What was the first alphabet? How the first alphabet appeared The alphabet was invented

In Egypt and Mesopotamia, few people knew how to write and read. After all, both hieroglyphic writing and cuneiform contain more than 600 characters, each of which usually represents an entire word or syllable. All of them had to be known by heart.
Phoenician inscription on the temple of the god Eshmun

The Phoenicians, who kept constant trade records, needed a different letter - one that was light, simple and convenient. They came up with an alphabet in which each sign - a letter - denoted only one specific speech sound.
The Phoenician alphabet consists of 22 easy-to-write letters. All of them are consonants, because in the Phoenician language the main role was played by consonant sounds. To read a word, a Phoenician only had to see its backbone, consisting of consonants.


Phoenician letters (3) are derived from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs that denoted whole words (1). One of the intermediate stages is the Sinai hieroglyphic letter (2). The Greek alphabet originated from the Phoenician alphabet (4)

The most ancient inscriptions, composed of letters of the Phoenician alphabet, were found during excavations in ancient city Byblos (now the city of Jebel), at the foot of the Lebanon Range. They date back to the 13th century. BC The Phoenicians wrote from right to left. They made their trade records in ink on shards. Few such shards have been found. The inscriptions carved on stone are better preserved: tombstones (on the sarcophagi of kings and priests) and construction ones, telling about the construction of palaces at the behest of the Phoenician kings.
Since the 9th century. BC e. The Phoenician alphabet began to quickly spread in many countries. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that the ancient Greeks learned writing from the Phoenicians. Indeed, even the names of the Greek letters themselves are Phoenician words. For example, the name of the letter "alpha" (A) comes from the Phoenician word "aleph" - bull. (The original shape of this letter resembled the head of a bull.) The name of the Greek letter "beta" comes from the Phoenician word "bet" - house. (This letter was originally a simplified drawing of a house plan.) The word "alphabet" itself is essentially a combination of the Phoenician words "aleph" and "bet."
The letters in the Phoenician alphabet were arranged in a certain order. This order was also adopted by the Greeks. But in Greek, unlike Phoenician, vowel sounds play a big role. At the same time, the Phoenician language had many guttural sounds that were alien to the Greeks. The Greeks used the Phoenician letters corresponding to these sounds to represent vowel sounds. In addition, they came up with some new letters.
The Phoenician alphabet was incomparably simpler and more convenient than any cuneiform or hieroglyphs. But the Greek alphabet is even more perfect: it consists of 24 letters, representing both vowels and consonants. The Greek alphabet formed the basis of the Latin, which in turn served as the basis for the alphabets of all Western European languages. From the Greek alphabet came the Church Slavonic, compiled, according to legend, by natives of the city of Thessaloniki (now the city of Thessaloniki) Cyril and Methodius. Under Peter I, the Church Slavonic alphabet was simplified, and an easier-to-read civil alphabet appeared, which we also use.
The Phoenician alphabet was the ancestor of not only Greek, but also Arabic, Hebrew and other alphabets. The invention of the Phoenicians was a great step in the cultural development of human society, making writing accessible to the masses.

Hello, dear guys! Greetings, dear adults! You are reading these lines, which means that someone once made sure that you and I could exchange information using writing.

Drawing rock carvings, trying to tell something, our ancestors many centuries ago could not even imagine that very soon the 33 letters of the Russian alphabet would form words, express our thoughts on paper, help us read books written in Russian and allow us to leave our mark on history of folk culture.

Where did they all come to us from A to Z, who invented the Russian alphabet, and how did the letter originate? The information in this article may be useful for research work in 2nd or 3rd grade, so welcome to study in detail!

Lesson plan:

What is the alphabet and where did it all begin?

The word familiar to us from childhood came from Greece, and it is composed of two Greek letters - alpha and beta.

In general, the ancient Greeks left a huge mark on history, and we couldn’t do without them here either. They made a lot of efforts to spread writing throughout Europe.

