Who created Slavic writing in Rus'. Where did Russian writing come from?

The emergence of writing in Rus' Prepared by Milena Kochergina GOU Secondary School No. 2038

at the beginning of the 21st century it is unthinkable to imagine modern life without books, newspapers, indexes, flow of information, and the past - without an ordered history, religion - without sacred texts... The appearance of writing became one of the most important, fundamental discoveries on the long path of human evolution. In terms of significance, this step can perhaps be compared with making fire or with the transition to growing plants instead of a long period of gathering. The formation of writing is a very difficult process that lasted thousands of years. IN

The main sources for studying the history of the Russian language are its ancient written monuments. The question of the time of the emergence of writing in Rus' has not yet been finally resolved. It is traditionally believed that writing in Rus' arose with the adoption of Christianity, that is, in the 10th century. Undeciphered pre-Christian Russian Alekanovo inscription, found by A. Gorodtsov near Ryazan. After baptism, handwritten books appeared in Rus', written in Old Slavonic language, brought here from Byzantium and Bulgaria. Then Old Russian books began to be created, written according to Old Church Slavonic models, and later Russian people began to use the alphabet taken from the South Slavs in business correspondence.

Slavic writing had two alphabet: Glagolitic and Cyrillic. The name Glagolitic comes from the Slavic word glagolati - to speak. The Baschanskaya (Boshkanskaya) slab is one of the oldest known Glagolitic monuments, 11th century. “Kyiv Glagolitic Leaves”, sheet 3 The second alphabet was named Cyrillic after one of the two brothers - Slavic enlighteners who lived in the 9th century on the territory of present-day Bulgaria, compilers of the first Slavic alphabet.

Cyril (his secular name is Constantine) and Methodius were monks. To write church books, they (mainly Cyril) created an alphabetical system of thirty-eight letters based on the signs of the Greek alphabet. The letters were supposed to reflect the subtlest nuances of Slavic sounds. This system became known as the Glagolitic alphabet. It is assumed that the work on creating the Glagolitic alphabet was completed in 863. Late Glagolitic alphabet (XX century). Initial letters and letters After death, the brothers were canonized as saints and on the icon, as can be seen here, they are always depicted together. Cyril and Methodius

In Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, there is a monument to Cyril and Methodius, it is installed in front of the building National Library, bearing their name. Moscow also has a monument to the great Slavic educators, erected in 1992. The sculptural composition (the work of sculptor V.M. Klykov) is located in the center of Moscow on Slavyanskaya Square (at the beginning of Ilyinsky Square, which leads to the Polytechnic Museum and the monument to the heroes of Plevna). The Day of Slavic Literature and Culture is celebrated in Russia on May 24.

At the end of the 9th and beginning of the 10th centuries, followers of the Slavic enlighteners created a new Slavic alphabet based on Greek; to convey phonetic features Slavic language it was supplemented with letters borrowed from the Glagolitic alphabet. The letters of the new alphabet required less effort when writing and had clearer outlines. This alphabet, widespread among the eastern and southern Slavs, was later called the Cyrillic alphabet in honor of Cyril (Constantine), the creator of the first Slavic alphabet. IN Ancient Rus' both alphabets were known, but mainly Cyrillic was used, and monuments were written in Cyrillic Old Russian language. In the life of St. Clement of Ohrid it is directly written about the creation of Slavic writing by him after Cyril and Methodius. Laurentian Chronicle

Cyrillic letters denoted not only speech sounds, but also numbers. Only under Peter I were Arabic numerals introduced to indicate numbers.

The Cyrillic alphabet gradually changed: the number of letters decreased and their style became simpler. Yusy (big and small), xi, psi, fita, izhitsa, zelo, yat were eliminated from the alphabet. Yus big Yus small xi psi fita Izhitsa zelo yat But they introduced the letters e, y, ya into the alphabet. Gradually, the Russian alphabet was created (from the initial letters of the ancient Slavic alphabet - az, buki) or alphabet (the names of two greek letters- alpha, vita). Currently, there are 33 letters in our alphabet (of which 10 serve to indicate vowels, 21 - consonants and 2 signs - ъ and ь).

