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Russian is written using the Cyrillic Alphabet, named after
a 6th Century Missionary Monk from Greece, St. Cyril, who adapted
his native Greek alphabet to produce something that could be used by illiterate
Slavs, Bulgars and others that he took his message to in the Balkans - so
that the Bible could be written down for them. The alphabet was exported
northwards to Russia, along with the Orthodox religion. When the Mongolian
Khan Nogai attacked Constantinople in 1264AD, large numbers of Byzantine
Monks and Scholars fled to Russia, the second Orthodox nation after Greece,
and there was a new wave of Greek influence on the language, alphabet and
culture. The modern Russian alphabet came into use in the 1920's when
many obsolete old letters were dropped and a major reform of spelling took
place, making Russian spelling completely logical, with just one exception
- "-oro" on the ends of words, which looks like it ought to be
pronounced "ogo", but in fact comes out as "ovo".
Below is the Cyrillic alphabet in typed and cursive form. Pay particular
attention to some of the differences that happen from the typed to cursive
letters. They might just cause you some problems if you aren't aware
of them. For example the cursive letter "t" is written
"m". Also, cursive letter "L"
comes out as an upside-down "V", "/\",
and a lower case letter "p" comes out in cursive Russian as
"n". Confusing maybe at first
but in just a short time you know the letters like a native. Good
luck and enjoy learning a little something about your ladies wonderful
language.
| Cyrillic
(printed & cursive) |
Roman |
Name
of Cyrillic Letter |
Sample |
 |
a |
ah |
"alphabet" |
 |
b |
beh |
"baby"
|
 |
v |
vey |
"voice" |
 |
g |
gey |
"girl" |
 |
d |
dey |
"dream" |
 |
e |
yey |
"yes"
|
 |
ë |
yaw |
"yonder"
|
 |
zh |
zheh |
"hermitage" |
 |
z |
zey |
"zebra" |
 |
i |
ee |
"feeling" |
 |
 |
ee kratkoye |
"atrophy" |
 |
k |
kah |
"kiss" |
 |
l |
el |
"love"
|
 |
m |
em |
"Marriage"
|
 |
n |
en |
"November"
|
 |
o |
aw |
"Moscow" |
 |
p |
pey |
"purple" |
 |
r |
ehr |
"round" |
 |
s |
ess |
"summer" |
 |
t |
tey |
"translate" |
 |
u |
oo |
"football" |
 |
f |
ef |
"family" |
 |
kh |
khah |
"loch
ness" |
 |
ts |
tseh |
"tsar" |
 |
ch |
cheh |
"chop" |
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sh |
shah |
"share" |
 |
shch |
shchah |
"hush child" |
 |
" |
tvyawrdy znak |
(hard
sound sign)
letter preceding is hard |
 |
y |
yerih |
"whiskey" |
 |
' |
miakhky znak |
(soft
sound sign)
preceding is soft |
 |
 |
eh oborawtnoye |
“elephant"
|
 |
 |
yoo |
"uniform" |
 |
 |
yah |
"yak" |
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