Unknown stories of famous letters: letter A. From A to Z! Or who invented the Russian alphabet

B ukwa "Yo, yo"is the 7th letter of the Russian and Belarusian alphabets and the 9th letter of the Rusyn alphabet. It is also used in a number of non-Slavic alphabets based on civil Cyrillic (eg Mongolian, Kyrgyz, Udmurt and Chuvash).

If possible, it means the softness of consonants, being after them, and the sound [o]; in all other cases - sounds like .
In primordially Russian words (in addition to words with prefixes three- and four-) it is always under stress. Cases of unstressed use are rare, mainly borrowed words - for example, Königsberg surfers, compound words - loess-like or words with prefixes of three- and four- - for example, four-part. Here the letter is phonetically equivalent to the unstressed "e", "i", "i" or has a secondary stress, but may also reflect the characteristic features of writing in the source language.

In the Russian language (i.e., in Russian writing), the letter “e” stands, first of all, where the sound [(j)o] came from [(j)e], this explains the form derived from “e” letters (borrowed from Western scripts). In Russian writing, unlike Belarusian, according to the rules for using the letter, putting dots above the “ё” is optional.

In other Slavic Cyrillic alphabets, there is no letter "ё". To designate the corresponding sounds in the letter in Ukrainian and Bulgarian, after the consonants they write "yo" and in other cases - "yo". The Serbian script (and the Macedonian script based on it) does not have special letters at all for iotized vowels and / or softening the preceding consonant, since they use different consonants, not different vowels, to distinguish between hard and soft consonant syllables, and iot is always written a separate letter.

In the Church and Old Slavonic alphabets there is no letter equivalent to "ё", since there are no such combinations of sounds; Russian "yokane" is a common mistake when reading Church Slavonic texts.

Superscript element and its name

There is no generally accepted official term for the extended element in the letter “e”. In traditional linguistics and pedagogy, the word "colon" was used, but most often in the last hundred years they used a less formal expression - "two dots", or generally tried to avoid mentioning this element separately.

It is considered incorrect to use foreign language terms (dialytics, diaeresis, trema or umlaut) in this situation, since they refer to diacritical marks and denote, first of all, a specific phonetic function.

Historical aspects

Introduction Yo into use

For a long time, the sound combination (and after the soft consonants - [o]), which appeared in Russian pronunciation, was not expressed in any way in writing. From the middle of the XVIII century. for them, a designation was introduced by means of the letters IO, located under a common lid. But, such a designation was cumbersome and was rarely used. Variants were used: signs o, iô, io, io, ió.

In 1783, instead of the available options, the letter “e” was proposed, borrowing from French, where it has a different meaning. However, for the first time in print it was used only 12 years later (in 1795). The influence of the Swedish alphabet was also assumed.

In 1783, on November 29 (according to the old style - November 18) at the home of the head of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Princess Dashkova E. R. - one of the 1st meetings of the newly formed Russian Academy was held, where Fonvizin D. I., Knyazhnin were present Ya. B., Derzhavin G. R., Lepekhin I. I., Metropolitan Gabriel and others. They discussed the draft of a complete version of the explanatory dictionary (Slavic-Russian), later - the famous 6-volume Dictionary of the Russian Academy.

The academicians were already about to go home, as E.R. Dashkova asked if any of them could write the word "Yolka". Pundits thought that the princess was joking, but she wrote the word “olka” pronounced by her and asked the question: “Is it right to represent one sound with two letters?” She also noted: “These reprimands have already been introduced by custom, which, when it does not contradict common sense, must be followed in every possible way.” Ekaterina Dashkova proposed to use the “newborn” letter “ё” “to express words and pronunciations, with this consent beginning as matіory, іolka, іozh, іol”.

She turned out to be convincing in her arguments, and they offered to evaluate the rationality of introducing a new letter to Gabriel, Metropolitan of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, who is a member of the Academy of Sciences. So, in 1784, on November 18, the official recognition of the letter "e" took place.

The innovative idea of ​​the princess was supported by a number of leading cultural figures of that period, incl. and Derzhavin, who was the first to use "ё" for personal correspondence. And the first printed edition, where the appearance of the letter “e” was noticed, in 1795 was the book “And my trinkets” by I. Dmitriev, published by the Moscow University printing house of H. A. Claudia and H. Ridiger (in this printing house since 1788 printed the newspaper Moskovskie Vedomosti, and it was located on the site of the current building of the Central Telegraph).

The first word imprinted with the letter “e” became “everything”, then “cornflower”, “stump”, “light”, “immortal”. For the first time, a surname with this letter (“Potemkin”) was printed by G. R. Derzhavin in 1798.

The letter “e” gained fame thanks to N. M. Karamzin, therefore, until recently, he was considered its author, until the story outlined above was widely publicized. In 1796, in the 1st book of the almanac of poems "Aonides", published by Karamzin, who left the same printing house of the university, with the letter "e" the words were printed: "dawn", "moth", "eagle", "tears ", and the 1st verb -" drip ".

It's just not clear whether it was a personal idea of ​​Karamzin or the initiative of some employee of the publishing house. It should be noted that Karamzin in scientific works (for example, in the famous "History of the Russian State" (1816 - 1829)) did not use the letter "e".

Distribution issues

Although the letter "ё" was proposed to be introduced in 1783, and was used in print in 1795, for a long time it was not considered a separate letter and it was not officially introduced into the alphabet. This is very typical for newly introduced letters: the status of the symbol “y” was the same, it (compared to “ё”) became mandatory for use as early as 1735. that both of these letters "should also take place in the alphabet", but for a long time this remained only a good wish.

In the XVIII-XIX centuries. An obstacle to the spread of the letter “ё” was the then attitude to such a “yoking” pronunciation, as to a philistine speech, the dialect of “vile mob”, while the “yoking” “church” reprimand was considered more noble, intelligent and cultured (with “yokan ”fought, for example, V.K. Trediakovsky and A.P. Sumarokov).

December 23, 1917 (01/05/1918) a decree was published (without a date) signed by the Soviet People's Commissar of Education A. V. Lunacharsky, which introduced a reformed spelling as a mandatory one, it says, among other things: “To recognize as desirable, but optional, the use of the letter “ё” ".

