History of the origin of the alphabet. Who created the alphabet of the Russian language? The emergence of the Slavic alphabet

Kovtyukhova Anastasia

The importance of writing in the history of the development of civilization is difficult to overestimate. Language, like a mirror, reflects the whole world, our whole life. When reading written or printed texts, we seem to sit in a time machine and can be transported both to recent times and to the distant past. Historically written language secondary. We master sounding speech at an early age, it is assimilated as if by itself, without effort. We study writing on purpose, spending many years on comprehension of literacy. Maybe that's why we respect the written language more than the oral one. Meanwhile, the letter has become a common thing in our lives, and rarely does anyone think about how it appeared, where it came from, and why these letters are in our native alphabet. And it is worth noting that the Russian letter is a very important part of the national heritage of Russia, it is it that fixes the Russian language. The relevance of the topic lies in drawing attention to the history of the emergence and formation of Russian writing, in fostering respect for the past, for the native language. How did the alphabet originate? How did it develop in Rus'? What are the features of the modern use of the Russian alphabet? We tried to answer these questions in this study. Target work - to study the history of the emergence and formation of the Russian alphabet, to identify the prospect of its development.

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Introduction………………………………………………………………….2

Main part

The emergence of the Slavic alphabet…………………………………………. 3
Cyrillic and Glagolitic………………………………………………………… 5
Reforms of the Russian alphabet…………………………………………………… 9
Features of the use of the Russian alphabet today and its prospects

development………………………………………………………………………………………………………………10

Conclusion……………………………………………………………...12

Bibliography…………………………………………………………...13

INTRODUCTION

Relevance Topics research work is to draw attention to the history of the emergence and development of Russian writing, to cultivate respect for the past, for the native language.

When transmitting speech in writing, letters are used, each of which has a specific meaning. A set of letters arranged in a prescribed order is called an alphabet, or alphabet.

The word alphabet comes from the name of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: α-alpha; β- beta (in modern Greek - vita).

The word alphabet comes from the name of the first two letters of the ancient Slavic Cyrillic alphabet: A - az, B - beeches.

How did the alphabet originate? How did it develop in Rus'? What are the features of the modern use of the Russian alphabet? We tried to answer these questions in this study.

Target work - to study the history of the emergence and formation of the Russian alphabet, to identify the prospect of its development.

Research objectives:

1. Identify the cause of the emergence of Slavic writing.

2. Who are they - the creators of Slavic writing - Constantine and Methodius?

3. Cyrillic and Glagolitic - two Slavic alphabets. What do they have in common and what is the difference?

4. Study the composition of the Cyrillic alphabet.

5. Track what reforms were carried out in the Russian alphabet.

6. Find out what are the features of using the Russian alphabet in present stage its development.

An object research - Russian alphabet. Item research - the history of its origin and development.

MAIN PART

CHAPTER I

The emergence of the Slavic alphabet

Slavic writing arose at the time when the Slavs, after the great migration, began to create their own states. The heyday of Slavic state associations (Kievan Rus, Great Moravia, Poland, Bulgaria, Serbia and Croatia) dates back to the 9th century. Then these associations occupied vast areas of Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe, from the Baltic in the north to the Adriatic and the Black Sea in the south, from the Alps in the west to the upper reaches of the Volga and Don in the east. Neighborhood with new peoples, a new way of life and a new worldview that replaced the ancient paganism required the development of new forms of spiritual culture, primarily book culture, which would partially replace or supplement the original Slavic oral tradition, folk culture. It needed its own written language, its own Slavic bookish language, its own bookish education.

The creators of Slavic writing were the enlightened brothers Cyril (Konstantin) and Methodius, also called Thessalonica brothers, since they were from the Greek city of Thessaloniki, in Slavic Solun. They, at the request of the Moravian prince Rostislav and on behalf of the Byzantine emperor Michael III, in 863 brought to Great Moravia the first books in the Slavic language, intended for worship and enlightenment of the Slavs.

Konstantin was a very educated person for his time. Even before his trip to Moravia, he compiled the Slavic alphabet and began to translate the Gospel into Slavic. 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. There they hoped to find support in the fight against the German clergy, who did not want to give up their positions in Moravia and prevented the spread of Slavic writing. 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. Before his death, he wrote to Methodius: "You and I are like two oxen; one fell from a heavy burden, the other must continue on his way." 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. Many students were executed, some moved to Bulgaria and Croatia. In Bulgaria, Tsar Boris in 864 converted to Christianity. Bulgaria becomes the center for the dissemination of Slavic writing. Slavic schools are being created here, the Cyrillic and Methodius originals of liturgical books (the Gospel, the Psalter, the Apostle, church services) are being copied, new Slavic translations are being made from Greek, original works appear onOld Church Slavonic ("0 letters of Chrnorizets the Brave").

The wide distribution of Slavic writing, its "Golden Age", dates back to the reign of Simeon (893-927), the son of Boris, in Bulgaria. Later, the Old Church 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. This is a very peculiar, intricate, loop-shaped letter, which for a long time in a slightly modified form was used by the Croats (until the 17th century). The appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet, which goes back to the Greek statutory (solemn) letter, is associated with the activities of the Bulgarian school of scribes. Cyrillic is the Slavic alphabet that underlies the modern Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian alphabets.

CHAPTER II

Cyrillic and Glagolitic

The first Slavic alphabet was Glagolitic or Cyrillic. Cyrillic and Cyrillic writing was used by Cyril and Methodius and their students. But we still can't say exactly how. Why? Yes, because the manuscripts (monuments) of Cyril and Methodius times have not reached us. The oldest monuments known to us, written in the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets, date back to the 10th-11th centuries. (Only one monument dates back to the 10th century - a Glagolitic fragment of the mass, stored in Kyiv and therefore called Kyiv leaflets). Thus, almost all of them arose two centuries after the first translations of the creators of Slavic writing, Cyril and Methodius.

Cyrillic composition. The Cyrillic alphabet had 43 letters. The basis for 26 Cyrillic letters was the Greek alphabet. Some of the letters differed from modern ones in writing. Some sounds were designated by two letters. However, it should be noted that it is possible that at one time in the Slavic languages the sounds denoted by such “paired” letters still differed phonetically. The compilers of the Cyrillic alphabet created four letters from the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. With the help of Cyrillic letters, numbers were also indicated. This system was borrowed from Greek and was called "alphabetic numerals", in which certain letters meant units, tens and hundreds, and their combinations resulted in multi-digit numbers. Several letters were created individually ... from the letter Shin appeared the letters Sh (Sha) and Shta (the sound "Sch" in the Old Slavonic language sounded like "SHT") B (beeches), Zh (live), Ъ (er), Y (ery), L (er), YAT, YUSY small and large.

