Graphics is a section of the science of writing that defines 1) an inventory of graphic means of language (alphabetic and non-alphabetic signs; 2) a system of correspondence between a graphic means (denoting) and a unit of sound (denoted by sound or phoneme). The main graphic tool is a system of letters.
A set of letters arranged in a prescribed order is called an alphabet, or alphabet. The first, the Cyrillic alphabet, created at the end of the 9th century, contained 43 letters. The modern Russian alphabet has 33 letters: 10 vowels, 21 consonants, Kommersant And b. The main trend in the history of Russian graphics is thus obvious: the history of Russian graphics is called the history of the struggle against unnecessary letters. Significant and purposeful transformations of Russian writing are associated with the era of Peter I, although even before that, letters that had completely lost their sound correspondences in the Russian language - the so-called “yus” - were abolished. The alphabet, created with the direct participation of Peter I, was called the civil seal or citizen. By the decision of Peter I the alphabet was reduced by 3 letters, the letters were introduced E, I, U, the reforms of Peter I seemed to open up the very possibility of changing and improving writing, and after him the work of simplifying the alphabet was continued. A great contribution to the history of Russian graphics was made by famous masters of words - N.M. Karamzin, M.V. Lomonosov, V.K. Trediakovsky and other writers, “academic” scientists - linguists: F.F. Fortunatov, A.A. Shakhmatov, I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay, A.I. Sobolevsky, L.V. Shcherba. Baudouin de Courtenay (the creator of the doctrine of the phoneme) also formulated the main provisions related to the theory of writing. It was he who introduced the concepts of alphabet, graphics and spelling into linguistics. Regarding the current state of learning the alphabet, it should be noted that in the Russian language there are still letters, the necessity of which can be debated. In particular, this ъ .
In the modern Russian alphabet, each letter has 2 options: printed and handwritten, and 2 options for letter names - individual and complex. Individual titles vowel letters are of 2 types: 1) letter names a, and, o, y, s, e consist of one vowel sound; 2) letter names e, e, yu, i consist of a vowel sound and a consonant preceding it [ j]. Types of consonant letter names: 1 – for letters b (be), c, d, d, g, h, p, t, c and h; 2 – letter names l (el), m (em), n, r, s, f(softness [ l] in the name the letter l is explained by the fact that in the Latin alphabet, from which the name is borrowed, it corresponds to “semi-soft” [ l]); 3 – letters k (ka), x, w, sch. Letter Y from the second half of the 19th century. It's called "And Brief". Letters Kommersant And b in scientific literature, in accordance with tradition, they are called “er” and “er”. In school textbooks - “firm sign” (the name arose when Kommersant written at the end of a word after a hard consonant house, table The name "soft sign" corresponds to one of the functions b indicate the softness of the preceding consonant.
Complex names represent letter classes.
The unit of graphics is called grapheme(term by I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay). A grapheme often coincides with what is commonly called a letter. A grapheme often coincides with what is commonly called a letter; however, for example, lowercase and uppercase styles, which are considered one letter, should be considered as different graphemes, since there are certain rules for the use of lowercase and capital letters, and violation of these rules is considered an error. Therefore, from a spelling point of view, these letters are not equivalent and are not interchangeable.
Different graphemes that convey the same sound are called homophonic(for example, the same lowercase and uppercase letters.
Any grapheme represents a class allographs. Allographs are different styles of the same letter that are not regulated by spelling and, therefore, interchangeable in any case: for example, “T” in different fonts and handwritings. Graphic units can be simple or complex. Complex graphic units are called graphic complexes(For example, sch in it. language). Graphic complexes are not included in the alphabet, but are usually listed in dictionaries in the “Reading Rules” section.
The number of letters in the alphabet and the number of graphemes in a language usually diverge. A grapheme, like a phoneme, is an abstraction. The phoneme is realized in a number of allographs, as well as
phoneme in a number of allophones. But there is no true correspondence between graphic and phonological systems. A phoneme is a special kind of sign in which there is a plane of expression, but no plane of content. The grapheme has both a plan of expression in the form of a graphic sign and a plan of content; the plane of its content is the phoneme it denotes.
In the graphic system of the Russian language, 39 phonemes (according to R.I. Avanesov) correspond to 33 letters. To this we can add
3 grapheme complexes LJ, zzh, zhd (reins, ride, rain - in the senior spelling norm Thus, the number of letters in the modern Russian alphabet is less than the number of phonemes in the language.
Basic principles of Russian graphics: phonemic and positional.The phonemic principle is related to what the letters represent / the letters of the Russian alphabet do not represent sounds, but phonemes/ ,positional is related to how phonemes are designated in writing. The positional principle of graphics is that the phonemic correspondence to a letter can only be established taking into account its position - neighboring letters and other graphic signs. The positional principle of graphics is associated with two of its features: the designation of phonemes in writing<j > and the designation of hardness - softness of consonant phonemes. Phoneme<j > denoted in four different ways, for paired ones by attribute hardness - softness There are 2 designations for consonants: 1) use of the letter b after the letter of a consonant (this method is used in 2 positions - at the end of a word and before hard consonants); 2) writing subsequent letters i, yu, e, e, and. However, it should be taken into account that in the Russian writing system there are “graphically incorrect” spellings.
