Alphabet numbered letters. The number of letters in the alphabets of different nations

It is not always possible to find even the most simple things, with regards to the numbering of the alphabet the same thing.

You can see the serial numbers of letters in the table below, correct order and sequence number matching.

The letter A comes first.

The letter B is in second place.

The letter B is in third place.

The letter G is in fourth place.

The letter D is in fifth place.

The letter E is in sixth place.

The letter is in seventh place.

The letter Z is in eighth place.

The letter Z is in ninth place.

The letter I is in tenth place.

The letter Y is in eleventh place.

The letter K is in twelfth place.

The letter L is in thirteenth place.

The letter M is in fourteenth place.

The letter N is in fifteenth place.

The letter O is in sixteenth place.

The letter P is in seventeenth place.

The letter R is in eighteenth place.

The letter C is in nineteenth place.

The letter T is in twentieth place.

The letter U is in twenty-first place.

The letter F is in twenty-second place.

The letter X is in twenty-third place.

The letter C is in twenty-fourth place.

The letter H is in twenty-fifth place.

The letter Ш is in twenty-sixth place.

The letter Ш is in twenty-seventh place.

The letter Ъ is in twenty-eighth place.

The letter Y is in twenty-ninth place.

The letter b is in the thirtieth place.

The letter E is in thirty-first place.

The letter U is in thirty-second place.

The letter I is in thirty-third place.

There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet. Probably everyone knows this. And the serial number of a letter can be useful to solve some riddle, charade, or read an encrypted letter.

Serial number of letters in the Russian alphabet.

• A - number 1 ,
• B - number 2 ,
• B - number 3 ,
• G - number 4 ,
• D - number 5 ,
• E - number 6 ,
• - 7 (some people forget that e and are still different letters, they should not be confused),
• F - 8,
• Z - 9,
• I - 10,
• J - 11,
• K - 12,
• L - 13,
• M - 14,
• N - 15,
• O - 16,
• P - 17,
• R - 18,
• S - 19,
• T - 20,
• U - 21,
• F - 22,
• X - 23,
• C - 24,
• H - 25,
• Ш - 26,
• Shch - 27,
• Ъ (hard sign) - 28,
• Y - 29,
• b ( soft sign) - 30,
• E - 31,
• Yu - 32,
• I'm 33.

Russian alphabet in reverse order looks like this (first comes the serial number, and after the number the letter itself)

• 33 - A,
• 32 - B,
• 31 -B,
• 30 - G,
• 29 - D,
• 2 - E,
• 27 - ,
• 26 -F,
• 25 - W,
• 24 - And,
• 23 - J,
• 22 - K,
• 21 - L,
• 20 - M,
• 19 - N,
• 18 - Oh,
• 17 - P,
• 16 - R,
• 15 - C,
• 14 - T,
• 13 - U,
• 12 - F,
• 11 - X,
• 10 - C,
• 9 - H,
• 8 - Ш,
• 7 -SH,
• 6 - b,
• 5 - Y,
• 4 - b,
• 3 - E,
• 2 - Yu,
• 1 -I.

The letter A has a serial number of 1

B-serial number-2

B-serial number-3

The letter E has number 6

The letter has serial number 7

F-number 8

Letter Z-number 9

And - has serial number 10

E friend J- number 11

K-12 in a row

Letter L-13

We count the letter H as 15 in a row.

