Russian alphabet and its history briefly. The history of the origin of the alphabet of the Russian language

A scholar once told me: “I heard that you are studying the history of the alphabet. Can you tell me which alphabet you mean - Egyptian, Hebrew, Latin, Arabic or Chinese? " I explained to him how I did this in the introduction to this book, why the Egyptian, Chinese and other similar writing systems should not be called alphabets, adding also that, while studying the history of the alphabet, I thereby consider all alphabets, because they all happened, in all likelihood from a single source.

Word alphabet goes back to the Latin alphabetum. It is first found in Tertullian (about 155-230 AD) and in St. Jerome (about 340-420). The Greeks used to denote this concept in the classical period the word to gramma (usually used in the plural - ta grammata), and later adopted, probably under Latin influence, the word ho alphabetos or he alphabetos. Determining the etymology of the word alphabet is not at all difficult; it is derived from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet. These names themselves, like the names of most other Greek letters (with the exception of additional ones, such as epsilon, omikron, omega, phi and psi), if only they have any meaning at all or any clear etymology, turn out to be words of the Semitic passage, although the Semitic names of the corresponding letters do not completely coincide (as we will see below) with the Greek ones.

Outline the history of the alphabet from the late 2nd millennium BC. to the present day it is not very difficult, although the origin of some scripts still remains unclear. But the prehistory and early history of the alphabet are hidden in the darkness of the centuries, and the main problem - the problem of the origin of the alphabet - remains unresolved to this day. The problem of the origin of the alphabet attracted attention already in classical times, the Greeks and Romans have five different points of view on who should be considered the inventors of the alphabet - the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Cretans or Jews. Currently, there are also several theories here, and some of them differ little from the ancient ones. Each of the countries of the eastern Mediterranean and each of the countries adjacent to this region was considered as the likely homeland of the alphabet. Some theories, generated by certain political considerations, do not merit attention.

Egyptian theory

The earliest of modern theories was Lenormand's theory, set forth in 1874 by de Rouget. According to this theory, the place of origin of the alphabet was Egypt. Supporters of the Egyptian theory were divided into three groups: Champollion, Lenormand and Halevy believed that the alphabet was derived from Egyptian hieroglyphics, Luzzatto, de Rouge, Taylor.

The origin of the alphabet. Halevy's hieroglyphic theory: 1 - hieroglyphic signs; 2 - derived North Semitic letters; 3 - "differentiated" North Semitic letters.

Keill, and later Monte, Mallon, Ullmann and Ronzeval, elevated him to hieratic, and Bauer to demotic.

Taylor's hieratic theory.

The latter option cannot be taken seriously at all, since the demotic writing system arose later than the alphabetical one. In general, it should be said that Egyptian hieroglyphs were so numerous (604, not counting ligatures and numerals) and had so many variants that their accidental resemblance to individual letters is inevitable. In this regard, we can mention the indication of Maurice Dunant that Gardiner's "Egyptian grammar" contains 734 hieroglyphs, and according to Lefebvre, there are 749 of them (at a later time, that is, during the Saissian and Ptolemaic dynasties, there were even several thousand forms of hieroglyphs).

As mentioned above, since ancient times, special signs were used in Egyptian writing for two-consonant one-consonant words or parts of words. Later, one-consonant signs began to be used very rarely, at least much less often than ideographic signs, and independently, without ideographic signs, they were almost never used. In addition, in the original alphabet, each character usually denotes only one sound, and each sound is transmitted by one constant character, and in Egyptian writing the same sound can be designated by different signs, for this there are many different ways.

If the alphabet really originated in Egypt, the Egyptians would hardly have continued to use their former unusually complex writing system for several centuries. Nor can it be explained by the "conservatism" of the Egyptians. Several centuries after the appearance of the alphabet, they nevertheless considered it necessary to simplify the hieroglyphic and hieratic writing. Why, then, did they not use their own "alphabet", but created a demotic writing system, which, unlike the hieroglyphic and hieratic, did not rely on a long tradition?

However, until recently, some scholars (Ronzeval, Dunant, etc.) continued to believe that the alphabet goes back directly to Egyptian writing.

Other theories

Even less successful were attempts to prove that the true ancestors of the alphabet are cuneiform (Delitzsch) in its Sumerian (Gommel - in 1904, Weddell - in 1927), Babylonian (Peter, Gommel, Ball, Peizer, Lidzbarsky and partly Ebeling - in 1934) or Assyrian form (Deekke), Cypriot syllabary (Pretorius, Koenig) or Hittite hieroglyphs (Seis). Pan-Germanists (Wartenberg, Wilke, Wilser, von Lichtenberg) and especially the Nazis (Schuhardt, Gunther), of course, were sure that the inventors of the alphabet belonged to a purely Aryan, Nordic race.

Cretan theory

Arthur Evans, and after him some other scholars (Reinak, Dusseau) developed a theory according to which the alphabet was transferred by the Philistines from Crete to Palestine and from there it was borrowed by the Phoenicians.

The Cretan theory of Arthur Evans: 1 - the origin of the North Semitic letters, the names of which have a certain meaning; 2 - the origin of the North Semitic letters, the names of which do not have a specific meaning.

However, this is clearly impossible: the Philistines conquered the coast of Palestine around 1220 BC, when the history of the existence of the alphabet was already several centuries old. The Cretan theory later acquired many supporters (Dayet, Sundvall, Shalutie and, more recently, Grumah 1 One of the most convinced supporters of this theory is the Bulgarian scientist V. Georgiev; a number of his works have been published in Russian - Approx. ed..

Egyptian-Cretan theory.

As can be seen from the figure, this theory, strictly speaking, should be called the Egyptian-Cretan-North Semitic theory of the origin of the alphabet. Undoubtedly, many letters of the alphabet are similar to the signs of the Cretan linear writing, this relationship is purely external; there is no need to talk about internal communication in meaning here, since the Cretan letter

still not decrypted 2 At present, Ventris and Chadwick deciphered one of the varieties of the Cretan-Minoan writing - "Linear B". The supposed internal connection between the Cretan-Minoan Linear script and the North Semitic alphabet was not confirmed. - Approx. ed.... The observed similarity can be purely accidental, especially since it applies only to geometric signs, which are easy to find in any primitive writing. However, it is quite possible and even likely that the inventor of the alphabet had some idea of ​​the Cretan signs and used some of them, completely disregarding their phonetic meaning.

The theory of prehistoric geometric signs

A different point of view was expressed by the English scientist W.M. Flinders Petrie; he argued that both the Phoenician and Greek alphabets, as well as the Asia Minor and South Semitic alphabets, as well as the Cypriot syllabary, the writing of some undeciphered Egyptian inscriptions and the ancient Sinoi writing - all of them developed from prehistoric geometric marks used since ancient times throughout the Mediterranean. However, no one, except Pitri himself, shares the opinion that these marks or tamgas can be considered as the rudiments of writing signs, and therefore his theory of the development of local scripts from such marks has not received widespread acceptance. More recently, Petrie's theory has been revised by T. X. Gaster.

The theory of prehistoric geometric signs.

However, it can be assumed that the great inventor of the alphabet used some of the marks well known to him, just as he, perhaps, used Cretan letters in the above-mentioned signs.

