Cyrillic script

Writing system used for various Eurasian languages From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cyrillic script

The Cyrillic script (/sɪˈrɪlɪk/ sih-RIH-lick) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, North Asia, and East Asia, and used by many other minority languages.

Quick Facts Cyrillic script, Script type ...
Cyrillic script
1850s Romanian text (Lord's Prayer), written with the Cyrillic script
Script type
Time period
Earliest variants exist c.893[1]c.940
DirectionLeft-to-right
Official script

Co-official script in:

LanguagesSee Languages using Cyrillic
Related scripts
Parent systems
Child systems
Old Permic script
Sister systems
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Cyrl (220), Cyrillic
Cyrs (Old Church Slavonic variant)
Unicode
Unicode alias
Cyrillic
Names: Belarusian: кірыліца, Bulgarian: кирилица [ˈkirilit͡sɐ], Macedonian: кирилица Macedonian pronunciation: [[kiˈrilit͡sa]], Russian: кириллица [kʲɪˈrʲilʲɪtsə], Serbian: ћирилица Serbian pronunciation: [[t͡ɕiˈrilit͡sa]], Ukrainian: кирилиця [keˈrɪɫet͡sʲɐ]
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and  , see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
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As of 2019, around 250 million people in Eurasia use Cyrillic as the official script for their national languages, with Russia accounting for about half of them.[5] With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union, following the Latin and Greek alphabets.[6]

The Early Cyrillic alphabet was developed during the 9th century AD at the Preslav Literary School in the First Bulgarian Empire during the reign of Tsar Simeon I the Great, probably by the disciples of the two Byzantine brothers Cyril and Methodius, who had previously created the Glagolitic script. Among them were Clement of Ohrid, Naum of Preslav, Constantine of Preslav, Joan Ekzarh, Chernorizets Hrabar, Angelar, Sava and other scholars.[7][8][9][10] The script is named in honor of Saint Cyril.

Etymology

Since the script was conceived and popularised by the followers of Cyril and Methodius in Bulgaria, rather than by Cyril and Methodius themselves,[11] its name denotes homage rather than authorship.[12]

History

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Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana attributed Cyrillic script to Saint Cyril and Methodius,14th century
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View of the cave monastery near the village of Krepcha, Opaka Municipality in Bulgaria. Found here is the oldest Cyrillic inscription, dated to 921.[13]
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I A page from Буквар (ABC (Reader)), the first Old Slavonic textbook, printed by Ivan Fyodorov in 1574 in Lviv. This page features the Cyrillic alphabet.

The Cyrillic script was created during the First Bulgarian Empire.[14] Modern scholars believe that the Early Cyrillic alphabet was created at the Preslav Literary School, the most important early literary and cultural center of the First Bulgarian Empire and of all Slavs:

Unlike the Churchmen in Ohrid, Preslav scholars were much more dependent upon Greek models and quickly abandoned the Glagolitic scripts in favor of an adaptation of the Greek uncial to the needs of Slavic, which is now known as the Cyrillic alphabet.[9]

A number of prominent Bulgarian writers and scholars worked at the school, including Naum of Preslav until 893; Constantine of Preslav; Joan Ekzarh (also transcr. John the Exarch); and Chernorizets Hrabar, among others. The school was also a center of translation, mostly of Byzantine authors. The Cyrillic script is derived from the Greek uncial script letters, augmented by ligatures and consonants from the older Glagolitic alphabet for sounds not found in Greek. Glagolitic and Cyrillic were formalized by the Byzantine Saints Cyril and Methodius and their Bulgarian disciples, such as Saints Naum, Clement, Angelar, and Sava. They spread and taught Christianity in the whole of Bulgaria.[15][16][17][18] Paul Cubberley posits that although Cyril may have codified and expanded Glagolitic, it was his students in the First Bulgarian Empire under Tsar Simeon the Great that developed Cyrillic from the Greek letters in the 890s as a more suitable script for church books.[14]

Cyrillic spread among other Slavic peoples, as well as among non-Slavic Romanians. The earliest datable Cyrillic inscriptions have been found in the area of Preslav, in the medieval city itself and at nearby Patleina Monastery, both in present-day Shumen Province, as well as in the Ravna Monastery and in the Varna Monastery. The new script became the basis of alphabets used in various languages in Orthodox Church-dominated Eastern Europe, both Slavic and non-Slavic languages (such as Romanian, until the 1860s). For centuries, Cyrillic was also used by Catholic and Muslim Slavs.