However, many scientists still argue who would have been the first, and in what year it was. It is believed that the Phoenicians were the first to use consonant letters back in the 2nd millennium BC, and only then did the Greeks borrow their alphabet and add vowels there. This was already in the 8th century BC.

This Greek writing became the basis of the alphabet for many peoples, including us, the Slavs. And among the most ancient are the Chinese and Egyptian alphabets, which appeared from the transformation of rock paintings into hieroglyphs and graphic symbols.

But what about our Slavic alphabet? After all, we don’t write in Greek today! The whole point is that Ancient Rus' sought to strengthen economic and cultural connections with other countries, and for this you needed a letter. Moreover, the first church books began to be brought to the Russian state, since Christianity came from Europe.

It was necessary to find a way to convey to all Russian Slavs what Orthodoxy is, to create our own alphabet, to translate church works into readable language. The Cyrillic alphabet became such an alphabet, and it was created by the brothers, popularly called “Thessalonica”.

Who are the Thessaloniki brothers and why are they famous?

These people are called this way not because they have a surname or a given name.

Two brothers Cyril and Methodius lived in a military family in a large Byzantine province with the capital in the city of Thessaloniki, from which the name of their small homeland came the nickname.

The population in the city was mixed - half Greeks and half Slavs. And the brothers’ parents were of different nationalities: their mother was Greek, and their father was from Bulgaria. Therefore, both Cyril and Methodius knew two languages ​​from childhood - Slavic and Greek.

This is interesting! In fact, the brothers had different names at birth - Konstantin and Mikhail, and they were named church Cyril and Methodius later.

Both brothers excelled in their studies. Methodius mastered military techniques and loved to read. Well, Kirill knew as many as 22 languages, was educated at the imperial court and was nicknamed a philosopher for his wisdom.

Therefore, it is not at all surprising that the choice fell on these two brothers when the Moravian prince turned to the Byzantine ruler for help in 863 with a request to send wise men who could convey to the Slavic people the truth of the Christian faith and teach them to write.

And Cyril and Methodius set off on a long journey, moving for 40 months from one place to another, explaining in the Slavic language they knew well from childhood who Christ was and what his power was. And for this it was necessary to translate all church books from Greek into Slavic, which is why the brothers began to develop a new alphabet.

Of course, already in those days the Slavs used many Greek letters in their lives in counting and writing. But the knowledge they had had to be streamlined, brought to one system, so that it would be simple and understandable for everyone. And already on May 24, 863, in the Bulgarian capital of Pliska, Cyril and Methodius announced the creation of a Slavic alphabet called the Cyrillic alphabet, which became the progenitor of our modern Russian alphabet.

This is interesting! Historians have discovered the fact that even before the Moravian commission, while in Byzantium, the brothers Cyril and Methodius invented an alphabet for the Slavs based on Greek writing, and it was called Glagolitic. Maybe that’s why the Cyrillic alphabet appeared so quickly and easily, since there were already working outlines?

Transformations of the Russian alphabet

The Slavic alphabet created by Cyril and Methodius consisted of 43 letters.

They appeared by adding newly invented 19 signs to the Greek alphabet (which had 24 letters). After the appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet in Bulgaria, the center of Slavic writing, the first book school appeared, and they began to actively translate liturgical books.

In any old book

“Once upon a time there lived Izhitsa,

And with it the letter Yat"

Gradually the Old Church Slavonic alphabet comes to Serbia, and in Ancient Rus' it appears at the end of the 10th century, when the Russian people adopted Christianity. It was then that the whole long process of creating and improving the Russian alphabet that we use today begins. That's what was interesting.

This is interesting! The godmother of the letter “Y” was Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, who proposed introducing it into the alphabet in 1783. The idea of ​​​​the princess was supported by the writer Karmazin, and with their light hand the letter appeared in the alphabet, taking an honorable seventh place.

“Yo”’s fate is not easy:

• in 1904 its use was desirable, but not at all mandatory;
• in 1942, by order of the educational authority, it was recognized as compulsory for schools;
• in 1956, entire paragraphs of the rules of Russian spelling were devoted to it.