Over the more than thousand-year existence of the Cyrillic alphabet, the Eastern Slavs introduced only three new letters into the Russian alphabet - y, uh(negotiable) and e(yo). Letter th was introduced by the Academy of Sciences in 1735.
Letter e first used in 1797 by N.M. Karamzin in the almanac "Aonids" (instead of the ligature sign used in the 18th century), but subsequently was not fixed in Russian writing: the use of the letter e not necessary in modern writing.
Letter uh is inverted Cyrillic. IN modern form it was legalized by Peter I, but was used in Russian writing earlier.
V.K. Trediakovsky argued that the letter uh It started with the damage to the Cyrillic alphabet. On the use of letters uh in early handwritten monuments (XIII - XIV centuries) indicates the famous Russian paleographer E.F. Karsky.
It should be noted that this struggle was not always sufficiently justified in relation to Russian writing. So, M.V. Lomonosov believed extra letter uh(reverse). He did not even include it in his alphabet, commenting on it as follows: “A new fictional or, more correctly, an old e reversed to the other side, is not necessary in the Russian language, because... the letter e, having several different pronunciations, can also serve as a pronoun this one and in the interjection to her"1. Despite Lomonosov's authority and activity in the "extermination" of the letter uh, this letter remains in the alphabet.
Speaking against the letter uh Lomonosov was right and wrong. Against the letter uh one could object, but not during this period of time. In Old Russian writing of the period that preceded the softening of semi-soft consonants, the letter denoted an independent phoneme /e/ after semi-soft (phonemically hard) consonants. After soft consonants, a letter was used to indicate the same phoneme. The letter was also used to denote the combination of the phoneme yot with /e/ (for example, at the beginning of a word). With the restructuring of phonemic relations after the softening of semi-soft ones, the letter, “remaining in place,” began to denote the phoneme /e/ after soft consonants. The letter has been lost. The function of the letter to denote /e/ with a preceding iot has also been transferred to the letter. Thus, the need arose for a letter that would represent /e/ without the preceding iota. This letter became the letter uh.
During the Soviet period, he had a negative attitude towards the letter uh N.F. Yakovlev (1928), but the proposal to abolish the letter uh was for him a logical continuation of certain, phonologically justified alphabetic transformations. At the absolute beginning of a word, as well as after vowels, the letter uh denotes /e/ without a preceding iota, for example: era, Hellenic, ethics; poet, maestro, figurine etc.
Letter I- is also not a new letter, it is a graphic modification of the letter.
> Names and styles of letters of the alphabet of the modern Russian language
In the process of developing and improving our writing, the names of the letters have also changed. Old Cyrillic names "az", "buki", "vedi", etc. in the 18th century were eliminated and the names “a”, “be”, “ve”, etc. were adopted instead. The Romans gave these names to the letters. Borrowing the Greek alphabet, they abandoned the long Greek names: “alpha”, “beta”, “gamma”, “delta”, etc. - and instead they introduced their own, trying to name the letters as briefly as possible. They sought only to ensure that the name of the letter indicated the sound corresponding to this name.
This was almost a revolution in teaching reading and writing, considering that previously they taught reading by adding the names of letters: “beta” + “alpha” = ba. (The sound method of teaching reading was adopted not so long ago. In Rus' they taught reading in the same way: “buki” + “az” = ba. Remember the scene of little Alyosha Peshkov learning to read and write from M. Gorky in the story “Childhood”.
The short Latin names of letters ("a", "be", "ve", etc.) interfered much less with learning to read, and over time they were adopted by us.
If the names of the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet - according to the tradition of the names of the letters of ancient alphabets - in most cases were significant words that only began with the corresponding sounds ("az" - /a/, "buki" - /b/, "vedi" - /v/, “verb” - /g/, etc.), then in the modern Russian alphabet the names of letters, according to the Roman example, are insignificant and indicate only the quality of the sound denoted by the letter.
The names “az”, “buki”, “vedi”, etc. were used, along with names like “a”, “be”, “ve”, also in the 19th century, as well as at the beginning of the 20th century. Short names of letters finally won only in Soviet times.
Until now, in the Russian language there are echoes of ancient Slavic letters, for example, the letter “ar” itself is not used, but its pronunciation remains in the suffixes of figures.