Cyrillic and Glagolitic were used for the Church Slavonic language, especially the Old Church Slavonic variant. Hence expressions such as "И is the tenth Cyrillic letter" typically refer to the order of the Church Slavonic alphabet; not every Cyrillic alphabet uses every letter available in the script. The Cyrillic script came to dominate Glagolitic in the 12th century.

The literature produced in Old Church Slavonic soon spread north from Bulgaria and became the lingua franca of the Balkans and Eastern Europe.[19][20][21][22][23]

Cyrillic in modern-day Bosnia[24][25] is an extinct and disputed variant of the Cyrillic alphabet that originated in medieval period. Paleographers consider the earliest features of script had likely begun to appear between the 10th or 11th century, with the Humac tablet to be the first such document using this type of script and is believed to date from this period.[26] It was used continuously until the 18th century, with sporadic usage extending into the 20th century.[27]

With the orthographic reform of Saint Evtimiy of Tarnovo and other prominent representatives of the Tarnovo Literary School of the 14th and 15th centuries, such as Gregory Tsamblak and Constantine of Kostenets, the school influenced Russian, Serbian, Wallachian and Moldavian medieval culture. This is known in Russia as the second South-Slavic influence.

In 170810, the Cyrillic script used in Russia was heavily reformed by Peter the Great, who had recently returned from his Grand Embassy in Western Europe. The new letterforms, called the Civil script, became closer to those of the Latin alphabet; several archaic letters were abolished and several new letters were introduced designed by Peter himself. Letters became distinguished between upper and lower case. West European typography culture was also adopted.[28] The pre-reform letterforms, called 'Полуустав', were notably retained in Church Slavonic and are sometimes used in Russian even today, especially if one wants to give a text a 'Slavic' or 'archaic' feel.

The alphabet used for the modern Church Slavonic language in Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic rites still resembles early Cyrillic. However, over the course of the following millennium, Cyrillic adapted to changes in spoken language, developed regional variations to suit the features of national languages, and was subjected to academic reform and political decrees. A notable example of such linguistic reform can be attributed to Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, who updated the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet by removing certain graphemes no longer represented in the vernacular and introducing graphemes specific to Serbian (i.e. Љ Њ Ђ Ћ Џ Ј), distancing it from the Church Slavonic alphabet in use prior to the reform. Today, many languages in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, and northern Eurasia are written in Cyrillic alphabets.

Letters

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Example of the Cyrillic script. Excerpt from the manuscript "Bdinski Zbornik". Written in 1360.[29]

Cyrillic script spread throughout the East Slavic and some South Slavic territories, being adopted for writing local languages, such as Old East Slavic. Its adaptation to local languages produced a number of Cyrillic alphabets, discussed below.

The early Cyrillic alphabet[30][31]
АБВГДЄ[j]Ж[k][l]И[m]Ї[n]КЛМН[o]О[p]П Ҁ[32]РСТОУ[q]
ФХѠ[r]ЦЧШЩЪЪЇ[s]ЬѢѤЮ[t]Ѫ[u]ѬѦ[v] Ѩ[w]ѮѰѲѴ

Majuscule and minuscule

Capital and lowercase letters were not distinguished in old manuscripts.

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A page from the Church Slavonic Grammar of Meletius Smotrytsky (1619)

Yeri (Ы) was originally a ligature of Yer and I (Ъ + І = Ы). Iotation was indicated by ligatures formed with the letter І: (not an ancestor of modern Ya, Я, which is derived from Ѧ), Ѥ, Ю (ligature of І and ОУ), Ѩ, Ѭ. Sometimes different letters were used interchangeably, for example И = І = Ї, as were typographical variants like О = Ѻ. There were also commonly used ligatures like ѠТ = Ѿ.

Numbers

The letters also had numeric values, based not on Cyrillic alphabetical order, but inherited from the letters' Greek ancestors.[citation needed]

Cyrillic numerals
123456789
АВГДЄ (Е)Ѕ (, )З ()ИѲ
102030405060708090
І (Ї)КЛМНѮ (Ч)Ѻ (О)ПЧ (Ҁ)
100200300400500600700800900
РСТѴ (Ѵ, Оу, )ФХѰѠ (Ѿ, )Ц (Ѧ)

Computer support

Computer fonts for early Cyrillic alphabets are not routinely provided. Many of the letterforms differ from those of modern Cyrillic, varied a great deal between manuscripts, and changed over time. In accordance with Unicode policy, the standard does not include letterform variations or ligatures found in manuscript sources unless they can be shown to conform to the Unicode definition of a character: this aspect is the responsibility of the typeface designer.

