The modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The alphabet in its current representation 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 The origin of the alphabet, according to historical documents, is associated with the names Cyril and Methodius and dates back to the 9th century AD.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, incorporating and excluding signs. At one time it had over 40 letters. The Russian alphabet is also sometimes called the Russian alphabet.
Russian alphabet with the name of the letters
On our site for each letter of the Russian alphabet there is a separate page with a detailed description, examples of words, pictures, poems, riddles. They can be printed or downloaded. Click on the letter you want to go to its page.
A a B b C c D d E f f f g f g h I i y y k k l l M m N n O P p p r s s t t u u v f x x z z z h Sh sh y y y y b
Often in written speech, instead of the letter e, 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 neuter nouns. It should be borne in mind that the style of the letters depends on the font.
Letter numbering
In some logical tasks to determine the next element in a series, in games when solving comic ciphers, in competitions for knowledge of the alphabet, and in other similar cases, it is required to know the serial numbers of the 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 determine the number of a letter in the alphabet.
- BUT
1
33 - B
2
32 - AT
3
31 - G
4
30 - D
5
29 - E
6
28 - Yo
7
27 - F
8
26 - W
9
25 - And
10
24 - Y
11
23 - To
12
22 - L
13
21 - M
14
20 - H
15
19 - O
16
18 - P
17
17
- R
18
16 - With
19
15 - T
20
14 - At
21
13 - F
22
12 - X
23
11 - C
24
10 - H
25
9 - W
26
8 - SCH
27
7 - Kommersant
28
6 - S
29
5 - b
30
4 - E
31
3 - YU
32
2 - I
33
1
Letters of the Russian alphabet
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 primary school students, in erudition and IQ tests, in questionnaires for foreigners on knowledge of the Russian language, and other similar problems.
Number of letters
How many letters are in the Russian alphabet?
There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet.
Some people, in order to memorize the number of letters in the Russian alphabet, 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. It will probably help you too?
Vowels and consonants
How many vowels and consonants are in the Russian alphabet?
10 vowels + 21 consonants + 2 no sounds
Among the letters of the Russian alphabet 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, p, r, s, t, f, x, c, h, w, u;
- 2 letters that do not mean sounds: b, b.
The letter means sound. Compare: “ka”, “el” are the names of letters, [k], [l] are sounds.
Uppercase and lowercase
Which letters are uppercase and which are lowercase?
Letters are uppercase (or uppercase) and lowercase:
- A, B, C ... E, U, Z - capital letters,
- a, b, c ... uh, u, z - 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.
Proper names are written with a capital letter, the beginning of sentences, an appeal to “you” with an expression of deep respect. In computer programs, the term "letter case" is used. Uppercase letters are typed in uppercase, lowercase letters are typed in lowercase.
Javascript is disabled in your browser.ActiveX controls must be enabled in order to make calculations! Emperor Michael III streamlined the script 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 dissemination of Slavic writing. Here the first Slavic book school is being created - Preslav book school, in which the Cyrillic and Methodius originals of liturgical books (Gospel, Psalter, Apostle, church services) are copied, new Slavic translations from Greek are made, original works in Old Slavonic appear (“On the writings of Chrnorizets the Brave”). Later, Old Church Slavonic penetrates into Serbia, and at the end of the 10th century becomes the language of the church in Kievan Rus.
Old Church Slavonic, being the language of the church, was influenced by the Old Russian language. It was an Old Church Slavonic language with elements of living 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 excluded at different times as unnecessary, since the corresponding sounds disappeared. The iotized yus (Ѩ, Ѭ) disappeared first of all, then the big yus (Ѫ), which returned in the 15th century, but disappeared again at the beginning of the 17th century [ ], and iotized E (Ѥ); the rest of the letters, sometimes slightly changing their meaning and form, have survived to this day as part of the alphabet of the Church Slavonic language, which for a 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) fixed the following set of letters: A, B, C, D, D, E (with a spellingly different version of Є, which was sometimes considered a separate letter and was put in the alphabet on place of the current E, that is, after Ѣ), Zh, S, Z, I (with a spellingly different version of Y for the sound [j], which was not considered a separate letter), I, K, L, M, N, O (in two orthographically different styles: “narrow” and “wide”), П, Р, С, Т, У (in two orthographically different styles: ), Ф, Х, Ѡ (in two orthographically different styles: “narrow” and “wide” , and also as part of the ligature "from" (Ѿ), usually considered a separate letter), C, H, W, SC, b, Y, b, Ѣ, Yu, I (in two styles: Ꙗ and Ѧ, which were sometimes considered different letters, sometimes not), Ѯ, Ѱ, Ѳ, V. Sometimes the alphabet also included a big yus (Ѫ) and the so-called "ik" (in the form of the current letter "y"), although they did not have a 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, “cancelled” the letter Y) and many doublet letters were abolished,
Search in the DPVA engineering handbook. Enter your request:
Additional information from the DPVA Engineering Handbook, namely other subsections of this section:
Hello dear guys! Greetings, dear adults! You are reading these lines, which means that someone once made sure that we could exchange information with the help of writing.
