Cyrillic alphabets

Numerous Cyrillic alphabets are based on the

Some of these are illustrated below; for others, and for more detail, see the links. Sounds are transcribed in the IPA. While these languages largely have phonemic orthographies, there are occasional exceptions—for example, Russian ⟨г⟩ is pronounced /v/ in a number of words, an orthographic relic from when they were pronounced /ɡ/ (e.g. его yego 'him/his', is pronounced [jɪˈvo] rather than [jɪˈɡo]).

Spellings of names transliterated into the Roman alphabet may vary, especially й (y/j/i), but also г (gh/g/h) and ж (zh/j).

Unlike the Latin script, which is usually adapted to different languages by adding diacritical marks/supplementary glyphs (such as acutes and carons) to standard Roman letters, by assigning new phonetic values to existing letters (e.g. ⟨q⟩, whose original value in Latin was /k/, represents /g/ in Azerbaijani, /t͡ɕʰ/ in Mandarin Chinese Pinyin, /q/ in a lot of other languages and /ǃ/ in some Bantu languages), or by the use of digraphs (such as ⟨sh⟩), the Cyrillic script is usually adapted by the creation of entirely new letter shapes. However, in some alphabets invented in the 19th century, such as Chuvash, umlauts and breves also were used.

Spread

The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
У̂ Ӯ Ў Ӱ Ф Х Ц Ч Џ Ш Щ Ꙏ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я ʼ ˮ
Non-Slavic letters
Я̈ Ӏ
Archaic or unused letters
Я̈ Я̂ Я̨ Ԙ Ѥ Ѧ Ꙙ Ѫ Ꙛ Ѩ Ꙝ Ѭ Ѯ Ѱ Ѳ Ѵ Ѷ Ꙟ
List of Cyrillic letters List of Cyrillic multigraphs
v t e

Non-Slavic alphabets are generally modelled after

Greek script

before.

In Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, the use of Cyrillic to write local languages has often been a politically controversial issue since the collapse of the Soviet Union, as it evokes the era of Soviet rule and Russification. Some of Russia's peoples such as the Tatars have also tried to drop Cyrillic, but the move was halted under Russian law. A number of languages have switched from Cyrillic to either a Roman-based orthography or a return to a former script.

Cyrillic alphabets continue to be used in several Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Belarusian) and non-Slavic (Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Gagauz, Mongolian) languages.

The following table lists the Cyrillic letters which are used in the alphabets of most of the national languages which use a Cyrillic alphabet. Exceptions and additions for particular languages are noted below.

Cyrillic alphabets used by Slavic languages can be divided into two categories:

• West South Slavic languages, such as all varieties of Serbo-Croatian, often share the following letters, among others: Ј, Љ, Њ, Џ
• East South Slavic languages and East Slavic languages, such as Bulgarian and Russian, often share the following letters, among others: Ё, Й, Щ, Ы, Ь (soft sign), Э, Ю, Я

The Bulgarian alphabet features:

• The Bulgarian names for the consonants are [bɤ], [kɤ], [ɫɤ] (bǔ, kǔ, lǔ) etc. instead of [bɛ], [ka], [ɛl] (be, ka, el) etc.
• Е represents /ɛ/ and is called "е" [ɛ]. Unlike in other Slavic languages, the sound [jɛ] does not exist in native words, being replaced with Е in most cases.
• The sounds /dʒ/ (/d͡ʒ/) and /dz/ (/d͡z/) are represented by the digraphs дж and дз respectively, as in Ukrainian.
• Short I
  (Й, й) represents /j/, as in Russian.
• Щ represents /ʃt/ (/ʃ͡t/) and is called "щъ" [ʃtɤ] ([ʃ͡tɤ]).
• Ъ represents the vowel /ɤ/, and is called "ер голям" (IPA: [ˈɛr ɡoˈʎam]) ('big er'). Despite the official name being "big er", the letter is only referred to as that in the context of the alphabet, and is usually called /ɤ/ in common speech. The vowel Ъ /ɤ/ is sometimes approximated to the /ə/ (
  schwa) sound found in many languages for easier comprehension of its Bulgarian pronunciation for foreigners, but it is actually a back vowel, not a central vowel.^{[citation needed}
  ]
• Ь is used on rare occasions (only after a consonant [and] before the vowel "о"), such as in the words 'каньон' (canyon), 'шофьор' (driver), etc. It represents the sound [j], unless after Г, К and Л, in which case it palatalizes them to [ɟ], [c] and [ʎ]. It is called "ер малък" [ˈɛr ˈmalɐk] ('small er').
• Before 1945, the letter Ѣ (yat) was used. In eastern dialects, the letter would be pronounced as [ɛ] or [ja] depending on the context, while in western dialects, it would be pronounced almost exclusively as [ɛ]. This led to cases in which words such as млѣко (Modern Bulgarian: мляко) would be pronounced as "mlyako" in the east, but as "mleko" in the west. In 1945, the letter was abolished and replaced by Я or Е, depending on its use in the eastern dialects. The letter is also referred to as "е двойно" (double e).
• Before 1945, the letter Ѫ (big yus) was used. In early Bulgarian, the letter represented the nasal vowel [ɔ̃]. By the late 18th century however, the sound had shifted to /ɤ/, the same sound as Ъ, and was mostly used in its etymological locations. There are no differences between the two, apart from the fact that Ѫ can be used at the end of words. In 1945, the letter was abolished along with Ѣ (yat) and was replaced by А or Ъ. It is sometimes referred to as "голяма носовка" (big nasal sign) and "ъ широко" (wide ъ).
• For a brief period, the letter Ѭ (iotated big yus) was used, during the use of the Drinov Orthography, and represented the sound [jɐ] or /jɤ/ in words verb conjugations, for example in търпѭ (IPA: /tɐrˈpjɤ/). The letter Ѫ was also used for the same purpose alongside its normal usage. In 1899, both letters replaced in verb conjugations by Я and А in all cases as part of the new Ivanchov Orthography.

The Cyrillic alphabet was originally developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 9th – 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School.^[2][3]

It has been used in

South Slavic Cyrillic alphabets (with the exception of Bulgarian) are generally derived from Serbian Cyrillic. It, and by extension its descendants, differs from the East Slavic ones in that the alphabet has generally been simplified: Letters such as Й, Я, Ю, Ё, and Ь representing /j/, /ja/, /ju/, /jo/, and palatalization in Russian, respectively, have been removed. Instead, these are represented by the letter ⟨Ј⟩, digraphs ⟨ја⟩, ⟨ју⟩, ⟨јо⟩, and unmarked palatalization, respectively. Additionally, the letter Е, representing /je/ in Russian, is instead pronounced /e/ or /ɛ/, with /je/ being represented by ⟨је⟩. Alphabets based on the Serbian that add new letters often do so by adding an acute accent ⟨´⟩ over an existing letter.

The Serbian alphabet shows the following features:

• E represents /ɛ/.
• Between Д and E is the letter Dje (Ђ, ђ), which represents /dʑ/, and looks like Tshe, except that the loop of the h curls farther and dips downwards.
• Between И and К is the letter Je (Ј, ј), represents /j/, which looks like the Latin letter J.
• Between Л and М is the letter Lje (Љ, љ), representing /ʎ/, which looks like a ligature of Л and the Soft Sign.
• Between Н and О is the letter Nje (Њ, њ), representing /ɲ/, which looks like a ligature of Н and the Soft Sign.
• Between Т and У is the letter Tshe (Ћ, ћ), representing /tɕ/ and looks like a lowercase Latin letter h with a bar. On the uppercase letter, the bar appears at the top; on the lowercase letter, the bar crosses the top at half of the vertical line.
• Between Ч and Ш is the letter Dzhe (Џ, џ), representing /dʒ/, which looks like Tse but with the descender moved from the right side of the bottom bar to the middle of the bottom bar.
• Ш is the last letter.
• Certain letters are handwritten differently,^[4] as seen in the adjacent image.