The suffix -arjь serves to designate a person of a certain profession. This is lat. -arius, which spread due to the borrowing of words denoting a profession in Greek, Celtic, Germanic, and, through Germanic, in Slavic languages, and then, through Slavic, in Lithuanian. Some words also show on what basis the suffix -arjь could have developed in Slavic languages: publican “tax collector,” along with “myto,” is a borrowing from Germanic languages, cf. Goth. motareis; also boukar "scribe" along with "bouki", cf. Goth. bokareis, ancient German buohari. Based on the example of words of this kind, new Slavic words could be created: vinar, winegrower from “wine”, etc.
Russian writing, as noted in the previous paragraphs, is phonetic, sound-letter.
Letter- this is the minimum significant graphic sign of a certain writing system, which has a set form and is the main graphic means of transmitting oral speech in writing.
The set of all letters of a particular language, arranged in a certain order, is called alphabet(from the first two letters Greek alphabet"alpha" and "vita"). The Slavic alphabet is also called ABC(from the names of the first two letters of the ancient Slavic alphabet - “az” and “buki”).
The alphabet is the center of any graphic system, which may also include non-literal graphic means, such as accent marks, hyphens, punctuation marks, apostrophe, paragraph marks, spaces between words, chapters, paragraphs and other parts of the text, as well as italics, spacing, underscore.
The modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters, which are arranged in a strictly established order.
| Ahh | [A] | RR | [er] | ||
| BB | [bae] | Ss | [es] | ||
| BB | [ve] | Tt | [te] | ||
| GG | [ge] | Ooh | [y] | ||
| Dd | [de] | Ff | [ef] | ||
| Her | [је] | Xx | [Ha] | ||
| Her | [jo] | Tsts | [tse] | ||
| LJ | [zhe] | Hh | [che] | ||
| Zz | [ze] | Shh | [sha] | ||
| Ii | [And] | Shch | [sha] | ||
| Yikes | [and] brief | Kommersant | solid sign | ||
| Kk | [ka] | Yyy | [s] | ||
| Ll | [el’] | bb | soft sign | ||
| Mm | [Em] | Uh | [e] negotiable | ||
| Nn | [en] | Yuyu | [ју] | ||
| Ooh | [O] | Yaya | [ја] | ||
| pp | [pe] |
Rice. ?. Modern Russian alphabet Nechaeva's alphabet, cover at the end - written alphabet - or others.
The sequence of letters is conventional, but knowledge of it is mandatory for every cultured person, since it is of great importance when searching for information in all modern means of storing it, the organization of which is based on the principle of alphabetical ordering.
Each letter of the alphabet is presented in two versions: printed and handwritten. Each option has two types of letters: uppercase (large) and lowercase (small). Of the 33 letters – 10 letters represent vowel sounds (a, e, e, i, o, u, s, e, yu, i); 21 – consonants (b, c, d, d, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, f, x, c, h, w, sch) and 2 letters – b And ъ– sounds are not indicated. Dividing b And ъ the signs indicate that the iotated letter following them denotes 2 sounds: [ј] and the corresponding vowel: flaw- [izјan]; rook- [lad’ja], blizzard- [v’југ]а.
The soft sign performs several more functions: it indicates the softness of consonant phonemes at the end of a word (laziness) and in the middle of a word (grind); used in certain grammatical forms: a) feminine nouns (speech, silence, rye); b) in the form of the imperative mood (eat(those), appoint(those), cut(those); c) in the form of 2nd person singular (eat, prescribe, cut); d) in the infinitive form (to take care of, bake, guard); d) in adverbs (totally, wide open, unbearably - exceptions: unbearable, already, married); e) in particles (just, I mean, you see).
Each letter of the Russian alphabet has its own name.
The names of letters denoting vowel sounds are of two types:
1. Names of letters consisting of one sound, i.e. letters are named by the sound they represent - a, and, o, y, s, e.
2. Names of letters consisting of two sounds - the corresponding vowel and the one preceding it [ј]: e- [је]; e- [Ио]; yu- [ју]; I- [ја].. Therefore, these letters are called iotized letters.
The names of letters denoting consonants are presented in three types.
1. Names consisting of the corresponding hard consonant followed by a vowel: b- [be], V- [ve], G- [ge], d- [de], and- [zhe], h- [ze], n- [pe], T- [te], ts- [tse], h- [che].
2. Names consisting of the corresponding consonant sound combined with the vowel preceding it: l- [el], m- [um], n- [en], r- [er], With- [es], f- [ef].
3. Names consisting of the corresponding consonant sound followed by a vowel [a]: To- [ka], X- [ha], w- [sha], sch- [sha].
For the letter denoting the sound [ј] in writing, there are two names: sound - [ј] - and “and short”.
Letters that do not represent sounds also have two names: b– soft sign; ъ– solid sign and preserved Cyrillic names b– er; ъ– er.
Task 4. The oldest writing system among the Slavs is called Glagolitic. Below are Old Church Slavonic words written in Glagolitic alphabet, indicating which Russian words correspond to them.
