At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter the Great carried out a reform of the Old Slavonic alphabet. Difficult letters in the spelling have been replaced by a civilian font. These are the letters with minor changes that we use now. A new civic alphabet was written.
But in 1918 another language reform was carried out, which changed the pre-revolutionary Russian language and transformed it into the modern one. What was this reform about? What was the pre-revolutionary language in Russia? How did it differ from modern?
Features of the pre-revolutionary language
The pre-reform alphabet of the Russian language totaled 35 letters, the modern - 33.
The alphabet of the pre-revolutionary language included the letters "and" - "i", "fita" - "ѳ", "izhitsa" - "ѵ", "yat" - "ѣ", but there was no modern "y" and "e".
The letter "Izhitsa" was not officially canceled, the Decree on Spelling Reform does not say anything about it, it was not remembered, since it was practically no longer used.
Features of pronunciation of letters of the pre-reform Russian language
Originally used church names: "az", "beeches", "lead", "verb" and so on. From the end of the 18th century, letters began to be called in the likeness of Latin letters, and by the end of the 19th century, new names formed that completely replaced the previous ones. The new names of the letters practically coincided with the modern ones, but after the consonants in their names there was not “e” but “e”, for example, “be”, “ve”, “ge” and so on, the letters “b” (ery) were an exception, “S” (yers), “b” (yer), “yati”, “izhitsa” and “feats”. The letter “and” was called “and octal”, and “i” was called “and decimal”, this corresponded to their numerical value in the Church Slavonic alphabet.
The letters "e", "y" - did not enter the alphabet of the pre-revolutionary language only formally, but they were used in the same way as now. The letter "th" was called "and with a short."
As a result of the reform of the Russian alphabet, "yat", "fita", "izhitsa" and "yer" (at the end of the word) were excluded from it. What are these letters and why were they removed from the pre-reform alphabet?
"Yat"
The letter is very similar to the symbol with which astronomers mark the planet Saturn. The letters “ҍ” and “e” were pronounced exactly the same, for example, “wind” and “evening”, however, in the word “wind” they wrote “yat”, and in the word “evening” - “e”. This caused enormous difficulties. The letter "yat" was considered the worst in the alphabet. Students mechanically memorized the rules for "yat", mistakes in writing this letter were considered the most gross. Since then, the expression "know in place" has developed, which means "very good."
Izhitsa
The letter "Izhitsa" in the alphabet of the pre-revolutionary language was very similar to the Roman numeral "five". It reminded our ancestors of an inverted whip, so the common people had the expression "register izhitsa", which meant "give a strong catching up" or "flog". The letter also caused a lot of inconvenience and made life difficult for students, for example, three words:
- peace - in the meaning of "universe";
- peace - "calm, silence";
- miro is a fragrant substance.
It would seem that the words are pronounced the same way, but they were written in different ways:
- in the first word they wrote "and with a point" - Mir;
- in the second - “and” - the world;
- in the third - “izhitsa” - mѵro.
There were many difficulties, many were confused in the rules for writing certain words. More Pushkin A.S. in 1818, he believed that the "Izhitsa" should be abolished, but it was abolished only in 1918.
Fita
The modern letter "f" and the pre-revolutionary "fita - ѳ" were in the alphabet in different places, but they were pronounced exactly the same. For example, in the pre-revolutionary address book, people with the name Fedorov were not placed together, as some wrote with the letter "f", and others with the letter "fita". Why is that? Trediakovsky V. in 1748 in his article “Conversation on Spelling” explained this by the fact that it’s not worthwhile to think about where to write “f” and where “phyto”, it does not matter, since not everyone studied Latin and Greek, and without knowledge of these languages it is impossible to know the difference in these letters. So they wrote to whom it would wander into one’s head, because all the same, few people understand how to do it right.
Yer
This is the so-called solid sign. Currently, it is considered a very useful letter, it separates the consonant of the prefix from the vowel (staircase, rise). And before the reform, a solid sign was written after strong consonants at the end of all words, for example, oak, rode, house. "Yer" was popularly called "parasite", "idler", "bloodsucker." In fact, the letter that was written at the end of almost every word devoured, according to scientists, 8% of paper and time. For example, Uspensky L. in the book “The Word of Words” wrote that in one edition of the book (in the pre-revolutionary language) “War and Peace” L. Tolstoy on 2080 pages there were about 115 thousand "yer". If you put them all together and print in a row, they would take more than 70 pages. And if you calculate that it took about 100 working days to type a novel, then for about 4 days a typesetter would type only this letter. And how much paper was spent on it? This is generally difficult to say. "Yer" was the most expensive letter in the world.
Pre-revolutionary language in modern Russia
The fashion for pre-reform Russian language reappeared in the period of perestroika and in the early 90s. Then a lot of pre-revolutionary literature was printed, and it was published according to the rules of the old spelling. Sites completely typed in the old spelling began to appear on the Internet, articles and publications began to print.
It has become fashionable to use elements of pre-reform spelling of words in advertising and on signs (and with errors).
Very often, "creative" designers of advertising signs followed a simple principle, without thinking about the rules of spelling, just added the letter "b" at the end of the word. So there appeared new-fangled signs on which at that time they could write “Izhitsa”, for example, for many years the logo “Capital Bank of Savings” was adorned on all signs and brochures, although the spelling “Capital Bank of Savings” would be correct. Unfortunately, there are a lot of such examples.
Fashion has returned, but literacy is not.