Cyrillic script

• U 0400- U 052 F
• U 2 GB0 -U 2 DFF
• U A640 -U A69F

• The only copy of the official language (s )
• In addition to the Latin script
• ( In shaded areas, there are several official languages ​​, of which a part is not written in Cyrillic. )

The Cyrillic alphabet is an alphabet that is used in many, especially Slavic languages ​​in Europe and Asia. It is named after Cyril of Thessalonica ( 826-869 ), who, however, not designed Cyrillic itself, but precedes it Glagolitic alphabet. This is called the Cyrillic script and Cyrillic ( Кирилица, Кириллица, Ćirilica / Ћирилица ) or Azbuka ( азбука; transliterated azbuka ), according to the traditional first two letters of a ( Slavic as) and b ( Slavic buki ).

• 4.1 Examples for the romanization of names

• 5.1 Slavic Languages 5.1.1 Bulgarian
• 5.1.2 Church Slavonic
• 5.1.3 Macedonian
• 5.1.4 Russian
• 5.1.5 Serbian, Serbo-Croatian and Montenegrin
• 5.1.6 Ukrainian
• 5.1.7 Belarusian

• 5.2.1 Bashkir
• 5.2.2 Kazakh
• 5.2.3 Kyrgyz
• 5.2.4 Uyghur

• 5.3.1 Buryat
• 5.3.2 Mongolian

• 5.4.1 Dungan
• 5.4.2 Mari
• 5.4.3 Romanian
• 5.4.4 Tajik
• 5.4.5 Chechen
• 5.4.6 Chukchi

• 6.1 Traditional name
• 6.2 Today's name
• 6.3 Phonetic Alphabet

History

Formation

Although it is recognized that Cyril and Methodius can be regarded as the author of the Glagolitic script, the authorship of the Cyrillic alphabet is still the subject of academic debate. Although it bears the name of Cyril, however, arose in today's opinion until the middle of the 10th century in Eastern Bulgaria at the court of the Bulgarian Tsar in Preslav. An authorship of Cyril and Methodius, who lived a century earlier, would be excluded.

The attribution to Clement of Ohrid, one operating in the western part of the Bulgarian Empire disciples of Cyril of Thessalonica is, though widespread, however, legend, and not to prove. A similarly interpreted message in the Legenda Ochridica actually probably means only that he has reformed the Glagolitic alphabet.

Most of the letters were ( in its Byzantine writing ) taken or derived from the Greek alphabet. For sounds that did not occur in Greek characters from the Glagolitic alphabet ( Glagolitic ) were applied, which was around 862, developed by the Slavs teacher Konstantin, who later took the name Cyril. There is no single medieval source, which denotes the alphabet as " Cyrillic " or mentioned Cyril of Thessaloniki as the creator of this document.

Even if the alphabet today bears the name of Cyril, neither Constantine Cyril nor his student Clement of Ohrid is likely to be the creator of the new font. As proven is that the alphabet its first distribution took place by Constantine of Preslav, a disciple of Cyril's brother Methodius and one of the most important representatives of the so-called literary school of Preslav ( Bulg Преславска книжовна школа ). It was around 900 bishop in the Bulgarian capital Preslav. From its ancient Bulgarian texts that are taken Cyrillic, today more than 40 writings are known. His most important work is the " Instructive gospel" ( at 893-894 ), whose introduction - the "Alphabetical Prayer" - by a Russian copy of the 12th century is known. The work of Constantine of Preslav is one of the oldest Cyrillic fonts.

One of the earliest surviving stone inscriptions in Cyrillic is the inscription on the fragment of a grave Cross from the 9th or 10th century, which once marked the grave of Ana. Ana was the youngest daughter of the Bulgarian ruler Boris I ( 852-889 ), and the sister of his successor Vladimir Rassate ( 889-893 ) and Simeon I ( 893-927 ). The bilingual inscription tells of Old Bulgarian Cyrillic spelling in Greek and that " the servant of God Ana has died. In October, on the ninth day died the servants of God Ana ".

