Cyrillic alphabets
Numerous Cyrillic alphabets are based on the Cyrillic script. The early Cyrillic alphabet was developed in the 9th century AD and replaced the earlier Glagolitic script developed by the theologians Cyril and Methodius. It is the basis of alphabets used in various languages, past and present, Slavic origin, and non-Slavic languages influenced by Russian. As of 2011, around 252 million people in Eurasia use it as the official alphabet for their national languages. About half of them are in Russia. Cyrillic is one of the most-used writing systems in the world. The creator is Saint Clement of Ohrid from the Preslav literary school in the Bulgarian Empire">Bulgarian language">Bulgarian Empire.
Some of these are illustrated below; for others, and for more detail, see the links. Sounds are transcribed in the IPA. While these languages largely have phonemic orthographies, there are occasional exceptions—for example, Russian is pronounced in a number of words, an orthographic relic from when they were pronounced .
Spellings of names transliterated into the Roman alphabet may vary, especially й, but also г and ж.
Unlike the Latin script, which is usually adapted to different languages by adding diacritical marks/supplementary glyphs to standard Roman letters, by assigning new phonetic values to existing letters, or by the use of digraphs, the Cyrillic script is usually adapted by the creation of entirely new letter shapes. However, in some alphabets invented in the 19th century, such as Chuvash, umlauts and breves also were used.
Bulgarian and Bosnian Sephardim without Hebrew typefaces occasionally printed Judeo-Spanish in Cyrillic.
Spread
Non-Slavic alphabets are generally modelled after Russian, but often bear striking differences, particularly when adapted for Caucasian languages. The first few of these alphabets were developed by Orthodox missionaries for the Finnic and Turkic peoples of Idel-Ural in the 1870s. Later, such alphabets were created for some of the Siberian and Caucasus peoples who had recently converted to Christianity. In the 1930s, some of those languages were switched to the New Turkic Alphabet. All of the peoples of the former Soviet Union who had been using an Arabic or a different Asian script also adopted Cyrillic alphabets, and during the Great Purge in the late 1930s, all of the Latin alphabets of the peoples of the Soviet Union were switched to Cyrillic as well. The Abkhazian and Ossetian languages were switched to the Mkhedruli script, but after the death of Joseph Stalin, both also adopted Cyrillic. The last language to adopt Cyrillic was the Gagauz language, which had used Greek script before.In Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, the use of Cyrillic to write local languages has often been a politically controversial issue since the collapse of the Soviet Union, as it evokes the era of Soviet rule and Russification. Some of Russia's peoples such as the Tatars have also tried to drop Cyrillic, but the move was halted under Russian law. A number of languages have switched from Cyrillic to either a Roman-based orthography or a return to a former script.
Cyrillic alphabets continue to be used in several Slavic and non-Slavic languages.
Common letters
The following table lists the Cyrillic letters which are used in the alphabets of most of the national languages which use a Cyrillic alphabet. Exceptions and additions for particular languages are noted below.| Upright | Italic | Name | IPA |
| А а | А а | A | /a/ |
| Б б | Б б | Be | /b/ |
| В в | В в | Ve | /v/ |
| Г г | Г г | Ge | /g/ |
| Д д | Д д | De | /d/ |
| Е е | Е е | ||
| Ж ж | Ж ж | ||
| З з | З з | Ze | /z/ |
| И и | И и | I | |
| Й й | Й й | Short I | /j/ |
| К к | К к | Ka | /k/ |
| Л л | Л л | El | /l/ |
| М м | М м | Em | |
| Н н | Н н | ||
| О о | О о | O | |
| П п | П п | Pe | |
| Р р | Р р | ||
| С с | С с | /s/ | |
| Т т | Т т | Te | /t/ |
| У у | У у | U | |
| Ф ф | Ф ф | /f/ | |
| Х х | Х х | ||
| Ц ц | Ц ц | ||
| Ч ч | Ч ч | ||
| Ш ш | Ш ш | ||
| Ь ь | Ь ь | ||
| Ю ю | Ю ю | ||
| Я я | Я я |
Slavic languages
Cyrillic alphabets used by Slavic languages can be divided into two categories:- West South Slavic languages, such as all varieties of Serbo-Croatian, often share the following letters, among others: Ј, Љ, Њ
- East South Slavic languages and East Slavic languages, such as Bulgarian and Russian, often share the following letters, among others: Й, Щ, Ь, Ю, Я
South Slavic
Bulgarian
The Bulgarian alphabet shows the following features:- The Bulgarian names for the consonants are,, etc. instead of,, etc.