The Montenegrin alphabet differs from Serbian in the following ways:

• Between Ze (З з) and I (И и) is the letter
  З́, which represents /ʑ/ (voiced alveolo-palatal fricative
  ). It is written ⟨Ź ź⟩ in the corresponding Montenegrin Latin alphabet, previously written ⟨Zj zj⟩ or ⟨Žj žj⟩.
• Between Es (С с) and Te (Т т) is the letter
  С́, which represents /ɕ/ (voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative
  ). It is written ⟨Ś ś⟩ in the corresponding Montenegrin Latin alphabet, previously written ⟨Sj sj⟩ or ⟨Šj šj⟩.
• The letter Dze (Ѕ ѕ), from Macedonian, is used in scientific literature when representing the /d͡z/ phoneme, although it is not officially part of the alphabet. A Latin equivalent was proposed that looks identical to Ze (З з).

The Macedonian alphabet differs from Serbian in the following ways:

• Between Ze (З з) and I (И и) is the letter Dze (Ѕ ѕ), which looks like the Latin letter S and represents /d͡z/.
• Dje (Ђ ђ) is replaced by Gje (Ѓ ѓ), which represents /ɟ/ (
  voiced palatal stop
  ). In some dialects, it represents /d͡ʑ/ instead, like Dje. It is written ⟨Ǵ ǵ⟩ in the corresponding Macedonian Latin alphabet.
• Tshe (Ћ ћ) is replaced by Kje (Ќ ќ), which represents /c/ (
  voiceless palatal stop
  ). In some dialects, it represents /t͡ɕ/ instead, like Tshe. It is written ⟨Ḱ ḱ⟩ in the corresponding Macedonian Latin alphabet.
• Lje (Љ љ) often represents the consonant cluster /lj/ instead of /ʎ/.
• Certain letters are handwritten differently, as seen in the adjacent image.^[5]

Historically, the Croatian language briefly used the Cyrillic script in areas with large Croatian or Bosnian speaking populations.^[6]

• Yo (Ё ё) indicates /jo/.
• The Hard Sign¹ (Ъ ъ) indicates no palatalization².
• Yery (Ы ы) indicates [ɨ] (an allophone of /i/).
• The letter Ф is most often found in loanwords or other foreign words and only occurs in a few native words.
• E (Э э) indicates /e/.
• Ж and Ш indicate sounds that are retroflex.

Notes:

1. In the pre-reform
   Old Russian and in Old Church Slavonic the letter is called yer. Historically, the "hard sign" takes the place of a now-absent vowel, which is still preserved as a distinct vowel in Bulgarian (which represents it with ъ) and Slovene
   (which is written in the Latin alphabet and writes it as e), but only in some places in the word.
2. When an iotated vowel (vowel whose sound begins with [j]) follows a consonant, the consonant is palatalized. The Hard Sign indicates that this does not happen, and the [j] sound will appear only in front of the vowel. The Soft Sign indicates that the consonant should be palatalized in addition to a [j] preceding the vowel. The Soft Sign also indicates that a consonant before another consonant or at the end of a word is palatalized. Examples: та ([ta]); тя ([tʲa]); тья ([tʲja]); тъя ([tja]); т (/t/); ть ([tʲ]).

