Why are the letters in the alphabet in this order?

Often I meet the answer to this question on the Internet in this form: "this is an inexplicable fact." But I still found some explanations, which I want to convey to you. And you already tell me if you have heard a different version.

With the Russian alphabet, everything is simple. Slavic writing is only a little over a thousand years old, and its history is known. In the second half of the 9th century, the brothers Cyril and Methodius decided to bring Christianity to the Slavic world, and since Christianity is the religion of the book, Cyril invented the alphabet for the Slavs, the Glagolitic alphabet.

Cyril came up with the original styles (although based on the Greek minuscule common in those days), but kept the order in general terms. Maybe then, so that it would still be convenient to denote numbers with letters. Maybe because he did not know another order. Maybe because the alphabetical order of the language of the Bible is sacred - it is said in the Bible: “I am alpha and omega”, that is, the beginning and the end.

The only thing was to give some place to the letters that denoted sounds that were absent in Greek: B, Zh, C, Ch, Sh, etc. And they were placed either next to the letters denoting the most similar sounds (B - next to C, G - next to Z), or at the end of the alphabet. When Cyrillic, more similar to Greek letters, was used instead of the Glagolitic alphabet, the alphabetical order was generally preserved, although some rare letters in different lists occupy different places, and some are found only in part of the lists.

The Greek alphabet took its letter order from Semitic writing. There is a legend about the Phoenician Cadmus, who taught the Greeks writing. Like the Slavs, the Greeks needed additional letters, so at the end of the Greek alphabet we see phi (Φ), chi (Χ), psi (Ψ) and omega (Ω) missing from the Phoenicians. By the way, these letters are not in the early lists, the alphabet ends either in upslon (Y) or in general in tau (T).

Ultimately, the Latin alphabet goes back to the same source, which is why the order of the letters in it differs so little from the Russian that we are used to. Perhaps the most noticeable is that in place of G in front of the letter D (D) we see C (read as “k”). But if you look at the Latin letter G, you can see that it is derived from C (and was produced quite late - that's why the name Gaius was abbreviated with the letter C for a long time - never heard of "Caius" Julius Caesar?).

But where the order of the letters in the Semitic letter came from is not known exactly. The signs themselves, most likely, did not arise without the influence of Egyptian writing, but the Semites themselves came up with the order. Moreover, even before the appearance of the Semitic writing itself: for the first time it is found in the Ugaritic letter, and it is cuneiform.

If the Europeans simply copied the order of the letters (perhaps in order to preserve, at least for the most part, their numerical values ​​behind the letters), then the ancient Indians, who had a good linguistic tradition, having received the Semitic letter at their disposal, arranged the letters in accordance with the pronunciation: first vowels, then consonants, and within these groups the order is also not random. And the Indians came up with separate numbers for themselves. Then, through the Arabs, these figures reached Europe, and we know them under the name "Arab" - but that's another story.

Here's another opinion: The fact is that the system of the current alphabet comes from the old Russian alphabet. And to memorize it, the method of mental images was used. After all, it is easier to memorize a meaningful text than to memorize a set of characters. So there was precisely such an order and no other. Of course, over time, it changed, some letters left, some were added, but the skeleton, so to speak, remained.

“Az beeches vede. The verb is good. Live green, earth, and, like some people, think of our peace. Rtsy word firmly - uk furt her. Tsy, worm, shta ra yus yati.

One possible translation of this text is as follows:
“I know letters: writing is a treasure. Work hard, earthlings, as befits reasonable people - comprehend the universe!
Carry the word with conviction: knowledge is a gift from God! Dare, delve into, in order to comprehend the light of existence!

Or something else interesting:

Squared 7 by 7

In the first line:

I know God, I say good, so I exist.

In the second line:

Life is abundant on Earth when universal truth is in community from God.

In the third line:

For all thinking people only He (God) speaks peace.

On the fourth line:

The word, approved from above, calls to confidently hold on to the foundations of the wisdom of goodness in order to complete the path, to come into harmony for a new beginning.

On the fifth line:

The protection of our earth's borders and growth ensure God's protection and our unity.

On the sixth line:

The harmonious development and growth potential of my family and me, as a part of it, depends on the Supreme source and the history of the family.

