Ukrainian orthography notes

Sample

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Стаття 1. Всі люди народжуються вільними і рівними у своїй гідності та правах. Вони наділені розумом і совістю і повинні діяти у відношенні один до одного в дусі братерства.

Стаття 2. Кожна людина повинна мати всі права і всі свободи, проголошені цією Декларацією, незалежно від раси, кольору шкіри, статі, мови, релігії, політичних або інших переконань, національного чи соціального походження, майнового, станового або іншого становища. Крім того, не повинно проводитися ніякого розрізнення на основі політичного, правового або міжнародного статусу країни або території, до якої людина належить, незалежно від того, чи є ця територія незалежною, підопічною, несамоврядованою або як‐небудь інакше обмеженою у своєму суверенітеті.

Source: Unicode UDHR, articles 1 & 2

Usage & history

Origins of the Latin script, 7thC – today.

Phoenician

└ Greek

└ Old Italic

└ Cyrillic

+ Glagolitic

+ Latin

+ Armenian

+ Georgian

+ Coptic

+ Runes

Ukrainian is the native language of around 40 million people and is written using a version of the Cyrillic script. Although Ukraine has many Russian speakers, particularly in the east and south of the country, in 2001 around 88% of Ukrainians were able to communicate in the Ukrainian language, and its use in the population has been increasing for some years.wul

українська абетка ʊkrɐˈjinʲsʲkɐ ɐˈbɛtkɐ Ukrainian alphabet

The script is named in honor of the two Byzantine brothers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who created the earlier Glagolitic alphabet. Modern scholars believe that Cyrillic was developed and formalized by early disciples of Cyril and Methodius.

Cyrillic is derived from the Greek uncial script, augmented by letters from the older Glagolitic alphabet, including some ligatures. These additional letters were used for Old Church Slavonic sounds not found in Greek, and the Cyrillic script was initially used for writing Old Church Slavonic (also called Old Bulgarian), The script has changed over the intervening centuries to the point that Old Church Slavonic is sometimes considered a separate script.

Several orthographic reforms were introduced over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. The latest version of the orthography was defined by the Ukrainian National Commission on Spelling and approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on May 22, 2019.

Sources: Scriptsource, Wikipedia.

Basic features

Cyrillic is an alphabet. Letters typically represent a consonant or vowel sound. See the table to the right for a brief overview of features for the modern Ukrainian language.

Of the 441 characters in the Unicode Cyrillic blocks, 177 are historic (33%) and 2 are for Lithuanian dialectology. The remaining 262 are just letters – no punctuation, digits, or combining characters. These are all bicameral, which brings the number of distinct modern letters to 131. Although modern Cyrillic text tends to use precomposed forms, rather than combining diacritics separately with base letters, many extended characters are formed by slightly tweaking a set of basic shapes.

Ukrainian text runs left-to-right in horizontal lines. Words are separated by spaces. The visual forms of letters don't usually interact.

The script is bicameral. The shapes of the upper and lowercase forms are typically the same. There can be a significant difference, however, between regular and cursive/italic shapes for the same character.

❯ consonantSummary

Modern Ukrainian has 32 basic consonant letters (64 if you include both upper- and lowercase), plus the hard sign and soft sign.

❯ basicV

Ukrainian is an alphabet where vowels are written using 10 vowel letters, 4 of which usually indicate palatalisation of the previous consonant. Palatalisation can otherwise be applied or removed using the hard and soft signs.

There are no special mechanisms to represent standalone vowels. Combining marks are normally not used, and only occur in decomposed text.

Numbers use ASCII digits.

The visual forms of letters don't usually interact.

Vowels

Vowel summary table

The following table summarises the main vowel to character assigments.

Vowels preceded by ʲ cause the preceding consonant to be palatalised. Where 2 transcriptions are given for a symbol they show stressed and unstressed pronunciations. Diphones typically occur for standalone vowel sounds. The bottom row shows the glides/semivowels used to make diphthongs.

Simple	і␣и␣у␣ ␣і␣ю	І␣И␣У␣ ␣І␣Ю
	е␣о␣ ␣є	Е␣О␣ ␣Є
	а␣ ␣я	А␣ ␣Я
Diphones	ї␣ ␣ю	Ї␣ ␣Ю
Diphones	є␣ ␣я	Є␣ ␣Я
Diphthongs	й␣ ␣в	Й␣ ␣В

For additional details see vowel_mappings.

Post-consonant vowels

Vowels following consonants are written using 10 vowel letters, 4 of which usually indicate palatalisation of the previous consonant. Palatalisation can otherwise be applied or removed using the hard and soft signs.

Vowel letters

Standard Ukrainian uses 10 vowel letters (20 characters).

The following 6 vowels are normally used after a 'hard' consonant (ie. one that isn't palatalised).

ї␣и␣у␣е␣о␣а

Ї␣И␣У␣Е␣О␣А

The other letters usually occur after a 'soft' (palatalized) consonant or as standalone vowels.

і␣ю␣є␣я

І␣Ю␣Є␣Я

When used after a palatalised consonant these vowels don't begin with j-, eg. the following shows letter to sound associations for the word будяк

бb

уʊ

дˈdʲ

яa

кk

On the other hand, these letters may also be used after a hard consonant followed by ʼ (the hard sign), in which case the vowel sound is preceded by j-, eg. інтервʼю

The vowels generally have different pronunciations in stressed vs. unstressed syllables, however such allophonic variations are not captured in the orthography. Click on the letters in the tables above for more information on that.