- Е represents and is called "е". Unlike in other Slavic languages, the sound does not exist in native words, being replaced with Е in most cases.
- The sounds and are represented by the digraphs дж and дз respectively, as in Belarusian and Ukrainian.
- Short I represents, as in Russian.
- Щ represents and is called "щъ" .
- Ъ represents the vowel, and is called "ер голям" . Despite the official name being "big er", the letter is only referred to as that in the context of the alphabet, and is usually called in common speech. The vowel Ъ is sometimes approximated to the sound found in many languages for easier comprehension of its Bulgarian pronunciation for foreigners, but it is actually a back vowel, not a central vowel.
- Ь is used on rare occasions, such as in the words 'каньон', 'шофьор', etc. It represents the sound, unless after Г, К and Л, in which case it palatalizes them to. It is called "ер малък" .
- Before 1945, the letter Ѣ was used. In eastern dialects, the letter would be pronounced as or depending on the context, while in western dialects, it would be pronounced almost exclusively as. This led to cases in which words such as млѣко would be pronounced as "mlyako" in the east, but as "mleko" in the west. In 1945, the letter was abolished and replaced by Я or Е, depending on its use in the eastern dialects. The letter is also referred to as "е двойно".
- Before 1945, the letter Ѫ was used. In early Bulgarian, the letter represented the nasal vowel. By the late 18th century however, the sound had shifted to, the same sound as Ъ, and was mostly used in its etymological locations. There are no differences between the two, apart from the fact that Ѫ can be used at the end of words. In 1945, the letter was abolished along with Ѣ and was replaced by А or Ъ. It is sometimes referred to as "голяма носовка" and "ъ широко".
- For a brief period, the letter Ѭ was used, during the use of the Drinov Orthography, and represented the sound in words verb conjugations, for example in търпѭ. The letter Ѫ was also used for the same purpose alongside its normal usage. In 1899, both letters replaced in verb conjugations by Я and А in all cases as part of the new Ivanchov Orthography.
It has been used in Bulgaria continuously since then, superseding the previously used Glagolitic alphabet, which was also invented and used there before the Cyrillic script overtook its use as a written script for the Bulgarian language. The Cyrillic alphabet was used in the then much bigger territory of Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Northern Greece, Romania and Moldova, officially from 893. It was also transferred from Bulgaria and adopted by the East Slavic languages in Kievan Rus' and evolved into the Russian alphabet and the alphabets of many other Slavic languages. Later, some Slavs modified it and added/excluded letters from it to better suit the needs of their own language varieties.
Serbian
Cyrillic alphabets are generally derived from Serbian Cyrillic. It, and by extension its descendants, differs from the East Slavic ones in that the alphabet has generally been simplified: Letters such as Й, Я, Ю, and Щ representing /j/, /ja/, /ju/, and /ɕ/ in Russian, respectively, have been removed. Instead, these are represented by the letter and digraphs,, and, respectively. Additionally, the letter Е, representing in Russian, is instead pronounced or, with being represented by. Alphabets based on the Serbian that add new letters often do so by adding an acute accent over an existing letter.The Serbian alphabet shows the following features:
- E represents.
- Between Д and E is the letter Dje, representing, which looks like Tshe, except that the loop of the h curls farther and dips downwards.
- Between И and К is the letter Je, representing, which looks like the Latin letter J.
