Start in science. The names and styles of the letters of the alphabet of the modern Russian language The modern Russian alphabet, its composition
E, e (called: e or e reverse) is the 31st letter of the Russian and the 30th letter of the Belarusian Cyrillic alphabets; it is not currently used in other Cyrillic Slavic alphabets (in the Ukrainian pair E / E corresponds to the pair E / Є).
It is also used in a number of alphabets of non-Slavic languages. It is believed that this is a borrowed Glagolitic form of the letter "E" (is), which has an appearance and with the help of which a non-otated sound is indicated.
The sign E in Cyrillic has been used almost since the 14th century. So, it comes across many times in the Poznan manuscript collection (excluding later last pages), written off at the end of the 16th century. (in words such as "knight", "caesar", etc.).
You can also find it in the Moscow edition of Smotrytsky's grammar of 1648: ethmology, besides, they made a special letter for E, and did not turn the existing one upside down. Officially, the letter E was included in the alphabet in 1708 during the development of a civil font, where it inherited the place between Ѣ and Yu, which in the educational Church Slavonic alphabets was sometimes placed on the modification Є of the letter E, which, as a rule, had an absolutely opposite sound meaning.
The signs E and Є in the Serbian variation of the civil alphabet were interchangeable (at first they used E more often, then Є) and denoted an ioted sound; from the middle of the 19th century both were abolished by the alphabet reform of Vuk Karadzic.
The letter "e" in Russian writing
In modern Russian writing, the letter E denotes the non-otated vowel sound [e], as well as [ɛ]. It is used in writing a few native Russian words: this, that way (s), this, ek (s), evon, eva, commercials (s), eh, ehe-he, hey, ehma, ege-ge, ege. The main purpose of the letter E is to use at the beginning of words and after vowels in borrowing words: duel, euthanasia, aed, eclair, Boethius (nevertheless, after the vowels I and E, E is always written, and only in rare exceptions - E, like Gliere or Marietta).
Writing through E is rare after consonants: according to the rules of 1956, these are only the words peer, sir, mayor (they were written with E until the beginning of the 20th century) and proper names; later this list was supplemented by the master to distinguish it from the meter. The 2006 edition of the rules in the list of main roots with the letter E after the consonants includes 3 more: racket, plein air, rap. However, in practice, there are much more words that have after the consonants E, especially among the latest borrowings that have not yet fully mastered the Russian language.
Many of them have an E variant (hash/hash, tag/tag, cab/cab, etc.), while the spelling with E usually looks more foreign. Even with E they write the names of letters (be, ve, ge,<…>el, um, en ...) and words formed from abbreviations, like the KGB, GDR or petushnik.
The letter "e" after the consonants
In a number of cases, in the practice of transcribing foreign names and names, e is used after consonants, including:
Periodically, to convey the sound [æ] (eg, Blackpool) or the diphthong [ɛə] (eg, Delaware, Blair) - from English. lang.;
To convey the letter ă (for example, Bacau, Creangă) - from Romanians. lang.;
Distributed in the Palladium system (eg, Huang He) - from the whale. lang.
ESSAY
on the topic “Russian alphabet. History, composition, style, modern Russian graphics"
Introduction
What could be more interesting than exploring the seemingly obvious? And what, if not language, do we use every day? And, as you know, in the language there is such a thing as an alphabet. That's what I want to talk about.
ALPHABET- a system of graphic signs ordered in a certain way, depicting individual sound elements of the language and thus conveying the sound image of words. A. is also called the very order of letters established for a given language. The principle of A. was invented by the West Semitic peoples; this made it possible to record words without referring to their meaning, in contrast to writing systems that use ideograms (letter designations of concepts) and logograms (written designations of words). The most ancient systems of alphabet, for example, the Eblaite (middle of the 3rd millennium BC), Ugaritic (middle of the 2nd millennium BC), are based on the notation of consonants (the vowels in these languages had a secondary meaning) and were syllabic, like the Phoenician letter (the last centuries of the 2nd millennium BC), from which the Greek begins. A., no longer syllabic, with special signs for vowels (see Greek letter); on its basis many developed. A., including Latin, Coptic, Etruscan, Slavic, Cyrillic. In all known alphabets, each letter has its own name (these names are mainly preserved in related systems). From the 1st millennium BC a firmly fixed order of letters was used to convey numbers; this principle was preserved in alphabets based on the Greek. models, in particular in Old Church Slavonic and other Russian, which was of particular importance for the study of the history of architecture. nat. writing systems.
Each letter of any alphabet has a certain meaning and Russian is no exception.
The word "Alphabet" comes from the name of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: άλφα " Αα» - alpha and βήτα " Ββ » - beta
The word "ABC" comes from the name of the first two letters of the ancient Slavic alphabet - Cyrillic: A - az and B - beeches
How did the alphabet originate? How did it develop in Russia?
In my essay, I will talk about the study and try to answer these questions.
History of the alphabet in Russia
alphabet graphics phonetics copybook
Around 863, the brothers Constantine (Cyril) the Philosopher and Methodius from Thessalonica (Thessaloniki), by order of the Byzantine emperor Michael III, streamlined the writing system for the Slavic language.
The brothers were natives of the city of Thessalonica (now Thessaloniki), Ancient Thessalonica was a bilingual city, in which, in addition to the Greek language, the Slavic dialect sounded.
Konstantin, being a very educated person, even before his trip to Moravia, he compiled the Slavonic alphabet and began to translate the Gospel into Slavonic. In Moravia, Constantine and Methodius continued to translate church books from Greek into Slavonic, taught the Slavs how to read, write, and lead worship in Slavonic. The brothers stayed in Moravia for more than three years, and then went with their students to Rome to the Pope. On the way to Rome, they visited another Slavic country - Pannonia (Lake Balaton region, Hungary). And here the brothers taught the Slavs book business and worship in the Slavic language.