In Kirillov's letter capital letters used only at the beginning of a paragraph. The large capital letter was intricately painted, so the first line of the paragraph was called red (that is, a beautiful line). Old Russian handwritten books are works of art, they are so beautifully and skillfully designed: bright multi-colored initial letters (capital letters at the beginning of a paragraph), brown columns of text on pinkish-yellow parchment... Emeralds and rubies were ground into the finest powder, and paints were prepared from them , which still do not wash off or fade. The initial letter was not only decorated, its very outline conveyed a certain meaning. In the initial letters you can see the bend of a wing, the tread of an animal, the interweaving of roots, the twists of a river, the contours of two doubles - the sun and the heart. Each letter is individual, unique...

Thus, the Slavs, who received the alphabet, Christian books in their native language, and a literary language, sharply increased the chance to quickly join the world’s cultural treasury and, if not destroy, then significantly reduce the cultural gap between the Byzantine Empire and the “barbarians.”

http:// ruslit.ioso.ru/kir_meph.htm http://virlib.eunnet.net/depository/? nch=0 http://nauka.relis.ru / http:// pkr.orthgymn.ru/textbook/p08.html http:// www.svetozar.ru/index/id/38368/index.html http:/ /www.predanie.ru/music/Rannee_russkoe_mnogogolosie / List of used sources on the Internet.

Thank you for your attention!

INTRODUCTION

Writing plays an extremely important role in human society, it is a powerful engine human culture. Thanks to writing, people can use the vast store of knowledge accumulated by humanity, further develop the heritage of the past and preserve the experience of many generations for the future.

The letter is the most important means transmitting speech over a distance or fixing it in time, carried out using graphic signs or images that convey certain elements of speech - entire messages, individual words, syllables and sounds.

The global development of writing proceeded in the direction of transmitting in written signs more and more small elements of language, which made it possible to get by with fewer and fewer different signs. At the same time, written signs lost their original pictorial character.

Main goal of the work– consider the history of the development of world writing and the appearance of the first documents.

Based on the goal, the following tasks can be formulated:

Consider the stages of the emergence of writing;

Consider the first documents that have reached us.

Structurally, the work consists of an introduction, two chapters and a conclusion. The first chapter talks about the stages of emergence (pictographic, ideographic and syllabic writing) and the evolution of writing, the second chapter discusses the issue of the appearance of the document.

When writing test work The works of leading domestic and foreign scientists on the problem under study were used.

Chapter 1 The emergence of writing

1.1 The main stages of writing development

Writing has come a long way in development, spanning a period of several thousand years. Representing, in addition to sound language, a means of communication between people, arising on the basis of language and serving to transmit speech over a long distance and consolidate it in time with the help of descriptive signs or images, writing appeared at a relatively late stage of human development. The history of writing is closely connected with the development of language, the history of the people and their culture.

The appearance of writing was caused by the practical need to expand connections between people when communicating over long distances and the need to store and transmit knowledge to future generations.

The actual letter, i.e. descriptive writing is writing associated with the use of graphic signs (pictures, letters, numbers) to record and convey sound language.

In the development of descriptive writing, several types have historically changed. Each of these stages was determined by which elements of the sound language (whole messages, individual words, syllables or phonemes) served as the unit of written designation.

Typically, four types of letters are established in sequence:

· pictographic;

· ideographic;

· syllabic;

· letter-sound.

This division is to a certain extent arbitrary, since none of the indicated types appears in a “pure” form. Each of them includes elements of a different type of letter. For example, pictography already contains the rudiments of ideography, and ideographic writing reveals numerous elements of syllabic and letter-sound writing. In turn, the letter sound letter often combines ideas in texts graphic signs– numbers, mathematical, physical and chemical formulas etc. But such a division makes it possible to see the sequence of the main stages in the history of writing, to identify the uniqueness of the formation of its main types and thereby imagine the overall picture of the formation and development of descriptive writing.

There are other classifications of writing types. According to one of them, five varieties are established:

Phrasography is the most ancient type of writing, conveying the content of entire messages with symbolic and descriptive signs without graphically dividing them into individual words;

Logography is a subsequent type of writing, the graphic signs of which convey individual words;

Morphemography is a type of writing that arose on the basis of logographic to convey in graphic signs the smallest significant parts of a word - morphemes;

Syllabography, or syllabary writing, the signs of which indicate individual syllables;

phonography, or sound writing, the graphic signs of which usually designate phonemes as typical sounds.

According to another classification, the evolution of writing is presented as follows:

pre-writing: semasiography, including the most ancient conventional signs, pictography and primitive ideography;

writing itself: phonography, which appears in the following varieties:

verbal-syllabic writing;

syllabic writing;

alphabetic letter.

