration forms, questionnaires, drawing up various kinds of documents (for example, a passport or visa), you have to write your last name, first name, address in Latin (English) letters. This service allows automate translation ( transliteration) Russians letters in English.

How to write the last name and first name in English? How to correctly name a Russian site in English letters? There are various systems or rules for the transliteration of names and surnames (transliteration of Russian words). They are based on the process of simply replacing the letters of the Russian alphabet with the corresponding letters or combinations of letters of the English alphabet (see below). The difference between the systems of transliteration of names and surnames is observed when translating some letters, for example, E, E, Ъ, b and diphthongs (combinations of a vowel and Y).

A - A	K - K	X - KH
B - B	L - L	C - TS (TC)
B - V	M - M	H - CH
G - G	H - N	SH - SH
D - D	O - O	Щ - SHCH
E - E, YE	P - P	b -
Yo - E, YE	R - R	Y - Y
Zh - ZH	C - S	b -
Z - Z	T - T	E - E
I - I	U - U	Yu - YU (IU)
Y - Y (I)	F - F	I am YA (IA)

In order to translate english letters in Russians Paste the text into the top input field and click the "Make" button. As a result, in the lower input field you will get the translation of the Russian text into a transcript (Russian words in English letters).

Note. Since March 16, 2010, new Cyrillic transliteration rules for the Russian alphabet have been used when issuing a passport. The result may not match the old name, for example, on a plastic card. In order for the name to be entered correctly in the passport (as before), that is, so that it matches the name on a credit card or driver's license, you must additionally submit an appropriate application. Example: Julia in the new system will be Iuliia , most likely you will want Julia or Yuliya (which, in my opinion, is more harmonious).

When applying for a driver's license, a transliteration system is used that is different from a foreign passport, similar to the system for a US visa. At the request of the owner of the record in Latin letters in driver's licenses can

A a(a)*
Bb(b)
c c- before "e", "i", "y", "ae", "oe" is pronounced (ts), in other cases - (k)

D d- (d)

e e- (e)*
F f- (f)
G g- (G)

H h- (X)

I i- (and); (d) - before vowels.
K k- (k) - rarely found in Greek borrowings.
l l- (l)

M m- (m)

N n- (n)
O o- (about)
Pp- (P)

Q q- (to)

R r- (R)
S s- (with); (h) - between vowels.
T t- in combination "ti" + vowel is read (qi) + vowel, if "ti" is not preceded by "s", "t", "x".

U u- (y)

Vv- (in)
X x- (ks)
Y y- (and) - in Greek borrowings.

Zz- (h) - in Greek borrowings.

Diphthongs, pronunciation features:

ae- (uh)
oh- (yo [yo]) - something like that

ch- (X)

ph- (f) - words of Greek origin.
th- (t) - words of Greek origin.
rh- (p) - words of Greek origin.