It should be noted that each letter had its own name.The first thing that attracts attention is that the names of the letters of this alphabet represent almost all the main parts of speech: nouns (Good, Earth, People, Word), pronouns (Az, OH, Our), verbs different forms(Lead, Eat, Rtsy, Myslete, Yat), adverbs (Zelo, Firmly) and different kind allied particles. However, due to temporary grammatical transformations of the Russian language, primarily related to the ways of word formation, we cannot at the same time confidently attribute one or another letter name to a particular part of speech. For example, the name of the letter T can be interpreted as an adverb - Firmly - and as an adjective - Solid, as well as Peace - Dead, Verb - Reading, etc. But despite this, even a cursory glance at the Cyrillic alphabet suggests that the totality of the mutually agreed words-names of the letters (symbols) of this Russified Old Slavonic alphabet contains some kind of detailed complete thought.

Cyrillic alphabet.

Letter	Draw- dancing	Numeric meaning	Name





HER














U, Ѹ		(400)

Letter	Draw- dancing	Numeric meaning	Name











IA

I, j		(900)

A number of facts indicate that Glagolitic is an earlier alphabet than Cyrillic. The oldest surviving Glagolitic inscription refers toyear and made in the church of the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon in Preslav. The oldest handwritten monuments (including "Kyiv leaflets”, dating back to the 10th century) are written precisely in the Glagolitic alphabet, and they are written in a more archaic language, similar in phonetic composition to the language of the southern Slavs. The greater antiquity of the Glagolitic is indicated bypalimpsests (manuscripts on parchment, in which the old text is scraped off and a new one is written on it). On all surviving palimpsests, the Glagolitic alphabet has been scraped off and the new text is written in Cyrillic. There is not a single palimpsest in which the Cyrillic alphabet would be scraped off and the Glagolitic alphabet written on it. In the treatise "On Letters"Chernorizets Brave(beginning of the 10th century) emphasizes the difference in the writing of Greek letters and the Slavic alphabetCyril and Methodius , apparently Glagolitic: “The same Slavic letters are more holiness and honor that the holy man created them, and the Greek ones are filthy Hellenes. If someone says that he did not arrange them well, because they are still finishing them, in response we will say this: the Greeks also completed many times. From the above quote, we can conclude that there is a certain dissatisfaction with the alphabet of Cyril and Methodius, which, perhaps, led to the transition to Cyrillic.

Alphabet of Glagolitic.

image- ing	Name	numerical value


























		1000

CHAPTER III

Russian alphabet reforms

The development of the Russian nation 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 a new alphabet font was approved. This was the first reform of Russian graphics. The essence of the Petrine reform was to simplify the composition of the Russian alphabet by excluding from it such obsolete and unnecessary letters as "psi", "xi", "omega", "Izhitsa", "earth", "like", "yus small". However, later, probably under the influence of the clergy, some of these letters were restored to use. The letter E ("E" reverse) 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 a short one) was introduced by the Academy of Sciences in 1735. On November 29, 1783, the director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, PrincessE. R. Dashkova during a meeting of the Academy of Literature proposed to use a new letter Yo "to express words and pronunciations, with this consent beginning like іolka, іozh".Dashkova's arguments seemed convincing, and her proposal was approved by the general meeting of the Academy.

The famous letter Yo became thanks toN. M. Karamzin . In 1796, in the first book of the poetic almanac "Aonides" with the letter Yo the words were printed“dawn”, “eagle”, “moth”, “tears”, “drip”.It should be noted that in the "History of the Russian State" (1816-1829) N.M. Karamzin did not use the letter Yo.

In the XVIII century. V literary language the sound denoted by the letter b (yat) coincided with the sound [e]. The letter, thus, practically turned out to be unnecessary, but according to tradition, it was kept in the Russian alphabet for a long time, until 1917-1918.

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 separator, b (er) as a separator and to indicate the softness of the preceding consonant. With regard to Yo, the decree contains a clause on the desirability, but not the obligatory use of this letter. Reform 1917-1918 simplified Russian writing and thereby facilitated literacy. As a result, the current Russian alphabet appeared, consisting of 33 letters.

Modern alphabet.

CHAPTER IV

Features of the use of the Russian alphabet today and the prospects for its development

However, today the letters of the pre-reform alphabet are gradually returning - to city signs, to the names of firms and goods, the names of which are now accepted.depict in their original orthographic appearance: montpensier "Landrin", the film "Empire under attack", TV shows "Vedi", "Russian World", etc. There was even social movement“Solid Sign”: it seeks to unite all firms and organizations that have the letter “b” in their name, which, according to the initiators of the movement, has become a symbol of “a return to the traditions that existed in great Russia, to stability, reliability, “firmness””; a symbol of Russia, "eternal and incomprehensible, stable and always going its own way."

The revival of the pre-reform spelling was also a reflection of that politicized public consciousness of the first years of perestroika, which not only insisted on preserving traditions, but also considered the reform of 1917-1918 to be a dead end. the result of the action of some dark force that had mastered the language, and therefore tried in every possible way to return the Russian spelling allegedly illegally taken away by the Bolshevik decrees. So, Archbishop Averky wrote that “only the old spelling is in the proper sense of the word ... spelling, and that corruption ... that was forcibly put into use by the Bolsheviks in Russia enslaved by them ... is only a distortion of the spelling.” And the poet Andrei Voznesensky stated that “the repressed“ solid signs ”and“ yat ”were the twins of those killed in the basements” ...

The use of old graphemes in this or that name, advertising is always intended to serve as a hint of stability, solidity, inviolability of traditions: “ Bank", " Chocolate "Sladkov" - traditions of high quality», « Restaurant "Shustov". Revival of traditions», « SMIRNOV. Russian character" and etc.

However, the illiterate use of the letters of the pre-reform alphabet in the modern urban space (the indistinguishability of "b" and "b", the automatic replacement of "e" with "”, “and” to “i”, etc.) often brings to mind those whom M. Pogodin ridiculed a century and a half ago. Among such inventions of modern "signboard literates" is the name of the cooperative " GOODS I SHCH", restaurant "Reortir", shops "Chay", "Gallery of shoes", "Shoes", "APBATςKAÿ LABITSA", etc.

On the contrary, the presence of Latin elements in any name becomes a symbol of novelty, fashion today: store " CONTAINER", restaurant "Skvoznyak", party "Zavod SHOW", play "Bummer off ", a snack for beer" BEERka ", Internet cafe " Star ", cocktail bar " KEEP ON ”, etc. Note that the question of the romanization of the Russian alphabet as a whole has been raised more than once: it first arose back in 1927, and even today there are voices of supporters of such a reform.

