The importance of writing in the development of mankind is difficult to overestimate. Back in the era when the alphabet did not exist in sight, ancient people tried to express their thoughts in the form of rock inscriptions.
Alphabet of Elizabeth Boehm
First they drew figurines of animals and humans, then various signs and hieroglyphs. Over time, people managed to create easy-to-understand letters and put them into an alphabet. Who was the creator of the alphabet of the Russian language? To whom do we owe the opportunity to express ourselves freely through writing?
Who laid the foundation of the Russian alphabet?
The history of the emergence of the Russian alphabet goes back to the 2nd millennium BC. Then the ancient Phoenicians came up with consonants and used them for a long time to draw up documents.
In the VIII century BC, their discovery was borrowed by the ancient Greeks, who significantly improved the letter by adding vowels to it. In the future, it was the Greek alphabet, with the help of which statutory (solemn) letters were compiled, that formed the basis of the Russian alphabet.
Who created the Russian alphabet?
AT bronze age in Eastern Europe Proto-Slavic peoples lived, speaking the same language. 
Primer Slavonic writings of the Greatest Teacher B. Jerome Stridon
Around the 1st century AD, they began to break up into separate tribes, as a result of which several states inhabited by Eastern Slavs were created in these territories. Among them was Great Moravia, which occupied the lands of modern Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, partly Ukraine and Poland.
With the advent of Christianity and the construction of temples, people needed to create a written language that would allow them to record church texts. To learn how to write, the Moravian prince Rostislav turned to the Byzantine emperor Michael III for help, who sent Christian preachers Cyril and Methodius to Moravia. In 863, they came up with the first Russian alphabet, which was named after one of the preachers - Cyrillic.
Who are Cyril and Methodius?
Cyril and Methodius were brothers from Thessalonica (now the Greek Thessaloniki). In those days, in their hometown, in addition to Greek, they spoke the Slavic-Thessalonica dialect, which formed the basis of the Church Slavonic language.
Initially, Cyril's name was Konstantin, and he received his second name just before his death, having taken a monastic vow. In his youth, Constantine studied with the best Byzantine teachers of philosophy, rhetoric, dialectics, and later taught at the University of Magnavra in Constantinople. 
Monument to Saints Cyril and Methodius in Saratov. The author of the photo is Zimin Vasily.
In 863, having gone to Moravia, with the help of his brother Methodius, he created. Bulgaria became the center for the dissemination of Slavic writing. In 886, the Preslav book school was opened on its territory, where they were engaged in translations from Greek and rewrote Cyrillic and Methodius originals. Around the same time, the Cyrillic alphabet came to Serbia, and at the end of the 10th century it reached Kievan Rus.
Initially, the first Russian alphabet had 43 letters. Later, 4 more were added to it, and the 14 former ones were removed as unnecessary. The first time some of the letters appearance resembled Greek, but as a result of an orthographic reform in the 17th century, they were replaced by those that we know today.
By 1917, there were 35 letters in the Russian alphabet, although in fact there were 37 of them, since Yo and Y were not considered separate. Additionally, the letters I, Ѣ (yat), Ѳ (fita) and V (zhitsa) were present in the alphabet, which later disappeared from use.
When did the modern Russian alphabet appear?
In 1917-1918, a major spelling reform was carried out in Russia, thanks to which the modern alphabet appeared. Its initiator was the Ministry of Public Education under the Provisional Government. The reform began before the revolution, but was continued after the transfer of power to the Bolsheviks. 
Wikimedia Commons / Jimmy Thomas ()
In December 1917, Russian statesman Anatoly Lunacharsky issued a decree requiring all organizations to use the new 33-letter alphabet.
Although the spelling reform was prepared before the revolution and had no political underpinnings, at first it was criticized by opponents of Bolshevism. However, over time, the modern alphabet took root and is used to this day.
In this article we will tell you about the origin of the Russian alphabet. You will find out what reforms the Russian alphabet has undergone, whether it always consisted of 33 letters.
Approximately in 863, two brothers Methodius and Cyril the Philosopher (Konstantin) from Thessaloniki (Thessalonica), by order of Michael III, the Byzantine emperor, made ordering of writing for the Slavic language. The emergence of the Cyrillic alphabet, which comes from the Greek statutory (solemn) letter, is linked to the activities carried out by the Bulgarian school of scribes (after Methodius and Cyril).
After 860, when Christianity was adopted in Bulgaria by the holy Tsar Boris, Bulgaria becomes the center from which Slavic writing began to spread. The Preslav book school was created here - the 1st book school of the Slavs, where they copied the originals of the Cyril and Methodius liturgical books (church services, the Psalter, the Gospel, the Apostle), performed new translations into Slavic from Greek, original creations written in Old Slavonic appeared (for example, “On the writings of Chrnorizets the Brave”).