Latin alphabet in human history

Human civilization has already reached a high level, and we practically do not think about where we got from, these or those things that we use every day, it seems that it has always been like this. Let's not talk about the latest technical progress now, let's think about more global things, such as language, writing. Every day on store signs, product packaging, price tags on things, we meet with inscriptions in foreign languages, most often it is English, which has rightfully earned itself international status. In the last decade, the prevalence of the English language has erased all boundaries, it has become vital for those who want to make a successful career. Even those who do not speak this language can easily read the names of popular brands, and all thanks to its incredible popularization. In Russian, the Cyrillic font is used for writing, it is also used by some other Slavic peoples, such as Bulgarians and Serbs. But, more than half of the European languages use for writing Latin alphabet . These uncomplicated Latin letters seem to have been with us for ages. But both language and writing are always the result of centuries-old work of the people. It was the emergence of writing that made it possible for ancient civilizations to leave a memory to their descendants. Without writing, there would be no literature, scientific and technological progress would be impossible. How did writing originate? What prompted the ancient people to think about how to record the necessary information? Nomadic tribes, and the warring parties, there was no need for writing. Their main task was to conquer a large territory for their tribe. But when the tribe began to lead a settled way of life, then the need for writing appeared. Probably, it was in some of these moments of calm that the ancient Phoenicians thought about how to graphically display the necessary information. It is the Phoenicians who own the first alphabet in the history of mankind, which became the progenitor of the Latin alphabet. It was the Phoenician alphabet that gave the traditional letter order. On the basis of the Phoenician alphabet, the Greek alphabet developed, it is in it that vowels first appear, which were borrowed from the Semitic languages. For thousands of years, literacy was the privilege of the upper strata of society and the clergy, only a select few owned this science. But it was the Ancient Greeks who were able to bring schools closer to the people, bringing them out from under the influence of religious priests. And giving the opportunity to receive education from childhood. But the Greek civilization fell, under the onslaught of the Roman conquerors, who received the alphabet and writing as trophies. It was the Greek alphabet and the writing system that formed the basis of Latin, the language of the Ancient Roman Empire. For thousands of years, the alphabet has been transformed, for example, initially there were 23 letters in the Latin alphabet, only in the Middle Ages, three more new letters (J, U and W) were added, and the alphabet acquired such a familiar look. At the dawn of the birth of Latin writing, they wrote without separating words with spaces, and did not use punctuation marks yet. The militancy of the Romans expanded the expanses of the empire in all directions, in the end, even the north of Europe was conquered, and the Romans crossed the English Channel. The sites of the Roman legions are found in England, France, Syria and Judea, and even in Africa, near Tunisia and Algeria. The main base of the Roman Empire, of course, remained Italy. Many tribes that inhabited Europe at that time, in order to survive, tried to make an alliance with the Romans, such as the Germans and the Goths. Most of these alliances were long-term. Latin began to be used as the language of international communication. It was the emergence of Christianity, and its formation in ancient Rome, that strengthened the position of Latin. Latin became the official language of religion, which spread very quickly across Europe, displacing pagan cults. And when Christianity had already become the official religion of Rome, the role of Latin was strengthened, because now it is the official language of the church. And the role of the church in the state system in European countries cannot be underestimated. Latin is used for correspondence by diplomats and heads of state, it becomes the official language of science, it is in Latin that the works of scientific men and theological treatises are published. And the Renaissance, which, like a fresh spring wind, swept through Europe, exhausted by the Inquisition, also chose Latin as its language. The great Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei and Keppler wrote their works in Latin. In the spread of Latin writing, an important role was also played by the fact that many peoples chose the Latin alphabet to write their native languages, so as not to invent new letters, but to use those already familiar to everyone. In its development, Latin writing has gone through many stages, the font has been transformed, as architectural styles have changed. In various historical periods, minuscule Roman cursive and Roman capital writing, uncial writing and semi-uncial writing, Merovingian and Visigothic fonts, Old Italic writing and Gothic, rotunda and Swabian writing appear. Many of these fonts are still used for decorative purposes. This is how the evolution of writing took place, introducing new signs, styles, ways of writing. The theme of the emergence of writing is very interesting and multifaceted, it is closely related to the development of human civilization with historical and cultural events. It is on the example of writing that one can establish a historical connection, it would seem, of completely different peoples. The transformation of primitive rock paintings, first into drawn symbols, and then into individual letters, which corresponded to a certain sound. The pinnacle of this process was the invention of printing. That allowed science and culture to develop at a new level.

§ 1. Latin alphabet

The Phoenicians are considered to be the creators of phonetic writing. Phoenician writing around the 9th century BC. e. borrowed by the Greeks, who introduced letters into the alphabet to denote vowel sounds. In various regions of Greece, writing was heterogeneous. So by the end of the 5th century BC. e. two alphabetic systems are clearly distinguished: eastern (Miletian) and western (Chalkidian). Eastern alphabetic system in 403 B.C. adopted as the common Greek alphabet. The Latins presumably through the Etruscans around the 7th century BC. adopted the Western Greek alphabet. In turn, the Romance peoples inherited the Latin alphabet, and during the time of Christianity, the Germans and Western Slavs. The original outline of graphemes (letters) underwent a number of changes over time, and only by the 1st century BC. it acquired the form that still exists under the name of the Latin alphabet.

