The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first letters) is an alphabet used to write six natural Slavic languages (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. An alphabet is a complete standardized set of letters — basic written symbols — each of which roughly represents a phoneme of a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it may have been in the past. ... The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia. ... The Serbian language is one of the standard versions of the Štokavian dialect (former standard was known as Serbo-Croatian language). ... This is a list of languages that have been written in the Cyrillic alphabet at one time or another. ... Asia is the largest and most populous of the Earths continents. ... Pre-1989 division between the West (grey) and Eastern Bloc (orange) superimposed on current national boundaries: Russia (dark orange), other countries of the former USSR (medium orange) and other former communist regimes (light orange). ...

* archaic letters А (А, а) is the first letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Be (Б, б) is the second letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Ve (В, в) is the third letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the sound [v]. In Russian, it is pronounced [f] at the end of a word. ... Ge or He (Г, г) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, pronounced differently in different languages. ... Ghe (Ґ, ґ, also called ge with upturn) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet pronounced like the G in go. Originally part of the Ukrainian and Belarusian alphabets, its function was replaced by the letter Ge (Г) in the Soviet Union. ... De (Д, д) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Dje, or Djerv (Ђ, Ñ’) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, used in the Serbian language to represent the sound , a voiced alveolo-palatal affricate. ... Gje (Ѓ, Ñ“) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, used in the Macedonian language and sometimes equivalent to Ñ’, mainly in Serbian words. ... Ye, or E (Е, е), is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Yo (Ё, Ñ‘) is the seventh letter of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet, invented to replace the recklessly confused е and o for soft o relatively soon after the introduction of the Civil alphabet. ... Ye (Є, Ñ”) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, used in the Ukrainian language to represent the iotated vowel sound /je/. Categories: Cyrillic letters | Writing system stubs ... Zhe (Ж, ж) is the letter of Cyrillic alphabet which represents the voiced postalveolar fricative /Z/ (sound file), the same sound which is represented by s in the English word treasure. Zhe is the 7th letter of the Bulgarian and Belarusian alphabets, the 8th letter in the Macedonian, Russian and Serbian alphabets... Ze (З, з) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant /z/. Its easily confusable with the number 3, for example the stages of the N1 rocket. ... Dze (Ð…, Ñ•) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, used in the Macedonian language; it is, however, much older and is found in the original Slavonic alphabet. ... I or Y (И, и) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet, pronounced [i] in Russian, or [ɪ] in Ukrainian. ... I (І, Ñ–) (also called decimal I, or dotted I) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, used in the Belarusian and Ukrainian languages. ... Yi (Ї, ї) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, used in the Ukrainian language. ... Й, й (Short I) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Je (Ј, ј) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, used in the Serbian and Macedonian languages. ... Ka (К, к) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. ... El (Л, л) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. ... The Cyrillic letter lje (Љ, љ) was originally a ligature of Л and Ь. It is used in the Serbian language. ... Em (М, м) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant /m/. Code positions This article is a substub, the first step on the way to becoming a full article. ... En (Н, н) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant /n/. It looks exactly like the Latin capital letter H. Categories: Cyrillic letters | Writing system stubs ... The Cyrillic letter Nje (Њ, њ) was originally a ligature of Н and Ь. It is used in the Serbian language, where it represents a voiced palatal nasal. ... O (О, о) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the vowel /o/. Categories: Cyrillic letters | Substubs ... Pe (П, п) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant /p/. It arose directly from the Greek letter Pi (Π, Ï€). The shape of capital printed Pe can be described as a square with the bottom line missing, not to be confused with El (Cyrillic), which has a curved left. ... Categories: Cyrillic letters | Stub ... Er (Р, р) is the eighteenth letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Es (С, с) is the nineteenth letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Te (Т, т) is the letter representing the consonant /t/ in the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Tshe (Ћ, Ñ›) is 23rd letter of the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet. ... Kje (Ќ, ќ) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, used in the Macedonian language. ... U (У, у) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the vowel /u/. Categories: Cyrillic letters | Substubs ... Short U (Ў, ў) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the short semi-vowel /u^/ in the Belarusian language. ... Uk (, ) is a letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet. ... Ef (Ф, ф) is the twenty-first letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Kha, or Ha, (Х, х) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant /x/. Categories: Cyrillic letters | Substubs ... Omega (Ѡ, ѡ) is a letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, descended from the Greek Omega (Ω, ω). ... Ot (Ѿ, Ñ¿) is a letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, a ligature of the letters Omega and Te. ... Tse (Ц, ц) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Che (Ч, ч) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant cluster /tS/ or /tS/ (like the ch in change). Categories: Cyrillic letters | Stub ... Dzhe (Џ, џ) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, used in the Macedonian and Serbian languages. ... Sha (Ш, ш) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant sound /ʃ/ or /ʃʲ/. This is equivalent to sh in English, ch in French, sch in German, ÅŸ in Turkish, or sz in Polish. ... Shcha or Shta (Щ, щ) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant // or // in Russian, // or // in Ukrainian, and the consonant // in Bulgarian. ... The letter (Ъ, ÑŠ) of the Cyrillic alphabet is known as the hard sign (твёрдый знак ) in the modern Russian alphabet and as er golyam (ер голям, big yer) in the Bulgarian alphabet. ... Yery (Ы, Ñ‹) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Soft Sign (Ь, ÑŒ) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet (Russian: мягкий знак (mÄ­ahkiy znak) [], Ukrainian: м’який знак (miakyy znak) [], Belarusian: мяккі знак (miakki znak) []). It is named so because it usually indicates softening, or palatalization, of the preceding consonant or of the group of them. ... Yat or Jat (, ) is the 32nd letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet and name of the sound represented by it. ... E or E Oborotnoye (Э, э) is a letter of the Russian alphabet, representing the non-iotated vowel, IPA: or ). Code positions See also Glagolitic alphabet Categories: Cyrillic letters | Writing system stubs ... Yu (Ю, ю) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the iotated vowel /ju/. In common with many Cyrillic letters, it was derived from a digraph, being a ligature of Izhe (then І) or Izhei (then Н, both now И) and Uk (Ѹ, no longer in the alphabet). ... Ya (Я, я) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the iotated vowel (IPA). ... Ya (Я, я) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the iotated vowel /ja/ (SAMPA). ... E iotified (Ѥ, ѥ) is a letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet. ... Little Yus and Big Yus , or Jus, are the letters representing two Common Slavonic nasal vowels, in the early Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets. ... Little Yus and Big Yus , or Jus, are the letters representing two Common Slavonic nasal vowels, in the early Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets. ... Little Yus and Big Yus , or Jus, are the letters representing two Common Slavonic nasal vowels, in the early Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets. ... Little Yus and Big Yus , or Jus, are the letters representing two Common Slavonic nasal vowels, in the early Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets. ... Ksi (Ѯ, ѯ) is a letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, descended from the Greek Xi. ... Psi (Ñ°, ѱ) is a letter in the early Cyrillic alphabet, derived from the Greek letter Psi (Ψ, ψ). It was used in Russian until 1708. ... Fita (Ѳ, ѳ) is a letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, descended from the Greek Theta. ... Izhitsa (Ѵ, ѵ) is a letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet. ... Izhitsa (Ѵ, ѵ) is a letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet. ... Palochka (Ӏ) (ru: па́лочка, a stick) is a letter added to the Cyrillic alphabet when used in writing several Caucasian languages, such as Abaza, Adyghe, Avar, Chechen, Dargwa, Ingush, Kabardian, Lak, Lezgian and Tabassaran. ...

