The writing of the Russian language is based on the Cyrillic script. However, most of the world's languages use the Latin alphabet for this. Later in the article we will tell you how to write in Latin letters correctly. This is a very important skill that can come in handy in any situation. As an example, you need to be able to write your name correctly in Latin when traveling abroad.
History of the Latin alphabet
Historically, the Latin alphabet is divided into an archaic version and a classic one. The first of these is very similar to the Greek language, from which it probably originated.
The original alphabet consisted of 27 letters, some of which were practically not used. The composition of the same classical alphabet included 23 letters. Latin was the official language in ancient Rome, and thanks to Roman expansion, this alphabet became widespread. In the process of historical development, several more letters were added to the Latin alphabet, and at the moment the "basicLatin alphabet" has 26 letters and is identical to modern English.
However, almost every language that uses the Latin alphabet today has its own additional Latin characters, such as the letter "thorn" (Þ), which is used in Icelandic. And there are many examples of such expansion of the Latin alphabet.
And how to write uppercase Latin letters that are included in the "basic Latin alphabet"? There are several rules. And according to them, some uppercase letters are smaller copies of uppercase ones, while some letters are slightly different.
Russian Latin
The very first cases of using the Latin alphabet for writing East Slavic languages date back to the period of the 16th-17th centuries, when the Latin alphabet appeared in the documents of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Commonwe alth.
Later, already on the territory of the Russian state, the question of changing the Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin alphabet was repeatedly raised. At first, this idea came to Peter I, who, against the background of the economic transformations of the European bias, also conceived the language reform. However, Peter never fulfilled this wish.
Calls for changing the alphabet in the 19th century increased further. Representatives of the “Westernizers” movement especially advocated for this. And again, there was no change in the alphabet. After all, the opponents of the Latin alphabet had many supporters. Including Minister Uvarov, the author of the theory of official nationality. The introduction of the Latin alphabet, according to opponents of the transition, would mean the losscultural uniqueness.
After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks planned to translate all nationalities into Latin. Several options for the Russian language have been proposed. However, the period of "Latinization" quickly ended, and the leadership of the USSR began, on the contrary, to translate all languages into Cyrillic. After that, the issue of changing the alphabet in the USSR was closed.
After the fall of the communist regime, the issue of parallel circulation of the Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin one, as in Uzbekistan, was also repeatedly raised, but the public blocked such proposals. Despite all the ambiguity of this issue, the introduction of the Latin alphabet could be useful for the Russian language. This would make it open to further cultural expansion. But the introduction of the Latin alphabet in Russian has a small minus - it will be difficult for the older generation to understand how to write in Latin letters.
Transliteration from Cyrillic to Latin
There are no unified rules for transliteration from Cyrillic to Latin. However, a certain standard is currently used in the Russian Federation, which is followed by employees of the Federal Migration Service.
He is criticized from time to time, but accepted as official. It replaces letters with phrases that are not in the Latin alphabet: E, Sh, Sh, Yu, Zh, C, Ch, Ya. The rest of the letters are actually identical to their Latin counterparts.
How to write the last name and first name in Latin letters
Usually you need to go through this procedure upon receiptforeign passport or visa. All documents that require transliteration are filled out according to the ISO 9 rule, which is followed by the Federal Migration Service. According to this rule, surnames are translated into Latin. We offer you a transliteration scale.
Thanks to this table, any word written in Cyrillic can be written in Latin. For example, Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich in Latin will be Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich.
Conclusion
Disputes about which alphabet the Russian language needs do not subside long enough. Each of the opinions has its own advantages and disadvantages. Discussions have been going on in our country for centuries, and there is no end in sight yet. However, being able to write in Latin letters is quite an important skill. It can be useful when obtaining a foreign passport, visa, paperwork in other states.
In this article, we showed how to write your first and last name in Latin. But that's not all. Using the table given here, you can write any Cyrillic word in Latin. We hope that after reading this article you have understood how to write in Latin letters.