Linguistic assignment, p.21 – increase by 1.5
a) What Russian words correspond to the following Old Church Slavonic words?
b) Write down Old Church Slavonic words corresponding to Russian words in Glagolitic letters horse, forest.
Task 5. Below is the text in Old Church Slavonic.
Linguistic task, p.24, supr.47.
a) Translate this passage into Russian, trying as much as possible not to shorten it, not to add anything, and to maintain the word order.
Notes 1) - food; 2) - five; 3) - two; 4) - ten, 5) - twelve; 6) - basket; 7) the scribes who rewrote the Gospel put periods without certain rules; 8) an icon above a word indicated that one or more letters were missing from the word.
Task 6. Task 4, page 56. In his work “Russian Spelling” (1885), J.K. Grot writes: “The Russian alphabet consists of 35 letters, arranged in the following order:
a b c d e f h i i j l
m n o p r s t u f x c h
w sq y ђ e y i Θ (v)
The last letter is in parentheses because it is almost never used.
Letters And And e receive another special purpose using superscripts (th, e), in which they represent other sounds, and therefore in this form they should also occupy a place in the alphabet.”
a) Were there letters in the old alphabet that had the same sound meaning (doublet letters)?
b) Arrange the following words first as they were placed in pre-revolutionary dictionaries of the Russian language (according to the given alphabet from the book by Y.K. Grot), and then in the order in which they are located in modern dictionaries (indicated in brackets, if necessary old spelling):
1. spruce, ride (ђzdit), food (ђda), barely;
2. 2) trouble (bђda), hip, run (bђgat), demon (bђsъ), run (bђgъ), conversation (beђda), hippopotamus (hippopotamus);
3. powerless (powerless), hopeless, slacker (idler), homeless, unconditional, reckless (reckless), restless (restless), endless (endless);
4. debunk (debunk), get excited, describe, tell, (tell), unload, amuse, story (story), decorate;
5. student (pupil), teaching (teaching), history (history) historical, historiography (historiography);
6. fleet (flot), fodder (forage), wick, incense (Θimiam).
Task 7. Modern river. 319. Check if there are any deviations from the traditional order in the arrangement of letters in the alphabets of D.D. Minaev and V.Ya. Bryusov. Are there any missing letters? (It should be remembered that these poems show the old Russian alphabet.)
July night
Task 8. Bunina, p.88 No. 320. The word in the dictionary stump printed on page 626, and foam- on the 523rd. Was this dictionary published in the 19th or 20th century?
Task 9. Boone, p.88 No. 321. Word work found on the (N + 100)th page of the dictionary, and the word difficult- on the Nth. How long ago was this dictionary compiled?
Task 10. Boone, p.88 No. 323. Task 19. . Why is it necessary for every modern cultured person to know where the letters belonged? Ђ, Θ, V in the old (pre-revolutionary) alphabet?
Task 11. Modern r 324. Read A.S. Pushkin’s epigram to F. Glinka:
Our friend Fita, Kuteikin in epaulets,
He mutters to us a drawn-out psalm:
Poet Fita, don't become Firth!
Sexton Fita, you are Izhitsa among poets!
Do you understand this epigram? Why is the hero of this epigram, the poet F. Glinka, called Fita? And then Izhitsa? What does it mean to not become Firth?
Task 12. Modern day 315. Arrange the following words in alphabetical order (from the point of view of the modern Russian alphabet).
Bread, loaf, cast iron, show, smartly, first, gardener, woodpecker, clairvoyance, excavator, fidget, frenzy, sniffling, molded, mine, iodine, engage, hieroglyph, axe, era, bowstring, telescope, basket, legal, shake off, eyelash, heron, tickle, pitch black.
Task 13. Task 3, page 55. Rewrite the words, placing them in alphabetical order, taking into account not only the first, but also the second and all subsequent letters.
1) Brandt, Grigorovich, Lowkotka, Epstein, Safarik, Avdusin, Georgiev, Cherepnin, Prozorovsky, Karinsky, Lvov, Borkovsky, Sapunov, Chernykh, Engovatov, Sreznevsky, Vinogradov.
2) Height, blizzard, exit, entry, Vietnamese, viscous, calculate, pluck, fade, exit, enter, reveal.
What determines the practical need to know the alphabetical sequence of letters?
Task 14. Branch., Task 6, p. 57. Based on the nature of the sound composition, the names of the letters can be combined into the following groups (types):
1) a [a], o, y, e, and [and], s [s];
2) i, e, yu, e;
3) b [be], v, g, d, g, h, p, t, c, h;
4) l [el’], m [em], n, r, s, f;
5) k [ka], x, w, sch;
6) th [and short], ъ, ь.
a) Using transcription, indicate the sound composition of the names of all letters according to the proposed model.
b) Name the largest group of names of consonant letters.
Task 15. Branch. Task 7, page 57. Write down only those compound words whose reading does not correspond to the accepted names of letters in the alphabet. Underline words that can be read differently.