Today, the use of “Yo” is important when you can confuse the meaning of written words, for example here: perfect and perfect, tears and tears, palate and sky.

This is interesting! In 2001, in the Ulyanovsk park named after Karamzin, the only monument to the letter “Y” in the world was opened in the form of a low stele.

As a result, today we have 33 beauties who teach us to read and write, open up to us new world, help to be educated to learn their native language and respect their history.

I am sure that you have known all these 33 letters for a long time and never confuse their places in the alphabet. Would you like to try to learn the Old Church Slavonic alphabet? Here it is, below in the video)

Well, in your piggy bank of projects for one interesting topic became more. Share the most interesting things with your classmates, let them also know where the Russian alphabet came to us from. And I say goodbye to you, see you again!

Good luck in your studies!

Evgenia Klimkovich.

Letters are the basis of any language in the world, because we use their combination when we think, speak or write. The alphabet of the Russian language is interesting not only as a “ building material", but also the history of his education. In this regard, the question arises: who created the alphabet of the Russian language? Most people, without hesitation, will say that the main authors of the Russian alphabet are Cyril and Methodius. However, only a few know that they not only created the letters of the alphabet, but began to use signs in writing, and also translated a huge number of church books.

How did the Russian alphabet appear?

From the 9th to the 10th centuries, one of the largest states was Great Moravia. At the end of 862, her prince Rostislav wrote a letter to the Emperor of Byzantium, Michael, asking for permission to conduct services in the Slavic language. At that time the inhabitants of Moravia had common language, but there was no writing. The Greek script or Latin was used. Emperor Michael granted the prince's request and sent a mission to Moravia in the person of two learned brothers. Cyril and Methodius were well educated and belonged to a noble family. They were the ones who founded Slavic culture and writing. However, one should not think that until this moment people remained illiterate. They used letters from the Veles book. It is still not known who invented the letters or signs in it.

An interesting fact is that the brothers created the letters of the alphabet even before arriving in Moravia. It took them about three years to create the Russian alphabet and arrange the letters into the alphabet. The brothers managed to translate the Bible and liturgical books from Greek, and from now on the liturgy in the church was conducted in a language understandable to the local population. Some letters in the alphabet were very similar to Greek and Latin characters. In 863, an alphabet consisting of 49 letters was created, but later it was abolished to 33 letters. The originality of the created alphabet is that each letter conveys one sound.

I wonder why the letters in the Russian alphabet have a certain sequence? The creators of the Russian alphabet considered letters from the point of view of ordering numbers. Each letter defines a number, so the letter-numbers are arranged in an increasing direction.

Who invented the Russian alphabet?

In 1917-1918 The first reform was carried out aimed at improving the spelling of the Slavic language. The Ministry of Public Education decided to correct the books. The alphabet or Russian alphabet regularly underwent changes, and this is how the Russian alphabet that we use now appeared.

The history of the Russian language is fraught with numerous discoveries and secrets:

1. There is a letter “Ё” in the Russian alphabet. It was introduced by the Academy of Sciences in 1783 by Princess Vorontsova-Dashkova, who headed it at that time. She asked the academicians why in the word “iolka” the first syllable is represented by two letters. Having not received an answer that satisfied her, the princess created an order to use the letter “Y” in writing.
2. The one who invented the Russian alphabet left no explanation for the silent letter “er”. It was used until 1918 after hard consonants. The country’s treasury spent more than 400 thousand rubles on writing “er”, so the letter was very expensive.
3. Another difficult letter in the Russian alphabet is “i” or “i”. Reforming philologists could not decide which sign to leave, so significant was the evidence of the importance of their use. This letter in the Russian alphabet was read the same way. The difference between “and” and “i” is in the semantic load of the word. For example, “mir” in the meaning of “universe” and “peace” in the meaning of the absence of war. After decades of controversy, the creators of the alphabet left the letter “i”.
4. The letter “e” in the Russian alphabet was previously called “e reverse”. M.V. Lomonosov did not recognize it for a long time, as he considered it borrowed from other languages. But it successfully took root among other letters in the Russian alphabet.