Drawing of the 16 and 12 characters Wadi el-Hol inscriptions The Proto-Canaanite (also Proto-Sinaitic) alphabet is identified as the prototype of the Semitic alphabets that, mostly via the successful Phoenician alphabet became the ancestor of most scripts in use today. ... The Ugaritic alphabet is a cuneiform version of the Levantine consonant alphabet (abjad), used from around 1300 BC for the Ugaritic language, an extinct Canaanite language discovered in Ugarit, Syria. ... The Phoenician alphabet dates from around 1000 BC and is derived from the Proto-Canaanite alphabet. ... The Samaritan alphabet is a direct descendant of the paleo-Hebrew variety of the Phoenician alphabet, the more commonly known Hebrew alphabet having been adapted from the Aramaic alphabet under the Persian Empire. ... The Aramaic alphabet is an abjad alphabet designed for writing the Aramaic language. ... BrāhmÄ« refers to the pre-modern members of the Brahmic family of scripts, attested from the 3rd century BC. The best known and earliest dated inscriptions in BrāhmÄ« are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... 11th century book in Syriac Serto. ... The Avestan alphabet was created in the 3rd century AD for writing the hymns of Zarathustra (a. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing in the Arabic language. ... Old Italic refers to a number of related historical alphabets used on the Italian peninsula which were used for some non-Indo-European languages (Etruscan and probably North Picene), various Indo-European languages belonging to the Italic branch (Faliscan and members of the Sabellian group, including Oscan, Umbrian, and South... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... The Runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes, formerly used to write Germanic languages, mainly in Scandinavia and the British Isles. ... Representation of the Gothic alphabet surrounding its inventor Ulfilas The Gothic alphabet is an alphabetic writing system attributed to Wulfila used exclusively for writing the ancient Gothic language. ... Tablet inscribed with the Glagolitic alphabet The Glagolitic alphabet or Glagolitsa is the oldest known Slavonic alphabet. ... photograph of Botorrita 1 (both sides), 1st century BC. The Iberian scripts (or Iberian alphabet) are two scripts (or two styles of the same script) found on the Iberian peninsula, the Northeast and South Iberian script. ... The Celtiberian script was used to write the Celtiberian language, an extinct Continental Celtic language. ... The South Arabian alphabet branched from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet in ca. ... Geez (also spelt Giiz, translitered Gə‘əz, and pronounced ) is an ancient language that developed in the Ethiopian Highlands of the Horn of Africa as the language of the peasantry. ... The Meroitic script is an alphabet of Egyptian (Hieroglyphic) origin used in Kingdom of Meroë. Some scholars, e. ... Nearly all the segmental scripts used around the globe were apparently derived from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet. ...