Another preserved inscription from this period are written in Cyrillic is the grave inscription of a high public official in the court of the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon I ( 893-927 ) named Mostitsch ( Bulg Мостич ). The grave inscription was founded in 1952 by Prof. Stancho Waklinow ( 1921-1978 ) during archaeological fieldwork in the so-called Mostitsch Church (also known as Mostitsch Monastery ) found in the central city of the old administrative center Preslav. The researchers now believe that the stone monument was created in the 950s, the latest in the 960s - years. The text of the monument reads (on Old Bulgarian and translated):

" Сьдє лєжитъ Мостичь чрьгоѵбъɪля бъɪвъɪи при Сѵмеонѣ цр҃и и при Пєтрѣ цр҃и ос ( м ) иѫ жє дєсѧть лѣтъ съɪ оставивъ чрьгоѵбъɪльство ї вьсе їмѣниѥ бъɪстъ чрьноризьць ї въ томь сьврьши жизнь своиѫ. "

"Here lies Mostitsch, Itschirgu -Boil under Tsar Simeon and Tsar Petar. At 80, he left his office, gave his entire fortune on, became a monk and so ended his life. "

This monument is of central importance also because it is the first surviving monument attesting to the use of the imperial title Tsar for the first time historically. The grave inscription is kept with other stone monuments from the period between the 9th and the 10th century in Veliki Preslav Archaeological Museum.

Comparison table for the development of letter forms

The following table shows the Cyrillic letters in the present-day bourgeois font with the characters of all languages ​​:

• Uppercase and lowercase letters ( column 1) and
• Transliteration (column 2)
• Old, still used today for religious texts Cyrillic (column 3)
• Not inherited from the Greek letters - the Glagolitic (column 4)
• The corresponding Greek letter (column 5)
• For comparison from the Greek alphabet developed Latin letters (column 6).

As can be seen from the table, the Cyrillic alphabet was developed mainly from the Greek. This Greek uncial were used ( cf. Greek alphabet ), from which later emerged both small as well as large letters. For all Greek letters can not be represented phonemes were Glagolitic letters - over - in a form adapted to the Greek or Cyrillic script ductus form.

Further development

The originally uniform font has partially taken different developments in the different languages ​​that use the Cyrillic. The initial shape of the closest variant is reflected in the Church Slavonic. Several letters (eg ѣ, ѫ, ѧ, ѳ, ѡ ) of the old Cyrillic script are no longer used today. Today's letters inventory of each language is discussed in the articles on the various languages.

In 1700 the Cyrillic alphabet in the Russian Empire was during the reforms of Peter the Great and simplified optically adapted to the Latin script. This Latinized letterforms that were designated to distinguish it from the Church Slavonic writing as Civil Scripture, became the basis of the normative spelling of Russian. As a result, they found under Russian influence in the regions located outside the Russian Empire penetration where the Cyrillic alphabet was used.

In the 19th century, the Bulgarian and Serbian Cyrillic orthography received a normalized. While the Bulgarian Cyrillic largely initially followed in the form of letters to the Russian and leaned in orthography largely etymological criteria, the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was radically reformed by Vuk Karadžić, to allow a consistent phonological spelling of Serbian. Late 19th or early 20th century, the Cyrillic spelling of Ukrainian and Belorussian was normalized uniform, the alphabets of these languages ​​each have many similarities but also some differences from that of the Russian. During and immediately after the Second World War finally, a private, predominantly along the lines of the following Serbian Cyrillic alphabet for the Macedonian was normalized in Yugoslavia.

For the Romanian, a Romance language spoken in a country predominantly Orthodox faith and had been written in Cyrillic since the 16th century, while in 1865 the Cyrillic alphabet was abolished in favor of the Latin.

Through the Russian spelling reform of 1918, the Cyrillic spelling of the Russian was reformed again, with some no longer necessary due to the sound development characters were abolished. A similar reform took place after the Second World War for the Bulgarian. The spelling of the other Slavic languages ​​written in Cyrillic, however, has not changed significantly since its first modern standardization that followed already largely phonological criteria.