Manipulating two alphabets in modern text serves as a technique of a language game, is used as a means of expressiveness and switching attention: for example, by mixing alphabets in the title of the show "The Bronze Horseman-3003" (the plot of Pushkin's poem takes place in 3003), the fusion of the classical and innovative is emphasized; title of the article ART PLAQUE » pushes Russian artillery attack (‘unexpected massive artillery attack’) and foreign language art- (from English art ‘art’;art business, art gallery, art dealeretc.) and due to this it acquires the meaning of ‘attack on art’; in expressions Propaganda and playing against the rulesthe meaning of the term “PR” is read, etc.

So answering the question of how many letters are in the modern Russian alphabet is not so easy ...

In fairness, it should be noted that the mixing of the Russian and Latin alphabets has already taken place in our history. In December 1919 Moscow Linguistic Society received a letter from the scientific departmentPeople's Commissariat education, which stated: "In the central institutionsRSFSR the idea arose of the desirability of introducing the Latin script for all nationalities inhabiting the territory of the Republic. The reform would be a logical step along the path that Russia has already embarked on by adoptingnew calendar style And metric system of measures and weights . The initiators see it as an essential means for strengthening international cultural ties... The planned transformation would be, firstly, the completionalphabetical reform , completed at the timePeter I , and, secondly, it would be in connection with the last spelling reform.

This letter was discussed at the meetings of the Moscow Linguistic Society, whose members were the largest Russian linguists. First, they answered the question: is it possible to replace the Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin one at all? “As for the fundamental, theoretical side of the matter,” the scientists wrote, “from a scientific point of view, there is nocontraindications for use with known changes in the Latin alphabet instead of the usual Russian font, just as there would be no objections to any other alphabet, as long as it wasproperly adapted to transmit the sounds of Russian speech.

Much more important, from the point of view of linguists, was the second, practical question: is this reform necessary? Replacing the alphabet would lead to a break with the traditions of Russian culture. And then all the books written and published before Latinization, foreverslammed shut would be for new readers, or they would have to master two graphic systems at once ...

One often hears: "This language sounds nice" or "I don't like the way this language sounds."Melodika language causes certain associations; for example, forOsip Mandelstam English sounded "more piercing whistle". However, there is also the aesthetics (beauty) of writing that affects the eye, and it is undoubtedly an important part of culture. For many people, Pushkin's poems,recruited in Latin, will cease to be poems by a beloved poet, but will turn into poems by a certain Pushkin. Or Ruskina ? And the famous lines of his poem might look like this:Ja vas lúbil: lúbov "eščo, byt" možet..." Graphics and spelling are the most conservative areas of culture. They never dieon their own even if very uncomfortable. To reform them, powerful external factors are needed. Culture develops gradually, step by step. At the same time, the Russian alphabet and spelling changed slowly, century after century...

CONCLUSION

The history of the emergence and development of the Russian alphabet is unique. The Russian alphabet has come a long way of becoming. Throughout the history of the Russian alphabet, there was a struggle with "superfluous" letters, which culminated in a partial victory in the reform of graphics by Peter I (1708-1710) and a final victory in the spelling reform of 1917-1918.

I would like to believe that the Russian alphabet, and with it oral and written speech, will be able to cope with the expansion of the Latin alphabet, with an abundance of borrowings, often duplicating native Russian words and littering “the great, mighty, truthful and free Russian language ... It is impossible to believe that such a language was not given to a great people!”

May 24 - Day of Slavic culture and writing (Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius), a holiday known as the day of memory of the first teachers of the Slavic peoples - the brothers Cyril and Methodius. The celebration of the memory of the holy brothers in the old days took place among all Slavic peoples, but then, under the influence of historical and political circumstances, it was lost. IN early XIX century, along with the revival of the Slavic peoples, the memory of the Slavic first teachers was also renewed. In 1863, a decision was made in Rus' to celebrate the memory of Saints Cyril and Methodius.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Zemskaya E. A. Russian colloquial speech / Ed. Kitaygrodskoy M.V. - M.: Nauka, 1981. - 276 p.

2. Ivanov V. V., Potikha Z. A. Historical commentary on Russian language classes inhigh school . - M.: Enlightenment, 1985. - 200 p.

3. Ivanova VF Modern Russian language. Graphics and spelling. - M.: Enlightenment, 1976. - 50 p.

4. Ivanova T. A. Old Slavonic language. - M.: Higher School, 1977. - 482 p.

5. Likhachev D. S. Questions of history. – M.: Nauka, 1951. – 260 p.

6. Likhachev D. S. Monuments of literature of Ancient Rus'. – M.: Nauka, 1988. – 158 p.

7. Minin Yu. P. The solution of the Russian alphabet / Ed. Ivanova K. R. - M .: Culture, 1985. - 143 p.

8. Rosenthal D. E., Golub I. B., Telenkova M. A. Modern Russian language. - M.: Iris-Press, 2002. - 250 p.

9. Speransky M. N. Russian forgery of manuscripts at the beginning of the 19th century. // Problems of source studies. M.: Slovo, 1986. V.5. P.72.

10. Yakubinsky L.P. History of the Old Russian language. - Moscow.: Higher School, 1953. – 450 s.

11. http://www. detisavve. en

12.https://ru.wikipedia.org/

Alphabet.

The Guinness Book of Records says...

ancient

The earliest example of alphabetic writing was found in Ugarit (now Ras Sharma, Syria). It dates from approximately 1450 BC. e. and is a clay tablet with 32 cuneiform letters applied to it.

The oldest letter

The most ancient letter "o" remained unchanged in the same form in which it was adopted in the Phoenician alphabet (about 1300 BC). There are currently 65 alphabets in use.

The longest and shortest alphabets

The largest number of letters - 72 - is contained in the Khmer language, the smallest - 11 (a, b, e, g, i, k, o, p, t, u) - in the Rotokas language from the island of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.

Origin of the Russian alphabet.

The alphabet in the 33-letter form familiar to us did not always exist. The alphabet, called Old Slavonic, or Church Slavonic, served as a prototype for it.

The appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet, which goes back to the Greek language, is traditionally associated with the activities of the famous educators Cyril and Methodius.

The Old Church Slavonic language, being the language of the church in Rus', was influenced by the Old Russian language. Thus, the Russian alphabet originated from the Old Russian Cyrillic alphabet, which was borrowed from the Greeks and became widespread in Kievan Rus after the adoption of Christianity (988).

At that time, it had, apparently, 43 letters. He looked like this:

It is easy to see that some Cyrillic letters sound like our modern words: “good”, “earth”, “people”. Others - az, beeches, lead ... What do they mean and what is their origin?

A3 is the first person singular personal pronoun.

BUKI is a letter. There were quite a few words with an unusual for us form of the nominative case of the singular: “kry” - blood, “bry” - an eyebrow, “lyuby” - love.

LEAD - a form of the verb "lead" - to know.