Origins

The plan of the alphabet is derived from the early Cyrillic alphabet, itself a derivative of the Glagolitic alphabet, a ninth century uncial cursive usually credited to two brothers from Thessaloniki, Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius. The glyphs in the Cyrillic alphabet are, however, mainly Byzantine Greek letters. Some of them, especially those representing sounds that did not exist in medieval Greek, retain their Glagolitic forms. The Early Cyrillic alphabet was a writing system developed in Bulgaria during the 10th century A.D. for the writing of Old Church Slavonic. ... Tablet inscribed with the Glagolitic alphabet The Glagolitic alphabet or Glagolitsa is the oldest known Slavonic alphabet. ... (8th century - 9th century - 10th century - other centuries) Events Beowulf might have been written down in this century, though it could also have been in the 8th century Viking attacks on Europe begin Oseberg ship burial The Magyars arrive in what is now Hungary, forcing the Serbs and Bulgars south... The Book of Kells, c. ... Cursive is a style of handwriting in which all the letters in a word are connected, making a word one single (complicated) stroke. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... See Saint Cyril (disambiguation) for other persons with this name. ... Saint Methodius (Greek: Άγιος Μεθόδιος) was a Byzantine bishop of Great Moravia (Moravia) (born Thessaloniki, Byzantine Empire (today Greece), 826; he died in the (unknown) capital of Great Moravia, April 6, 885). ... The Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ...

Whereas it is widely accepted that the Glagolitic alphabet was invented by Saints Cyril and Methodius, the origins of the early Cyrillic alphabet are still a source of much controversy. Though it is usually attributed to Saint Clement of Ohrid, a Bulgarian scholar and disciple of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, the alphabet is more likely to have developed at the Preslav Literary School in north-eastern Bulgaria, where the oldest Cyrillic inscriptions have been found, dating back to the 940s. The theory is supported by the fact that the Cyrillic alphabet almost completely replaced the Glagolitic in northeastern Bulgaria as early as the end of the tenth century, whereas the Ohrid Literary School—where Saint Clement worked—continued to use the Glagolitic until the twelfth century. Saint Clement of Ohrid Saint Clement of Ohrid (ca. ... Ceramic icon of St. ... Events Births Brian Boru, high king of Ireland Abul-Wafa, iranian mathematician Deaths ar-Radi (Caliph of Baghdad) Athelstan, who was succeeded by his half-brother, Edmund Categories: 940 ... ( 9th century - 10th century - 11th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 10th century was that century which lasted from 901 to 1000. ... The Ohrid Literary School was one of the two major medieval Macedonian cultural centres, along with the Preslav Literary School (Pliska Literary School). ... (11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. ...

Among the reasons for the replacement of the Glagolithic with the Cyrillic alphabet is the greater simplicity and ease of use of the latter and its closeness with the Greek alphabet, which had been well known in the First Bulgarian Empire. St Ivan of Rila, patron saint of Bulgaria The history of Bulgaria began in the 7th century CE with the arrival of the Bulgars in the Balkans. ...

There are also other theories regarding the origins of the Cyrillic alphabet, namely that the alphabet was created by Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius themselves, or that it preceded the Glagolitic alphabet, representing a "transitional" stage between Greek and Glagolitic cursive, but these have been widely disproved. Although Cyril is almost certainly not the author of the Cyrillic alphabet, his contributions to the Glagolitic and hence to the Cyrillic alphabet are still recognised, as the latter is named after him.