Later, the Old Church Slavonic language penetrated into Serbia, and by the end of the 10th century. in Kievan Rus became the church language. Being the language of the church in Russia, the Old Slavonic language was influenced by the Old Russian language. This, in fact, was the Old Slavonic language, but only in the Russian version, since it contained living elements of the speech of the Eastern Slavs.
Thus, the progenitor of the Russian alphabet is the Old Russian Cyrillic alphabet, borrowed from the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet and spread after the baptism of Kievan Rus (988). Then, most likely, there were 43 letters in the alphabet.
Later, 4 new letters were added, and in different time as unnecessary, 14 old ones were excluded, since the corresponding sounds disappeared. The ioted yus (Ѭ, Ѩ) disappears first of all, then the big yus (Ѫ) (which returned in the 15th century, but disappeared again in early XVII c.), and E iotated (Ѥ); other letters, sometimes slightly changing their form and meaning, have remained to this day in the alphabet of the Church Slavonic language, which for a long time and mistakenly identified with the Russian alphabet.
Spelling reforms of the 2nd half of the 17th century. (associated with the “correction of books” during the time of Patriarch Nikon) the following letter set was recorded: A, B, C, D, D, E (with an excellent spelling variant of Є, which was sometimes considered a separate letter and put in the alphabet after Ѣ, i.e. . in the position of today's E), Zh, S, Z, I (for the sound [j] there was a variant Y that was different in spelling, which was not considered a separate letter), I, K, L, M, N, O (in 2 forms that differed orthographically: “wide” and “narrow”), П, Р, С, Т, У (in 2 forms, which differed orthographically: Ѹ и), Ф, Х, Ѡ (in 2 forms, which differed spelling: “wide” and “narrow”, and also as part of the ligature, which was usually considered a separate letter - “from” (Ѿ)), C, CH, W, SH, b, Y, b, Ѣ, Yu, I ( in 2 forms: Ѧ and IA, which were sometimes considered different letters, and sometimes not), Ѯ, Ѱ, Ѳ, ѳ. A large yus (Ѫ) and a letter called “ik” (similar in form to the current letter “y”) were also sometimes introduced into the alphabet, although they had no sound meaning and were not used in any words.
In this form, the Russian alphabet existed until 1708-1711, i.e., before the reforms of Tsar Peter I (Church Slavonic remains the same now). At that time, superscripts were abolished (this "abolished" the letter Y) and many doublet letters used to write different numbers were removed (with the introduction of Arabic numerals, this became irrelevant). Then a number of abolished letters were returned and canceled again.
By 1917, there were officially 35 letters in the alphabet (in fact, 37): A, B, C, D, D, E, (Yo was not considered a separate letter), Zh, Z, I, (Y was not considered a separate letter), I, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, F, X, C, H, W, W, b, S, b, Ѣ, E, Yu, I, Ѳ, ѳ. (Formally, the last letter in the Russian alphabet was listed, but in fact it was almost never used, occurring only in a few words).
The result of the last major writing reform of 1917-1918 was the emergence of the current Russian alphabet of 33 letters. It also became the written basis for most of the languages of the peoples of the USSR, which until the twentieth century. there was no writing or it in the years Soviet power changed to Cyrillic.
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The alphabet is the key to knowledge. Studying the alphabet, we take the first and most step towards a systematic acquaintance with science and culture, we get an indispensable tool for acquiring new knowledge.
It is believed that the first alphabetic alphabet appeared in the 13th century BC. BC, when the Phoenicians made a decisive transition from signs denoting words to signs denoting sounds. Almost all existing alphabets are descendants of the Phoenician, or Canaanite script. In the Phoenician alphabet, letters denoted only consonants, and there were enough of them. However, in modern Russian, the vast majority of texts will remain understandable if they are written only in consonants.
The history of the Russian alphabet can be traced quite clearly. It comes from the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet, which Cyril and Methodius gradually adapted first to the Old Slavonic language, and then to Old Russian. The Russian alphabet developed like a living organism - new letters appeared, some rarely used or completely unnecessary disappeared. The current version of the Russian alphabet can be dated to 1942. Then the use of the letter "ё" became mandatory, respectively, there were 33 letters in the alphabet.
Here are some fun facts about the Russian alphabet:
1. There were 49 letters in Cyrillic. Gradually, their number decreased to 32, and then again slightly grew due to the “ё”.
2. Most often in Russian the letter "o" is used. The rarest letter in Russian writing is a solid sign.
3. The letter "o" is 2,000 years older than the entire alphabet. In the word "defense" it is used 8 times.
4. The letter “y” occupies a rather high 23rd place out of 33 in terms of frequency of use, but at the same time only 74 words begin with it.