The Russian alphabet is full of interesting facts; almost every letter has its own story. But the creation of the alphabet affected only scientific and educational activities. The innovators had to teach new letters to people and, above all, the clergy. Dogmatics was closely intertwined with the clergy and politics. Unable to withstand the endless persecution, Cyril dies, and a few years later Methodius dies. The gratitude of descendants cost the brothers dearly.

The alphabet has not changed long time. In the last century, children were taught at school using the old Russian alphabet, so we can say that modern names letters came into general use only during the reign of Soviet power. The order of letters in the Russian alphabet has remained the same since its creation, since the signs were used to form numbers (although we have been using Arabic numerals for a long time).

The Old Church Slavonic alphabet, created in the ninth century, became the basis for the formation of writing among many peoples. Cyril and Methodius made a tremendous contribution to the history of the development of Slavic languages. Already in the ninth century it was understood that not every nation has the honor of using its own alphabet. We still use the brothers' legacy to this day.

“Where does the Motherland begin,” as the old and soulful song says? And it starts small: with love for native language, from the alphabet. Since childhood, we have all become accustomed to a certain type of letters in the Russian alphabet. And as a rule, we rarely think about when and under what conditions it arose. Nevertheless, the presence and emergence of writing is an important and fundamental milestone in the historical maturation of every people in the world, contributing to the development of its national culture and self-awareness. Sometimes, in the depths of centuries, the specific names of the creators of the writing of a particular people are lost. But this is not how it happened in the Slavic context. And those who invented the Russian alphabet are still known today. Let's find out more about these people.

The word “alphabet” itself originates from the first two letters: alpha and beta. It is known that the ancient Greeks put a lot of effort into the development and spread of writing in many European countries. Who was the first to invent an alphabet in world history? There is scientific debate about this. The main hypothesis is the Sumerian "alphabet", which appears about five thousand years ago. Egyptian is also considered one of the most ancient (of the known). Writing develops from drawings to signs, turning into graphic systems. And the signs began to display sounds.

The development of writing in human history is difficult to overestimate. The language of the people and their writing reflect life, everyday life and knowledge, historical and mythological characters. Thus, by reading ancient inscriptions, modern scientists can recreate what our ancestors lived.

History of the Russian alphabet

It has, one might say, a unique origin. Its history goes back about a thousand years and contains many secrets.

Cyril and Methodius

The creation of the alphabet is firmly connected with these names in the question of who invented the Russian alphabet. Let's go back to the 9th century. In those days (830-906) Great Moravia (region of the Czech Republic) was one of the largest European countries. And Byzantium was the center of Christianity. Prince Rostislav of Moravia in 863 turned to Michael the Third, the Byzantine emperor at that time, with a request to hold services in the Slavic language to strengthen the influence of Byzantine Christianity in the region. In those days, it is worth noting that the cult was performed only in those languages ​​that were displayed on the Jesus cross: Hebrew, Latin and Greek.

The Byzantine ruler, in response to Rostislav's proposal, sent him a Moravian mission consisting of two monk brothers, the sons of a noble Greek who lived in Saluny (Thessaloniki). Michael (Methodius) and Constantine (Cyril) and are considered the official creators of the Slavic alphabet for church service. It is named “Cyrillic” in honor of the church name of Cyril. Konstantin himself was younger than Mikhail, but even his brother recognized his intelligence and superiority in knowledge. Kirill knew many languages ​​and mastered the art of oratory, participated in religious verbal debates, and was a wonderful organizer. This, according to many scientists, allowed him (together with his brother and other assistants) to connect and summarize the data, creating the alphabet. But the history of the Russian alphabet began long before the Moravian mission. And here's why.

Who invented the Russian alphabet (alphabet)

The fact is that historians have unearthed interesting fact: even before leaving, the brothers had already created the Slavic alphabet, well adapted to convey the speech of the Slavs. It was called Glagolitic (it was recreated on the basis of Greek writing with elements of Coptic and Hebrew characters).