The alphabet was disseminated along with the Old Church Slavonic liturgical language, and the alphabet used for modern Church Slavonic language in Eastern Orthodox rites still resembles early Cyrillic. However, over the following ten centuries, the Cyrillic alphabet adapted to changes in spoken language, developed regional variations to suit the features of national languages, and was subjected to academic reforms and political decrees. Today, dozens of languages in Eastern Europe and Asia are written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Old Church Slavonic (also called Old Church Slavic, Old Bulgarian, Old Macedonian, and inaccurately Old Slavic) is the first literary Slavic language, developed from the Slavic dialect of Solun (Thessaloniki) by 9th century Byzantine missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius. ... A sacred language is a language, frequently a dead language, that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life. ... Page from the Spiridon Psalter in Church Slavonic. ... Eastern Orthodoxy (also called Greek Orthodoxy and Russian Orthodoxy) is a Christian tradition which represents the majority of Eastern Christianity. ... This is a list of languages that have been written in the Cyrillic alphabet at one time or another. ...

Letter-forms and typography

The development of Cyrillic typography passed directly from the medieval stage to the late Baroque, without a Renaissance phase as in Western Europe. Late Medieval Cyrillic letters (still found on many icon inscriptions even today) show a marked tendency to be very tall and narrow; strokes are often shared between adjacent letters. Typographic work Typography (from the Greek words typos = form and graphein = to write) is the art and technique of setting written subject matter in type using a combination of typeface styles, point sizes, line lengths, line leading, character spacing, and word spacing to produce typeset artwork in physical or digital... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ... Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens: dynamic figures spiral down around a void: draperies blow: a whirl of movement lit in a shaft of light, rendered in a free bravura handling of paint In arts, the Baroque (or baroque) is both a period and the style that dominated it. ... By region Italian Renaissance Spanish Renaissance Northern Renaissance French Renaissance German Renaissance English Renaissance The Renaissance, also known as Il Rinascimento (in Italian), was an influential cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern European history. ... Western Europe is distinguished from Eastern Europe by differences of history and culture rather than by geography. ... The Savior (1410s, by Andrei Rublev) An icon (from Greek , eikon, image) is an image, picture, or representation; it is a sign or likeness that stands for an object by signifying or representing it, or by analogy, as in semiotics; in computers an icon is a symbol on the monitor...

Peter the Great, tsar of Russia, mandated the use of westernized letter forms in the early eighteenth century; over time, these were largely adopted in the other languages that use the alphabet. Thus, unlike modern Greek fonts that retained their own set of design principles (such as the placement of serifs, the shapes of stroke ends, and stroke-thickness rules), modern Cyrillic fonts are much the same as modern Latin fonts of the same font family. The development of some Cyrillic computer typefaces from Latin ones has also contributed to the visual Latinization of Cyrillic type. Portrait of Peter by Paul Delaroche Peter I (Russian: ) (10 June 1672–8 February 1725 [30 May 1672– 28 January 1725 O.S.] ) ruled Russia from 7 May (27 April O.S.) 1682 until his death. ... In typography, serifs are the small features at the end of strokes within letters. ...

Cyrillic uppercase and lowercase letter-forms are not as differentiated as in Latin typography. Upright Cyrillic lowercase letters are essentially small capitals (with the exception of a few forms such as "а" and "е" which adopted western lowercase shapes), although a good-quality Cyrillic typeface will still include separate small caps glyphs. Majuscules or capital letters (in the Roman alphabet: A, B, C, ...) are one type of case in a writing system. ... Minuscule, or lower case, is the smaller form (case) of letters (in the Roman alphabet: a, b, c, ...). Originally alphabets were written entirely in majuscule (capital) letters which were spaced between well-defined upper and lower bounds. ... In typography, small capitals, or small caps, are uppercase (capital) characters that are printed in a smaller size than normal uppercase characters of the same font. ...

Comparison of some upright and cursive letters (Ge, De, I, I kratko(ye), Em, Te and Tse. Top row is set in Georgia font, bottom in Kisty CY)

In the absence of Roman and Italic traditions, Cyrillic type fonts are properly classified as upright (Russian: pryamoi shrift) and cursive (kursivnyi). Cursive or hand-written shapes of many letters, especially the lowercase letters, are entirely different from the upright shapes. As in Latin typography, a sans-serif face may have a mechanically-sloped oblique font (naklonnyi). Comparison of some upright and cursive letters. ... Roman type has two separate meanings in typography, both of which refer to the fact that the capital letters of a Roman font have an appearance similar to those used for lettering stone in Ancient Rome. ... In typography, italic type refers to cursive typefaces based on a stylized form of calligraphic handwriting. ... Cursive is a style of handwriting in which all the letters in a word are connected, making a word one single (complicated) stroke. ...

In Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Serbian, some cursive letters are different from those used in other languages. These cursive letter shapes are often used in upright fonts as well, especially for road signs, inscriptions, posters and the like, less so in newspapers or books. External link: Serbian Cyrillic Letters BE, GHE, DE, PE, TE.

The following table shows the differences between the upright and cursive Cyrillic letters as used in Russian. Cursive glyphs that are bound to confuse beginners (either because of an entirely different look, or because of being a false friend with an entirely different Latin character) are highlighted. False friends are pairs of words in two languages (or letters in two alphabets) that look and/or sound similar, but differ in meaning. ...

Reference: Bringhurst, Robert (2002). The Elements of Typographic Style (version 2.5), pp. 262–264. Vancouver, Hartley & Marks. ISBN 0-88179-133-4. Bringhurst lives in Vancouver. ... Robert Bringhurst authored three editions of a book entitled The Elements of Typographic Style. ...

Romanization

There are various systems for Romanization of Cyrillic text, including transliteration to convey Cyrillic spelling in Latin characters, and transcription to convey pronunciation. In linguistics, romanization or latinization is a system for representing a word or language with the Roman (Latin) alphabet, where the original word or language used a different writing system. ... Transliteration in a narrow sense is a mapping from one system of writing into another. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Transcription may be one of the following: In linguistics, transcription is the conversion of spoken words into written language. ... Pronunciation refers to: the way a word or a language is usually spoken; the manner in which someone utters a word. ...

Standard Cyrillic-to-Latin transliteration systems include:

• Scientific transliteration, used in linguistics, is based on the Latin Croatian alphabet.
• The Working Group on Romanization Systems of the United Nations recommends different systems for specific languages. These are the most commonly used around the world.
• ISO 9:1995, from the International Organization for Standardization.
• America Library Association & Library of Congress (ALA-LC) Romanization tables for Slavic alphabets, used in North American libraries.
• BGN/PCGN 1947 transliteration system (United States Board on Geographic Names & Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use).
• GOST 16876-71 (1983), from the Main Administration of Geodesy and Cartography of the former Soviet Union. Russian abbreviation of GOsudarstvenny STandart, "the State Standard". GOST has limited support for non-Russian alphabets.

Serbian is written in both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. There is also a Latin alphabet for Belarusian, and some non-Slavic languages, such as Azerbaijani, Uzbek or Moldavian have confronted permanent Romanization after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. In Serbian there is a one-to-one correspondence between Vuk Karadžić's Serbian Cyrillic and Ljudevit Gaj's Croatian Gajica (derived from the Czech alphabet. See Serbo-Croatian language#Writing systems.) The Belarusian Latin alphabet is traditionally based on Polish and is called Łacinka, but, because of the political realities in the former USSR, Belarusian is usually Romanized by analogy to Russian. The Croatian literary language is based on the Latin alphabet. ... Main articles: League of Nations & History of the United Nations The term United Nations was coined by Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II, to refer to the Allies. ... The international standard ISO 9 establishes a system for the transliteration into Latin characters of Cyrillic characters constituting the alphabets of Slavic and non-Slavic languages. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... The Moldovan language (Limba moldovenească, ISO 639 codes: mol, mo; Ethnologue code: none), the official language of Moldova, is generally considered to be the Romanian language renamed due to political reasons, in an attempt to fight what the Moldovan government calls Romanian expansionism. It is spoken by about 3. ... Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (Вук Стефановић Караџић) (November 7, 1787 - February 7, 1864) was a Serb linguist and major reformer of the Serbian language. ... Ljudevit Gaj Ljudevit Gaj (August 8, 1809 – April 20, 1872) was a Croatian linguist, politician, journalist and writer. ... The Czech alphabet consists of 42 letters (or more precisely - graphemes): A, Á, B, C, ÄŒ, D, ÄŽ, E, É, Äš, F, G, H, Ch, I, Í, J, K, L, M, N, Ň, O, Ó, P, Q, R, Ř, S, Å , T, Ť, U, Ú, Å®, V, W, X, Y, Ý, Z, Ž Most of the diacritic letters were added to the alphabet through reforms... Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian (srpskohrvatski or hrvatskosrpski), earlier also Serbo-Croat, was an official language of Yugoslavia (along with Slovenian and Macedonian). ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...

See also:

• Romanization.
• Transliteration of Russian into English.
• Romanization of Ukrainian.
• Transliteration of Bulgarian into English.

External links: In linguistics, romanization or latinization is a system for representing a word or language with the Roman (Latin) alphabet, where the original word or language used a different writing system. ... There exist many possible systems for transliterating the Cyrillic alphabet of the Russian language to English or the Latin alphabet. ... Romanization or Latinization of Ukrainian denotes a system for representing the Ukrainian language in Latin letters. ... This table lists several transliteration schemes from the Cyrillic alphabet as used for the Bulgarian language to the Latin alphabet. ...