However, these classifications have not yet become widespread in educational literature, where the traditionally established classification is more often used.

From the fact that four main stages are consistently established in the history of writing, it does not at all follow that every people, having entered the path of civilization, had to necessarily go through all these stages in the development of writing. The situation here was much more complicated than it seems at first glance. This or that people due to various reasons related to both the peculiarities of the grammatical structure of its language and the circumstances historical nature, could have stopped at any of these stages. This, for example, happened with the Chinese, who settled on using ideographic writing, or with the Japanese and Koreans, who used, along with ideography, the national syllabary systems kana in Japan and kunmun in Korea. On the other hand, many peoples were able to step directly from a lower stage in the development of writing to a higher one, for example, from pictography directly to alphabetic writing, bypassing the ideographic and syllabic stages. It's about about the Chukchi, Eskimos, Evenks, Nenets and other peoples of the Far North, who had the opportunity to make such a leap after the October Revolution.

1.2 Pictographic writing

The oldest, most original type of writing is pictographic writing (from Latin pictus “picture, drawn” and Greek grapho “writing”). The main means of this writing were more or less complex drawings of a plot, narrative nature, or a series of drawings. It is a deliberate image on stone, wood, clay of objects, actions, events, etc. for the purpose of communication. With the help of such drawings, various messages were transmitted over a distance (for example, military, hunting) or any memorable events were fixed in time, for example, the terms of a trade exchange or messages about military campaigns (on tombstones leaders).

Pictographic writing through a drawing, which is called a pictogram, conveys the statement as a whole, without dividing it into individual words by the graphic elements of the pictogram. In accordance with this, the individual elements of the pictogram act as parts of a single whole and can only be correctly understood in connection with each other. Sometimes this letter also used the simplest conventional signs, for example, dashes indicating the number of items in question, symbols of tribal property, calendar designations of months, etc.

The pictogram was a schematic drawing, the artistic merit of which was not significant. Here it was only important that the drawing communicated something, and that what was drawn was correctly recognized by those to whom it was addressed.

The pictography conveyed only the content of the statement, without reflecting linguistic features transmitted message (sound of words, their grammatical forms, sequence of words, etc.).

When and from what sources did the original pictographic writing arise? The most important source its formation was served by primitive painting (the first traces of primitive art date back to the Upper (Late) Paleolithic era (40-25 thousand years BC). Many drawings have reached us, but not all of them are writing. Many of them served to express and satisfying only aesthetic needs primitive people or were used for magical cult purposes.

The appearance of pictographic writing is associated with the period when primitive drawings began to be used not only for aesthetic and religious-cult needs, but also as a means of communication, i.e. as a means of conveying messages to complement oral storytelling and to cement messages in the memory of the storyteller or listener. This is believed to date back to the Neolithic era, which began for most peoples from the 8th to 6th millennium BC.

Judging by the information that has reached us from distant eras, as well as taking into account the ethnographic data of most peoples, we can conclude that pictographic writing performed a wide variety of functions.

The following types of pictograms are known:

various records of the conditions for the exchange of hunting, fishing, etc. items;

reports of military campaigns, skirmishes, hunting;

various letters, including love letters;

tribal chronicles;

gravestone memorial inscriptions;

records of magical and spell formulas, legends, customs, commandments.

", and the pagan nature of this practice is emphasized. It is not known whether we are talking about writing in the proper sense of the word.

From the pre-Christian era, a number of sequences are known from the East Slavic territory that resemble written signs (the inscription from Alekanov and some others), but they have not been deciphered and their written (and not symbolic, etc.) nature has not even been proven. A number of authors, mostly amateurs, have also made assumptions about the existence of Slavic runes.

Cyril and Methodius Mission and Rus'

Cyril and Methodius, creators of the Slavic alphabet (this statement is incorrect, since Cyril and Methodius only finalized the Slavic alphabet, since the letters needed to introduce the Bible did not exist in the Russian (Slavic) language), and their direct students , as far as can be judged from the sources known to us, they did not personally preach to Eastern Slavs. However, according to some indirect evidence, it is assumed that the Eastern Slavs could be included in the long-term horizons of their mission. The “Life of Cyril” speaks of his miraculous discovery of the Gospel and Psalter in Crimea “in Russian letters” (a number of researchers suggest that this place was spoiled instead of “Sursky” - Syrian). In the 9th century, presumably in the monastery of Reichenau in Swabia, where, as recently proven, Methodius stayed with his companions, the so-called Bavarian geographer was created, which mentions the Eastern Slavs, including Rus', and their neighbors - the Khazars and the Hungarians who then lived in the Black Sea region. A complex of Bulgarian monuments associated with the mission of Cyril and Methodius (their lives, “The Tale of the Transposition of the Books,” “The Tale of the Monk Brave about the Writings,” perhaps also the apologetic “Speech of the Philosopher”) reaches Rus' in the 10th century and becomes very popular. The creators of the Slavic alphabet in Rus' are recognized as educators of all Slavs, including the Eastern ones.