5. There are no words in Russian that begin with soft and hard signs and “s”.
6. The letter "f" is found exclusively in words of foreign origin.
7. Peter I, reforming the spelling, removed the letters “xi”, “omega” and “psi” from the alphabet. The emperor wanted to remove four more letters and all superscripts, but the resistance of the priests was so strong that even the frantic Peter was forced to retreat. Lomonosov later called the reform of Peter I a change of letters from winter coats into summer clothes.
8. The letter “ё” was invented back in 1783, but finally included in the alphabet only after a century and a half. The surname of the hero of Anna Karenina was Levin. The printing workers renamed him Levin. However, later Andrei Bely and Maria Tsvetaeva did not use this letter as a matter of principle. It was made optional again in 1956. On the Russian Internet, heated debates about "ё" did not subside until 2010.
9. A solid sign is still not the easiest letter to use, but before the reform of 1918, its predecessor, called "er", was the cornerstone of literacy. It had to be placed according to special rules at the end of words (but not all) ending in a consonant. There were more than 50 "ers" on almost any book page. All the "eras" written out of "War and Peace" would take 70 pages.
10. During the reform of 1918, the last two letters were removed from the alphabet, and “I” became the last one. In certain circles, the reform was interpreted as follows: "The Bolsheviks put human individuality in last place."
11. The removal of the letter “chrism” from the alphabet was interpreted accordingly – the new government refuses to chrismate the Orthodox.
12. The Cyrillic alphabet was based on the Greek alphabet, so the arrangement of letters in the Russian and Greek alphabets is very similar. With letters denoting sounds that are not in Greek, Cyril and Methodius acted simply and logically - they placed them before the most similar Greek ones (“b” before “c”, “g” before “z”), or put them at the end of the list .
13. With the exception of a few units, all words starting with "a" are borrowed. For example, "alphabet". But the word "alphabet" is primordially Russian.
14. Famous writer Already in the 1970s, Alexander Solzhenitsyn proposed returning “yat” and “er” to the Russian alphabet.
15. The letter "e" appeared in the alphabet after borrowing foreign words with the corresponding sound. Prior to this, there was no need for it. And even now, in many words, especially at the end, it is replaced by “e”, for example, “pince-nez”.
Such sensational discovery made Volgograd scientist Nikolai Taranov.
The author of the book “Runes of the Slavs and the Glagolitic”, Volgograd scientist Nikolai Taranov is sure that the first alphabet on Earth appeared with us.
Director of the Volgograd Institute art education Taranov is the owner of many titles: doctor of pedagogical sciences, calligrapher, professor, candidate of art history, member of the Union of Artists of Russia. And besides, he is still studying symbols. In doing so, just like in Dan Brown's acclaimed novel, our "Professor Robert Langdon" is on the trail of a medieval church conspiracy and a surprising discovery.
Was the Slavic alphabet invented long before Cyril?
Who invented the Slavic alphabet? Ask any schoolboy - he will answer: Cyril and Methodius. For this merit, the Orthodox Church calls the monk brothers Equal-to-the-Apostles. But what kind of alphabet did Cyril come up with - Cyrillic or Glagolitic? (Methodius, it is known and proven, supported his brother in everything, but the “brain of the operation” and an educated person who knew many languages was precisely the monk Kirill). About this in scientific world there are still disputes. Some Slavic researchers say: “Cyrillic! It is named after the creator. Others object: “Glagolitsa! The first letter of this alphabet looks like a cross. Cyril is a monk. It's a sign". As an axiom, it is stated that before the work of Cyril, there was no written language in Russia. Volgograd scientist Nikolai Taranov categorically disagrees with this.
- The statement that there was no writing in Russia before Cyril and Methodius is based on one single document - "The Tale of the Letters" of the Chernorite Khrabr, found in Bulgaria, - says Nikolai Taranov. – There are 73 lists from this scroll. At the same time, different copies, due to translation errors or scribal errors, have completely different versions of the key phrase for us. In one version we find: "the Slavs before Cyril did not have books", in the other - "letters", but the author points out: "they wrote with features and cuts." It is interesting that Arab travelers who visited Russia back in the 8th century, that is, even before Rurik and even more so before Cyril, described the funeral of one Russian prince: “After the funeral, his soldiers wrote something on a white tree (birch) in honor of the prince, and then, having mounted their horses, they departed. And in the "Life of Cyril", a famous Russian Orthodox Church, we read: "In the city of Korsun, Kirill met a Rusyn (Russian), who had with him books written in Russian letters." Then Cyril, whose mother was a Slav, took out some of his letters from the bag and with their help began to read those same Rusyn books. And these were not thin books. These were, as stated in the same "Life of Cyril", translated into Russian "Psalter" and "Gospel". There is a lot of evidence that Russia had its own alphabet long before Cyril. And Lomonosov spoke about the same thing. He cited as evidence the testimony of Pope VIII, a contemporary of Cyril, which states that Cyril did not invent these letters, but rediscovered them.
