Write the Russian alphabet. Alphabet letter numbers. What are the serial numbers of letters in the Russian alphabet?

The basics of knowledge seem so familiar to people that we lose sight of dozens of interesting facts. This happened with the Russian alphabet. How many interesting stories does he hide?

The answer about the number of letters of the Russian alphabet lies on the surface. There are 33 letters in total in the Russian alphabet. They are divided into two groups: consonants and vowels.

There are 10 vowel letters in the modern Russian alphabet: a, i, u, o, ы, e, ё, e, yu, ya. There are more consonants - 21. Where did the other 2 letters out of 33 go? There are two letters that indicate only the hardness or softness of a sound. This pair is called today - hard and soft signs. And yet, initially they had other “names”.

What does the history of the letters b and b hide?

The letter “Ъ” was a vowel before the 1917 revolution. It sounded like “er” in the alphabet. It was used to write words with consonants at the end, for example, “trud”. In this letter one can hear the unvoiced o, e, s depending on the situation. It is also called “muted” or reduced.

Her sister, the vowel “b” (“er”) often replaced the letter “e” in more “voiceless” versions.

These letters were used where there was a cluster of consonants and a full-sounding vowel letter could not be “compromised.”

What letters of the Russian alphabet still have an interesting fate?

The letter “Y”: caused a lot of controversy about its necessity even when it appeared. Princess Dashkova suggested using the letter.

The current defenders of the letter even erected a monument to her in Ulyanovsk in the mid-2000s. It seems their efforts were crowned with success. The letter was recognized as a full member of the alphabet, and in “gratitude” it glorified the city once again.

Consigned to oblivion: letters that remain only in history

Tsarist Russia had a much more extensive alphabet than it does now. So, the students of that time hated one letter and even called it “monster.” The vowel “yat” became it. Sometimes it replaced the letter “e”, and the sound was the same, which is why the rules for writing it were so difficult to remember. Poems and lists with this letter even gave birth to a new aphorism: “To know in yat.” This means that a person is not literate in spelling. After the revolution of the twentieth century in Russia, the letter became a thing of the past.

"Fert" and "fita"

Two letters that make one sound also “baid goodbye” to the Russian people after the overthrow of the Russian monarchy. However, people did not like to use them before; they caused confusion. And the “pose” of the letters was ambiguous. “Walking around” still means “to sit back and put on airs in vain.”

"Izhitsa"

The modern Russian letter “I” has three ancestors. It took a lot of effort to remember the rules for using them. One of these three letters - “Izhitsa” - was used least often, but when depicted it resembled a whip and thus went down in history. Instead of the word “flog”, the phrase “Prescribe Izhitsa” was often used. The predecessor letters “I” were abolished by Peter the Great.

Video on the topic

Thus, the Proto-Slavic alphabet is a Message - a set of coding phrases that allow each sound of the language system to be given an unambiguous graphic correspondence (i.e., a letter).

And now - ATTENTION! Let's look at the first three letters of the alphabet - az, beeches, lead. Az - “I”. Buki (beeches) - “letters, writing.” Vedi (vede) - “knew”, perfect past tense of “vediti” - to know, to know.
Combining the acrophonic names of the first three letters of the alphabet, we get the following:
“az buki vede” - “I know letters.”

All subsequent letters of the alphabet are combined into phrases:
A verb is a “word”, not only spoken, but also written.
Good - “property, acquired wealth.”
There is (of course) - a third party singular from the verb "to be".

We read: “the verb is good” - “the word is an asset.”

Live - imperative mood, plural from “to live” - “to live in work, and not vegetate.”
Zelo - “zealously, with zeal” (cf. English zeal - stubborn, zealous, jealous - jealous, as well as biblical name Zealot - "zealot"). Earth - “planet Earth and its inhabitants, earthlings.”
And - the conjunction "and".
Izhe - “those who, they are the same.”
Kako - “like”, “like”.
People are “reasonable beings.”