• Transliteration of Non-Roman Scripts, a collection of writing systems and transliteration tables, by Thomas T. Pederson. Includes PDF reference charts for many languages' transliteration systems.

As used in various languages

Sounds are indicated using IPA. These are only approximate indicators. While these languages by and large have phonemic orthographies, there are occasional exceptions—for example, Russian его (meaning him/his), which is pronounced /jevɔ/ instead of /jeɡɔ/. The International Phonetic Alphabet. ... In human language, a phoneme is a set of phones (speech sounds or sign elements) that are cognitively equivalent. ...

Note that spellings of names may vary, especially Y/J/I, but also GH/G/H and ZH/J.

Slavic languages

Old Church Slavonic

Main article: early Cyrillic alphabet The Early Cyrillic alphabet was a writing system developed in Bulgaria during the 10th century A.D. for the writing of Old Church Slavonic. ...

Old Church Slavonic is the first literary and liturgical Slavic language developed from the native language of the 9th century missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius. It is not the same as the modern Church Slavonic language, which is still used in some Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic church services. Old Church Slavonic (also called Old Church Slavic, Old Bulgarian, Old Macedonian, and inaccurately Old Slavic) is the first literary Slavic language, developed from the Slavic dialect of Solun (Thessaloniki) by 9th century Byzantine missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius. ... From the Greek word λειτουργια, which can be transliterated as leitourgia, meaning the work of the people, a liturgy comprises a prescribed religious ceremony, according to the traditions of a particular religion; it may refer to, or include, an elaborate formal ritual (such as the Catholic Mass), a daily activity such... The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages) comprise the languages of the Slavic peoples. ... This earthenware dish was made in 9th century Iraq. ... A missionary is a propagator of religion, often an evangelist or other representative of a religious community who works among those outside of that community. ... Page from the Spiridon Psalter in Church Slavonic. ... Eastern Orthodoxy (also called Greek Orthodoxy and Russian Orthodoxy) is a Christian tradition which represents the majority of Eastern Christianity. ... The term Eastern Rites may refer to the liturgical rites used by many ancient Christian Churches of Eastern Europe and the Middle East that, while being part of the Roman Catholic Church, are distinct from the Latin Rite or Western Church. ...

As the Cyrillic alphabet spread throughout the Slavic world, it was adopted for writing local languages, such as Old Ruthenian. Its adaptation to the characteristics of local languages led to the development of its many modern variants, below. The name Old Ruthenian language has been applied to the Old East Slavic language which was the language of Old Ruthenia, spoken from the 9th to 14th centuries. ...

Yeri (ЪІ) was originally a ligature of Yer and I. Ya (Я) was written in an archaic form called A iotified. Capital and lowercase letters were not distinguished in old manuscripts. In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more letterforms are written or printed as a unit. ... Ya (Я, я) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the iotated vowel /ja/ (SAMPA). ...

The early Cyrillic alphabet is difficult to represent on computers. Many of the letterforms differed from modern Cyrillic and varied a great deal in manuscripts, and changed over time. Few fonts include adequate glyphs to reproduce the alphabet. Some characters are missing from the current Unicode standard altogether, including Cyrillic dotless I, iotified Yat, abbreviated Yer ("Yerok"), and many ligatures. A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... These are the astrological glyphs as most commonly used in Western Astrology A glyph is a carved figure or character, incised or in relief; a carved pictograph; hence, a pictograph representing a form originally adopted for sculpture, whether carved or painted. ... Unicode is an industry standard whose goal is to provide the means by which text of all forms and languages can be encoded for use by computers. ... Yat or Jat (, ) is the 32nd letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet and name of the sound represented by it. ... The letter (Ъ, ъ) of the Cyrillic alphabet is known as the hard sign (твёрдый знак ) in the modern Russian alphabet and as er golyam (ер голям, big yer) in the Bulgarian alphabet. ... In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more letterforms are written or printed as a unit. ...

See also: Glagolitic alphabet. Tablet inscribed with the Glagolitic alphabet The Glagolitic alphabet or Glagolitsa is the oldest known Slavonic alphabet. ...

Russian

Main article: Russian alphabet The modern Russian alphabet is a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet (Кириллица). It was introduced into Kievan Rus (Киевская Русь) at the time of its conversion to Christianity (988), or, if certain archaelogical finds are correctly dated, at a slightly earlier date. ...