The Unicode 5.1 standard, released on 4 April 2008, greatly improved computer support for the early Cyrillic and the modern Church Slavonic language. In Microsoft Windows, the Segoe UI user interface font is notable for having complete support for the archaic Cyrillic letters since Windows 8.[citation needed]

Currency signs

Some currency signs have derived from Cyrillic letters:

Letterforms and type design

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The development of Cyrillic letter forms passed directly from the medieval stage to the late Baroque, without a Renaissance phase as in Western Europe. Late Medieval Cyrillic letters (categorized as vyaz' and still found on many icon inscriptions today) show a marked tendency to be very tall and narrow, with strokes often shared between adjacent letters.

Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, mandated the use of westernized letter forms (ru) in the early 18th century.[citation needed] Over time, these were largely adopted in the other languages that use the script. Thus, unlike the majority of modern Greek typefaces that retained their own set of design principles for lower-case letters (such as the placement of serifs, the shapes of stroke ends, and stroke-thickness rules, although Greek capital letters do use Latin design principles), modern Cyrillic types are much the same as modern Latin types of the same typeface family. The development of some Cyrillic computer fonts from Latin ones has also contributed to a visual Latinization of Cyrillic type.

Lowercase forms

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Letters Ge, De, I, Short I, Em, Te, Tse, Be and Ve in upright (printed) and cursive (handwritten) variants. (Top is set in Georgia type, bottom in Odesa Script.)

Cyrillic uppercase and lowercase letter forms are not as differentiated as in Latin typography. Upright Cyrillic lowercase letters are essentially small capitals (with exceptions: Cyrillic а, е, і, ј, р, and у adopted Latin lowercase shapes, lowercase ф is typically based on p from Latin typefaces, lowercase б, ђ and ћ are traditional handwritten forms), although a good-quality Cyrillic typeface will still include separate small-caps glyphs.[33]

Cyrillic typefaces, as well as Latin ones, have roman and italic forms (practically all popular modern computer fonts include parallel sets of Latin and Cyrillic letters, where many glyphs, uppercase as well as lowercase, are shared by both). However, the native typeface terminology in most Slavic languages (for example, in Russian) does not use the words "roman" and "italic" in this sense.[x] Instead, the nomenclature follows German naming patterns:[citation needed]

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Alternate variants of lowercase (cursive) Cyrillic letters: Б/б, Д/д, Г/г, И/и, П/п, Т/т, Ш/ш.
  Default Russian (Eastern) forms on the left.
  Alternate Bulgarian (Western) upright forms in the middle.
  Alternate Serbian/Macedonian (Southern) italic forms on the right.
See also:
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  • Roman type is called pryamoy shrift ("upright type")  compare with Normalschrift ("regular type") in German
  • Italic type is called kursiv ("cursive") or kursivniy shrift ("cursive type")  from the German word Kursive, meaning italic typefaces and not cursive writing
  • Cursive handwriting is rukopisniy shrift ("handwritten type")  in German: Kurrentschrift or Laufschrift, both meaning literally 'running type'
  • A (mechanically) sloped oblique type of sans-serif faces is naklonniy shrift ("sloped" or "slanted type").
  • A boldfaced type is called poluzhirniy shrift ("semi-bold type"), because there existed fully boldfaced shapes that have been out of use since the beginning of the 20th century.

Italic and cursive forms

Similarly to Latin typefaces, italic and cursive forms of many Cyrillic letters (typically lowercase; uppercase only for handwritten or stylish types) are very different from their upright roman types. In certain cases, the correspondence between uppercase and lowercase glyphs does not coincide in Latin and Cyrillic types: for example, italic Cyrillic т is the lowercase counterpart of Т not of М.

More information upright, italic ...
Differences between upright and italic Cyrillic letters of the Russian alphabet; italic forms significantly different from their upright analogues, or especially confusing to users of a Latin alphabet, are highlighted; also available as a graphical image.
upright абвгдеёжзийклмнопрстуфхцчшщъыьэюя
italic абвгдеёжзийклмнопрстуфхцчшщъыьэюя
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Note: in some typefaces or styles, д, i.e. the lowercase italic Cyrillic д, may look like Latin g, and т, i.e. lowercase italic Cyrillic т, may look like small-capital italic T.