On the seventh line:

The meaning of life is to strive to perfect the spirit and soul until it fully matures into a perfect personality in eternity.

Vertical 1 column:

My life is like a thought clothed in sound, striving for harmony, the smallest particle of reason in the universe.

2nd column:

God creates a solid boundary around people and directs them to self-improvement.

3rd column:

Knowledge of the Earth and reflection on it call for peace in the spirit of our kind (people).

4 column:

To speak the truth is our tradition, our protection, part of our soul. (What is the strength of a brother? - In Truth!)

5 column:

The benefit of the Universe is that God the Creator confidently and firmly creates the growth of everything, for the complete maturation of the seed.

6 column:

The essence of the existence of human society in peace, peace, balance, harmony, unity from the Supreme Source to the perfect soul.

7 column:

The existing heavenly Source brings to our world both the beginning of everything and the growth of everything, and the experience of people in time.

Diagonal from top to bottom and left to right:

I think a lot and the basis of my creativity is the supreme Source always.

Russian alphabet - a coded message from time immemorial

It fully possesses such a feature as acrophony, differing significantly from Hebrew

The Russian alphabet is a completely unique phenomenon among all known ways of letter writing. The alphabet differs from other alphabets not only in the almost perfect embodiment of the principle of unambiguous graphic display "one sound - one letter". The alphabet also has content, I would even say, a whole message from the depths of centuries (sorry for the pathos), which we, if we try a little, can read literally.

To begin with, let's recall the phrase familiar from childhood "Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant is sitting" - an excellent algorithm for remembering the sequence of colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple). This is the so-called. acrophonic way: each word of the phrase begins with the same letter as the name of the color (acrophony is the formation of words from the initial letters of the original phrase. Words are not read by alphabetic letter names, but like an ordinary word).

Morse code with chants

However, acrophonic memorization is far from "toys". For example, after Morse's invention in 1838 of the famous code for telegraph messages, the problem of mass training of telegraph operators arose. Quickly memorizing Morse code turned out to be more difficult than the multiplication table. The solution was found: for the convenience of remembering, each Morse sign was opposed to a word starting with the letter that this sign conveys. For example, "dot-dash" became "watermelon" because "a" is transmitted. In short, acrophony provides a convenient memorization of the alphabet and, as a result, its fastest possible distribution.

Among the major European alphabets, three are acrophonic to some extent: Greek, Hebrew, and Cyrillic (Glagolitic). In the Latin alphabet, this feature is completely absent, therefore, the Latin alphabet could appear only on the basis of already widespread writing, when there is no longer a need for acrophony.

Greek alphabet (bunchoffun.com)

In the Greek alphabet, remnants of this phenomenon can be traced in the names of 14 of the 27 letters: alpha, beta (more correctly - vita), gamma, etc. However, these words do not mean anything in Greek and are slightly distorted derivatives of the Hebrew words "aleph" (bull ), “bet” (house), “gimel” (camel), etc. Hebrew still retains acrophony completely, which, by the way, contributes a lot to the rapid learning of immigrants in Israel. By the way, the comparison on the basis of acrophonicity directly indicates a certain borrowing of the Hebrew script by the Greeks.

Hebrew text (chedelat.ru)

The Proto-Slavic alphabet also fully possesses the sign of acrophony, but differs significantly from Hebrew, as Yaroslav Kesler, a Russian chemist, musician, author of works in the field of history and linguistics, writes in his book “ABC: A Message to the Slavs”. Among the Jews, all the names of letters are nouns in the singular and the nominative case. But among the names of 29 letters of the Slavic alphabet - at least 7 verbs. Of these, 4 are in the imperative mood: two in the singular (rtsy, tsy) and two in the plural (think, live), one verb in the indefinite form (yat), one in the third person singular (eat) and one - in the past tense (lead). Moreover, among the names of letters there are pronouns (kako, shta), and adverbs (firmly, zelo), and plural nouns (people, beeches).

In a normal connected conversation, one verb falls on average into three other parts of speech. In the names of the letters of the Proto-Slavic alphabet, such a sequence is observed, which directly indicates the coherent nature of the alphabetic names.

Alphabet Message (megabook.ru)

Thus, the Proto-Slavic alphabet is a Message - a set of coding phrases that allow each sound of the language system to give an unambiguous graphic correspondence (i.e., a letter).