In Rome, Constantine took the monastic vows, taking the name Cyril. There, in 869, Cyril was poisoned. Methodius with his disciples, who received the priesthood, returned to Pannonia, and later to Moravia.
By that time, the situation in Moravia had changed dramatically. After the death of Rostislav, his captive Svyatopolk became the prince of Moravia, who submitted to German political influence. The activity of Methodius and his disciples proceeded in very difficult conditions. The Latin-German clergy interfered in every possible way with the spread of the Slavic language as the language of the church.
Methodius was imprisoned, where he dies in 885, and after that his opponents managed to achieve the prohibition of Slavic writing in Moravia. After the adoption of Christianity, Bulgaria became the center for the spread of Slavic writing.
Slavic schools are created here, Cyril and Methodius originals of liturgical books are copied.
The widespread use of Slavic writing dates back to the reign of Simeon in Bulgaria (893-927), later the Old Slavonic language penetrates into Serbia, and at the end of the 10th century. becomes the language of the church in Kievan Rus.
Old Slavonic alphabets, which are used to write monuments that have survived to this day, are called Glagolitic and Cyrillic. The first Old Slavonic monuments were written in the Glagolitic script, which, as is assumed, was created by Constantine on the basis of cursive Greek writing of the 9th century. with the addition of some letters from other Eastern alphabets.
The appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet (Fig. 1), which goes back to the Greek statutory script, is associated with the activities of the Bulgarian schools of scribes; it is the Slavic alphabet that underlies the modern Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian alphabets.
The Cyrillic alphabet, as it was used in the Russian language, has undergone gradual improvement.
The development of the Russian state at the beginning of the 18th century, the emerging need for printing civilian books necessitated the need to simplify the outlines of the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet.
In 1708, a Russian civil font was created, and Peter I himself took an active part in the production of sketches of letters. In 1710
A sample of the new alphabet font was approved. This was the first reform of Russian graphics. Peter's reform of the Russian typographic type was carried out in 1708-1710.
This reform had two goals, one of them was: bringing the appearance of Russian books and other printed publications closer to what Western European publications of that time looked like, which differed sharply from typical medieval-looking Russian publications that were typed in Church Slavonic font, and the other: to simplify the composition Russian alphabet at the expense
exclusion from it of such obsolete and unnecessary letters as "psi", "ksi", "omega", "izhitsa", "earth", "like", "yus small" (see below).
However, later, probably under the influence of the clergy, some of these letters were restored to use. The letter "E" was introduced in order to distinguish it from the iotized letter "E", as well as the letter I instead of the small iotized yus.
For the first time, uppercase (large) and lowercase (small) letters are established in the civil font.
The letter "Y" (and short) was introduced by the Academy of Sciences in 1735. The letter "Yo" was first used by N.M. Karamzin in 1797 to designate the sound [o] under stress after soft consonants.
The spelling reform of 1917-1918. two letters that duplicated each other were excluded: “yat”, “fita”, “and decimal”. The letter "b" (ep) was retained only as a separating sign, "b" (er) - as a separating sign and to indicate the softness of the preceding consonant. With regard to "Yo", the decree contains a clause on the desirability, but not the necessity, of using this letter. Reform 1917-1918 simplified Russian writing and thereby facilitated literacy.
Composition of the Russian alphabet
Russian alphabet
There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet, of which 10 denote vowel sounds, 21 are consonants, and 2 letters do not denote special sounds, but serve to convey certain sound features. The Russian alphabet has uppercase (large) and lowercase (small) letters, printed and handwritten letters.
Correlation between Russian phonetics and graphics
The composition of modern Russian graphics is an alphabet invented for Slavic writing and carefully developed for the Old Slavonic language, which about a thousand years ago was the literary language of all Slavic peoples. It is quite natural that the Old Slavonic alphabet could not fully correspond to the then sound system of the Russian language.
In particular, in the Old Slavonic alphabet there were letters to designate such sounds that were not in the Russian language, for example: [yus big], [yus small].
So there was a discrepancy between the spoken language and the written language.
Over the thousand-year period of its existence, Russian graphics were subjected to only
partial improvements, while the sound system of the living Russian language changed continuously, although not always noticeably. As a result, the relationship between Russian graphics and the sound system of the Russian language has by our time been deprived of full correspondence: not all sounds pronounced in various phonetic positions are indicated in writing by special letters.
Modern Russian graphics are distinguished by a number of features that have developed historically and represent a specific graphic system. Russian graphics do not have such an alphabet, in which for each sound pronounced in the speech stream there is a special letter.
There are much fewer letters in the Russian alphabet than there are sounds in live speech.
As a result, the letters of the alphabet are multi-valued, they can have several sound meanings.
So, for example, the letter c can denote such sounds: 1) [s] (courts, garden), 2) [s "] (here, sit down), 3) [s] (delivery, collection), 4) [s" ] (mowing, deal), 5) [w] (sew), 6) [w] (compress).
The meaning of the letter c in each of the six cases is different: in the words of the court and here the letter c cannot be replaced by any other letter, such a replacement would lead to a distortion of the word. In this case, the letter c is used in its main meaning.
In other words, the letter c appears in secondary meanings and can be replaced by certain letters, in which the usual pronunciation of words is preserved (cf. In the latter case, the letter c denotes sounds that replace the sound [s] in certain positions, according to the living phonetic laws inherent in the Russian literary language.
Thus, with the ambiguity of letters, Russian graphics distinguish main and secondary letter meanings. So, in the word house, the letter o is used in the main sense, and in the word house - in a secondary sense.
The second feature of Russian graphics is division of letters according to the number of sounds they designate.
In this regard, the letters of the Russian alphabet fall into three groups: 1) letters devoid of sound meaning; 2) letters denoting two sounds; 3) letters denoting one sound.
The first group includes the letters ъ, ь, which do not denote any sounds, as well as the so-called “unpronounceable consonants” in such, for example, words: sun, heart, etc.
The second group includes letters: i, u, e [e], e.