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 Belarusian alphabet displays the following features:

• He or Ge (Г г) represents a voiced velar fricative or voiced velar plosive of /ɣ/ or /ɡ/
• Yo (Ё ё) represents /jo/, just like in Russian.
• I (І і), also known as the dotted I or decimal I, resembles the Latin letter I. Unlike Russian and Ukrainian, "И" is not used.
  • Short I (Й й), however, uses the base И glyph.
• Short U (Ў ў) is the letter У with a breve and represents /w/, or like the u part of the diphthong in loud. The use of the breve to indicate a semivowel is analogous to the Short I (Й).
• A combination of Sh and Ch (ШЧ шч) is used where those familiar only with Russian and or Ukrainian would expect Shcha (Щ щ).
• Yery (Ы ы) represents /ɨ/.
• E (Э э) represents /ɛ/, just like in Russian.
• An apostrophe (’) is used to indicate depalatalization^{[clarification needed]} of the preceding consonant. This orthographical symbol is used instead of the traditional Cyrillic letter Yer (Ъ), also known as the hard sign.
• The letter combinations Dzh (Дж дж) and Dz (Дз дз) appear after D (Д д) in the Belarusian alphabet in some publications. These digraphs represent the affricates Дж /d͡ʒ/ and Дз /d͡z/ correspondingly.
• Before 1933, the letter Ґ ґ (Ge) was used, although its use was optional.

The Ukrainian alphabet displays the following features:

• Ve (В) represents /ʋ/ (which may be pronounced [w] in a word final position and before consonants).
• He (Г, г) represents a voiced glottal fricative, (/ɦ/), similar to the respective sound in Belarusian.
• Ge (Ґ, ґ) appears after He, represents /ɡ/. It looks like He with an "upturn" pointing up from the right side of the top bar. (This letter was removed in Soviet Ukraine
  in 1933–1990, so it may be missing from older Cyrillic fonts.)
• E (Е, е) represents /ɛ/.
• Ye (Є, є) appears after E and represents the sound /jɛ/.
• E and И (И, и) both represent the sound /ɪ/ if unstressed.
  • И when stressed represents the sound /ɨ/, the same as the traditional Cyrillic letter Yery (Ы).
• I (І, і) appears after И and represents the sound /i/.
• Yi (Ї, ї) appears after I and represents the sound /ji/.
• Jot
  (Й, й) represents /j/.
• Shcha (Щ, щ) represents /ʃtʃ/.
• An
  apostrophe
  (’) is used to mark nonpalatalization of the preceding consonant before Ya (Я, я), Yu (Ю, ю), Ye (Є, є), Yi (Ї, ї), the same as how it’s used in Belarusian.
• As in Belarusian Cyrillic, the sounds /dʒ/, /dz/ are represented by digraphs Дж and Дз respectively.

The

The Romanian language used the cyrillic script up to the 19th century (see Romanian Cyrillic alphabet).

The

Ladino uses the cyrillic script in occasional Bulgarian Sephardic publications.

The Tajik alphabet is written using a

• Judeo-Tat
• Yaghnobi
• Yazghulami

Uralic languages using the Cyrillic script (currently or in the past) include:

• Olonets Karelian); Veps; Votic
• Kildin Sami in Russia (since the 1980s)
• Yodzyak
  )
• Udmurt
• Khanty
• Mansi
  (writing has not received distribution since 1937)
• Koibal; Mator; Selkup
  (since the 1950s; not used recently)
• Mari, since the 19th century (Hill; Meadow)
• Mordvin, since the 18th century (Erzya; Moksha)
• Other:
  Meshcherian

The Karelian language was written in the Cyrillic script in various forms until 1940 when publication in Karelian ceased in favor of Finnish, except for Tver Karelian, written in a Latin alphabet. In 1989 publication began again in the other Karelian dialects and Latin alphabets were used, in some cases with the addition of Cyrillic letters such as ь.

Over the last century, the

The Komi-Permyak Cyrillic alphabet:

Meadow Mari Cyrillic alphabet:

Hill Mari Cyrillic alphabet

Latin Alphabet (as of 1992)

Aa, Bb, Cc, Çç, Dd, Ee, Əə, Ff, Gg, Ğğ, Hh, Xx, Iı, İi, Jj, Kk, Qq, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Öö, Pp, Rr, Ss, Şş, Tt, Uu, Üü, Vv, Yy, Zz

The Cyrillic script was used for the Bashkir language after the winter of 1938.