Then a legitimate question: why did Cyril create the Russian alphabet, if it already existed? Then, that the monk Cyril had a task from the Moravian prince - to create for the Slavs an alphabet suitable for translating church books. Which he did. The letters in which church books are now written, and in a modified form - all of our today's print media, textbooks and fiction, this is the work of Cyril, that is, "Cyrillic". 
WHY DESTROYED THE GLAGOLITCH?
“There are 22 points that prove that the Glagolitic was older than the Cyrillic,” says Nikolai Taranov.
"Palimpsest" - there is such a concept among archaeologists and philologists. This is the name of an inscription made on top of another inscription scraped out with a knife or destroyed in another way. In the Middle Ages, parchment made from the skin of a young lamb was quite expensive, and in order to save money, scribes often destroyed "unnecessary" records and documents, and wrote something new on the scraped sheet. Everywhere in Russian palimpsests, the Glagolitic alphabet is erased, and on top of it there are inscriptions in Cyrillic. There are no exceptions to this rule.
- There are only five monuments written in the Glagolitic alphabet left in the world. The rest were destroyed. Moreover, in my opinion, the records in Glagolitic were destroyed on purpose, - says Professor Nikolai Taranov. - Because the Glagolitic alphabet was not suitable for writing church books. The numerical value of the letters (and then the belief in numerology was very strong) in it was different than what was required in Christianity. Out of respect for the Glagolitic alphabet, Cyril left in his alphabet the same names of the letters as they were. And they are very, very difficult for an alphabet "born" in the 9th century, as claimed. Even then, all languages were striving for simplification; letters in all alphabets of that time denote only sounds. And only in Slavic alphabet such names of letters: "Good", "People", "Think", "Earth" and so on. And all because the Glagolitic is very ancient. It has many signs of pictographic writing.
For reference: pictographic writing is a type of writing, the signs of which (pictograms) designate the object depicted by them. The latest finds of archaeologists speak in favor of this version. So, tablets with Slavic writing (the so-called Tertian writing) were found, the age of which dates back to 5000 BC.
This discovery about the antiquity of our primordial alphabet is of great importance for the entire Slavic world, - Volgograd scientist Nikolai Taranov is sure. – So the professor of the Kiev Academy of Arts, calligrapher Vasily Chabanyk, after listening to my theory, became very interested and suggested that I give lectures in Kyiv. After all, whatever you say, but the alphabet of our peoples is one and ancient history- too. But, unfortunately, due to the current political events in Kyiv, I cannot go there.
Professor Semchenko from the Minsk Academy of Arts is also very interested and supports this version. I spoke about this at two International Exhibitions of Calligraphy. And even foreign scientists, the French and the British, who, it would seem, are far from the history of the Slavic world and its writing, after listening to a lecture through an interpreter, came up to me and shook my hand. They said, "That's amazing, we've never heard anything like it."
Probably, the world will still talk about the discovery of Professor Taranov. This version, about the antiquity of the Slavic alphabet, was also seriously interested in the chairman of the Russian Union of Calligraphers Petr Chibitko. And the other day, an open lecture by Nikolai Taranov about the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabet, about the sacred meaning of the symbols of the oldest alphabet on Earth, appeared on Youtube.
NUMEROLOGY OF THE GLAGOLIC
Each sign in the Glagolitic has a sacred meaning and denotes a certain number.
The sign "Az" is a person, number 1.
The sign “I know” is the number 2, the sign looks like eyes and a nose: “I see, so I know.”
The sign "Live" is the number 7, the life and reality of this world.
The sign "Zelo" is the number 8, the reality of a miracle and something supernatural: "too", "very" or "very".
The sign "Good" is the number 5, the only number that gives birth to its own kind or a decade: "Good begets good."
The sign "People" - the number 50, according to numerology - the world from where human souls come to us.
The sign "Our" - the number 70, symbolizes the connection between the heavenly and the earthly, i.e. our world, given to us in sensations.
The sign "Omega" - the number 700, a certain divine world, "Seventh Heaven". At the same time, the Omega sign, the Volgograd scientist believes, resembles a star with prominences in an older style, and in a later, stylized one, a horseshoe. Since among the ancient Slavs the star, now known as Omega, was called the Horseshoe and was considered a guiding one.
The sign "Earth" - according to Taranov, means a picture: the Earth and the Moon are in the same orbit.
"Only a genius could create the Glagolitic"!
All modern alphabets in Europe are descended from the alphabet of the Phoenicians. In it, the letter A, we were told, stands for the head of a bull, which then turned upside down.