The third group includes letters denoting one sound, i.e. all letters of the Russian alphabet, except for the letters included in the first and second groups.
The third feature of Russian graphics is the presence of single-digit and double-digit letters in it: the first include letters that have one basic meaning; to the second - having two meanings.
So, for example, the letters h and c are among the unambiguous, since the letter h in all positions denotes the same soft sound [h "], and the letter c - a hard sound [c].
Two-digit letters include: 1) all letters denoting consonants, paired in hardness-softness; 2) letters denoting vowel sounds: i, e, e, u.
The ambiguity of the indicated letters of the Russian alphabet is in connection with the specifics of Russian graphics - precisely with its syllabic principle.
The syllabic principle of Russian graphics lies in the fact that in Russian writing, in certain cases, not a letter, but a syllable, acts as a unit of writing. Such a syllable, i.e. the combination of consonant and vowel letters is an integral graphic element, the parts of which are mutually conditioned. The syllabic principle of graphics is used in the designation of paired consonants in hardness-softness. In modern Russian, consonants that are paired in terms of hardness and softness have a phonemic meaning, i.e. serve to distinguish the sound shells of words. However, in the Russian alphabet there are no separate letters to designate consonants paired in terms of softness and hardness, so, for example, the letter t is used for both hard and soft sounds [t] - (cf .: become - tightened).
The absence in the Russian alphabet of individual letters for consonants paired in terms of hardness and softness is compensated by the presence of double vowel styles in our chart. So, the letters i, o, u, e, s indicate the hardness of the previous consonant, paired in hardness-softness, and the letters i, e, u, e, and - softness (cf .: glad - row, they say - chalk , knock - bale, sir - ser, was - beat). Thus, the letters denoting consonant sounds paired in hardness-softness are two-valued: without taking into account the subsequent letter, it is impossible to determine whether a consonant sound paired in hardness-softness is hard or soft. Only at the end of a word and before consonants (although not always) the softness of consonants, paired in hardness-softness, is indicated by a special letter b.
The syllable principle also applies to the designation of the consonant sound [j] (yot), and this application is carried out only within words. The consonant sound yot is indicated by a special letter y only when the syllable ends with this sound following the vowel (cf.: sing - sing, lei - pour, spring, blind, etc.).
In all other positions, the sound yot together with the next vowel sound is indicated by one letter, namely: i -, e -, e -, u -. This meaning of the letters i, e, e, u takes place: 1) at the beginning of the word (cf. pit, hedgehog, south, spruce); 2) after vowels (mine, mine, I will go, mine); 3) after the separating signs b and b (announce - monkey, volume - let's go down, congress - mouth, conjuncture - blizzard).
However, the syllabic principle is far from consistent in Russian graphics. The main deviation from the syllabic principle is the designation of vowels after consonants, unpaired in hardness-softness. So, after always solid consonants [w], [w], [c], vowels are denoted, contrary to the syllabic principle, by the letters i, e, e, occasionally u, i (cf. fat, breadth, gesture, pole, groove, whisper , brochure, jury, parachute, figure, chain, Kotsyubinsky, Tsyavlovsky, etc.); after always soft [h], [u], contrary to the syllabic principle, the letters a, o, y are written (cf. bowl, clink glasses, miracle, food, Shchors, pike, etc.).
These deviations from the syllabic principle in modern Russian graphics have developed historically. In modern Russian, the sounds [zh], [sh], [ts] do not have soft varieties, and the sounds [h], [u] do not have hard varieties. Therefore, the hardness and softness of these sounds are indicated by the consonants themselves, which are unambiguous and do not require designation by subsequent vowels.
Particular cases of deviations from the syllabic principle: 1) writing foreign (more often French) words with ё instead of ё (cf .: broth - linen, etc.); 2) writing complex abbreviated words with yo, ba, yu and yu (cf. village district, village airfield, Dalugol, construction site); 3) writing at the beginning of foreign words yo instead of ё (cf. hedgehog, ruff - iot, iodine, Yorkshire, New York).
In addition to the indicated inconsistency in the application of the syllabic principle, one can note in Russian graphics the absence of a stressed syllable designation in a word, as well as a special letter for the sound ["] (cf. yeast, squeal, drive, etc.)
cursive
Conclusion
Thus, having gone through such a long historical path, the Russian alphabet was able to borrow everything necessary from other alphabets and languages. Despite the fact that this alphabet is of Greek origin, it is safe to say that it has acquired its own special appearance.
Throughout the history of Russia, the Russian language has undergone a lot of changes.
Unnecessary letters were a thing of the past and thus the original alphabet differs sharply from the modern one. All this was connected with the development of Kievan Rus, and later Russia.
Since writing is a universal carrier of information, religion, culture and politics, it is impossible not to note the very main role of the Russian state's own writing: it is likely that it was the alphabet that preserved these people, did not allow them to assimilate into a foreign culture.
After all, “Language is the spirit of the people” (W. Humboldt), in the language is the entire worldview of the nation, the finest features of perception, there is no People without Language!
List of used literature
1 Great Soviet Encyclopedia[Electronic resource]: Electronic version of the latest edition of BES 1977 - Electron. text data. and electron. graph. Dan. - M: "The Great Russian Encyclopedia", 2002. - (Golden Fund of Russian Encyclopedias). - 183.90, p. URL: http://library.kspu.ru/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=141
Modern Russian language. Valgina N.S., Rosenthal D.E., Fomina M.I.M.: Logos, 2002. - 528 p.
Yu.P. Minin "The clue to the Russian alphabet". / Under. Ed. K.R. Ivanova, N.E. Kirillov. - M.: Culture, 1985. - 143 pages.
Zemskaya E.A. Russian colloquial speech. / Ed. M.V. Kitaygorodskoy, E.N. Shiryaev. - M.: Nauka, 1981. - 276 pages.
On the introduction of new letters into the Russian alphabet
For more than a thousand years of the existence of the Cyrillic alphabet among the Eastern Slavs, only three new letters have been introduced into the Russian alphabet - y, uh(reverse) and yo(yo). Letter th was introduced by the Academy of Sciences in 1735.