In Standard Serbian, as well as in Macedonian,[34] some italic and cursive letters are allowed to be different, to more closely resemble the handwritten letters. The regular (upright) shapes are generally standardized in small caps form.[35]

More information Russian, Serbian ...
Mandatory (blue) and optional (green) italic lowercase variants, alongside unique letters (red), in South-European orthography
Russian абвгдежзийклмнопрстуфхцчшщъыьэюя
Serbian абвгдђежзијклљмнњопрстћуфхцчџш
Simulation аδвīɡђежзијклљмнњоūрсш̄ћуфхцчџш̱
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Notes: Depending on fonts available, the Serbian row may appear identical to the Russian row. Unicode approximations are used in the faux row to ensure it can be rendered properly across all systems.

In the Bulgarian alphabet, many lowercase letterforms may more closely resemble the cursive forms on the one hand and Latin glyphs on the other hand, e.g. by having an ascender or descender or by using rounded arcs instead of sharp corners.[36] Sometimes, uppercase letters may have a different shape as well, e.g. more triangular, Д and Л, like Greek delta Δ and lambda Λ.

More information default, Bulgarian ...
Differences between Russian and Bulgarian glyphs of upright Cyrillic lowercase letters; Bulgarian glyphs significantly different from their Russian analogues or different from their italic form are highlighted
default абвгдежзийклмнопрстуфхцчшщъьюя
Bulgarian абвгдежзийклмнопрстуфхцчшщъьюя
Simulation абϐƨɡежlȝuŭkʌмнonрсmуɸхчɯɯ̡ъƅloя
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Notes: Depending on fonts available, the Bulgarian row may appear identical to the Russian row. Unicode approximations are used in the faux row to ensure it can be rendered properly across all systems; in some cases, such as ж with k-like ascender, no such approximation exists.

Accessing variant forms

Computer fonts typically default to the Central/Eastern, Russian letterforms, and require the use of OpenType Layout (OTL) features to display the Western, Bulgarian or Southern, Serbian/Macedonian forms. Depending on the choices made by the (computer) font designer, they may either be automatically activated by the local variant locl feature for text tagged with an appropriate language code, or the author needs to opt-in by activating a stylistic set ss## or character variant cv## feature. These solutions only enjoy partial support and may render with default glyphs in certain software configurations, and the reader may not see the same result as the author intended.[37]

Cyrillic alphabets

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Among others, Cyrillic is the standard script for writing the following languages:

Slavic languages:

Non-Slavic languages of Russia:

Non-Slavic languages in other countries:

The Cyrillic script has also been used for languages of Alaska,[40] Slavic Europe (except for Western Slavic and Slovenian), the Caucasus, the languages of Idel-Ural, Siberia, and the Russian Far East.

The first alphabet derived from Cyrillic was Abur, used for the Komi language.[41] Other Cyrillic alphabets include the Molodtsov alphabet for the Komi language and various alphabets for Caucasian languages.[42]

Usage of Cyrillic versus other scripts

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Cyrillic Script Monument in Antarctica near the Bulgarian base St. Kliment Ohridski

Latin script

A number of languages written in a Cyrillic alphabet have also been written in a Latin alphabet, such as Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Serbian, and Romanian (in the Moldavian SSR until 1989 and in the Danubian Principalities throughout the 19th century). After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, some of the former republics officially shifted from Cyrillic to Latin. The transition is complete in most of Moldova (except the breakaway region of Transnistria, where Moldovan Cyrillic is official), Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan. Uzbekistan still uses both systems, and Kazakhstan has officially begun a transition from Cyrillic to Latin (scheduled to be complete by 2025). The Russian government has mandated that Cyrillic must be used for all public communications in all federal subjects of Russia, to promote closer ties across the federation. This act was controversial for speakers of many Slavic languages; for others, such as Chechen and Ingush speakers, the law had political ramifications. For example, the separatist Chechen government mandated a Latin script which is still used by many Chechens.[citation needed]

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Countries with widespread use of the Cyrillic script:
  Sole official script
  Co-official with another script (either because the official language is biscriptal, or the state is bilingual)
  Being replaced with Latin, but is still in official use
  Legacy script for the official language, or large minority use
  Cyrillic is not widely used
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Cyrillic Script in Europe

Standard Serbian uses both the Cyrillic and Latin scripts. Cyrillic is nominally the official script of Serbia's administration according to the Serbian constitution;[43] however, the law does not regulate scripts in standard language, or standard language itself by any means. In practice the scripts are equal, with Latin being used more often in a less official capacity.[44]

The Zhuang alphabet, used between the 1950s and 1980s in portions of the People's Republic of China, used a mixture of Latin, phonetic, numeral-based, and Cyrillic letters. The non-Latin letters, including Cyrillic, were removed from the alphabet in 1982 and replaced with Latin letters that closely resembled the letters they replaced.[45]

Romanization

There are various systems for romanization of Cyrillic text, including transliteration to convey Cyrillic spelling in Latin letters, and transcription to convey pronunciation.