- And the ancient Greek historian Photius of Sicily wrote: “These letters are called Phoenician, although it is more correct to call them Pelasgic, since they were used by the Pelasgians,” says Nikolai Taranov. “Do you know who the Pelasgians are?” These are the ancestors of the Slavs, the Proto-Slavic tribes. The Phoenicians stood out among the surrounding swarthy black-haired tribes of farmers, Egyptians and Sumerians, with fair skin and red hair. Yes, even with their passion for travel: they were excellent sailors.
In the XII century BC, the Pelasgians participated in the Great Migration of Peoples, and some of their groups of desperate conquerors of new lands wandered to the ends of the world. This allows the Volgograd professor to put forward a version: the Phoenicians were familiar with the Slavs and borrowed the alphabet from them. Why else next door to Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Sumerian cuneiform alphabet suddenly formed?
They say that the Glagolitic was too decorative, complex, so it was gradually replaced by a more rational Cyrillic. I wrote down the epithets that were “awarded” to the Glagolitic: “ugly”, “uncomfortable”, etc. But the Glagolitic was not so bad at all, Professor Taranov is sure. - I studied the earliest versions: the first letter of the Glagolitic alphabet does not mean a cross at all, but a person. That is why it is called "Az" - I. Each person for himself is a starting point. I would say: this is the most human alphabet on Earth. The whole meaning of the letters in the Glagolitic is through the prism of human perception.
I drew the first letter of this alphabet on transparent film. Look, if you superimpose it on other letters of the Glagolitic, you get a pictogram! Not every designer will come up with such a way that each grapheme falls into the grid. I am telling you this as an expert. I am amazed at the artistic integrity of this alphabet. The unknown author of the Glagolitic was a genius! There is no such clear connection between the symbol and its digital and sacred meaning in any other alphabet of the world!
If possible, it means the softness of consonants, being after them, and the sound [o]; in all other cases - sounds like .
In primordially Russian words (in addition to words with prefixes three- and four-) it is always under stress. Cases of unstressed use are rare, mainly borrowed words - for example, Königsberg surfers, compound words - loess-like or words with prefixes of three- and four- - for example, four-part. Here the letter is phonetically equivalent to the unstressed "e", "i", "i" or has a secondary accent, but may also reflect the characteristic features of writing in the source language.
In the Russian language (i.e., in Russian writing), the letter “e” stands, first of all, where the sound [(j)o] came from [(j)e], this explains the form derived from “e” letters (borrowed from Western scripts). In Russian writing, unlike Belarusian, according to the rules for using the letter, putting dots above the “ё” is optional.
In other Slavic Cyrillic alphabets, there is no letter "ё". To designate the corresponding sounds in Ukrainian and Bulgarian after consonants they write "yo" and in other cases - "yo". The Serbian script (and the Macedonian script based on it) does not have special letters at all for iotized vowels and / or softening the preceding consonant, since they use different consonants, not different vowels, to distinguish between hard and soft consonant syllables, and iot is always written a separate letter.
In the Church and Old Slavonic alphabets there is no letter equivalent to "ё", since there are no such combinations of sounds; Russian "yokane" is a common mistake when reading Church Slavonic texts.
Superscript element and its name
There is no generally accepted official term for the extended element in the letter “e”. In traditional linguistics and pedagogy, the word "colon" was used, but most often in a hundred recent years used a less formal expression - "two dots", or generally tried to avoid mentioning this element separately.
It is considered incorrect to use foreign language terms (dialytics, diaeresis, trema or umlaut) in this situation, since they refer to diacritical marks and denote, first of all, a specific phonetic function.
Historical aspects
Introduction Yo into use
For a long time, the sound combination (and after the soft consonants - [o]), which appeared in Russian pronunciation, was not expressed in any way in writing. With mid-eighteenth in. for them, a designation was introduced by means of the letters IO, located under a common lid. But, such a designation was cumbersome and was rarely used. Variants were used: signs o, iô, io, io, ió.
In 1783, instead of the available options, the letter “e” was proposed, borrowing from French, where it has a different meaning. However, for the first time in print it was used only 12 years later (in 1795). The influence of the Swedish alphabet was also assumed.
In 1783, on November 29 (according to the old style - November 18) at the home of the head of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Princess Dashkova E. R. - one of the 1st meetings of the newly formed Russian Academy was held, where Fonvizin D. I., Knyaznin were present Ya. B., Derzhavin G. R., Lepekhin I. I., Metropolitan Gabriel and others. Discussed the draft of the full version explanatory dictionary(Slavic-Russian), later - the famous 6-volume Dictionary of the Russian Academy.
The academicians were already about to go home, as E.R. Dashkova asked if any of them could write the word "Yolka". Pundits thought that the princess was joking, but she wrote the word “olka” pronounced by her and asked the question: “Is it right to represent one sound with two letters?” She also noted: “These reprimands have already been introduced by custom, which, when it does not contradict common sense, must be followed in every possible way.” Ekaterina Dashkova proposed to use the “newborn” letter “ё” “to express words and pronunciations, with this consent beginning as matіory, іolka, іozh, іol”.
