With a POD after the Princes of Kiev become Princes of Moscovy, how can we get Russia to predominantly switch alphabets. If the way, Koreans changed their writing system, so this isn't that far fetched.
Alternatively, could Russian have been written with the Greek alphabet? I know Cyrillic is derived from it, but was that necessary?
Here's my previous attempt at expanding the Greek alphabet to match.Well, Russian has some common sounds that Greek doesn't. zh sh ch shch come to mind.
Here's my idea for an extended Greek script (assuming lack of Islam).
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Alternatively, could Russian have been written with the Greek alphabet?
I don't really see how that Latinizes Russian
I agree. One could get by with relatively few modifications to Roman letters - one to show iotised vowels (if not using j+vowel), one for palatialised consonants such as sh, zh etc, et al.Ultimately, it would lead to the demise of the Cyrillic alphabet everywhere else. Some critics say it would require a large number of diacritical marks; but Polish, another Slavic language, does it with fewer diacritics than French.
It could be solved in the same way it is done in other slavic languages.Russian, like English, is phonetically inconsistent. English is worse for foreign words because they are spelled in their original languages, diacritics omitted, and speakers are expected to retain (memorize) the original pronunciation. Russian does the opposite, they MUST respell foreign words and they do it phonetically. Now, if you Latinize Russian, all of the traditional words get spelled phonetically. But foreign words would run into the same problem you have in English.
Now, if you Latinize Russian, all of the traditional words get spelled phonetically. But foreign words would run into the same problem you have in English.
I agree. One could get by with relatively few modifications to Roman letters - one to show iotised vowels (if not using j+vowel), one for palatialised consonants such as sh, zh etc, et al.
Something like this:
http://steen.free.fr/poilschi/index.html
used for Russian would look interesting, would solve problem of soft sign/iotified vowels without using much diacritics.
That's roughly what Cyrillic was about, starting from a Greek base of course.All Slavic languages can be done without diacritics. Just use extra letters.
Most European languages manage just about fine like this. At least, Russian words would be possibly written more phonetically, though they may opt for an etymological Romanized orthography anyway. The wouldn't have to chose a phonetic respelling of foreign words, but nothing would stop them to do that anyway (some Roman script languages do that, Estonian IIRC). The main cause of "inconsistency" in Russian spelling is stress, which varies rather unpredictably across morphological paradigms and heavily affects vowel sounds in the process. For Russians, is probably more economical to keep the "inconsistent" spellings in order to have word paradigms look ortographically the same, perhaps they may add a stress diacritic for clarity while they're at it (it actually exists in Cyrillic but is optional and extremely rarely used).Russian, like English, is phonetically inconsistent. English is worse for foreign words because they are spelled in their original languages, diacritics omitted, and speakers are expected to retain (memorize) the original pronunciation. Russian does the opposite, they MUST respell foreign words and they do it phonetically. Now, if you Latinize Russian, all of the traditional words get spelled phonetically. But foreign words would run into the same problem you have in English.
With a POD after the Princes of Kiev become Princes of Moscovy, how can we get Russia to predominantly switch alphabets. If the way, Koreans changed their writing system, so this isn't that far fetched.
If the Poles conquer Russia during, say, the Time of Troubles, then would a Russian Latin alphabet similar to the Ukrainian or Belarusian Latin alphabets have emerged?