- Between Л and М is the letter Lje, representing, which looks like a ligature of Л and the Soft Sign.
- Between Н and О is the letter Nje, representing, which looks like a ligature of Н and the Soft Sign.
- Between Т and У is the letter Tshe, representing and looks like a lowercase Latin letter h with a bar. On the uppercase letter, the bar appears at the top; on the lowercase letter, the bar crosses the top at half of the vertical line.
- Between Ч and Ш is the letter Dzhe, representing, which looks like Tse but with the descender moved from the right side of the bottom bar to the middle of the bottom bar.
- Ш is the last letter.
- Certain letters are handwritten differently, as seen in the adjacent image.
Montenegrin
The Montenegrin alphabet differs from Serbian in the following ways:- Between Ze and I is the letter З́, which represents . It is written in the corresponding Montenegrin Latin alphabet, previously written or.
- Between Es and Te is the letter С́, which represents . It is written in the corresponding Montenegrin Latin alphabet, previously written or.
- The letter Dze, from Macedonian, is used in scientific literature when representing the phoneme, although it is not officially part of the alphabet. A Latin equivalent was proposed that looks identical to Ze.
Macedonian
The Macedonian alphabet differs from Serbian in the following ways:- Between Ze and I is the letter Dze, which looks like the Latin letter S and represents.
- Dje is replaced by Gje, which represents . In some dialects, it represents instead, like Dje. It is written in the corresponding Macedonian Latin alphabet.
- Tshe is replaced by Kje, which represents . In some dialects, it represents instead, like Tshe. It is written in the corresponding Macedonian Latin alphabet.
- Lje often represents the consonant cluster instead of.
- Certain letters are handwritten differently, as seen in the adjacent image.
Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian
claimed Serbo-Croatian language briefly used the Cyrillic script in areas with large Croatian or Bosnian speaking populations. There is a controversy in naming. Bosniak scholars call it Bosnian Script. Serb scholars call it Serbian script, as part of variant of Serbian Cyrillic and deem the term "bosančica" Anti-Serb Austro-Hungarian propaganda. Croat scholars call it ''Croatian Cyrillic''East Slavic
Russian
The Russian alphabet shows the following features:- Yo indicates.
- As is not a native phoneme, the letter Ef is generally restricted to loanwords/borrowed words.
- Zhe and Sha indicate sounds that are retroflex.
- Shcha indicates.
- The hard sign¹, called “твёрдый знак” in Russian, indicates the lack of palatalization in a context where the consonant would usually be palatalized².
- Yery indicates .
- E indicates.
- In the pre-reform Russian orthography, in Old Russian and in Old Church Slavonic the letter is called yer. Historically, the "hard sign" takes the place of a now-absent vowel, which is still preserved as a distinct vowel in Bulgarian and Slovene, but only in some places in the word.
- When an iotated vowel follows a consonant, the consonant is palatalized. The Hard Sign indicates that this does not happen, and the sound will appear only in front of the vowel. The Soft Sign indicates that the consonant should be palatalized in addition to a preceding the vowel. The Soft Sign also indicates that a consonant before another consonant or at the end of a word is palatalized. Examples: та ; тя ; тья ; тъя ; т ; ть.
Belarusian
The Belarusian alphabet shows the following features:- He or Ge represents a voiced velar fricative /ɣ/.
- Yo represents, just like in Russian.
- I, also known as the dotted I or decimal I, resembles the Latin letter I. Unlike most Cyrillic alphabets, "И" is not used.
- * Short I, however, uses the base И glyph.
- U (Cyrillic)|Short U] is the letter У with a breve and represents, or like the u part of the diphthong in loud. The use of the breve to indicate a semivowel is analogous to the Short I .
- A combination of Sh and Ch is used where those familiar only with Russian and or Ukrainian would expect Shcha .
- Yery represents, similarly to in Russian.
- E represents, just like in Russian.
- An apostrophe is used to indicate the lack of palatalization of the preceding consonant. This orthographical symbol is used instead of the traditional Cyrillic letter Yer , also known as the hard sign.