16 is the letter O

Ъ-28 letter of the alphabet

A a a ordinal digit 1

B b b e serial digit 2

In in ve ordinal digit 3

G g ge ordinal digit 4

D d de serial digit 5

E e ordinal digit 6

serial digit 7

Zh zhe serial number 8

Z z z e ordinal digit 9

And and and ordinal number 10

th and short ordinal number 11

K k ka (not ke) serial number 12

L l el (or el, not le) serial number 13

M m em (not me) ordinal number 14

N n en (not ne) ordinal number 15

O o o ordinal number 16

P p pe ordinal number 17

R r er (not re) ordinal number 18

C s es (not se) ordinal number 19

T t te ordinal number 20

Y y y ordinal number 21

F f ef (not fe) ordinal number 22

X x ha (not he) ordinal number 23

Ts ts tse ordinal number 24

H h h ordinal number 25

Sh sh sha (not she) serial number 26

Shch shcha (not yet) serial number 27

ъ ъ hard sign ordinal number 28

Y y y ordinal number 29

b ь soft sign ordinal number 30

Uh uh (uh reverse) serial number 31

Yu Yu Yu serial number 32

I I I serial number 33

It is useful to know the serial numbers of letters of the Russian alphabet, it is good to know the reverse numbering of letters, and sometimes you need to know the numbering of pairs of letters equally distant from the ends of the alphabet. This knowledge can help in solving various kinds of logical problems.

So, the Russian alphabet is numbered in order:

Alphabet in reverse order:

Pairs of letters equally distant from the ends of the alphabet:

fourth

The letter dd will be 5

The letter Her will be 6

The letter will be 7

The eighth, ninth and tenth are the letters Zh, Z, I

Eleventh letter

Twelfth letter

Hello, dear guys! Greetings, dear adults! You are reading these lines, which means that someone once made sure that you and I could exchange information using writing.

Drawing rock carvings, trying to tell something, our ancestors many centuries ago could not even imagine that very soon the 33 letters of the Russian alphabet would form words, express our thoughts on paper, help us read books written in Russian and allow us to leave our mark on history of folk culture.

Where did they all come to us from A to Z, who invented the Russian alphabet, and how did the letter originate? The information in this article may be useful for research work in 2nd or 3rd grade, so welcome to study in detail!

Lesson plan:

What is the alphabet and where did it all begin?

The word familiar to us from childhood came from Greece, and it is composed of two Greek letters - alpha and beta.

In general, the ancient Greeks left a huge mark on history, and they could not do without them here. They made a lot of efforts to spread writing throughout Europe.

However, many scientists still argue who would have been the first, and in what year it was. It is believed that the Phoenicians were the first to use consonant letters back in the 2nd millennium BC, and only then did the Greeks borrow their alphabet and add vowels there. This was already in the 8th century BC.

This Greek writing became the basis of the alphabet for many peoples, including us, the Slavs. And among the most ancient are the Chinese and Egyptian alphabets, which appeared from the transformation of rock paintings into hieroglyphs and graphic symbols.

But what about our Slavic alphabet? After all, we don’t write in Greek today! The thing is that Ancient Rus' sought to strengthen economic and cultural ties with other countries, and for this a letter was needed. Moreover, the first church books began to be brought to the Russian state, since Christianity came from Europe.

It was necessary to find a way to convey to all Russian Slavs what Orthodoxy is, to create our own alphabet, to translate church works into readable language. The Cyrillic alphabet became such an alphabet, and it was created by the brothers, popularly called “Thessalonica”.

Who are the Thessaloniki brothers and why are they famous?

These people are called this way not because they have a surname or a given name.

Two brothers Cyril and Methodius lived in a military family in a large Byzantine province with the capital in the city of Thessaloniki, from which the name of their small homeland came the nickname.

The population in the city was mixed - half Greeks and half Slavs. And the brothers’ parents were of different nationalities: their mother was Greek, and their father was from Bulgaria. Therefore, both Cyril and Methodius knew two languages ​​from childhood - Slavic and Greek.

This is interesting! In fact, the brothers had different names at birth - Constantine and Mikhail, and they were named church Cyril and Methodius later.

Both brothers excelled in their studies. Methodius mastered military techniques and loved to read. Well, Kirill knew as many as 22 languages, was educated at imperial court and for his wisdom he was nicknamed the philosopher.

Therefore, it is not at all surprising that the choice fell on these two brothers when the Moravian prince turned to the Byzantine ruler for help in 863 with a request to send wise men who could convey to the Slavic people the truth of the Christian faith and teach them to write.

And Cyril and Methodius set off on a long journey, moving for 40 months from one place to another, explaining in the Slavic language they knew well from childhood who Christ was and what his power was. And for this it was necessary to translate all church books from Greek into Slavic, which is why the brothers began to develop a new alphabet.