VERB - a form of the verb "verb" - to speak.

GOOD - the meaning is clear.

IS - the third person singular of the present tense from the verb "to be".

LIVE - second person plural present tense from the verb "to live".

ZELO - an adverb with the meaning "very", "strongly", "very".

LIKE (AND OCTAL) - a pronoun with the meaning "that", "which". In Church Slavonic, the union is "what". This letter was called “octal” because it had the numerical value of the number 8.

AND (AND DECIMAL) - was called so by its numerical value - 10.

WHAT is an interrogative adverb "how".

PEOPLE - the meaning is self-explanatory.

THOUGHT - a form of the verb "think".

OUR is a possessive pronoun.

OH is the third person singular personal pronoun.

РЦЫ - a form from the verb "speech", to speak.

WORD - the meaning is beyond doubt.

HARD - also does not require comments.

UK - in Old Slavonic - teaching.

FERT - the etymology of this letter name has not been reliably elucidated by scientists. From the outline of the sign came the expression "stand by the fert", that is, "hands on the hips."

HER - it is believed that this is an abbreviation of the word "cherub", the name of one of the ranks of the angels. Since the letter is “cruciform”, the meaning of the verb “fuck” has developed - cross out, abolish, destroy.

OH THE GREAT - Greek omega, which we named after the letter "he".

TSY is an onomatopoeic name.

WORM - in the Old Slavonic and Old Russian languages, the word "worm" meant "red paint", and not just "worm". The name of the letter was given acrophonic - the word "worm" began precisely with "h".

SHA, SHA - both letters are named according to the principle familiar to us: the sound signified by the letter itself plus any vowel sound before and after it.

ERY - the compound name of this letter - "er" plus "i" - was, as it were, a "description" of its form. We have already renamed it to "s" a long time ago.

EP, ER - conditional names of letters that ceased to express the sounds of incomplete education and became simply "signs".

YAT - it is believed that the name of the letter "yat" can be associated with "yad" - food, food.

Yu, I - these letters were called according to their sound: "yu", "ya", as well as the letter "ye", meaning "iotized e".

YUS - the origin of the name is unclear. They tried to derive it from the word "mustache", which in the Old Bulgarian language sounded with a nasal sound at the beginning, or from the word "yusenitsa" - a caterpillar. The explanations do not seem indisputable.

FITA - in this form, the name of the Greek letter Θ, which was called in different time then “theta”, then “fita” and, accordingly, meaning either a sound close to “f”, or the sound that Western alphabets now convey with the letters TN. We hear it close to our "g". The Slavs adopted "fita" at a time when it was read as "f". That is why, for example, the word "library" we wrote "vivliofika" until the 18th century.

Izhitsa - Greek "upsilon", which conveyed the sound, as if standing between our "and" and "yu" in the name "Hugo". Initially, this sound was transmitted in different ways, imitating the Greeks, and the Slavs. So, the Greek name "Cyrillos", a diminutive of "Kyuros" - lord, was usually transmitted as "Cyril", but the pronunciation "Kurill" was also possible. In the epics, "Kyurill" was remade into "Chyurilo". In the west of Ukraine there was until recently the place "Kurilovtsy" - the descendants of the "Kurila".

Time is rapidly rushing forward and making its own adjustments. Some letters disappeared, new ones appeared in their place.

Subsequently, some abolished letters were restored and canceled again. By 1917, the alphabet came in a 35-letter (officially; in fact there were 37 letters) composition: A, B, C, D, D, E, (Yo was not considered a separate letter), F, Z, I, (Y was not considered a separate letter considered), I, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, C, T, U, F, X, C, H, W, W, b, S, b, Ѣ, E, Yu, I , v, v. (The last letter was formally listed in the Russian alphabet, but de facto its use has almost disappeared, and it was found in just a few words).

The last major writing reform was carried out in 1917-1918 - as a result, the current Russian alphabet appeared, consisting of 33 letters. This alphabet also became the written basis for most of the languages of the USSR, for which there was no written language before the 20th century or was replaced during the years of Soviet power.

“Where does the Motherland begin,” as is sung in an old and soulful song? And it starts small: with love for the native language, with the alphabet. Since childhood, we have all become accustomed to a certain type of letters in the alphabet of the Russian language. And as a rule, we rarely think: when and under what conditions did it arise. Nevertheless, the presence and emergence of writing is an important and fundamental milestone in the historical maturation of every nation in the world, contributing to the development of its national culture and self-consciousness. Sometimes, in the depths of centuries, the specific names of the creators of the writing of a particular people are lost. But in the Slavic context, this did not happen. And those who invented the Russian alphabet are still known. Let's find out more about these people.

The very word "alphabet" comes from the first two letters: alpha and beta. It is known that the ancient Greeks put a lot of effort into the development and spread of writing in many European countries. Who first invented the alphabet in world history? There are scholarly debates about this. The main hypothesis is the Sumerian "alphabet", which appears about five thousand years ago. Egyptian is also considered one of the most ancient (of the known). Writing develops from drawings to signs, turning into graphic systems. And the signs began to display sounds.

The development of writing in the history of mankind is difficult to overestimate. The language of the people, its writing reflects life, way of life and knowledge, historical and mythological characters. Thus, by reading ancient inscriptions, modern scientists can recreate what our ancestors lived.

History of the Russian alphabet

It has, one might say, a unique origin. Its history is about a thousand years old, it keeps many secrets.

Cyril and Methodius

The creation of the alphabet is firmly associated with these names in the question of who invented the Russian alphabet. Let's go back to the ninth century. In those days (830-906) Great Moravia (a region of the Czech Republic) was one of the major European states. And Byzantium was the center of Christianity. The Moravian prince Rostislav in 863 turned to Michael III, the Byzantine emperor at that time, with a request to hold services in the Slavic language in order to strengthen the influence of Byzantine Christianity in the region. In those days, it is worth noting, the cult was sent only in those languages that were displayed on the Jesus cross: Hebrew, Latin and Greek.

The Byzantine ruler, in response to the proposal of Rostislav, sends a Moravian mission to him, consisting of two monk brothers, sons of a noble Greek who lived in Saluny (Thessaloniki). Michael (Methodius) and Constantine (Cyril) and are considered the official creators of the Slavic alphabet for church service. She is in honor church name Cyril and received the name "Cyrillic". Konstantin himself was younger than Michael, but even his brother recognized his intelligence and superiority in knowledge. Cyril knew many languages and owned oratory, participated in religious verbal disputes, was a wonderful organizer. This, according to many scientists, allowed him (together with his brother and other assistants) to connect and summarize the data, creating the alphabet. But the history of the Russian alphabet began long before the Moravian mission. And that's why.