- The letter combinations Dzh and Dz appear after D in the Belarusian alphabet in some publications. These digraphs represent the affricates Дж and Дз correspondingly.
- Before 1933, the letter Ґ ґ was used for /ɡ/, although its use was optional.
Ukrainian
The Ukrainian alphabet shows the following features:- Ve represents .
- He represents a breathy-voiced glottal transition,, similar to the respective sound in Belarusian.
- Ge appears after He, representing. It looks like He with an "upturn" pointing up from the right side of the top bar. This letter is generally restricted to loanwords/borrowed words.
- E represents.
- Ye appears after E and represents the sound.
- I represents the sound, unlike in Russian.
- Dotted I appears after И and represents the sound, as in Belarusian.
- Yi appears after I and represents the sound.
- Jot represents, as in Russian
- Shcha represents the cluster.
- An apostrophe is used to mark the lack of palatalization of the preceding consonant before Ya, Yu, Ye, Yi, the same as how it’s used in Belarusian.
- Before 1990, Ь was positioned at the end of the alphabet rather than in its current position after Щ; the original order may still show up in historic documents.
- As in Belarusian Cyrillic, the sounds, are represented by digraphs Дж and Дз respectively.
Carpathian Rusyn
The Carpathian Rusyn language is spoken by the Carpatho-Rusyns in Carpathian Ruthenia, Slovakia, and Poland.The Carpathian Rusyn alphabet differs from Ukrainian in that the letters Ё, Ы, and the hard sign, from Russian, are also used, and the order is slightly different.
West Slavic
Pannonian Rusyn
The Pannonian Rusyn language is spoken by the Pannonian Rusyns.This alphabet uses all the letters of the Ukrainian alphabet except Dotted I. Note that Pannonian Rusyn is a West Slavic language despite its name.
Non-Slavic Indo-European languages
Romance languages
Romanian and Moldovan
The Romanian language used the cyrillic script up to the 19th century.The Moldovan language used varieties of the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet in 1812–1918, and the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet in 1924–1932 and 1938–1989. Nowadays, this alphabet is still official in the unrecognized republic of Transnistria.
Ladino
uses the cyrillic script in occasional Bulgarian Sephardic publications.Indo-Aryan
Romani
is written in Cyrillic in Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and the former USSR.Iranian
Kurdish
s in the former Soviet Union use a Cyrillic alphabet:Ossetic
The Ossetic language has officially used the Cyrillic script since 1937.Tajik
The Tajik alphabet is written using a Cyrillic-based alphabet.Other
Uralic languages
using the Cyrillic script include:- Finnic: Karelian until 1921 and 1937–1940 ; Veps; Votic
- Sami: Kildin Sami and Ter Sami in Russia
- Komi
- Udmurt
- Khanty
- Mansi
- Samoyedic: Enets; Yurats; Nenets since 1937 ; Nganasan; Kamassian; Koibal; Mator; Selkup
- Mari, since the 19th century
- Mordvin, since the 18th century
- Other: Merya; Muromian; ''Meshcherian''
Karelian
The Karelian language was written in the Cyrillic script in various forms until 1940 when publication in Karelian ceased in favor of Finnish, except for Tver Karelian, written in a Latin alphabet. In 1989 publication began again in the other Karelian dialects and Latin alphabets were used, in some cases with the addition of Cyrillic letters such as ь.Kildin Sámi
Over the last century, the alphabet used to write Kildin Sámi has changed three times: from Cyrillic to Latin and back again to Cyrillic. Work on the latest version of the official orthography commenced in 1979. It was officially approved in 1982 and started to be widely used by 1987.Komi-Permyak
The Komi-Permyak Cyrillic alphabet:Mari alphabets
Meadow Mari Cyrillic alphabet:'''Hill Mari Cyrillic alphabet'''
Turkic languages
Azerbaijani
;Latin Alphabet : Aa, Bb, Cc, Çç, Dd, Ee, Əə, Ff, Gg, Ğğ, Hh, Xx, Iı, İi, Jj, Kk, Qq, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Öö, Pp, Rr, Ss, Şş, Tt, Uu, Üü, Vv, Yy, ZzBashkir
The Cyrillic script was used for the Bashkir language after the winter of 1938.Chuvash
The Cyrillic alphabet is used for the Chuvash language since the late 19th century, with some changes in 1938.The Cyrillic letters Бб, Гг, Дд, Ёё, Жж, Зз, Оо, Фф, Цц, Щщ and Ъъ are not used in native Chuvash words, but only for Russian loans.
