Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

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The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (Serbian: српска/Вукова ћирилица, srpska/Vukova ćirilica) is one of the two alphabets used to write the Serbian language, the other being the Latin script (latinica, латиница). It is an adaptation of the Cyrillic alphabet for the Serbian language, and was developed in 1818 by Vuk Karadžić, a Serbian linguist. The alphabet was officially adopted in 1868.

Karadžić based his alphabet on the Cyrillic alphabet, on the simple principle of "write as you speak and read as it is written" (Пиши као што говориш и читај како је написано, Piši kao što govoriš i čitaj kako je napisano). The Serbian Latin alphabet is the same as the Croatian alphabet, and was mostly developed by Ljudevit Gaj. The two alphabets are almost entirely interchangeable.

The Cyrillic alphabet is seen as being more traditional, and has official status in Serbia and the Republika Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina), although the Latin alphabet has gained widespread usage during the course of the 20th century. The Serbian Latin alphabet is more common in Montenegro. The Serbian language and Cyrillic script also have official and equal status in Bosnia and Herzegovina (at the Federal level), in the Brčko District and in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, together with the works of Krste Misirkov and Venko Markovski, were used as bases for the Macedonian alphabet.

The Alphabet

The following table provides the upper and lower case forms of the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, along with the Serbian Latin equivalent and the IPA value for each letter:

Cyrillic Alphabet Latin alphabet IPA	А а A /a/	Б б B /b/	В в V /ʋ/	Г г G /g/	Д д D /d/	Ђ ђ Đ /dʑ/	Е е E /ɛ/	Ж ж Ž /ʒ/	З з Z /z/	И и I /i/
Cyrillic Alphabet Latin alphabet IPA	Ј ј J /j/	К к K /k/	Л л L /l/	Љ љ Lj /ʎ/	М м M /m/	Н н N /n/	Њ њ Nj /ɲ/	О о O /ɔ/	П п P /p/	Р р R /r/
Cyrillic Alphabet Latin alphabet IPA	С с S /s/	Т т T /t/	Ћ ћ Ć /tɕ/	У у U /u/	Ф ф F /f/	Х х H /x/	Ц ц C /ts/	Ч ч Č /tʃ/	Џ џ Dž /dʒ/	Ш ш Š /ʃ/

The handwritten Serbian Cyrillic alphabet is depicted below (the letter order corresponds to the table above):

Unique letters

The ligatures <Љ> and <Њ>, together with <Џ>, <Ђ> and <Ћ> were developed uniquely for the Serbian alphabet.

Karadžić based the letters <Љ> and <Њ> on a design by Sava Mrkalj, combining the letters <Л> (L) and <Н> (N) with the soft sign (Ь).

Karadžić based <Џ> on a letter in the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet.

<Ћ> was adopted by Karadžić to represent the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate (IPA: /tɕ/). The letter was based on and adapted from the letter Djerv, which is the 12th letter of the Glagolitic alphabet. The letter had been used in written Serbian since the 12th century, to represent /gʲ/, dʲ/ and /dʑ/.

Karadžić adopted a design by Lukijan Mušicki for the letter <Ђ>. It was based on the letter <Ћ>, as adapted by Karadžić.

<Ј> was adopted from the Latin alphabet.

<Љ>, <Њ> and <Џ> were later adopted for use in the Macedonian alphabet.

References

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Last updated on Saturday March 08, 2008 at 23:57:26 PST (GMT -0800)
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