Letter yo was first used in 1797 by N.M. Karamzin in the almanac "Aonides" (instead of the ligature mark used in the 18th century), but subsequently it was not fixed in Russian writing: the use of the letter yo not required in modern writing.
Letter uh is inverted Cyrillic. In its modern form, it was legitimized by Peter I, but it was used in Russian writing earlier.
VK. Trediakovsky argued that the letter uh began with the damage to the Cyrillic alphabet. For the use of letters uh in early handwritten monuments (XIII - XIV centuries) indicates the famous Russian paleographer E.F. Karsky.
It should be noted that this struggle was not always sufficiently justified in relation to Russian writing. So, M.V. Lomonosov considered an extra letter uh(reverse). He did not even include it in his alphabet, commenting as follows: e turned on the other side, in the Russian language it is not necessary, because ... the letter e, having several different pronunciations, can also serve in the pronoun here and in interjection her"1. Despite the authority of Lomonosov and activity in the "extermination" of the letter uh, this letter remained in the alphabet.
Speaking against the letter uh, Lomonosov was right and wrong. Against the letter uh one could object, but not during this period of time. In Old Russian writing of the period that preceded the softening of semi-soft consonants, the letter denoted an independent phoneme /e/ after semi-soft (phonemically hard) consonants. After soft consonants, a letter was used to designate the same phoneme. The letter was also used to denote the combination of the phoneme yot with /e/ (for example, at the beginning of a word). With the restructuring of phonemic relations after softening of semi-soft letters, "staying in place" began to designate the phoneme /e/ after soft consonants. The letter is missing. The function of the letter to designate /e/ with the preceding iot also departed to the letter. So there was a need for a letter that would stand for /e/ without the preceding iota. This letter became the letter uh.
In the Soviet period, he had a negative attitude towards the letter uh N.F. Yakovlev (1928), but the proposal to cancel the letter uh was for him a logical continuation of certain, phonologically justified alphabetic transformations. At the absolute beginning of a word, as well as after vowels, the letter uh denotes /e/ without the preceding iota, for example: era, Hellenes, ethics; poet, maestro, figurine etc.
Letter I- also not a new letter, it is a graphic modification of the letter.
Names and styles of the letters of the alphabet of the modern Russian language
In the process of development, improvement of our writing, the names of the letters have also changed. Old Cyrillic names "az", "beeches", "lead", etc. in the 18th century were eliminated and the names "a", "be", "ve", etc. were adopted instead. The Romans gave these names to letters. Borrowing the Greek alphabet, they abandoned the long Greek names: "alpha", "beta", "gamma", "delta", etc. - and instead of them they introduced their own, trying to name the letters as short as possible. They sought only to ensure that the name of the letter indicated the sound corresponding to this name.
It was almost a revolution in teaching reading and writing, given that they used to teach to read by adding the names of the letters: "beta" + "alpha" \u003d ba. (The sound method of teaching reading was adopted not so long ago. In Russia, they taught to read in the same way: "beeches" + "az" = ba. Remember the scene where little Alyosha Peshkov was taught to read and write by M. Gorky in the story "Childhood".
The short Latin names of the letters ("a", "be", "ve", etc.) interfered much less with learning to read, and it was they that were eventually adopted by us.
If the names of the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet - according to the tradition of the names of the letters of the ancient alphabets - in most cases were significant words that only begin with the corresponding sounds ("az" - /a/, "beeches" - /b/, "lead" - /v/, "verb" - /g/, etc.), then in the modern Russian alphabet the names of the letters, according to the Roman model, are insignificant and indicate only the quality of the sound denoted by the letter.
The names "az", "beeches", "lead", etc. were used, along with names like "a", "be", "ve", even in the 19th century, as well as at the beginning of the 20th century. The short names of the letters finally won only in Soviet times.
Until now, in the Russian language there are echoes of ancient Slavic letters, for example, the letter “ary” itself is not used, but its pronunciation has remained in the suffixes of figures.
The suffix -arjь serves to designate a person of a certain profession. This is lat. -arius, which spread through the borrowing of words denoting a profession in Greek, Celtic, Germanic, and, through the Germanic, in the Slavic languages, and then, through the Slavic, in the Lithuanian language. Some words still show on what basis the suffix -arjь could develop in the Slavic languages: publican "tax collector" along with "myto" is a borrowing from the Germanic languages, cf. Goth. motareis; also boukar "scribe" along with "bouky", cf. Goth. bokareis, OE-German buohari. According to the model of words of this kind, new Slavic words could be created: winemaker, winegrower from “wine”, etc.
The concept of the alphabet, its main characteristics.
Writing styles. Typography.
Stages of formation of the Russian alphabet.
One of the main factors of phonemographic writing is alphabet- a set of letters arranged in the order accepted for a given writing system. The alphabet is characterized by the composition (number of letters) and the order of the letters in the list, it determines the style of the letters, their names and sound values.
The word "alphabet" is of Greek origin: it is composed of two Greek words - "alpha" and "vita (beta)" (α and β), in Latin "alphabetum". The Arabic word "alifba" is composed according to the same principle. In Russian, the word "alphabet" is used, compiled by the name of the first letters of the Cyrillic alphabet: A - "az" and B - "beeches".
The ideal alphabet should consist of as many letters as there are phonemes in a given language. However, there are no ideal alphabets today, because writing develops over a long history, and much of the letter reflects already outdated traditions. There are alphabets more or less rational. Alphabetic characters (letters) can convey one sound (in Russian, the letters I, O, T, R), but can convey two or more sounds (in Russian, the letters E, C [ts]). On the other hand, one sound can be transmitted by two or more letters, for example, in English, the combinations of letters TH, SH, CH convey one sound at a time. Finally, there may be letters that do not convey sounds at all: in Russian, these are the letters b and b.
Modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. Vowels 10: A, I, O, U, S, E, E, E, Yu, I; consonants -21: B, C, D, D, F, Z, Y, K, L, M, N, P, R, C, T, F, X, C, H, W, SH. Letters b, b sounds are not indicated.
Lettering. There is no natural connection between the form of a letter and its sound meaning, this connection is arbitrary, which turns the letter into a conventional sign of sound. The arbitrariness of the style of the letter is confirmed by changes in the style of the letters with the stability of the meaning. For example, Ѩ eventually turned into I.
Meanwhile, the inscription of letters is an active characteristic of the alphabet, since it determines the appearance of the letter, its convenience and inconvenience, the speed of writing and reading, and the effectiveness of learning both. The style of a letter is the material carrier of its meaning, i.e. knowledge of the external appearance of the letter is a necessary condition for correct writing and reading. In the design of a letter, it is important to take into account both the interests of the writer and the interests of the reader. For the writer, the simplicity of the style is important, on which the speed of writing depends. For the reader, the clarity and contrast of the appearance of the letter is important. The evolution of the outer side of the alphabet - the shape of the letters - is associated precisely with these functions of letter styles.
In addition, the time and place of the creation of a written monument can be determined from the handwriting and the general nature of the appearance of the letter. The material side of writing is dealt with by the applied historical discipline - paleography(from Greek palaios "ancient").
The letters do not have a single descriptive pattern, but there are four varieties of each letter with two pairwise non-intersecting groupings: printed uppercase and lowercase; handwritten uppercase and lowercase. For example: a, a, A, a; T, t T, t.;
Modern letters according to the method of reproduction and according to the drawing are divided into written and printed. The styles of modern written letters were formed on the basis of the styles of the letters of the Slavic script. The foundations of printed type were laid by the reform of Peter I.
uppercase(large, capital) and lowercase(small) have their own history. Descriptive varieties of these letters began to appear in written monuments of the 16th century. The separation of capital letters into a separate sub-alphabet was first noted in primers of the 17th century. The use of capital letters is streamlined after the introduction of the Petrovsky civil alphabet.
The differences between uppercase and lowercase letters are manifested in three positions:
1) difference in size. This is reflected in the name (large and small), it is very important to read, because. capital letters stand out against the background of small ones and serve as a support, a guideline for the overall coverage of the text, highlighting its individual fragments;
2) difference in style. It does not apply to all alphabetic characters, but to printed sub-alphabets of only four letters: A - a, B - b, E - e, E - e;
3) functional distinctions. They are the most significant components, this is what orthography does (see lecture 7). There are no functional differences between the letters Y, b, b.
Letter order in the alphabet - one of the characteristics of the alphabet, since the hallmark of any alphabet is its orderliness. The generally accepted arrangement of letters in the alphabet is arbitrary, has no connection with the letter itself and the phonetic side of the language. The place of a letter in the alphabet does not depend on its frequency. It was calculated that the letters O, E (together with Ё), A, I, T are the most frequent, less often than others Sh, C, Shch, F, E are used.
On the one hand, the order of letters is the passive side of the modern alphabet, since it has no direct relation to the practice of writing. In order to write and read correctly, it is not necessary to know the order in which the letters follow each other. This knowledge has general cultural significance. On the other hand, the place in the alphabet is the most important characteristic of a letter, since it is determined by the place, ordinal number (M is the fourteenth letter in the Russian alphabet). In speech practice, knowledge of the order of letters is necessary when using reference literature, since headings in dictionaries are arranged in accordance with the so-called strict alphabet, i.e. the place in the alphabet is taken into account first of the first letters of the word, then the second, etc. For example, in the dictionary, the word will be given first lamp, after - doe.
letter names are very essential in the writing system, because reinforces their meaning. The names of Russian letters are built according to the acrophonic principle: the meaning of a letter is the extreme sound of its name (from the Greek akros "extreme"). This may be the first sound of the name (initial type) - “de” - [d], “ka” - [k], “che” - [h]; the last sound (final type) - “er” - [r], “es” - [s], “ef” - [f]; the whole name (global type) - "a" - [a], "e" -, "u" -. Thus, the name of a letter is directly related to its basic meaning, without which it is impossible to write and read correctly.
The modern name of the letter is an indeclinable neuter noun, so it is correct to say “graceful BUT"," big R".
Knowing the names is necessary for the correct reading of alphabetic abbreviations: FSB[efesbe], ATS[atees], UMPO [uempeo]. They are taken into account in the formulation of spelling rules; it is impossible to do without the names of letters in textbooks and scientific works. Knowing the names of letters is also associated with the culture of speech. Mistakes in the names of letters (“re” instead of “er”, “cha” instead of “che”) are perceived as a gross violation of the norms of the literary language. The use of the correct names of letters is an indicator of the level of a person's general culture.
Alphabetical meaning of letters is the basic meaning of the letter, its original function. The alphabetic value is opposed to the positional value of the letter. For example: letter O in the word here means [o], in the word noses- [Λ], in nasal- [ъ], letter E in the word eating matters, in a word eat- , in the weight- [`e], in scales- [`u e], in a bike- [`b], in karate- [e]. However, it is clear to all those who read and write in Russian that one of these meanings is the main (alphabetic) one, which is acquired when studying the alphabet, the rest represent positional meanings. The alphabetic value is set regardless of the conditions of use, it is the basis for the formation of the meanings of letters, due to graphics and spelling.
writing style is called a speech act, considered from the point of view of its graphic performance in a written text. Being a significant characteristic of written speech and being one with it, writing styles are divided into certain categories. The general requirements applicable to any manuscript include the possession of the skills of correct, aesthetically perfect writing, or the art of calligraphy- the skill of writing signs of writing. There are two main trends in the art of calligraphy: 1) perfect adherence to the standard scripts of written characters; 2) formation of individual (personal) handwriting.
Handwriting is called not only the individual style of writing, but also the general style of writing, characteristic of all writers of a certain historical period.
