Where the first alphabet was created in the ancient world. Who invented the Russian alphabet? Transformations of the Russian alphabet

All types of writing could not stand the competition of the alphabet. Alphabets, also called phonemic alphabets, are a set of letters that are usually arranged in a certain order. Each of these letters represents one or more phonemes. As a rule, letters are divided into vowels and consonants. This division has its own characteristics in each of the languages, letters, which is quite natural, are used to compose words.

The word "alphabet" comes from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet - alpha and beta. It was the Greeks who contributed to the spread of alphabetic writing in most countries of the world. Similarly arranged English word abecedary or Russian ABC(according to the names in the first case, four, and in the second - the first two letters, respectively, of the English and Church Slavonic alphabets).

In fact, the origin of the alphabet is shrouded in mystery, and only the later stages of its history are relatively clear. Cyrillic currently used in Russia and some countries of Eastern Europe, was invented in the 9th century AD by the enlightener saints Cyril and Methodius. It is based on the Greek alphabet with a few extra letters added. The modern Western alphabet (used by the English, French, Spanish, Germans, Italians and some other peoples) is identical to the Latin alphabet used under the Roman Empire; the only difference is the letters J, U and W, added in the Middle Ages (the Romans used I and V to represent these sounds). We know this for certain, as well as the common origin of the Greek and Latin alphabets.

The Phoenicians, who kept constant trade records, need a different, simple and convenient letter. They came up with an alphabet in which each sign - a letter - means only one specific sound of speech. They are derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The Phoenician alphabet consists of 22 simple letters. All of them are consonants, because consonants played the main role in the Phoenician language. To read a word, it was enough for a Phoenician to see its backbone, which consisted of consonants.

The letters in the Phoenician alphabet were arranged in a certain order. This order was borrowed by the Greeks, but in Greek, unlike Phoenician, vowels played a large role.
Greek writing was the starting point for the development of all Western alphabets, the first of which was Latin.

The alphabet as a writing system that reflects the sounds of a language has many advantages over non-alphabetic writing systems - but it is precisely this property that is fraught with a certain danger. Living languages are constantly changing, while alphabets fixed in printed and handwritten texts tend to be more resistant to change. As a result, the degree of suitability of the alphabet, the degree of its ability to reflect the sound system of the language, is reduced.

The Latin alphabet, when applied to the English language, contains three "extra" consonants - c, q and x- and discovers the lack of six other letters that are needed to convey the specific consonant sounds of the English language. These are sounds that are pronounced at the end of words. bath[q], bathe [ð], splash [š], much [č], beige [ž], bring. To convey these sounds in English writing, there are digraphs, for example, th, sh, ch, ng, however they are in best case are not fully up to the task. For example, the sound [š] can be written not only with a combination of letters s and h(as in the word shapes), but also through ch(chartreuse), through ti(nation) and through s(sugar). In addition, digraphs do not always convey the same sound. So, ch reads like [k] in words chlorine and technique; th read like [t] in the name Thomas, and is omitted (colloquially) in the word clothing. The situation with the designation of English vowels is no better. Letter a, for example, is read in five different ways in words same, cat, ball, any and star. Letter o read differently in words hot, to, go and (in most varieties of English) for. On the contrary, the same vowel sound can be written in different ways. For example, the sound [u] is written with eight different ways in words soon, chew, true, tomb, rude, suit, youth and beauty.

For a long time there was an opinion that the letter came to Russia along with Christianity, with church books and prayers. A talented linguist, Kirill, creating the Slavic letter, took the Greek alphabet, consisting of 24 letters, as a basis, supplemented it with the hissing (zh, u, w, h) characteristic of Slavic languages and several other letters. Some of them are preserved in the modern alphabet - b, b, b, s, others have long gone out of use - yat, yus, izhitsa, fita. So the Slavic alphabet originally consisted of 43 letters, similar in spelling to Greek. Each of them had its own name: A - "az", B - "beeches" (their combination formed the word "alphabet"), C - "lead", G - "verb", D - "good" and so on. The letters on the letter denoted not only sounds, but also numbers. "A" - the number 1, "B" - 2, "P" - 100. In Russia, only in the 18th century. Arabic numerals replaced the "letter" ones.