And now - WARNING! Consider the first three letters of the alphabet - az, beeches, lead.

Az - "I".

Beeches (beeches) - "letters, letters."

Lead (vede) - “learned”, perfect past tense from “lead” - know, know.

Combining the acrophonic names of the first three letters of the alphabet, we get the following: “az buki vede” - “I know the letters”.

Combined into phrases and all subsequent letters of the alphabet:

A verb is a “word”, and not only spoken, but also written.

Good - "property, acquired wealth."

There is (este) - the third person singular from the verb "to be".

We read: "the verb is good" - "the word is a property."

Live - imperative mood, plural of "live" - ​​"live in labor, and not vegetate."

Zelo - "zealously, with zeal" (cf. English zeal - stubborn, zealous, jealous - jealous, as well as the biblical name Zealot - "jealous").

Earth - "planet Earth and its inhabitants, earthlings."

And - the union "and".

Izhe - "those who, they are."

Kako - “like”, “like”.

Humans are "reasonable beings".

We read: “live zealously, earth, and others like you” - “live, working hard, earthlings, and as befits people.”

Think - imperative mood, plural of "think, comprehend with the mind."

Nash - "our" in the usual sense.

On - "one" in the meaning of "the only one."

Chambers (peace) - "the basis (of the universe)". Wed "to rest" - "to be based on something."

We read: "think our peace" - "comprehend our universe."

Rtsy (rtsi) - imperative mood: "speak, utter, read aloud." Wed "speech".

Yat (yati) - "to comprehend, to have."

“Tsy, worm, shta bra yus yati!” stands for "Dare, sharpen, worm, in order to comprehend the light of Jehovah!".

The combination of the above phrases makes up the alphabetical Message:

“Az beeches vede. The verb is good. Live green, earth, and, like some people, think of our peace. Rtsy word firmly - uk feret Kher. Tsy, worm, shta bra yus yati! And if you give this message a modern sound, it will turn out something like this:

I know letters.
The letter is a treasure.
Work hard earthlings
As befits reasonable people.
Comprehend the universe!
Carry the word with conviction:
Knowledge is a gift from God!
Dare, delve into
To comprehend the light of existence!

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Suddenly: words bull and bee- single root. Words starting with a letter Y, in our language as many as 74. And in the Guinness Book of Records, a word is recorded with a length of 35 letters.

website never ceases to be amazed at the complexity and richness of the Russian language and presents 20 interesting and unexpected facts that you probably did not know:

• Most words with a letter F in Russian - borrowed. Pushkin was proud that in The Tale of Tsar Saltan there was only one word with this letter - fleet.

• There are only 74 words in Russian that begin with the letter Y. But most of us only remember iodine, yoga and Yoshkar-Olu.

• Russian has words for S. These are the names of Russian cities and rivers: Ygyatta, Ylymakh, Ynakhsyt, Ynykchansky, Ytyk-kyul.

• The only words in Russian with three letters E in a row is long-necked(and others on - neck: for example, crooked-, short-).

• There is a word in Russian with a prefix unique to the language co- - nook and cranny.

• The only word in the Russian language that does not have a root is take out. It is believed that in this word the so-called zero root, which is in alternation with the root - them- (take out). Previously, until about the 17th century, this verb looked like take out, and it had a material root, the same as in take off, embrace, understand(cf. take, hug, understand), but subsequently the root - nya- was reinterpreted as a suffix - well- (how in poke, puff).

• The only one-syllable adjective in Russian is evil.

• There are words in Russian with prefixes unique to the language and- (total, total) and a- (maybe; obsolete "but no luck") formed from unions and and a.

• The words bull and bee- single root. In the works of ancient Russian literature, the word bee spelled like bchela. Vowel alternation b / s explained by the origin of both sounds from one Indo-European sound u. If you remember the dialect verb thrash, meaning "roar", "buzz", "buzz" and etymologically related to the words bee, bug and bull, then it becomes clear what was the general meaning of these words.
• Dahl suggested replacing a foreign word atmosphere into Russian colosemia or mycoholic.

• Until the 14th century in Russia, all indecent words were called "absurd verbs."