Notes: А (А, а) is the first letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Be (Б, б) is the second letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Ve (В, в) is the third letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the sound [v]. In Russian, it is pronounced [f] at the end of a word. ... Ge or He (Г, г) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, pronounced differently in different languages. ... De (Д, д) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Ye, or E (Е, е), is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Yo (Ё, Ñ‘) is the seventh letter of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet, invented to replace the recklessly confused е and o for soft o relatively soon after the introduction of the Civil alphabet. ... Zhe (Ж, ж) is the letter of Cyrillic alphabet which represents the voiced postalveolar fricative /Z/ (sound file), the same sound which is represented by s in the English word treasure. Zhe is the 7th letter of the Bulgarian and Belarusian alphabets, the 8th letter in the Macedonian, Russian and Serbian alphabets... Ze (З, з) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant /z/. Its easily confusable with the number 3, for example the stages of the N1 rocket. ... I or Y (И, и) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet, pronounced [i] in Russian, or [ɪ] in Ukrainian. ... Й, й (Short I) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Ka (К, к) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. ... El (Л, л) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Em (М, м) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant /m/. Code positions This article is a substub, the first step on the way to becoming a full article. ... En (Н, н) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant /n/. It looks exactly like the Latin capital letter H. Categories: Cyrillic letters | Writing system stubs ... O (О, о) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the vowel /o/. Categories: Cyrillic letters | Substubs ... Pe (П, п) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant /p/. It arose directly from the Greek letter Pi (Π, Ï€). The shape of capital printed Pe can be described as a square with the bottom line missing, not to be confused with El (Cyrillic), which has a curved left. ... Er (Р, р) is the eighteenth letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Es (С, с) is the nineteenth letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Te (Т, т) is the letter representing the consonant /t/ in the Cyrillic alphabet. ... U (У, у) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the vowel /u/. Categories: Cyrillic letters | Substubs ... Ef (Ф, ф) is the twenty-first letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Kha, or Ha, (Х, х) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant /x/. Categories: Cyrillic letters | Substubs ... Tse (Ц, ц) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Che (Ч, ч) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant cluster /tS/ or /tS/ (like the ch in change). Categories: Cyrillic letters | Stub ... Sha (Ш, ш) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant sound /ʃ/ or /ʃʲ/. This is equivalent to sh in English, ch in French, sch in German, ÅŸ in Turkish, or sz in Polish. ... Shcha or Shta (Щ, щ) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant /ʃʲ/, /ʃʧ/, /ʃʲʧʲ/ in Russian, and the consonant /ʃt/ in Bulgarian. ... The letter (Ъ, ÑŠ) of the Cyrillic alphabet is known as the hard sign (твёрдый знак ) in the modern Russian alphabet and as er golyam (ер голям, big yer) in the Bulgarian alphabet. ... Yery (Ы, Ñ‹) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Soft Sign (Ь, ÑŒ) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet (Russian: мягкий знак (mÄ­ahkiy znak) [], Ukrainian: м’який знак (miakyy znak) [], Belarusian: мяккі знак (miakki znak) []). It is named so because it usually indicates softening, or palatalization, of the preceding consonant or of the group of them. ... E or E Oborotnoye (Э, э) is a letter of the Russian alphabet, representing the non-iotated vowel, IPA: or ). Code positions See also Glagolitic alphabet Categories: Cyrillic letters | Writing system stubs ... Yu (Ю, ю) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the iotated vowel /ju/. In common with many Cyrillic letters, it was derived from a digraph, being a ligature of Izhe (then І) or Izhei (then Н, both now И) and Uk (Ѹ, no longer in the alphabet). ... Ya (Я, я) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the iotated vowel (IPA). ... The International Phonetic Alphabet. ... The term ya refers to The Cyrillic alphabet letter Я (which, on its own, means I in Russian). ...

1. In the pre-reform Russian orthography, in Old Russian and in Old Church Slavonic the letter is called yer. Historically, the "hard sign" takes the place of a now-absent vowel, still preserved in Bulgarian. See the notes for Bulgarian.
2. When an iotated vowel (vowel whose sound begins with /j/) follows a consonant, the consonant will become palatalised (the /j/ sound will mix with the consonant), and the vowel's /j/ sound will not be heard independently. The Hard Sign will indicate that this does not happen, and the /j/ sound will appear only in front of the vowel. The Soft Sign will indicate the consonant should be palatised, but the vowel's /j/ sound will not mix with the palatalization of the consonant. The Soft Sign will also indicate that a consonant before another consonant or at the end of a word is palatised. Examples: та (ta); тя (tʲa); тья (tʲja); тъя (tja); т (t); ть (tʲ).