She turned out to be convincing in her arguments, and they offered to evaluate the rationality of introducing a new letter to Gabriel, Metropolitan of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, who is a member of the Academy of Sciences. So, in 1784, on November 18, the official recognition of the letter "e" took place.
The innovative idea of the princess was supported by a number of leading cultural figures of that period, incl. and Derzhavin, who was the first to use "ё" for personal correspondence. And the first printed edition, where the appearance of the letter “e” was noticed, in 1795 was the book “And my trinkets” by I. Dmitriev, published by the Moscow University printing house of H. A. Claudia and H. Ridiger (in this printing house since 1788 printed the newspaper Moskovskie Vedomosti, and it was located on the site of the current building of the Central Telegraph).
The first word imprinted with the letter “e” became “everything”, then “cornflower”, “stump”, “light”, “immortal”. For the first time, a surname with this letter (“Potemkin”) was printed by G. R. Derzhavin in 1798.
The letter “e” gained fame thanks to N. M. Karamzin, therefore, until recently, he was considered its author, until the story outlined above was widely publicized. In 1796, in the 1st book of the almanac of poems "Aonides", published by Karamzin, who left the same printing house of the university, with the letter "e" the words were printed: "dawn", "moth", "eagle", "tears ", and the 1st verb -" drip ".
It's just not clear whether it was a personal idea of Karamzin or the initiative of some employee of the publishing house. It should be noted that Karamzin in scientific papers(for example, in the famous "History of the Russian State" (1816 - 1829)) did not use the letter "e".
Distribution issues
Although the letter "ё" was proposed to be introduced in 1783, and was used in print in 1795, for a long time it was not considered a separate letter and it was not officially introduced into the alphabet. This is very typical for newly introduced letters: the status of the symbol “y” was the same, it (compared to “ё”) became mandatory for use as early as 1735. that both of these letters "should also take place in the alphabet", but for a long time this remained only a good wish.
In the XVIII-XIX centuries. An obstacle to the spread of the letter “ё” was the then attitude to such a “yoking” pronunciation, as to a philistine speech, the dialect of “vile mob”, while the “yoking” “church” reprimand was considered more noble, intelligent and cultured (with “yokan ”fought, for example, V.K. Trediakovsky and A.P. Sumarokov).
December 23, 1917 (01/05/1918) a decree was published (without a date) signed by the Soviet People's Commissar of Education A.V. Lunacharsky, which introduced a reformed spelling as a mandatory one, it says, among other things: “To recognize as desirable, but optional, the use of the letter “ё” ".
Thus, the letters "ё" and "й" formally entered the alphabet (having received serial numbers) only in Soviet times(if you do not take into account the "New alphabet" (1875) by Leo Tolstoy, where there was a letter "e" between "e" and yat, in 31st place).
On 12/24/1942, the use of the letter “ё” by order of the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR was introduced into compulsory school practice, and since then (sometimes, however, they remember 1943 and even 1956, when the spelling normative rules were first published) it is considered officially included in the Russian alphabet .
For the next 10 years, non-fiction and non-fiction were published with the letter "ё" almost entirely, and then publishers returned to the old practice of using the letter only when absolutely necessary.
There is a legend that Joseph Stalin influenced the popularization of the letter "e". It says that in 1942 on December 6, I.V. An order was brought to Stalin for signature, where the names of a number of generals were printed not with the letter “e”, but with “e”. Stalin was angry, and the next day all the articles of the Pravda newspaper came out, all of a sudden, with the letter “ё”.
On July 9, 2007, the Minister of Culture of Russia A.S. Sokolov, giving an interview to the Mayak radio station, expressed his opinion on the need for writing use the letter "e".
Basic rules for the use of the letter "ё" / Legislative acts
On December 24, 1942, the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR V.P. Potemkin, by order No. 1825, introduced the letter "Yo, e" into the mandatory practice of use. Shortly before the order was issued, an incident occurred when Stalin was rude to the manager of the Council of People's Commissars, Y. Chadayev, because on December 6 (or 5), 1942, he brought a decree for his signature, where the names of a number of generals were printed without the letter "e".
Chadayev informed the editor of Pravda that the leader wanted to see "e" in print as well. Thus, already on December 7, 1942, the issue of the newspaper suddenly appeared with this letter in all articles.
Federal Law No. 53-FZ “On the State Language Russian Federation» of 06/01/2005 in part 3 of Art. 1 states that when using the Russian modern literary language as the state language, the Government of the Russian Federation determines the procedure for approving the rules and norms of Russian punctuation and spelling.
Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation "On the procedure for approving the norms of the modern Russian literary language when it is used as the state language of the Russian Federation, the rules of Russian spelling and punctuation" dated November 23, 2006 No. 714 establishes that, based on the recommendations given by the Interdepartmental Commission on the Russian Language, the list reference books, grammars and dictionaries, which contain the norms of the Russian modern literary language, when it is used in the Russian Federation as the state language, as well as the rules of Russian punctuation and spelling, is approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.
Letter No. AF-159/03 dated 03.05.2007 “On Decisions of the Interdepartmental Commission on the Russian Language” of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation prescribes to write the letter “ё” if it is possible to misread words, for example, in proper names, since in In this case, ignoring the letter “ё” violates the requirements of the Federal Law “On the state language of the Russian Federation”.
According to the current rules of Russian punctuation and spelling, in texts with ordinary printing, the letter e is used selectively. But, at the request of the editor or author, any book can be printed using the letter ё in sequence.
"Yo" sound
The letter "yo" is used:
To convey the stressed vowel [o] and at the same time indicate the softness of the previous consonant: youth, comb, crawl, oats, lying, during the day, honey, dog, everything, wandered, Fedor, aunt (after r, k, x this applies only to borrowings : Höglund, Goethe, liquor, Cologne, the only exception is actually Russian word weave, weave, weave, weave with derivatives, and formed in Russian from the borrowed word alarmist);
To convey the shock [o] after the hissing: silk, burn, click, damn (in this position, the choice between writing through “o” or through “e” is set by a rather complex system of lists of exception words and rules);
To transmit a combination of [j] and percussive sound [o]:
At the beginning of words: container, hedgehog, tree;
After consonants (a separating sign is used): volume, viet, linen.
After the letters of the vowels: her, loan, striker, point, spit, forge;
In primordially Russian words, only the stressed sound “ё” is possible (even if the stress is secondary: loess-like, four-story, three-seater,); in the event that during word formation or inflection the stress shifts to another syllable, then “e” will be replaced by “e” (takes - chooses, honey - honey - on honey, about nothing - nothing (but: about nothing )).
Along with the letter "ё" in borrowings, the same sound value can be conveyed after consonants - combinations of ё and in other cases - yo. Also in borrowings, "yo" can be an unstressed vowel.
Yo and E
In § 10 of the “Rules of Russian Spelling and Punctuation” officially in force since 1956, the cases are defined when “ё” is used in writing:
"one. When it is necessary to prevent incorrect reading and understanding of a word, for example: we learn in contrast to we learn; everything is different from everything; bucket as opposed to a bucket; perfect (participle) as opposed to perfect (adjective), etc.
2. When it is necessary to indicate the pronunciation of a little-known word, for example: the Olekma river.
3. In special texts: primers, school textbooks Russian language, orthoepy textbooks, etc., as well as in dictionaries to indicate the place of stress and correct pronunciation
Note. In foreign words, at the beginning of words and after vowels, instead of the letter ё, yo is written, for example; iodine, district, major.
These issues are regulated in more detail by § 5 of the new edition of these rules (published in 2006 and approved by the Spelling Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences):
“The use of the letter ё can be consistent and selective.
Consistent use of the letter ё is mandatory in the following varieties of printed texts:
a) in texts with successive accent marks;
b) in books addressed to young children;
c) in educational texts for elementary school students and foreigners studying Russian.
Note 1. The consistent use of ё is accepted for the illustrative part of these rules.
Note 3. In dictionaries, words with the letter e are placed in the general alphabet with the letter e, for example: barely, unctuous, fir-tree, fir-tree, crawl, fir-tree, fir-tree, fir-tree; to cheer up, to cheer up, to have fun, to have fun, to have fun.
In ordinary printed texts, the letter ё is used selectively. It is recommended to use it in the following cases.
1. To prevent misidentification of a word, e.g.: everything, sky, summer, perfect (unlike the words everything, sky, summer, perfect, respectively), including to indicate the place of stress in a word, e.g.: bucket, recognize (unlike a bucket, we learn).
2. To indicate the correct pronunciation of a word - either rare, not well known, or having a common mispronunciation, e.g.: gyozy, surfing, fleur, harder, slit, including to indicate the correct stress, e.g.: fable, brought, carried away, condemned, newborn, filer.
3. In proper names - surnames, geographical names, for example: Konenkov, Neyolova, Catherine Deneuve, Schrödinger, Dezhnev, Koshelev, Chebyshev, Vyoshenskaya, Olekma.
"Yo", "yo" and "yo" in loanwords and the transfer of foreign proper names
The letter "ё" is often used to convey the sounds [ø] and [œ] (for example, denoted by the letter "ö") in foreign names and words.
