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.
Upright | Italic/Cursive | Name | Sound |
---|---|---|---|
А а | А а | A | /a/ |
Б б | Б б | Be | /b/ |
В в | В в | Ve | /v/ |
Г г | Г г | Ge | /ɡ/ |
Д д | Д д | De | /d/ |
Е е | Е е | Ye | /je/, /ʲe/ |
Ж ж | Ж ж | Zhe | /ʒ/ |
З з | З з | Ze | /z/ |
И и | И и | I | /i/, /ʲi/ |
Й й | Й й | Short I (Russian: I kratkoye) | /j/ |
К к | К к | Ka | /k/ |
Л л | Л л | El | /l/ |
М м | М м | Em | /m/ |
Н н | Н н | En | /n/ |
О о | О о | O | /o/ |
П п | П п | Pe | /p/ |
Р р | Р р | Er | /r/ |
С с | С с | Es | /s/ |
Т т | Т т | Te | /t/ |
У у | У у | U | /u/ |
Ф ф | Ф ф | Ef | /f/ |
Х х | Х х | Kha | /x/ |
Ц ц | Ц ц | Tse | /ts/ |
Ч ч | Ч ч | Che | /tʃ/ |
Ш ш | Ш ш | Sha | /ʃ/ |
Щ щ | Щ щ | Shcha, Shta | /ʃtʃ/, /ɕː/, /ʃt/ |
Ь ь | Ь ь | Soft sign (Russian: myagkiy znak) or Small yer (Bulgarian: er malak) |
/ʲ/ |
Ю ю | Ю ю | Yu | /ju/, /ʲu/ |
Я я | Я я | Ya | /ja/, /ʲa/ |
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 ).
Read more about this topic: Cyrillic Alphabets
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