Romanian Cyrillic alphabet

The Romanian Cyrillic alphabet is the Cyrillic alphabet that was used to write the Romanian language and Church Slavonic as early as the 14th century, and used until the early 1860s, when it began to be gradually replaced by a Latin-based Romanian alphabet. Cyrillic remained in occasional use until the 1920s, mostly in Russian-ruled Bessarabia.Ileana-Stanca Desa, Dulciu Morărescu, Ioana Patriche, Adriana Raliade, Iliana Sulică, Publicațiile periodice românești (ziare, gazete, reviste). Vol. III: Catalog alfabetic 1919–1924, pp. 235–236, 264, 368, 374, 575, 708, 1024. Bucharest: Editura Academiei, 1987

From the 1860s until the full adoption of the Latin alphabet, the Romanian transitional alphabet was in place, combining Cyrillic and Latin letters, and including some of the Latin letters with diacritics that remain in the modern Romanian alphabet.George Baiculescu, Georgeta Răduică, Neonila Onofrei, Publicațiile periodice românești (ziare, gazete, reviste). Vol. II: Catalog alfabetic 1907–1918. Supliment 1790–1906, pp. 763, 801, 810, 813, 832, 867. Bucharest: Editura Academiei, 1969 The Romanian Orthodox Church continued using the alphabet in its publications until 1881.Grigore Chiriță, Societatea din Principatele Unite Române în perioada constituirii statului național (1856-1866), p. 134. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române, 2004,

The Romanian Cyrillic alphabet is not the same as the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet (which is based on the modern Russian alphabet) that was used in the Moldavian SSR for most of the Soviet era and that is still used in Transnistria.

Orthography The orthographic rules for the Romanian Cyrillic script were relatively inconsistent, especially differing from region to region.

Some of the more common (especially in the late 18th century) standards include:

'ь' is placed at the end of words ending in a consonant. It represents the archaic Romanian "short asyllabic final u sound", which was denoted with 'ꙋ' or 'ꙋ꙼' in some older texts. 'ь' was eventually dropped to reduce printing cost. The breve mark is used to mark a vowel as short, such as with 'й' and 'Ꙋ꙼' which are not considered separate from 'и' and 'ꙋ' respectively. Є, Ѻ, Оу and Ꙗ are the initial variants of Е, О, Ꙋ, Ѧ respectively. І is the equivalent of И before a vowel. It is also used in Greek loanwords and proper names. Ꙟ serves as the word initial equivalent of ѫ. It can represent the sounds /ɨn/ and /ɨm/ as well. Ѯ Ѱ Ѳ Ѵ are only used in Greek loanwords. Ѵ usually represents the sounds /i/ when proceeding a consonant and /v/ when proceeding a vowel. Although educated speakers likely pronounced it as /y/. 'іꙋ' or iotated ꙋ may be used in place of 'ю' in proper names.

'ꙍ' can be used as a variation of 'ѻ' as well as replacing 'o' when stressed. It also appears in the endings of words in the genitive and dative. It rarely represents the diphthong /o̯a/ more often representing the diphthong /ŭə/.

Table of correspondence

The Romanian Cyrillic alphabet was close to the contemporary version of the Early Cyrillic alphabet of the Church Slavonic liturgical language.

