This Cyrillic alphabet for a non-Slavic language was created by the 19th century monk Ajchrip (Айхрып) as an improvement of the Cyrillic spelling of his native language previously used by Russian missionaries. To make a long story short the misssionaries’ spelling revealed a thick Russian accent, failing to distinguish sounds which sounded alike to a Russian ear. It is to this day debated whether the missionaries could actually not hear the difference between the sounds in question, or if they were only at a loss how to spell them differently, in each case using the letter for the closest Russian phoneme.
When expanding the alphabet Ajchrip worked with what he had, viz. a set of Russian Cyrillic moveable type. He used several methods to expand his inventory of letters:
- To use letters which were allographs for a single sound in the 19th century Russian alphabet for different phonemes in his native language.
- To turn the letters which the missionaries had used for two different sounds upside down to get a new letter for the sound missing in Russian. This was easy to do in moveable type but is hard to reproduce on computers. In the case of Е е and Ǝ ə he used this method to distinguish two different sounds which were written alike in Russian. Apparently he had no Ё ё types available.
- Digraphs, used especially to distinguish alveopalatal fricatives and affricates from their retroflex counterparts. The digraph НГ нг was taken over from the missionaries’ spelling, since it was in fact unambiguous. Note that in the modern language it contrasts with the spelling н’г in loanwords like дин’гі, which were formerly spelled in the Russian way (денги).
- In one case, Ъ ъ, he used a letter which was always silent in Russian for a sound not found in that language. He had plenty of Ъ ъ type, since that letter was used vacuously after every word-final consonant in 19th century Russian orthography.
| Letter | Romanization | IPA | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| А а | a | /a/ | |
| Б б | b | [b] | In complementary distribution with [mb]. |
| В в | v | /β/ | |
| Г г | h | /ɣ/ | |
| ’Г ’г | g | [g] | An allophone, mainly occurring word-initially, of /ŋ/, but not distinguished from Г г /ɣ/ in the Russian missionaries’ spelling. |
| Д д | d | [d] | In complementary distribution with [nd]. |
| Е е | jo | /ʑo, ʲo/ | |
| Ǝ ə | y | /e/ | When stressed written Е е or Э э and when unstressed И и or Ы ы in the missionaries’ spelling. Written И и when not word initial or following Л л, Н н or a vowel in Ajchrip orthography. |
| Ж ж | ż | /ʐ/ | |
| ЖЬ жь | j | /ʑ/ | When not preceded or followed by a vowel. Rare. Not distinguished from Ж ж in the missionaries’ spelling. |
| З з | z | /z/ | |
| Ɛ ɛ | ź, z’ | /ð/ | Not distinguished from З з in the missionaries’ spelling. |
| І і | ji | /ʑi, ʲi/ | |
| И и | jy | /ʑe, ʲe/ | Cf. Ǝ ə. |
| Й й | j | /ʑ/ | After vowels. Written with ь + е, и, ҍ, є, ю, я after a consonant and with жь when not preceded or followed by a vowel. |
| К к | k | /k/ | |
| Л л | l | /ɫ/ | |
| (ЛЬ ль) | ļ, l’ | /ʎ/ | |
| М м | m | /m/ | |
| Н н | n | /n/ | |
| (НГ нг) | nh, ngh | /ŋ/ | |
| НЬ нь | ņ, n’ | /ɲ/ | |
| О о | o | /o/ | |
| П п | p | /p/ | |
| Р р | r | /ɾ/ | /r/ word-initially and after a consonant. |
| РР рр | rr | /r/ | |
| С с | s | /s/ | |
| Ɔ ɔ | ś | /θ/ | Not distinguished from С с in the missionaries’ spelling. |
| Т т | t | /t/ | |
| У у | u | /o/ | |
| Ф ф | f | /ɸ/ | |
| Х х | ch, x | /x/ | Has an allophone [h] which sometimes was written Г г by the missionaries. |
| Ц ц | c | /ts/ | |
| Ч ч | ċ, cż | /tʂ/ | |
| ЧЬ чь | ç, cj | /tɕ/ | Not distinguished from Ч ч in the missionaries’ spelling. Written чье, чьи, чьҍ, чьє, чью, чья when followed by a vowel. |
| Ш ш | ṡ, sż | /ʂ/ | |
| Щ щ | ş, sj | /ɕ/ | Incidentally distinguished by the missionaries because Russian had a suitable letter. |
| Ъ ъ | ä | /ə/ | Not distinguished from А а in the missionaries’ spelling. |
| Ы ы | i | /i/ | When not preceded by /ʑ, ʎ, ɲ/. |
| Ь ь | (‘) | /ʲ/ | Used in digraphs for alveopalatal and palatal consonants. The phonemes /ʎ, ɲ/ are written л, н+ е, и, ҍ, є, ю, я when followed by a vowel. |
| Ҍҍ | jä | /jə, ʲə/ | Jat’. Written Я я, and sometimes when unstressed Ь ь in the missionaries’ spelling. Early prints in the Ajchrip alphabet sometimes used ʁ when they ran out of jat’ types. |
| Є є | je | /jɛ, ʲɛ/ | Written Е е in the missionaries’ spelling. |
| Э э | e | /ɛ/ | When not word-initial written Е е in the missionaries’ spelling. Written Є є when not word initial or following Л л, Н н or a vowel in Ajchrip orthography. |
| Ю ю | ju | /ju, ʲu/ | |
| Я я | ja | /ja, ʲa/ | When stressed not distinguished from /jə, ʲə/ in the missionaries’ spelling. |
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Tags: Alternate history, conscripts, drafts, Writing systems