We read: “live well, earth, and like people” - “live, working hard, earthlings, and as befits people.” Think - imperative mood, plural of “to think, to comprehend with the mind.”

Nash - “ours” in the usual meaning.
On - “that one” in the meaning of “single, united”.
Chambers (peace) - “the basis (of the universe).” Wed. “to rest” - “to be based on something.”

We read: “think about our chambers” - “comprehend our universe.”
Rtsy (rtsi) - imperative mood: “speak, utter, read aloud.”
Wed. "speech". The word is “transmitting knowledge.”
Firmly - “confidently, confidently.”

We read: “say your word firmly” - “carry knowledge with conviction.”
Uk is the basis of knowledge, doctrine. Wed. science, teach, skill, custom.
Fert, f(b)ret - “fertilizes.”
Her - “divine, given from above” (cf. German herr - lord, God, Greek “hiero” - divine, English hero - hero, as well as Russian name God - Horse).

We read: “uk fret Her” - “knowledge is fertilized by the Almighty,” “knowledge is a gift of God.”
Tsy (qi, tsti) - “sharpen, penetrate, delve, dare.”
Worm (worm) - “he who sharpens, penetrates.”
Ш(т)а (Ш, Ш) - “what” in the meaning “to”.
Ъ, ь (еръ/ерь, ъръ) are variants of one letter, meaning an indefinite short vowel close to “e”.
The variant “ь” arose later from “iъ” (this is how the letter “yat” was displayed in writing until the 20th century).
Yus (yus small) - “light”, Old Russian “yas”. In modern Russian, the root “yas” is preserved, for example, in the word “clear”.
Yat (yati) - “to comprehend, to have.”
“Tsy, cherve, shta ЪRA yus yati!”

It stands for “Dare, sharpen, worm, in order to comprehend the light of God!”

The combination of the above phrases constitutes the elementary Message:

“Az buki vede. The verb is good.
Live well, earth, and people like you,
think of our chambers.
Rtsy’s word is firm - uk fret Her.
Tsy, cherve, shta ЪRA yus yati!”

And if we give this message a modern twist, it would look something like this:

I know the letters. Writing is an asset.
Work hard, people of earth,
As befits reasonable people.
Comprehend the universe!
Carry the word with conviction: Knowledge is a gift of God!
Dare, delve deeply in order to comprehend the Light of Being!

Known to every bearer of Slavic culture as the creators of the alphabet. Of course, they are at the origins of Slavic books, but do we owe the alphabet that we still use to this day?

The creation of Slavic writing was caused by the need for Christian preaching among the Slavs. In 862 - 863 Prince of Moravia (one of the largest at that time Slavic states) Rostislav sent an embassy to Byzantium with a request to send missionaries to conduct worship in the Slavic language. The choice of Emperor Michael III and Patriarch Photius fell on the famous apologist of Eastern Christianity Constantine (who later took the name Cyril during monastic tonsure) and his brother Methodius.

They worked in Moravia for about three years: they translated the Bible and liturgical texts from Greek, trained scribes from among the Slavs, then went to Rome. In Rome, the brothers and their disciples were solemnly welcomed, they were allowed to serve the Liturgy in Slavonic. Constantine-Cyril was destined to die in Rome (in 869), Methodius returned to Moravia, where he continued to translate.

In order to fully appreciate the feat of the “Slovenian teachers”, one must imagine what it meant to translate the Holy Scriptures and liturgical books into an unwritten language. To do this, it is enough to remember what topics and how we communicate in everyday life, and compare this with the content of the biblical text, the text of the service. In everyday life, we rarely talk about complex cultural, philosophical, ethical, and religious concepts.

Spoken language by itself is not able to develop means of expressing such complex meanings. Today, when discussing abstract topics, we use what has been created for centuries in the philosophical, religious, literary tradition, i.e. tradition is purely bookish. The Slavic language of the 9th century did not possess this wealth.