In borrowing words, to record a combination of phonemes such as /jo/, the letter combinations “yo” or “yo” are usually used:
After consonants, simultaneously softening them (“broth”, “battalion”, “minion”, “guillotine”, “senior”, “champignon”, “pavilion”, “fjord”, “companion”, etc.) - in Romance languages usually in places after the palatalized [n] and [l] it is written "ё".
At the beginning of words (“iota”, “iodine”, “yogurt”, “yoga”, “York”, etc.) or after vowels (“district”, “coyote”, “meiosis”, “major”, etc.) spelled "yo";
However, in recent decades, “ё” has been increasingly used in these cases. It has already become a normative element in the systems of transferring names and names (transliteration) from a number of Asian languages (for example, the Kontsevich system for the Korean language and the Polivanov system for the Japanese language): Yoshihito, Shogun, Kim Yongnam.
In European borrowings, the sound is transmitted by the letter "ё" very rarely; it is most often found in words from the languages of Scandinavia (Jörmungandr, Jotun), but, as a rule, exists along with the usual transmission through "yo" (for example, Jormungandr) and is often considered profanity.
“Yo” in borrowed words is often unstressed and in this position its pronunciation is indistinguishable from the letters “I”, “and” or “e” (Erdös, shogunate, etc.), i.e., its original clarity is lost and it turns, at times, into just an indication of a certain pronunciation in the source language.
Consequences of the optional use of the letter "ё"
The slowness of the entry of the letter "ё" into the practice of writing (which, by the way, did not take place until the end) is explained by its inconvenient form for cursive writing, which contradicts its main principle - the fusion (without lifting the pen from the sheet of paper) of the style, as well as the technical difficulties of the technologies pre-computer publishing houses.
In addition, people with surnames that have the letter “ё” often have difficulties, sometimes insurmountable, during the execution of various documents, as some employees are irresponsible about writing this letter. This problem became especially acute after the introduction USE systems when there is a danger of a difference in the spelling of the name in the passport and in the Certificate of the results of passing the exam.
The habitual optionality of use led to a misreading of a number of words, which gradually became generally accepted. This process affected everything: both a huge number of personal names and numerous common nouns.
Stable ambiguity is caused by words written without the letter e, such as: piece of iron, everything, flax, take a break, blowjob (flies by without hitting it), perfect, planted, in the summer, we recognize, palate, tapeworm, recognized, etc. is increasingly being used erroneous pronunciation (without ё) and shifting of stresses in the words beetroot, newborn, etc.
"e" becomes "yo"
The ambiguity contributed to the fact that sometimes the letter “ё” began to be used in writing (and, of course, read [`o]) in those words where it should not be. For example, instead of the word "grenadier" - "grenadier", and instead of the word "scam" - "scam", also instead of the word "guardianship" - "guardianship", and instead of the word "being" - "being", etc. Sometimes such incorrect pronunciation and spelling becomes common.
So, the famous chess player Alexander Alekhin, the world champion, was, in fact, Alekhin and was very indignant if his name was pronounced and written incorrectly. His surname belongs to the noble family of the Alekhins and is not a derivative of the familiar variant "Alyokha" on behalf of Alexei.
In those positions where it is necessary to be not e, but e, it is recommended to put stress in order to prevent incorrect recognition of words (everything, takes) or erroneous pronunciation (grenadier, scam, Krez, stout, Olesha).
Because of the spelling of words without ё in the 20-30s. 20th century there were many errors in the pronunciation of those words that people learned from newspapers and books, and not from colloquial speech: musketeer, youth, driver (these words said “e” instead of “e”).
Orthoepy: the emergence of new variants
Due to the optional use of the letter "e", words appeared in Russian that allow the possibility of writing both with the letter "e" and with "e", and the corresponding pronunciation. For example, faded and faded, maneuver and maneuver, whitish and whitish, bile and bile, etc.
Constantly similar options appear in the language due to the action of contradictory analogies. For example, the word cut has pronunciations with ё / e due to the double motivation: cut / cut. The use or non-use of the letter "ё" does not play a role here. But, developing naturally, the literary language, as a rule, tends to get rid of the options: either one of them will become unliterary, incorrect (holo[l`o] ditsa, from [d`e] vka), or pronunciation variants will acquire different meanings (is[ t`o] kshiy - is [t`e] kshiy).
It is predominantly pronounced not “glider”, but “glider” (stressed 1st syllable), since the following tendencies are present in Russian: in the names of mechanisms, machines, various devices, it is preferable to stress on the 1st syllable, or more precisely, on the penultimate , i.e., glider, trier, glider, tanker, and on the last - when indicated actor: combine operator, driver, janitor.
The inconsistency in the use of the letter "ё" is more artificial than natural. And it helps to slow down the natural development of the language, giving rise to and maintaining pronunciation variants that are not due to intralinguistic reasons.
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