Ideographic theory

John Evans, relying on the probable similarity of some letters of the most ancient alphabets with the objects indicated by their names, hypothesized that these letters come from drawings used as ideograms. A similar opinion was expressed in 1914 by Lucien Gaultier.

However, the fact that the Egyptian and Babylonian scripts could influence the development of the most ancient alphabet does not at all imply the existence of some absolutely unknown and, moreover, ideographic writing that has disappeared without a trace. It should be noted that this theory was put forward seventy-four years ago, when knowledge in the field of Eastern epigraphy was extremely superficial. However, if we consider the new theory of the French scientist M. Dunant acceptable, then to a certain extent it confirms Evans' conjecture.

Kovtyukhova Anastasia

The importance of writing in the history of the development of civilization can hardly be overestimated. In the language, as in a mirror, the whole world is reflected, our whole life. Reading written or printed texts, we seem to sit in a time machine and can travel both in recent times and in the distant past. Historically, written language is secondary. We master the sounding speech at an early age, it is assimilated as if by itself, without effort. We learn to write on purpose, spending many years on literacy. Maybe this is why we are more respectful of written speech than speaking. Meanwhile, writing has become a common thing in our life, and rarely anyone thinks about how it appeared, where it came from, and why such letters are in our native alphabet. And it is worth noting that the Russian letter is a very important part of the national heritage of Russia, it is it that fixes the Russian language. The relevance of the topic lies in drawing attention to the history of the emergence and formation of Russian writing, in fostering respect for the past, for the native language. How did the alphabet come about? How did it develop in Russia? What are the features of the modern use of the Russian alphabet? We tried to answer these questions in this study. Target work - to study the history of the emergence and formation of the Russian alphabet, to identify the prospect of its development.

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Introduction ……………………………………………………………… .2

Main part

1. The emergence of the Slavic alphabet …………………………………………. 3
2. Cyrillic and Glagolitic ……………………………………………………… 5
3. Reforms of the Russian alphabet ………………………………………………… 9
4. Features of the use of the Russian alphabet today and its prospects

development ……………………………………………………………………… 10

Conclusion ………………………………………………………… ... 12

Bibliography ………………………………………………………… ... 13

INTRODUCTION

The importance of writing in the history of the development of civilization can hardly be overestimated. In the language, as in a mirror, the whole world is reflected, our whole life. Reading written or printed texts, we seem to sit in a time machine and can travel both in recent times and in the distant past. Historically, written language is secondary. We master the sounding speech at an early age, it is assimilated as if by itself, without effort. We learn to write on purpose, spending many years on literacy. Maybe this is why we are more respectful of written speech than speaking. Meanwhile, writing has become a common thing in our life, and rarely anyone thinks about how it appeared, where it came from, and why such letters are in our native alphabet. And it is worth noting that the Russian letter is a very important part of the national heritage of Russia, it is it that fixes the Russian language.

Relevance the theme of the research work is to draw attention to the history of the emergence and formation of Russian writing, to foster respect for the past, for the native language.

When transmitting speech in writing, letters are used, each of which has a specific meaning. The collection of letters arranged in a prescribed order is called the alphabet, or alphabet.

The word alphabet comes from the name of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: α-alpha; β-beta (in modern Greek - vita).

The word alphabet comes from the name of the first two letters of the ancient Slavic alphabet of the Cyrillic alphabet: A - az, B - beeches.

How did the alphabet come about? How did it develop in Russia? What are the features of the modern use of the Russian alphabet? We tried to answer these questions in this study.

Target work - to study the history of the emergence and formation of the Russian alphabet, to identify the prospect of its development.

Research objectives:

1. Identify the reason for the emergence of the Slavic writing.

2. Who are they - the creators of Slavic writing - Constantine and Methodius?

3. Cyrillic and Glagolitic - two Slavic alphabets. What do they have in common and what is the difference?

4. Study the composition of the Cyrillic alphabet.

5. Track what reforms were carried out in the Russian alphabet.

6. Find out what are the features of the use of the Russian alphabet at the present stage of its development.

An object research - the Russian alphabet. Item research - the history of its origin and development.

MAIN PART

CHAPTER I

The emergence of the Slavic alphabet

Slavic writing arose at the time when the Slavs, after the great migration, began to create their own states. The flourishing of Slavic state associations (Kievan Rus, Great Moravia, Poland, Bulgaria, Serbia and Croatia) dates back to the 9th century. Then these associations occupied vast areas of Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe, from the Baltic in the north to the Adriatic and the Black Sea in the south, from the Alps in the west to the upper reaches of the Volga and Don in the east. Neighborhood with new peoples, a new way of life and a new worldview that replaced the ancient paganism required the development of new forms of spiritual culture, primarily a book culture, which would partially replace or supplement the original Slavic oral tradition, folk culture. They needed their own writing, their own Slavic book language, their own book education.

The creators of Slavic writing were the enlightened brothers Cyril (Constantine) and Methodius, also called the Solun brothers, since they were from the Greek city of Thessaloniki, in Slavic Solun. At the request of the Moravian prince Rostislav and on the instructions of the Byzantine emperor Michael III, in 863 they brought to Great Moravia the first books in the Slavic language, intended for worship and the education of the Slavs.

Constantine was a very educated person for his time. Even before his trip to Moravia, he compiled the Slavic alphabet and began to translate the Gospel into the Slavic language. In Moravia, Constantine and Methodius continued to translate church books from Greek into the Slavic language, taught the Slavs to read, write and conduct worship in the Slavic language. The brothers stayed in Moravia for more than three years, and then went with their disciples to Rome to the Pope. There they hoped to find support in the struggle against the German clergy, who did not want to give up their positions in Moravia and hindered the spread of Slavic writing. On the way to Rome, they visited another Slavic country - Pannonia (Lake Balaton region, Hungary). And here the brothers taught the Slavs to book and worship in the Slavic language.

In Rome, Constantine was tonsured a monk, taking the name Cyril. In the same place, in 869, Cyril was poisoned. Before his death, he wrote to Methodius: "You and I are like two oxen; one fell from a heavy burden, the other must continue on his way." Methodius, with his disciples who were ordained priests, returned to Pannonia, and later to Moravia.

By that time, the situation in Moravia had changed dramatically. After Rostislav's death, his prisoner Svyatopolk became the Moravian prince, who submitted to German political influence. The activity of Methodius and his disciples proceeded in very difficult conditions. The Latin-German clergy in every possible way prevented the spread of the Slavic language as the language of the church.

Methodius was imprisoned, where he dies in 885, and after that his opponents managed to achieve the prohibition of Slavic writing in Moravia. Many students were executed, some moved to Bulgaria and Croatia. In Bulgaria, Tsar Boris converted to Christianity in 864. Bulgaria becomes the center for the spread of Slavic writing. Here Slavic schools are created, Cyril and Methodius originals of liturgical books (Gospel, Psalter, Apostle, church services) are copied "new Slavic translations from Greek are made, original works appear onOld Church Slavonic ("0 writing Chrnoriztsa the Brave").

The widespread use of Slavic writing, its "Golden Age", dates back to the reign of Simeon (893-927) in Bulgaria, the son of Boris. Later, the Old Slavonic language penetrates into Serbia, and at the end of the 10th century. becomes the language of the church in Kievan Rus.