Kazakh
can be alternatively written in the Latin alphabet. Latin is expected to entirely replace Cyrillic by the 2030s, alongside the modified Arabic alphabet.- Ә ә =
- Ғ ғ =
- Е е =
- И и =
- Қ қ =
- Ң ң =
- О о =
- Ө ө =
- У у =,,
- Ұ ұ =
- Ү ү =
- Һ һ =
- Щ щ =
- Ы ы =
- І і =
Kyrgyz
has also been written in Latin and in Arabic.- Ң ң =
- Ү ү =
- Ө ө =
Tatar
Tatar has used Cyrillic since 1939, but the Russian Orthodox Tatar community has used Cyrillic since the 19th century. In 2000 a new Latin alphabet was adopted for Tatar, but it is used generally on the Internet.- Ә ә =
- Ң ң =
- Ө ө =
- У у =,,
- Ү ү =
- Һ һ =
- Җ җ =
Turkmen
, written 1940–1994 exclusively in Cyrillic, since 1994 officially in Roman, but in everyday communication Cyrillic is still used along with Roman script.Uzbek
From 1941 the Cyrillic script was used exclusively. In 1998 the government has adopted a Latin alphabet to replace it. The deadline for making this transition has however been repeatedly changed, and Cyrillic is still more common. It is not clear that the transition will be made at all.- В в =
- Ж ж =
- Ф ф =
- Х х =
- Ъ ъ =
- Ў ў =
- Қ қ =
- Ғ ғ =
- Ҳ ҳ =
Yakut
Several Cyrillic alphabets have been used to write Yakut, but the current alphabet was adopted in 1939.Letters in Bold are only used in Russian Loanwords.
Other
- Altai
- Crimean Tatar
- Gagauz
- Karachay-Balkar
- Karakalpak
- Karaim
- Khakas
- Kumyk
- Nogai
- Tuvan
- Uyghur – Uyghur Cyrillic alphabet. Used along with Uyghur Arabic alphabet, New Script, and modern Uyghur Latin alphabet.
- Dolgan
- Gagauz Turkish">Gagauz language">Gagauz Turkish
- Urum
- Siberian Tatar
- Siberian Turkic
Caucasian languages
Northwest Caucasian languages
Living Northwest Caucasian languages are generally written using Cyrillic alphabets.Abaza
is a Caucasian language, spoken by Abazins in the Karachay-Cherkessia Republic, Russia.| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Гв гв | Гъ гъ | Гъв гъв | Гъь гъь | Гь гь |
| Гӏ гӏ | Гӏв гӏв | Д д | Дж дж | Джв джв | Джь джь | Дз дз | Е е | Ё ё |
| Ж ж | Жв жв | Жь жь | З з | И и | Й й | К к | Кв кв | Къ къ |
| Къв къв | Къь къь | Кь кь | Кӏ кӏ | Кӏв кӏв | Кӏь кӏь | Л л | Ль ль | |
| М м | Н н | О о | П п | Пӏ пӏ | Р р | С с | Т т | Тл тл |
| Тш тш | Тӏ тӏ | У у | Ф ф | Х х | Хв хв | Хъ хъ | Хъв хъв | |
| Хь хь | Хӏ хӏ | Хӏв хӏв | Ц ц | Цӏ цӏ | Ч ч | Чв чв | Чӏ чӏ | Чӏв чӏв |
| Ш ш | Шв шв | Шӏ шӏ | Щ щ | Ъ ъ | Ы ы | Э э | Ю ю | Я я |
- Digraphs in parentheses are dialectal, and are therefore absent from the literary language and the official alphabet.
