The Khmer alphabet has the largest number of letters in the Guinness Book of Records. It has 72 letters. This language is spoken in Cambodia.
However greatest number letters contains the Ubykh alphabet - 91 letters. The Ubykh language (the language of one of the Caucasian peoples) is considered one of the record holders for sound diversity: according to experts, it has up to 80 consonant phonemes.
At Soviet power Major changes were made to the alphabets of all peoples living on the territory of the USSR: in the Russian language in the direction of reducing the number of letters, and in other languages, mainly in the direction of increasing them. After perestroika, the number of letters in the alphabets of many peoples living on the territory of the former Soviet republics decreased.
In modern Russian there are 33 letters. By official sources, before the reform of Cyril and Methodius, the Russian language had 43 letters, and according to unofficial ones - 49.
The first 5 letters were thrown out by Cyril and Methodius, because there were no corresponding sounds in the Greek language, and for four they were given Greek names. Yaroslav the Wise removed one more letter, leaving 43. Peter I reduced it to 38. Nicholas II to 35. As part of Lunacharsky’s reform, the letters “yat”, “fita” and “and decimal” were excluded from the alphabet (E, F should be used instead , И), and also the hard sign (Ъ) at the end of words and parts would be excluded difficult words, but was retained as a dividing sign (rise, adjutant).
In addition, Lunacharsky removed images from the Initial Letter, leaving only phonemes, i.e. the language has become unimaginative = ugly. So instead of the Primer, the Alphabet appeared.
Until 1942, it was officially believed that there were 32 letters in the Russian alphabet, since E and E were considered to be variants of the same letter.
The Ukrainian alphabet includes 33 letters: compared to Russian, Ёё, Ъъ, ыы, Ее are not used, but Ґґ, Єє, Іі and Її are present.
The Belarusian alphabet currently has 32 letters. Compared with Russian alphabet i, ь, ъ are not used, but the letters i and ў are added, and the digraphs j and d are also sometimes considered to have the status of letters.
The Yakut language uses an alphabet based on Cyrillic, which contains the entire Russian alphabet, plus five additional letters and two combinations. 4 diphthongs are also used.
The Kazakh and Bashkir Cyrillic alphabet contains 42 letters.
The current Chechen alphabet contains 49 letters (compiled on a graphical basis Russian alphabet in 1938). In 1992, the Chechen leadership decided to introduce an alphabet based on the Latin script of 41 letters. This alphabet was used to a limited extent in parallel with the Cyrillic alphabet in the period from 1992 to 2000.
The Armenian alphabet contains 38 letters, however, after the reform in 1940, the ligature "
և “undeservedly received the status of a letter that does not have a capital letter - thus the number of letters became, as it were, “thirty-eight and a half.”The Tatar alphabet after the translation of Tatar writing in 1939 from Latinized alphabet on alphabet based on Russian graphics contained 38 letters, and after 1999 an alphabet based on the Latin script of 34 letters was widely used.
The Kyrgyz Cyrillic alphabet, adopted in 1940, contains 36 letters.
The modern Mongolian alphabet contains 35 letters and differs from Russian by two additional letters: Ө and Ү.
In 1940, the Uzbek alphabet, like the alphabets of other peoples of the USSR, was translated into Cyrillic and contained 35 letters. In the 90s of the last century, the Uzbek authorities decided to translate the Uzbek language into the Latin alphabet and the alphabet became 28 letters.
The modern Georgian alphabet consists of 33 letters.
There are 31 letters in the Macedonian and Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet. The Finnish alphabet also consists of 31 letters.
The Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet includes 30 letters - compared to Russian, it lacks the letters Y, E and E.
The Tibetan alphabet consists of 30 letter-syllables, which are considered consonants. Each of them, constituting the initial letter of a syllable and not having another vowel sign, is accompanied by the sound “a” when pronounced.
The Swedish and Norwegian alphabet has 29 letters.
The Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters. The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters.
There are 26 letters in the Latin, English, German and French alphabet.
The Italian alphabet “officially” consists of 21 letters, but in reality it has 26 letters.
The Greek alphabet has 24 letters, and the standard Portuguese alphabet has 23 letters.
There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet; there is no difference between uppercase and lowercase letters.
The least number of letters in the alphabet is the Rotokas tribe from the island of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. There are only eleven of them (a, b, e, g, i, k, o, p, t, u) - 6 of them are consonants.
Considering how many letters there are in the language of one of the Papuan tribes, it is interesting that in all alphabets the number of letters gradually changes, usually downward.
A change in the number of letters in the alphabet in all countries of the world, as a rule, occurs with the advent of a new government so that the younger generation finds itself cut off from the language, literature, culture and traditions of their ancestors, and after some time speaks a completely different language.
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 represents a Message - a set of coding phrases that allows each sound language system give an unambiguous graphic correspondence (i.e., a letter).
And now - ATTENTION! Let's look at the first three letters of the alphabet - az, buki, vedi. 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 (este) - the third person singular of the verb “to be.”
We read: “the verb is good” - “the word is an asset.”
Live - imperative mood, plural of “live” - “live in labor, and not vegetate.”
Zelo - “zealous, with zeal” (cf. English zeal - persistent, zealous, jealous - jealous, as well as the 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!
An alphabet is a collection of letters or other signs used to write in a particular language. There are many different alphabets, each with its own characteristics and history.
In this case we will talk about the Russian alphabet. Over the course of several centuries of existence, it developed and underwent changes.
History of the Russian alphabet
In the 9th century, thanks to the monks Cyril and Methodius, the Cyrillic alphabet appeared. From this moment on, Slavic writing began to develop rapidly. This happened in Bulgaria. It was there that there were workshops where they copied and also translated from Greek language liturgical books.
