Lingo

The core of the controversy can be summed up in one question: how Danish should Norwegian be? This issue has been hotly contested for some two hundred years. In 1814 Norway broke away from Denmark, becoming effectively an independent nation, though full and official independence didn’t come until 1905. But there was a problem. Under Danish rule, the Norwegian language, which in the Middle Ages had set the tone in all of Northern Europe, had been squeezed into a tight cor

Cyrillic script, discussed in the previous chapter, and which is used not just in Russian but also in Bulgarian, Macedonian, Ukrainian, Ossetian, Serbo-Croatian (in part, anyway) and Belarusian

the ‘hard sign’ is even more marginal, and is usually left out when transcribing Russian into the Latin alphabet. The soft and hard signs together are called the two yers.
Group 2: sibilants (hissing noises)
This is where things get really Slavic. Most of these letters are derived from the Glagolitic alphabet (see p.245).
Ц (TS) as in tsunami. In many languages ‘ts’ is perceived as one sound. In German it’s written as z, in Czech and Hungarian as c.
Ч (CH) as in chicken.
Ж (ZH) sounds like the middle consonant in measure.
Ш (SH) as in bush or shirt.
Щ (SHTSH) in spite of the five-character transcription, in modern Russian it sounds like a long ‘sh’, as in bush-shirt.
Group 3: the ‘mirrored R’
Я (YA) as in yard. Though at least two Cyrillic letters (Э and Ю) underwent mirroring at some point in history, Я did not originate as a mir

The most common official version is the Bokmål (‘Book Tongue’) which, in turn, has various gradations, on a scale ranging from ‘moderate’ (more

Danish) to ‘radical’ (less so). Equally official is Nynorsk (‘New Norwegian’), which is closer to the dialects that most people speak. Strangely enough though, it is much less common, being used most frequently in the west of the country. At school, Norwegian children learn both official languages, with priority given to one in some places, and the other elsewhere. The aforementioned Language Council is in charge of both

But the Russian alphabet is Cyrillic, isn’t it? Yes it is. But no fewer than 24 of its letters are derived from Greek capitals, so knowing your Greek letters will help a great deal.

(A) identical to Greek Α
Е (YE) identical to Greek Ε; this is one of four Cyrillic vowels preceded by a ‘y’ sound
Ф (F) identical to Greek Φ
Г (G) identical to Greek Γ
К (K) identical to Greek Κ
М (M) identical to Greek Μ
О (O) identical to Greek Ο
П (P) identical to Greek Π
Р (R) identical to Greek Ρ
Т (T) identical to Greek Τ
Х (KH/CH) identical to Greek Χ
У (U) very similar to Greek Y
The other half of the Greek-derived Cyrillic letters have some surprises in store:
В (V) same shape as Greek, but pronounced as ‘v’ (as in Modern

Greek).
Б (B) derived from Greek B, and with the same sound as in Ancient Greek, i.e. ‘b’.
С (S) derived from the Greek Σ (s), though the right-indentation was transmogrified into a crescent or ‘lunate sigma’.
Д (D) derived from Greek Δ, with two little feet added; in some fonts, the Д has a sharp top, as in Greek.
Ё (YO) same origin as Е, with dots added (though often omitted).
Э (E) same origin as E. In older Cyrillic, it used to be Є.
Н (N) derived not from Greek Η, but Ν.
Л (L) derived from Greek Λ. Like Д, it sometimes occurs in a pointy shape more similar to the classical form.
И (I) derived from Greek H, which in classical times sounded like the ‘e’ in bed, but later changed to the the ‘i’ as in machine.
Й (Y) same origin as И ; this stands for our Y as a consonant (as in boy), rather than as a vowel (as in myth).

(Z) derived from Greek Z (zeta), it looks a bit like an old-fashioned Latin z, but is easily confused with Э.
Ю (YU) derived from a Greek Ι and Ο joined together – though this description cuts some historical corners.
In all, there are 33 letters in the Cyrillic alphabet – or in the Russian version of it, to be exact (other languages have slightly different sets). The Greek alphabet can help us to memorise 24 of them, as we’ve seen. That leaves just nine, which can be divided into three groups. There’s nothing for it but to learn these by heart.
Group 1: yeri and the yers:
Ы (Y) called yeri, this letter is conventionally transcribed as Y (in its vowel role), but it really represents a sound somewhere in between the i of machine and the German ‘ü’. Its pronunciation is a notorious hurdle for Western European learners of Russian.
Ь (’) to speak good Russian, one needs to learn how to pronounce this ‘soft sign’; tourists can safely ignore it.

Finnish and Hungarian also share at least six grammatical features that are rare in Europe. Both of them ignore gender to the point where they have only one word for ‘he’ and ‘she’ (hän in Finnish, ő in Hungarian). Both have more than twelve cases. Both have postpositions rather than prepositions. Both have a great love of suffixes