The unwritten language of the Slavs of the 9th century had practically no means of expressing abstract concepts, much less theological concepts; complex grammatical and syntactic structures were poorly developed in it. To make worship understandable to the Slavs, the language needed the most subtle processing. It was necessary either to find in the Slavic language itself, or to unobtrusively import from another (this language became Greek) everything necessary for this language to become capable of conveying the Gospel to people, revealing the beauty and meaning of the Orthodox service. Slavic teachers masterfully coped with this task.

Having translated the Bible and liturgical texts into the Slavic language, revealing the Gospel to the Slavs, Cyril and Methodius at the same time gave the Slavs book, linguistic, literary, and theological culture. They gave the language of the Slavs the right and opportunity to become the language of communication between man and God, the language of the Church, and then the language of great culture and literature. The significance of the brothers’ feat for the entire Orthodox Slavic world truly cannot be overestimated. But it is also worth remembering the activities of the disciples of Cyril and Methodius, without whom the mission of the First Teachers could not have been completed, but who, unfortunately, remain in the shadow of their great teachers.

The mission of Cyril and Methodius met resistance. Methodius had to endure about two years of imprisonment, and after his death, opponents of Eastern Christianity expelled the disciples of Cyril and Methodius from Moravia. Slavic books began to be burned, services in the Slavic language were prohibited. Some of the expelled students went to the territory of what is now Croatia, and some to Bulgaria.

Among those who went to Bulgaria was one of the outstanding students of Methodius, Clement of Ohrid. It was he, according to most modern scientists, who was the creator of the alphabet that we (albeit with minor changes) use to this day.

The fact is that Slavic alphabet There are two known: Glagolitic and Cyrillic. Glagolitic letters are very complex, elaborate, and bear little resemblance to the letters of any other alphabet. Apparently, the author of the Glagolitic alphabet used elements of various writing systems, including eastern ones, and invented some symbols himself. The person capable of doing such complex philological work was Konstantin-Kirill.

The Cyrillic alphabet was created on the basis of the Greek letter, and its creator worked hard to adapt the Greek letter to the Slavic phonetic system. Based on painstaking work with the manuscripts, studying their linguistic features, territory of distribution, paleographic characteristics, the researchers came to the conclusion that the Glagolitic alphabet was created earlier than the Cyrillic alphabet, the Glagolitic alphabet was apparently created by Cyril, and the Cyrillic alphabet was created by the most talented student of Methodius, Clement of Ohrid.

Clement (c. 840 - 916), who fled from persecution from Moravia, was sent by the Bulgarian Tsar Boris to preach in Ohrid. Here he created the largest school of Slavic writing, one of the most important centers of Slavic culture. Here translations were carried out and original Slavic works of spiritual content (songs, hymns, lives) were compiled. Clement of Ohrid can rightfully be called one of the first Slavic writers. Clement’s work in teaching adults and children to read and write was also unusually extensive: according to the most conservative estimates, he introduced about 3,500 people to Slavic writing. In 893, Clement was appointed bishop of Dremvica and Wielica. He became one of the first Slavic church hierarchs, the first Bulgarian hierarch to serve, preach and write in the Slavic language. According to most modern scientists, it was he who created the alphabet, which the Orthodox Slavic peoples still use.

Clement of Ohrid is glorified among the saints equal to the apostles. His memory is celebrated on July 27 (Cathedral of Bulgarian Enlighteners) and November 25.

Letters are the basis of any language in the world, because we use their combination when we think, speak or write. The alphabet of the Russian language is interesting not only as a “building material”, but also in the history of its formation. In this regard, the question arises: who created the alphabet of the Russian language? Most people, without hesitation, will say that the main authors of the Russian alphabet are Cyril and Methodius. However, only a few know that they not only created the letters of the alphabet, but began to use signs in writing, and also translated a huge number of church books.

How did the Russian alphabet appear?