Of course, already in those days the Slavs used many Greek letters in their lives in counting and writing. But the knowledge they had had to be streamlined, brought to one system, so that it would be simple and understandable for everyone. And already on May 24, 863, in the Bulgarian capital of Pliska, Cyril and Methodius announced the creation of a Slavic alphabet called the Cyrillic alphabet, which became the progenitor of our modern Russian alphabet.

This is interesting! Historians have discovered the fact that even before the Moravian commission, while in Byzantium, the brothers Cyril and Methodius invented an alphabet for the Slavs based on Greek writing, and it was called Glagolitic. Maybe that’s why the Cyrillic alphabet appeared so quickly and simply, since there were already working outlines?

Transformations of the Russian alphabet

The Slavic alphabet created by Cyril and Methodius consisted of 43 letters.

They appeared by adding newly invented 19 signs to the Greek alphabet (which had 24 letters). After the appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet in Bulgaria, the center of Slavic writing, the first book school appeared, and they began to actively translate liturgical books.

In any old book

“Once upon a time there lived Izhitsa,

And with it the letter Yat"

Gradually the Old Church Slavonic alphabet comes to Serbia, and in Ancient Rus' it appears at the end of the 10th century, when the Russian people adopted Christianity. It was then that the whole long process of creating and improving the Russian alphabet that we use today begins. That's what was interesting.

This is interesting! The godmother of the letter “Y” was Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, who proposed introducing it into the alphabet in 1783. The idea of ​​​​the princess was supported by the writer Karmazin, and with their light hand the letter appeared in the alphabet, taking an honorable seventh place.

“Yo”’s fate is not easy:

• in 1904 its use was desirable, but not at all mandatory;
• in 1942, by order of the educational authority, it was recognized as compulsory for schools;
• in 1956, entire paragraphs of the rules of Russian spelling were devoted to it.

Today, the use of “Yo” is important when you can confuse the meaning of written words, for example here: perfect and perfect, tears and tears, palate and sky.

This is interesting! In 2001, in the Ulyanovsk Park named after Karamzin, the only monument to the letter “Y” in the form of a low stele in the whole world was unveiled.

As a result, today we have 33 beauties who teach us to read and write, open up to us new world, help to be educated to learn their native language and respect their history.

I am sure that you have known all these 33 letters for a long time and never confuse their places in the alphabet. Would you like to try to learn the Old Church Slavonic alphabet? Here it is, below in the video)

Well, you have more projects on one interesting topic in your collection. Share the most interesting things with your classmates, let them also know where the Russian alphabet came to us from. And I say goodbye to you, see you again!

Good luck in your studies!

Evgenia Klimkovich.

The modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The alphabet in its current form has existed since 1942. In fact, the year 1918 can be considered the year of the formation of the modern Russian alphabet - then it consisted of 32 letters (without the letter ё). Origin of the alphabet, according to historical documents, is associated with the names Cyril and Methodius and dates back to the 9th century AD. From its origin until 1918, the alphabet changed several times, adding and excluding characters. At one time it consisted of more than 40 letters. The Russian alphabet is also sometimes called the Russian alphabet.

Russian alphabet with letter names

On our website for each letter of the Russian alphabet there is a separate page with detailed description, examples of words, pictures, poems, riddles. They can be printed or downloaded. Click on the desired letter to go to its page.

A a B b C c D d E d e e e f f g h h i i j j K k L l M m N n O o P p R r S s T t U u F f X x C t H h Sh sh sch q y y b ee y y I

Often in writing instead of the letter е the letter e is used. In most cases, the replacement does not cause difficulties for the reader, but in some contexts it is necessary to use the letter ё to avoid ambiguity. Russian letters are a neuter noun. It is worth considering that the style of letters depends on the font.

Numbering of letters

In some logical problems to determine the next element in a series, in games when solving comic ciphers, in competitions for knowledge of the alphabet and in other similar cases, you need to know the serial numbers of the letters of the Russian alphabet, including numbers when counting from the end to the beginning of the alphabet. Our visual “strip” will help you quickly determine the number of a letter in the alphabet.

