Why does Russian use a different alphabet to other Slavic languages, despite being closely related?
Slavic languages and writing systems
Because Slavic languages were written in Cyrillic before some adopted Latin or Cyrillic-Latin mongrol alphabets.
Russian still uses Cyrillic and it's a good thing IMO. Written Russian's plain ugly in Latin script.
The fact it's written in another writing system, also based on Greek, doesn't bother me at all anyway. People who think it's hard are morons. That simple.
Russian still uses Cyrillic and it's a good thing IMO. Written Russian's plain ugly in Latin script.
The fact it's written in another writing system, also based on Greek, doesn't bother me at all anyway. People who think it's hard are morons. That simple.
Just Russian?
How about Ukranian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Belorussian, Macedonian...
Cyrillics is even used in loads of non-slavic languages like Mongolian, Uzbek, Turkmen etc
How about Ukranian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Belorussian, Macedonian...
Cyrillics is even used in loads of non-slavic languages like Mongolian, Uzbek, Turkmen etc
Does anyone know where I could find samples of Latin alphabet Slavic languages written in cyrillics? It would be interesting to see what they look like.
Cyrillics are optional in Serbian, in newspapers there is a 50:50 split,
but subtitles are normally almost always in Latin script (in Serbia, everything is subtitled, no dubbing of foreign movies/sitcoms).
but subtitles are normally almost always in Latin script (in Serbia, everything is subtitled, no dubbing of foreign movies/sitcoms).
<< Written Russian's plain ugly in Latin script. >>
-- Just compare Eng. 'Khrushchev', Fr. Khrouchtchev' or Ger. 'Chruschtschow' to Russian original: only six Cyrillic letters instead of ten to thirteen!
Croatian uses a very simple system of Latin diacritics, Slovenian and Czech use a similar one, I never understood why Polish didn't follow those examples (hence those annoying 'szcz' etc.).
A transliteration system based on Croatian alphabet is of widespread use in Italy to write Russian words. There is some tendency to use it also in Germany (for example for road maps).
Examples from It. Wikipedia:
"Khruš??v di aver commesso errori"
"cospiratori, guidati da Leonid Brežnev, Aleksandr Šelepin"
-- Just compare Eng. 'Khrushchev', Fr. Khrouchtchev' or Ger. 'Chruschtschow' to Russian original: only six Cyrillic letters instead of ten to thirteen!
Croatian uses a very simple system of Latin diacritics, Slovenian and Czech use a similar one, I never understood why Polish didn't follow those examples (hence those annoying 'szcz' etc.).
A transliteration system based on Croatian alphabet is of widespread use in Italy to write Russian words. There is some tendency to use it also in Germany (for example for road maps).
Examples from It. Wikipedia:
"Khruš??v di aver commesso errori"
"cospiratori, guidati da Leonid Brežnev, Aleksandr Šelepin"
Russian names in Dutch are hilarious.
"Vladimir Iljitsj Oeljanov" instead of "Владимир Ильич Улянов".
"Nikita Chroesjtsjov" instead of "Никита Хрущёв", in German they spell it like "Chruschtschow" even.
Russian text in general is written according to their own conventional phonetics, when they use Roman text when Russian don't have access to a Cyrilic keyboard and are too lazy to switch to their Russian font. Mostly Russian diaspora type in Roman fonts on international sites. Replies in Roman fonts are highly ignored on Russian websites for obvious reasons.
Russian proper names are still okay in Roman, but whole Russian texts in Roman script make them esthetically ugly to my liking. I can't tell why.
Cyrillics are easy to learn: only the soft consonant rules can be confusing at first, but Russian has an easier spelling than let's say English or French. People who deem a language harder to learn for the Cyrillics are ignorant, as I'm pretty sure Bulgarian is an easier language than Slovene.
"Vladimir Iljitsj Oeljanov" instead of "Владимир Ильич Улянов".
"Nikita Chroesjtsjov" instead of "Никита Хрущёв", in German they spell it like "Chruschtschow" even.
Russian text in general is written according to their own conventional phonetics, when they use Roman text when Russian don't have access to a Cyrilic keyboard and are too lazy to switch to their Russian font. Mostly Russian diaspora type in Roman fonts on international sites. Replies in Roman fonts are highly ignored on Russian websites for obvious reasons.
Russian proper names are still okay in Roman, but whole Russian texts in Roman script make them esthetically ugly to my liking. I can't tell why.
Cyrillics are easy to learn: only the soft consonant rules can be confusing at first, but Russian has an easier spelling than let's say English or French. People who deem a language harder to learn for the Cyrillics are ignorant, as I'm pretty sure Bulgarian is an easier language than Slovene.
-I'm pretty sure Bulgarian is an easier language than Slovene.-
But Serbocroatian is even easier.
But Serbocroatian is even easier.
The Orthodox Slavic nations use Cyrillics: Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serb; the Catholic Slavic nations use again Latin alphabet: Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Croat. Serbo-Croat is in fact one language but due to the bitter Balkan wars in the 1990´s both Serbs and Croats (and the Moslem Bosniaks, and even Montenegrians) claim they have each a language of their own. The traditionally western Slavic countries have become rapidly integrated to West after the collapse of Communism (Croatia is an exception because of civil war and autocratic rule of the late Franjo Tudjman), the eastern nations have had great difficulties. Thus, alphabet bears deeper cultural tradition than simply outlook of text.
I agree that Cyrillic is a very fit alphabet for peculiarities of Russian.
I agree that Cyrillic is a very fit alphabet for peculiarities of Russian.