Letter Numericalvalue RomanianLatinequivalent Transitionalalphabet MoldovanCyrillicequivalent Phoneme RomaniannameAccording to , first published in p.337–343 Slavonicequiv.name А а 1 a A a а () Б  b Б б () В в 2 v В в в () Г г 3 gh (before e, i)g (elsewhere) G g г () Д д 4 d D d д () Є є, Е е 5 e E e е () Ж ж j Ж ж ж () Ѕ ѕ 6 dz Ḑ ḑ дз () З з 7 z Z z з () И и 8 i I i и () Й й i Ĭ ĭ й І і 10 i I i и () К к 20 ch (before e, i)c (elsewhere) К к or K k к () Л л 30 l Л л л () М м 40 m M m м () Н н 50 n N n н () Ѻ ѻ, О о 70 o O o о () П п 80 p П п п () Р р 100 r Р р р () С с 200 s S s с () Т т 300 t T t т () ОУ оу 400 u Ꙋ ꙋBook written in the transitional alphabet showing various letter forms (Ȣ, ȣ, ɣ) у () Оу Ȣ, У Ȣ Ф ф 500 f F f ф () Х х 600 h Х х х () Ѡ ѡ 800 o O o о () Щ щ șt Щ щ шт () Ц ц 900 ț Ц ц ц Ч ч 90 c (before e, i)ci (elsewhere) Ч ч ч () Ш ш ș Ш ш ш () Ъ ъ ă, ŭ Ъ ъ э () Ы ы, Ꙑ ꙑ â, î Î î ы () Ь ь ă, ŭ, ĭ Ꙋ̆ ꙋ̆ ь — () Ѣ ѣ ea Ea ea я () Ю ю iu Ĭꙋ ĭꙋ ю / () Ꙗ ꙗ ia Ĭa ĭa я () Ѥ ѥ ie Ĭe ĭe ие () Ѧ ѧ ĭa, ea Ĭa ĭa, Ea ea я () Ѫ ѫ î Î î ы () Ѯ ѯ 60 x Ks ks кс () Ѱ ѱ 700 ps Пs пs пс () Ѳ ѳ 9 th, ft T t, Ft ft т, фт and approx. or () Ѵ ѵ 400 i, u I i; Ꙋ ꙋ и, у () Ꙟ ꙟ, ↑ ↑ în îm În în Îm îm ын, ым , Џ џ g (before e, i)gi (elsewhere) Џ џ ӂ

Unregulated transitional alphabets

Starting with the 1830s and ending with the official adoption of the Latin alphabet, there were no regulations for writing Romanian, and various alphabets using Cyrillic and Latin letters, besides the mid-transitional version in the table above, were used, sometimes two or more of them in a single book. The following table shows some of the many alphabets used in print.

