Learning Russian: The Alphabet

The Russian alphabet (called азбука, azbuka, after the classical names of the first two letters - much like "alpha-bet(a)", come to think of it) was designed by South-Slavic-speaking monks in order to evangelize their kin. It has much in common with the Greek and Hebrew alphabets, with additional letters for Slavic sounds those languages didn't have. The monks were named Cyril and Methodius, hence the word "Cyrillic".

This post has a number of illustrations, links, and files to help you with the Russian Cyrillic alphabet.

Here is the current Russian Cyrillic alphabet (other Slavic-speaking countries, as well as non-Slavic post-Soviet ones, have their own versions, plus or minus a few of these letters). Included is a serif font, a sans-serif font, and an italic font.

А Б В Г Д Е Ë Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я

а б в г д е ë ж з и й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я

А Б В Г Д Е Ë Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я

а б в г д е ë ж з и й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я

А Б В Г Д Е Ë Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я

а б в г д е ë ж з и й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я

Here's a little joke about learning italic Cyrillic:

Here's the PowerPoint I showed in class.

Here is a link to the Russian Language Mentor's discussion on the alphabet and the Russian sound system.

Here are the lessons from "RussianLessons.net". They have audio files as well, to help with pronunciation. And below is their video, which includes several native speakers giving you the pronunciation of letters and words.

And here are more alphabetic tidbits:

Here is the original form alphabet used by Slavs, called glagolitic. I'm posting it just so you can see how much worse you could have had it!

Here is the form of the Cyrillic alphabet as it was used for a very long time. Note that some letters also were used as numbers - nowadays, Russians use the same numerals as we do.

Here is the alphabet as it existed at the beginning of the 20th century. The Soviet government conducted an orthographic reform which removed a few of these (lost vowels in red, consonants in blue), and restricted the use of the diacritic Ъ to a much-reduced role. If you look at books published after the 1920s, or somewhat later for the diaspora, you will find these letters.