• A
  1
  33
• B
  2
  32
• IN
  3
  31
• G
  4
  30
• D
  5
  29
• E
  6
  28
• Yo
  7
  27
• AND
  8
  26
• Z
  9
  25
• AND
  10
  24
• Y
  11
  23
• TO
  12
  22
• L
  13
  21
• M
  14
  20
• N
  15
  19
• ABOUT
  16
  18
• P
  17
  17

• R
  18
  16
• WITH
  19
  15
• T
  20
  14
• U
  21
  13
• F
  22
  12
• X
  23
  11
• C
  24
  10
• H
  25
  9
• Sh
  26
  8
• SCH
  27
  7
• Kommersant
  28
  6
• Y
  29
  5
• b
  30
  4
• E
  31
  3
• YU
  32
  2
• I
  33
  1

Letters of the Russian alphabet

Frequent questions about the letters of the Russian alphabet are: how many letters are in the alphabet, which of them are vowels and consonants, which are called uppercase and which are lowercase? Basic information about letters is often found in popular questions for students primary classes, in tests of erudition and determination of IQ level, in questionnaires for foreigners on knowledge of the Russian language and other similar tasks.

Number of letters

How many letters are in the Russian alphabet?

There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet.

To remember the number of letters in the Russian alphabet, some people associate them with popular phrases: “33 pleasures”, “33 misfortunes”, “33 cows”. Other people associate with facts from their lives: I live in apartment number 33, I live in region 33 ( Vladimir region), I play in the team number 33 and the like. And if the number of letters of the alphabet is forgotten again, then associated phrases help to remember it. It will probably help you too?!

Vowels and consonants

How many vowels and consonants are there in the Russian alphabet?

10 vowels + 21 consonants + 2 do not mean sound

Among the letters of the Russian alphabet are:

• 10 vowels: a, o, u, s, e, i, e, e, yu, and;
• 21 consonant letters: b, v, g, d, j, g, z, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, f, x, c, h, w, sch;
• 2 letters that do not mean sounds: ь, ъ.

The letter means sound. Compare: “ka”, “el” - names of letters, [k], [l] - sounds.

Uppercase and lowercase

Which letters are uppercase and which are lowercase?

Letters can be uppercase (or capital) and lowercase:

• A, B, V... E, Yu, Z - capital letters,
• a, b, c... e, yu, i - lowercase letters.

Sometimes they say: large and small letters. But this formulation is incorrect, since it means the size of the letter, and not its style. Compare:
B is a large capital letter, B is a small capital letter, b is a large lowercase letter, b is a small lowercase letter.

Proper names, the beginning of sentences, and “you” are written with a capital letter as an expression of deep respect. IN computer programs The term "letter case" is used. Capital letters are typed in uppercase, lowercase letters are typed in lowercase.

And it is written in all history textbooks who were the first to create the alphabet for the Russian language - these are the brothers Cyril (Constantine) the Philosopher and Methodius (Mikhail) of Thessalonica, Greek missionaries, later recognized as saints equal to the apostles. In 862, by order of the Byzantine Emperor Michael III, they went on a mission to Great Moravia. This is early feudal Slavic state occupied the territory where today Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and part of Ukraine are located. The main task that the Patriarch of Constantinople Photius set for the brothers was the translation of sacred texts from Greek language into Slavic dialects. However, in order for the records not to be forgotten, it was necessary to record them on paper, and this cannot be done in the absence of our own Slavic alphabet.

The basis for its creation was the Greek alphabet. However, phonetically, ancient Slavic dialects were much richer than Greek speech. Because of this, the educational missionaries of this country were forced to come up with 19 new letters to display on paper the sounds and phonetic combinations that were missing in their language. Therefore, the first alphabet (alphabet), with minor changes which has survived to this day among Belarusians, Bulgarians, Russians, Serbs and Ukrainians, included 43 letters. Today it is known as the “Cyrillic alphabet”, and the writing of these peoples belongs to the Cyrillic alphabet.

Who was the first to create the Russian alphabet?

