Cyrillic script

The Cyrillic alphabet is used to write Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and some other Slavic languages (Serbian, Macedonian, Bulgarian), as well as other languages of the former Soviet Union, such as Tatar (a Turkic language) and Udmurt (a Finno-Ugric language).

The alphabet is mainly made up of Greek letters, though there are also some letters that derive from the older Glagolitic alphabet. It is named in honor of Saint Cyril. Cyril and his brother Methodius are credited with major influences or creation of the Glagolitic alphabet, which is an uncial cursive and is a precursor to Cyrillic.

As used in various languages

(Sounds are written as if they were English. Note that spellings of names may very, especially Y/J/I but also GH/G/H.)

Russian

Capital	Small	Name	Sound	typical SAMPA value¹
А	а	A	ah	/a/
Б	б	Be	b	/b/
В	в	Ve	v	/v/
Г	г	Ghe	g	/g/
Д	д	De	d	/d/
Е	е	Ye	yeh	/jE/
Ë	ë	Yo	yoh	/jO/
Ж	ж	Zhe	zh	/Z/
З	з	Ze	z	/z/
И	и	I	ee	/i/
Й	й	Short I	y	/j/
К	к	Ka	k	/k/
Л	л	El	l	/l/
М	м	Em	m	/m/
Н	н	En	n	/n/
О	о	O	o	/o/
П	п	Pe	p	/p/
Р	р	Er	r	/r/
С	с	Es	s	/s/
Т	т	Te	t	/t/
У	у	U	oo	/u/
Ф	ф	Ef	f	/f/
Х	х	Ha	kh	/x/
Ц	ц	Tse	ts	/ts/
Ч	ч	Che	ch	/tS/
Ш	ш	Sha	sh	/S/
Щ	щ	Shcha	shsh	/Sj/
Ъ	ъ	Hard Sign	N/A²	neutralizes palatalization of preceding consonant
Ы	ы	Yery	ih	(IPA upside-down m)
Ь	ь	Soft Sign	N/A²	/j/ - palatalization
Э	э	E	eh	/E/
Ю	ю	Yu	yoo	/ju/
Я	я	Ya	yah	/ja/

1. These are only approximate indicators. While Russian is by and large a phonemic orthography, there are occasional exceptions - most notably "ЕГО" (he), which is pronounced /jevo/.
   
2. Note on Hard Sign and Soft Sign: When a iotated vowel (one whose sound begins with /j/) follows a consonant, the consonant will become palatalised (the /j/ sound will mix with the consonant). The Hard Sign will indicate that this does not happen, and the /j/ sound will appear only in front of the vowel. On the other hand, the Soft Sign will indicate this palatalisation does happen, even though the following vowel has no /j/ sound.

Ukrainian

Like Russian except:

Ghe is pronounced /Y/ and is called "Ge". Between Ge and De is the letter Ghe, pronounced /g/, which looks like Ge but has an "upturn" pointing up from the right side of the top bar.

Ye is pronounced /E/ and is called "E". Yo does not appear. Between E and Zhe is the letter Ye, pronounced /jE/, which looks like the Russian letter E, only backwards. The Russian letter E does not appear.

I is pronounced /I/ and is called "Y". Accordingly, Short I is called "Short Y". Between Y and Short Y appear the letter I, pronounced /i/, which looks like the Latin letter I, and the letter Yi, pronounced /ji/, which looks like I with a diaeresis (the same two dots that appear in the Russian letter Yo) above it. Yery does not appear.

The Hard Sign is not used; instead, its purpose is served by an apostrophe.

Belarusian

Like Russian except:

I looks like the Latin letter I. (But Short I still looks the same as in Russian!)

Between U and Ef is the letter Short U, pronounced /w/, which looks like U with a breve (the same curve that appears in Short I).

Shcha does not appear.

The Hard Sign is not used; instead, its purpose is served by an apostrophe.

Bulgarian

Like Russian except:

Ye is pronounced /E/ and is called "E". Yo does not appear. The Russian letter E does not appear.

Shcha is pronounced /sht/ and is called "Shta".

Yery does not appear.

Macedonian

Like Russian except:

Ye is pronounced /E/ and is called "E". Yo does not appear. The Russian letter E does not appear.

Between De and E is the letter Gje, pronounced /g^j/, which looks like Ghe with an acute accent (').

Between Ze and I is the letter Dze, pronounced /dz/, which looks like the Latin letter S.

Short I does not appear. Between I and Ka is the letter Ej, pronounced /j/, which looks like the Latin letter J.

Between El and Em is the letter Elj, pronounced /l^j/, which looks like El and the Soft Sign smashed together.

Between En and O is the letter Enj, pronounced /n^j/, which looks like En and the Soft Sign smashed together.

Between Te and U is the letter Kja, pronounced /k^j/, which looks like Ka with an acute accent (').

Between Che and Sha is the letter Dzhe, pronounced /dZ/, which looks like Tse but with the downturn moved from the right side of the bottom bar to the middle of the bottom bar.

Sha is the last letter; the rest do not appear.

Serbian

Like Macedonian except:

Dze does not appear.

Kja does not appear. It is replaced by "Tjerv" (/t^j/), and looks like a lowercase Latin letter H with a bar. On the uppercase letter, the bar appears at the top; on the lowercase letter, the bar crosses the top half of the vertical line.

Gje does not appear. It is replaced by "Djerv" (/d^j/), and looks like Tjerv, except that the loop of the H curls farther and dips downwards.

non-Slavic languages

These alphabets are generally modelled after Russian, but often bear striking differences, particularly when adapted for Caucasian languages