Glagolitic or Cyrillic?

Today scientists different countries Most people recognize the fact that the first was the Glagolitic alphabet, created by Cyril back in 863 in Byzantium. He introduced her in pretty short terms. And another, different from the previous one, Cyrillic alphabet was invented in Bulgaria, a little later. And there are still disputes over the authorship of this, undoubtedly, cornerstone invention for pan-Slavic history. After brief history The Russian alphabet (Cyrillic) is as follows: in the tenth century it penetrated into Rus' from Bulgaria, and its written recording was fully formalized only in the XIV century. In more modern form- With late XVI V.

The director of the Volgograd Institute of Art Education, Nikolai Taranov, has many titles: calligrapher, doctor of pedagogical sciences, candidate of art history, professor, member of the Union of Artists of Russia. But few people know that he is still studying symbols. And while doing this, our Volgograd “Professor Robert Langdon,” just like in Dan Brown’s acclaimed novel, came up with a detective trail and an amazing discovery. On October 22, the Volgograd scientist spoke about his version of the appearance and loss of the first alphabet on Earth in a recording of a program for the days of Slavic writing on the All-Russian TV channel “Culture”.

Who invented the Slavic alphabet?

It would seem that everyone knows this: Cyril and Methodius, whom the Orthodox Church calls equal to the apostles for this merit. But what kind of alphabet did Kirill come up with - Cyrillic or Glagolitic? (Methodius, this is known and proven, supported his brother in everything, but it was the monk Kirill who was the “brain of the operation” and an educated person who knew many languages). There is still debate about this in the scientific world. Some Slavic researchers say: “Cyrillic alphabet! It is named after its creator.” Others object: “Glagolitic! The first letter of this alphabet looks like a cross. Kirill is a monk. This is a sign." It is also argued that before Cyril’s work there was no written language in Rus'. Professor Nikolai Taranov categorically disagrees with this.

“The assertion that there was no written language in Rus' before Cyril and Methodius is based on one single document - the “Tale of Writing” by the monk Khrabra, found in Bulgaria,” says Nikolai Taranov. — There are 73 copies from this scroll, and in different copies, due to translation errors or scribe errors, completely different versions of the key phrase for us. In one version: “the Slavs before Cyril did not have books,” in the other, “letters,” but the author indicates: “they wrote with lines and cuts.” It is interesting that Arab travelers who visited Rus' back in the 8th century, that is, even before Rurik and even more so before Cyril, described the funeral of one Russian prince: “After the funeral, his soldiers wrote something on a white tree (birch) in honor of the prince, and then, mounting their horses, they departed.” And in the “Life of Cyril”, known to Russian Orthodox Church, we read: “In the city of Korsun, Kirill met a Rusyn (Russian), who had with him books written in Russian characters.” Kirill (his mother was Slavic) took out some of his letters and with their help began to read those same Rusyn books. Moreover, these were not thin books. These were, as stated in the same “Life of Cyril,” the “Psalter” and “Gospel” translated into Russian. There is a lot of evidence that Rus' had its own alphabet long before Cyril. And Lomonosov spoke about the same thing. He cited as evidence the testimony of Pope VIII, a contemporary of Cyril, which states that Cyril did not invent these writings, but rediscovered them.

The question arises: why did Kirill create the Russian alphabet if it already existed? The fact is that the monk Cyril had an assignment from the Moravian prince - to create for the Slavs an alphabet suitable for translating church books. Which is what he did. And the letters with which church books are now written (and, in a modified form, our printed creations today) are the work of Cyril, that is, the Cyrillic alphabet.

Was the Glagolitic alphabet destroyed on purpose?

There are 22 points that prove that the Glagolitic alphabet was older than the Cyrillic alphabet, says Taranov. Archaeologists and philologists have such a concept - palimpsest. This is the name of an inscription made on top of another destroyed, most often scraped out with a knife, inscription. In the Middle Ages, parchment made from the skin of a young lamb was quite expensive, and in order to save money, scribes often destroyed “unnecessary” records and documents, and wrote something new on the scraped sheet. So: everywhere in Russian palimpsests the Glagolitic alphabet is erased, and on top of it are inscriptions in Cyrillic. There are no exceptions to this rule.