Already at the time of the empire, the Cyrillic alphabet was used for the first time way of writing a number of smaller languages ​​in the belonging to that of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Siberia. Soviet times the Latin alphabet has been touted as a means of textualization of languages ​​in the 1920s and early 1930s, initially, that were previously schriftlos or had previously used the officially regarded as backward Arab or the Mongolian alphabet. End of the 1930s, however, the orthography of all of these languages ​​was then switched to the Cyrillic alphabet. Exceptions to the general introduction of the Cyrillic alphabet for the languages ​​of the Soviet Union only remained the Armenian and Georgian who maintained their own traditional writings, as well as the languages ​​of the Baltic republics and of minority groups in the medium or Western European origin, who were still written in Latin script. Following the example of the Soviet Union and the Mongolian People's Republic introduced the Cyrillic alphabet. For the case of non-Slavic languages ​​of the Soviet Union, the Cyrillic alphabet was in the usual form for the Russian in most cases by a further, usually letters newly expanded to reflect all the sounds of the respective language.

Today's distribution

• The only copy of the official language (s )
• In addition to the Latin alphabet in use

Today, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian, and the modern Church Slavonic as well as numerous other languages ​​in Eastern Europe, Siberia, the northern Caucasus and Central Asia are Russian, written in Cyrillic characters, including Turkic languages ​​such as Kazakh and Kyrgyz, the cognate with the Persian Tajik, Mongolian or Dungan, a Chinese dialect.

The alphabets of different languages ​​are essentially the same and only differ by a few characters. Some languages ​​use special characters ( like umlauts in the Latin script ). However, only rarely attached accents, points, or similar Zedillen rather entirely new letter shapes are in the Cyrillic alphabet, in contrast to the Latin script used but introduced. The Church Slavonic writing includes a whole series of characters that are no longer common in modern writings.

Since the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union in 2007, the Cyrillic next to the Latin and Greek writings of the three officially used in the EU. For this reason, the denomination are Since 2013 EURO and the abbreviation ECB listed on euro banknotes in the Cyrillic spelling ( for European Central Bank).

Italic and upright forms

Some lowercase there are very different variants, similar to a / ɑ in the Latin alphabet. In Russian there is in an upright font, the majuscule of the respective shape resembling the lowercase before, and the other form is found almost only in italic fonts, as shown in the table. In Bulgarian and Serbian of the excess of the uppercase lowercase letters are also common in upright font. This increases the number of those signs in Cyrillic and Latin alphabet have different meanings in the same form. Especially in Serbia that can easily confuse where the language is written in some places both Latin and Cyrillic.

In Serbian and Macedonian also other forms of cursive lowercase letters are common to a great extent similar to the Cyrillic script:

• The б ( б ) is similar yet stronger than the standard form of a small Greek delta ( δ ).
• The г ( г ) looks like an i with macron ( ī ) and not like a mirrored at the vertical point s or -less question marks.
• The д ( д ) is similar to a g instead of a round d ( with curved ascender ) or a mirrored 6
• The п ( п ) looks in approach of Greek cursive writing as a cursive и or a Latin u with macron ( ū ) and not as a n
• The т ( т ) is analogous to the standard variant (similar m) the doubled form of it, or about comparable to a cursive ш or inverted Latin m with macron ( ɯ̅ ).

In computer typography, these variants have so far represented only by specifically localized writings; to the future but " smart fonts " depending on techniques such as OpenType, Graphite, or AAT of the language ( semi-) automatically selecting the correct Glyphvarianten.

Cyrillic script

Even at the end of the 17th century had Cyrillic script is very similar to medieval Greek uncial.

With the Tsar Peter the Great initiated modernization of Russia, the style approached printed as written in Scripture contemporary Western European scripts.

Play with Latin letters

For the graphical representation of the Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin alphabet ( Romanization ) there are various ways the inscription:

• Language independent ( 9:1995 ISO / GOST 7.79-2000 System A with 1:1 letter assignment )
• Source-language -dependent ( scientific transliteration, ISO / R 9:1968, DIN 1460:1982, GOST 7.79-2000 System B ) parallel or previously used Latin alphabet of the source language (eg, Serbian, Macedonian, Turkish languages ​​)

The reversibility is completely guaranteed only in the first case, with a few limitations usually in the second. Then there are the purely dependent pronunciation spelling, eg by IPA, although not of the Ursprungsverschriftung, so here the Cyrillic alphabet, is dependent. In some cases, such as the Mongolian or names of emigrants, the Cyrillic writing system is used in parallel with another, for which there often is a turn Transliterationsvorschrift into Latin, which can lead to different results. A theoretically possible a mere target language-dependent approach is not common because, as in the Latin writing system not associated with the Cyrillic letters same sounds in any language (eg г → g / h).