Pre-1830 1833 1838 1846 (1) 1846 (2) 1848 1858 1860 А а А а А а А а А а А а A a A a Б Б Б Б Б Б B b Б В в В в В в В в В в В в V v В в Г г Г г Г г Г г Г г Г г G g Г г Д д Д д Д д D d Д д D d D d D d Є є, Е e Є є Є є E e E ɛ E e E e E e Ж ж Ж ж Ж ж Ж ж Ж ж Ж ж J j Ж ж Ѕ ѕ Ѕ ѕ Дз дз Ḑ ḑ Дз дз Dz dz Dz dz Dz dz З з З з З з Z z З з Z z Z z Z z И и И и I i I i І і I i I i I i І і Ї ї I i I i І і I i I i I i К к К к К к K k К к К к K k K k Л л Л л Л л Л л Л л Л л L l L l М м М м М м M m М м M m M m M m Н н Н н Н н N n N ɴ N n N n N n Ѻ ѻ, О o О о О о O o О о О о О о O о П п П п П п П п П п П п П п П п Р р Р р Р р Р р Р р Р р R r Р р С с С с С с S s С с С с S s S s Т т Т т Т т T t Т т Т т T t T t Оу оу У у (initial)Ꙋ ꙋ (mid and final) Ȣ ȣ Ȣ ȣ Ȣ ȣ Ȣ ȣ Ȣ ȣ Ȣ ȣ Ꙋ, ȣ Ф ф Ф ф Ф ф Ф ф Ф ф Ф ф F f Ф ф Х х Х х Х х Х х Х х Х х Х х Х х Ѡ ѡ Ѡ ѡ О о O o О о O o О о О о Щ щ Щ щ Щ щ Щ щ Шт шт Щ щ Шt шt Шt шt Ц ц Ц ц Ц ц Ц ц Ц ц Ц ц Ц ц Ц ц Ч ч Ч ч Ч ч Ч ч Ч ч Ч ч Ч ч Ч ч Ш ш Ш ш Ш ш Ш ш Ш ш Ш ш Ш ш Ш ш Ъ ъ Ъ ъ Ъ ъ Ъ ъ Ъ ъ Ъ ъ Ъ ъ Ъ ъ Ы ы Ꙟ ꙟ (initial)Ѫ ѫ (mid and final) Ꙟ ꙟ (initial)Ѫ ѫ (mid and final) Ꙟ ꙟ Ꙟ ꙟ / Î î (transitional form) Ꙟ ꙟ (initial)Ѫ ѫ (mid and final) Î î Î î Ѣ ѣ Ѣ ѣ Ѣ ѣ Ea ea Eа εа (ligature, small letter only) Ea ea Ea ea Ea ea Ю ю Ю ю IꙊ iꙋ (ligature) IȢ Iȣ iȣ (ligature) IȢ Iȣ іȣ (ligature, small letter only) IȢ iȣ IȢ iȣ (ligature) ĬȢ ĭȣ Ꙗ ꙗ Ꙗ ꙗ (initial)Ѧ ѧ (mid and final) Ꙗ ꙗ Ꙗ Iа (ligature) ꙗ IА Iа ꙗ Ia ia Ĭa ĭa Ĭa ĭa Ѥ ѥ Йє йє Ĭe ĭe Ĭe ĭe Ĭε ĭε Ie ie Ĭe ĭe Ĭe ĭe Ѧ ѧ Ꙗ ꙗ (initial)Ѧ ѧ (mid and final) Ꙗ ꙗ Ꙗ Iа (ligature) ꙗ IА Iа ꙗ Ia ia Ĭa ĭa Ĭa ĭa Ѫ ѫ Ꙟ ꙟ (initial)Ѫ ѫ (mid and final) Ꙟ ꙟ (initial)Ѫ ѫ (mid and final) Ꙟ ꙟ Ꙟ ꙟ / Î î (transitional form) Ꙟ ꙟ (initial)Ѫ ѫ (mid and final) Î î Î î Ѯ ѯ Кс кс Кс кс Ks ks Кс кс Кс кс Ks ks Ks ks Ѱ ѱ Пс пс Пс пс Пs пs Пс пс Пс пс Пs пs Пs пs Ѳ ѳ Т т Т т T t Ѳ ѳ Т т T t T t Ѵ ѵ И, Ꙋ I, Ꙋ I, ȣ І, ȣ І, ȣ I, ȣ I, ȣ Ꙟ ꙟ Ꙟн ꙟн Ꙟм ꙟм Ꙟн ꙟн Ꙟм ꙟм Ꙟн ꙟн Ꙟм ꙟм Ꙟɴ ꙟɴ Ꙟм ꙟм Ꙟn ꙟn Ꙟm ꙟm În în Îm îm În în Îm îm Џ џ Џ џ Џ џ Џ џ Џ џ Џ џ Џ џ Џ џ

Example of Romanian Cyrillic text

According to a document from the 1850s,:File:Romanian-kirilitza-tatal-nostru.jpg this is how the Romanian Lord's Prayer looked in Cyrillic script. Transcriptional values correspond to the above table.

Та́тъль нѡ́стрꙋ Tatăl nostruTatăl nostru, carele ești în ceriuri, sfințească-se numele tău: Vie împărăția ta: Fie voia ta, pre cum în ceriu, și pre pământ. Pâinea noastră, cea de toate zilele, dăneo noua astăzi. Și ne iartă noua datoriile noastre, pre cum și noi iertăm datornicilor noștri. Și nu ne duce pe noi în ispită. Ci ne izbăveaște de cel rău. Că ata iaste împărăția, și Putearea, și mărirea în veaci, amin.

See also

Early Cyrillic alphabet Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet Romanian alphabet

Notes

References