We do not know the true Latin pronunciation. Classical Latin has survived only in written monuments. Therefore, the concepts of "phonetics", "pronunciation", "sound", "phoneme", etc., can be applied to it only in a purely theoretical sense. The accepted Latin pronunciation, called traditional, has come down to us thanks to the continuous study of the Latin language, which, as an academic subject, has not ceased to exist throughout time. This pronunciation reflects the changes that took place in the sound system of classical Latin towards the end of the late period of the Western Roman Empire. In addition to the changes resulting from the historical development of the Latin language itself, the phonetic processes that took place in the new Western European languages influenced the traditional pronunciation for many centuries. Therefore, the modern reading of Latin texts in different countries is subject to the norms of pronunciation in new languages.

At the end of XIX - beginning of XX centuries. in the educational practice of many countries, the so-called "classical" pronunciation has become widespread, striving to reproduce the orthoepic norms of classical Latin. The differences between traditional and classical pronunciation boil down to the fact that traditional pronunciation retains the variants of a number of phonemes that arose in late Latin, while classical, if possible, eliminates them.

Below is the traditional reading of Latin letters, adopted in the educational practice of our country.

Note. For a long time, the Latin alphabet consisted of 21 letters. All of the above letters were used except Uu, Yy, Zz.

At the end of the 1st century BC. e. letters were introduced to reproduce the corresponding sounds in borrowed Greek words Yy and Zz.

Letter vv at first it was used to designate consonant and vowel sounds (Russian [u], [v]). Therefore, for their difference in the XVI century. started using the new graphic sign Uu, which corresponds to the Russian sound [y].

Was not in the Latin alphabet and jj. In classical Latin, the letter i denoted both the vowel sound [i] and the consonant [j]. And only in the 16th century, the French humanist Petrus Ramus added to the Latin alphabet jj to designate the sound corresponding to Russian [й]. But in the editions of Roman authors and in many dictionaries, it is not used. Instead of j still in use і .

Letter gg also absent from the alphabet until the 3rd century BC. e. Its functions were performed by the letter ss, as evidenced by the abbreviations of names: C. = Gaius, Cn. = Gnaeus.,

At first, the Romans used only large letters (majusculae), and small ones (manuscules) arose later.

With a capital letter in Latin, proper names, names of months, peoples, geographical names, as well as adjectives and adverbs formed from them, are written.

Classical Latin alphabet(or Latin) is the writing system that was originally used to write in. The Latin alphabet originated from the Cumian variant of the Greek alphabet, which have a visual resemblance. The Greek alphabet, including the Kuma version, originated from the Phoenician script, which in turn derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Etruscans, who ruled the early Roman Empire, adopted and modified the Cumean version of the Greek alphabet. The Etruscan alphabet was adopted and modified by the ancient Romans to write in Latin.

In the Middle Ages, manuscript scribes adapted the Latin alphabet for a group of Romance languages, direct descendants of Latin, as well as Celtic, Germanic, Baltic and some Slavic languages. During the colonial and evangelical times, the Latin alphabet spread far beyond Europe and began to be used to write the languages of the American, Australian, Austronesian, Austroasiatic and African natives. Recently, linguists have also begun to use the Latin alphabet for transcribing (the International Phonetic Alphabet) and creating writing standards for non-European languages.

The term "Latin alphabet - Latin" can refer both to the alphabet for the Latin language and to other alphabets based on the Latin alphabet, which is the basic set of letters common to many alphabets derived from classical Latin. These Latin alphabets may not use some letters, or, conversely, add their own variants of letters. Letterforms have changed over the centuries, including the creation of lowercase letters for Medieval Latin that did not exist in Classical.

Original Latin alphabet

The original Latin alphabet looked like this:

A	B	C	D	E	F	Z	H	I	K	L
M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	V	X

The most ancient Latin inscriptions did not distinguish between the sounds /ɡ/ and /k/, which were represented by the letters C, K and Q according to their place in the word. K was used before A; Q was used before O or V; C has been used elsewhere. This is explained by the fact that the Etruscan language did not make such distinctions. The letter C originated from the Greek letter Gamma (Γ) and Q from the Greek letter koppa (Ϙ). In Late Latin, K remained only in some forms, like Kalendae; The Q remained only before the V (and represented the /kw/ sound), while the C was used elsewhere. Later, the letter G was invented to distinguish between the sounds /ɡ/ and /k/; it was originally in the shape of a C with an additional diacritic.