Who invented the Russian alphabet (alphabet)

The fact is that historians have unearthed interesting fact: even before their departure, the brothers had already created the Slavic alphabet, well adapted to transmit the speech of the Slavs. It was called Glagolitic (it was recreated on the basis of Greek writing with elements of Coptic and Hebrew characters).

Glagolitic or Cyrillic?

Today scientists different countries for the most part, they recognize the fact that the Glagolitic alphabet, created by Cyril back in 863 in Byzantium, was the first. He introduced her in a fairly short time. And another, different from the previous one, the Cyrillic alphabet was invented in Bulgaria, a little later. And there are still disputes about the authorship of this, undoubtedly, a cornerstone invention for the pan-Slavic history. After Short story Russian alphabet (Cyrillic) is as follows: in the tenth century it penetrates into Rus' from Bulgaria, and its written fixation is fully formalized only in the XIV century. In more modern form- since the end of the XVI century.

Approximately in 863, two brothers Methodius and Cyril the Philosopher (Konstantin) from Thessaloniki (Thessalonica), by order of Michael III, the Byzantine emperor, made ordering of writing for the Slavic language. The emergence of the Cyrillic alphabet, which comes from the Greek statutory (solemn) letter, is linked to the activities carried out by the Bulgarian school of scribes (after Methodius and Cyril).

After 860, when Christianity was adopted in Bulgaria by the holy Tsar Boris, Bulgaria becomes the center from which Slavic writing began to spread. The Preslav book school was created here - the first book school of the Slavs, where they copied the originals of the Cyril and Methodius liturgical books (church services, the Psalter, the Gospel, the Apostle), made new translations into Slavic from Greek, original works written in Old Slavonic appeared (for example, “On the writings of Chrnorizets the Brave”).

Later, the Old Church Slavonic language penetrated into Serbia, and by the end of the 10th century. in Kievan Rus church language. Being the language of the church in Rus', the Old Slavonic language was influenced by the Old Russian language. This, in fact, was the Old Slavonic language, but only in the Russian version, since it contained living elements of the speech of the Eastern Slavs.

Thus, the progenitor of the Russian alphabet is the Old Russian Cyrillic alphabet, borrowed from the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet and spread after the baptism of Kievan Rus (988). Then, most likely, there were 43 letters in the alphabet.

Later, 4 new letters were added, and at different times, 14 old letters were excluded as unnecessary, since the corresponding sounds disappeared. Iotated yuses (Ѭ, Ѩ) disappear first of all, then big yus (Ѫ) (which returned in the 15th century, but disappeared again at the beginning of the 17th century), and iotated E (Ѥ); other letters, sometimes slightly changing their form and meaning, have remained to this day in the alphabet of the Church Slavonic language, which has long and erroneously been identified with the Russian alphabet.

Spelling reforms of the 2nd half of the 17th century. (associated with the “correction of books” during the time of Patriarch Nikon) the following letter set was recorded: A, B, C, D, D, E (with an excellent orthographic variant of Є, which was sometimes considered a separate letter and put in the alphabet after Ѣ, i.e. . in the position of today's E), Zh, S, Z, I (for the sound [j] there was a variant Y that was different in spelling, which was not considered a separate letter), I, K, L, M, N, O (in 2 forms that differed orthographically: “wide” and “narrow”), P, R, S, T, U (in 2 forms that differed orthographically: Ѹ and), F, X, Ѡ (in 2 forms that differed spelling: “wide” and “narrow”, and also as part of the ligature, which was usually considered a separate letter - “from” (Ѿ)), C, CH, W, SH, b, Y, b, Ѣ, Yu, I ( in 2 forms: Ѧ and IA, which were sometimes considered different letters, and sometimes not), Ѯ, Ѱ, Ѳ, ѳ. A large yus (Ѫ) and a letter called “ik” (similar in form to the current letter “y”) were also sometimes introduced into the alphabet, although they had no sound meaning and were not used in any words.

In this form, the Russian alphabet existed until 1708-1711, i.e. before the reforms of Tsar Peter I (Church Slavonic remains the same now). At that time, superscripts were abolished (this “abolished” the letter Y) and many doublet letters used to write different numbers were removed (with the introduction of Arabic numerals, this became irrelevant). Then a number of abolished letters were returned and canceled again.

By 1917, there were officially 35 letters in the alphabet (in fact, 37): A, B, C, D, D, E, (Yo was not considered a separate letter), Zh, Z, I, (Y was not considered a separate letter), I, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, F, X, C, H, W, W, b, S, b, Ѣ, E, Yu, I, Ѳ, ѳ. (Formally, the last letter in the Russian alphabet was listed, but in fact it was almost never used, occurring only in a few words).

The result of the last major writing reform of 1917-1918 was the emergence of the current Russian alphabet of 33 letters. It also became the written basis for most of the languages of the peoples of the USSR, which until the twentieth century. there was no written language or it was replaced by Cyrillic during the years of Soviet power.

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Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher vocational education"Moscow State Engineering University (MAMI)"

Essay

by discipline" Russian language and culture of speech"

Subject:" OriginRussian alphabet"

Completed by: Beletsky I.M.

Checked by: Zmazneva O.A.

Moscow 2012

Introduction

When transmitting speech in writing, letters are used, each of which has a specific meaning. A set of letters arranged in a prescribed order is called an alphabet or alphabet.

The word alphabet comes from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: b- alpha; in-- beta (in modern Greek - vita).

The word alphabet comes from the name of the first two letters of the ancient Slavic alphabet - Cyrillic: A - az; B - beeches.

Alphabet, a writing system based on more or less strict adherence to the so-called phonetic principle, according to which one character (one letter) corresponds to one sound of a certain language.

In the 1st century AD, our ancestors lived on the territory of Europe - the tribes of the Slavs, who spoke the ancient language (scientists gave it the name Proto-Slavic language). Over time, these tribes settled in different territories, and their common language also began to disintegrate: the Proto-Slavic language formed various branches. One such branch was the Old Russian language - the predecessor of the Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian languages.

The need for writing arose among the Slavs in the 9th century with the emergence of such states as Serbia, Bulgaria, Poland, Croatia, and the Czech Republic. And when Christianity replaced the ancient paganism (Rus' adopted Christianity in 988), the need for writing increased even more (there was a need for economic and cultural ties with other states).

Our distant ancestors, the Slavs, formed the Old Russian nationality, which included the East Slavic tribes of the Polyans, Drevlyans, Krivichi, Vyatichi. On the territory adjacent to the middle reaches of the Dnieper, inhabited by meadows, a powerful state appeared - Kievan Rus. IN Kievan Rus the first church books written in Old Church Slavonic began to arrive. This language was formed on the basis of translations from the Greek language of the first Christian books and had big influence on the development of many Slavic languages. The continuation of the Old Slavonic language as a literary language was Church Slavonic.