Personal perfect handwriting, claiming calligraphic significance, is relatively poorly developed in the European tradition. The formation of calligraphically significant personal handwriting in Europe begins with the time of typography (XV century), when they began to be opposed to standard printed characters as individual - general. In the hieroglyphic cultures of the East, on the contrary, personal handwriting appears very early, and calligraphic art reaches a high level of perfection. It should be borne in mind that personal handwriting always carries the spirit of its creator, in a certain way expressing some of the features of his personality, as individual features of pronunciation in oral speech.
The change in the styles of the letters was associated with a change in the supra-individual handwriting (charter, semi-charter, cursive), and then with the introduction of printing, the introduction of civil type, followed by a change in cursive handwriting and printed fonts.
In the case of standard characters in Greek and Latin, as well as Slavic script, three standard styles of execution gradually established themselves:
1) charter - the full style of the signs;
2) cursive - an abbreviated style of writing characters
3) semi-ustav - medium (mixed) style of characters.
This division of styles is common to all cultures. In Egyptian writing, they correspond to hieroglyphic, democratic and hieratic writing, in Chinese hieroglyphics - zhengshu, caoshu and jianbizi.
The charter (from the beginning of writing to the middle of the 16th century) was characterized by a clear, calligraphic style. Words were not separated by spaces; word abbreviations were rarely used. Each letter was written separately from the others, without connections and inclinations, and had shapes close to geometric. The height and width of the letters were about the same. Therefore, the charter was easy to read, but difficult for the writer.
The semi-ustav (from the middle of the 14th century to the 17th century) differed from the statute in the lesser severity of the lettering. Letters with their parts can form three rows of spellings: the line itself, the superscript row and the subscript rows. The signs of the semi-ustav fit into the middle line, and the superscript and subscript elements of letter styles are taken out beyond it: loops, bows, etc. A tilt was allowed, the letters became smaller and more elongated in height, titles (word abbreviation signs) and forces (stress marks) were used. The semi-ustav was written more fluently than the statute, but was more difficult to read. From manuscripts he moved to printed books from the time of Ivan Fedorov to the reforms of Peter the Great, this was due to the desire of the first printers to give the books a familiar look.
Cursive writing (from the end of the 14th century to the present day) is a coherent writing of letters, usually inclined to the right, with strokes extending beyond the top and bottom lines of the line. Initially, it is distributed in diplomatic, clerical and trade correspondence.
Historically, charter is the earliest style of writing. The most solemn and official texts are performed in the charter letter, and the least important - in cursive.
Typography based on a new way of creating written characters. The essence of this method is to create a standard graphical edition of handwritten text. The emergence and development of book printing is a complex and long historical process that had significant consequences for the spread and development of culture. The invention of printing cannot be attributed to any individual or people. The basis for the creation of a printed book is the invention of paper by the Chinese in the 2nd century AD. e. Both a handwritten and a printed book can be equally embodied on paper. Following the invention of paper in the 7th-8th centuries. A printing press was created, which was used to print books. Initially, copper or wooden boards served as a matrix for printing, on which the text was either cut out or etched with acid according to the handwritten text. From such a matrix, using a printing press, it was possible to create a certain circulation of text. Books created from matrices are called xylographs, they were the main type of publications until the 15th century.
In the 15th century, Johannes Gutenberg invented a type-casting device and a typographic alloy - hart. This alloy was distinguished by lightness and plasticity - the necessary qualities for creating a set. Europe thus became the birthplace of movable type printing. In the history of Russia, Ivan Fedorov became the first printer.
Printed speech develops directly from handwritten speech, changing the forms of existence of written speech, creating its new qualities. It borrows linearity and the sign principle of written speech. However, the characters of the letter change their form in accordance with the conditions of machine production. In particular, the number and strict nomenclature of fonts are established. Modern font appears in a number of variants that are used in the organization of text in a printed publication.
In the 20th century, computers entered social and linguistic practice, which significantly expanded the scope of technical devices for handwritten and printed speech. Computer graphics combines the properties of both. Computer graphics systems allow you to create not only text, but also drawings, geometric images, animation, etc.
In 988 Russia was baptized. The Christian religion (Orthodoxy) established itself as the state religion. This led to the spread of liturgical literature. Religious books were written in Old Church Slavonic using the Cyrillic alphabet. With the adoption of Orthodoxy, Slavic writing acquired the status of a state letter.
There are several periods in the history of Russian writing:
late 10th - mid 16th centuries - from the beginning of writing to the beginning of printing;
second half of the 16th century - the beginning of Russian book printing;
Petrine reforms of Russian writing at the beginning of the 18th century;
Changes in the alphabet in the XVIII-XIX centuries;
Alphabet reform 1917-1918
In 1710, by decree of Peter, a new civil alphabet and printing books in a new font. Another innovation of Peter was intended to strengthen the position of secular culture as opposed to the church. Prior to that, in official publications and in everyday life, they used Old Slavonic lettering. After Peter's reform, the Old Church Slavonic font began to be called Church Slavonic. They are still used in church practice today.
The introduction of civil type at the beginning of the 18th century marked an epoch in the development of Russian national culture. The alphabet has become much simpler and more accessible to the general public. It also made it possible to create new techniques for the design of the book. The need for the rapid development of printing in the era of Peter the Great demanded a more perfect type than Church Slavonic.
The civil font was created on the basis of Western European fonts and new Russian handwriting, which were more symmetrical in the construction of letters. About the change in the styles of block letters, M.V. Lomonosov wrote: “Under Peter, not only the boyars and boyars, but also the letters threw off their wide fur coats and dressed up in summer clothes.”
In addition to introducing a civil typeface, the Russian emperor tried to improve the alphabet. He personally crossed out the letters “yus big” - Ѭ, “yus small” -Ѩ, “xi” -Ѯ, “psi” -Ѱ, “Izhitsa” - V, “uk” - Ou, “fert” - F, “omega "- Ѡ, "land" - Z, "like" - I.