ATS, BGTO, VVS, VDNKh, Komsomol, VFDM, GTO, DLT, CPSU, Leningrad State University, MPVO, MTS, NKVD, OBKhSS, OTK, PVKhO, RSDRP, RSFSR, RTS, CIS, SNK, USSR, USA, VHF, UMK, FBI, FZMK, FZO, FZU, Germany, FSB, CSK, Central Committee.
Note. For reference, you can use the “Dictionary of Abbreviations of the Russian Language” (M., 1963), or “List of Abbreviations” in Volume 1U of the “Dictionary of the Russian Language” (M., 1961, pp. 1081-1083). The “Dictionary of Abbreviations...” and the “List of Abbreviations” reveal the meaning and indicate the pronunciation of complex abbreviated words.
a) What determines the practical need to know the names of letters?
b) Using the text from the previous exercise, determine the spontaneous process of aligning typical letter names.
Task 16.“Modern Russian language”314. Read the abbreviations:
FZO, FZU, Germany, FSB, FVK, FDC, FZP, FPK...
a) How to pronounce the name of the letter here f ?
b) Remembering the laws of associating consonants in terms of voicedness and deafness, think: in which of the given abbreviations would the usual name of this letter be inappropriate?
Note. For reference, you can use the literature specified in task 15
Task 17. Vetvitsky, p. 55, No. 2.. 55. Replace the letter where necessary e letter e(with dots):
1) ice, walking, carrying, cheerful; 2) takes a book, takes a bag, chalks the street, takes chalk, sing a song, eat soup; 3) five buckets, splash, fishing line, gall, talk nonsense, crypt, city of Priozersk, writer Yu. Olesha.
a) In what case is the correct reading of a word determined by its letter composition, and when does it depend on the combination of words? In what case will the reader, if he does not fully master the norms of pronunciation, not be helped by either the letter composition of the words or the context?
b) In the spelling of words of which group, the letter e Is it advisable to use sequentially? Is it possible to agree with those who believe that the Russian alphabet has not 33, but 32 letters?
Chapter Three
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF RUSSIAN GRAPHICS
What does the letter mean?
In different writing systems, the basic graphic unit can represent different units of language. It can be a concept, a word, a syllable or a sound.
The basic unit of graphics is usually called a grapheme. In modern linguistics, the term “grapheme” - (from the Greek - gráphσ - I write) does not have an unambiguous interpretation. Most often you can find two definitions:
1) a grapheme is a minimal unit of the graphic system of a language (writing system) that has one or another linguistic content. For phonetic writing, the term “grapheme” in this sense is often used as a synonym for letter;
2) a grapheme is a minimal sign of a certain writing system, expressing the relationship of the corresponding unit of language to its graphic representation. In the second meaning of the term, a grapheme appears as a set of relations between a phoneme and a letter.
“The grapheme system is formed as a result of the adaptation of a given alphabet as a set of letters to the set of phonemes of a given language at a given stage of its development.” Linguists note that an ideal letter, in which each letter would correspond to a separate sound, and each sound would be expressed by one letter sign, does not exist in any language in the world. “Russian graphics in this regard are one of the most advanced, since most of the letters of the Russian alphabet are unambiguous.”
In previous chapters, we have already found out that the letters of the Russian alphabet convey sounds. This is how the peculiarities of Russian writing are usually explained at school. However, there are many more sounds in Russian speech than letters. Consequently, the relationship between “sound” and “letter” is more complex and ambiguous.
Observations on the rules for using letters lead many linguists to the conclusion that the letters of the Russian alphabet represent phonemes rather than sounds. In this case, the phonemic (or phonemic) principle is put forward as one of the basic principles of graphics. Evidence of the phonemic nature of Russian writing is also provided. For example: imagine that in the word house all letters represent sounds. But in word form Houses' to denote the vowel sound [Λ] we use the same letter O. If letters denoted sounds, it would be necessary to write lady'. But the sounds [о′] and [Λ] are variants of the phoneme /о/. Consequently, letters do not convey sounds, but phonemes.
However, it seems to us that when choosing the spelling option - lady or Houses- it is no longer graphics that determines the graphic appearance of a word, but another branch of linguistics - spelling. It is the phonemic principle of spelling that forces a letter to denote not a sound, but a phoneme in a strong position. If spelling did not exist, then we could write iron(instead of iron), khyrasho(instead of Fine).
If there is no consensus in science about the phonetic or phonemic nature of Russian graphics, then the next basic principle of Russian writing - syllabic - is accepted unanimously by everyone.
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ABSTRACT
on the topic “Russian alphabet. History, composition, style, modern Russian graphics"
Introduction
What could be more interesting than exploring what is, at first glance, obvious? And what, if not language, do we use every day? And, as you know, in language there is such a thing as an alphabet. This is what I want to talk about.