Classical Latin period

An attempt by Emperor Claudius to introduce three additional letters did not last long, but after the conquest of Greece in the 1st century BC, the letters Y and Z were respectively re-adopted from the Greek alphabet and placed at the end of the alphabet. Since then, the new Latin alphabet has 23 letters.

Listen to the classical Latin alphabet

There are some discussions about the name of some letters of the Latin alphabet.

Middle Ages

Lowercase letters (minuscule) developed in the Middle Ages from New Roman Cursive, first as an uncial script and then as a minuscule script (lowercase). Languages that use the Latin alphabet generally use capital letters at the beginning of paragraphs and sentences, as well as for proper names. Case inversion rules have changed over time, and different languages have changed their case inversion rules. In, for example, even proper names were rarely capitalized; whereas 18th-century modern English often capitalized all nouns, in the same way as in modern English.

Changing letters

The use of the letters I and V both as consonants and as vowels was inconvenient, because the Latin alphabet was adapted to the Germano-Romance languages.
W was originally rendered as a double V (VV), which was used to represent the sound [w], which was first discovered in Old English in the early 7th century. It entered practical use in the 11th century, replacing the runic letter Wynn, which was used to convey the same sound.
In the Romance group of languages, the lowercase form of the letter V was rounded to u; which evolved from the large uppercase U to represent a vowel sound in the 16th century, while the new, acute form of the lowercase v derived from V to denote a consonant sound.
As for the letter I, j began to be used to denote a consonant sound. Such conventions have been inconsistent over the centuries. J was introduced as a consonant in the 17th century (rarely used as a vowel), but until the 19th century it was not clear where this letter occupied in alphabetical order.
The names of the letters were largely unchanged, with the exception of H. As the /h/ sound disappeared from the Romance languages, the original Latin name hā became difficult to distinguish from A. Emphatic forms such as and were used and developed eventually into acca, the direct ancestor of the English name for the letter H.

Below is the traditional reading of Latin letters, adopted in the educational practice of our country.

Note. For a long time, the Latin alphabet consisted of 21 letters. All of the above letters were used except Uu, Yy, Zz.

At the end of the 1st century BC. e. letters were introduced to reproduce the corresponding sounds in borrowed Greek words Yy and Zz.

Letter gg also absent from the alphabet until the 3rd century BC. e. Its functions were performed by the letter ss, as evidenced by the abbreviations of names: C. = Gaius, Cn. = Gnaeus.,

At first, the Romans used only large letters (majusculae), and small ones (manuscules) arose later.

With a capital letter in Latin, proper names, names of months, peoples, geographical names, as well as adjectives and adverbs formed from them, are written.

Modern variant of the Latin alphabet
Letter	Name	Letter	Name
A	BUT	N	En
B	Bae	O	O
C	Tse	P	Pe
D	De	Q	Ku
E	E	R	Er
F	ef	S	Es
G	Ge	T	Tae
H	Ha	U	At
I	And	V	Ve
J	Yot	W	Double V
K	Ka	X	X
L	El	Y	Upsilon
M	Em	Z	Zeta/Zeta

Let me remind you that the Latin language belongs to the Latin-Falian subgroup of the Italic languages (the languages of the tribes that lived on the territory of the Apennine Peninsula from the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, except for the Etruscans, Ligurians, Celts and Greeks). The Italic languages are part of the Indo-European family of languages. Initially, Latin was the language of a small tribe - the Latins, living in the center of the Apennine Peninsula. This information may be of interest on closer examination of the Latin alphabet.

Origins of the Latin alphabet

Influence of the Etruscan alphabet

The culture of the Etruscans was well known to the Latins. In the 9th-8th centuries BC, the relatively small territory of Latsia bordered on the north with a significant territory of the Etruscan tribe at that time (they are also Tusks or Tosks, now the Italian province of Tuscany). At a time when the culture of the Latins was just emerging, the culture of the Etruscans was already experiencing its heyday.