The Old Slavonic alphabets, which have survived the monuments, are called Glagolitic and Cyrillic. The first Old Church Slavonic monuments were written in the Glagolitic script, which is believed to have been created by Constantine on the basis of the Greek cursive script of the 9th century. with the addition of some letters from other oriental alphabets. This is a very peculiar, intricate, loop-shaped letter, which for a long time in a slightly modified form was used by the Croats (until the 17th century). The appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet, which goes back to the Greek statutory (solemn) letter, is associated with the activities of the Bulgarian school of scribes. Cyrillic is the Slavic alphabet that underlies the modern Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian alphabets.

CHAPTER II

Cyrillic and Glagolitic

The first Slavic alphabet was Glagolitic or Cyrillic. Cyril and Methodius and their students used the Glagolic or Cyrillic script. But we still cannot say which one exactly. Why? Because the manuscripts (monuments) of Cyril and Methodius times have not reached us. The oldest known monuments, written in Glagolitic and Cyrillic, date back to the X-XI centuries. (Only one monument is dated to the 10th century - a verbatim fragment of the Mass, stored in Kiev and therefore called Kiev leaflets). Thus, almost all of them arose two centuries after the first translations of the creators of the Slavic writing, Cyril and Methodius.

Cyrillic composition. The Cyrillic alphabet had 43 letters. The 26 Cyrillic letters are based on the Greek alphabet. Some of the letters differed from the modern ones in writing. Some sounds were designated by two letters. However, it should be noted that it is possible that at one time in the Slavic languages ​​the sounds designated by such "paired" letters were still phonetically different. The compilers of the Cyrillic alphabet created four letters from the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Numbers were also designated using Cyrillic letters. This system was borrowed from the Greek and was called "alphabetic numerals", in which certain letters meant units, tens and hundreds, and from their combinations polydigital numbers were obtained. Several letters were created individually ... from the letter Shin appeared the letters Ш (Ша) and Шта (the sound "Ш" in the Old Church Slavonic language sounded like "ШТ") B (beeches), Ж (live), b (er), Y (ery), L (er), YAT, YUSY small and large.

It should be especially noted that each letter had its own name.The first thing that attracts attention is that the names of the letters of this alphabet represent almost all the main parts of speech: nouns (Good, Earth, People, Word), pronouns (Az, OH, Nash), verbs of different forms (Lead, There , Rtsy, Myslete, Yat), adverbs (Zelo, Firm) and allied particles of various types. However, due to the temporary grammatical transformations of the Russian language, associated primarily with the methods of word formation, we cannot at the same time reliably attribute this or that letter name to any particular part of speech. For example, the name of the letter T can be interpreted as an adverb - Firmly - and as an adjective - Firm, as well as Peace - Deceased, Verb - Sinking, etc. But despite this, even a cursory glance at the Cyrillic alphabet suggests that the set of words-names of letters (symbols) of this Russified Old Slavonic alphabet contains some kind of expanded complete thought.

Cyrillic alphabet.

A number of facts indicate that the Glagolitic alphabet is an earlier alphabet than the Cyrillic alphabet. The oldest extant glagolic inscription refers toyear and was made in the church of the Bulgarian king Simeon in Preslav. The oldest manuscript monuments (including "Kiev leaflets», Dating from the 10th century) are written in the Glagolitic alphabet, and they are written in a more archaic language, similar in phonetic composition to the language of the South Slavs. The greater antiquity of the Glagolitic alphabet is also indicated bypalimpsests (manuscripts on parchment, in which the old text was scraped off and a new one was written on it). On all the surviving palimpsests, the Glagolitic alphabet has been scraped off and the new text is written in Cyrillic. There is not a single palimpsest in which the Cyrillic alphabet has been scraped off and the Glagolitic alphabet is written on it. In the treatise "On the Writings"Chernorizets the Brave(beginning of the 10th century) emphasizes the difference in the spelling of Greek letters and the Slavic alphabetCyril and Methodius , apparently in Glagolitic: “The same Slavic letters are more holiness and honor, that the holy man created them, and the Greeks are filthy Hellenes. If someone says that he did not arrange their good, because they are still finishing them, in response we will say this: the Greeks also completed many times. " From the above quote, we can conclude that there was a certain dissatisfaction with the alphabet of Cyril and Methodius, which, possibly, led to the transition to the Cyrillic alphabet..

Glagolitic alphabet.

CHAPTER III

Reforms of the Russian alphabet

The development of the Russian nation at the beginning of the 18th century, the emerging needs for printing civilian books made it necessary to simplify the outlines of the letters of the Cyril alphabet.

In 1708, a Russian civil type was created, and Peter I himself took an active part in making the sketches of the letters. In 1710, a sample of the new alphabet was approved. This was the first reform of Russian graphics. The essence of the Peter's reform was to simplify the composition of the Russian alphabet by excluding from it such obsolete and unnecessary letters as "psi", "xi", "omega", "izhytsa", "earth", "ilk", "yus small". However, later, probably under the influence of the clergy, some of these letters were restored to use. The letter E ("E" is the reverse) was introduced in order to distinguish it from the letter E, as well as the letter I instead of the small iota.

For the first time, uppercase (large) and lowercase (small) letters are installed in civilian type.

The letter Y (and short) was introduced by the Academy of Sciences in 1735 November 29, 1783 director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences PrincessE. R. Dashkova during a meeting of the Academy of Literature, suggested using a new letter Yo "For the expression of words and reprimands, with this consent, beginning as" іolka, іozh ".Dashkova's arguments seemed convincing, and her proposal was approved by the general meeting of the Academy.

The famous letter Ё became thanksN. M. Karamzin ... In 1796, in the first book of the poetic anthology "Aonida" with the letter Yo words were printed"Dawn", "eagle", "moth", "tears", "flow".It should be noted that in the "History of the Russian State" (1816-1829) N.M. Karamzin did not use the letter E.

In the XVIII century. in the literary language, the sound denoted by the letter b (yat) coincided with the sound [e]. Thus, the letter turned out to be practically unnecessary, but according to tradition it remained in the Russian alphabet for a long time, until 1917-1918.

The spelling reform of 1917-1918. two letters were excluded that duplicated each other: "yat", "fita", "and decimal". The letter b (ep) was retained only as a separating character, b (ep) as a separating character and to denote the softness of the preceding consonant. In relation to Y, the decree contains a clause about the desirability, but not necessarily the use of this letter. Reform of 1917-1918 simplified the Russian writing and thereby made it easier to learn to read and write. As a result, the current Russian alphabet, consisting of 33 letters, appeared.

Modern alphabet.

CHAPTER IV

Features of the use of the Russian alphabet today and the prospects for its development

However, today the letters of the pre-reform alphabet are gradually returning - to city signs, to the names of companies and goods, the names of which are now accepted.depict in their original orthographic guise: "Landrin", the film "The Empire is under attack", TV programs "Vѣdi", "Russian World", etc. There was even a public movement "Solid Sign": it seeks to unite all firms and in its name, the letter "ъ", which, according to the initiators of the movement, became a symbol of "a return to the traditions that existed in great Russia, to stability, reliability," firmness ""; a symbol of Russia, "eternal and incomprehensible, stable and always going its own way."