Penetration of the Slavic alphabet into Rus'

The Cyril and Methodius alphabet was used in Rus' already in the pagan period, in particular, to record official translations of treaties with Byzantium in 907, 911, 944 and 971. From the very beginning, the Cyrillic alphabet certainly predominates, but there is evidence of the existence of the Glagolitic alphabet in Rus' in the 10th-11th centuries, and from the late copy of the recording of the priest Upir Likhy in 1044 that has come down to us in 1044, it is known that the Glagolitic alphabet in Rus' was associated with Cyril and was called “Kurilovitsa”. The penetration of writing into Rus' became widespread after the Baptism of Rus' by Vladimir in 988. The centralized “book teaching” of the children of the social elite (“deliberate children”) begins. To the monuments of the early period include: Gnezdovo inscription on a korchag (third quarter of the 10th century), church books (Novgorod Codex at the turn of the 10th-11th centuries, Ostromir Gospel of the mid-11th century), inscriptions on ancient Russian wooden “cylinder-locks” (seals) and swords (end of the 10th century) , legends of the coins of Vladimir, Svyatopolk and Yaroslav, texts on princely seals, inscriptions on the walls of churches, birch bark letters (from about 1030).

Old Russian writing of the XI-XIV centuries.

Book writing

Everyday writing

Second South Slavic influence

Great Russian (Old Russian) writing XIV-XVII centuries.

Petrine reform of fonts and graphics

A Russian civil font was created in the city, and in the production of sketches of letters it took active participation Peter I himself. A sample of a new alphabet font was approved in the city. This was the first reform of Russian graphics. The essence of Peter's reform was to simplify the composition of the Russian alphabet by excluding from it such redundant letters as “psi”, “xi”, “omega”, “Izhitsa” and others, and the abolition of homophonic pairs “izhe - and” (I-I) , “green - earth” (S-Z). However, some of these letters were subsequently restored to use. During the introduction of the civil font, the letter E (“E” is reverse) appeared in order to distinguish it from the iotized letter E, and the small yus was replaced by the letter Y (going back to one of its cursive variants).
In the civil font, uppercase (capital) and lowercase (small) letters are established for the first time.

Changes in graphics and spelling in the 18th-19th centuries

Letter Y(and short) was introduced by the Academy of Sciences in the city of Bukvu Yo first used by N.M. Karamzin in 1797 to denote the sound [o] under stress after soft consonants, for example: sky, dark.
By the 18th century V spoken language letter sound yat, coincided with the sound [ uh] (in the literary language until the end of the 18th century, in place of “yat” it was supposed to pronounce the diphthong “ie”; this pronunciation was preserved in early XIX V. in a number of provincial dialects). Letter Ѣ , ѣ (yat), thus turned out to be unnecessary, but according to tradition, it is also long time remained in the Russian alphabet until 1917-1918.

XX century

Reform of graphics and spelling 1917-1918

Spelling reform - Messrs. All letters that duplicated each other were excluded: “yat”, “fita”, “and decimal”. The letter Ъ (er) was saved only as separator mark, b (er) - as a dividing sign and to indicate the softness of the preceding consonant. Regarding Yo, the decree contains a clause on the desirability, but not obligatory nature, of using this letter. Reform 1917-1918 simplified Russian writing and caused serious criticism from I. A. Bunin, I. A. Ilyin, V. I. Ivanov and others prominent figures philosophy and literature.

On December 24, 1942, by order of the People's Commissar of Education Potemkin, the use of the letter Ё was recognized as mandatory, and instead of the letter Ј the letter Ј was introduced. Due to the unfortunate timing (the war with Germany), the last order was ignored, but this letter was preserved in the Cyrillic-based alphabets of a number of other peoples of the USSR (for example, in the Azerbaijani alphabet). A new spelling dictionary, published in 1956, finally abolished the “Potemkin reforms.”