From the 9th to the 10th centuries, one of the largest states was Great Moravia. At the end of 862, her prince Rostislav wrote a letter to the Emperor of Byzantium, Michael, asking for permission to conduct services in the Slavic language. At that time the inhabitants of Moravia had mutual language, but there was no writing. The Greek script or Latin was used. Emperor Michael granted the prince's request and sent a mission to Moravia in the person of two learned brothers. Cyril and Methodius were well educated and belonged to a noble family. It was they who became the founders of Slavic culture and writing. However, one should not think that until this moment people remained illiterate. They used letters from the Veles book. It is still not known who invented the letters or signs in it.

An interesting fact is that the brothers created the letters of the alphabet even before arriving in Moravia. It took them about three years to create the Russian alphabet and arrange the letters into the alphabet. The brothers managed to translate the Bible and liturgical books from Greek, and from now on the liturgy in the church was conducted in a language understandable to the local population. Some letters in the alphabet were very similar to Greek and Latin characters. In 863, an alphabet consisting of 49 letters was created, but later it was abolished to 33 letters. The originality of the created alphabet is that each letter conveys one sound.

I wonder why the letters in the Russian alphabet have a certain sequence? The creators of the Russian alphabet considered letters from the point of view of ordering numbers. Each letter defines a number, so the letter-numbers are arranged in an increasing direction.

Who invented the Russian alphabet?

In 1917-1918 The first reform was carried out aimed at improving the spelling of the Slavic language. The Ministry of Public Education decided to correct the books. The alphabet or Russian alphabet regularly underwent changes, and this is how the Russian alphabet that we use now appeared.

The history of the Russian language is fraught with numerous discoveries and secrets:

1. There is a letter “Ё” in the Russian alphabet. It was introduced by the Academy of Sciences in 1783 by Princess Vorontsova-Dashkova, who headed it at that time. She asked the academicians why in the word “iolka” the first syllable is represented by two letters. Having not received an answer that satisfied her, the princess created an order to use the letter “Y” in writing.
2. The one who invented the Russian alphabet left no explanation for the silent letter “er”. It was used until 1918 after hard consonants. The country's treasury spent more than 400 thousand rubles on writing “er”, so the letter was very expensive.
3. Another difficult letter in the Russian alphabet is “i” or “i”. Reforming philologists could not decide which sign to leave, so significant was the evidence of the importance of their use. This letter in the Russian alphabet was read the same way. The difference between “and” and “i” is in the semantic load of the word. For example, “mir” in the meaning of “universe” and “peace” in the meaning of the absence of war. After decades of controversy, the creators of the alphabet left the letter “i”.
4. The letter “e” in the Russian alphabet was previously called “e reverse”. M.V. Lomonosov for a long time did not recognize it, since he considered it borrowed from other languages. But it successfully took root among other letters in the Russian alphabet.

The Russian alphabet is complete interesting facts, almost every letter has its own story. But the creation of the alphabet affected only scientific and educational activities. The innovators had to teach new letters to people and, above all, the clergy. Dogmatics was closely intertwined with the clergy and politics. Unable to withstand the endless persecution, Cyril dies, and a few years later Methodius dies. The gratitude of descendants cost the brothers dearly.

The alphabet has not changed long time. In the last century, children were taught at school using the old Russian alphabet, so we can say that modern names letters came into general use only during the reign Soviet power. The order of letters in the Russian alphabet has remained the same since its creation, since the signs were used to form numbers (although we have been using Arabic numerals for a long time).

The Old Church Slavonic alphabet, created in the ninth century, became the basis for the formation of writing among many peoples. Cyril and Methodius made a tremendous contribution to the history of the development of Slavic languages. Already in the ninth century it was understood that not every nation has the honor of using its own alphabet. We still use the brothers' legacy to this day.

The modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The alphabet in its current form has existed since 1942. In fact, the year 1918 can be considered the year of the formation of the modern Russian alphabet - then it consisted of 32 letters (without the letter ё). The origin of the alphabet, according to historical documents, is associated with the names Cyril and Methodius and dates back to the 9th century AD. From its origin until 1918, the alphabet changed several times, adding and excluding characters. At one time it consisted of more than 40 letters. The Russian alphabet is also sometimes called the Russian alphabet.