ALPHABET- a system of graphic signs ordered in a certain way, depicting individual sound elements of the language and thus conveying the sound appearance of words. A. is also called the order of letters established for a given language. The principle of alphabet was invented by West Semitic peoples; this made it possible to write words without referring to their meaning, in contrast to writing systems that use ideograms (written designations for concepts) and logograms (written designations for words). The most ancient systems of A., for example, Eblaite (mid-3rd millennium BC), Ugaritic (mid-2nd millennium BC), are based on the designation of consonants (vowels in these languages had a secondary meaning) and were syllabic, like the Phoenician letter (last centuries of the 2nd millennium BC), from which the Greek originates. A., no longer syllabic, with special signs for vowels (see Greek writing); on its basis many have developed. A., including Latin, Coptic, Etruscan, Slavic, Cyrillic. In all known letters, each letter has its own name (these names are mainly preserved in related systems). From the 1st millennium BC a firmly fixed order of letters was used to convey numbers; this principle was preserved in letters based on Greek. models, in particular in Old Church Slavonic and other Russian, which had a certain significance for the study of the history of A. Most modern ones are based on A. national writing systems.
Each letter of any alphabet has a specific meaning and Russian is no exception.
The word "Alphabet" comes from the name of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: ???? « ??» - alphaAnd ???? « ?? » - beta
The word "ABC" comes from the name of the first two letters of the ancient Slavic alphabet- Cyrillic alphabet: A - az and B - beeches
How did the alphabet come about? How did it develop in Rus'?
In my abstract I will talk about the research conducted and try to answer these questions.
History of the alphabet in Rus'
alphabet graphics phonetics copybook
Around 863, the brothers Constantine (Cyril) the Philosopher and Methodius from Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki), by order of the Byzantine Emperor Michael III, streamlined the writing system for the Slavic language.
The brothers were natives of the city of Thessaloniki (now Thessaloniki). Ancient Thessaloniki was a bilingual city, in which, in addition to Greek language Slavic dialect sounded.
Constantine, being a very educated man, 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, teaching 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. On the way to Rome, they visited another Slavic country - Pannonia (the area of Lake Balaton, Hungary). And here the brothers taught the Slavs books and worship in the Slavic language.
In Rome, Constantine became a monk, taking the name Cyril. There, in 869, Cyril was poisoned. Methodius with his disciples, who received the priesthood, returned to Pannonia, and later to Moravia.
By that time, the situation in Moravia had changed dramatically. After the death of Rostislav, his captive Svyatopolk became the Moravian prince, who submitted to German political influence. The activities of Methodius and his disciples took place in very difficult conditions. The Latin-German clergy in every way prevented the spread of the Slavic language as the language of the church.
Methodius was sent to prison, where he dies in 885, and after that his opponents managed to achieve the ban on Slavic writing in Moravia. After the adoption of Christianity, Bulgaria became the center of the spread of Slavic writing.
Here Slavic schools are created, the original Cyril and Methodius liturgical books are copied.
The widespread use of Slavic writing dates back to the reign of Simeon in Bulgaria (893-927). Later, the Old Church Slavonic language penetrated into Serbia, and at the end of the 10th century. becomes the language of the church in Kievan Rus.
Types of Russian alphabet
The Old Church Slavonic alphabet, which is used to write monuments that have survived to this day, is called the Glagolitic alphabet and the Cyrillic alphabet. The first Old Church Slavonic monuments were written in the Glagolitic alphabet, which was supposedly created by Constantine based on the Greek cursive script of the 9th century. with the addition of some letters from other eastern alphabets.
The appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet (Fig. 1), dating back to the Greek statutory letter, is associated with the activities of the Bulgarian scribe schools; it is the Slavic alphabet, which underlies the modern Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian alphabet.
The Cyrillic alphabet, as it was used in the Russian language, underwent gradual improvement.
The development of the Russian state at the beginning of the 18th century and the emerging needs for the printing of civil books necessitated the need to simplify the lettering of the Cyrillic alphabet.
In 1708, the Russian civil font was created, and Peter I himself took an active part in making sketches of the letters in 1710.
A sample of the new alphabet font was approved. This was the first reform of Russian graphics. Peter's reform of the Russian typographical font was carried out in 1708-1710.
This reform had two goals, one of them was: bringing the appearance of Russian books and other printed publications closer to what Western European publications of that time looked like, which were sharply different from the typically medieval-looking Russian publications, which were typed in Church Slavonic font, and the other: simplifying the composition Russian alphabet due to
excluding from it such outdated and unnecessary letters as “psi”, “xi”, “omega”, “Izhitsa”, “earth”, “izhe”, “yus small” (see below).
However, later, probably under the influence of the clergy, some of these letters were restored to use. The letter “E” was introduced in order to distinguish it from the yotized letter “E”, as well as the letter I instead of the small yotized yus.
In the civil font, uppercase (capital) and lowercase (small) letters are established for the first time.