A century later, the Old Church Slavonic language came to Rus', and church services were conducted in it. Gradually, under the influence of the Old Russian language, Old Church Slavonic undergoes some changes.
Sometimes they put an equal sign between the Old Church Slavonic and Old Russian languages, which is completely wrong. That's two different languages. However, the alphabet, of course, originated from Old Church Slavonic.
At first, the Old Russian alphabet consisted of 43 letters. But the signs of one language cannot be accepted by another language without amendments, because the letters must somehow correspond to the pronunciation. How many Old Church Slavonic letters were removed from, how many and which letters were destined to appear is the subject of a separate article. We can only say that the changes were significant.
Over the next centuries, the alphabet continued to adapt to the requirements of the Russian language. Letters that were not in use were abolished. A significant reform of the language took place under Peter I.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian alphabet had 35 letters. At the same time, “E” and “Yo” were considered one letter, just like “I” and “Y”. But the alphabet contained letters that disappeared after 1918.
Most of the letters of the alphabet, until the beginning of the 20th century, had names different from modern ones. If the beginning of the alphabet is familiar (“az, beeches, lead”), then the continuation may seem unusual: “verb, good, is, live...”
Today the alphabet consists of 33 letters, of which 10 are vowels, 21 and two letters that do not indicate sounds (“b” and “b”).
The fate of some letters of the Russian alphabet
For a long time, “I” and “Y” were considered variants of the same letter. Peter I, while reforming, abolished the letter “Y”. But after some time, she again took her place in writing, since many words are unthinkable without her. However, the letter “Y” (and short) became an independent letter only in 1918. Moreover, “Y” is a consonant letter, while “I” is a vowel.
The fate of the letter “Y” is also interesting. In 1783, the director of the Academy of Sciences, Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, proposed introducing this letter into the alphabet. This initiative was supported by the Russian writer and historian N.M. Karamzin. However, the letter was not widely used. “Yo” established itself in the Russian alphabet by the middle of the 20th century, but its use in printed publications continues to remain unsteady: sometimes “Yo” is required to be used, sometimes it is categorically not accepted.
The use of the letter “Ё” vaguely resembles the fate of the Izhitsa “V”, the letter that once completed the alphabet. It was practically not used, because was replaced by other letters, but continued to proudly exist in some words.
The next letter worthy of special mention is “Ъ” - a hard sign. Before the reform of 1918, this letter was called “er” and was used in writing much more often than now. Namely, it was necessarily written at the end of words ending with a consonant. The abolition of the rule to end words with “erom” led to large savings in the publishing industry, since the amount of paper for books was immediately reduced. But the hard sign remains in the alphabet; it performs a very necessary function when it stands inside a word.
Emperor Michael III streamlined the writing system for the Slavic language. After the appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet, which dates back to the Greek statutory (solemn) letter, the activity of the Bulgarian school of scribes (after Cyril and Methodius) developed. Bulgaria becomes the center of the spread of Slavic writing. The first Slavic book school was created here - Preslav Book School, in which the Cyril and Methodius originals of liturgical books (Gospel, Psalter, Apostle, church services) are rewritten, new Slavic translations from Greek are made, original works appear in the Old Slavonic language (“About the writing of Chrnoritsa Khrabra”). Later, Old Church Slavonic penetrates Serbia, and at the end of the 10th century it becomes the language of the church in Kievan Rus.Old Church Slavonic, being the language of the church, was influenced by the Old Russian language. It was an Old Church Slavonic language with elements of living East Slavic speech. Thus, the modern Russian alphabet comes from the Cyrillic alphabet old Slavic language, which was borrowed from the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet and became widespread in Kievan Rus.
Later 4 new letters were added, and 14 old ones were in different time excluded as unnecessary, since the corresponding sounds disappeared. The first to disappear was the iotized yus (Ѩ, Ѭ), then the large yus (Ѫ), which returned in the 15th century, but disappeared again at the beginning of the 17th century [ ], and iotinated E (Ѥ); the remaining letters, sometimes slightly changing their meaning and form, have survived to this day as part of the alphabet of the Church Slavonic language, which for a long time mistakenly considered identical with the Russian alphabet. Spelling reforms of the second half of the 17th century (related to the “correction of books” under Patriarch Nikon) fixed the following set of letters: A, B, C, D, D, E (with a spelling different variant Є, which was sometimes considered a separate letter and placed in the alphabet on place of the present E, that is, after Ѣ), Ж, S, З, И (with the orthographically distinct variant И for the sound [j], which was not considered a separate letter), I, K, L, M, N, O (in two orthographically different styles: “narrow” and “wide”), P, R, S, T, U (in two orthographically different styles:), Ф, Х, Ѡ (in two orthographically different styles: “narrow” and “wide” , as well as as part of the ligature “ot” (Ѿ), usually considered a separate letter), Ts, Ch, Sh, Shch, b, ы, b, Ѣ, Yu, Ya (in two styles: Ꙗ and Ѧ, which were sometimes considered in different letters, sometimes not), Ѯ, Ѱ, Ѳ, Ѵ. Sometimes the big yus (Ѫ) and the so-called “ik” (in the form of the current letter “u”) were also included in the alphabet, although they had no sound meaning and were not used in any word.
The Russian alphabet remained in this form until the reforms of Peter I of 1708-1711 (and the Church Slavonic alphabet remains the same to this day), when they were abolished superscripts(which, incidentally, “cancelled” the letter Y) and many doublet letters were abolished,