The Cyrillic alphabet is used for the Chuvash language since the late 19th century, with some changes in 1938.

The Cyrillic letters Бб, Гг, Дд, Ёё, Жж, Зз, Оо, Фф, Цц, Щщ and Ъъ are not used in native Chuvash words, but only for Russian loans.

• Ә ә = /æ/
• Ғ ғ = /ʁ/ (voiced uvular fricative)
• Е е = /jɪ/
• И и = /ɪj/, /ɘj/
• Қ қ = /q/ (voiceless uvular plosive)
• Ң ң = /ŋ/, /ɴ/
• О о = /o/, /ʷo/, /ʷʊ/
• Ө ө = /œ/, /ʷœ/, /ʷʏ/
• У у = /ʊw/, /ʉw/, /w/
• Ұ ұ = /ʊ/
• Ү ү = /ʉ/, /ʏ/
• Һ һ = /h/
• Щ щ = /ʃʃ/
• Ы ы = /ɯ/, /ә/
• І і = /ɪ/, /ɘ/

The Cyrillic letters Вв, Ёё, Цц, Чч, Ъъ, Ьь and Ээ are not used in native Kazakh words, but only for Russian loans.

Kyrgyz has also been written in Latin and in Arabic.

• Ң ң = /ŋ/ (
  velar nasal
  )
• Ү ү = /y/ (close front rounded vowel)
• Ө ө = /œ/ (open-mid front rounded vowel)

Bold letters are used only in loanwords.

Tatar has used Cyrillic since 1939, but the Russian Orthodox Tatar community has used Cyrillic since the 19th century. In 2000 a new Latin alphabet was adopted for Tatar, but it is used generally on the Internet.

• Ә ә = /æ/
• Ң ң = /ŋ/
• Ө ө = /œ/
• У у = /uw/, /yw/, /w/
• Ү ү = /y/
• Һ һ = /h/
• Җ җ = /ʑ/

The Cyrillic letters Ёё, Цц, Щщ are not used in native Tatar words, but only for Russian loans.

Turkmen, written 1940–1994 exclusively in Cyrillic, since 1994 officially in Roman, but in everyday communication Cyrillic is still used along with Roman script.

From 1941 the Cyrillic script was used exclusively. In 1998 the government has adopted a Latin alphabet to replace it. The deadline for making this transition has however been repeatedly changed, and Cyrillic is still more common. It is not clear that the transition will be made at all.

• В в = /w/
• Ж ж = /dʒ/
• Ф ф = /ɸ/
• Х х = /χ/
• Ъ ъ = /ʔ/
• Ў ў = /ө/
• Қ қ = /q/
• Ғ ғ = /ʁ/
• Ҳ ҳ = /h/

In addition to the letters from the Russian alphabet, А–Я, except for Щ and Ы, the Uzbek Cyrillic alphabet includes Ў, Қ, Ғ and Ҳ at the end. They are distinct letters in the Uzbek Cyrillic alphabet and are sorted after Я as shown above.

Several Cyrillic alphabets have been used to write Yakut, but the current alphabet was adopted in 1939.

Letters in Bold are only used in Russian Loanwords.

• Altai
• Crimean Tatar (1938–1991, now mostly replaced by Roman)
• Gagauz (1957–1990s, exclusively in Cyrillic, since 1990s officially in Roman, but in reality in everyday communication Cyrillic is used along with Roman script)
• Karachay-Balkar
• Karakalpak (1940s–1990s)
• Karaim (20th century)
• Khakas
• Kumyk
• Nogai
• Tuvan
• New Script (Uyghur Yëngi Yëziqi, Pinyin-based), and modern Uyghur Latin alphabet
  (Uyghur Latin Yëziqi).
• Dolgan
• Balkan Gagauz Turkish
• Urum
• Siberian Tatar
• Siberian Turkic

Living Northwest Caucasian languages are generally written using Cyrillic alphabets.