Abkhaz
is a Caucasian language, spoken in the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, Georgia.| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Гь гь | Гә гә | Ӷ ӷ | Ӷь ӷь | Ӷә ӷә |
| Д д | Дә дә | Е е | Ж ж | Жь жь | Жә жә | З з | Ӡ ӡ | Ӡә ӡә |
| И и | К к | Кь кь | Кә кә | Қ қ | Қь қь | Қә қә | Ҟ ҟ | Ҟь ҟь |
| Ҟә ҟә | Л л | М м | Н н | О о | П п | Ԥ ԥ | Р р | С с |
| Т т | Тә тә | Ҭ ҭ | Ҭә ҭә | У у | Ф ф | Х х | Хь хь | Хә хә |
| Ҳ ҳ | Ҳә ҳә | Ц ц | Цә цә | Ҵ ҵ | Ҵә ҵә | Ч ч | Ҷ ҷ | Ҽ ҽ |
| Ҿ ҿ | Ш ш | Шь шь | Шә шә | Ы ы | Ҩ ҩ | Џ џ | Џь џь | - |
- For older conventions, see Abkhaz alphabet.
Adyghe
is a Caucasian language, spoken in the Republic of Adygea, Russia.| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Гу гу | Гъ гъ | Гъу гъу | Д д | Дж дж | Дз дз | Дзу дзу |
| Е е | Ё ё | Ж ж | Жъ жъ | Жъу жъу | Жь жь | З з | И и | Й й | К к | Ку ку |
| Къ къ | Къу къу | Кӏ кӏ | Кӏу кӏу | Л л | Лъ лъ | Лӏ лӏ | М м | Н н | О о | П п |
| Пӏ пӏ | Пӏу пӏу | Р р | С с | Т т | Тӏ тӏ | Тӏу тӏу | У у | Ф ф | Х х | Хъ хъ |
| Хъу хъу | Хь хь | Ц ц | Цу цу | Цӏ цӏ | Ч ч | Чъ чъ | Чӏ чӏ | Ш ш | Шъ шъ | Шъу шъу |
| Шӏ шӏ | Шӏу шӏу | Щ щ | Ы ы | Э э | Ю ю | Я я | Ӏ ӏ | Ӏу ӏу |
- Letters in parentheses are only used in digraphs.
Kabardian
is a Caucasian language, spoken in the Republics of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, Russia.| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Гу гу | Гъ гъ | Гъу гъу | Д д | Дж дж | Дз дз |
| Е е | Ё ё | Ж ж | Жь жь | З з | И и | Й й | К к | Ку ку | Кӏ кӏ |
| Кӏу кӏу | Къ къ | Къу къу | Кхъ кхъ | Кхъу кхъу | Л л | Лъ лъ | Лӏ лӏ | М м | Н н |
| О о | П п | Пӏ пӏ | Р р | С с | Т т | Тӏ тӏ | У у | Ф ф | Фӏ фӏ |
| Х х | Ху ху | Хъ хъ | Хъу хъу | Хь хь | Ц ц | Цӏ цӏ | Ч ч | Ш ш | Щ щ |
| Щӏ щӏ | Ъ ъ | Ы ы | Ь ь | Э э | Ю ю | Я я | Ӏ ӏ | Ӏу ӏу | - |
Northeast Caucasian languages
are generally written using Cyrillic alphabets.Avar
is a Caucasian language, spoken in the Republic of Dagestan, of the Russian Federation, where it is co-official together with other Caucasian languages like Dargwa, Lak, Lezgian and Tabassaran. All these alphabets, and other ones have an extra sign: palochka, which gives voiceless occlusive consonants its particular ejective sound.| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Гъ гъ | Гь гь | Гӏ гӏ | Д д |
| Е е | Ё ё | Ж ж | З з | И и | Й й | К к | Къ къ |
| Кь кь | Кӏ кӏ | Кӏкӏ кӏкӏ | Кк кк | Л л | М м | Н н | О о |
| П п | Р р | С с | Т т | Тӏ тӏ | У у | Ф ф | Х х |
| Хх хх | Хъ хъ | Хь хь | Хӏ хӏ | Ц ц | Цц цц | Цӏ цӏ | Цӏцӏ цӏцӏ |
| Ч ч | Чӏ чӏ | Чӏчӏ чӏчӏ | Ш ш | Щ щ | Ъ ъ | Ы ы | Ь ь |
| Э э | Ю ю | Я я | Ӏ | - | - | - | - |
- В =
- гъ =
- гь =
- гӀ =
- къ =
- кӀ =
- кь =
- кӀкӀ =, is also written ЛӀ лӀ.