The usual in the Slavic scientific transliteration is based on the Czech alphabet. The ISO and other institutions ( esp. GOST ) build on it, but differ in details of it. Recommend the United Nations since 1987 for geographical designations GOST 16876-71, which has at least for the Russian no differences for scientific transliteration and ISO / R 9 and only three to ISO 9 ( щ → SC / ŝ, я → yes / â, ю → ju / û ). The successor standard GOST 7.79-2000 agrees System A total of up to two small exceptions with ISO 9.

For the largely phonetic transcription is available in European languages ​​- especially German - a long tradition in the course, there were also changes and variants (eg -off/-ow/-ov/-ev name extension or in the GDR sh for ж ). In addition to using w instead of v differs for в the neat by Duden ( Russian ) German transcription mainly at the S- sounds of the transliteration from ( ш / ж → sch, з → s instead of z, ц → z instead of c ). In English-speaking two mutually very similar standards (usually with h) less strongly set in favor of digraphs on diacritical marks such as Hatchek and circumflex dominate (eg щ → SHCH instead of SC or ŝ ): BGN / PCGN ( Geography) and ALA -LC ( library Science ). By using in the international media, for example, in professional sports, and their unreflective acceptance by the local press, the French and especially English transcription also found in many other countries; just dive because of technical difficulties on accent freed transliterations. It is a quality of publishers and editors to meet the selected transcription or Transliteration throughout.

In Yugoslavia was true for the local languages ​​a uniform conversion of Cyrillic to Latin letters and vice versa, which is preserved in the successor states. Especially in Serbia, both systems continue to be used in parallel. In the States, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were introduced in the 1990s, on the Turkish -based Latin alphabets ( again ) after independence from the Soviet Union. In these cases, the local transliteration is usually used abroad. In Belarus, one of the Polish system modeled Latin alphabet ( Łacinka ) has historical significance, but enjoys no official status today and is therefore rarely used for transcription of the White Russian in foreign-language context.

Examples of the romanization of names

In brackets, if necessary, under the stringent ISO transliteration 9 of 1995 and under the German DDR transcription.

To unofficial methods of transliteration, which are based on the technical limitations of input devices such as keyboards, Latin, see translit.

Manifestations in different languages

Slavic Languages

Bulgarian

Church Slavonic

Even modern Church Slavonic texts are still set in the altkyrillischen font that is shown in the table above. Any transcription or transliteration depends usually on the language of the country in which the text appears.

Macedonian

Russian

Serbian, Serbo-Croatian and Montenegrin

Note: The Serbian language used in addition to the Cyrillic alphabet and the Latin alphabet. The Constitution of Serbia lifts the Cyrillic alphabet for the official use, especially in the public administration and schools in Serbia as the first document reveals, it can not and must use the Latin alphabet is also used in official use. In Serbo-Croatian the former Yugoslavia, the Serbian Cyrillic and the Latin alphabet were equal official use.

According to the constitution in Montenegro is on equal footing with the Latin alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet. In 2009, the Montenegrin Ministry of Education and Science published a spelling, ( both in Latin and in the Cyrillic version) contains two additional letters and a dictionary with corresponding variations of the spelling of individual words of the Montenegrin language from Serbo-Croatian.

The present form of the Serbian Azbuka (Alphabet) goes back to the reforming of the existing Vuk Stefanović Karadžić Cyrillic alphabet by the 19th century. The slawenoserbische writing, which in his day was known only in higher circles, similar to some consonants, especially the Russian Cyrillic script very much.

From the Middle Ages to the 19th century, the font Bosančica was mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia are also common.