The revival of pre-reform spelling was also a reflection of the politicized public consciousness of the first years of perestroika, which not only insisted on preserving traditions, but also considered the reform of 1917-1918. the result of the action of some dark force that mastered the language, and therefore in every possible way sought to return the Russian spelling, allegedly illegally taken away by Bolshevik decrees. Thus, Archbishop Averky wrote that "only the old spelling is in the proper sense of the word ... spelling, and that corruption ... which was forcibly introduced by the Bolsheviks in Russia enslaved by them ... is only a distortion of spelling." And the poet Andrei Voznesensky stated that "the repressed" hard signs "and" yat "were the doubles of those killed in the basements" ...

The use of old graphemes in one name or another, advertising is always intended to serve as a hint of stability, solidity, inviolability of traditions: “ Bank "," Sladkov chocolate - high quality traditions», « Restaurant "Shustov". Revival of traditions», « SMIRNOV. Russian character" and etc.

However, the illiterate use of letters of the pre-reform alphabet in the modern urban space (non-distinction between "b" and "b", automatic replacement of "e" with ""," And "on" i ", etc.) often makes one recall those who were ridiculed by M. Pogodin a century and a half ago. Among such inventions of modern "sign literates" is the name of the cooperative " GOODS I SHCH ", the restaurant" Re ortur ", the stores" Chuy "," Gallery of footwear "," Obuv ъ "," APBATςKAÿ LABITSA "and others.

On the contrary, the presence in any name of elements of the Latin alphabet is becoming a symbol of novelty, fashionableness today: the store “ CONTEINER ", restaurant" Skvoznyak ", party" Zavod SHOW ", play" Bum off ", Beer snack" BEERka ", Internet cafe " ZveZ yes ", Cocktail bar" DER ”, Etc. Note that the question of the romanization of the Russian alphabet as a whole has been raised more than once: it first arose back in 1927, and even today the voices of supporters of such a reform are heard.

The manipulation of two alphabets in the modern text serves as a method of a language game, is used as a means of expressiveness and switching attention: for example, by mixing alphabets in the title of the show "Honey Horseman-3003" (the plot of Pushkin's poem unfolds in 3003), the fusion of the classical and the innovative is emphasized; title of the article " ART FLIGHT »Pushes the Russian artillery attack (‘Unexpected massive artillery attack’) and foreign language art (from the English art ‘art’;art business, art gallery, art dealeretc.) and due to this it takes on the meaning of ‘attack on art’; in expressions PRopaganda and game against PRavilthe meaning of the term "PR" is read, etc.

So it turns out to be not so easy to answer the question of how many letters there are in the modern Russian alphabet ...

In fairness, it should be noted that the mixing of the Russian and Latin alphabets has already taken place in our history. In December 1919 g. Moscow Linguistic Society received a letter from the scientific departmentPeople's Commissariat education, which stated: “At headquartersRSFSR the idea arose about the desirability of introducing the Latin script for all nationalities inhabiting the territory of the Republic. The reform would be a logical step along the path that Russia has already embarked on by adoptingnew calendar style and metric system of measures and weights . The initiators see it as an essential means for strengthening international cultural ties ... The intended transformation would be, firstly, the completionalphabetical reform , in due time fulfilledPeter I , and secondly, it would stand in connection with the latest spelling reform. "

This letter was discussed at meetings of the Moscow Linguistic Society, whose members were the largest Russian linguists. First, they answered the question: is it possible to replace the Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin at all? “As for the principled, theoretical side of the matter,” wrote the scientists, “from a scientific point of view, nocontraindications for use with known changes in the Latin alphabet instead of the usual Russian font, as there would be no objections to any other alphabet, as long as it wasproperly adapted for the transmission of the sounds of Russian speech. "

Much more important, from the point of view of linguists, was the second, practical question: is this reform necessary? Replacing the alphabet would lead to a break with the traditions of Russian culture. And then all the books written and published before romanization are foreverslammed would be for new readers, or they would have to master two graphic systems at once ...

We often hear: "This language sounds beautiful" or "I don't like the way this language sounds."Melodic the language evokes certain associations; for example forOsip Mandelstam English sounded "shrill whistle. "However, there is also the aesthetics (beauty) of writing that affects the eye, and it is undoubtedly an important part of culture. For many people, Pushkin's poems,recruited Latin letters, will cease to be the poetry of a beloved poet, but will turn into the poetry of a certainРushkina. Or Ruškina ? And the famous lines of his poem might look like this "Jа vas lúbil: lúbov "eščo, byt" mоžеt ..."Graphics and spelling are the most conservative areas of culture. They never die.by themselves even if very uncomfortable. To reform them, powerful external factors are needed. The culture develops gradually, step by step. At the same time, the Russian alphabet and spelling changed slowly, century after century ...

CONCLUSION

The history of the emergence and development of the Russian alphabet is unique. The Russian alphabet has come a long way of development. Throughout the history of the Russian alphabet, there was a struggle with "superfluous" letters, crowned with a partial victory in the reforming of graphics by Peter I (1708-1710) and a final victory in the spelling reform of 1917-1918.

I would like to believe that the Russian alphabet, and with it oral and written speech, will be able to cope with the expansion of the Latin alphabet, with an abundance of borrowings, often duplicating native Russian words and clogging up “the great, mighty, truthful and free Russian language ... You cannot believe that such a language was not given to a great people! "

May 24 - Day of Slavic culture and writing (Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius), a holiday known as the day of remembrance of the first teachers of the Slavic peoples - brothers Cyril and Methodius. The celebration of the memory of the holy brothers even in old times took place among all Slavic peoples, but then, under the influence of historical and political circumstances, it was lost. At the beginning of the 19th century, along with the revival of the Slavic peoples, the memory of the Slavic first teachers was also renewed. In 1863, a decree was adopted in Russia to celebrate the memory of Saints Cyril and Methodius.

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5. Likhachev D. S. Questions of history. - M .: Nauka, 1951. - 260 p.

6. Likhachev DS Literary Monuments of Ancient Russia. - M .: Nauka, 1988 .-- 158 p.

7. Minin Yu. P. Clue to the Russian alphabet / Ed. Ivanova K.R. - M .: Culture, 1985. - 143 p.

8. Rosenthal DE, Golub IB, Telenkova MA Modern Russian language. - M .: Ayris-Press, 2002 .-- 250 p.

9. Speransky MN Russian forgeries of manuscripts at the beginning of the XIX century. // Problems of source studies. M .: Slovo, 1986. V.5. P.72.

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11.http: // www. detisavve. ru

12.https: //ru.wikipedia.org/

Letters are the basis of any language in the world, because we use their combination when thinking, speaking or writing. The alphabet of the Russian language is interesting not only as a "building material", but also in the history of its education. In this regard, the question arises: who created the alphabet of the Russian language? Most people will say without hesitation that the main authors of the Russian alphabet are Cyril and Methodius. However, only a few know that they not only created the letters of the alphabet, but began to use signs in writing, and also translated a huge number of church books.

How did the Russian alphabet come about?

From the 9th to the 10th century, one of the largest states was Great Moravia. At the end of 862, its prince Rostislav wrote a letter to the Byzantine Emperor Michael with a plea for permission to conduct divine services in the Slavic language. At that time the inhabitants of Moravia had a common language, but there was no written language. Greek or Latin was used. Emperor Michael granted the prince's request and sent a mission to Moravia in the person of two learned brothers. Cyril and Methodius were well educated and belonged to a noble family. It was they who became the founders of Slavic culture and writing. However, one should not think that until that moment people remained illiterate. They used letters from the Veles book. Who came up with the letters or signs in it is still not known.

