Phabetia

The Bulgarian alphabet

Cyrillic was born in Bulgaria, in the schools of Preslav and Ohrid, around the 10th century, and Bulgarian is still written in a 30-letter variant that is the closest of all to the Russian one: it adds no new letter and only drops three — Ё, Ы and Э.

What changes is the sound of two letters. Щ, which in Russian is «shch», reads «sht» in Bulgarian. And Ъ, a silent sign in Russian, is a full vowel in Bulgarian, close to the u in «but»: it sits in the very name of the country, България.

That makes it the ideal alphabet for anyone who already reads Russian: an afternoon is enough. And for anyone starting from scratch it is a slightly shorter Cyrillic than Russian, with the same old traps — В, Н, Р, С — and none added.

The 30 letters of the Bulgarian alphabet

Uppercase Lowercase Name Sounds like Looks like
А а A A
Б б Be B
В в Ve V B
Г г Ge G
Д д De D A
Е е E E
Ж ж Zhe ZH
З з Ze Z E
И и I I N
Й й Short I Y N
К к Ka K
Л л El L
М м Em M
Н н En N H
О о O O
П п Pe P
Р р Er R P
С с Es S C
Т т Te T
У у U U Y
Ф ф Ef F
Х х Kha KH X
Ц ц Tse TS
Ч ч Che CH Y
Ш ш Sha SH
Щ щ Shta SHT
Ъ ъ Er golyam Ă
Ь ь Er malak '
Ю ю Yu YU
Я я Ya YA

Words to practise

How you learn it in Phabetia

Every new letter is introduced first with its name and its Latin equivalent, and you have to recognise it before you start practising it. Then come the exercises: letter to sound, sound to letter, quick memory, telling it apart from the Latin letter it resembles, spotting the intruder, completing a word and reading one.

Characters arrive two or three at a time and are never dropped: each level carries the previous ones along. What you get wrong comes back sooner and more often; what you have mastered shows up rarely, and anything you have not seen for days climbs back up on its own.

There are no lives and no punishment: getting one wrong interrupts nothing. To move on you only need 70 % right.

Frequently asked questions

How many letters does the Bulgarian alphabet have?

Thirty. They are the Russian ones minus Ё, Ы and Э; none is added.

How does it differ from Russian?

In two sounds: Щ reads «sht» rather than «shch», and Ъ is a vowel rather than a silent sign. Е is also always a plain e, without the y in front that it carries in Russian.

Why is Bulgarian written in Cyrillic?

Because Cyrillic was born there: it was created in the First Bulgarian Empire at the end of the 9th century, out of Glagolitic, and from Bulgaria it spread to Serbia, to Russia and beyond.

Other alphabets