As is known, the Church Slavonic language was the first to receive literary use among the Slavic languages. For some time, along with the Cyrillic alphabet, another Slavic alphabet, the Glagolitic alphabet, was also in use. She had the same composition of letters, but with a more complex, ornate spelling. Apparently, this feature predetermined further fate Glagolitic: to the XIII century. she has almost completely disappeared. This is not the place to expand on which Slavic tribe this language belonged to, the Bulgarians or the Pannoians.

The earliest examples of Sumerian writing are tags (usually made of clay) with a seal and a note about the quantity that were tied to objects or animals. Then more complex accounting tables appeared. An outstanding achievement of the Sumerians was that they designated the quantity with a separate sign. For example, five cows corresponded to five ovals and an image of a cow, and not five drawings of a cow, as in various scriptures. Gradually, the system became more complex. Standard signs appeared - hieroglyphs, with the help of which it was easier to depict specific frequently mentioned things - the sun, a cow, a bird, etc. Signs-drawings began to be used for similar words: for example, the hieroglyph “sun” began to mean “bright”, “light”, “day”.

For some concepts, a combination of signs was used. So, the word “slave” was denoted by two drawings - women and mountains, - since slaves were usually brought to Sumer from the mountains. Gradually, the icons looked less and less like drawings. The Sumerians had standard conventional signs, consisting of wedge-shaped dashes, very vaguely reminiscent of previous drawings. Maybe, appearance Sumerian writing is due to the fact that the signs were scratched out on wet clay. In the form of cuneiform features, the Sumerian writing and its successors in Mesopotamia were called cuneiform.

The appearance of the alphabet was preceded by several stages in the development of methods for writing speech. Traditionally, in the history of writing, among the pre-alphabetic systems, pictographic (pictorial) writings stood out - images of specific objects, which also denote them, and ideographic ones, conveying some abstract meanings (ideas), most often through the image of specific objects associated with these meanings. Ideographic writings were also called hieroglyphic - after the name of Egyptian writing, first used by the ancient Greek scholar Clement of Alexandria and literally meaning "sacred carved [letters]".

After the work of the American historian and writing theorist I. Gelb, a slightly different periodization became widespread, distinguishing between the stages of non-writing (drawings that are not connected with the signified conditional connection), pre- or proto-writing, using the ideographic principle, which it was proposed to rename to semasiographic(recording the meaning), and the actual writing, using phonographic(recording sound) principle.

At the same time, Gelb proposed to include not only the two main varieties of alphabetic writing - syllabic and literal, but also the so-called verbal-syllabic(logographic-syllabic) writing, to which practically all historically recorded types of hieroglyphic writing actually belong. The signs of such scripts, according to Gelb, are considered to denote not ideas, but words, in connection with which they were named logograms(or logographs). In almost all hieroglyphic writing systems attested in history, in addition to logograms, there were signs used to record parts of a word, usually syllables, i.e. syllabograms, as well as the so-called determinants to indicate which category a particular word belongs to.

Alphabets and syllabaries are much more efficient than logographic systems. The number of characters in them is much smaller, and it is much easier to learn such a writing system. The creation of a syllabary may require from 50 to 200 characters, and the creation of an alphabet may be limited to a dozen or two characters, sufficient to write all the words of a given language. English language, which has about 33 phonemes in most dialects, would ideally require 33 characters.

The earliest monument of Latin writing is an inscription on a golden brooch of the 6th century. BC, known as the Prenestine fibula. It reads simply MANIOS MED FHEFHAKED NVMASIOI ("Manius made me for Numasius"). Like Etruscan and early Greek inscriptions, it is written from right to left. From the following century, a vase with another inscription from right to left and a pillar from the Roman forum, inscribed in an alternating (boustrophedon) manner, survived. After the 1st century AD almost all inscriptions began to be made from left to right.