An interesting fact is that the brothers created the letters of the alphabet even before their arrival in Moravia. It took them about three years to create the Russian alphabet and arrange the letters into the alphabet. The brothers managed to translate the Bible and liturgical books from the Greek language, henceforth the liturgy in the church was conducted in a language understandable to the local population. Some letters in the alphabet were very similar to Greek and Latin characters. In 863, the alphabet was created, consisting of 49 letters, but later it was abolished to 33 letters. The originality of the created alphabet is that each letter conveys one sound.

I wonder why the letters in the alphabet of the Russian language have a certain sequence? The creators of the Russian alphabet considered letters in terms of ordering numbers. Each letter defines a number, so the letters-numbers are in the ascending direction.

Who invented the Russian alphabet?

In 1917-1918. the first reform was carried out aimed at improving the spelling of the Slavic language. The Ministry of Public Education made a decision to correct the books. The alphabet or the Russian alphabet regularly underwent changes, so the Russian alphabet appeared, which we use now.

The history of the Russian language is fraught with numerous discoveries and secrets:

1. The alphabet of the Russian language contains the letter "E". It was introduced by the Academy of Sciences in 1783 by Princess Vorontsova-Dashkova, who headed it at that time. She asked the academics why the first syllable in the word "iolk" is conveyed by two letters. Not receiving an answer that satisfied her, the princess created an order to use the letter "E" in the letter.
2. The one who came up with the Russian alphabet did not leave any explanations for the dumb letter "eer". It was used until 1918 after hard consonants. The treasury of the country spent more than 400 thousand rubles on spelling "eer", so the letter was very expensive.
3. Another complex letter in the Russian alphabet is "and" or "i". Philologists-reformers could not decide which mark to leave, so significant was the evidence for the importance of their use. This letter in the Russian alphabet was read the same way. The difference between "and" or "i" in the semantic load of the word. For example, "peace" in the meaning of "universe" and "peace" in the meaning of the absence of war. After decades of controversy, the creators of the alphabet left the letter "i".
4. The letter "e" in the Russian alphabet was previously called "e revolving". M.V. Lomonosov did not recognize it for a long time, as he considered it borrowed from other languages. But it has successfully taken root among other letters in the Russian alphabet.

The Russian alphabet is full of interesting facts, almost every letter has its own story. But the creation of the alphabet was reflected only in scientific and educational activities. The innovators had to teach new letters to people and, above all, to the clergy. Dogmatics are closely intertwined with clergy and politics. Unable to withstand endless persecution, Cyril dies, and a few years later, Methodius. The gratitude of the descendants cost the brothers dearly.

The alphabet has not changed for a long time. In the last century, according to the old Russian alphabet, children studied at school, so we can say that the modern names of letters came into general use only during the period of Soviet rule. The order of letters in the Russian alphabet has remained the same since the day of its creation, since signs were used to form numbers (although we have long been using Arabic numerals).

The Old Slavic alphabet, created in the ninth century, became the basis for the formation of writing among many peoples. Cyril and Methodius made a colossal contribution to the history of the development of the Slavic languages. Already in the ninth century, it was understood that not every nationality had the honor to use its own alphabet. We use the brothers' heritage to this day.

Alphabet.

The Guinness Book of Records considers ...

Oldest

The earliest example of alphabetic writing was found in Ugarit (now Ras Sharma, Syria). It dates from around 1450 BC. NS. and is a clay tablet with 32 wedge-shaped letters inscribed on it.

The oldest letter

The oldest letter "o" remained unchanged in the same form in which it was adopted in the Phoenician alphabet (about 1300 BC). There are currently 65 alphabets in use.

Longest and shortest alphabets

The largest number of letters - 72 - is contained in the Khmer language, the smallest - 11 (a, b, e, g, i, k, o, p, t, u) - in the Rotokas language from Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea.

The origin of the Russian alphabet.

The alphabet in the usual 33-letter form did not always exist. The prototype was the alphabet, called Old Church Slavonic, or Church Slavonic.

The emergence of the Cyrillic alphabet, which goes back to the Greek language, is traditionally associated with the activities of the famous educators Cyril and Methodius.

The Old Church Slavonic language, being the language of the Church in Russia, was influenced by the Old Russian language. Thus, the Russian alphabet originated from the Old Russian Cyrillic alphabet, which was borrowed from the Greeks and became widespread in Kievan Rus after the adoption of Christianity (988).

At that time, it apparently had 43 letters. He looked like this:

It is easy to see that some Cyrillic letters sound like our modern words: "good", "earth", "people". Others - az, beeches, lead ... What do they mean and what is their origin?

A3 is a personal pronoun of the first person singular.

BUKI is a letter. There were a lot of words with an unusual for us nominative singular form: "kry" - blood, "bry" - eyebrow, "lyuby" - love.

VEDI - the form from the verb "vedeti" - to know.

VERB - the form from the verb "verb" - to speak.

GOOD - the meaning is clear.

IS - present tense third person singular from the verb "to be".

LIVE is the present tense plural second person from the verb "to live".

ZELO is an adverb with the meaning "very", "strong", "very".

IZHE (AND EIGHT) is a pronoun with the meaning "that", "which". In the Church Slavonic language, the union is "what". This letter was called "octal" because it had the numerical value of the number 8.

AND (AND DECESTERIAL) - it was called so by its numerical value - 10.

HOW is the interrogative adverb "how".

PEOPLE - the meaning is self-explanatory.

THINK - the form from the verb "think".

OUR is a possessive pronoun.

OH is a personal pronoun of the third person singular.

РЦЫ - the form from the verb "speech", to speak.

WORD - the meaning is beyond doubt.

FIRM - also requires no comment.

UK - in Old Church Slavonic - teaching.

FERT - the etymology of this letter name has not been reliably clarified by scientists. From the outline of the sign came the expression "to stand with a fert", that is, "hands on the hips."

HER - it is believed that this is an abbreviation of the word "cherub", the name of one of the angelic ranks. Since the letter is "cruciform", the meaning of the verb "to lose" has developed - to cross out, abolish, destroy in a cruciform manner.

HE IS THE GREAT - Greek omega, which has received our name from the letter "he".

TSY is an onomatopoeic name.

WORM - in the Old Slavonic and Old Russian languages, the word "worm" meant "red paint", and not just "worm". The name of the letter is acrophonic - the word "worm" began precisely with "h".

SHA, SHA - both letters are named according to the familiar principle: the sound signified by the letter plus any vowel sound before and after it.

EPA - the compound name of this letter - "ep" plus "and" - was, as it were, a "description" of its form. We renamed it to "s" a long time ago.

EP, EPL are conventional names of letters that have ceased to express the sounds of incomplete education and have become simply "signs".

YAT - it is believed that the name of the letter "Yat" may be associated with "Yat" - food, food.

Yu, I - these letters were called according to their sound: "yu", "ya", as well as the letter "ye", meaning "iotated e".

YUS - the origin of the name is unclear. They tried to deduce it from the word "mustache", which in the Old Bulgarian language sounded with a nasal sound at the beginning, or from the word "yusenitsa" - a caterpillar. The explanations do not appear to be indisputable.

FITA - in this form, the name of the Greek letter Θ was transferred to Russia, which was called at different times either “theta”, then “fita” and, accordingly, meant either a sound close to “f”, or the sound that Western alphabets now transmit with the letters TH. We hear it close to our "g". The Slavs adopted "fit" at the time when it was read as "f". That is why, for example, until the 18th century we used to write the word “library” “vivliofika”.