Thus, the letters "ё" and "й" formally entered the alphabet (while receiving serial numbers) only in Soviet times (if you do not take into account the "New Alphabet" (1875) by Leo Tolstoy, where there was a letter "ё" between " e” and yatem, in 31st place).

On 12/24/1942, the use of the letter “ё” by order of the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR was introduced into compulsory school practice, and since then (sometimes, however, they remember 1943 and even 1956, when the spelling normative rules were first published) it is considered officially included in the Russian alphabet .

For the next 10 years, non-fiction and non-fiction were published with the letter "ё" almost entirely, and then publishers returned to the old practice of using the letter only when absolutely necessary.

There is a legend that Joseph Stalin influenced the popularization of the letter "e". It says that in 1942 on December 6, I.V. An order was brought to Stalin for signature, where the names of a number of generals were printed not with the letter “e”, but with “e”. Stalin was angry, and the next day all the articles of the Pravda newspaper came out, all of a sudden, with the letter “ё”.

On July 9, 2007, the Minister of Culture of Russia A.S. Sokolov, giving an interview to the Mayak radio station, expressed the opinion that it is necessary to use the letter “e” in written speech.

Basic rules for the use of the letter "ё" / Legislative acts

On December 24, 1942, the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR V.P. Potemkin, by order No. 1825, introduced the letter "Yo, e" into the mandatory practice of use. Shortly before the order was issued, an incident occurred when Stalin was rude to the manager of the Council of People's Commissars, Y. Chadayev, because on December 6 (or 5), 1942, he brought a decree for his signature, where the names of a number of generals were printed without the letter "e".

Chadayev informed the editor of Pravda that the leader wanted to see "e" in print as well. Thus, already on December 7, 1942, the issue of the newspaper suddenly appeared with this letter in all articles.

Federal Law No. 53-FZ “On the State Language of the Russian Federation” dated 06/01/2005 in part 3 of Art. 1 states that when using the Russian modern literary language as the state language, the Government of the Russian Federation determines the procedure for approving the rules and norms of Russian punctuation and spelling.

Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation "On the procedure for approving the norms of the modern Russian literary language when it is used as the state language of the Russian Federation, the rules of Russian spelling and punctuation" dated November 23, 2006 No. 714 establishes that, based on the recommendations given by the Interdepartmental Commission on the Russian Language, the list reference books, grammars and dictionaries, which contain the norms of the Russian modern literary language, when it is used in the Russian Federation as the state language, as well as the rules of Russian punctuation and spelling, is approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.

Letter No. AF-159/03 dated 05/03/2007 "On the decisions of the Interdepartmental Commission on the Russian Language" of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation prescribes to write the letter "ё" with the probability of misreading the words, for example, in proper names, since in In this case, ignoring the letter “ё” violates the requirements of the Federal Law “On the state language of the Russian Federation”.

According to the current rules of Russian punctuation and spelling, in texts with ordinary printing, the letter e is used selectively. But, at the request of the editor or author, any book can be printed using the letter ё in sequence.

"Yo" sound

The letter "yo" is used:

To convey the stressed vowel [o] and at the same time indicate the softness of the previous consonant: youth, comb, crawl, oats, lying, during the day, honey, dog, everything, wandered, Fedor, aunt (after r, k, x this applies only to borrowings : Hoglund, Goethe, liqueur, Cologne, the only exception is the only proper Russian word weave, weave, weave, weave with derivatives, and formed in Russian from the borrowed word alarmist);

To convey the shock [o] after the hissing: silk, burn, click, damn (in this position, the choice between writing through “o” or through “e” is set by a rather complex system of lists of exception words and rules);

To transmit a combination of [j] and percussive sound [o]:

At the beginning of words: container, hedgehog, tree;

After consonants (a separating sign is used): volume, viet, linen.

After the letters of the vowels: her, loan, striker, point, spit, forge;

In primordially Russian words, only the stressed sound “ё” is possible (even if the stress is secondary: loess-like, four-story, three-seater,); in the event that during word formation or inflection the stress passes to another syllable, then “e” will be replaced by “e” (takes - chooses, honey - honey - on honey, about nothing - nothing (but: about nothing )).

Along with the letter "ё" in borrowings, the same sound value can be conveyed after consonants - combinations of ё and in other cases - yo. Also in borrowings, "yo" can be an unstressed vowel.

Yo and E

In § 10 of the “Rules of Russian Spelling and Punctuation” officially in force since 1956, the cases are defined when “ё” is used in writing:

"one. When it is necessary to prevent incorrect reading and understanding of a word, for example: we learn in contrast to we learn; everything is different from everything; bucket as opposed to a bucket; perfect (participle) as opposed to perfect (adjective), etc.

2. When it is necessary to indicate the pronunciation of a little-known word, for example: the Olekma river.

3. In special texts: primers, school textbooks of the Russian language, orthoepy textbooks, etc., as well as in dictionaries to indicate the place of stress and correct pronunciation
Note. In foreign words, at the beginning of words and after vowels, instead of the letter ё, yo is written, for example; iodine, district, major.

These issues are regulated in more detail by § 5 of the new edition of these rules (published in 2006 and approved by the Spelling Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences):

“The use of the letter ё can be consistent and selective.
Consistent use of the letter ё is mandatory in the following varieties of printed texts:

a) in texts with successive accent marks;

b) in books addressed to young children;

c) in educational texts for elementary school students and foreigners studying Russian.

Note 1. The consistent use of ё is accepted for the illustrative part of these rules.

Note 3. In dictionaries, words with the letter e are placed in the general alphabet with the letter e, for example: barely, unctuous, fir-tree, fir-tree, crawl, fir-tree, fir-tree, fir-tree; to cheer up, to cheer up, to have fun, to have fun, to have fun.

In ordinary printed texts, the letter ё is used selectively. It is recommended to use it in the following cases.