“Where does the Motherland begin,” as is sung in an old and soulful song? And it starts small: with love for the native language, with the alphabet. Since childhood, we have all become accustomed to a certain type of letters in the alphabet of the Russian language. And as a rule, we rarely think: when and under what conditions did it arise. Nevertheless, the presence and emergence of writing is an important and fundamental milestone in the historical maturation of every nation in the world, contributing to the development of its national culture and self-consciousness. Sometimes, in the depths of centuries, the specific names of the creators of the writing of a particular people are lost. But in the Slavic context, this did not happen. And those who invented the Russian alphabet are still known. Let's find out more about these people.

The very word "alphabet" comes from the first two letters: alpha and beta. It is known that the ancient Greeks put a lot of effort into the development and spread of writing in many European countries. Who first invented the alphabet in world history? There are scholarly debates about this. The main hypothesis is the Sumerian "alphabet", which appears about five thousand years ago. Egyptian is also considered one of the most ancient (of the known). Writing develops from drawings to signs, turning into graphic systems. And the signs began to display sounds.

The development of writing in the history of mankind is difficult to overestimate. The language of the people, its writing reflects life, way of life and knowledge, historical and mythological characters. Thus, by reading ancient inscriptions, modern scientists can recreate what our ancestors lived.

History of the Russian alphabet

It has, one might say, a unique origin. Its history is about a thousand years old, it keeps many secrets.

Cyril and Methodius

The creation of the alphabet is firmly associated with these names in the question of who invented the Russian alphabet. Let's go back to the ninth century. In those days (830-906) Great Moravia (a region of the Czech Republic) was one of the major European states. And Byzantium was the center of Christianity. The Moravian prince Rostislav in 863 turned to Michael III, the Byzantine emperor at that time, with a request to hold services in the Slavic language in order to strengthen the influence of Byzantine Christianity in the region. In those days, it is worth noting, the cult was sent only in those languages that were displayed on the Jesus cross: Hebrew, Latin and Greek.

The Byzantine ruler, in response to the proposal of Rostislav, sends a Moravian mission to him, consisting of two monk brothers, sons of a noble Greek who lived in Saluny (Thessaloniki). Michael (Methodius) and Constantine (Cyril) and are considered the official creators of the Slavic alphabet for church service. It is in honor of the church name of Cyril and was called "Cyrillic". Konstantin himself was younger than Michael, but even his brother recognized his intelligence and superiority in knowledge. Cyril knew many languages and owned oratory, participated in religious verbal disputes, was a wonderful organizer. This, according to many scientists, allowed him (together with his brother and other assistants) to connect and summarize the data, creating the alphabet. But the history of the Russian alphabet began long before the Moravian mission. And that's why.

Who invented the Russian alphabet (alphabet)

The fact is that historians have unearthed interesting fact: even before their departure, the brothers had already created the Slavic alphabet, well adapted to transmit the speech of the Slavs. It was called Glagolitic (it was recreated on the basis of Greek writing with elements of Coptic and Hebrew characters).

Glagolitic or Cyrillic?

Today scientists different countries for the most part, they recognize the fact that the Glagolitic alphabet, created by Cyril back in 863 in Byzantium, was the first. He introduced her in a fairly short time. And another, different from the previous one, the Cyrillic alphabet was invented in Bulgaria, a little later. And there are still disputes about the authorship of this, undoubtedly, a cornerstone invention for the pan-Slavic history. After Short story Russian alphabet (Cyrillic) is as follows: in the tenth century it penetrates into Russia from Bulgaria, and its written fixation is fully formalized only in the XIV century. In more modern form- since the end of the XVI century.

Director of the Volgograd Institute of Art Education Nikolai Taranov has many titles: calligrapher, doctor pedagogical sciences, candidate of art history, professor, member of the Union of Artists of Russia. But few people know that he is still studying symbols. And while doing this, our Volgograd "Professor Robert Langdon", just like in Dan Brown's sensational novel, went on a detective trail and an amazing discovery. On October 22, the Volgograd scientist spoke about his version of the appearance and loss of the first alphabet on Earth in the recording of the program for the days of Slavic writing on the All-Russian TV channel Kultura.

Who invented the Slavic alphabet?

It would seem that everyone knows this: Cyril and Methodius, whom the Orthodox Church calls equal to the apostles for this merit. But what kind of alphabet did Kirill come up with - Cyrillic or Glagolitic? (Methodius, this 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 Cyril). 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". It is also alleged that before the work of Cyril, there was no written language in Russia. Professor Nikolai Taranov categorically disagrees with this.