• For older conventions, see Abkhaz alphabet.

Northeast Caucasian languages are generally written using Cyrillic alphabets.

Lezgian is spoken by the Lezgins, who live in southern Dagestan and northern Azerbaijan. Lezgian is a literary language and an official language of Dagestan.

• Chechen (since 1938, also with Roman 1991–2000, but switch back to Cyrillic alphabets since 2001.)
• Dargwa
• Lak
• Tabassaran
• Ingush
• Archi

The

Һһ is shown twice as it appears at two different locations in Buryat and Kalmyk

• В в = /w/
• Е е = /jɛ/, /jœ/
• Ё ё = /jo/
• Ж ж = /dʒ/
• З з = /dz/
• Ий ий = /iː/
• Й й = the second element of closing diphthongs (ай, ой, etc.) and long /iː/ (ий), it never indicates /j/ in native words
• Н н = /n-/, /-ŋ/
• Ө ө = /œ/
• У у = /ʊ/
• Ү ү = /u/
• Ы ы = /iː/ (in suffixes after a hard consonant)
• Ь ь = palatalization of the preceding consonant
• Ю ю = /ju/, /jy/

Long vowels are indicated with double letters. The Cyrillic letters Кк, Пп, Фф and Щщ are not used in native Mongolian words, but only for Russian or other loans (Пп may occur in native onomatopoeic words).

The Buryat (буряад) Cyrillic script is similar to the Khalkha above, but Ьь indicates palatalization as in Russian. Buryat does not use Вв, Кк, Пп, Фф, Цц, Чч, Щщ or Ъъ in its native words (Пп may occur in native onomatopoeic words).

• Е е = /jɛ/, /jœ/
• Ё ё = /jo/
• Ж ж = /dʒ/
• Й й = the second element of closing diphthongs (ай, ой, etc.), it never indicates /j/ in native words
• Н н = /n-/, /-ŋ/
• Өө өө = /œː/, ө does not occur in short form in literary Buryat based on the Khori dialect
• У у = /ʊ/
• Ү ү = /u/
• Һ һ = /h/
• Ы ы = /ei/, /iː/
• Ю ю = /ju/

The

Since 1953.

• Letters in bold are used only in Russian loanwords.

• Even
• Evenk
  (since 1937)
• Nanai
• Udihe (Udekhe) (not used recently)
• Orok
  (since 2007)
• Ulch (since late 1980s)

Since 1936.

Since 1936.

Since late 1980s.

The letters Ӷ ӷ, Ӄ ӄ, Ӈ ӈ, Ӽ ӽ are sometines replaced by Гʼ гʼ, Кʼ кʼ, Нʼ нʼ, Хʼ хʼ or Ґ ґ, Қ қ, Ң ң, Ҳ ҳ.

• Letters in bold are used only in Russian loanwords.

• Naukan Yupik

• Ainu (in Russia)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (Aisor)
• Ket (since 1980s)
• Nivkh
• Tlingit (in Russian Alaska)
• Yukaghirs (Tundra Yukaghir, Forest Yukaghir
  )

• Interslavic
• Lingua Franca Nova

• Brutopian (Donald Duck
  stories)
• Syldavian (The Adventures of Tintin)

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (April 2023)

Cyrillic Letters:

• List of Cyrillic letters
• Cyrillic script
• Cyrillic script in Unicode
• Old Church Slavonic

Further reading

• Ivan G. Iliev. Short History of the Cyrillic Alphabet. Plovdiv. 2012. Short History of the Cyrillic Alphabet
• Philipp Ammon: Tractatus slavonicus. in: Sjani (Thoughts) Georgian Scientific Journal of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature, N 17, 2016, pp. 248–56
• Appendix:Cyrillic script, Wiktionary

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cyrillic alphabets.

Look up Appendix:Cyrillic script in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Cyrillic Alphabets of Slavic Languages review of Cyrillic charsets in Slavic Languages.