1. To prevent misidentification of a word, e.g.: everything, sky, summer, perfect (unlike the words everything, sky, summer, perfect, respectively), including to indicate the place of stress in a word, e.g.: bucket, recognize (unlike a bucket, we learn).

2. To indicate the correct pronunciation of a word - either rare, not well known enough, or having a common mispronunciation, e.g.: gyoze, surf, fleur, harder, slit, including to indicate the correct stress, e.g.: fable, reduced, carried away , convict, newborn, filer.

3. In proper names - surnames, geographical names, for example: Konenkov, Neyolova, Catherine Deneuve, Schrödinger, Dezhnev, Koshelev, Chebyshev, Vyoshenskaya, Olekma.

"Yo", "yo" and "yo" in loanwords and the transfer of foreign proper names

The letter "ё" is often used to convey the sounds [ø] and [œ] (for example, denoted by the letter "ö") in foreign names and words.

In borrowing words, to record a combination of phonemes such as /jo/, the letter combinations “yo” or “yo” are usually used:

After consonants, simultaneously softening them (“broth”, “battalion”, “minion”, “guillotine”, “senior”, “champignon”, “pavilion”, “fjord”, “companion”, etc.) - in Romance languages usually in places after the palatalized [n] and [l] it is written "ё".

At the beginning of words (“iota”, “iodine”, “yogurt”, “yoga”, “York”, etc.) or after vowels (“district”, “coyote”, “meiosis”, “major”, etc.) spelled "yo";

However, in recent decades, “ё” has been increasingly used in these cases. It has already become a normative element in the systems of transferring names and names (transliteration) from a number of Asian languages ​​​​(for example, the Kontsevich system for the Korean language and the Polivanov system for the Japanese language): Yoshihito, Shogun, Kim Yongnam.

In European borrowings, the sound is transmitted by the letter "ё" very rarely; it is most often found in words from the languages ​​of Scandinavia (Jörmungandr, Jotun), but, as a rule, exists along with the usual transmission through "yo" (for example, Jormungandr) and is often considered profanity.

“Yo” in borrowed words is often unstressed and in this position its pronunciation is indistinguishable from the letters “I”, “i” or “e” (Erdös, shogunate, etc.), i.e., its original clarity is lost and it turns, at times, into just an indication of a certain pronunciation in the source language.

Consequences of the optional use of the letter "ё"

The slowness of the entry of the letter "ё" into the practice of writing (which, by the way, did not take place until the end) is explained by its inconvenient form for cursive writing, which contradicts its main principle - the fusion (without lifting the pen from the sheet of paper) of the style, as well as the technical difficulties of the technologies pre-computer publishing houses.

In addition, people with surnames that have the letter “ё” often have difficulties, sometimes insurmountable, during the execution of various documents, as some employees are irresponsible about writing this letter. This problem became especially acute after the introduction of the USE system, when there is a danger of a difference in the spelling of the name in the passport and in the Certificate of the results of passing the USE.

The habitual optionality of use led to a misreading of a number of words, which gradually became generally accepted. This process affected everything: both a huge number of personal names and numerous common nouns.

Stable ambiguity is caused by words written without the letter ё, such as: piece of iron, everything, flax, take a break, blowjob (flies by without hitting it), perfect, planted, in the summer, we recognize, palate, tapeworm, recognized, etc. is increasingly being used erroneous pronunciation (without ё) and shifting of stresses in the words beetroot, newborn, etc.

"e" becomes "yo"

The ambiguity contributed to the fact that sometimes the letter “ё” began to be used in writing (and, of course, read [`o]) in those words where it should not be. For example, instead of the word "grenadier" - "grenadier", and instead of the word "scam" - "scam", also instead of the word "guardianship" - "guardianship", and instead of the word "being" - "being", etc. Sometimes such incorrect pronunciation and spelling becomes common.

So, the famous chess player Alexander Alekhin, the world champion, was, in fact, Alekhin and was very indignant if his name was pronounced and written incorrectly. His surname belongs to the noble family of the Alekhins and is not a derivative of the familiar variant "Alyokha" on behalf of Alexei.

In those positions where it is necessary to be not e, but e, it is recommended to put stress in order to prevent incorrect recognition of words (everything, takes) or erroneous pronunciation (grenadier, scam, Krez, stout, Olesha).

Because of the spelling of words without ё in the 20-30s. 20th century there were many errors in the pronunciation of those words that people learned from newspapers and books, and not from colloquial speech: musketeer, youth, driver (these words said “e” instead of “e”).

Orthoepy: the emergence of new variants

Due to the optional use of the letter "e", words appeared in Russian that allow the possibility of writing both with the letter "e" and with "e", and the corresponding pronunciation. For example, faded and faded, maneuver and maneuver, whitish and whitish, bile and bile, etc.

Constantly similar options appear in the language due to the action of contradictory analogies. For example, the word cut has pronunciations with ё / e due to the double motivation: cut / cut. The use or non-use of the letter "ё" does not play a role here. But, developing naturally, the literary language, as a rule, tends to get rid of the options: either one of them will become non-literary, incorrect (holo[l`o] ditsa, from [d`e] vka), or pronunciation variants will acquire different meanings (is[ t`o] kshiy - is [t`e] kshiy).

It is predominantly pronounced not “glider”, but “glider” (stressed 1st syllable), since the following tendencies are present in Russian: in the names of mechanisms, machines, various devices, it is preferable to stress on the 1st syllable, or more precisely, on the penultimate , i.e., glider, trier, glider, tanker, and on the last - when indicating the character: combine operator, driver, watchman.

The inconsistency in the use of the letter "ё" is more artificial than natural. And it helps to slow down the natural development of the language, giving rise to and maintaining pronunciation variants that are not due to intralinguistic reasons.

3 At first I thought that a very long time ago some smart person came up with the letters. Sat down and wrote. But the Russian language is not one, there are many of them. And who came up with letters for other languages? Or maybe no one invented the letters at all, they have always been, like the people themselves, the earth and the mountains? And then I decided to find out how, in fact, where and when the letters appeared.

4 I made a work plan that consistently helped me in the search for information: Appeal to the explanatory dictionary; Collection of information in the library (encyclopedias, magazines, articles); Search for articles on the Internet; Watching TV shows; Appeal to adults.