IZHIZA - Greek "upsilon", which transmitted the sound, as it were, standing between our "and" and "u" in the surname "Hugo". Originally this sound was transmitted in different ways, imitating the Greeks, and the Slavs. So, the Greek name "Cyrillos", a diminutive of "Kyros" - lord, was usually rendered as "Cyril", but the pronunciation of "Kuril" was also possible. In the epics, "Kurill" was transformed into "Chyurilo". Until recently, in the west of Ukraine, there was a place called Kurilovtsy, the descendants of Kuril.

Time rushes forward and makes its own adjustments. Some letters disappeared, new ones appeared in their place.

The Russian alphabet remained in this form until the reforms of Peter I in 1708-1711. (and the Church Slavonic is still the same), when superscripts were eliminated (which in the meantime "canceled" the letter Y) and many doublet letters and letters used to write numbers were abolished (which became irrelevant after the transition to Arabic numerals).

Subsequently, some of the abolished letters were restored and canceled again. By 1917, the alphabet came in a 35-letter (officially; there were actually 37 letters) composition: A, B, C, D, E, E, (E was not considered a separate letter), F, Z, I, (Y was not a separate letter was considered), I, K, L, M, N, O, P, P, S, T, U, F, X, Ts, Ch, Sh, Sh, b, Y, b, Ѣ, E, Y, Z , Ѳ, Ѵ. (The last letter was formally listed in the Russian alphabet, but de facto its use almost disappeared, and it was found in just a few words).

The last major reform of writing was carried out in 1917-1918 - as a result, the current Russian alphabet, consisting of 33 letters, appeared. This alphabet also became the written basis for most of the languages ​​\ u200b \ u200bof the USSR, for which the writing system was absent before the 20th century or was replaced during the years of Soviet power.

The concept of the alphabet, its main characteristics.

Writing styles. Typography.

Stages of the formation of the Russian alphabet.

One of the main factors in phonemographic writing is alphabet- a set of letters arranged in the order accepted for a given writing system. The alphabet is characterized by the composition (number of letters) and the order of the letters in the list, it determines the style of letters, their names and sound meanings.

The word "alphabet" is of Greek origin: it is composed of two Greek words - "alpha" and "vita (beta)" (α and β), in Latin "alphabetum". The Arabic word "alifba" is composed according to the same principle. In Russian, the word "alphabet" is used, composed by the name of the first letters of the Cyrillic alphabet: A - "az" and B - "beeches".

An ideal alphabet should consist of as many letters as there are phonemes in a given language. However, today there are no ideal alphabets, because writing has been developing over a long history, and much in writing reflects already outlived traditions. There are alphabets that are more or less rational. Alphabetic characters (letters) can transmit one sound (in Russian the letters I, O, T, P), but they can transmit two or more sounds (in Russian, the letters E, C [ts]). On the other hand, one sound can be transmitted by two or more letters, for example, in English, combinations of letters TH, SH, CH convey one sound at a time. Finally, there may be letters that do not convey sounds at all: in Russian, these are the letters b and b.

Modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. 10 vowels: A, I, O, U, Y, E, E, Y, Y, Y; consonants -21: B, C, D, D, F, Z, Y, K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, F, X, Ts, Ch, Sh, Sh. Letters b, b sounds do not mean.

Inscription of letters. There is no natural connection between the shape of the letter and its sound value, this connection is arbitrary, which turns the letter into a conventional sound sign. The arbitrariness of the outline of the letter is confirmed by changes in the outline of the letters, while the meaning is stable. For example, Ѩ eventually became I.

Meanwhile, the style of letters is an active characteristic of the alphabet, since it determines the appearance of the letter, its convenience and inconvenience, the speed of writing and reading, the effectiveness of teaching both. The outline of the letter is the material carrier of its meaning, i.e. knowledge of the appearance of the letter is a prerequisite for correct writing and reading. When drawing a letter, it is important to take into account both the interests of the writer and the interests of the reader. For the writer, the simplicity of the style is important, on which the writing speed depends. The clarity and contrast of the external appearance of the letter is important for the reader. The evolution of the outer side of the alphabet - the shape of the letters - is associated precisely with these functions of letterforms.

In addition, the time and place of creation of the written monument can be determined by the handwriting and the general nature of the appearance of the letter. The applied historical discipline deals with the material side of writing - paleography(from the Greek palaios "ancient").

The letters do not have a single descriptive pattern, but there are four varieties of each letter with two pairwise disjoint groupings of them: printed uppercase and lowercase; handwritten uppercase and lowercase. For example: A, a, A, a; T, t, T, t .;

Modern letters are divided according to the method of reproduction and drawing into written and printed. The outlines of modern written letters were formed on the basis of the outlines of the letters of the Slavic script. The foundations of the printed type were laid by the reform of Peter I.

Uppercase(large, capitals) and lowercase(small) have their own history. Descriptive varieties of these letters began to appear in written records of the 16th century. The allocation of capital letters into a separate subalphabet was first noted in the abc-books of the 17th century. The use of capital letters is streamlined after the introduction of the Peter's civil alphabet.

Differences between uppercase and lowercase letters appear in three positions:

1) difference in magnitude. This is reflected in the title (large and small), very important for reading, because large letters stand out against the background of small ones and serve as a support, a guide for the general coverage of the text, highlighting its individual fragments;

2) the difference in style. It does not concern all alphabetic characters, but printed subalphabets of only four letters: A - a, B - b, E - e, E - E;

3) functional differentiation. They are the most significant components, spelling does this (see lecture 7). The letters Ы, Ь, b have no functional differences.

Letter order in the alphabet - one of the characteristics of the alphabet, since the distinguishing feature of any alphabet is its orderliness. The generally accepted arrangement of letters in the alphabet is arbitrary, has no connection with the letter itself and the phonetic side of the language. The place of a letter in the alphabet and its frequency does not depend. It was calculated that the most frequent are the letters O, E (together with E), A, I, T, less often others are used Ш, Ц, Щ, Ф, Э.

On the one hand, the order of letters is the passive side of the modern alphabet, since it has no direct relation to the practice of writing. In order to write and read correctly, there is no need to know in which order the letters follow each other. This knowledge has general cultural significance. On the other hand, the place in the alphabet is the most important characteristic of the letter, since it is determined by the place, the ordinal number (M is the fourteenth letter in the Russian alphabet). In speech practice, knowledge of the order of letters is necessary when using reference literature, since the headings in dictionaries are arranged in accordance with the so-called strict alphabet, i.e. the place in the alphabet is taken into account, first the first letters of the word, then the second, etc. For example, in the dictionary, the word will be given first lamp, after - doe.

Letter names are very important in the writing system, since reinforces their meaning. The names of Russian letters are built according to the acrophonic principle: the meaning of a letter is the extreme sound of its name (from the Greek akros "extreme"). This can be the first sound of the name (initial type) - "de" - [d], "ka" - [k], "che" - [h]; the last sound (final type) - "er" - [p], "es" - [s], "eff" - [f]; the whole name (global type) - "a" - [a], "e" -, "u" -. Thus, the name of the letter is directly related to its basic meaning, without which correct writing and reading is impossible.