However, this met with opposition from the church. The letters excluded by Peter continued to be used according to an established centuries-old tradition. As a result, civil books from 1711 to 1735. came out of print with a different set of letters.
Stress marks and titles (diacritical signs of word abbreviation) were abolished, since their use led to illegible texts and errors. At the same time, there was a refusal to use letters in numerical values.
The new civil alphabet finally came into use by the middle of the 18th century, when it became familiar to the generation that learned to read and write from it. It existed unchanged until the reform of Russian writing in 1918.
Transformations in Russian writing had a significant impact not only on writing, but also on the formation of the Russian literary language. Church Slavonic graphics lost its dominant position in Russian writing, ceased to be the bearer of the literary norm, which meant the loss of the dominant role in the literary language by the Church Slavonic language. In this sense, the alphabet reform is a vivid example of the modernization of Russian life. It could take place only in conditions when life was renewed. Newspapers began to appear, mail appeared, people began to conduct active business and private correspondence. Writing and reading became not only a charitable deed, but a necessity to correspond to the spirit of the times.
Introduction of new letters. During the entire history of its existence, four new letters were introduced into the composition of the Russian alphabet: I, Y, E, Yo.
I in the Church Slavonic alphabet it looked in two ways - like “yus small” Ѧ or “A iotized” IA, in which the sound value coincided for a very long time. The form of the modern letter I, similar to a mirror image of the Latin letter R, reproduces the cursive outline of the letter Ѧ, which spread already in the middle of the 16th century (with a cursory outline of this letter, the left leg gradually disappeared, and the whole figure turned somewhat clockwise. In this form, it was fixed with the introduction of civil type in 1708 and has not changed much since then.
E is considered to be a borrowed Glagolitic form of the letter "is" (E), which looks like E. In Cyrillic, the sign E has been used since at least the middle of the 17th century. Officially, the letter E was included in the alphabet in 1708 when creating a civil font. A large number of borrowings in the Petrine era and later necessitated the letter e, which denoted the sound [e], standing after solid consonants and at the beginning of a word. Thus, to designate one sound [e], two letters appeared in the language - E and E.
Y introduced in 1753. In the Church Slavonic language, a consistent and mandatory distinction between the use of styles I - Y has been legalized since the middle of the 17th century. The translation of the Russian letter into a civil font abolished the superscripts and re-united with the letter I. The Y was restored in 1735, although it was not considered a separate letter of the alphabet until the 20th century.
Yo introduced in 1784. This letter has its own history. Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, on November 29, 1783, held a meeting of the Russian Academy at her home. The conversation was about the future six-volume Dictionary of the Russian Academy. Then Ekaterina Romanovna, in the presence of Derzhavin, Fonvizin, Knyaznin, Metropolitan Gabriel of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, suggested writing not “olka”, but “tree”. A year later, on November 18, "yo" received official status. Derzhavin was the first to use the letter Yo, and the fabulist Ivan Dmitriev was the first to print it: he entered the words “light” and “stump” in the fairy tale “Whimsical”. The letter became famous thanks to Karamzin, in connection with which he until recently was considered its creator.
Since then, the letter has experienced several stages of decline and rise in its popularity. Publishers of the tsarist period, the Soviet period, and perestroika treated it differently. In 2007, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation ordered to write the letter "ё" in proper names. In 2009, the Supreme Court of Russia decided that in the documents "e" and "e" are equivalent. In 2009, the Bank of Russia allowed to write "yo" in payment documents.
The second reform of Russian writing was carried out in 1917-1918. It was a reform of both the alphabet and spelling. The preparation of this reform began at the end of the 19th century, when the need to simplify the alphabet and spelling became especially obvious. In 1904, the Spelling Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences was created, which included such prominent linguists as A.A. Shakhmatov, F.F. Fortunatov, I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay, A.I. Sobolevsky and others. In the same year, a draft was published, including proposals for the exclusion of superfluous letters and new spelling rules. However, the project was met with hostility by the conservative part of society, government circles and even some scientists. At that time, it was more common to believe that the acquisition of spelling did not depend on the number of letters in the alphabet, but on incorrect teaching methods, and it was also believed that great importance should not be attached to the "cries of lazy students." There were so many opponents of the reform that it was necessary to create a special preparatory commission with the participation of school teachers, which had been actively working for more than ten years. Finally, in May 1917, the Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Education proposed introducing reformed spelling in schools from the new academic year.
The reform was implemented only under Soviet rule by decrees of the People's Commissariat of Education of December 23, 1917 and the Council of People's Commissars of October 10, 1918.
The reform finally abolished a number of superfluous letters that made it difficult to write: “fita” - Ѳ with a replacement through Ф; "yat" - Ѣ with a replacement through E; “and decimal - I with replacement through AND; "Izhitsa" - V. The letter "era" - b was canceled at the end of words after a solid consonant (mir, bank).
The reform also made it possible to abandon the names of the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet, in which significant words were used that began with the corresponding sounds (az - A, beeches - B). In the modern Russian alphabet, following the model of the Latin alphabet, the names of the letters are insignificant: the name indicates the quality of the sound denoted by the letter (a - A; be - B). Short names of letters greatly facilitates the assimilation of the alphabet.
As a result of the reform of 1917-1918. the current Russian alphabet appeared (see Appendix). This alphabet also became the basis of many newly written languages, for which there was no written language before the 20th century or was lost and introduced in the republics of the USSR after the October Socialist Revolution.
In 2010, Russia celebrated the 300th anniversary of the Russian alphabet.
This significant date was one of the reasons due to which a decision was made at the state level to create a domain zone on the Internet in Cyrillic. Cyrillic domains will allow the Russian language to exist in a much wider virtual space than hitherto. This fact is significant not only for Russia, but also for those Slavic states whose writing is based on the Cyrillic alphabet.
List of used literature
Ivanova V.F. Modern Russian language. Graphics and spelling. M., 1976.
Istrin V.A. The emergence and development of writing. M., 2010.