Historical letters: before 1918, there were four extra letters in use: Іі (replaced by Ии), Ѳѳ (Фита "Fita", replaced by Фф), Ѣѣ (Ять "Yat", replaced by Ее), and Ѵѵ (ижица "Izhitsa", replaced by Ии); these were eliminated by reforms of Russian orthography. The name Old Russian language has been applied to different things. ... Old Church Slavonic (also called Old Church Slavic, Old Bulgarian, Old Macedonian, and inaccurately Old Slavic) is the first literary Slavic language, developed from the Slavic dialect of Solun (Thessaloniki) by 9th century Byzantine missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius. ... The letter (Ъ, ÑŠ) of the Cyrillic alphabet is known as the hard sign (твёрдый знак ) in the modern Russian alphabet and as er golyam (ер голям, big yer) in the Bulgarian alphabet. ... Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-18, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... Fita (Ѳ, ѳ) is a letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, descended from the Greek Theta. ... Yat or Jat (, ) is the 32nd letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet and name of the sound represented by it. ... Izhitsa (Ѵ, ѵ) is a letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet. ... The Old Russian language adopted the Cyrillic alphabet, approximately during the tenth century and at about the same time as the introduction of Eastern Christianity into the territories inhabited by the Eastern Slavs. ...

Ukrainian

Main article: Ukrainian alphabet. The Ukrainian Alphabet (Украї́нська абе́тка, Ukrajins′ka abetka, or алфаві́т, alfavit in Ukrainian) is used to write Ukrainian, the official language of Ukraine. ...

Ukrainian differs from Russian in the following ways:

• He (Г, г) is a voiced fricative consonant, pronounced /ɦ/.
• Ge (Ґ, ґ) appears after He, pronounced /g/, i.e., like a Russian Г. It looks like He with an "upturn" pointing up from the right side of the top bar. (This letter was not officially used in the Soviet Union after 1933, so it is missing from older Cyrillic fonts.)
• E (Е, е) is pronounced /e/ .
• Ye (Є, є) appears after E, pronounced /je/. It looks like a mirrored Russian letter Э.
• Y (И, и) is pronounced /ɪ/ (similar to Russian Yery).
• I (І, і) appears after Y, pronounced /i/. It looks like the Latin letter I.
• Yi (Ї, ї) appears after I, pronounced /ji/. It looks like I with a diaeresis above it (the same two dots that appear over the Russian letter Yo).
• Yot (Й, й) is the equivalent of Russian Short I.
• Shcha (Щ, щ) is pronounced ʃʧ.
• An apostrophe (’) serves the purpose of the Russian Hard Sign.
• Yo does not appear.

Ge or He (Г, г) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, pronounced differently in different languages. ... Phoneticians define phonation as use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-20, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... Ghe (Ґ, Ò‘, also called ge with upturn) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet pronounced like the G in go. Originally part of the Ukrainian and Belarusian alphabets, its function was replaced by the letter Ge (Г) in the Soviet Union after 1933. ... Ye, or E (Е, е), is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Ye (Є, Ñ”) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, used in the Ukrainian language to represent the iotated vowel sound /je/. Categories: Cyrillic letters | Writing system stubs ... I or Y (И, и) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet, pronounced [i] in Russian, or [ɪ] in Ukrainian. ... Yery (Ы, Ñ‹) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. ... I (І, Ñ–) (also called decimal I, or dotted I) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, used in the Belarusian and Ukrainian languages. ... Yi (Ї, ї) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, used in the Ukrainian language. ... Й, й (Short I) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. ... Shcha or Shta (Щ, щ) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant /ʃʲ/, /ʃʧ/, /ʃʲʧʲ/ in Russian, and the consonant /ʃt/ in Bulgarian. ... An apostrophe An apostrophe (French, from the Greek αποστροφος προσωδια, the accent of elision) ( ’ ) is a punctuation and sometimes diacritic mark in languages written in the Latin alphabet. ... Yo (Ё, Ñ‘) is the seventh letter of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet, invented to replace the recklessly confused е and o for soft o relatively soon after the introduction of the Civil alphabet. ...

Belarusian

Belarusian is also written in a Belarusian Latin alphabet (Łacinka). Historically, Belarusian Tatars have written the language in the Arabic alphabet (Arabica), and Belarusian Jews in the Hebrew alphabet. The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... Tatar dance - Tatar (left) fighting with the soldier of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (right). ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing in the Arabic language. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ...

NB: Before 1933, Ґ (/g/) was also present. Some linguists call for restoring the letter.

Belarusian differs from Russian in the following ways:

• I looks like the Latin letter I (І, і). (But non-syllable short I looks the same as in Russian.)
• Between U and Ef is the letter U short (Ў, ў), which looks like U (У) with a breve and pronounced /w/, or like the u part in diphthongs in now, low.