Latins borrowed quite a lot from the Etruscans. The Etruscan writing had a right-to-left direction, therefore, for convenience, the reverse (compared to the Latin familiar to us) spelling of letters was used (naturally, it was this spelling that was original, we use the reverse version).

Influence of the Greek alphabet

The Greek alphabet also made a significant contribution to the formation of modern Latin. It is worth mentioning that the Etruscan alphabet was also partially borrowed from Western Greek. But direct borrowing from Greek into Latin began later, when the Romans, in their own style, began to carefully familiarize themselves with Greek culture. Greek names and names contained sounds that were not characteristic of Roman phonetics; there were no letters in the Latin language to write them, so the Greek letters were also transferred to the Latin alphabet. This is the origin of the letters "x", "y", "z".

Ancient Greek inscriptions were also made not only from left to right, but also from right to left and boustrophedon (the Greeks gave the name to this type of writing), therefore, in the ancient Greek language, both direct and reverse spellings of letters existed at the same time.

Influence of Phoenician consonant writing

The Phoenicians are considered the creators of the first phonetic writing. The Phoenician alphabet was a syllabic alphabet, in which one character denoted a combination of one consonant sound with any vowel (It is often said that the Phoenicians wrote down only consonants, this assumption is formally incorrect). The Phoenicians traveled a lot, settled in more and more places ... and their writing traveled and took root with them. Gradually, spreading in different directions, the symbols of the Phoenician alphabet were transformed, on the one hand, into the letters of the Greek, and then the Latin alphabet, and on the other, into the letters of Hebrew (and other northern Semitic dialects).

Comparative table of symbols of related languages (Comment see below in the text)

Conclusions from the results of the comparison of all these languages are drawn differently. The question of continuity has not been fully resolved, however, the similarity of independent ancient languages suggests that there may have been one progenitor language. Many researchers tend to look for it in Canaan, the semi-mythical state that the Phoenicians considered their homeland.

History of the Latin alphabet

The first inscriptions in Latin available to modern researchers date back to the 7th century BC. Since that time, it is customary to talk about archaic Latin. The archaic alphabet consists of 21 letters. The Greek letters theta, phi and psi were used to write the numbers 100, 1000, 50.

Appius Claudius Caecus, who became a censor in 312 BC, introduced differences in the notation of the letters "r" and "s" and canceled the letter "z", and the sound denoted by this letter was replaced by [p]. One of the basic laws of Latin phonetics, the law of rotacism, is closely connected with this event.

After the abolition of the letter "z", the Latin alphabet of the classical period contains 20 letters.

In the 1st century BC, the letter "z" was again borrowed, and with it the letter "y". In addition, the letter "g" was finally recognized (before that, both sounds: voiced - [g] and deaf - [k] were denoted by one letter - "c"). Of course, it was not without controversy, but it is generally accepted that Spurius Carvilius Ruga was the first to use it in 235 BC, however, at that time it was not included in the alphabet.

The alphabet began to consist of 23 letters.

Another important event in the history of the Latin alphabet falls on the 1st century AD. Using the practice of replacing the most frequent combinations of letters with one character, which was widespread in Greece, the future emperor Claudius (since 41 AD being a censor) introduces three new letters, later called "Claudian": reverse digamma, antisigma and half ha.

The reverse digamma should have been used to denote the sound [in:].

Antisigma - to denote combinations of bs and ps, similar to the Greek letter psi.

Half ha - to indicate the sound of the middle between [and] and [y].

They never entered the alphabet.

However:

The codes for these characters are included in Unicode: u+2132, u+214e - reverse digamma, u+2183, u+2184 - antisigma, u+2c75, u+2c76 - half ha.
The letters "y" and "v", which were fully defined in the alphabet a little later, became analogues of two of the three Claudian letters, which indicates the validity of the proposal of the future emperor.

Much later, the issue with the pairs of letters "i" - "j", "v" - "u" was resolved. Both pairs were used in writing before, and denoted two pairs of sounds ([i] - [th], [v] - [y]), but it was not clearly defined which of the spellings denoted which sound. The separation of the first couple occurred presumably in the 16th century AD, and the second - in the 18th century (although some researchers suggest that this happened simultaneously for both couples).