Russian alphabet with letter names

On our website for each letter of the Russian alphabet there is a separate page with detailed description, examples of words, pictures, poems, riddles. They can be printed or downloaded. Click on the desired letter to go to its page.

A a B b C c D d E d e e e f f g h h i i j j K k L l M m N n O o P p R r S s T t U u F f X x C t H h Sh sh sch q y y b ee y y I

Often in written speech the letter e is used instead of the letter е. In most cases, the replacement does not cause difficulties for the reader, but in some contexts it is necessary to use the letter ё to avoid ambiguity. Russian letters are a neuter noun. It is worth considering that the style of letters depends on the font.

Numbering of letters

In some logical problems to determine the next element in a series, in games when solving comic ciphers, in competitions for knowledge of the alphabet and in other similar cases, you need to know serial numbers letters of the Russian alphabet, including numbers when counting from the end to the beginning of the alphabet. Our visual “strip” will help you quickly determine the number of a letter in the alphabet.

• A
  1
  33
• B
  2
  32
• IN
  3
  31
• G
  4
  30
• D
  5
  29
• E
  6
  28
• Yo
  7
  27
• AND
  8
  26
• Z
  9
  25
• AND
  10
  24
• Y
  11
  23
• TO
  12
  22
• L
  13
  21
• M
  14
  20
• N
  15
  19
• ABOUT
  16
  18
• P
  17
  17

• R
  18
  16
• WITH
  19
  15
• T
  20
  14
• U
  21
  13
• F
  22
  12
• X
  23
  11
• C
  24
  10
• H
  25
  9
• Sh
  26
  8
• SCH
  27
  7
• Kommersant
  28
  6
• Y
  29
  5
• b
  30
  4
• E
  31
  3
• YU
  32
  2
• I
  33
  1

Letters of the Russian alphabet

Frequent questions about the letters of the Russian alphabet are: how many letters are in the alphabet, which of them are vowels and consonants, which are called uppercase and which are lowercase? Basic information about letters is often found in popular questions for students primary classes, in tests of erudition and determination of IQ level, in questionnaires for foreigners on knowledge of the Russian language and other similar tasks.

Number of letters

How many letters are in the Russian alphabet?

There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet.

To remember the number of letters in the Russian alphabet, some people associate them with popular phrases: “33 pleasures”, “33 misfortunes”, “33 cows”. Other people associate it with facts from their lives: I live in apartment number 33, I live in region 33 (Vladimir region), I play in team number 33 and the like. And if the number of letters of the alphabet is forgotten again, then associated phrases help to remember it. It will probably help you too?!

Vowels and consonants

How many vowels and consonants are there in the Russian alphabet?

10 vowels + 21 consonants + 2 do not mean sound

Among the letters of the Russian alphabet are:

• 10 vowels: a, o, u, s, e, i, e, e, yu, and;
• 21 consonant letters: b, v, g, d, j, g, z, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, f, x, c, h, w, sch;
• 2 letters that do not mean sounds: ь, ъ.

The letter means sound. Compare: “ka”, “el” - names of letters, [k], [l] - sounds.

Uppercase and lowercase

Which letters are uppercase and which are lowercase?

Letters can be uppercase (or capital) and lowercase:

• A, B, V... E, Yu, Z - capital letters,
• a, b, c... e, yu, i - lowercase letters.

Sometimes they say: large and small letters. But this formulation is incorrect, since it means the size of the letter, and not its style. Compare:
B is a large capital letter, B is a small capital letter, b is a large lowercase letter, b is a small lowercase letter.

Proper names, the beginning of sentences, and “you” are written with a capital letter as an expression of deep respect. IN computer programs The term "letter case" is used. Capital letters are typed in uppercase, lowercase letters are typed in lowercase.