Notes

Links

Second South Slavic influence in Ancient Rus': historical and cultural conditions and book centers

Russian language

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Instructions

Since they stopped teaching children Slavic alphabet, less than 100 have passed. Meanwhile, it was she who was the storehouse of knowledge that formed the child’s correct understanding of the world around him. Each letter is at the same time an image with the help of which knowledge was transmitted. For example, the initial letter Az (Азъ) has the following images: source, beginning, fundamental principle, reason, worthy, renewal.

Features of the Slavic alphabet

The alphabet changed with the introduction of Christianity in Rus'. In order to be able to study the Bible, Greek initial letters were introduced into the Russian alphabet, replacing them. They were required for a more correct reading of the holy books from the point of view. Cyril and Methodius, having changed and shortened the alphabet by 6 initial letters, predetermined the loss of the deep meaning of the Russian language, which was mastered not by writing letters (letter combinations), but by connecting images. This can be seen in the example of many native Russian words, for example, conscience (joint message, knowledge), education (calling of an image, its creation, va(ya)nie). So in the 10th century, Russian writing, in many ways corresponding to the modern one. But there was also an older one, Slavic.

The appearance of writing in Rus'

The question of the origin of writing in Rus' has not yet been finally resolved. The traditional point of view is this: it came into life with the emergence of the Cyrillic alphabet. But the debate among scientists around this theory has been going on for a long time, and research by Doctor of Philology Chudinov, Doctor of Historical Sciences Natalya Guseva, academicians Vinogradov, Govorov, Sidorov and many other researchers convincingly prove that the first inscriptions in Proto-Slavic were made on stones and clay tablets.

In the 70s of the last century, the Sofia alphabet (Greek) was discovered, which included three Slavic initial letters. Consequently, writing in Rus' appeared long before the activities of Cyril and Methodius. The most ancient was the nodular, or ligature, nauz. Subsequently, runes appeared. The Old Russian Magi were written in the Holy Russian runic script. These texts are inscribed on tablets made of oak, cedar and ash.

Later cultural monuments, for example, Kharatiya, are written in Glagolitic alphabet, which is very close to the Old Slavic alphabet. It was used as a trade letter, and the features and cuts were used to convey short messages for economic needs. In the history of the Greeks and Scandinavians, documentary information has been preserved that already in the 2nd-4th centuries the Slavs were an educated people and had their own written language. Moreover, every child was taught it.

The most ancient monuments of Slavic writing were found in 1962 in the village of Terteria (Romania). They are written in Slavic runic and date back to the 5th century BC. Before this discovery, the earliest artifact confirming the presence of writing among the ancient peoples of the East were Sumerian tablets. But they turned out to be 1000 younger than the ancient Slavic ones.

Modern Russian is based on Old Church Slavonic, which in turn was previously used for both writing and speech. Many scrolls and paintings have survived to this day.

Culture of Ancient Rus': writing

Many scholars claim that before the ninth century there was no trace of writing. This means that during Kievan Rus writing did not exist as such.

However, this assumption is erroneous, because if you look at the history of other developed countries and states, you can see that each strong state had its own written language. Since it was also part of the fairly strong countries, then writing was also necessary for Rus'.

Another group of scientific researchers proved that there was writing, and this conclusion was supported by a number of historical documents and facts: Brave wrote the tale “About the Letters.” Also “in the Lives of Methodius and Constantine” it is mentioned that the Eastern Slavs had a written language. The records of Ibn Fadlan are also cited as evidence.

So when did writing appear in Rus'? The answer to this question is still controversial. But the main argument for society, confirming the emergence of writing in Rus', are the treaties between Russia and Byzantium, which were written in 911 and 945.

Cyril and Methodius: a huge contribution to Slavic writing

The contribution of Slavic enlighteners is invaluable. It was with the beginning of their work that they developed their own alphabet, which was much simpler in pronunciation and writing than the previous version of the language.

It is known that the enlighteners and their disciples did not preach among the East Slavic peoples, but researchers say that, perhaps, Methodius and Cyril set such a goal for themselves. Sharing your views would not only allow you to expand your range of interests, but would also simplify the introduction of a simplified language into East Slavic culture.

In the tenth century, books and lives of great enlighteners came to the territory of Rus', where they began to enjoy real success. It is to this moment that researchers attribute the emergence of writing in Rus', the Slavic alphabet.

