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This is a list of national variants of the Cyrillic script.

Sounds are indicated using IPA. These are only approximate indicators. While these languages by and large have phonemic orthographies, there are occasional exceptions—for example, Russian <г> represents /v/ in a number of words (e.g. его (yego, 'him/his', pronounced instead of )).

Note that transliterated spellings of names may vary, especially y/j/i, but also gh/g/h and zh/j.

See also a more complete list of languages using Cyrillic.

Common letters

The following table lists the Cyrillic letters which are used in the alphabets of most of the national languages which use a Cyrillic alphabet. Exceptions and additions for particular languages are noted below.

The soft sign ⟨ь⟩ is not a letter representing a sound, but modifies the sound of the preceding letter, indicating palatalisation ("softening"), also separates the consonant and the following vowel. Sometimes it does not have phonetic meaning, just orthographic; e.g. Russian туш, tush 'flourish after a toast'; тушь, tushʹ 'India ink'. In some languages, a hard sign ⟨ъ⟩ or apostrophe ⟨’⟩ just separates consonant and the following vowel (бя , бья , бъя = б’я ).

Slavic languages

Cyrillic alphabets used by Slavic languages can be divided into two categories used to divide the languages:

• East Slavic languages, such as Russian, share common features such as Й and ь
• South Slavic languages, such as Serbian, share common features such as Ј.

East Slavic

Russian

• Yo (Ё ё) /jo/
• The Hard Sign¹ (Ъ ъ) indicates no palatalisation²
• Yery (Ы ы) indicates (an allophone of /i/)
• E (Э э) /e/
• Ж and Ш indicate sounds that are retroflex

Notes:

1. In the pre-reform Russian orthography, in Old Russian and in Old Church Slavonic the letter is called yer. Historically, the "hard sign" takes the place of a now-absent vowel, still preserved in Bulgarian. See the notes for Bulgarian.
2. When an iotated vowel (vowel whose sound begins with ) follows a consonant, the consonant is palatalised. The Hard Sign indicates that this does not happen, and the sound will appear only in front of the vowel. The Soft Sign indicates that the consonant should be palatalised in addition to a preceding the vowel. The Soft Sign also indicates that a consonant before another consonant or at the end of a word is palatalised. Examples: та (); тя (); тья (); тъя (); т (/t/); ть ().

Before 1918, there were four extra letters in use: Іі (replaced by Ии), Ѳѳ (Фита "Fita", replaced by Фф), Ѣѣ (Ять "Yat", replaced by Ее), and Ѵѵ (ижица "Izhitsa", replaced by Ии); these were eliminated by reforms of Russian orthography.

Belarusian

The Belarusian alphabet displays the following features:

• Ge (Г г) represents a voiced glottal fricative /ɦ/.
• Yo (Ё ё) /jo/
• I (І і), also known as the dotted I or decimal I, resembles the Latin letter I. Unlike Russian an Ukrainian, "И" is not used.
  • Short I (Й й), however, uses the base И glyph.
• Short U (Ў ў) is the letter У with a breve and represents /w/, or like the u part of the diphthong in loud. The use of the breve to indicate a semivowel is analogous to the Short I (Й).
• A combination of Sh and Ch (ШЧ шч) is used where those familiar only with Russian and or Ukrainian would expect Shcha (Щ щ).
• Yery (Ы ы) /ɨ/
• E (Э э) /ɛ/
• An apostrophe (’) is used to indicate de-palatalization of the preceding consonant. This orthographical symbol used instead of the traditional Cyrillic letter Yer (Ъ), also known as the hard sign.
• The letter combinations Dzh (Дж дж) and Dz (Дз дз) appear after D (Д д) in the Belarusian alphabet in some publications. These digraphs represent consonant clusters Дж /dʒ/ and Дз /dz/ correspondingly.

Ukrainian

Template:Ukrainian alphabet

The Ukrainian alphabet displays the following features:

• Ve represents /ʋ/ (which may be pronounced in a word final position and before consonants).
• He (Г, г) represents a voiced glottal fricative, (/ɦ/).
• Ge (Ґ, ґ) appears after He, represents /ɡ/. It looks like He with an "upturn" pointing up from the right side of the top bar. (This letter was not officially used in Soviet Ukraine in 1933—1990, so it may be missing from older Cyrillic fonts.)
• E (Е, е) represents /ɛ/.
• Ye (Є, є) appears after E, represents /jɛ/.
• Y (И, и) represents /ɪ/.
• I (І, і) appears after Y, represents /i/.
• Yi (Ї, ї) appears after I, represents /ji/.
• Yot (Й, й) represents /j/.
• Shcha (Щ, щ) represents ʃtʃ.
• An apostrophe (’) is used to mark non-palatalization of the preceding consonant before Ya (Я, я), Yu (Ю, ю), Ye (Є, є), Yi (Ї, ї).
• Like in Belarusian Cyrillic, the sounds /dʒ/, /dz/ are represented by digraphs Дж and Дз respectively.
• Until reforms in 1990, Soft sign (Ь, ь) appeared at the end of the alphabet, after Yu (Ю, ю) and Ya (Я, я), rather than before them, as in Russian. Many native speakers continue to ignore this reform.

Rusyn

The Rusyn language is spoken by the Lemko Rusyns in Carpathian Ruthenia, Slovakia, and Poland, and the Pannonian Rusyns in Serbia.

*Letters absent from Pannonian Rusyn alphabet.

South Slavic

The South Slavic language alphabets are generally derived from the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet. It, and by extension its descendants, differs from the East Slavic ones in that the alphabet has generally been simplified: Letters such as Я, Ю, and Ё, representing /ja/, /ju/, and /jo/ in Russian, respectively, have been removed. Instead, these are represented by the digraphs ⟨ја⟩, ⟨ју⟩, and ⟨јо⟩, respecively. Additionally, the letter Е, representing /je/ in Russian, is instead pronounced /e/ or /ɛ/, with /je/ being represented by ⟨јe⟩. Alphabets based on the Serbian that add new letters often do so by adding an acute accent (´) over an existing letter.

Bulgarian

Although a South Slavic language, the Bulgarian alphabet is more similar to the East Slavic language alphabets. It displays following features:

• Тhe Bulgarian names for the consonants are , , etc. instead of , , etc.
• Е represents /ɛ/ and is called "е" .
• The sounds /dʒ/ (/d͡ʒ/) and /dz/ (/d͡z/) are represented by дж and дз respectively.
• Yot (Й, й) represents /j/.
• Щ represents /ʃt/ (/ʃ͡t/) and is called "щъ" ().
• Ъ represents the vowel /ɤ/, and is called "ер голям" ('big er'). In spelling however, Ъ is referred to as /ɤ/ where its official label "ер голям" (used only to refer to Ъ in the alphabet) may cause some confusion. The vowel Ъ /ɤ/ is sometimes approximated to the /ə/ (schwa) sound found in many languages for easier comprehension of its Bulgarian pronunciation for foreigners, but it is actually a much harder-sounding vowel.
• Ь is used on rare occasions (only after a consonant before the vowel "о"), such as in the words 'каньон' (canyon), 'шофьор' (driver), etc. It is called "ер малък" ('small er').

The Cyrillic alphabet was developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School. The Cyrillic script was originally developed in Bulgaria and has been used there (with modifications and exclusion of certain archaic letters via spelling reforms) continuously since then, superseding the previously used Glagolitic alphabet, which was also invented and used there before the Cyrillic alphabet overtook its use as a written script for Bulgarian. The Cyrillic alphabet was then borrowed by neighboring countries (e.g. Serbia and later Romania) and their peoples by the spread of Orthodox Christianity, who later modified it and added/excluded letters from it to better suit the needs of their own language. It was later adapted to write Russian and evolved into the Russian alphabet and the alphabets of many other Slavic (and later non-Slavic) languages.

Serbian

The Serbian alphabet shows the following features:

• E represents /ɛ/.
• Between Д and E is the letter Dje (Ђ, ђ), which represents /dʑ/, and looks like Tshe, except that the loop of the h curls farther and dips downwards.
• Between И and К is the letter Je (Ј, ј), represents /j/, which looks like the Latin letter J.
• Between Л and М is the letter Lje (Љ, љ), representing Error: {{IPA}}: unrecognized language tag: /, which looks like a ligature of Л and the Soft Sign .
• Between Н and О is the letter Nje (Њ, њ), representing /ɲ/, which looks like a ligature of Н and the Soft Sign.
• Between Т and У is the letter Tshe (Ћ, ћ), representing /tɕ/ and looks like a lowercase Latin letter h with a bar. On the uppercase letter, the bar appears at the top; on the lowercase letter, the bar crosses the top at half of the vertical line.
• Between Ч and Ш is the letter Dzhe (Џ, џ), representing /dʒ/, which looks like Ts but with the downturn moved from the right side of the bottom bar to the middle of the bottom bar.
• Ш is the last letter.
• Certain letters are handwritten differently, as seen in the image to the right. Lowercase Be (б) has this form even in non-italic type.