The modern name of the letter is a neuter noun, so it is correct to say “graceful A"," Large R".

Knowledge of the names is necessary for the correct reading of the letter abbreviations: FSB[fesbe], ATC[aees], UMPO [uempaeo]. They are taken into account in the formulations of spelling rules; it is impossible to do without the names of letters in textbooks and scientific works. Knowledge of the names of letters is also associated with the culture of speech. Errors in the names of letters ("re" instead of "er", "cha" instead of "che") are perceived as a gross violation of the norms of the literary language. The use of the correct letter names is an indicator of the level of a person's general culture.

Alphabetical meaning of letters Is the basic meaning of a letter, its original function. The alphabetic value is opposed to the positional meaning of the letter. For example: letter O in the word here stands for [o], in the word noses- [Λ], in nasal- [b], letter E in the word eating matters in the word eat- , v the weight- [`e], in scales- [`and uh], in bike- [`b], in karate- [NS]. However, it is clear to all those who read and write in Russian that one of these meanings is basic (alphabetical) - the one that is acquired when learning the alphabet, the rest represent positional meanings. The alphabetic meaning is established regardless of the conditions of use, it is the basis for the formation of the meanings of the letters, due to graphics and spelling.

Style of writing is called a speech act, considered from the point of view of its graphic performance in a written text. As a significant characteristic of written speech and constituting one whole with it, writing styles are divided into certain categories. The general requirements applicable to any manuscript include mastering the skills of correct, aesthetically perfect writing, or art. calligraphy- the skill of inscribing signs of writing. There are two main tendencies in the art of calligraphy: 1) perfect adherence to the standard form of written signs; 2) the formation of individual (personal) handwriting.

Handwriting is called not only the individual style of writing, but also the general style of writing, characteristic of all writers of a certain historical period.

Personal perfect handwriting, claiming to be of calligraphic significance, is relatively poorly developed in the European tradition. The formation of calligraphically significant personal handwriting in Europe begins from the time of printing (15th century), when they began to be opposed to standard printed letters as an individual versus a common one. In the hieroglyphic cultures of the East, on the contrary, personal handwriting appears very early, and calligraphic art reaches a high level of perfection. It should be borne in mind that personal handwriting always carries the spirit of its creator, in a certain way expressing some of the features of his personality, as individual features of pronunciation in oral speech.

The change in letterforms was associated with a change in supra-individual handwriting (charter, semi-ustav, cursive writing), and then with the introduction of typography, the introduction of a civil font, followed by a change in cursive handwriting and printed fonts.

In the case of standard characters in Greek and Latin, as well as Slavic graphics, three standard styles of performance were gradually established:

1) charter - full style of tracing signs;

2) cursive - abbreviated style of tracing signs

3) semi-uniform - medium (mixed) style of tracing characters.

This subdivision of styles is common to all cultures. In Egyptian writing, they correspond to hieroglyphic, democratic and hieratic writing, in Chinese hieroglyphics - zhengshu, tsaoshu and jianbizi.

The charter (from the beginning of writing to the middle of the 16th century) was characterized by a clear, calligraphic style. Words were not separated by spaces; abbreviations of words were rarely used. Each letter was written separately from the others, without connections and inclination, had forms close to geometric. The letters were about the same height and width. Therefore, the charter was easy to read, but difficult for the writer.

Semi-ustav (from the middle of the 14th century to the 17th century) differed from the charter in the lesser severity of the outlines of the letters. Letters by their parts can form three rows of spellings: the line itself, the superscript row and the subscript rows. Semi-unstav characters fit into the middle line, and superscripts and subscripts of letter styles are placed behind it: loops, bows, etc. Tilt was allowed, letters became smaller and more elongated in height, titles (signs of reduction of words) and strength (signs of stress) were used. The semi-ustav was written more fluently than the ustav, but it was more difficult to read. From manuscripts to printed books from the time of Ivan Fedorov to Peter's reforms, this was due to the desire of the first printers to give books a familiar look.

Cursive writing (from the end of the 14th century to the present day) is a coherent spelling of letters, usually tilted to the right, with strokes extending beyond the upper and lower lines of the line. Initially, it was distributed in diplomatic, clerical and commercial correspondence.

Historically, the charter is the earliest style of writing. The most solemn and official texts are performed in the statutory letter, and the least important - in cursive writing.

Typography is based on a new way of creating written signs. The essence of this method is to create a standard graphical run of handwritten text. The emergence and development of book printing is a complex and long historical process that had significant consequences for the spread and development of culture. The invention of printing cannot be attributed to any individual or nation. The basis for the creation of a printed book is the invention of paper by the Chinese in the 2nd century AD. NS. On paper, both handwritten and printed books can be embodied in equal measure. Following the invention of paper in the 7th-8th centuries. a printing press was created, which was used for printing books. Initially, copper or wooden boards were used as a matrix for printing, on which the text was either cut out or acid-etched from the handwritten text. From such a matrix, using a printing press, it was possible to create a certain edition of the text. Books created from matrices are called woodcuts, they were the main type of publications until the 15th century.

In the 15th century, Johannes Gutenberg invented the type-casting device and the typographic alloy - the garth. This alloy was distinguished by its lightness and ductility - the necessary qualities to create a set. Europe thus became the birthplace of movable type printing. In the history of Russia, Ivan Fedorov became the first printer.

Printed speech develops directly from handwritten speech, changing the forms of existence of written speech, creating its new qualities. It borrows the linearity and symbolic principle of writing. However, letter marks change their shape in accordance with the conditions of machine production. In particular, the number and strict nomenclature of fonts is established. The modern font appears in a number of variations that are used in organizing text in a print edition.

In the twentieth century, the social and linguistic practice includes computers, which significantly expands the scope of technical devices for handwritten and printed speech. Computer graphics combines the properties of both. Computer graphics systems allow you to create not only text, but also drawings, geometric images, animation, etc.

In 988 the baptism of Rus took place. The Christian religion (Orthodoxy) has established itself as a state religion. This entailed the spread of liturgical literature. Religious books were written in the Old Church Slavonic language using the Cyrillic alphabet. With the adoption of Orthodoxy, Slavic writing acquired the status of a state letter.

Several periods can be distinguished in the history of Russian writing:

late 10th - mid-16th centuries - from the beginning of writing to the beginning of printing;

second half of the 16th century - the beginning of Russian book printing;

Peter's reforms of Russian writing at the beginning of the 18th century;

Changes in the alphabet in the XVIII-XIX centuries;

Alphabet reform 1917-1918

In 1710, by decree of Peter, a new civil alphabet and the printing of books in a new font. Peter's next innovation was intended to strengthen the position of secular culture as opposed to church culture. Prior to that, Old Slavonic letterforms were used in official publications and in everyday life. After Peter's reform, the Old Church Slavonic script began to be called. It is still used in church practice.

The introduction of civil type at the beginning of the 18th century marked an era in the development of Russian national culture. The alphabet has become much simpler and more accessible to the general public. This also allowed the creation of new techniques for book design. The need for the rapid development of book printing in the Peter the Great's era demanded a more perfect type than Church Slavonic.

The civil script was created on the basis of Western European scripts and new Russian handwritten handwritings, which were distinguished by greater symmetry in the construction of letters. MV Lomonosov wrote about the change in the style of printed letters: “Under Peter, not only boyars and boyars, but also letters threw off their wide fur coats and dressed up in summer clothes”.