• In the 1993 Guinness Book of Records, the longest word in the Russian language is X-ray electrocardiographic, in the 2003 edition - highly contemplative.

• In the Grammar Dictionary of the Russian Language by A. A. Zaliznyak, 2003 edition, the longest (in letters) common noun in the dictionary form is an adjective private enterprise. Consists of 25 letters.

• The longest verbs - be re-examined, to be substantiveized and internationalize(all - 24 letters; word forms -permanent and -becoming- 25 letters each).

• The longest nouns - misanthropy and excellency(24 letters each; word forms -ami- 26 letters, however, misanthropy practically not used in the plural. h.).

• The longest animate nouns are eleventh grader and clerk(by 21 letters, word forms -ami- 23 letters each).

• The longest adverb in the dictionary is unsatisfactory(19 letters). However, it should be noted that from the vast majority of quality adjectives on th / -th adverbs are formed -about / -e, which are not always fixed by the dictionary.

• The longest interjection included in the Grammar Dictionary is physical education hello(15 or 14 letters depending on the status of the hyphen).

• Word respectively is the longest sentence. It consists of 14 letters. The longest particle exclusively- a letter shorter.

• There are so-called insufficient verbs in Russian. Sometimes the verb does not have any form, and this is due to the laws of euphony. For example: win. He will win, you win i... win? I will run? victory? Philologists suggest using replacement constructions "I will win" or "I will be the winner". Since there is no 1st person singular form, the verb is "insufficient".

• The English use the mnemonic "yellow-blue bus" to successfully master the difficult phrase "I love you".

Each language is like an encyclopedia of the life of a whole nation. He reveals the secrets of mentality and customs. But most often it happens that all the unusual features of a language are seen not by its native speakers, but by those who study it as a foreign language. As they say, the view from the side is the most correct. We have collected for you 10 interesting facts about the Russian language that will surprise you.

Strange letters without sounds

If you have learned any language with Latin transcription, then you can easily remember the Latin alphabet. Each letter has its own sound, and any of them can be pronounced. But in Russian there are two letters that are simply impossible to pronounce. That is why, when repeating the alphabet, it is not the sound of these letters that is pronounced, but their names are pronounced. As you may have guessed, we are talking about a hard and soft sign. By the way, they also present a lot of problems when writing, since they are very similar in writing. And if the text is written by hand, foreigners sometimes have to just guess what kind of letter it is.

"Az" and "I": letters that have changed places

There is a famous saying: "I" is the last letter of the alphabet. It is often said to people who take on a lot and like to consider any problem only from their own point of view. But this proverb was not always true. For example, in the Old Slavonic alphabet and dialect, it was customary to say not “I”, but “Az”. And "Az" was the first letter of the Old Slavonic alphabet, which was at one time the ancestor of the modern Russian alphabet.

The letter "Yo" - that is, that is not

But this letter is the youngest in the alphabet. It appeared only at the end of the 18th century. Prior to this, two letters were used to write words such as "hedgehog", "honey" or "come" - "io". However, even today, in most Russian books or print media, instead of “yo” they write “e”, hoping that the reader will understand what this word is in meaning. But for foreigners, this sometimes causes a lot of trouble.

Being a "Baba" is an honor

Another interesting historical fact. Today, the word "woman" is usually used by Russian speakers to pejoratively refer to the fair sex. But even in Tsarist Russia, this was not at all considered an insult. On the contrary, a "woman" is a woman who gave birth to a son. And so she enjoyed honor and respect.

The letter "A", for which there are no Russian words

It so happened that the entire vocabulary of the Russian language, which begins with the letter "A" - is borrowed. There are very few exceptions, for example, "ABC" or "Maybe". But the second is almost never used in colloquial speech today.

longest word

And this word is perfect for training diction - X-ray electrocardiographic. It consists of 33 letters. Exactly from the same number as there are letters in the entire Russian alphabet. True, in speech it is used extremely rarely. But the most frequently used long word consists of 14 letters - “respectively”.

The popularity of the Russian language

Although today everyone is learning English, Russian is also very common in the world. Almost every country has its own Russian-speaking diaspora. And if we talk about modern technologies, then in terms of prevalence on the Internet, the Russian language is second only to English. And don't forget that Russian is the first language spoken in space.

