Cyrillic Alphabet
Where did it come from?
9th century
Saint Cyril
Greek monk, Saint Methodius
closely based on Greek alphabet
created new letters for sounds not in greek language
Who uses it?
used to write 6 slavic languages
russian
33 letters divided into 11 vowels, 20 consonants
2 letters have no sound
changed under Peter the Great
letter style simplified
took out greek letters that weren't needed
changed a little more in 1918
Belarusian
Ukranian
bulgarian
macedonian
Many other languages of the Soviet Union, Asia, and Eastern Europe
for a total of more than 68 languages!
What does it look like?
type
described as upright and cursive alphabet
uses capital letter
no separate upper/lowercase
Is it hard to learn?
Only need to learn 16 letters and 6 new sounds
Breaks down into 4 Groups
Group 1
5 Letters are same as English
Group 2
6 Letters are similar to Greek letters you may already know
Group 3
6 Letters are same as English, but pronounced differently
Group 4
16 Letters are distinctly Russian
ABC Order is different
References
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillic_alphabet
PBS Face of Russia
http://www.pbs.org/weta/faceofrussia/reference/cyrillic.html
Master Russian.com
http://masterrussian.com/blalphabet.shtml
Learn Russian in 2 hours
http://www.dorogadomoj.com/se03abv.html
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