Alphabet

Diacritics

There is a huge number of diacritics used in slovian (slavic) languages and most of the coutries have their own letters (and are proud of them). The question is to use diacritics or not to use?

To summarize the arguments:

✅ pro diacritics - creates an unique language specificity and characteristics
✅ against diacritics - special letters are cumbersome and hard to enter for beginners

It seems that the best strategy is to leave diacritics as they are. This is because people remember words as they see them, as an "image of letters' spatial configuration" so they can read texts faster. Also no country will give up their letters as they constitute their "national identity" and "tradition".

The following letters are used either in national alphabets or in ISO 9 transliteration standard. This allows 1:1 transliteration from Latin to Cyrillic and from Cyrillic to Latin, where every single latin letter maps to a single cyrillic letter, and the conversion is reversible without loosing orginal information.

LatinCyrillicIPAComment
A aA a/a/
Ą ąĄ ą/õ/nasal o (ou)
Á áÁ á/a:/aa (long a)
Ä äÄ ä/ea/
 âЯ я/ja/iotated a
B bБ б/b/
C cЦ ц/ts/
Ć ćЋ ћ/tɕ/soft ts
Č čЧ ч/tʃ/tsh
D dД д/d/
Ď ďĎ ď/ɟ/soft d in dew
Đ đЂ ђ/dʑ/dź/дзь (dzj/дзи)
D̂ d̂Џ џ/ʤ/dž/dż/дж
E eE e/ɛ/short e
É éÉ é/e:/ee (long e)
Ę ęĘ ę/ẽ/nasal e (eu)
È èЭ э/e/uniotated e
Ě ěЄ є/jɛ/mandatory iotated e
Ё ёЁ ё/jo/iotated o
F fФ ф/f/
Ĝ ĝҐ ґ/g/mandatory g
G gГ г/g/ or /ɦ/g/h depends on region
Ğ ğЃ ѓ/ɡʲ/soft g (gj)
H hҔ ҕ/ɣ/ or /x/depends on letter position
Ĥ ĥХ х/x/voiceless h (ch)
I iИ и/i/
Ї їЇ ї/ji/
Í íÍ í/i:/ii (long i)
J jЙ й/j/y in yesterday
K kК к/k/
Ќ ќЌ ќ/c/soft k (kj/кь)
L lЛ л/l/
Ľ ľЉ љ/ʎ/lj (soft l in failure)
Ł łŁ ł/w/w in wow
M mМ м/m/
N nН н/n/
Ń ńЊ њ/ɲ/soft n in canyon (= Ň ň)
O oO o/o/
Ô ôÔ ô/uo/uo (see also ů, ó)
Ó óÓ ó/o:/ or /u/long o or uo reduced to u
P pП п/p/
R rР р/r/
Ř řҎ ҏ/rʒ/fricative rz
S sС с/s/
Ś śС́ с́/ɕ/si (soft s)
Š šШ ш/ʃ/ or /ʂ/sh, sz
Ŝ ŝЩ щ/ʃtʃ/shtsh, szcz
T tТ т/t/
Ť ťŤ ť/c/soft t (tje)
U uУ у/u/
Ú úУ́ у́/u:/uu (long u in food)
Û ûЮ ю/ju/iotated u
Ů ůŮ ů/u/uo reduced to u
Ŭ ŭЎ ў/wu/woo in woodstock
V vВ в/v/
Y yЫ ы/ɪ/
Ý ýÝ ý/ɪ:/long y
Z zЗ з/z/
Ź źЗ́ з́/ʑ/zi (soft z)
Ž žЖ ж/ʒ/ or /ʐ/ fricative z (= Ż ż)
ˊЬ ьsoftening (front yer)
˝Ъ ъhardening (back yer)

Ancient Letters

LatinCyrillicIPAComment
X xѮ ѯ/ks/to avoid x confusion
IÆ iæѢ ѣ/jæ:/long softening (yat/jać)*
à ãѦ ѧ/aʊ/nasal a/am/an (little yus)
Õ õѪ ѫ/oʊ/nasal o/om/on (big yus)
* This letter doesn't exist in modern alphabets but there's still in words: лѣто: letni, lato, літо, лето; бѣлый: biały, bielić, білий, белый

Alphabet logic

See also G/H Problem.

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