Istrin V.A. 1100 years of the Slavic alphabet. M., 2011.
Lowkotka Ch. Development of writing. (translated from Czech). - M., 1960.
Russian language. Encyclopedia/Ch. ed. Yu.N.Karaulov. - M .: Great Russian Encyclopedia; Bustard, 1998.
Shchepkin V.N. Russian paleography. - M., 1967.
Linguistics. Big encyclopedic dictionary. - M .: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1998.
Questions for self-control
Define the term alphabet.
When does the Russian alphabet originate? What are the prerequisites for its creation?
Tell us about the main characteristics of the Russian alphabet.
In what directions did the change in the Russian alphabet go?
Tell us about the fate of the letters excluded from the Russian alphabet. State the reasons for their initial entry into the alphabet and their subsequent exclusion.
Tell us about the process of introducing native Russian letters into the alphabet.
What is the composition of the modern Russian alphabet?
Assignment for independent work:
study the topic "The Baptism of Russia and Slavic writing."
In the article you will learn about the history of the Russian alphabet, as well as the rules for spelling and pronunciation of each of its letters.
Around 863, Cyril and Methodius (chronicler brothers) streamlined all "Slavic" writing, after Emperor Michael the Third ordered them to do so. The writing was called "Cyrillic" and entered the Greek script. After that, the Bulgarian school of "scribes" actively developed and the country (Bulgaria) became the most important center for the distribution of the "Cyrillic alphabet".
Bulgaria is the place where the first Slavic "book" school appeared and it was here that such significant publications as the Psalter, the Gospel and the Apostle were rewritten. After Greece, "Cyrillic" penetrated into Serbia and only at the end of the 10th century became the language in Russia. We can safely say that the modern Russian alphabet is a derivative of the Cyrillic alphabet and the old Slavic "eastern" speech.
A little later, the Russian alphabet received 4 more new letters, but 14 letters from the “old” alphabet were gradually excluded one by one, because they were no longer needed. After the reforms of Peter the Great (beginning of the 17th century), superscript characters were completely eliminated from the alphabet, and other “doublet” characters were simply abolished. The most recent reform of the Russian alphabet took place at the beginning of the 19th century, and after it the alphabet appeared to mankind, which is observed to this day.
How many letters are there in the Russian alphabet?
The modern Russian alphabet, consisting of exactly 33 letters, became official only in 1918. It is interesting that the letter "Ё" in it was approved only in 1942, and before that it was only considered a variation of the letter "E".
Cyril and Methodius
The alphabet of the Russian language - 33 letters black and white, printed: what it looks like, print on one sheet, printed A4 format, photo.
In order to learn the spelling of each letter of the Russian alphabet, its printed black and white version may come in handy. After downloading such a picture, you can print it on any A4 landscape sheet.
Russian alphabet in order from A to Z, numbered in direct order: photo, print
Each letter in the Russian alphabet has its own serial number.
Russian alphabet, numbered in reverse order: photo, print
Reverse order of letters in the alphabet and reverse numbering.
How to pronounce, read the letters of the Russian alphabet, Cyrillic: transcription, letter names
Russian alphabet of capital and capital letters: photo, print
Russian written speech also requires calligraphy and calligraphy. Therefore, you should definitely remember the spelling rules for each capital and small letter in the alphabet.
How to write capital letters of the Russian alphabet for first graders: combining capital letters of the Russian alphabet, photo
Toddlers who are just starting to learn written speech will definitely need prescriptions in which they will learn not only the spelling of letters, but also all their obligatory connections with each other.
Prescription of Russian letters:
Spelling of Russian letters A and B 
Spelling of Russian letters V and G 
Spelling of Russian letters E and D 
Spelling of Russian letters Yo and Zh 
Spelling of Russian letters 3 and I 
Spelling of Russian letters Y and K 
Spelling of Russian letters L and M 
Spelling of Russian letters H and O 
Spelling of Russian letters P and R 
Spelling of Russian letters C and T 
Spelling of Russian letters U and F 
Spelling of Russian letters Х and Ц 
Spelling of Russian letters Ch and Sh 
Spelling of Russian letters Щ, ь and ъ 
Spelling of Russian letters E and Yu 
Spelling of Russian letters I How many vowels, consonants, hissing letters and sounds are there in the Russian alphabet, and which is more: vowels or consonants?
Important to remember:
- In the Russian alphabet, letters are divided into vowels and consonants.
- Vowels - 10 pcs.
- Consonant letters - 21 pcs. (+ ь, ъ sign)
- There are 43 sounds in Russian
- It has 6 vowels
- And 37 consonants
Introduction to the modern Russian alphabet letter e, d, e: when and who included?
Interesting to know:
- The letter ё appeared in the alphabet in the 19th century.
- The letter й appeared in the alphabet after the 15-16th century (appeared in Slavic church writings after the Moscow edition).
- The letter e appeared in the 17th century (during the development of a civil font)
What is the last letter in the Russian alphabet?
The letter Yo is the “last” letter in the Russian alphabet, since it was approved relatively recently (at the beginning of the 19th century).
Young and forgotten letters of the Russian alphabet: names
The modern Russian alphabet has gone through many transformations before finding its final form. Many letters were forgotten or excluded from the alphabet as unnecessary.
The number of letters of the Russian alphabet that do not indicate sounds: names
IMPORTANT: A letter is a graphic sign, sound is a unit of sounding speech.
In Russian, the following letters do not have sounds:
- b - softens the sound
- ъ - makes the sound hard
What is the last consonant letter of the Russian alphabet: name
The last letter (consonant) that arose in the modern alphabet is Щ (ligature Ш+Т or Ш+Ч).
Transliteration of the Russian alphabet in Latin: photo
Transliteration is the translation of letters into the English alphabet, while preserving the sound.
Calligraphic handwriting: a sample of the Russian alphabet
Calligraphy is the rules for writing capital letters.
Video: "Live alphabet for kids"