- кк =, is also written Лъ лъ.
- тӀ =
- х =
- хъ =
- хь =
- хӀ =
- цӀ =
- чӀ =
- Double consonants, called "fortis", are pronounced longer than single consonants.
Lezgian
is spoken by the Lezgins, who live in southern Dagestan and northern Azerbaijan. Lezgian is a literary language and an official language of Dagestan.Other
Mongolian
The Mongolic languages include Khalkha, Buryat and Kalmyk. Khalkha Mongolian is also written with the Mongol vertical alphabet, which was the official script before 1941. Since the beginning of the 1990s Mongolia has been making attempts to extend the rather limited use of Mongol script and the most recent National Plan for Mongol Script aims to bring its use to the same level as Cyrillic by 2025 and maintain a dual-script system.Overview
This table contains all the characters used.''Һһ is shown twice as it appears at two different locations in Buryat and Kalmyk''
Khalkha
- В в =
- Е е =,
- Ё ё =
- Ж ж =
- З з =
- Ий ий =
- Й й = the second element of closing diphthongs and long , it never indicates /j/ in native words
- Н н =,
- Ө ө =
- У у =
- Ү ү =
- Ы ы =
- Ь ь = palatalization of the preceding consonant
- Ю ю =,
Buryat
The Buryat Cyrillic script is similar to the Khalkha above, but Ьь indicates palatalization as in Russian. Buryat does not use Вв, Кк, Пп, Фф, Цц, Чч, Щщ or Ъъ in its native words.- Е е =,
- Ё ё =
- Ж ж =
- Й й = the second element of closing diphthongs, it never indicates /j/ in native words
- Н н =,
- Өө өө =, ө does not occur in short form in literary Buryat based on the Khori dialect
- У у =
- Ү ү =
- Һ һ =
- Ы ы =,
- Ю ю =
Kalmyk
The Kalmyk Cyrillic script differs from Khalkha in some respects: there are additional letters, letters Ээ, Юю and Яя appear only word-initially, long vowels are written double in the first syllable, but single in syllables after the first. Short vowels are omitted altogether in syllables after the first syllable. Жж and Пп are used in loanwords only, but Пп may occur in native onomatopoeic words.- Ә ә =
- В в =
- Һ һ =
- Е е =,
- Җ җ =
- Ң ң =
- Ө ө =
- У у =
- Ү ү =
Sino-Tibetan
Dungan language
Since 1953.- Letters in bold are used only in Russian loanwords.
Tungusic languages
Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages
Chukchi language
Since 1936.Koryak language
Since 1936.Itelmen language
Since late 1980s.Eskaleut languages
Central Siberian Yupik language
Chaplino dialect
The letters Ӷ ӷ, Ӄ ӄ, Ӈ ӈ, Ӽ ӽ are sometimes replaced by Гʼ гʼ, Кʼ кʼ, Нʼ нʼ, Хʼ хʼ or Ґ ґ, Қ қ, Ң ң, Ҳ ҳ.Sirenik language
- Letters in bold are used only in Russian loanwords.