People already used some letters of the Greek alphabet for counting and writing, but it had to be streamlined, systematized, adapted for use in new conditions. The first Slavic alphabet - Cyrillic - was created on the basis of the Greek alphabet in 863. This alphabet (of course, in a modified version) we use now.

The purpose of the work is to find out how and under what conditions the Russian alphabet originated, developed and changed. The abstract used as sources of information: numerous Orthodox forums, encyclopedias and dictionaries.

Story

At the beginning of the second half of the 9th century, the Great Moravian state was one of the largest Slavic state formations. Since 846, Prince Rostislav ruled Great Moravia, who enjoyed special fame and courageously guarded the freedom of his people. Burdened by his dependence on the Germans and realizing that the Slavs cannot get rid of the influence of dangerous neighbors on their own, he decided, together with his nephew Svyatopolk, to seek help from those who, and their needs, both spiritual and civil, or rather could help in that same time would not be dangerous.

At that time, Christian preachers from Greece, Wallachia and Germany were already active in Moravia, and Prince Rostislav received holy baptism from one of them. Being enlightened by the light of the Christian faith, the noble prince took care of the spiritual awakening of his people.

At the same time, he perfectly understood that the preaching of Christianity could not be successful if the missionaries replaced its lofty goals. political interests and, moreover, to teach the people in a foreign, incomprehensible language.

At first, Prince Rostislav turned with his needs to Pope Nicholas I, who was then on the throne of Rome, but he, being an ally of the German king Louis, did not respond to the request of the prince. Then Rostislav in 862 sends an embassy to the Byzantine Emperor Michael III. In his letter, the prince wrote: Our people have rejected paganism and adopted the Christian law; but we do not have a teacher who would reveal to us the true Christian faith in our native language, so that other countries would follow our example. Therefore, we ask you, sovereign Sovereign, to send us such a bishop and teacher. Good law always comes from you in all countries".

Emperor Michael did not hesitate to answer: the best of the best were sent to the Great Moravian mission - the Thessalonica brothers Cyril and Methodius. They were unusually educated people for their time, ascetics, prayer books, men with rich experience in missionary work.

Cyril and Methodius came to the Great Moravian state through Bulgaria in 863 and handed over to Prince Rostislav a letter from St. Photius. In it, the patriarch wrote, addressing the prince: " God, who commands every nation to come to the knowledge of the truth and achieve the honor of a higher rank, has looked at your faith and efforts. Having arranged this now in our years, He also revealed the writings in your language, which previously did not exist, but now exist recently, so that you too may be numbered among the great nations who praise God inhisnative language. Wherefore, we have sent to you the one to whom they were revealed, a precious and illustrious man, veryscientist, philosopher. Behold, accept this gift, better and more worthy than all gold, silver, and gems and all transitory wealth. Try together with him to boldly affirm the matter and seek God with all your heart and not close salvation for the whole people, but in every possible way encourage them so that they do not become lazy, but take the path of truth, so that you, ifbringtheir efforts to know God, accepted the reward both in this and in the next life for all the souls who believe in Christ our God from now to the age, and left a bright memory for future generations, like the great Tsar Constantine".

Prince Rostislav rendered all kinds of assistance to the brothers. First of all, he gathered many youths and ordered them to learn the Slavic alphabet from the translated books, then, under the guidance of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, he began to build churches. A year later, the first church in the city of Olomouc was already completed, and then several more churches were built.

The successful missionary activity of Saints Cyril and Methodius, supported by the holy prince Rostislav, laid the foundations for the independence of the Great Moravian state, and therefore aroused sharp opposition from the German princes and clergy, who pursued their interests in the Slavic states.

The Latin missionaries accused the brothers of using "an unsanctified language" in worship, and of spreading the false doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Having consecrated the books of Holy Scripture translated into Slavonic by the holy brothers, the Orthodox Pope Adrian II composed a message to the Holy Prince Rostislav: But if anyone dares to censure the said teachers, and to pervert from the truth to fables, or, corrupting you, to blaspheme the books of your language, let himexcommunicatedand presented to the judgment of the church and until then he will not receive forgiveness until he is corrected. For these are wolves, not sheep, and one must recognize them by their fruits and beware of them ...".

Formation

The mission of the brothers was to explain the Christian doctrine to people in their native language. And for this it was necessary first to translate the liturgical books from Greek into Slavonic. That is why Cyril and Methodius took up the development of a new alphabet. They even created 2 alphabets - Cyrillic and Glagolitic, but the Glagolitic alphabet was forgotten over time (in Rus' it was used only in the very first years of the development and spread of writing). Our Russian alphabet comes from Cyrillic. On its basis, the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Bulgarian alphabets were also created - that is why these languages are so similar.

Of course, the alphabet that we use now bears little resemblance to the ancient Old Slavonic alphabet. And the modern Russian language is also very different from the Old Slavonic and Old Russian languages.

Cyrillic is in many ways similar to our modern writing. If you look at the letters of this alphabet, you will see that many letters have disappeared from our modern use:

Yus big and yus small (they denoted nasal vowels; these sounds remained in Polish and French);

We use the letter f instead of fita and firth;

instead of green and earth - the letter z;

· instead of yat and is - the letter e;

xi and psi.

And of course, many Cyrillic letters have changed their style over time. The names of modern letters have also become shorter.

Cyrillic letters originally also had a numerical value, that is, they were used instead of numbers.

The Cyrillic alphabet had several types of styles. For a long time (especially among the Eastern Slavs), the charter letter, or charter, was preserved: Cyrillic letters were written directly, one separately from the other. By the charter they wrote mainly liturgical books. Over time, the statute was replaced by a semi-statute, which is found in books of the 15th-17th centuries. The font of the first Russian printed books was cast according to the model of the semi-ustav.

The semi-ustav was replaced by cursive writing, in which the original outline of Cyrillic letters has changed significantly. Starting from the time of Peter I, the Cyrillic alphabet, from which some letters were excluded, was called the Russian civil alphabet. So a slightly modified Cyrillic alphabet formed the basis of our modern alphabet.

Literacy was highly valued in Rus'. From the depths of centuries, monuments of ancient Russian writing have come down to us: church books, codes of laws, business documents, annals, literary works. The oldest surviving Russian handwritten books date back to the 11th century. Rewriting by hand in ancient Rus' was the only way to "replicate" the book and distribute it among literate people.

The advent of printing in Rus' was the beginning of a new era

Glagolitic

" The Life of Cyril" tells about the creation of the Slavic alphabet: " With the help of his brother, Saint Methodius (Michael) and the disciples of Gorazd, Clement, Savva, Naum and Angelyar, he compiled the Slavic alphabet and translated into Slavonic books, without which Divine services could not be performed.".