However, when considering the question of who was the first to create the Slavic alphabet, it is necessary to take into account that in the 9th century there were two alphabets (two alphabets) - Cyrillic and Glagolitic, and which of them appeared earlier is impossible to answer. Unfortunately, the original texts written during the time of Cyril and Methodius have not survived. According to most researchers, more ancient history has a 38-letter, but more difficult to write, Glagolitic alphabet. It was called in the ancient Slavic language “Kirillovitsa”, and its authorship is attributed to the “creative team” led by Cyril and Methodius, which included their students Clement, Naum and Angelarius. The alphabet was created starting in 856, before Cyril’s first educational campaign in the Khazar Kaganate.

Palimpsests - texts written in it, later scraped off from parchment and replaced with Cyrillic writing - also speak in favor of the originality of the Glagolitic alphabet. In addition, its ancient spelling is quite close in its appearance with the Georgian church alphabet - “khutsuri”, which was used until the 9th century.

According to supporters of the above hypothesis, the first Russian alphabet - the Cyrillic alphabet - was developed by Kirill's student, Kliment Ohritsky and named after the teacher. The alphabet got its name from the names of its first two letters - “az” and “buki”.

The most ancient Slavic alphabet

However, the question of who first created the alphabet is not so simple, and Cyril and Methodius are only the first enlighteners who brought writing to the early Slavic states, the historicity of which is not in doubt. The same Cyril, describing his journey to the Great Khaganate, points to the presence in the churches of Chersonese (Korsun) of “the Gospel and Psalter written in Roussian writing.” It was acquaintance with these texts that prompted the Greek enlightener to think about dividing the letters of his alphabet into vowels and consonants.

Veles’s book, written in “strange” letters called “v(e)lesovitsy,” is still controversial. According to the discoverers (hoaxers) of this book, they were carved on wooden tablets before both the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabet became widespread.

Unfortunately, the alphabet for the Russian language, “v(e)lesovitsy”, and the authorship of the “Russian letters” cannot be established today.

If possible, it means the softness of the consonants, being after them, and the sound [o]; in all other cases it sounds like .
In native Russian words (in addition to words with the prefixes three- and four-), it is always under stress. Cases of unstressed use are rare, mainly these are borrowed words - for example, Königsberg surfers, complex words - loess-like or words with three- and four-prefixes - for example, four-part. Here the letter is phonetically equivalent to the unstressed “e”, “i”, “ya” or has a side stress, but can also reflect the characteristic features of writing in the source language.

In the Russian language (i.e., in Russian writing), the letter “е” stands, first of all, where the sound [(j)o] comes 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 letters, placing dots above the “е” is optional.

In other Slavic Cyrillic alphabet there is no letter “ё”. To indicate the corresponding sounds in writing in the Ukrainian and Bulgarian languages, after consonants they write “yo” and in other cases - “yo”. Serbian writing (and the Macedonian one based on it) generally does not have special letters for iotated vowels and/or softening the preceding consonant, since to distinguish syllables with a hard and soft consonant they use different consonants, and not different vowel letters, and iot is always written a separate letter.

In the Church and Old Church Slavonic alphabets there is no letter equivalent to “е”, since there are no such combinations of sounds; Russian “yokanye” is a common mistake when reading Church Slavonic texts.

Superscript element and its name

There is no generally accepted official term for the extension element present 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, diaresis, trema or umlaut) in this situation, since they relate to diacritics and denote, first of all, a specific phonetic function.

Historical aspects

Introduction of Yo into use

For a long time, the sound combination (and after soft consonants - [o]), which appeared in Russian pronunciation, was not expressed in any way in writing. From the middle of the 18th century. they were designated by the letters IO, located under a common cap. But such a designation was cumbersome and was rarely used. The following variants were used: the signs o, iô, ьо, іо, ió.

In 1783, instead of the existing options, they proposed the letter “e”, borrowing from French, where it has a different meaning. However, it was first used in print only 12 years later (in 1795). The influence of the Swedish alphabet was also assumed.