Macedonian

The Macedonian alphabet differs from Serbian in the following ways:

• Between Ze (З з) and I (И и) is the letter Dze (Ѕ ѕ), which looks like the Latin letter S and represents /d͡z/.
• Djerv (Ђ ђ) is replaced by Gje (Ѓ ѓ), which represents /ɟ/ (voiced palatal stop). In some dialects, it represents /d͡ʑ/ instead, lke Djerv. It is written ⟨Ǵ ǵ⟩ in the corresponding Macedonian Latin alphabet.
• Tjerv (Ћ ћ) is replaced by Kje (Ќ ќ), which represents /c/ (voiceless palatal stop). In some dialects, it represents /t͡ɕ/ instead, like Tjerv. It is written ⟨Ḱ ḱ⟩ in the corresponding Macedonian Latin alphabet.
• Lje (Љ љ) often represents the consonant cluster /lj/ instead of /ʎ/.
• Lowercase Be (б), as in Serbian, looks different, as do several handwritten forms of other letters (see above and the image to the right)

Montenegrin

The Montenegrin alphabet differs from Serbian in the following ways:

• Between Ze (З з) and I (И и) is the letter З́, which represents /ʑ/ (voiced alveolo-palatal fricative). It is written ⟨Ź ź⟩ in the corresponding Montenegrin Latin alphabet, previously written ⟨Zj zj⟩ or ⟨Žj žj⟩.
• Between Es (С с) and Te (Т т) is the letter С́, which represents /ɕ/ (voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative). It is written ⟨Ś ś⟩ in the corresponding Montenegrin Latin alphabet, previously written ⟨Sj sj⟩ or ⟨Šj šj⟩.
• The letter Dze (Ѕ ѕ), from Macedonian, is used in scientific literature when representing the /d͡z/ phoneme, although it is not officially part of the alphabet. A Latin equivalent was proposed that looks identical to Ze (З з).

Bosnian

The Bosnian language uses both Latin and Cyrillic scripts There was also a Bosnian Cyrillic script (Bosančica) used in the Middle Ages, along with other scripts, although its connection with Bosnian is tenuous at best. The Cyrillic used for writing in Bosnian language today is the modern Serbian variant.

Non-Slavic languages

These alphabets are generally modelled after Russian, but often bear striking differences, particularly when adapted for Caucasian languages. The first few of them were generated by Orthodox missionaries for the Finnic and Turkic peoples of Idel-Ural (Mari, Udmurt, Mordva, Chuvash, Kerashen Tatars) in 1870s. Later such alphabets were created for some of the Siberian and Caucasus peoples who had recently converted to Christianity. In the 1930s, some of those alphabets were switched to the Uniform Turkic Alphabet. All of the peoples of the former Soviet Union who had been using an Arabic or other Asian script (Mongolian script, etc.) also adopted Cyrillic alphabets, and during the Great Purge in the late 1930s, all of the Latin alphabets of the peoples of the Soviet Union were switched over to Cyrillic as well (the Baltic Republics were annexed later, and weren't affected by this change). The Abkhazian alphabet was switched to Georgian script, but after the death of Joseph Stalin, Abkhaz also adopted Cyrillic. The last language to adopt Cyrillic was the Gagauz language, which had used Greek script before.

In Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, the use of Cyrillic to represent local languages has often been a politically controversial issue since the collapse of the Soviet Union, as it evokes the era of Soviet rule and Russification. Some of Russia's peoples such as the Tatars have also tried to drop Cyrillic, but the move was halted under Russian law. A number of languages have switched from Cyrillic to other orthographies—either Roman‐based or returning to a former script.

Unlike the Latin alphabet, which is usually adapted to different languages by using additions to existing letters such as accents, umlauts, tildes and cedillas, the Cyrillic script is usually adapted by the creation of entirely new letter shapes. In some alphabets invented in the nineteenth century, such as Mari, Udmurt and Chuvash, umlauts and breves also were used.

Bulgarian and Bosnian Sephardim lacking Hebrew typefaces occasionally printed Judeo-Spanish in Cyrillic.