Standard Cyrillic-to-Latin transliteration systems include:

  • Scientific transliteration, used in linguistics, is based on the Serbo-Croatian Latin alphabet.
  • The Working Group on Romanization Systems[46] of the United Nations recommends different systems for specific languages. These are the most commonly used around the world.
  • ISO 9:1995, from the International Organization for Standardization.
  • American Library Association and Library of Congress Romanization tables for Slavic alphabets (ALA-LC Romanization), used in North American libraries.
  • BGN/PCGN Romanization (1947), United States Board on Geographic Names & Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use).
  • GOST 16876, a now defunct Soviet transliteration standard. Replaced by GOST 7.79-2000, which is based on ISO 9.
  • Various informal romanizations of Cyrillic, which adapt the Cyrillic script to Latin and sometimes Greek glyphs for compatibility with small character sets.

See also Romanization of Belarusian, Bulgarian, Kyrgyz, Russian, Macedonian and Ukrainian.

Cyrillization

Representing other writing systems with Cyrillic letters is called Cyrillization.

Summary table

More information Slavic Cyrillic letters ...
Slavic Cyrillic letters
А
A
А́
A with acute
А̀
A with grave
А̂
A with circumflex
А̄
A with macron
Ӑ
A with
breve
Ӓ
A with diaeresis
Б
Be
В
Ve
Г
Ge (Ghe)
Ґ
Ghe upturn
Д
De
Ђ
Dje
Ѓ
Gje
Е
Ye
Е́
Ye with acute
Ѐ
Ye with grave
Е̂
Ye with circumflex
Е̄
Ye with macron
Ё
Yo
Є
Ukrainian Ye
Є́
Ukrainian Ye with acute
Ж
Zhe
З
Ze
З́
Zje
Ѕ
Dze
И
I
І
Dotted I
І́
Dotted I with acute
Ї
Yi

Iota
И́
I with acute
Ѝ
I with grave
И̂
I with circumflex
Ӣ
I with macron
Й
Short I
Ӥ
I with diaeresis
Ј
Je
К
Ka
Л
El
Љ
Lje
М
Em
Н
En
Њ
Nje
О
O
О́
O with acute
О̀
O with grave
О̂
O with circumflex
О̄
O with macron
Ӧ
O with diaeresis
П
Pe
Р
Er
С
Es
С́
Sje
Т
Te
Ћ
Tje
Ќ
Kje
У
U
У́
U with acute
У̀
U with grave
У̂
U with circumflex
Ӯ
U with macron
Ў
Short U
Ӱ
U with
diaeresis
Ф
Ef
Х
Kha
Ц
Tse
Ч
Che
Џ
Dzhe
Ш
Sha
Щ
Shcha

Neutral Yer
Ъ
Hard sign (Yer)
Ъ̀
Hard sign with grave
Ы
Yery
Ы́
Yery
Ь
Soft sign (Yeri)
Ѣ
Yat
Э
E
Э́
E with acute
Ю
Yu
Ю́
Yu with acute
Ю̀
Yu with grave
Я
Ya
Я́
Ya with acute
Я̀
Ya with grave
Examples of non-Slavic Cyrillic letters (see List of Cyrillic letters for more)
А̊
A with
ring
Ә
Schwa
Ӛ
Schwa with
diaeresis
Ӕ
Ae
Ғ
Ghayn
Ҕ
Ge with
middle hook
Ӻ
Ghayn with
hook
Ӷ
Ge with
descender
Ӂ
Zhe with
breve
Ӝ
Zhe with
diaeresis
Ҙ
Dhe
Ӡ
Abkhazian
Dze
Ҡ
Bashkir Qa
Ҟ
Ka with
stroke
Ӊ
En with
tail
Ң
En with
descender
Ӈ
En with
hook
Ҥ
En-ge
О̆
O with breve
Ө
Oe
Ҩ
O-hook
Ҏ
Er with
tick
Ҫ
The
Ҭ
Te with
descender
Ӳ
U with
double acute
Ү
Ue
Ұ
Kazakh Short U
Ҳ
Kha with
descender
Ӽ
Kha with
hook
Ӿ
Kha with
stroke
Һ
Shha (He)
Ҵ
Te Tse
Ҷ
Che with
descender
Ӌ
Khakassian
Che
Ҹ
Che with
vertical stroke
Ҽ
Abkhazian
Che
Ҍ
Semisoft
sign
Ӏ
Palochka
Cyrillic letters used in the past