In 1783, on November 29 (Old Style - November 18) at the home of the head of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Princess E. R. Dashkova, one of the 1st meetings of the newly formed Russian Academy was held, where Fonvizin D. I., Knyazhnin were present Ya. B., Derzhavin G. R., Lepyokhin I. I., Metropolitan Gabriel and others discussed the project full version explanatory dictionary(Slavic-Russian), subsequently - the famous 6-volume Dictionary of the Russian Academy.

The academicians were about to go home, like E.R. Dashkova asked if any of them could write the word “Christmas tree.” The learned men thought that the princess was joking, but she wrote the word “yolk”, which she had pronounced, and asked the question: “Is it legal 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, should be followed in every possible way.” Ekaterina Dashkova suggested using the “newborn” letter “e” “to express words and reprimands, with this consent, beginning as matiory, iolka, iozh, iol.”

She turned out to be convincing in her arguments, and Gabriel, Metropolitan of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, who is a member of the Academy of Sciences, was asked to evaluate the rationality of introducing a new letter. So, in 1784, on November 18, the official recognition of the letter “e” took place.

The princess's innovative idea 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 publication in which the appearance of the letter “е” was noticed was in 1795 the book “And My Trinkets” by I. Dmitriev, published by the Moscow University Printing House of H. A. Claudia and H. Riediger (in this printing house since 1788 published the newspaper “Moskovskie Vedomosti”, and it was located on the site of the present building of the Central Telegraph).

The first word printed with the letter “ё” became “everything”, then “vasilyochik”, “penek”, “light”, “immortal”. For the first time, a surname with this letter (“Potemkin”) was printed by G. R. Derzhavin in 1798.

The letter “e” became famous thanks to N.M. Karamzin, so until recently he was considered its author, until the story outlined above received wide publicity. In 1796, in the first book of the anthology of poems “Aonids”, published by Karamzin, who came out of the same university printing house, the words “dawn”, “moth”, “eagle”, “tears” were printed with the letter “e”. ", and the 1st verb is "flowed".

It’s just not clear whether this was Karamzin’s personal idea or the initiative of some employee of the publishing house. It should be noted that Karamzin scientific works(for example, in the famous “History of the Russian State” (1816 - 1829)) did not use the letter “ё”.

Distribution issues

Although the letter “е” 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 was not officially introduced into the alphabet. This is very typical for newly introduced letters: the status of the symbol “th” was the same; it (in comparison with “e”) became mandatory for use back in 1735. In his “Russian Spelling”, Academician J. K. Grot noted, that both of these letters “should also occupy a place in the alphabet,” but this is also long time remained only a good wish.

In the XVIII-XIX centuries. An obstacle to the spread of the letter “е” was the then attitude towards such a “yocking” pronunciation as petty-bourgeois speech, the dialect of the “vile rabble,” while the “yokking” “church” pronunciation was considered more noble, intelligent and cultural (with a “yocking” "Fought, for example, V.K. Trediakovsky and A.P. Sumarokov).

12/23/1917 (01/05/1918) a decree was published (undated) signed by the Soviet People's Commissar of Education A.V. Lunacharsky, who introduced reformed spelling as mandatory, it said, among other things: “To recognize the use of the letter “е” as desirable, but not mandatory. "

Thus, the letters “е” and “й” formally entered the alphabet (having received serial numbers) only in Soviet times(if you don't take into account " New alphabet"(1875) by Leo Tolstoy, where there was the letter “ё” between “e” and yat, in 31st place).

On December 24, 1942, the use of the letter “e” 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 spelling normative rules were first published) it is considered officially included in the Russian alphabet .

The next 10 years scientific and fiction was published with almost complete use of the letter “е”, and then the publishers returned to the old practice: using the letter only when absolutely necessary.

There is a legend that Joseph Stalin influenced the popularization of the letter “ё”. 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 “ё”, but with “e”. Stalin was angry, and the next day all the articles in the Pravda newspaper suddenly appeared with the letter “e”.

On July 9, 2007, Russian Minister of Culture A. S. Sokolov, giving an interview to the Mayak radio station, expressed his opinion on the need to use the letter “e” in written speech.

