Cyrillic Alphabet
Кирилли́ческий Алфабит

Some notes on the Cyrillic alphabet, as encoded by the standard iso-8859-6.

Russian alphabet Росский Алфабит

А Б В Г Д Е 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 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

also

Ukrainian letters

Ѓ Є І Ї

ѓ є і ї

Belarusian letters

Ѕ Ў

ѕ ў

Serbian letters

Ђ Ј Љ Њ Ћ Џ

ђ ј љ њ ћ џ

Macedonian letters

More symbols in 8859-6

№ §

typed form	Russian name	name pronunciation	standard transliteration
А а	а	ah	a
Б б	бэ	beh	b
В в	вэ	veh	v
Г г	гэ	geh	g
Д д	дэ	deh	d
Е е	е	yeh	e
Ё ё	ё	yoh	y	not usually included in alphabet
Ж ж	жэ	zheh	zh
З з	зэ	zeh	z
И и	и	ee	i	ee as in “feet”
Й й	и краткое	ee krahtkoyeh	i	short ee, as in “boy”
К к	ка	kah	k
Л л	эль	ehl	l
М м	эм	ehm	m
Н н	эн	ehn	n
О о	о	o	o	as in “box”
П п	пэ	peh	p
Р р	эр	ehr	r
С с	эс	ehs	s
Т т	тэ	teh	t
У у	у	oo	u
Ф ф	эф	ehf	f
Х х	ха	khah	kh
Ц ц	цэ	tseh	ts
Ч ч	че	chyeh	ch
Ш ш	ша	shah	sh
Щ щ	ща	shchyah	shch
Ъ ъ	твёрдый знак	tvyordy zyahk	-	hard sign
Ы ы	ы	i	y	short i
Ь ь	магкий знак	vyakhkey zyahk	'	soft sign
Э э	э (оборотное)	eh	e	short e, as in “bet”
Ю ю	ю	yoo	iu
Я я	я	ya	ia

Origins

860 AD	Glagolitic script invented by Cyril and Methodus. It is very stylized, based loosely on Greek.
c.870	Cyrillic invented by Cyril’s students, including Clement, under the Bulgarian tsar Simeon (and so fits Bulgarian best).
1700	Peter the Great added lower-case letters
1918	Bolsheviks abolished dotted-i (і), fitah (theta), ishitsa (v), and yatz, and reduced the use of the hard sign.

Greek letters

А capital alpha
Б small beta
В capital beta
Г capital gamma
Д stylized capital delta
Е capital epsilon (small version is a Latin e)
З small zeta
И stylized small eta
К kappa
Л stylized capital lambda
М capital mu (cursive uses small mu)
Н stylized small nu
О omicron
П pi
Т tau (cursive weird: has three vertical lines)
У latinized capital upsilon
Ф phi
Х chi
Э a backwards small epsilon

Latin letters

С Latin letter C

“Backwards” letters

И is a very stylized small Greek letter eta
Э is just that: a backwards Greek letter epsilon (called Э оборотиоэ)
Я is a ligature of the letters I and A.

Slavic letters

Ж
Ч
Ц Hebrew letter “sadhe”.
Ш Hebrew or Arabic letter “shin”. Also see Coptic “shai”.
Щ

Ligatures

Щ ligature of Cyrillic Ш and Ч
Ю ligature of I and O
Я ligature of I and A
Ы ligature of soft sign Ь and I

Misfortunes

There are many cool aspects to the Cyrillic alphabet, but some unfortunate choices were made. I will learn to live with them, but first let me get this off my chest.

The use of Н for the “n” sound. It’s a stylized Greek small letter nu, but there’s no Greek history of writing it this way, and it precludes the normal Greek way of writing eta. Why not just use the Greek “N”?

Perhaps if the use of the Greek letter eta hadn’t precluded by writing Н for the “n” sound, they wouldn’t have had to resort to Э for a short “e” sound.

The effect of the hard and soft signs Ъ and Ь would have been much better represented using a system of accent marks.

I see no good excuse for making a whole new letter Ы. A simple iota-like sign would have sufficed.

The use of the capital Greek letter В for the “v” sound is unfortunate. There are precedents in Greek and other languages for using “F” for this sound. The Latin “V” would also have been a possibility (although it might be confused with У).

Of course, there was already a perfectly good “s” in Greek, the letter sigma. One small form of this letter looks just like the Latin “s”. Why the Latin С was so misused for this sound is a mystery. However, Coptic uses a similar letter, called "seema", for the “s” sound.

Some of the small letters are printed quite differently in the italic form, especially, г, и, and т (this may or may not be apparent to you depending on whether your Russian font has a proper italic version):

а б в г д е 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 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

I think these are more examples of propagation of a poor choice. The strangest is т, which is written with three vertical lines to distinguish it from the capital Г.

The situation gets much worse in the cursive. This can be blamed on Peter the Great. The small cursive letter Д is written as a small cursive English g, Л is written like a cursive English n, and Г is written like a cursive English i without a dot.

The result is that many Russian cursive letters consist of either bumps or spikes, which have to be distinguished by a system of little downstrokes.

Cyrillic Alphabet Кирилли́ческий Алфабит