6 How did people learn to write with letters? At first people drew. If it was necessary to write the word "deer" - they drew a deer, if it was necessary to write the word "hunt" - they drew hunters and an animal. People lived at that time in caves and they painted on the walls of their dwellings - caves, on the rocks. Drawings on rocks, caves tell about the life of cave people and even about how aliens came to our distant ancestors. This is a pictographic letter. People painted in four colors: red, yellow, white, black

7 Such letters were written to each other by Indians in America. They didn't know the letters. They wrote with pictures-totems. Here is an example of one of the pictograms recorded by the Dilovar tribe in the reading that the authors themselves had in mind: 1. “Some were eaten by many large fish” 2. “The moon woman helped with the boat. "Come!" She came and helped everyone.” 3. “Nanabush” is the great-grandfather of everyone, the great-grandfather of people, the ancestor of the “Turtle” tribe.

8 The Peruvians practiced knot writing, called KIPU. A stick with multi-colored cords and knots tied to it. Such a wand was brought by a messenger, and in order to read it, one had to know the secret meaning of the cords and knots. Color, shape, the order of their location had a certain exact meaning, the knowledge of which was passed down from generation to generation.

9 The memory of the ancient knot writing remained in our language, in folklore, in cultural monuments. In fairy tales, Ivan Tsarevich sets off on a journey to fetch his toad wife with a ball that Baba Yaga gave him. Perhaps it was a kind of ancient guidebook.

10 Although people did not know how to write, they sent letters to each other, for example, if a tribe wanted to declare war, they would send another spear or arrow. If it was about peace, they sent tobacco and a pipe to boot. This is where the expression “light the pipe of peace” came from, that is, to agree on peace. But in this way it was possible to convey simple messages, but how, for example, to draw “I have come”, legs? But feet not only come, but also go, what to do in this case? We need letters. And they appeared, although from the beginning they were not quite ordinary - letters-drawings. Draw, for example, a lion. This word begins with the letter L, so read the letter L. If they draw a Falcon - read C, draw a tree - read D ... But imagine how many drawings it took to draw one sentence, for each letter - a drawing. L

11 For this, the ancient Egyptians had to keep a whole army of scribes. Such a letter was called descriptive. Stone and clay tablets (shoulifs and ancient piers), wax tablets (Greeks, Romans), parchment (different peoples), birch bark (Slavs) were used for writing. Paper appeared among the Chinese about two thousand years ago, it came to Europe in the 8th century AD, but it did not become widespread immediately.

12 And in our time, picture writing is used: road signs, signs at airports, train stations, shop doors: “Dangerous turns” - a section of the road with dangerous turns. Above doors or in emergency exit doors. Direction arrow in buildings, airports

13 Centuries passed, and for simplicity, scribes began to replace some complex drawings with icons. It was already something like real letters. But not all icons denoted letters, some denoted whole words, others - individual syllables. The Egyptian letter reminds our puzzles: This is a saying - BREAD - EVERYTHING'S head.

14 Until our time, hieroglyphs have still been preserved: they write the Chinese: Bring to your house the fulfillment of all dreams and harmony in marriage. Since this is double happiness, this hieroglyph helps not only the owner of this symbol, but also his soul mate. Success becomes the success of both, happiness becomes twice as much! If you give this hieroglyph, then you sincerely wish the person happiness, the fulfillment of all desires and show an expression of deep friendship. This hieroglyph not only helps to maintain health, but also contributes to the speedy recovery of patients. This hieroglyph not only strengthens the joint bonds of marriage, but also extinguishes mutual conflicts. You will find harmony and peace, peace and a decent life with your loved one. Promotes the acquisition of long and mutual love, happiness in love

15 Each of the letters we use is a picture. The birthplace of the letters is Egypt. But the Egyptians wrote without vowels, so many words were written the same way and they had to draw a picture under the words, that is, the key to what was written, so that it was clear what was written. People thought about this question for a very long time until they invented the alphabet. The first alphabet arose from the enemies of the Egyptians - the Simites, about 4000 years ago. Since ours also began with the letters A and B. The letter A among the Simites was called “alef” - “bull”. At first, this badge really looked like a horned bull's head. That's what the Geeks did. So they got a set of 21 letters. The drawings were chosen from Egyptian hieroglyphs. From the alphabets of these two peoples, a new alphabet was born.

16 Before getting into our primers, the letters traveled from country to country with merchants transporting goods for a long time. They had no time to draw pictures, they were hastily written with icons. This has already happened in Greece. There are 24 letters in the modern Greek alphabet. The word "alphabet" itself is of Greek origin, as we have already said. It came from the name of the first letters of the Greek "alpha" and "vita". Later, the Latin alphabet appeared, which is still used today. For example, in mathematics we use X and Y, doctors all over the world use Latin letters when writing prescriptions for patients. There are 25 letters in the Latin alphabet. From the Greek and Latin alphabets came English Old Slavonic, Russian and others. There are 26 letters in the English alphabet. It included all the letters of the Latin alphabet, and added the letter W. The English alphabet is known all over the world.

17 Almost a thousand years later, the Old Slavonic alphabet appeared. In the 9th century, in Byzantium, there lived two brothers, Cyril and Methodius, monks. They were wise and very educated people and knew the Slavic language well. They created the Slavic alphabet, which became known as the Cyrillic alphabet. The modern Russian language originated from the Old Slavonic alphabet, it has 33 letters. How did they create it? Cyril and Methodius took the Greek alphabet as a basis and adapted it to the sounds of the Slavic language, so many of our letters look like Greek. Greek Αα Γγ Δδ Κκ Μμ Slavic Aa Gg Dd Kk Mm

18 But what kind of alphabet Cyril created, here lies a mystery. Manuscripts of that time are written in two different alphabets: Cyrillic and Glagolitic. If everything is clear with the Cyrillic alphabet - it comes from the Greek script, then how to explain the origin of the Glagolitic script, which is very different from any other script? What is the oldest alphabet? To date, scientists believe that both alphabets were invented by Cyril and Methodius. The Glagolitic alphabet had a complex, inconvenient form for perception, was common among Western Slavs, but gradually it was replaced by the Latin alphabet, and Cyrillic became the basis.