In addition to introducing the civilian type, the Russian emperor tried to improve the alphabet. He personally crossed out the letters "yus big" - Ѭ, "yus small" -Ѩ, "xi" -Ѯ, "psi" -Ѱ, "izhytsa" - Ѵ, "uk" - Oh, "fert" - F, "omega "- Ѡ," earth "- З," ilk "- I.

However, this met with opposition from the church. The letters excluded by Peter continued to be used according to an established centuries-old tradition. As a result, civil books from 1711 to 1735. came out of print with a different set of letters.

Accent marks and titles (diacritical marks of abbreviations of words) were abolished, since their use led to illegible texts and errors. At the same time, there was a refusal to use letters in numerical values.

The new civil alphabet finally came into use by the middle of the 18th century, when it became familiar to the generation that learned to read and write from it. In its unchanged form, it existed until the reform of the Russian letter of 1918.

The transformations in Russian writing had a significant impact not only on writing, but also on the formation of the Russian literary language. Church Slavonic graphics lost their dominant position in Russian writing, ceased to be the bearer of the literary norm, which also meant the loss of the leading role in the literary language by the Church Slavonic language. In this sense, the reform of the alphabet is a vivid example of the modernization of Russian life. It could take place only in conditions when life was renewed. Newspapers began to appear, a post office appeared, people began to conduct active business and private correspondence. Writing and reading became not only a godly business, but a necessity to correspond to the spirit of the times.

Introduction of new letters. Over the entire history of its existence, four new letters have been introduced into the Russian alphabet: I, Y, E, E.

I AM in the Church Slavonic alphabet it looked in two ways - like "yus small" Ѧ or "A jotated" IA, for which the sound meaning coincided a long time ago. The shape of the modern letter I, similar to the mirror image of the Latin letter R, reproduces the italic style of the letter Ѧ, which spread already in the middle of the 16th century (with a cursory outline of this letter, the left leg gradually disappeared, and the whole figure turned somewhat clockwise. fixed with the introduction of the civil script in 1708 and since then has remained practically unchanged.

NS is considered a borrowed form of the letter "is" (E), which looks like E. In the Cyrillic alphabet, the sign E has been used since at least the middle of the 17th century. Officially, the letter E was included in the alphabet in 1708 when the civil font was created. A large number of borrowings in the Peter's era and later necessitated the letter e, which denoted the sound [e], standing after solid consonants and at the beginning of a word. Thus, to designate one sound [e], two letters appeared in the language - E and E.

Th introduced in 1753. In the Church Slavonic language, a consistent and obligatory distinction between the use of the I - J styles has been legalized since the middle of the 17th century. The translation of the Russian letter into a civilian font had abolished the superscripts and again combined them with the letter I. Restored Y in 1735, although it was not considered a separate letter of the alphabet until the 20th century.

Yo introduced in 1784. This letter has its own history. Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, held a meeting of the Russian Academy at home on November 29, 1783. The conversation was about the future six-volume "Dictionary of the Russian Academy". Then Ekaterina Romanovna, in the presence of Derzhavin, Fonvizin, Knyazhnin, Metropolitan of Novgorod and St. Petersburg Gabriel, suggested writing not "Iolka", but "Christmas tree". A year later, on November 18, "yo" received official status. Derzhavin was the first to use the letter E, and the fabulist Ivan Dmitriev was the first to print it: in the fairy tale "The Quirk" he wrote the words "light" and "stump". The letter became famous thanks to Karamzin, in connection with which he, until recently, was considered its creator.

Since then, the letter has gone through several stages of the fall and rise of its popularity. It was treated differently by the publishers of the Tsarist period, the Soviet period, and perestroika. In 2007, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation ordered to write the letter "ё" in proper names. In 2009, the Supreme Court of Russia decided that in the documents "e" and "e" are equivalent. In 2009, the Bank of Russia allowed to write "ё" in payment documents.

The second reform of Russian writing was carried out in 1917-1918. It was a reform of both the alphabet and spelling. Preparations for this reform began at the end of the 19th century, when the need to simplify the alphabet and spelling became especially obvious. In 1904, the Spelling Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences was created, which included such prominent linguists as A.A. Shakhmatov, F.F.Fortunatov, I.A. In the same year, a draft was published that included proposals for the deletion of extra letters and new spelling rules. However, the project was met with hostility by the conservative part of society, government circles and even some scientists. At that time, the opinion was more widespread that the mastery of spelling did not depend on the number of letters in the alphabet, but on incorrect teaching methods, it was also believed that one should not attach much importance to the "cries of lazy students." There were so many opponents of the reform that it was necessary to create a special preparatory commission with the participation of school teachers, which had been actively working for more than ten years. Finally, in May 1917, the Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Education proposed to introduce a reformed spelling in schools from the new academic year.

The reform was only implemented under Soviet rule by decrees of the People's Commissariat of Education of December 23, 1917 and the Council of People's Commissars of October 10, 1918.

The reform has finally canceled a number of unnecessary and complicating letters: "fit" - Ѳ, replaced by F; "Yat" - Ѣ with replacement through E; “And decimal - I with substitution by AND; "Izhitsa" - Ѵ. The letter "ery" - b was canceled at the end of words after a strong consonant (mir, bank).

The reform also made it possible to abandon the names of the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet, which used significant words that began with the corresponding sounds (az - A, beeches - B). In the modern Russian alphabet, modeled on the Latin alphabet, the names of the letters are unremarkable: the name indicates the quality of the sound indicated by the letter (a - A; be - B). The short names of the letters make it much easier to master the alphabet.

As a result of the reform of 1917-1918. the current Russian alphabet appeared (see Appendix). This alphabet also became the basis of many early-written languages, for which a written language was absent before the 20th century or was lost and was introduced in the republics of the USSR after the October Socialist Revolution.

In 2010, Russia celebrated the 300th anniversary of the Russian alphabet.

This significant date became one of the reasons due to which a decision was made at the state level to create a domain zone on the Internet in Cyrillic. Cyrillic domains will allow the Russian language to exist in a much wider virtual space than until now. This fact is significant not only for Russia, but also for those Slavic states whose writing is based on the Cyrillic alphabet.

List of used literature

Ivanova V.F. Modern Russian language. Graphics and spelling. M., 1976.

Istrin V.A. The emergence and development of writing. M., 2010.

Istrin V.A. 1100 years of the Slavic alphabet. M., 2011.

Loukotka Ch. Development of writing. (translated from Czech). - M., 1960.

Russian language. Encyclopedia / Ch. ed. Yu.N. Karaulov. - M .: Great Russian Encyclopedia; Bustard, 1998.

V. N. Schepkin Russian paleography. - M., 1967.

Linguistics. Big encyclopedic dictionary. - M .: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1998.

Questions for self-control

Give a definition of the concept of the alphabet.

When did the emergence of the Russian alphabet date? What are the prerequisites for its creation?

Tell us about the main characteristics of the Russian alphabet.

In what directions did the change in the Russian alphabet go?

Tell us about the fate of the letters excluded from the Russian alphabet. What are the reasons for their initial introduction into the alphabet and further exclusion.

Tell us about the process of introducing native Russian letters into the alphabet.

What is the composition of the modern Russian alphabet?

Self-study assignment:

study the topic "Baptism of Russia and Slavic writing".