The letter “Y” (and a short one) was introduced by the Academy of Sciences in 1735. The letter “Y” was first used by N.M. Karamzin in 1797 to indicate the sound [o] under stress after soft consonants.
Spelling reform of 1917-1918. two letters that duplicated each other were excluded: “yat”, “fita”, “and decimal”. The letter “Ъ” (er) was retained only as a dividing sign, “b” (er) - as a dividing sign and to indicate the softness of the preceding consonant. Regarding “Yo”, the decree contains a clause about the desirability, but not obligatory nature, of using this letter. Reform 1917-1918 simplified Russian letter and thus facilitated learning to read and write.
Composition of the Russian alphabet
Russian alphabet
The Russian alphabet has 33 letters, of which 10 indicate vowels, 21 consonants, and 2 letters do not indicate special sounds, but serve to convey certain sound features. The Russian alphabet has uppercase (large) and lowercase (small) letters, printed and handwritten letters.
The relationship between Russian phonetics and graphics
Modern Russian graphics include an alphabet invented for Slavic writing and carefully developed for the Old Church Slavonic language, which about a thousand years ago was the literary language of all Slavic peoples. It is quite natural that the Old Church Slavonic alphabet could not fully correspond to the then sound system of the Russian language.
In particular, in the Old Church Slavonic alphabet there were letters to represent sounds that were not in the Russian language, for example: [yus big], [yus small].
This is how a divergence arose between oral and written language.
Over the thousand-year period of its existence, Russian graphics were subjected only to
partial improvements, while the sound system of the living Russian language was continuously, although not always noticeably, changing. As a result, the relationship between Russian graphics and the sound system of the Russian language in our time has turned out to be devoid of complete correspondence: not all sounds pronounced in different phonetic positions are indicated in writing by special letters. Features of Russian graphics
Modern Russian graphics are distinguished by a number of features that have developed historically and represent a specific graphic system. Russian graphics do not have an alphabet in which there is a special letter for each sound pronounced in the speech stream.
There are significantly fewer letters in the Russian alphabet than sounds in real speech.
As a result, the letters of the alphabet turn out to be polysemantic and can have several sound meanings.
So, for example, the letter s can denote the following sounds: 1) [s] (courts, garden), 2) [s"] (here, sit down), 3) [z] (delivery, collection), 4) [z" ] (mowing, transaction), 5) [w] (sew), 6) [g] (compress).
The meaning of the letter c in each of the six cases is different: in the words of the court and here, the letter c cannot be replaced by any other letter, such a replacement would lead to a distortion of the word. In this case, the letter s is used in its basic meaning.
In other words, the letter c appears in secondary meanings and can be replaced by certain letters, which preserves the usual pronunciation of the words (cf.: hand over - “zdat”, mowing - “goat”, sew - “shshit”, squeeze - “burn”). In the latter case, the letter s denotes sounds that replace the sound [s] in certain positions, in accordance with the living phonetic laws inherent in the Russian literary language.
Thus, with the polysemy of letters, Russian graphics distinguish mainAnd minorletter meanings. So, in the word house the letter o is used in the main meaning, and in the word house - in a secondary meaning.
The second feature of Russian graphics is division of letters according to the number of sounds indicated.
In this regard, the letters of the Russian alphabet fall into three groups: 1) letters devoid of sound meaning; 2) letters denoting two sounds; 3) letters denoting one sound.
The first group includes the letters ъ, ь, which do not denote any sounds, as well as the so-called “unpronounceable consonants” in, for example, words: sun, heart, etc.
The second group includes the letters: i, yu, e [e], ё.
The third group includes letters denoting one sound, i.e. all letters of the Russian alphabet, with the exception of letters included in the first and second groups.
The third feature of Russian graphics is the presence of single-valued and double-valued letters in it: the first include letters that have one basic meaning; to the second - having two meanings.
So, for example, the letters ch and c are unambiguous, since the letter ch in all positions denotes the same soft sound [ch "], and the letter c - solid sound[ts].
Double-digit letters include: 1) all letters denoting consonant sounds, paired in hardness-softness; 2) letters denoting vowel sounds: i, e, e, yu.
The ambiguity of the indicated letters of the Russian alphabet is due to the specifics of Russian graphics - namely, its syllabic principle.
The syllabic principle of Russian graphics is that in Russian writing, in certain cases, the unit of writing is not a letter, but a syllable. Such a syllable, i.e. the combination of a consonant and a vowel is a solid graphic element, the parts of which are mutually determined. The syllabic principle of graphics is used in the designation of paired consonants in terms of hardness and softness. In modern Russian, consonant sounds paired in hardness and softness have a phonemic meaning, i.e. serve to distinguish the sound shells of words. However, in the Russian alphabet there are no separate letters to designate consonant sounds paired in softness and hardness, so, for example, the letter t is used for both hard and hard. soft sound[t] - (cf.: they will become - they will be pulled together).