Iotated A
Ѥ
Iotated E
Ѧ
Small yus
Ѫ
Big yus
Ѩ
Iotated small yus
Ѭ
Iotated big yus
Ѯ
Ksi
Ѱ
Psi

Yn
Ѳ
Fita
Ѵ
Izhitsa
Ѷ
Izhitsa okovy
Ҁ
Koppa
ОУ
Uk
Ѡ
Omega
Ѿ
Ot
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More information Early scripts, Church Slavonic ...
Cyrillic alphabets comparison table
Early scripts
Church Slavonic А Б В Г Д (Ѕ) Е Ж Ѕ/З И І К Л М Н О П Р С Т Оу (Ѡ) Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ѣ Ь Ю Ѥ Ѧ Ѩ Ѫ Ѭ Ѯ Ѱ Ѳ Ѵ Ҁ
Most common shared letters
Common А БВГ Д  Е  Ж З  И   Й К Л М Н  О П  Р С Т У  ФХ  Ц Ч ШЩ   Ь  ЮЯ
South Slavic languages
Bulgarian А БВГ Д ДзЕ  Ж З  И   Й К Л М Н  О П  Р С Т У  ФХ  Ц ЧДжШЩЪ  Ь  ЮЯ
Macedonian А БВГ ДЃЅЕ  Ж З  И Ј   К ЛЉМ НЊ О П  Р С ТЌУ  ФХ  Ц ЧЏШ
Serbian А БВГ ДЂ Е  Ж З  И Ј   К ЛЉМ НЊ О П  Р С ТЋУ  ФХ  Ц ЧЏШ
Montenegrin А БВГ ДЂ Е  Ж З З́И Ј   К ЛЉМ НЊ О П  Р СС́ТЋУ  ФХ  Ц ЧЏШ
East Slavic languages
Russian А БВГ Д  Е ЁЖ З  И  Й К Л М Н  О П  Р С Т У  ФХ  Ц Ч ШЩЪЫЬЭ ЮЯ         
Belarusian А БВГҐДДжДзЕ ЁЖ З   І  Й К Л М Н  О П  Р С Т УЎ ФХ  Ц Ч Ш Ы ЬЭ ЮЯ
Ukrainian А БВГҐД  ЕЄЙоЖ З  ИІ ЇЙ К Л М Н  О П  Р С Т У  ФХ  Ц Ч ШЩ  Ь  ЮЯ
Rusyn А БВГҐД  ЕЄЁЖ З  ИІ ЇЙ К Л М Н  О П  Р С Т У  ФХ  Ц Ч ШЩЪЫѢЬ  ЮЯ
Iranian languages
Kurdish А БВГГ'Д  ЕӘӘ'Ж З  И   Й КК'Л М Н  ОӦПП' РР'С ТТ'У  ФХҺ Һ' ЧЧ'ШЩ   ЬЭ   ԚԜ
Ossetian АӔБВГГъДДжДзЕ ЁЖ З  И   Й ККъЛ М Н  О ППъ Р С ТТъУ  ФХХъ ЦЦъЧЧъШЩЪЫ ЬЭ ЮЯ
Tajik А БВГҒД  Е ЁЖ З  И Ӣ Й КҚЛ М Н  О П  Р С Т УӮ ФХҲ   ЧҶШ Ъ   Э ЮЯ
Romance languages
Moldovan
(Romanian)
А БВГ Д  Е  ЖӁЗ  И   Й К Л М Н  О П  Р С Т У  ФХ  Ц Ч Ш  Ы ЬЭ ЮЯ
Uralic languages