A number of facts indicate that the Glagolitic alphabet was created before the Cyrillic alphabet, and that, in turn, was created on the basis of the Glagolitic alphabet and the Greek alphabet. The oldest surviving Glagolitic inscription with exact dating dates back to 893, made in the church of the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon in Preslav. And the oldest handwritten monuments (including the Kiev Leaflets, dating back to the 10th century) are written in the Glagolitic alphabet, moreover, they are written in a more archaic language, close in phonetic composition to the language of the southern Slavs.

The great antiquity of the Glagolitic alphabet is also indicated by palimpsests (manuscripts on parchment in which the old text is scraped off and a new one is written on it). On all surviving palimpsests, the Glagolitic alphabet has been scraped off, and the new text is written in Cyrillic. There is not a single palimpsest in which the Cyrillic alphabet would be scraped off and the Glagolitic alphabet written on it. In the treatise "On Letters" Chernorizets Khrabr (beginning of the 10th century) emphasizes the difference in writing Greek letters and the Slavic alphabet of Cyril and Methodius, apparently Glagolitic:

"The same Slavic letters are more holy and honorable that the holy man created them, and the Greek ones are filthy Hellenes. If someone says that they did not do good because they are still finishing them, in response we will say this: the Greek ones also completed many times"

From the above quote, we can conclude that there was a certain dissatisfaction with the alphabet of Cyril and Methodius, which, perhaps, led to the transition to Cyrillic.

Late Glagolitic alphabet

Figure 1 - Late Glagolitic alphabet.

In popular literature, there is an opinion that the Glagolitic alphabet was founded by Constantine (Cyril) the Philosopher on some ancient Slavic, which was allegedly used for sacred pagan and worldly purposes before the adoption of Christianity in the ancient Slavic states; there is no clear evidence for this (as well as for the existence of "Slavic runes" in general). The Roman Catholic Church, in the fight against the service in the Slavic language among the Croats, called the Glagolitic "Gothic scripts". At the Council of Bishops of Dalmatia and Croatia in 1059:

"They said that the Gothic letters were invented by a certain heretic Methodius, who in this very Slavic language wrote a lot of falsehood against the teachings of the Catholic faith; because of this, they say, he was punished by God's judgment with an imminent death" alphabet phonetic letter

The appearance of the letters of the early (round) Glagolitic alphabet somewhat coincides with the Khutsuri, the Georgian church alphabet, created before the 9th century, possibly on the basis of the Armenian one. In addition, the number of letters in the Khutsuri, 38, coincides with the number of letters in the Slavic alphabet, counted by Chernorizets the Brave in his treatise. In some letters (and in general in the system of drawing small circles at the ends of lines) there is a striking resemblance to medieval Jewish Kabbalistic scripts and Icelandic "runic" cryptography. All this may not be accidental, since it is recognized that St. Constantine the Philosopher was familiar with the Eastern alphabets (he read Hebrew texts in the original), which is also mentioned in the life of the saint. The outline of most Glagolitic letters is usually derived from Greek cursive, and for non-Greek sounds, the Hebrew alphabet is used, but there are almost no indisputable explanations of the form for almost a single letter.

The Glagolic and Cyrillic alphabets in their most ancient versions almost completely coincide in composition, differing only in the shape of the letters. When republishing Glagolitic texts in a typographical way, the Glagolitic letters are usually replaced by Cyrillic (since today few people can read the Glagolitic). However, the numerical value of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic letters does not match, which sometimes leads to misunderstandings. In Glagolitic, the numerical values of letters are ordered according to the order of the letters, while in Cyrillic they are tied to the numerical values of the corresponding letters of the Greek alphabet.

Usually they speak of two types of Glagolitic: the older "round", also known as Bulgarian, and the later "angular", Croatian (so named because, until the middle of the 20th century, it was used by Croatian Catholics when performing divine services according to the Glagolitic rite). The alphabet of the latter was gradually reduced from 41 to 30 characters. Along with the statutory bookish script, there was also a Glagolitic italic script (cursive script).

In ancient Rus', the Glagolitic alphabet was practically not used, there are only individual inclusions of Glagolitic letters in texts written in Cyrillic. The Glagolitic alphabet was the alphabet for transmitting, first of all, church texts, the surviving ancient Russian monuments of everyday writing before the baptism of Rus' (the earliest: an inscription on a pot from the Gnezdovo barrow, dating from the 1st half of the 10th century) use the Cyrillic alphabet. There is a use of the Glagolitic script as a cryptography.

Cyrillic

The appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet, which reproduces the Greek statutory (solemn) letter, is associated with the activities of the Bulgarian school of scribes (after Cyril and Methodius). In particular, in the life of St. Clement of Ohrid is directly written about the creation of Slavic writing by him after Cyril and Methodius. Thanks to the previous activities of the brothers, the alphabet became widespread in the South Slavic lands, which led in 885 to the prohibition of its use in the church service by the pope, who fought against the results of the mission of Constantine-Cyril and Methodius.

In Bulgaria, the holy Tsar Boris in 860 converted to Christianity. Bulgaria becomes the center for the dissemination of Slavic writing. Here the first Slavic book school is created - the Preslav book school - the Cyrillic and Methodius originals of liturgical books (the Gospel, the Psalter, the Apostle, church services) are copied, new Slavic translations from the Greek language are made, original works in the Old Slavonic language appear ("On the writing of Chrnorizets the Brave" ).

The widespread use of Slavic writing, its "golden age", dates back to the reign of Tsar Simeon the Great in Bulgaria (893-927), son of Tsar Boris. Later, the Old Church Slavonic language penetrated into Serbia, and at the end of the 10th century it became the language of the church in Kievan Rus.

The Old Church Slavonic language, being the language of the church in Rus', was influenced by the Old Russian language. It was the Old Slavonic language of the Russian edition, as it included elements of living East Slavic speech.

Initially, the Cyrillic alphabet was used by part of the southern Slavs, the Eastern Slavs, and also the Romanians (see the article "Romanian Cyrillic"); over time, their alphabets diverged somewhat from each other, although the style of letters and the principles of spelling remained (with the exception of the West Serbian variant, the so-called bosančica) as a whole.

Cyrillic alphabet

Figure 2 - Cyrillic.

The composition of the original Cyrillic alphabet is unknown to us; the "classic" Old Slavonic Cyrillic of 43 letters, probably partly contains later letters (ы, у, iotized). The Cyrillic alphabet entirely includes the Greek alphabet, but some purely Greek letters (ksi, psi, fita, izhitsa) are not in their original place, but are moved to the end. Some letters of the Cyrillic alphabet, which are absent in the Greek alphabet, are close to Glagolitic in outline. Ts and Sh are outwardly similar to some letters of a number of alphabets of that time (Aramaic, Ethiopian, Coptic, Hebrew, Brahmi) and it is not possible to unequivocally establish the source of the borrowing. B is similar in outline to C, U with Sh. The principles of creating digraphs in Cyrillic (Y from ЪІ, OY, iotized letters) generally follow the Glagolitic ones.