Finno-Ugric and other Uralic languages

Uralic languages using the Cyrillic script (currently or in the past) include:

• Finnic: Karelian (Ludic; Olonets Karelian); Veps; Votic
• Sami spoken in Russia
• Permic: Komi (Zyrian; Permyak; Yodzyak); Udmurt
• Ugric: Khanty; Mansi
• Samoyedic: Enets; Yurats; Forest Nenets; Tundra Nenets; Nganasan; Kamassian; Koibal; Mator; Selkup
• Other: Mari (Hill; Meadow); Erzya; Moksha; Merya; Muromian; Meshcherian

Karelian language

The Karelian language was written in the Cyrillic script in various forms until 1940 when publication in Karelian ceased in favor of Finnish, except for Tver Karelian, written in a Latin-derived alphabet. In 1989 publication began again in the other Karelian dialects and Latin-based alphabets were used, in some cases with the addition of Cyrillic letters such as ь.

Kildin Sámi language

Over the last century, the alphabet used to write Kildin Sami has changed three times: from Cyrillic to Latin and back again to Cyrillic. Work on the latest version of the official orthography commenced in 1979. It was officially approved in 1982 and started to be widely used by 1987.

Komi-Permyak language

The Komi-Permyak alphabet А а Б б В в Г г Д д Е е Ё ё Ж ж З з И и І і Й й К к Л л М м Н н О о Ӧ ӧ П п Р р С с Т т У у Ф ф Х х Ц ц Ч ч Ш ш Щ щ Ъ ъ Ы ы Ь ь Э э Ю ю Я я

Mari alphabets

Meadow Mari alphabet:

Hill Mari alphabet

Iranian languages

Kurdish

Kurds in the former Soviet Union use a Cyrillic alphabet:

Ossetian

The Ossetic language has officially used the Cyrillic script since 1937.

Tajik

The Tajik language is written using a Cyrillic-based alphabet.

Moldovan

The Moldovan language used the Cyrillic script until 1918 and again between 1946 and 1989. Nowadays, this alphabet is still official in the unrecognized republic of Transnistria.

Mongolian

The Mongolic languages include Khalkha (in Mongolia), Buryat (around Lake Baikal) and Kalmyk (northwest of the Caspian Sea). Khalkha Mongolian is also written with the Mongol vertical alphabet.

Overview

This table contains all the characters used.

Һһ is shown twice as it appears at two different location in Buryat and Kalmyk

Khalkha

• В в = /w/
• Е е = /jɛ/, /jœ/
• Ё ё = /jo/
• Ж ж = /dʒ/
• З з = /dz/
• Н н = /n-/, /-ŋ/
• Ө ө = /œ/
• Ү ү = /y/
• Ы ы = /iː/ (after a hard consonant)
• Ь ь = /ĭ/ (extra short)
• Ю ю = /ju/, /jy/

The Cyrillic letters Кк, Пп, Фф and Щщ are not used in native Mongolian words, but only for Russian loans.

Buryat

The Buryat (буряад) Cyrillic script is similar to the Khalkha above, but Ьь indicates palatalization as in Russian. Buryat does not use Вв, Кк, Фф, Цц, Чч, Щщ or Ъъ in its native words.

• Е е = /jɛ/, /jœ/
• Ё ё = /jo/
• Ж ж = /dʒ/
• Н н = /n-/, /-ŋ/
• Ө ө = /œ/
• Ү ү = /y/
• Һ һ = /h/
• Ы ы = /ei/, /iː/
• Ю ю = /ju/, /jy/

Kalmyk

The Kalmyk (хальмг) Cyrillic script is similar to the Khalkha, but the letters Ээ, Юю and Яя appear only word-initially. In Kalmyk, long vowels are written double in the first syllable (нөөрин), but single in syllables after the first. Short vowels are omitted altogether in syllables after the first syllable (хальмг = /xaʎmaɡ/).

• Ә ә = /æ/
• В в = /w/
• Һ һ = /ɣ/
• Е е = /ɛ/, /jɛ-/
• Җ җ = /dʒ/
• Ң ң = /ŋ/
• Ө ө = /œ/
• Ү ү = /y/

Northwest Caucasian languages

Living Northwest Caucasian languages are generally written using Cyrillic alphabets.

Karachay-Balkar language

http://en.wikipedia.org/Karachay-Balkar_languageKarachay-Balkar language

Abkhaz

Abkhaz is a Caucasian language, spoken in the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, Georgia.

Northeast Caucasian languages

Living Northeast Caucasian languages, as well as Northwest Caucasian languages are generally written using Cyrillic alphabets.