19 Ivan Fedorov printed the first ABC book in our country 400 years ago for children. He was also the first who began to print books on a machine tool in a printing house, and did not rewrite them with a pen. There were many pictures in his printed primer, and it became easier and more interesting for children to learn.

20 Conclusion: In this work, I have conducted a study that helped me to find out where and how letters began to emerge and how they evolved over many centuries. I learned that the Russian alphabet is later than the others and was invented by two brothers, the Slavs, Cyril and Methodius. I also learned that people still use picture writing and very successfully. Arriving in another country and not knowing the language, people are guided by signs, pictures and signs. To date, scientists still do not know which of the alphabets appeared first, Cyrillic or Glagolitic? This will be the topic of my further research.

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 Russia, 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 - the second person plural of the present tense of the verb "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 passed to Russia, which at different times was called “theta”, then “fita” and, accordingly, meant 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.

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, “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).

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.

Similar information.

The concept of the alphabet, its main characteristics.

Writing styles. Typography.

Stages of formation of the Russian alphabet.

One of the main factors of phonemographic writing is alphabet- a set of letters arranged in the order accepted for a given writing system. The alphabet is characterized by the composition (number of letters) and the order of the letters in the list, it determines the style of the letters, their names and sound values.

The word "alphabet" is of Greek origin: it is composed of two Greek words - "alpha" and "vita (beta)" (α and β), in Latin "alphabetum". The Arabic word "alifba" is composed according to the same principle. In Russian, the word "alphabet" is used, compiled by the name of the first letters of the Cyrillic alphabet: A - "az" and B - "beeches".

The ideal alphabet should consist of as many letters as there are phonemes in a given language. However, there are no ideal alphabets today, because writing develops over a long history, and much of the letter reflects already outdated traditions. There are more or less rational alphabets. Alphabetic characters (letters) can convey one sound (in Russian, the letters I, O, T, R), but can convey two or more sounds (in Russian, the letters E, C [ts]). On the other hand, one sound can be transmitted by two or more letters, for example, in English, the combinations of letters TH, SH, CH convey one sound at a time. Finally, there may be letters that do not convey sounds at all: in Russian, these are the letters b and b.

Modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. Vowels 10: A, I, O, U, S, E, E, E, Yu, I; consonants -21: B, C, D, D, F, Z, Y, K, L, M, N, P, R, C, T, F, X, C, H, W, SH. Letters b, b sounds are not indicated.

Lettering. There is no natural connection between the form of a letter and its sound meaning, this connection is arbitrary, which turns the letter into a conventional sign of sound. The arbitrariness of the style of the letter is confirmed by changes in the style of the letters with the stability of the meaning. For example, Ѩ eventually turned into I.

Meanwhile, the inscription of letters is an active characteristic of the alphabet, since it determines the appearance of the letter, its convenience and inconvenience, the speed of writing and reading, and the effectiveness of learning both. The style of a letter is the material carrier of its meaning, i.e. knowledge of the external appearance of the letter is a necessary condition for correct writing and reading. In the design of a letter, it is important to take into account both the interests of the writer and the interests of the reader. For the writer, the simplicity of the style is important, on which the speed of writing depends. For the reader, the clarity and contrast of the appearance of the letter is important. The evolution of the outer side of the alphabet - the shape of the letters - is associated precisely with these functions of letter styles.

In addition, the time and place of the creation of a written monument can be determined from the handwriting and the general nature of the appearance of the letter. The material side of writing is dealt with by the applied historical discipline - paleography(from Greek palaios "ancient").

The letters do not have a single descriptive pattern, but there are four varieties of each letter with two pairwise non-intersecting groupings: printed uppercase and lowercase; handwritten uppercase and lowercase. For example: a, a, A, a; T, t T, t.;

Modern letters according to the method of reproduction and according to the drawing are divided into written and printed. The styles of modern written letters were formed on the basis of the styles of the letters of the Slavic script. The foundations of printed type were laid by the reform of Peter I.

uppercase(large, capital) and lowercase(small) have their own history. Descriptive varieties of these letters began to appear in written monuments of the 16th century. The separation of capital letters into a separate sub-alphabet was first noted in primers of the 17th century. The use of capital letters is streamlined after the introduction of the Petrovsky civil alphabet.

The differences between uppercase and lowercase letters are manifested in three positions:

1) difference in size. This is reflected in the name (large and small), it is very important to read, because. capital letters stand out against the background of small ones and serve as a support, a guideline for the overall coverage of the text, highlighting its individual fragments;

2) difference in style. It does not apply to all alphabetic characters, but to printed sub-alphabets of only four letters: A - a, B - b, E - e, E - e;

3) functional distinctions. They are the most significant components, this is what orthography does (see lecture 7). There are no functional differences between the letters Y, b, b.

Letter order in the alphabet - one of the characteristics of the alphabet, since the hallmark of any alphabet is its orderliness. The generally accepted arrangement of letters in the alphabet is arbitrary, has no connection with the letter itself and the phonetic side of the language. The place of a letter in the alphabet does not depend on its frequency. It was calculated that the letters O, E (together with Ё), A, I, T are the most frequent, less often than others Sh, C, Shch, F, E are used.

On the one hand, the order of letters is the passive side of the modern alphabet, since it has no direct relation to the practice of writing. In order to write and read correctly, it is not necessary to know the order in which the letters follow each other. This knowledge has general cultural significance. On the other hand, the place in the alphabet is the most important characteristic of a letter, since it is determined by the place, ordinal number (M is the fourteenth letter in the Russian alphabet). In speech practice, knowledge of the order of letters is necessary when using reference literature, since headings in dictionaries are arranged in accordance with the so-called strict alphabet, i.e. the place in the alphabet is taken into account first of the first letters of the word, then the second, etc. For example, in the dictionary, the word will be given first lamp, after - doe.

letter names are very essential in the writing system, because reinforces their meaning. The names of Russian letters are built according to the acrophonic principle: the meaning of a letter is the extreme sound of its name (from the Greek akros "extreme"). This may be the first sound of the name (initial type) - “de” - [d], “ka” - [k], “che” - [h]; the last sound (final type) - “er” - [r], “es” - [s], “ef” - [f]; the whole name (global type) - "a" - [a], "e" -, "u" -. Thus, the name of a letter is directly related to its basic meaning, without which it is impossible to write and read correctly.