A few more unusual words

Just a few words with which you can amuse your friends. The word with the most letters “O” (as many as 7) is “defense”. Two words in which three letters “E” are written at once in a row - “snake-eater” and “long-necked”.

"X" is a cross

Such a word as "fuck" has nothing to do with obscene vocabulary. It comes from the Old Slavonic name of the letter "X" - "dick". And the word “fuck” itself meant to cross out something, that is, to put the letters “X”, or a cross. By the way, the expression "put an end to deeds" also comes from the letter "X".

What an absurdity...

The word "beauty" means beauty. But its direct antonym "absurdity", on the contrary, means ugliness. And in Russian, all swear words were called “absurd”.

But these are not all the riddles and secrets of the Russian language. With the rest, we will help you figure it out in our courses. , learn Russian and learn its secrets.

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One of the most complex and multifaceted in the world. It is spoken by a huge number of people in almost all corners of our planet. It is the sixth in terms of the number of speakers and the eighth in terms of the number of native speakers. How much do we know about our mother tongue? I propose to get acquainted with 20 curious facts about him.

Fact 1

In Russian, almost all words where the first letter is "A" are borrowed. There are very few words on "A", which arose with us, in modern use - "AZBUKA", "AZ" and "AVOS".

Fact 2

"X" in the Old Russian alphabet was called "HER". That's where the derivative "FUCK" came from. It meant crossing something with a cross. But over time, it acquired a familiar meaning for us, such as "LOSE" or "SPIT".

Fact 3

In Russian, there are words where there are three "E"s in a row. There are only two of them - exotic "ZMEEED" and "LONG NECK".

Fact 4

In Russia, until the 19th century, all indecent words were called absurd verbs. "Babe" meant beauty and grace, and "absurd" - the opposite of babble, that is, its antonym.

Fact 5

The longest frequently used word in our language has 14 letters. By the way, it is both a union and at the same time. This is "ACCORDINGLY".

Fact 6

English learners of Russian have their own secret for remembering the sentence "I LOVE YOU". They use a similar phrase in their language "YELLOW BLUE BUS", literally translated as "yellow-blue bus".

Fact 7

Our alphabet is rather strange. In it, some letters are similar to Latin ones. But others, although spelled the same, sound completely different. There are also two letters that cannot be pronounced at all, they do not have their own sounds - these are hard and soft signs.

Fact 8

In our language, there are words that have the first letter "Y". Many remember only "YOD", "YOGA", "YOSHKAR-OLA". And there are already 74 of them.

Fact 9

There are words that start with the letter "Y". True, they are used only as the names of cities and rivers located in Russia: YLYMAKH, YNAKHSYT, YTYK-KEEL.

Fact 10

Surprisingly, we have one word where "O" is used as many as seven times. This is DEFENSE.

Fact 11

Russian is currently spoken by 260 million people. On the Internet, it is the second most popular, second only to English.

Fact 12

Since 2009, the Ministry of Education has legalized the admissibility of the use of the word "COFFEE" both in the masculine and in the neuter gender.

Fact 13

The word "BABA" has now become slang. But before it was considered an honor to be. Moreover, this title had to be earned. Baba is a woman who gave birth to a son (namely, a son, not a daughter).

Fact 14

The word "HOOLIGAN" is not of Russian origin at all. It arose on behalf of the English family Huligan, whose members were distinguished by their violent temper.

Fact 15

The letter "Yo" is the youngest in the alphabet. It appeared only in 1873.

Fact 16

It was in Russian that the first words in space were spoken. By whom? Of course, Yuri Gagarin.

Fact 17

In 1993, the Guinness Book of Records recorded the longest word in our native language - this is "X-RAY ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHIC". It has 33 letters.

Fact 18

The human hand is not only an important part of the body. They like to “use” her in many stable expressions in the Russian language: “Wear on hands”, “Hands itch”, “Hand in hand”.

Fact 19

In the Old Slavonic language, "I" was the very first letter of the alphabet.

Fact 20

In the 18th century, the exclamation point was called the point of surprise.

And on this we will put a bold point of surprise. Develop, study (including thanks to) and love your native language!

If you know any other interesting facts, do not be greedy, share them with others in the comments to this article.