The dialect of Moscow was used as the basis for written Russian. Civil Russian language started appearing in writing during the reign of Peter the Great (1672-1725).

Until the 17th century, the only written language in Russia was Church Slavonic. Cyrillic letters are different from the Glagolitic ones and have lots in common with the Greek letters. The Cyrillic alphabet was derived from Glagolitic by Cyril’s pupils and named after him.

The Glagolitic alphabet was used for Slavonic manuscripts for a relatively short period of time (no more than a century) before the development of the Cyrillic. The name comes from the Old Slavic word glagolŭ, which means ‘sound’. More About Russian AlphabetĬyril and Methodius called their alphabet Glagolitsa, or the Glagolitic alphabet. * ih - 'h' had been added to produce a more open sound, but is not pronounced as an English 'h'. The alphabet, the Cyrillic script is named in honor of the Byzantine scholar and monk, Cyril (827-869 AD), who, together with his brother Methodius (826-885 AD), created the first Slavic writing system in the second half of the ninth century in order to translate the Bible and other Christian texts into the Slavic languages.Ĭlick each letter to listen, then click again and repeat after speaker imitating the pronunciation as closely as you can.Ĭlick 'Play' to watch how to handwrite letters and words. The Cyrillic alphabet was introduced into Russia (Kievan Rus' ) at the time of its conversion to Christianity (988 AD). Russian is an Eastern Slavonic language closely related to Ukrainian and Belorussian with about 277 million speakers in Russia and 30 other countries. There are 33 letters in the Russian Alphabet: 10 vowels, 21 consonants, and 2 signs (ь, ъ). Self study guide About us New Russian Textbook

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