The modern name of the letter is an indeclinable neuter noun, so it is correct to say “graceful BUT"," big R".

Knowing the names is necessary for the correct reading of alphabetic abbreviations: FSB[efesbe], ATS[atees], UMPO [uempeo]. They are taken into account in the formulation of spelling rules; it is impossible to do without the names of letters in textbooks and scientific works. Knowing the names of letters is also associated with the culture of speech. Mistakes in the names of letters (“re” instead of “er”, “cha” instead of “che”) are perceived as a gross violation of the norms of the literary language. The use of the correct names of letters is an indicator of the level of a person's general culture.

Alphabetical meaning of letters is the basic meaning of the letter, its original function. The alphabetic value is opposed to the positional value of the letter. For example: letter O in the word here means [o], in the word noses- [Λ], in nasal- [ъ], letter E in the word eating matters, in a word eat- , in the weight- [`e], in scales- [`u e], in a bike- [`b], in karate- [e]. However, it is clear to all those who read and write in Russian that one of these meanings is the main (alphabetic) one, which is acquired when studying the alphabet, the rest represent positional meanings. The alphabetic value is set regardless of the conditions of use, it is the basis for the formation of the meanings of letters, due to graphics and spelling.

writing style is called a speech act, considered from the point of view of its graphic performance in a written text. Being a significant characteristic of written speech and being one with it, writing styles are divided into certain categories. The general requirements applicable to any manuscript include the possession of the skills of correct, aesthetically perfect writing, or the art of calligraphy- the skill of writing signs of writing. There are two main trends in the art of calligraphy: 1) perfect adherence to the standard scripts of written characters; 2) formation of individual (personal) handwriting.

Handwriting is called not only the individual style of writing, but also the general style of writing, characteristic of all writers of a certain historical period.

Personal perfect handwriting, claiming calligraphic significance, is relatively poorly developed in the European tradition. The formation of calligraphically significant personal handwriting in Europe begins with the time of typography (XV century), when they began to be opposed to standard printed characters as individual - general. In the hieroglyphic cultures of the East, on the contrary, personal handwriting appears very early, and calligraphic art reaches a high level of perfection. It should be borne in mind that personal handwriting always carries the spirit of its creator, in a certain way expressing some of the features of his personality, as individual features of pronunciation in oral speech.

The change in the styles of the letters was associated with a change in the supra-individual handwriting (charter, semi-charter, cursive), and then with the introduction of printing, the introduction of civil type, followed by a change in cursive handwriting and printed fonts.

In the case of standard characters in Greek and Latin, as well as Slavic script, three standard styles of execution gradually established themselves:

1) charter - the full style of the signs;

2) cursive - an abbreviated style of writing characters

3) semi-ustav - medium (mixed) style of characters.

This division of styles is common to all cultures. In Egyptian writing, they correspond to hieroglyphic, democratic and hieratic writing, in Chinese hieroglyphics - zhengshu, caoshu and jianbizi.

The charter (from the beginning of writing to the middle of the 16th century) was characterized by a clear, calligraphic style. Words were not separated by spaces; word abbreviations were rarely used. Each letter was written separately from the others, without connections and inclinations, and had shapes close to geometric. The height and width of the letters were about the same. Therefore, the charter was easy to read, but difficult for the writer.

The semi-ustav (from the middle of the 14th century to the 17th century) differed from the statute in the lesser severity of the lettering. Letters with their parts can form three rows of spellings: the line itself, the superscript row and the subscript rows. The signs of the semi-ustav fit into the middle line, and the superscript and subscript elements of letter styles are taken out beyond it: loops, bows, etc. A tilt was allowed, the letters became smaller and more elongated in height, titles (word abbreviation signs) and forces (stress marks) were used. The semi-ustav was written more fluently than the statute, but was more difficult to read. From manuscripts he moved to printed books from the time of Ivan Fedorov to the reforms of Peter the Great, this was due to the desire of the first printers to give the books a familiar look.

Cursive writing (from the end of the 14th century to the present day) is a coherent writing of letters, usually inclined to the right, with strokes extending beyond the top and bottom lines of the line. Initially, it is distributed in diplomatic, clerical and trade correspondence.

Historically, charter is the earliest style of writing. The most solemn and official texts are performed in the charter letter, and the least important - in cursive.

Typography based on a new way of creating written characters. The essence of this method is to create a standard graphical edition of handwritten text. The emergence and development of book printing is a complex and long historical process that had significant consequences for the spread and development of culture. The invention of printing cannot be attributed to any individual or people. The basis for the creation of a printed book is the invention of paper by the Chinese in the 2nd century AD. e. Both a handwritten and a printed book can be equally embodied on paper. Following the invention of paper in the 7th-8th centuries. A printing press was created, which was used to print books. Initially, copper or wooden boards served as a matrix for printing, on which the text was either cut out or etched with acid according to the handwritten text. From such a matrix, using a printing press, it was possible to create a certain circulation of text. Books created from matrices are called xylographs, they were the main type of publications until the 15th century.

In the 15th century, Johannes Gutenberg invented a type-casting device and a typographic alloy - hart. This alloy was distinguished by lightness and plasticity - the necessary qualities for creating a set. Europe thus became the birthplace of movable type printing. In the history of Russia, Ivan Fedorov became the first printer.

Printed speech develops directly from handwritten speech, changing the forms of existence of written speech, creating its new qualities. It borrows linearity and the sign principle of written speech. However, the characters of the letter change their form in accordance with the conditions of machine production. In particular, the number and strict nomenclature of fonts are established. Modern font appears in a number of variants that are used in the organization of text in a printed publication.