Drawing rock carvings, trying to tell something, our ancestors many centuries ago could not even think that very soon 33 letters of the Russian alphabet would add up to words, express our thoughts on paper, help read books written in Russian and allow you to leave your mark on history of folk culture.
And where did they all come to us from A to Z, who invented the Russian alphabet, and how did the letter come about? The information in this article may be useful for research work in the 2nd or 3rd grade, so welcome to study in detail!
Lesson plan:
What is the alphabet and how did it all begin?
The word familiar to us from childhood came from Greece, and it is composed of two Greek letters - alpha and beta.
In general, the ancient Greeks left a huge mark on history, and they could not do without them here. They put a lot of effort into spreading writing throughout Europe.
However, many scientists are still arguing who would be the first, and in what year it was. It is believed that the Phoenicians were the first to use consonants back in the 2nd millennium BC, and only then the Greeks borrowed the alphabet from them and added vowels there. This was already in the 8th century BC.
Such Greek writing became the basis of the alphabet for many peoples, including our Slavs. And among the most ancient are the Chinese and Egyptian alphabets, which appeared from the transformation of rock paintings into hieroglyphs and graphic symbols.
But what about our Slavic alphabet? We don't write in Greek today! The thing is that Ancient Russia sought to strengthen economic and cultural ties with other countries, and for this a letter was needed. Moreover, the first church books began to be brought to the Russian state, since Christianity came from Europe.
It was necessary to find a way to convey to all Russian Slavs what Orthodoxy is, to create their own alphabet, to translate church works into a readable language. The Cyrillic alphabet became such an alphabet, and it was created by the brothers, popularly referred to as "Thessalonica".
Who are the Thessaloniki brothers and what are they famous for?
These people are named so not by the fact that they have a surname or a given name.
Two brothers Cyril and Methodius lived in a military family in a large Byzantine province with the capital in the city of Thessalonica, from this name of their small homeland the nickname came.
The population in the city was mixed - half Greeks and half Slavs. Yes, and the parents of the brothers were of different nationalities: the mother is Greek, and the father is from Bulgaria. Therefore, both Cyril and Methodius knew two languages from childhood - Slavic and Greek.
It is interesting! In fact, the names of the brothers at birth were different - Konstantin and Michael, and they were named church Cyril and Methodius later.
Both brothers excelled in their studies. Methodius mastered military techniques and was very fond of reading. Well, Cyril knew as many as 22 languages, was educated at the imperial court and was nicknamed a philosopher for his wisdom.
Therefore, it is not at all surprising that the choice fell on these two brothers when the Moravian prince asked the Byzantine ruler for help in 863 with a request to send wise men who could convey the truth of the Christian faith to the Slavic people and teach them how to write.
And Cyril and Methodius set off on a long journey, moving for 40 months from one place to another, explaining in the Slavic language well known to them from childhood, who Christ is and what is his strength. And for this it was necessary to translate all church books from Greek into Slavonic, which is why the brothers began to develop a new alphabet.
Of course, already in those days, the Slavs in their lives used many Greek letters in counting and writing. But the knowledge they had had to be streamlined, brought to one system, so that it would be simple and understandable for everyone. And already on May 24, 863, in the Bulgarian capital Pliska, Cyril and Methodius announced the creation of the Slavic alphabet called Cyrillic, which became the progenitor of our modern Russian alphabet.
It is interesting! Historians have discovered the fact that even before the Moravian commission, while in Byzantium, the brothers Cyril and Methodius invented an alphabet for the Slavs based on Greek writing, and it was called Glagolitic. Maybe that's why the Cyrillic alphabet appeared so quickly and simply, since there were already working outlines?
Transformations of the Russian alphabet
The Slavic alphabet created by Cyril and Methodius consisted of 43 letters.
They appeared by adding to the Greek alphabet (and it had 24 letters) newly invented 19 characters. After the appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet in Bulgaria, the center of Slavic writing, the first book school appeared, and liturgical books began to be actively translated.
In any old book
“Izhitsa lived in the world,
And with it the letter Yat "
Gradually, the Old Slavonic alphabet comes to Serbia, and in Ancient Russia it appears at the end of the 10th century, when the Russian people accept Christianity. It was then that the whole long process of creating and improving the Russian alphabet, which we use today, begins. That's what was interesting.