Komi-Permyak А БВГ Д  Е ЁЖ З  ИІ  Й К Л М Н  ОӦП  Р С Т У  ФХ  Ц Ч ШЩЪЫ ЬЭ ЮЯ
Meadow Mari А БВГ Д  Е ЁЖ З  И   Й К Л М НҤ ОӦП  Р С Т УӰ ФХ  Ц Ч ШЩЪЫ ЬЭ ЮЯ
Hill Mari АӒБВГ Д  Е ЁЖ З  И   Й К Л М Н  ОӦП  Р С Т УӰ ФХ  Ц Ч ШЩЪЫӸЬЭ ЮЯ
Kildin Sami АӒБВГ Д  Е ЁЖ З  И ЙҊЈ К ЛӅМӍНӉӇО П  РҎС Т У  ФХҺ Ц Ч ШЩЪЫЬҌЭӬЮЯ
Udmurt А БВГ Д  Е ЁЖӜЗӞИӤЙ  К(К̈)Л М Н  ОӦП Р С Т У  ФХ Ц ЧӴШЩЪЫ ЬЭ ЮЯ
Turkic languages
Azerbaijani А БВГҒД  ЕӘЁЖ З ИЈ  ЙКҜЛ М Н  ОӨП Р С Т У ҮФХҺЦ ЧҸШЩЪЫ ЬЭ ЮЯ
Bashkir А БВГҒД ҘЕ ЁЖ З  И   Й КҠЛ М НҢ ОӨП  Р СҪТ У ҮФХҺ Ц Ч ШЩЪЫ ЬЭӘЮЯ
Chuvash АӐБВГ Д  ЕЁӖЖ З  И   Й К Л М Н  О П  Р СҪТ УӲ ФХ  Ц Ч ШЩЪЫ ЬЭ ЮЯ
Kazakh АӘБВГҒД  Е ЁЖ З  ИІ  Й КҚЛ М НҢ ОӨП  Р С Т УҰҮФХҺ Ц Ч ШЩЪЫ ЬЭ ЮЯ
Kyrgyz А Б Г Д  Е ЁЖ З  И   Й К Л М НҢ ОӨП  Р С Т У Ү Х    Ч Ш  Ы  Э ЮЯ
Tatar АӘБВГ Д  Е ЁЖҖЗ  И   Й К Л М НҢ ОӨП  Р С Т У ҮФХҺ Ц Ч ШЩЪЫ ЬЭ ЮЯ
Uzbek А БВГҒД  Е ЁЖ З  И   Й КҚЛ М Н  О П  Р С Т УЎ ФХҲ   Ч Ш Ъ   Э ЮЯ
Mongolian languages
Buryat А БВГ Д  Е ЁЖ З  И   Й   Л М Н  ОӨП  Р С Т У Ү ХҺ Ц Ч Ш  Ы ЬЭ ЮЯ
Khalkha А БВГ Д  Е ЁЖ З  И   Й К Л М Н  ОӨП  Р С Т У ҮФХ  Ц Ч ШЩЪЫ ЬЭ ЮЯ
Kalmyk АӘБВГҺД  Е  ЖҖЗ  И   Й К Л М НҢ ОӨП  Р С Т У Ү Х  Ц Ч Ш    ЬЭ ЮЯ
Caucasian languages
Abkhaz А БВГҔДДәЏЕҼҾЖЖәЗ Ӡ ӠәИ  ЙКҚҞ Л М Н  ОҨПҦ Р С Т ТәҬ ҬәУ  ФХҲ Ҳә Ц ЦәҴ ҴәЧҶШ ШәЩ Ы
Sino-Tibetan languages
Dungan А БВГ Д  Е ЁЖҖЗ  И   Й К Л М НҢӘО П  Р С Т УЎҮФХ  Ц Ч ШЩЪЫ ЬЭ ЮЯ
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  • Ё in Russian is usually spelled as Е; Ё is typically printed in texts for learners and in dictionaries, and in word pairs which are differentiated only by that letter (всевсё).[47]