— There are only five monuments left in the world written in Glagolitic alphabet. The rest were destroyed. Moreover, in my opinion, the records in the Glagolitic alphabet were destroyed deliberately,” says Professor Nikolai Taranov. — Because the Glagolitic alphabet was not suitable for recording church books. The numerical meaning of the letters (and then there was a very strong belief in numerology) in it was different from what was required in Christianity. Out of respect for the Glagolitic alphabet, Kirill left in his alphabet the same letter names as they were. And they are very, very complex for an alphabet that was “born” in the 9th century, as stated. Even then, all languages ​​strived for simplification; letters in all alphabets of that time denoted only sounds. And only in the Slavic alphabet are the names of the letters: “Good”, “People”, “Think”, “Earth”, etc. And all because the Glagolitic alphabet is very ancient. It has many features of pictographic writing.

Pictographic writing is a type of writing whose signs (pictograms) indicate the object they depict. The latest finds by archaeologists speak in favor of this version. Thus, tablets with Slavic writing were found, the age of which dates back to 5000 BC.

“The Glagolitic alphabet was created by a genius”

All modern alphabets in Europe originate from the Phoenician alphabet. In it, the letter A, as we were told, represents the head of a bull, which then turned over with its horns down.

“And the ancient Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote: “These letters are called Phoenician, although it would be more correct to call them Pelasgic, since the Pelasgians used them,” says Nikolai Taranov. - Do you know who the Pelasgians are? These are the ancestors of the Slavs, the Proto-Slavic tribes. The Phoenicians stood out among the surrounding dark-skinned, black-haired tribes of farmers, Egyptians and Sumerians with their fair skin and red hair. Moreover, their passion for travel: they were excellent sailors.

In the 12th century BC, the Pelasgians just took part in the Great Migration of Peoples, and individual groups of desperate conquerors of new lands wandered very far. Which gives the Volgograd professor a version: the Phoenicians were familiar with the Slavs and borrowed their alphabet. Otherwise, why suddenly next to Egyptian hieroglyphs and Sumerian cuneiform was the alphabet formed?

“They say: “The Glagolitic alphabet was too decorative and complex, so it was gradually replaced by the more rational Cyrillic alphabet.” But the Glagolitic alphabet is not so bad, Professor Taranov is sure. — I studied the earliest versions: the first letter of the Glagolitic alphabet does not mean a cross at all, but a person. That is why it is called “Az” - I. A person for himself is a starting point. And all the meanings of letters in the Glagolitic alphabet - through the prism human perception. I drew the first letter of this alphabet on transparent film. Look, if you superimpose it on other letters of the Glagolitic alphabet, you get a pictogram! I believe: not every designer will come up with such a way that every grapheme falls into the grid. I am amazed by the artistic integrity of this alphabet. I think the unknown author of the Glagolitic alphabet was a genius! In no other alphabet in the world is there such a clear connection between a symbol and its digital and sacred meaning!

Glagolitic alphabet and numerology

Each sign in the Glagolitic alphabet has a sacred meaning and denotes a specific number.

The sign “Az” is a person, the number 1.

The sign “I know” is number 2, the sign looks like eyes and a nose: “I see, that means I know.”

The sign “Live” is the number 7, life and reality of this world.

The sign of “Zelo” is the number 8, the reality of a miracle and something supernatural: “too”, “very” or “zelo”.

Good sign - number 5, singular, giving birth to its own kind or decade: “Good gives birth to good.”

The sign “People” is the number 50, according to numerology - the world from where human souls come to us.

The sign “Ours” - the number 70, symbolizes the connection between the heavenly and the earthly, that is, our world, given to us in sensations.

The Omega sign is the number 700, a certain divine world, the “Seventh Heaven”.

The sign “Earth” - according to Taranov, means a picture: the Earth and the Moon in the same orbit.