Cyrillic letters are used to write numbers exactly according to the Greek system. Instead of a pair of completely archaic signs - sampi and stigma - which are not even included in the classical 24-letter Greek alphabet, other Slavic letters are adapted - Ts (900) and S (6); subsequently, the third such sign, koppa, originally used in Cyrillic to denote 90, was replaced by the letter Ch. Some letters that are absent in the Greek alphabet (for example, B, Zh) do not have a numerical value. This distinguishes the Cyrillic alphabet from the Glagolitic alphabet, where the numerical values did not correspond to the Greek ones and these letters were not skipped.

Cyrillic letters have their own names, according to various common Slavic names that begin with them, or directly taken from Greek (xi, psi); the etymology of a number of names is disputed.

The appearance of the Russian alphabet

The Russian alphabet came from the Old Russian Cyrillic, which, in turn, was borrowed from the Bulgarians and became widespread in Rus' after the adoption of Christianity (988).

At this point in it was, apparently, 43 letters. 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 (?, ?) disappeared first of all, then the big yus (?), which returned in the 15th century, but disappeared again at the beginning of the 17th century, and the iotized E (?); the remaining 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 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?), 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, ? (in two orthographically different styles: "narrow" and "wide", as well as in the ligature "from" (?), usually considered a separate letter), Ts, Ch, Sh, Sh, b, Y, b, ?, Yu , I (in two styles: IA and ?, which were sometimes considered different letters, sometimes not), ?, ?, ?, ?. Sometimes the alphabet also included a big yus (?) and the so-called "ik" (in the form of the current letter "y"), although they had no sound meaning and were not used in any word.

In this form, the Russian alphabet remained until the reforms of Peter I in 1708-1711. (and Church Slavonic is still the same today), when superscripts were eliminated (which in between times "cancelled" the letter Y) and many doublet letters and letters used to write numbers were abolished (which became irrelevant after the transition to Arabic numerals). In the 19th century, separate alphabets for the Ukrainian and Belarusian dialects began to be developed, slightly different from the main one. Subsequently, some abolished letters were restored and canceled again. By 1917, the alphabet came in a 34-letter (officially; in fact there were 37 letters) composition: A, B, C, D, D, E, (Yo was not considered a separate letter), F, Z, I, (Y was not considered a separate letter considered), I, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, C, T, U, F, X, C, H, W, W, b, S, b, ?, E, Yu, I , ?, (? was considered no longer included in the Russian alphabet).

The last major writing reform was carried out in 1917-1918 - as a result, the current Great Russian alphabet appeared, consisting of 33 letters. This alphabet also became the basis of many newly written languages (the writing for which was absent or lost before the 20th century and was introduced in the republics of the USSR after the Great October Socialist Revolution).

Letter reforms

§ psi (?)- canceled by Peter I (replaced by a combination PS), was not restored (although the use of this letter in the alphabet of 1717 is noted).

§ Xi (?) - canceled by Peter I (replaced by a combination KS), later restored, finally abolished in 1735. In civil type, it looked like an Izhitsa with a tail.

§ Omega (?) and from(?) - canceled by Peter I (replaced by ABOUT and combination FROM respectively) were not restored.

§ Firth (F) and fita (?) - Peter I in 1707-1708 canceled was firth F(leaving fit ? ), but returned it in 1710, restoring the Church Slavonic rules for the use of these letters; phyta was abolished by the reform of 1917-1918.

§ Izhitsa (?) - canceled by Peter I (replaced by I or IN, depending on pronunciation), later restored, canceled again in 1735, restored again in 1758 ... It was used less and less and from the 1870s it was usually considered abolished and no longer included in the Russian alphabet, although until 1917-1918 gg. sometimes used in separate words (usually in m?ro with derivatives, less often - in with? nod with derivatives, even less often - in fasting and so on.). In the documents of the orthographic reform of 1917-1918. not mentioned.

§ І And AND AND, but then returned, changing the rules for the use of these letters in comparison with Church Slavonic (later Church Slavonic rules were restored). The rules regarding the number of dots over І : Peter canceled them; then it was ordered to put two dots over І before vowels, and one before consonants; finally, since 1738, the point has become the same everywhere. Letter І abolished by the reforms of 1917-1918.

§ Y- this sign, canceled by Peter I, was returned to the civil press in 1735 (it is usually said that it was then that it was introduced); was not considered a separate letter until the 20th century.

§ W And Ѕ - Peter I first canceled the letter W, but then returned, canceling Ѕ .

§ IA and small yus (?) - replaced by Peter I with the inscription I(used earlier and originating from the cursive form of the small yus).

§ - replaced by Peter I with the inscription in the form of the current letter At.

§ Yat (?) - abolished by the reform of 1917-1918.

§ E- has been used since the middle of the 17th century (it is considered borrowed from the Glagolitic), officially introduced into the alphabet in 1708.

§ Yo- proposed in 1783 by Princess E.R. Dashkova, used since 1795, popular since 1797 at the suggestion of N.M. Karamzin (it should be noted that he used the letter Yo only in works of art, but in the famous "History of the Russian State" he managed with traditional spellings through E). Earlier (since 1758) instead of a letter Yo letters were used IO under a common cover. Separate letter alphabet sign Yo became official in the middle of the 20th century. Mandatory for use in the press was in the period from 1942 until the death of I.V. Stalin.

Composition of the Russian alphabet

There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet, of which 10 represent vowels, 21- consonants and 2 letters do not denote special sounds, but serve to convey certain sound features. The Russian alphabet, shown in Table 1, has uppercase (large) and lowercase (small) letters, printed and handwritten letters.

Table 1

Conclusion

So, we saw that the appearance of the Russian alphabet was marked by a very significant step for the Slavic group of peoples. It is hard to imagine what language we would now communicate in, and what alphabet would be used.

After conducting a study of this topic, one can see that the formation of the Russian alphabet was not only difficult and long, but also required many human sacrifices. Due to its "youth", the alphabet is yet to be modified, and I hope that all these changes will help raise the level of the Russian language as a whole.

Literature

1. Grinevich G.E. Proto-Slavic writing. M., 1993.

2. Zinoviev A.V. Cyrillic cryptography. The solution to the logico-mathematical system of the Slavic alphabet. Vladimir, 1991.

3. Minin Yu.P. "The solution of the Russian alphabet". / Ed. Kitaygorodsky M.V., Shiryaeva E.N. - M.: Nauka, 1981

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%F3%F1%F1%EA%E8%E9_%E0%EB%F4%E0%E2%E8%F2

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