Computer encoding

Summarize
Perspective

Unicode

As of Unicode version 16.0, Cyrillic letters, including national and historical alphabets, are encoded across several blocks:

The characters in the range U+0400 to U+045F are essentially the characters from ISO 8859-5 moved upward by 864 positions. The characters in the range U+0460 to U+0489 are historic letters, not used now. The characters in the range U+048A to U+052F are additional letters for various languages that are written with Cyrillic script.

Unicode as a general rule does not include accented Cyrillic letters. A few exceptions include:

  • combinations that are considered as separate letters of respective alphabets, like Й, Ў, Ё, Ї, Ѓ, Ќ (as well as many letters of non-Slavic alphabets);
  • two most frequent combinations orthographically required to distinguish homonyms in Bulgarian and Macedonian: Ѐ, Ѝ;
  • a few Old and New Church Slavonic combinations: Ѷ, Ѿ, Ѽ.

To indicate stressed or long vowels, combining diacritical marks can be used after the respective letter (for example, U+0301 ́ COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT: е́ у́ э́ etc.).

Some languages, including Church Slavonic, are still not fully supported.[citation needed]

Unicode 5.1, released on 4 April 2008, introduces major changes to the Cyrillic blocks. Revisions to the existing Cyrillic blocks, and the addition of Cyrillic Extended A (2DE0 ... 2DFF) and Cyrillic Extended B (A640 ... A69F), significantly improve support for the early Cyrillic alphabet, Abkhaz, Aleut, Chuvash, Kurdish, and Moksha.[48]

Other

Other character encoding systems for Cyrillic:

  • CP866  8-bit Cyrillic character encoding established by Microsoft for use in MS-DOS also known as GOST-alternative. Cyrillic characters go in their native order, with a "window" for pseudographic characters.
  • ISO/IEC 8859-5  8-bit Cyrillic character encoding established by International Organization for Standardization
  • KOI8-R  8-bit native Russian character encoding. Invented in the USSR for use on Soviet clones of American IBM and DEC computers. The Cyrillic characters go in the order of their Latin counterparts, which allowed the text to remain readable after transmission via a 7-bit line that removed the most significant bit from each byte  the result became a very rough, but readable, Latin transliteration of Cyrillic. Standard encoding of early 1990s for Unix systems and the first Russian Internet encoding.
  • KOI8-U  KOI8-R with addition of Ukrainian letters.
  • MIK  8-bit native Bulgarian character encoding for use in DOS.
  • Windows-1251  8-bit Cyrillic character encoding established by Microsoft for use in Microsoft Windows. The simplest 8-bit Cyrillic encoding  32 capital chars in native order at 0xc0–0xdf, 32 usual chars at 0xe0–0xff, with rarely used "YO" characters somewhere else. No pseudographics. Former standard encoding in some Linux distributions for Belarusian and Bulgarian, but currently displaced by UTF-8.
  • GOST-main.
  • GB 2312  Principally simplified Chinese encodings, but there are also the basic 33 Russian Cyrillic letters (in upper- and lower-case).
  • JIS and Shift JIS  Principally Japanese encodings, but there are also the basic 33 Russian Cyrillic letters (in upper- and lower-case).

Keyboard layouts

Each language has its own standard keyboard layout, adopted from traditional national typewriters. With the flexibility of computer input methods, there are also transliterating or phonetic/homophonic keyboard layouts made for typists who are more familiar with other layouts, like the common English QWERTY keyboard. When practical Cyrillic keyboard layouts are unavailable, computer users sometimes use transliteration (translit) or look-alike (volapuk encoding) to type in languages that are normally written with the Cyrillic alphabet. Potentially, these proxy versions could be transformed programmatically into Cyrillic at a later date.

See also

Internet top-level domains in Cyrillic

Notes

  1. North Macedonia has two official languages, Macedonian, which is written in Cyrillic, and Albanian, written in Latin.
  2. Serbian language can be written in both Cyrillic and Latin script. Only Cyrillic script is used in official documents.
  3. Turkmenistan has one official language, Turkmen, which is written in Latin. The daily official newspaper is published in both Turkmen (Türkmenistan)[2] and Russian (Нейтральный Туркменистан).[3]
  4. Two of the three official languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian and Serbian, can be written in Cyrillic.
  5. Serbian, one of the two official languages in Kosovo, can be written in Cyrillic.
  6. Kazakh language will be transitioned to a Latin script from 2023 to 2031. Russian, the co-official language in Kazakhstan, will continue to be written in Cyrillic.
  7. Cyrillic is the de facto script used alongside Latin. It is used in business, government, and other official documents. It is also widely spread throughout Uzbekistan.
  8. Cyrillic is used co-officially alongside the Mongolian script.
  9. The Montenegrin language, the official language of Montenegro, is written in Latin and Cyrillic.
  10. Variant form: E.
  11. Variant forms: Ƨ, Ѕ.
  12. Variant form: З.
  13. Early form: Η, which later evolved into И.
  14. Variant form: І.
  15. Early form: Ν, which later evolved into Н.
  16. Variant form: Ѻ.
  17. Variant forms: ОѴ, Ꙋ.
  18. Variant forms: Ꙍ, Ѽ.
  19. Variant forms: ЪІ, ЪИ, ЬЇ, Ы, ЬИ.
  20. Variant form: Ꙕ.
  21. Variant form: Ꙛ.
  22. Variant form: Ꙙ.
  23. Variant form: Ꙝ.
  24. The Russian name ital'yanskiy shrift (Italian type) refers to a particular typeface family, whereas rimskiy shrift (roman type) is just a synonym for Latin type, Latin alphabet.

Footnotes

References

Further reading

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