Alphabet
Russian is written using a modified version of the Cyrillic (кириллица) alphabet. The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The following table gives their upper case forms, along with IPA values for each letter's typical sound:
| А /a/ |
Б /b/ |
В /v/ |
Г /ɡ/ |
Д /d/ |
Е /je/ |
Ё /jɔ/ |
Ж /ʐ/ |
З /z/ |
И /i/ |
Й /j/ |
| К /k/ |
Л /l/ |
М /m/ |
Н /n/ |
О /ɔ/ |
П /p/ |
Р /r/ |
С /s/ |
Т /t/ |
У /u/ |
Ф /f/ |
| Х /x/ |
Ц /ts/ |
Ч /tɕ/ |
Ш /ʂ/ |
Щ /ɕɕ/ |
Ъ /-/ |
Ы /ɨ/ |
Ь /ʲ/ |
Э /ɛ/ |
Ю /ju/ |
Я /ja/ |
Older letters of the Russian alphabet include ⟨ѣ⟩, which merged to ⟨е⟩ (/je/ or /ʲe/); ⟨і⟩ and ⟨ѵ⟩, which both merged to ⟨и⟩ (/i/); ⟨ѳ⟩, which merged to ⟨ф⟩ (/f/); ⟨ѫ⟩, which merged to ⟨у⟩ (/u/); ⟨ѭ⟩, which merged to ⟨ю⟩ (/ju/ or /ʲu/); and ⟨ѧ⟩/⟨ѩ⟩, which later were graphically reshaped into <я> and merged phonetically to /ja/ or /ʲa/. While these older letters have been abandoned at one time or another, they may be used in this and related articles. The yers ⟨ъ⟩ and ⟨ь⟩ originally indicated the pronunciation of ultra-short or reduced /ŭ/, /ĭ/.
Read more about this topic: Russian Language
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—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
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“I believe the alphabet is no longer considered an essential piece of equipment for traveling through life. In my day it was the keystone to knowledge. You learned the alphabet as you learned to count to ten, as you learned “Now I lay me” and the Lord’s Prayer and your father’s and mother’s name and address and telephone number, all in case you were lost.”
—Eudora Welty (b. 1909)