Avar

Avar is a Caucasian language, spoken in the Republic of Dagestan, of the Russian Federation, where it is co-official together with other Caucasian languages like Dargwa, Lak, Lezgian and Tabassaran. All these alphabets, and other ones (Abaza, Adyghe, Chechen, Ingush, Kabardian) have an extra sign: palochka (Ӏ), which gives voiceless occlusive consonants its particular ejective sound.

• В = /w/
• гъ = /ʁ/
• гь = /h/
• гI = /ʕ/
• къ = /qːʼ/
• кI = /kʼ/
• кь = /t͡ɬːʼ/
• кIкI = /t͡ɬː/, is also written ЛI лI.
• кк = /ɬ/, is also written Лъ лъ.
• тI = /tʼ/
• х = /χ/
• хъ = /qː/
• хь = /x/
• хI = /ħ/
• цI = /t͡sʼ/
• чI = /t͡ʃʼ/
• Double consonants, called "fortis", are pronounced longer than single consonants (called "lenis").

Turkic languages

Azerbaijani

The Cyrillic script was used for the Azerbaijani language from 1939 to 1991.

Bashkir

The Cyrillic script was used for the Bashkir language after the winter of 1938.

Chuvash

The Cyrillic alphabet is used for the Chuvash language since the late 19th century, with some changes in 1938.

Kazakh

Kazakh is also written with the Latin alphabet (in Turkey, but not in Kazakhstan), and modified Arabic alphabet (in the People's Republic of China, Iran and Afghanistan).

• Ә ә = /æ/
• Ғ ғ = /ʁ/ (voiced uvular fricative)
• Қ қ = /q/ (voiceless uvular plosive)
• Ң ң = /ŋ/
• Ө ө = /œ/
• У у = /uw/, /yw/, /w/
• Ұ ұ = /u/
• Ү ү = /y/
• Һ һ = /h/
• І і = /i/

The Cyrillic letters Вв, Ёё, Цц, Чч, Щщ, Ъъ, Ьь and Ээ are not used in native Kazakh words, but only for Russian loans.

Kyrgyz

Kyrgyz has also been written in Latin and in Arabic.

• Ң ң = /ŋ/ (velar nasal)
• Ү ү = /y/ (close front rounded vowel)
• Ө ө = /œ/ (open-mid front rounded vowel)

Tatar

Tatar has used Cyrillic since 1939, but the Russian Orthodox Tatar community has used Cyrillic since the 19th century. In 2000 a new Latin alphabet was adopted for Tatar, but it is used generally in the Internet.

Uzbek

The Cyrillic script is still used most often for the Uzbek language, although the government has adopted a version of the Latin alphabet to replace it. The deadline for making this transition has however been repeatedly changed. The latest deadline was supposed to be 2005, but was shifted once again a few more years. Some scholars are not convinced that the transition will be made at all.

• В в = /w/
• Ж ж = /dʒ/
• Ф ф = /ɸ/
• Х х = /χ/
• Ъ ъ = /ʔ/
• Ў ў = /ø/
• Қ қ = /q/
• Ғ ғ = /ʁ/
• Ҳ ҳ = /h/

Sino-Tibetan

Dungan language

• Letters in color orange are used only in Russian loan-words.
• Letters in color green are used only in Alexazulian loan-words

Paleosiberian languages

Cyrillic-based orthographies are in use for several of the Paleosiberian languages in Russia, including Itelmen, Koryak, Nivkh and Yukaghir.

Summary table

References

1. Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250, Cambridge Medieval Textbooks, Florin Curta, Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 0521815398, pp. 221-222.
2. The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire, Oxford History of the Christian Church, J. M. Hussey, Andrew Louth, Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN 0191614882, p. 100.
3. Senahid Halilović, Pravopis bosanskog jezika
4. Šmid (2002), pp. 113–24: "Es interesante el hecho que en Bulgaria se imprimieron unas pocas publicaciones en alfabeto cirílico búlgaro y en Grecia en alfabeto griego… Nezirović (1992: 128) anota que también en Bosnia se ha encontrado un documento en que la lengua sefardí está escrita en alfabeto cirilico." Translation: "It is an interesting fact that in Bulgaria a few publications are printed in the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet and in Greece in the Greek alphabet… Nezirović (1992:128) writes that in Bosnia a document has also been found in which the Sephardic language is written in the Cyrillic alphabet."
5. Minority languages of Russia on the Net – Paleoasian languages

See also

• List of Cyrillic letters
• Appendix:Cyrillic script

• Cyrillic alphabets