The
Evolution of Alphabets
Evolution
of Alphabets, Unversity of Maryland
The
evolution of
-
the Cuneiform character set.
-
the Phoenician character set
-
the Greek character set
-
the Arabic Character set
-
the Phoenician characters
-
the Square Aramaic/Hebrew character set.
-
the Modern Cyrillic character set
-
the Latin character set
The
Cyrillic alphabet
Cyrillic
alphabet
The
Cyrillic alphabet is named after St. Cyril, a missionary from Byzantium.
It was invented sometime during the 10th century AD, possibly by St. Kliment
of Ohrid, to write the Old Church Slavonic language.
Omniglot:
Cyrillic
alphabet
WIKIPEDIA:
History
of the alphabet
Cyrillic
alphabet
Ukrainian
language
Some
other sources:
The
History of Cyrillic
Cyrillic
alphabet
Ukrainian
(Українська)
Ukrainian
is an Eastern Slavonic language closely related to Russian and Belarusian,
with about 45 million speakers in Ukraine, many of whom are bilingual in
Ukrainian and Russian. There are also significant communities of Ukrainians
in the UK, the USA and Canada.
The
recorded history of the Ukrainian language began in 988, when the principality
of Kiev was converted to Christianity. Ukrainian religious material, including
translations of the Bible, was written in Old Slavonic, the language used
by missionaries to spread Christianity to the Slavic peoples.
In
the 13th century, Ukraine became part of Lithuanian and an early form of
Belarusian became the main language. The remaining parts of Ukraine were
taken over by Poland during the 16th century and Latin and Polish were
used for official purposes.
The
Cossacks later moved into eastern Ukraine and during the 18th century,
their leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, invited Russia to help against Polish
domination. During the reign of Catherine the Great, the Cossacks moved
to the eastern frontiers of Russia, but Ukraine remained under Russian
domination, and the Russians considered the Ukrainian language as little
more than a dialect of Russian.
A decree
in 1876 banned the printing or importing of Ukrainian books. Inspite of
this, there was a revival of Ukrainian poetry and historiography during
the 19th century.
Ukraine
enjoyed a brief period of independence from 1918 to 1919, then was taken
over by the USSR and declared a Soviet Republic. During the Soviet era,
Russian was the main language of education and employment and Ukrainian
was sidelined.
Ukraine
declared independence in 1991. Since then many Ukrainian émigrés have
returned to Ukraine, particularly from central Asia and Siberia.
Cyrillic
alphabet for Ukrainian
Sample
text
Всі
люди народжуються вільними і рівними у
своїй гідності та правах. Вони наділені
розумом і совістю і повинні діяти у відношенні
один до одного в дусі братерства.
Translation
All
human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed
with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit
of brotherhood.
(Article
1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Ukrainian
- (Українська), Omniglot
Encyclopedia:
Cyrillic alphabet, nationmaster.com
Encyclopedia:
Ukrainian language, nationmaster.com
The Russian Cyrillic
alphabet
Russian
(Русский), Omniglot
Cyrillic
Alphabet - hear the Russian pronunciation
Cyrillic
Alphabet - including written characters
Russian
- An Interactive On-line Reference Grammar
Master
Russian, Pronunciation
of the Russian Alphabet
The
Russian alphabet - words
CYRILLIC
ALPHABET AND TRANSLITERATION, Traveller's
Yellow Pages
Evolution
of