Basic rules for using 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 “Ё,ё” into mandatory practice. Shortly before the order was issued, an incident occurred when Stalin treated rudely the manager of the Council of People's Commissars, Ya. Chadayev, because on December 6 (or 5), 1942, he brought him a decree for 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 “ё” in print. Thus, already on December 7, 1942, the newspaper issue suddenly came out with this letter in all articles.

Federal Law No. 53-FZ “On state language Russian Federation» dated 06/01/2005 in part 3 of Art. 1 states that when using 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.

The Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation “On the procedure for approving the norms of the modern Russian literary language when 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, a list reference books, grammars and dictionaries, which contain the norms of the modern Russian literary language, when it is used in the Russian Federation as the state language, as well as the rules of Russian punctuation and spelling, are approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.

Letter No. AF-159/03 dated 05/03/2007 “On the decisions of the Interdepartmental Commission on the Russian Language” of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation prescribes writing the letter “e” in case of probability of misreading words, for example, in proper names, since in In this case, ignoring the letter “е” 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, the letter ё is used selectively in texts during normal printing. But, at the request of the editor or author, any book can be printed using the letter e sequentially.

The sound of "Yo"

The letter "ё" 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, trudged, Fedor, aunt (after g, k, x this is only used for borrowing : Höglund, Goethe, liqueur, Cologne, the only exception is actually Russian word weave, weave, weave, weave with derivatives, and formed in Russian from the borrowed word panicer);

To convey the accent [o] after hissing words: silk, zhzhem, click, damn (in this position, the conditions for choosing between writing with “o” or with “e” are set by a rather complex system of lists of exception words and rules);

To convey the combination of [j] and the percussive sound [o]:

At the beginning of the words: container, hedgehog, Christmas tree;

After consonants (applied separator mark): volume, curl, linen.

After the vowel letters: her, loan, striker, tip, spit, forges;

In native Russian words it is only possible percussion sound“е” (even if the stress is collateral: loess-like, four-story, three-seater,); if, during word formation or inflection, the stress moves to another syllable, then “е” will be replaced with “e” (takes - will choose, honey - honey - on honey, about what - about nothing (but: about nothing )).

Along with the letter “е” in borrowings, the same sound meaning can be conveyed after consonants - the combination ё and in other cases - yo. Also in borrowings “ё” can be an unstressed vowel.

Yo and E

§ 10 of the “Rules of Russian Spelling and Punctuation”, officially in force since 1956, defines the cases when “ё” is used in writing:

"1. When it is necessary to prevent incorrect reading and understanding of a word, for example: we recognize as opposed to learn; everything is different from everything; bucket as opposed to bucket; perfect (participle) as opposed to perfect (adjective), etc.

2. When you need to indicate the pronunciation of a little-known word, for example: Olekma river.

3. In special texts: primers, school textbooks of the Russian language, spelling 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, yo is written instead of the letter ё, for example; iodine, district, major."

Section 5 regulates these issues in more detail. new edition of these rules (published in 2006 and approved by the Orthographic 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 types of printed texts:

a) in texts with sequentially placed accent marks;

b) in books addressed to young children;

c) in educational texts for primary schoolchildren and foreigners studying the Russian language.

Note 1. The sequential use of ё is adopted 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, spruce, elozit, fir-tree, fir-tree, spruce; to have fun, to have fun, gaiety, cheerful, fun.

In ordinary printed texts, the letter е is used selectively. It is recommended to use it in the following cases.

1. To prevent incorrect identification of a word, for example: everything, sky, summer, perfect (in contrast to the words everything, sky, summer, perfect), including to indicate the place of stress in the word, for example: bucket, we recognize (unlike a bucket, let's find out).

2. To indicate the correct pronunciation of a word - either rare, not well known, or having a common incorrect pronunciation, e.g.: gyozy, surfing, fleur, harder, lye, including to indicate the correct stress, e.g.: fable, brought, carried away , convicted, newborn, spy.

3. In proper names - surnames, geographical names, for example: Konenkov, Neyolova, Catherine Deneuve, Schrödinger, Dezhnev, Koshelev, Chebyshev, Veshenskaya, Olekma.”

