CYRILLIC ALPHABET SOUP RUSSIAN LANGUAGE IN BRIEF Made

CYRILLIC ALPHABET SOUP RUSSIAN LANGUAGE IN BRIEF Made by: KU Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies

WHY STUDY RUSSIAN? Spoken by approx. 175 million people Primary language of Russia and Belarus Native language in all the former republics of the USSR (15 countries) Lingua Franca of Eastern Europe Deemed “critical” by U. S. State Dept Required of all NASA Astronauts It’s awesome!

BRIEF HISTORY 9 TH C. MORAVIA Byzantine Empire Cyril & Methodius Glagolitic Alphabet St. Clement of Ohrid Cyrillic

9 TH C. MORAVIA Ruler of Moravia requested Christian missionaries from the Byzantine Empire.

BYZANTINE EMPIRE Emperor Michael III sent monks Cyril and Methodius to spread Christianity to: Bulgaria, Moravia, and Pannonia (Central & Southeast Europe).

GLAGOLITIC ALPHABET Combination of Greek letters and made-up letters denoting Slavic sounds used to translate Christian texts into languages spoken in Central Europe.

ST. CLEMENT OF OHRID Disciple of Cyril & Methodius who simplified Glagolitic Alphabet into the earliest known form of Cyrillic… (maybe – see Preslav Literary School in Bulgarian Empire for more info).

SINCE THEN… 12 th C. Cyrillic dominated Glagolitic as the preferred alphabet in Eastern Europe. In the 9 centuries since then, it has adapted, developed and changed into regional variations. Today, 90 languages write w/ a Cyrillic Alphabet, including Russian.

LANGUAGES THAT USE CYRILLIC EAST SLAVIC Russian Ukrainian Belarussian Rusyn SOUTH SLAVIC Bulgarian Bosnian Serbian Montenegrin Macedonian URALIC Karelian Kildin Sami Komi-Permyak Mari IRANIAN Kurdish Ossetian Tajik MONGOLIAN Khalkha Buryat Kalmyk TURKIC Azerbaijani Bashkir Kazakh Chuvash Kyrgyz Tatar Turkmen Uzbek CAUCASIAN Abkhaz Avar Lezgian CHINESE Dungan OTHER Romani Eskimo-Aleut Chukotko-Kamchatkan Tungusic AND MORE!

RUSSIAN LANGUAGE РУССКЫЙ ЯЗЫК 33 letters: 10 vowels, 21 consonants & 2 signs Let’s practice!

Can you Translate? Hint: use the Russian Alphabet Chart to decode the following U. S. states and cities. 1. КАНЗАС 1. PHILADELPHIA KANSAS 2. ВАШИНГТОН 2. WASHINGTON 3. МОНТАНА БОСТОН 3. ЦИНЦИННАТИ 4. САН ФРАНЦИСКО 5. ЛОС АНДЖЕЛЕС LOS ANGELES МИЧИГАН MICHIGAN 6. КОЛОРАДО COLORADO SAN FRANCISCO 4. НЬЮ ЙОРК NEW YORK CINNATI 3. МИССУРИ MISSOURI BOSTON 2. КАЛИФОРНИЯ CALIFORNIA MONTANA 1. ФИЛАДЕЛЬФИЯ 7. МИССИСИПИ MISSISSIPPI

Let’s try something Advanced You know more Russian than you think… 1. МЕТРО 1. HOT DOG METRO 2. ТАКСИ 2. TAXI 3. ТРОЛЛЕЙБУС СТОП 1. СТАДИОН STADIUM ФРУКТЫ FRUIT 2. STOP 2. ПИЦЦA XAT PIZZA HUT TROLLEY BUS 1. ХОТ ДОГ MAKDONALDC MCDONALDS 3. PECTOPAH RESTAURANT

OTHER ONLINE RESOURCES RUSSIAN ALPHABET W/ HANDWRITING www. russianforeveryone. com RUSSIAN LESSONS www. russianlessons. net LEARN TO READ RUSSIAN IN 15 MINUTES tumblr by Peter Starr Northrop and Ryan Estrada

СПАСИБО! THANK YOU! UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS CENTER FOR RUSSIAN, EAST EUROPEAN & EURASIAN STUDIES CREES. KU. EDU CREES@KU. EDU