In the 20th century, computers entered social and linguistic practice, which significantly expanded the scope of technical devices for handwritten and printed speech. Computer graphics combines the properties of both. Computer graphics systems allow you to create not only text, but also drawings, geometric images, animation, etc.

In 988 Russia was baptized. The Christian religion (Orthodoxy) established itself as the state religion. This led to the spread of liturgical literature. Religious books were written in Old Church Slavonic using the Cyrillic alphabet. With the adoption of Orthodoxy, Slavic writing acquired the status of a state letter.

There are several periods in the history of Russian writing:

late 10th - mid 16th centuries - from the beginning of writing to the beginning of printing;

second half of the 16th century - the beginning of Russian book printing;

Petrine reforms of Russian writing at the beginning of the 18th century;

Changes in the alphabet in the XVIII-XIX centuries;

Alphabet reform 1917-1918

In 1710, by decree of Peter, a new civil alphabet and printing books in a new font. Another innovation of Peter was intended to strengthen the position of secular culture as opposed to the church. Prior to that, in official publications and in everyday life, they used Old Slavonic lettering. After Peter's reform, the Old Church Slavonic font began to be called Church Slavonic. They are still used in church practice today.

The introduction of civil type at the beginning of the 18th century marked an epoch in the development of Russian national culture. The alphabet has become much simpler and more accessible to the general population. It also made it possible to create new techniques for the design of the book. The need for the rapid development of printing in the era of Peter the Great demanded a more perfect type than Church Slavonic.

The civil font was created on the basis of Western European fonts and new Russian handwriting, which were more symmetrical in the construction of letters. About the change in the styles of block letters, M.V. Lomonosov wrote: “Under Peter, not only the boyars and boyars, but also the letters threw off their wide fur coats and dressed up in summer clothes.”

In addition to introducing a civil typeface, the Russian emperor tried to improve the alphabet. He personally crossed out the letters “yus big” - Ѭ, “yus small” -Ѩ, “xi” -Ѯ, “psi” -Ѱ, “Izhitsa” - V, “uk” - Ou, “fert” - F, “omega "- Ѡ, "land" - Z, "like" - I.

However, this met with opposition from the Church. The letters excluded by Peter continued to be used according to an established centuries-old tradition. As a result, civil books from 1711 to 1735. came out of print with a different set of letters.

Stress marks and titles (diacritical signs of word abbreviation) were abolished, since their use led to illegible texts and errors. At the same time, there was a refusal to use letters in numerical values.

The new civil alphabet finally came into use by the middle of the 18th century, when it became familiar to the generation that learned to read and write from it. It existed unchanged until the reform of Russian writing in 1918.

Transformations in Russian writing had a significant impact not only on writing, but also on the formation of the Russian literary language. Church Slavonic graphics lost its dominant position in Russian writing, ceased to be the bearer of the literary norm, which meant the loss of the dominant role in the literary language by the Church Slavonic language. In this sense, the alphabet reform is a vivid example of the modernization of Russian life. It could take place only in conditions when life was renewed. Newspapers began to appear, mail appeared, people began to conduct active business and private correspondence. Writing and reading became not only a charitable deed, but a necessity to correspond to the spirit of the times.

Introduction of new letters. During the entire history of its existence, four new letters were introduced into the composition of the Russian alphabet: I, Y, E, Yo.

I in the Church Slavonic alphabet it looked in two ways - like “yus small” Ѧ or “A iotized” IA, in which the sound value coincided for a very long time. The form of the modern letter I, similar to a mirror image of the Latin letter R, reproduces the cursive outline of the letter Ѧ, which spread already in the middle of the 16th century (with a cursory outline of this letter, the left leg gradually disappeared, and the whole figure turned somewhat clockwise. In this form, it was fixed with the introduction of civil type in 1708 and has not changed much since then.

E is considered to be a borrowed Glagolitic form of the letter "is" (E), which looks like E. In Cyrillic, the sign E has been used since at least the middle of the 17th century. Officially, the letter E was included in the alphabet in 1708 when creating a civil font. A large number of borrowings in the Petrine era and later necessitated the letter e, which denoted the sound [e], standing after solid consonants and at the beginning of a word. Thus, to designate one sound [e], two letters appeared in the language - E and E.

Y introduced in 1753. In the Church Slavonic language, a consistent and mandatory distinction between the use of styles I - Y has been legalized since the middle of the 17th century. The translation of the Russian letter into a civil font abolished the superscripts and re-united with the letter I. The Y was restored in 1735, although it was not considered a separate letter of the alphabet until the 20th century.

Yo introduced in 1784. This letter has its own history. Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, on November 29, 1783, held a meeting of the Russian Academy at her home. The conversation was about the future six-volume Dictionary of the Russian Academy. Then Ekaterina Romanovna, in the presence of Derzhavin, Fonvizin, Knyaznin, Metropolitan Gabriel of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, suggested writing not “olka”, but “tree”. A year later, on November 18, "yo" received official status. Derzhavin was the first to use the letter Yo, and the fabulist Ivan Dmitriev was the first to print it: he entered the words “light” and “stump” in the fairy tale “Whimsical”. The letter became famous thanks to Karamzin, in connection with which he until recently was considered its creator.

Since then, the letter has experienced several stages of decline and rise in its popularity. Publishers of the tsarist period, the Soviet period, and perestroika treated it differently. In 2007, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation ordered to write the letter "ё" in proper names. In 2009, the Supreme Court of Russia decided that in the documents "e" and "e" are equivalent. In 2009, the Bank of Russia allowed to write "yo" in payment documents.

The second reform of Russian writing was carried out in 1917-1918. It was a reform of both the alphabet and spelling. The preparation of this reform began at the end of the 19th century, when the need to simplify the alphabet and spelling became especially obvious. In 1904, the Spelling Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences was created, which included such prominent linguists as A.A. Shakhmatov, F.F. Fortunatov, I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay, A.I. Sobolevsky and others. In the same year, a draft was published, including proposals for the exclusion of superfluous letters and new spelling rules. However, the project was met with hostility by the conservative part of society, government circles and even some scientists. At that time, it was more common to believe that the acquisition of spelling did not depend on the number of letters in the alphabet, but on incorrect teaching methods, and it was also believed that great importance should not be attached to the "cries of lazy students." There were so many opponents of the reform that it was necessary to create a special preparatory commission with the participation of school teachers, which had been actively working for more than ten years. Finally, in May 1917, the Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Education proposed introducing reformed spelling in schools from the new academic year.