“Yo”, “yo” and “yo” in borrowed words and the transfer of foreign proper names

The letter “е” is often used to convey the sounds [ø] and [œ] (for example, denoted by the letter “ö”) in foreign names and words.

In borrowed words, the letter combinations “jo” or “yo” are usually used to record combinations of phonemes such as /jo/:

After consonants, at the same time softening them ("broth", "battalion", "mignon", "guillotine", "senor", "champignon", "pavilion", "fjord", "companion", etc.) - in Romance languages usually in places after palatalized [n] and [l] “о” is written.

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 titles and names (transliteration sense) 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 conveyed by the letter “е” very rarely; it is most often found in words from the languages ​​of Scandinavia (Jörmungand, Jötun), but, as a rule, it exists along with the usual transmission through “yo” (for example, Jörmungand) and is often considered non-normative.

“Ё” in borrowed words is often unstressed and in this position its pronunciation is indistinguishable from the letters “I”, “i” or “e” (Erdős, shogunate, etc.), i.e., its original clarity is lost and it sometimes turns into just an indication of a certain pronunciation in the source language.

Consequences of not using the letter “ё”

The slowness of the entry of the letter “е” into the practice of writing (which, by the way, never fully took place) is explained by its inconvenient form for cursive writing, which contradicts its main principle - the unity (without tearing the pen from the sheet of paper) of the style, as well as the technical difficulties of technology publishing houses of pre-computer times.

In addition, people with last names with the letter “е” often have difficulties, sometimes insurmountable, during registration different documents, since some workers are irresponsible when writing this letter. This problem became especially acute after the introduction Unified State Examination systems when there is a danger of differences in the spelling of the name in the passport and in the Certificate of Unified State Examination results.

The habitual optionality of use led to the erroneous reading 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, let's take a break, blowjob (will fly by without hitting you), perfect, planted, in summer, recognize, palate, tapeworm, admits, etc. are increasingly used erroneous pronunciation (without ё) and shifting stress in the words beet, newborn, etc.

"e" turns into "e"

The ambiguity contributed to the fact that sometimes the letter “е” began to be used in writing (and, naturally, read [`o]) in those words where it should not be there. 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 become common.

Thus, the famous chess player Alexander Alekhine, world champion, was, in fact, Alekhine and was very indignant if his last name was pronounced and spelled incorrectly. His surname belongs to the noble family of Alekhins and is not derived from the familiar variable “Alyokha” from the name Alexey.

In those positions where it is necessary to be not ё, but е, it is recommended to place an accent in order to prevent incorrect recognition of words (everyone, takes) or erroneous pronunciation (grenadier, scam, Croesus, stout, Olesha).

Due to the spelling of words without e in the 20-30s. XX century many mistakes arose 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 “е”, words have appeared in the Russian language that allow the possibility of being written with both the letter “e” and “е”, and the corresponding pronunciation. For example, faded and faded, maneuver and maneuver, whitish and whitish, bile and bile, etc.

Such variants constantly appear in the language due to the action of contradictory analogies. For example, the word nadsekshiy has variants of pronunciation with e/e due to the double motivation: notch/notch. The use or non-use of the letter “ё” does not matter here. But, developing naturally, a literary language, as a rule, tends to eliminate variants: either one of them will become non-literary, incorrect (golo[l`o]ditsa, iz[d`e]vka), or different meanings will acquire pronunciation options (is[t`o]kshiy - is[t`e]kshiy).

It is preferably pronounced not “glider”, but “glider” (stressed 1st syllable), since the following trends exist in the Russian language: in the names of mechanisms, machines, and various devices, stress is preferable on the 1st syllable, or more precisely, on the penultimate one , i.e., glider, trireme, glider, tanker, and on the last one - when indicating the character: combine operator, driver, watchman.

Inconsistency in the use of the letter “е” is faster artificial than natural factor. And it helps to slow down the natural development of the language, giving rise to and maintaining pronunciation options that are not determined by intralingual reasons.