The modern variant of the Latin alphabet, consisting of 25 letters, was formalized during the Renaissance (hence the suggestion of the separation of "v" and "u" in the 16th century, since they are both contained in this variant). This event is closely connected with the name of Petrus Ramus.

The digraph "vv", especially common in Northern Europe, has become the letter "w". The sound denoted by this letter came from the Germanic languages after the fall of the Roman Empire, so many experts do not include the letter "w" in the Latin alphabet or include it conditionally.

The Latin alphabet, or Latin, is a special alphabetic script that first appeared in the 2nd-3rd century BC, and then spread throughout the world. Today it is the basis for most languages and has 26 characters that have different pronunciations, names and additional elements.

Peculiarities

One of the most common writing options is the Latin alphabet. The alphabet originates in Greece, but it was fully formed in the Indo-European family. Today, this script is used by most of the peoples of the world, including all of America and Australia, most of Europe, and half of Africa. Translation into Latin is becoming more and more popular, and at the moment it is strongly replacing the Cyrillic alphabet and This alphabet is rightfully considered a universal and universal option, and every year it becomes more and more popular.

English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German and Italian Latin are especially common. Often states use it along with other types of writing, in particular in India, Japan, China and other countries.

Story

It is believed that the Greeks, in particular the Estrus, are the original authors of the writing, which later became known as the "Latin". The alphabet has undeniable similarities with the Etruscan script, but this hypothesis has many controversial points. In particular, it is not known how exactly this culture was able to get to Rome.

Words in the Latin alphabet began to appear in the 3rd-4th century BC, and already in the 2nd century BC. writing was formed and consisted of 21 characters. In the course of history, some letters were modified, others disappeared and reappeared centuries later, and the third characters were divided into two. As a result, in the 16th century, the Latin alphabet became what it is to this day. Despite this, different languages have their own distinctive features and additional national versions, which, however, are only a certain modification of already existing letters. For example, Ń, Ä, etc.

Difference from Greek writing

Latin is a script that originates from the Western Greeks, but it also has its own unique features. Initially, this alphabet was rather limited, truncated. Over time, the signs were optimized, and a rule was developed that the letter should go strictly from left to right.

As for the differences, the Latin alphabet is more rounded than the Greek, and also uses several graphemes to convey the sound [k]. The difference lies in the fact that the letters K and C began to perform almost identical functions, and the sign K, in general, went out of use for some time. This is evidenced by historical evidence, as well as the fact that the modern Irish and Spanish alphabets still do not use this grapheme. The letter also has other differences, including the modification of the sign C into G and the appearance of the symbol V from the Greek Y.

Letter Features

The modern Latin alphabet has two basic forms: majuscule (capital letters) and minuscule (lowercase characters). The first option is more ancient, since it began to be used in the form of artistic graphics as early as the 1st century BC. Mayusculus dominated the scriptoria of Europe almost until the beginning of the 12th century. The only exceptions were Ireland and Southern Italy, where the national script was used for a long time.

By the 15th century, the minuscule was also fully developed. Such famous personalities as Francesco Petrarca, Leonardo da Vinci, as well as other personalities of the Renaissance, did a lot to introduce Latin writing. National types of writing gradually developed on the basis of this alphabet. German, French, Spanish and other variants had their own changes and additional characters.

Latin alphabet as international

This type of writing is familiar to almost every person on Earth who can read. This is due to the fact that this alphabet is either native to a person, or he gets acquainted with it in the lessons of a foreign language, mathematics and others. This allows us to assert that the Latin alphabet is the writing of the international level.

Also, many countries that do not use this alphabet use the standard version in parallel. This applies, for example, to countries such as Japan and China. Almost all artificial languages use the Latin alphabet as their basis. Among them are Esperanto, Ido, etc. Quite often you can also find transliteration, since sometimes there is no generally accepted name for a particular term, which makes it necessary to translate into a generally accepted sign system. Write in Latin, so you can use any word.