It is interesting! The godmother of the letter "Yo" was Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, who proposed introducing it into the alphabet in 1783. The idea of the princess was supported by the writer Karmazin, and now, with their light hand, the letter appeared in the alphabet, taking the honorable seventh place.
The fate of "Yo" is not easy:
- in 1904 its use was desirable, but not at all obligatory;
- in 1942, by order of the educational authority, it was recognized as compulsory for the school;
- in 1956, whole paragraphs of the rules of Russian spelling were devoted to her.
Today, the use of "Yo" is important when you can confuse the meaning of written words, for example here: perfect and perfect, tears and tears, sky and sky.
It is interesting! In 2001, the world's only monument to the letter "Yo" in the form of a low stele was opened in the Ulyanovsk Karamzin Square.
As a result, today we have 33 beauties who teach us to read and write, open up a new world for us, help us to be educated in order to learn our native language and respect our history.
I am sure that you have known all these 33 letters for a long time and never confuse them in places in the alphabet. Wouldn't you like to try to learn the Old Slavonic alphabet too? Here it is, below in the video)
Well, there are more projects on one interesting topic in your piggy bank. Share the most interesting with classmates, let them also know where the Russian alphabet came from. And I say goodbye to you, until we meet again!
Success in your studies!
Evgenia Klimkovich.
The largest number of letters in the Guinness Book of Records is the Khmer alphabet. It has 72 letters. This language is spoken in Cambodia.
However, the largest number of letters contains the Ubykh alphabet - 91 letters. The Ubykh language (the language of one of the Caucasian peoples) is considered one of the champions in terms of sound diversity: according to experts, there are up to 80 consonant phonemes in it.
Under the Soviet regime, 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 reducing the number of letters, and in other languages, mainly in the direction of increasing them. After perestroika, the number of letters in the alphabets of many peoples living on the territory of the former Soviet republics decreased.
Modern Russian has 33 letters. 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 Greek names were given for four. Yaroslav the Wise removed one more letter, leaving 43. 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 (E, F should be used instead , And ), and also the solid sign (Ъ) at the end of words and parts of compound words would be excluded, but preserved as a separating sign (rise, adjutant).
In addition, Lunacharsky removed the images from the Initial Letter, leaving only phonemes, i.e. language has become unfigurative = ugly. So instead of the Primer, the Alphabet appeared.
Until 1942, it was officially believed that there were 32 letters in the Russian alphabet, since E and Yo were considered as variants of the same letter.
The Ukrainian alphabet includes 33 letters: in comparison with the Russian one, Ъё, Ъъ, Yы, Еэ are not used, but Ґґ, Єє, Іі and Її are present.
The Belarusian alphabet has 32 letters today. Compared with Russian alphabet i, u, ъ are not used, but the letters i and ў are added, and the digraphs j and dz are sometimes considered to have the status of letters.
The Yakut language uses an 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 graphic basis Russian alphabet in 1938). In 1992, the Chechen leadership decided to introduce an alphabet based on the Latin script of 41 letters. This alphabet was used to a limited extent in parallel with Cyrillic between 1992 and 2000.
The Armenian alphabet contains 38 letters, but 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 in 1939 of the Tatar script from romanized alphabet on the alphabet based on Russian graphics contained 38 letters, and after 1999 the alphabet based on the Latin script of 34 letters is widely used.
The Kirghiz Cyrillic alphabet, adopted in 1940, contains 36 letters.
The modern Mongolian alphabet contains 35 letters and differs from Russian in two additional letters: Ө and Y.
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.
There are 31 letters in the Macedonian and Moldavian Cyrillic alphabet. The Finnish alphabet also consists of 31 letters.
The Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet includes 30 letters - compared to Russian, it lacks the letters Y, E and Yo.
The Tibetan alphabet consists of 30 syllable letters, which are considered consonants. Each of them, composing the initial letter of the syllable and not having another vowel sign, is accompanied by the sound “a” during pronunciation.
The Swedish and Norwegian alphabets have 29 letters.
The Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters. The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters.
There are 26 letters in the Latin, English, German and French alphabets.
The Italian alphabet "officially" consists of the 21st letter, but actually has 26 letters.
The Greek alphabet has 24 letters, while the standard Portuguese alphabet has 23 letters.
There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, there is no difference between uppercase and lowercase letters.
The smallest number of letters in the alphabet of the Rotokas tribe from the island of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. There are only eleven of them (a, b, e, g, i, k, o, p, t, u) - of which 6 are consonants.
Considering 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 downwards.
A 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 speaks a completely different language.