Rus' since the appearance of its language alphabet

Despite all these facts, some researchers are trying to prove that the alphabet of the enlighteners appeared during the times of Kievan Rus, that is, even before baptism, when Rus' was a pagan land. Despite the fact that most historical documents are written in Cyrillic, there are papers that contain information written in Glagolitic. Researchers say that, probably, the Glagolitic alphabet was also used in Ancient Rus' precisely in the period of the ninth-tenth centuries - before Russia adopted Christianity.

More recently, this assumption has been proven. Research scientists found a document that contained records of a certain priest of Upir. In turn, Upir wrote that in 1044 the Glagolitic alphabet was used in Rus', however Slavic people perceived it as the work of the enlightener Kirill and began to call it “Cyrillic”.

It is difficult to say how different the culture of Ancient Rus' was at that time. The emergence of writing in Rus', as is commonly believed, began precisely from the moment of widespread dissemination of the books of the enlighteners, despite the facts indicating that writing was an important element for pagan Rus'.

The rapid development of Slavic writing: the baptism of a pagan land

The rapid pace of development of the written language of the East Slavic peoples began after the baptism of Rus', when writing appeared in Rus'. In 988, when Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in Rus', children who were considered the social elite began to be taught using alphabetic books. It was at this same time that church books appeared in written form, inscriptions on cylinder locks, and there were also written expressions that blacksmiths embossed to order on swords. Texts appear on princely seals.

Also, it is important to note that there are legends about coins with inscriptions that were used by princes Vladimir, Svyatopolk and Yaroslav.

And in 1030, birch bark letters became widely used.

The first written records: birch bark letters and books

The first written records were those on birch bark letters. Such a document is a written record on a small fragment of birch bark.

Their uniqueness is that today they are perfectly preserved. For researchers, such a find is very great value: in addition to the fact that thanks to these letters you can learn the features of the Slavic language, writing on birch bark can tell about important events, which took place during the period of the eleventh to fifteenth centuries. Such records have become an important element for studying the history of Ancient Rus'.

In addition to Slavic culture, birch bark letters were also used among cultures of other countries.

On at the moment The archives contain many birch bark documents, the authors of which are Old Believers. In addition, with the advent of birch bark “paper”, people learned to peel birch bark. This discovery was the impetus for writing books on Slavic writing in Rus' began to develop more and more.

A find for researchers and historians

The first writings made on birch bark paper that were found in Russia were in the city of Veliky Novgorod. Anyone who has studied history knows that this city was of no small importance for the development of Rus'.

A new stage in the development of writing: translation as the main achievement

The southern Slavs had a huge influence on writing in Rus'.

Under Prince Vladimir, books and documents from the South Slavic language began to be translated in Rus'. And under Prince Yaroslav the Wise, the literary language began to develop, thanks to which such a literary genre as church literature appeared.

Of great importance for the Old Russian language was the ability to translate texts from foreign languages. The first translations (of books) that came from the Western European side were translations from Greek. It was the Greek language that largely changed the culture of the Russian language. Many borrowed words were used more and more in literary works, even in the same church writings.

It was at this stage that the culture of Rus' began to change, the writing of which became increasingly more complex.

Reforms of Peter the Great: on the way to simple language

With the advent of Peter I, who reformed all the structures of the Russian people, significant amendments were made even to the culture of the language. The appearance of writing in Rus' in ancient times immediately complicated the already complex In 1708, Peter the Great introduced the so-called “civil font”. Already in 1710, Peter the Great personally revised every letter of the Russian language, after which a new alphabet was created. The alphabet was distinguished by its simplicity and ease of use. The Russian ruler wanted to simplify the Russian language. Many letters were simply excluded from the alphabet, due to which not only colloquial speech, but also written.

Significant changes in the 18th century: introduction of new symbols

The main change during this period was the introduction of such a letter as “and short”. This letter was introduced in 1735. Already in 1797 Karamzin used new sign to represent the sound "yo".

By the end of the 18th century, the letter “yat” lost its meaning, because its sound coincided with the sound of “e”. It was at this time that the letter “yat” was stopped being used. Soon it also ceased to be part of the Russian alphabet.

The last stage of development of the Russian language: minor changes

The final reform that changed the written language in Rus' was the reform of 1917, which lasted until 1918. It meant the exclusion of all letters whose sound was either too similar or even repeated. It is thanks to this reform that today solid sign(b) is divisive, and soft (b) became divisive when denoting a soft consonant sound.

It is important to note that this reform caused enormous dissatisfaction on the part of many prominent literary figures. For example, Ivan Bunin strongly criticized this change in his native language.