Romanization of other alphabets

Latin is used all over the world to modify languages that use a different type of writing. This phenomenon is known under the term "transliteration" (as translation into Latin is sometimes called). It is used to simplify the process of communication between representatives of different nationalities.

Almost all languages that use a non-Latin script have official transliteration rules. Most often, such procedures are called romanization, since they have a roman, i.e. Latin origin. Each language has certain tables, for example, Arabic, Persian, Russian, Japanese, etc., which allow you to transliterate almost any national word.

Latin is the world's most widely used alphabetic script, which originates from the Greek alphabet. It is used by most languages as a basis, and is also known to almost every person on Earth. Every year its popularity is growing, which allows us to consider this alphabet generally accepted and international. For languages that use other types of writing, special tables with national transliteration are offered, allowing you to romanize almost any word. This makes the process of communication between different countries and peoples simple and easy.

Latin alphabet (table), diphthongs, stress in words, letter combinations, pronunciation in Latin.

The Latin alphabet has changed its composition throughout the history of the development of the Latin language. The very first alphabet consisted of 21 letters, then in different eras new letters were added. Some of them have fallen into disuse, others have remained. As a result, the classical Latin alphabet appeared, consisting of 23 letters (some of which were given by the Greek language).

After the disappearance of the Roman Empire as a state, the Latin alphabet remained the basis for almost all the languages of Europe, but each of the variants had some changes of its own (the Romance languages were closest to the classical version of the Latin alphabet: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, French).

The modern Latin alphabet consists of 25 letters (if with the letter W, then 26). The letters of the Latin alphabet can be found in the table below:

uppercase	Lowercase	Name	Pronunciation







			[G]*



			[l]**




			[to]***

In Latin capital letters are:

proper names;
names of nationalities and months of the year;
adjectives formed from proper names, as well as adverbs: Graecia Antiqua - Ancient Greece, Craece scribere - write in Greek

Diphthongs, letter combinations and pronunciation in Latin

The following diphthongs exist in Latin:

ae - pronunciation is similar to Russian sound [e]

oe - pronounced like German ö umlaut or French diphthong, for example, in the word peur

au - similar to a combination of Russian sounds [au]

ei - reads like [hey]

eu - similar to the sound of Russian sounds [eu]

It should be noted that if one of the letters in a combination of diphthongs has two dots or a quantity sign, then the sounds in this combination will be pronounced separately: po ë ta, poēta

The letter "c" in Latin reads like [k]: crocodilus, cultura, colonia (knees)

The letter "c" + e, i, y, ae, eu, oe reads like a sound [c]: Cicero, Cyprus, caelum (tselum)

* The letter h is similar in pronunciation to the Ukrainian sound [g]: humus (humus)

"J" - reads like [th]: major. If words begin with this letter, then it usually merges with the next vowel and is pronounced as one sound: Januarius, Juppiter.

** The letter "l" is similar in pronunciation to [la, l]: Latinus (latinus), luna (moon).

l + i gives the sound [li], for example: liber (liber).

*** The letter "q"Always occurs in combination qu + consonant and reads like [kv]: quadratus (quadratus). The exception is the word quum (godfather). In many publications, you can find the spelling of this word as cum.

The letter " s"In Latin, it reads like: universitas (universitas), if the letter" s"Stands between two vowels, then it is pronounced like [z]: Asia (Asia).

Please note that the combination of letters ti + vowel is read as [qi]: constitution (constitution). Exceptions are: the word totius (totius), as well as s, x, t + ti, for example: ostium (ostium), Bruttium (bruttium), in Greek words, for example: Boeotia (boeotia).

Pronunciation of letter combinations: ngu and su:

ngu + vowel reads like [ngv]: lingua (lingua)

su + vowel reads like [sv], for example: suadeo (swadeo)

Stress in Latin

In words that consist of two syllables, the stress falls on the second syllable from the end: r about sa. In words that consist of more than two syllables, the stress falls on the second syllable from the end if it is long: nat u ra. If it is short - to the third from the end: f a brica.

Word + particles que , ve , ne shift the stress to the last syllable of the given word, for example: r about sa, but ros a que. If que is part of a word, then the stress is placed according to the general rule: it a que.

In the next article, we will look at pronouns in Latin.

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