The reform was implemented only under Soviet rule by decrees of the People's Commissariat of Education of December 23, 1917 and the Council of People's Commissars of October 10, 1918.

The reform finally abolished a number of superfluous letters that made it difficult to write: “fita” - Ѳ with a replacement through Ф; "yat" - Ѣ with a replacement through E; “and decimal - I with replacement through AND; "Izhitsa" - V. The letter "era" - b was canceled at the end of words after a solid consonant (mir, bank).

The reform also made it possible to abandon the names of the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet, in which significant words were used that began with the corresponding sounds (az - A, beeches - B). In the modern Russian alphabet, following the model of the Latin alphabet, the names of the letters are insignificant: the name indicates the quality of the sound denoted by the letter (a - A; be - B). Short names of letters greatly facilitates the assimilation of the alphabet.

As a result of the reform of 1917-1918. the current Russian alphabet appeared (see Appendix). This alphabet also became the basis of many newly written languages, for which there was no written language before the 20th century or was lost and introduced in the republics of the USSR after the October Socialist Revolution.

In 2010, Russia celebrated the 300th anniversary of the Russian alphabet.

This significant date was one of the reasons due to which a decision was made at the state level to create a domain zone on the Internet in Cyrillic. Cyrillic domains will allow the Russian language to exist in a much wider virtual space than hitherto. This fact is significant not only for Russia, but also for those Slavic states whose writing is based on the Cyrillic alphabet.

List of used literature

Ivanova V.F. Modern Russian language. Graphics and spelling. M., 1976.

Istrin V.A. The emergence and development of writing. M., 2010.

Istrin V.A. 1100 years of the Slavic alphabet. M., 2011.

Lowkotka Ch. Development of writing. (translated from Czech). - M., 1960.

Russian language. Encyclopedia/Ch. ed. Yu.N.Karaulov. - M .: Great Russian Encyclopedia; Bustard, 1998.

Shchepkin V.N. Russian paleography. - M., 1967.

Linguistics. Big encyclopedic dictionary. - M .: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1998.

Questions for self-control

Define the term alphabet.

When does the Russian alphabet originate? What are the prerequisites for its creation?

Tell us about the main characteristics of the Russian alphabet.

In what directions did the change in the Russian alphabet go?

Tell us about the fate of the letters excluded from the Russian alphabet. State the reasons for their initial entry into the alphabet and their subsequent exclusion.

Tell us about the process of introducing native Russian letters into the alphabet.

What is the composition of the modern Russian alphabet?

Assignment for independent work:

study the topic "The Baptism of Russia and Slavic writing."

We now use the pronoun in the first person - I. Earlier, they say, Russian people said Az. Some people think that saying I is bad...

At school, the teachers scolded us that Ya-kat is bad (selfish), but for some reason, in confirmation of this, they cited a strange argument "I am the last letter in the alphabet" ..

Sorry, but firstly, there is NO alphabet in Russian, we do not have the letters Alpha and Vita - this is the Greek alphabet. Secondly - why is it bad to be the last letter? Moreover, the last one is only 100 years after the writing reform, which is still erroneously attributed to the Bolsheviks and personally to grandfather Lenin (where would it be without him!).

The story is such that back in 1904, a reform was conceived to simplify the spelling of the Russian language. She was discussed for a long time, verified. Finally, in May 1917, it was approved in the form of a law by the Provisional Government (!). And only after the October Revolution of the Bolsheviks did they begin to actively plant it, continuing, as we see it, the work of the tsar and the capitalist ministers ...

Before the reform, the last letter was the absolutely unnecessary Greek letter Fita, which we inherited from Cyril and Methodius. She was removed, and the penultimate I - has now become the last. And the people have already used the pronoun in the first person for at least several centuries - I.
So, with this figured out, sort of.

Evil tongues also say that if we wrote Ya, then there would be less harm, because in the very form of the letter I, there is some kind of evil occult charge.
Okay, let's look at the old alphabets, for example here:
https://fs00.infourok.ru/images/doc/282/287367/img2.jpg
and we see that there the sound I was denoted by two letters: I (decimal And, denoting, in addition to the sound, the number ten), and the letter "a" attached to it. It turned out exactly Ia, and given that the decimal I was read briefly, it sounded like Ya.

Now attention! Slightly move the letter I (this stick) under "a" and crookedly put it from below - we get the letter I now familiar to us. Oh, how!

It turns out that according to the ancient alphabet, Ia (Ya) is the decimal Az! ... what a chagrin for those who say that you need to call yourself Az, and I am a bad word and a terrible letter!

"You're lying dog - I am the king!" (c) k-f Ivan Vasilievich changes his profession

By the way, I like the pronoun As, which I use in writing. But I have a chic excuse - that's what my ancestors said and my relatives say - the Bulgarians.
:-)
Although there is no difference between the Russian Az, the Bulgarian As, the Lithuanian Ash - these are all variations of the same memory that our ancestors were the god-men Asa, Aza - in honor of which the largest continent Asia, the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, a mountain in the Urals and other place names and the basics...
Yes, those very "Scandinavian gods" aces, whose traces the Scandinavians themselves (Thur Heyerdahl) are looking for near the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, and whose descendants are, to one degree or another, the inhabitants of the Black Sea region and Europe as a whole.

What are they worthy of? Well, many. Read Edda. And in Russian they still remember that the first letter of the Russian alphabet is Az, which was used earlier as a first-person pronoun.
And very few people guess that the first digit of our account is "one" - in honor of the father of the god-aces, who bore exactly this name - Odin ...

P.S. Dear readers, if you liked this and other articles of the author - you are welcome to visit my site where you can get acquainted with a bunch of interesting things in the field of self-development and recovery!
http://arnoldova.wixsite.com/renio

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