Ukrainian

Belarusian

Turkic languages

Bashkir

The letters marked with * usually occur only in recent loan words of Russian origin.

Kazakh

The letters marked with * usually occur only in recent loan words of Russian origin.

Kyrgyz

Uyghur

In the Soviet Union and its successor states ( esp. Kazakhstan) has been and is written with a Uighur Cyrillic alphabet; in the People's Republic of China, however, officially initially with an extended Latin alphabet ( Yengi Yezik̡, " new font " ) and since 1987 (again) in an Arabic-Persian Alphabet ( Kona Yezik̡, "old font "). In the various Verschriftungen different spelling principles come into play, so that the different alphabets are not transferable into each other one on one. This concerns mainly the spelling of loanwords from Russian and from Chinese.

Mongolian languages

Buryat

The letters marked with * usually occur only in recent loan words of Russian origin.

Mongolian

In other languages

Dungan

The letters marked with * are used only in Russian loanwords.

Mari

Because of the Orthodox faith of the Romanians and Slavic area, the Romanian language from the 16th century was written with Cyrillic letters. This document was adopted by the Church Slavonic.

From the 18th century, however, the Cyrillic script in Transylvania (then part of the Hapsburg Empire was ) gradually replaced by Latin. At that time no separate Romanian alphabet was developed, but written according to the rules of the Hungarian orthography. The Transylvanian school eventually developed in the early 19th century its own official Romanian alphabet based on Latin letters. 1862, the Cyrillic alphabet was completely replaced with the Latin in Romania officially.

1938, the Cyrillic alphabet was reintroduced, but this time not from the Church Slavonic, but in the Russian version of the Moldavian ASSR in the renamed Moldavian Romanian language. The annexed by the Soviet Union Bessarabia the use of the Cyrillic alphabet was 1940-1941, and 1944-1989 mandatory. Today Romanian is written only in Transnistria with Cyrillic letters.

Tajik

Chechen

Chukchi

The letters marked with * are rarely or not at all present in genuinely Chukch words.

Names of the letters

Traditional names

In Church Slavonic has, as in Greek, each letter of a name. This possibly introduced already by Constantine - Cyril himself names are mostly normal Old Church Slavonic words or word forms that seem to give a kind of mnemonic through which students could perhaps write remember the order of the alphabet better. However, for at the end of the alphabet, according to Omega, inserted characters for the most part no such handed " speaking " names.

Today's name

In today's Slavic languages ​​no longer the traditional names are used, but according to a similar pattern to the Germans formed name:

Spelling alphabet

Cyrillic numbers

The Cyrillic numbers are a number system based on the Cyrillic letters. It was used in the South and East Slavs, especially in Church Slavonic texts, which are written in old Cyrillic alphabet. The use of letters as numerals took place after the Greek fashion. To mark a titlo on the respective letters was set. Since the 16th century in addition also Indian and Roman numerals were used. Since the introduction of bourgeois font by Peter I in 1708, the Cyrillic numbers are no longer used.

Encoding

The most widely used 8 -bit encodings are ISO 8859-5 Cyrillic, Windows 1251, Macintosh Cyrillic, KOI8 -R and KOI8 -U. They include only needed for the modern Slavic languages, letters, KOI8 even only. For modern Russian or Ukrainian Historical characters and special characters for non-Slavic languages ​​are in Unicode encoding ( for details see Cyrillic and Glagolitic see in Unicode).

The following table gives an overview of the encoding Cyrillic characters in the current ISO transliteration, hexadecimal and decimal in Unicode ( eg for numeric character references in HTML, SGML and XML can be used), and as hexadecimal byte values ​​in the five mentioned 8 - bit encodings, with the additions of KOI8 -U compared with KOI8- R are in the common column in parentheses.

Day of the Cyrillic alphabet

The Day of the Cyrillic alphabet is the 24th of May he is celebrated in Bulgaria as a day of Bulgarian alphabet official holiday. On this day, flowers are traditional at the monument to Cyril and Methodius in front of the Bulgarian National Library resigned, also in Moscow on Slawjanskaja Square near the Kremlin, where there is also a monument, in many churches services are held.