“The assertion that there was no written language in Russia before Cyril and Methodius is based on a single document, the Tale of the Letters by the Chernorite Khrabr, found in Bulgaria,” says Nikolai Taranov. - There are 73 lists from this scroll, and in different copies due to translation errors or scribal errors completely different versions key phrase for us. In one version: "the Slavs before Cyril did not have books", in another - "letters", but the author indicates: "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", known to Russian Orthodox Church, we read: "In the city of Korsun, Kirill met a Rusyn (Russian), who had with him books written in Russian letters." Cyril (his mother was a Slav) took out some of his letters 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.

The question arises: why did Cyril create the Russian alphabet, if it already existed? The fact is 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. And the letters in which church books are now written (and in a modified form - our today's printed creations) are the work of Cyril, that is, Cyrillic.

Was the verb destroyed on purpose?

There are 22 points that prove that the Glagolitic was older than the Cyrillic, says Taranov. There is such a concept among archaeologists and philologists - a palimpsest. This is the name of an inscription made on top of another destroyed, most often scraped with a knife, inscription. 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 a scraped sheet. So: 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 the Glagolitic alphabet 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”, etc. And all because the Glagolitic is very ancient. It has many signs of pictographic writing.

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 were found, the age of which dates back to 5000 BC.

"Glagolitz was created by a genius"

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 Diodorus Siculus 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 12th century BC, the Pelasgians took part in the Great Migration of Peoples, and some of their groups of desperate conquerors of new lands wandered very far. What gives the Volgograd professor a version: the Phoenicians were familiar with the Slavs and borrowed the alphabet from them. Otherwise, why did an alphabetic alphabet suddenly form next to Egyptian hieroglyphs and Sumerian cuneiform?

- They say: "The Glagolitic was too decorative, complex, so it was gradually replaced by a more rational Cyrillic." But Glagolitic is not so bad, 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. A person for himself is a starting point. And all the meanings of the letters in the Glagolitic alphabet are through the prism of human perception. I drew the first letter of this alphabet on transparent film. Look, if you put it on other letters of the Glagolitic alphabet, you get a pictogram! I believe that not every designer will come up with such a way that each grapheme falls into the grid. I am amazed at the artistic integrity of this alphabet. I think the unknown author of the Glagolitic alphabet was a genius! No other alphabet in the world has such a clear connection between a symbol and its digital and sacred meaning!

Glagolitic and numerology

Each sign in the Glagolitic alphabet has a sacred meaning and denotes a certain number.

The sign "Az" is a person, the 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 "great".

Sign "Good" - number 5, singular, giving birth to their 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, that is, our world, given to us in sensations.

The sign "Omega" is the number 700, a certain divine world, the "Seventh Heaven".

The sign "Earth" - according to Taranov, means a picture: the Earth and the Moon are in the same orbit.

In Egypt and Mesopotamia, few people knew how to write and read. After all, both hieroglyphic writing and cuneiform contain more than 600 characters, each of which usually depicts a whole word or syllable. All of them needed to be known by heart.
Phoenician inscription on the temple of the god Eshmun

The Phoenicians, who kept permanent trade records, needed a different letter - easy simple and convenient. They came up with an alphabet in which each sign - a letter - denoted only one specific sound of speech.
The Phoenician alphabet consists of 22 simple letters. All of them are consonants, because consonants played the main role in the Phoenician language. To read a word, it was enough for a Phoenician to see its backbone, consisting of consonants.