The absence in the Russian alphabet of separate letters for paired consonant sounds in terms of hardness and softness is compensated by the presence in our graphics of double outlines of vowel sounds. Thus, the letters i, o, y, e, s indicate the hardness of the preceding consonant, paired in hardness-softness, and the letters - i, e, yu, e, and - indicate softness (cf.: rad - row, mole - chalk , knock - knock, sir - sir, was - beat). Thus, the letters denoting consonant sounds paired in hardness-softness are two-valued: without taking into account the subsequent letter, it is impossible to determine whether the consonant sound paired in hardness-softness is hard or soft. Only at the end of a word and before consonants (though not always) the softness of consonants paired with hardness and softness is indicated by a special letter ь.
The syllabic principle also applies to the designation of the consonant sound [j] (iot), and this application is carried out only within words. The consonant sound yot is indicated by a special letter y only when the syllable ends with this sound following the vowel (cf.: sing - sing, lei - pour, spring, blind, etc.).
In all other positions, the sound yot together with the next vowel sound is denoted by one letter, namely: i -, e -, e -, yu -. This meaning of the letters i, e, e, yu occurs: 1) at the beginning of the word (cf. pit, hedgehog, south, spruce); 2) after vowels (mine, mine, I’ll go, mine); 3) after the dividing signs ъ and ь (announce - monkey, volume - let's knock, exit - mouth, situation - blizzard).
The use of the syllabic principle in Russian graphics represents a very convenient solution to the problem of transmitting hard and soft consonants in writing, as well as the sound of yot (reducing the number of letters, significant space saving by eliminating spellings with yot).
However, the syllabic principle is not applied consistently in Russian graphics. The main deviation from the syllabic principle is the designation of vowel sounds after consonants, unpaired in hardness and softness. So, after always hard consonants [zh], [sh], [ts], vowel sounds are designated, contrary to the syllabic principle, by the letters i, e, e, occasionally yu, i (cf. fat, width, gesture, pole, gutter, whisper , brochure, jury, parachute, figure, chain, Kotsyubinsky, Tsyavlovsky, etc.); after the always soft [h], [sch], contrary to the syllabic principle, the letters a, o, u are written (cf. bowl, clink glasses, miracle, food, Shchors, pike, etc.).
These deviations from the syllabic principle in modern Russian graphics have developed historically. In modern Russian, the sounds [zh], [sh], [ts] do not have soft varieties, and the sounds [ch], [sch] do not have hard varieties. Therefore, the hardness and softness of these sounds are indicated by the consonant letters themselves, which are unambiguous and do not require designation by subsequent vowel letters.
Special cases of deviations from the syllabic principle: 1) writing foreign (usually French) words with ьо instead of ё (cf.: broth - linen, etc.); 2) writing complex abbreviated words with ьо, я, ьу and yu (cf. village district, village airfield, Dalugol, construction site); 3) writing yo at the beginning of foreign words instead of ё (cf. hedgehog, ruff - yot, iod, Yorkshire, New York).
In addition to the indicated inconsistency in the application of the syllabic principle, one can note in Russian graphics the absence of a designation for a stressed syllable in a word, as well as a special letter for the sound ["] (cf. yeast, squeal, ride, etc.)
Inscription in words
Conclusion
Thus, having gone through such a huge historical path, the Russian alphabet was able to borrow everything it needed from other alphabets and languages. Despite the fact that this alphabet is of Greek origin, it is safe to say that it has acquired its own special appearance.
Throughout the history of Russia, the Russian language has undergone many changes.
Unnecessary letters became a thing of the past and, thus, the original alphabet differs sharply from the modern one. All this was connected with the development of Kievan Rus, and later Russia.
Since writing is a universal carrier of information, religion, culture and politics, one cannot fail to note the very main role of the Russian state’s own writing: it is likely that it was the alphabet that preserved this people and did not allow them to assimilate into a foreign culture.
After all, “Language is the spirit of the people” (W. Humboldt), in language is the entire worldview of a nation, the subtlest features of perception, there is no People without Language!
List of used literature
1 Great Soviet Encyclopedia[Electronic resource]: Electronic version of the latest edition of BES 1977 - Electron. text data and electron. graph. Dan. - M: “Big Russian Encyclopedia”, 2002. - (Golden Fund of Russian Encyclopedias). - 183.90, rub. URL: #"justify">Modern Russian language. Valgina N.S., Rosenthal D.E., Fomina M.I.M.: Logos, 2002. - 528 p.
Yu.P. Minin "The solution to the Russian alphabet." / Under. Ed. K.R. Ivanova, N.E. Kirillova. - M.: Culture, 1985. - 143 pp.
Zemskaya E.A. Russian colloquial speech. / Ed. M.V. Kitaygorodskaya, E.N. Shiryaeva. - M.: Nauka, 1981. - 276 pp.
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