The Phoenician letters (3) are derived from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs for whole words (1). One of the intermediate stages is Sinai hieroglyphic writing (2). Greek originated from the Phoenician alphabet (4)

The oldest inscriptions, composed of the letters of the Phoenician alphabet, were found during excavations in ancient city Byblos (now the city of Jebel), at the foot of the Lebanese Range. They belong to the 13th century. BC. The Phoenicians wrote from right to left. They made their trade records in ink on potsherds. Few such shards have been found. The inscriptions carved on stone are better preserved: tombstones (on the sarcophagi of kings and priests) and building ones, telling about the construction of palaces at the behest of the Phoenician kings.
Starting from the IX century. BC e. The Phoenician alphabet began to spread rapidly in many countries. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that the ancient Greeks learned writing from the Phoenicians. Indeed, even the names of the Greek letters themselves are Phoenician words. For example, the name of the letter "alpha" (A) comes from the Phoenician word "alef" - a bull. (The original form of this letter resembled a bull's head.) The name of the Greek letter "beta" comes from the Phoenician word "bet" - house. (Originally, this letter was a simplified drawing of a house plan.) The word "alphabet" itself is essentially a combination of the Phoenician words "alef" and "bet".
The letters in the Phoenician alphabet were arranged in a certain order. This order was also adopted by the Greeks. But in Greek, unlike Phoenician, vowels play an important role. At the same time, the Phoenician language had many guttural sounds alien to the Greeks. The Phoenician letters corresponding to these sounds were used by the Greeks to designate vowel sounds. In addition, they came up with some new letters.
The Phoenician alphabet was incomparably simpler and more convenient than any cuneiform or hieroglyphs. But the Greek alphabet is even more perfect: it consists of 24 letters, denoting both vowels and consonants. The Greek alphabet formed the basis of the Latin, which in turn served as the basis for the alphabets of all Western European languages. The Church Slavonic alphabet originated from the Greek alphabet, compiled, according to legend, by the natives of the city of Thessaloniki (now the city of Thessaloniki) Cyril and Methodius. Under Peter I, the Church Slavonic alphabet was simplified, and an easier-to-read civil alphabet appeared, which we also use.
The Phoenician alphabet was the ancestor of not only the Greek, but also the Arabic, Hebrew and other alphabets. The invention of the Phoenicians was a great step in the cultural development of human society, making writing accessible to the masses.

The Phoenicians, who kept constant trade records, needed a different letter - easy, simple and convenient. They came up with an alphabet in which each sign - a letter - denoted only one specific sound of speech.

The most ancient inscriptions, composed of the letters of the Phoenician alphabet, were found during excavations in the ancient city of Byblos (now the city of Jebel), at the foot of the Lebanese Range. They belong to the 13th century. BC. The Phoenicians wrote from right to left. They made their trade records in ink on potsherds. Few such shards have been found. The inscriptions carved on stone are better preserved: tombstones (on the sarcophagi of kings and priests) and building ones, telling about the construction of palaces at the behest of the Phoenician kings.

Starting from the IX century. BC e. The Phoenician alphabet began to spread rapidly in many countries. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that the ancient Greeks learned writing from the Phoenicians. Indeed, even the names of the Greek letters themselves are Phoenician words. For example, the name of the letter "alpha" (A) comes from the Phoenician word "alef" - a bull. (The original form of this letter resembled a bull's head.) The name of the Greek letter "beta" comes from the Phoenician word "bet" - house. (Originally, this letter was a simplified drawing of a house plan.) The word "alphabet" itself is essentially a combination of the Phoenician words "alef" and "bet".

The letters in the Phoenician alphabet were arranged in a certain order. This order was also adopted by the Greeks. But in Greek, unlike Phoenician, vowels play an important role. At the same time, the Phoenician language had many guttural sounds alien to the Greeks. The Phoenician letters corresponding to these sounds were used by the Greeks to designate vowel sounds. In addition, they came up with some new letters.

The Phoenician alphabet was incomparably simpler and more convenient than any cuneiform or hieroglyphs. But the Greek alphabet is even more perfect: it consists of 24 letters, denoting both vowels and consonants. The Greek alphabet formed the basis of the Latin, which in turn served as the basis for the alphabets of all Western European languages. The Church Slavonic alphabet originated from the Greek alphabet, compiled, according to legend, by the natives of the city of Thessaloniki (now the city of Thessaloniki) Cyril and Methodius. Under Peter I, the Church Slavonic alphabet was simplified, and an easier-to-read civil alphabet appeared, which we also use.

The Phoenician alphabet was the ancestor of not only the Greek, but also the Arabic, Hebrew and other alphabets. The invention of the Phoenicians was a great step in the cultural development of human society, making writing accessible to the masses.