Vowel diacritics

Vowel diacritics only appear in decomposed text. In normal Ukrainian texts there are no combining marks.

The marks that appear after decomposition are:

̆␣̈␣́

Diphthongs

Two consonant characters are used to form diphthongs.

Й␣й␣в␣В

й is occasionally used as a consonant, but is mainly used after a vowel to create diphthongs, eg. буйний

в is generally used as a consonant, but when it appears as the coda of a syllable it is pronounced u̯, eg. кров

Standalone vowels

і␣ї␣ю␣є␣я

І␣Ї␣Ю␣Є␣Я

At the start of a word, or after another vowel, Ukrainian uses the 'ioticised' letters. Used in these locations, the sound of all the above vowels except і is preceded by j-, eg. юний союз компʼютер імла

Vowel sounds to characters

This section maps Ukrainian vowel sounds to common graphemes in the Cyrillic orthography.

The right-hand side of each item shows uppercase forms.

Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words, etc. Light coloured characters occur infrequently.

І lc і

i̯

Й lc й when it occurs after a vowel, or (in some words) before an initial consonant.

Ї lc ї

И lc и

У lc у in unstressed syllables.

Ю lc ю after a palatalised consonant in unstressed syllables.

jʊ

Ю lc ю as a standalone vowel or after a hard sign in unstressed syllables.

У lc у in stressed syllables.

Ю lc ю after palatalised consonant.

u̯

В lc в allophone occurring as a syllable coda.

Ю lc ю as a standalone vowel or after a hard sign.

Е lc е in unstressed syllables.

Є lc є after a palatalised consonant in unstressed syllables.

И lc и in unstressed syllables.

Є lc є in unstressed syllables.

Е lc е

Є lc є after a palatalised consonant.

jɛ

Є lc є as a standalone vowel or after a hard sign.

О lc о

А lc а in stressed syllables.

Я lc я after a palatalised consonant in stressed syllables.

Я lc я as a standalone vowel or after a hard sign.

А lc а after a palatalised consonant in unstressed syllables.

Я lc я after a palatalised consonant in unstressed syllables.

jɐ

Я lc я as a standalone vowel or after a hard sign in unstressed syllables.

Consonants

Consonant summary table

The following table summarises the main consonant to character assigments.

The left column is lowercase, and the right uppercase.

Standard	п␣б␣т␣д␣к␣ґ	П␣Б␣Т␣Д␣К␣Ґ
	ц␣ч␣щ	Ц␣Ч␣Щ
	ф␣в␣с␣з␣ш␣ж␣х␣г	Ф␣В␣С␣З␣Ш␣Ж␣Х␣Г
	м␣н	М␣Н
	в␣р␣л␣й	В␣Р␣Л␣Й
Palatalisation	ь␣ʼ

For additional details see consonant_mappings.

Consonant letters

Ukrainian uses 20 consonants (40 characters, if you include uppercase and lowercase), plus a hard and soft sign. Click on the lowercase letters for detail information about usage.

п␣б␣т␣д␣к␣ґ␣ц␣ч␣щ␣ф␣в␣с␣з␣ш␣ж␣х␣г␣м␣н␣р␣л␣й

П␣Б␣Т␣Д␣К␣Ґ␣Ц␣Ч␣Щ␣Ф␣В␣С␣З␣Ш␣Ж␣Х␣Г␣М␣Н␣Р␣Л␣Й

Palatalisation

ї␣ю␣є␣я␣ь␣ʼ

Most of the consonants can be pronounced with or without palatisation, ie. 'hard' or 'soft', respectively. During palatalisation the tongue is raised towards the palate while the consonant is pronounced, eg. compare банан баня

Palatalisation is indicated by the letter that follows the consonant. When the vowel letters ї ю є я follow a consonant, the initial j- sound which is associated with those characters in standalone positions is dropped, and the preceding consonant is palatalised.

Consonants can be palatalised when no vowel follows using the soft sign, ь, eg. більшість

The soft sign may also be used when you want the consonant to be palatalised but retain the initial j- of the following vowel, eg. досьє

To write a hard consonant followed by a vowel that retains the initial j-, follow the consonant with the hard sign, ʼ, eg. пʼять

Note that this shows that there is a difference between пʼят and пять.

A few consonant sounds are generally always hard.

Finals

Unlike Russian, voiced consonants at the end of a syllable or word remain voiced, eg. шоколад трубкозуб

Consonant sounds to characters

This section maps Ukrainian consonant sounds to common graphemes in the Cyrillic orthography.

The right-hand side of each item shows uppercase forms.

Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words, etc. Light coloured characters occur infrequently.

П lc п

Б lc б

Т lc т

Тʼ lc тʼ

tʲ

Т lc т when followed by a softening vowel.

ТЬ lc ть

t͡s

Ц lc ц

Цʼ lc цʼ

t͡sʲ

Ц lc ц when followed by a softening vowel.

ЦЬ lc ць

t͡ʃ(ʲ)

Ч lc ч

Д lc д

Дʼ lc дʼ

dʲ

Д lc д when followed by a softening vowel.

ДЬ lc дь

d͡z

ДЗ lc дз

d͡ʒ

ДЖ lc дж

К lc к

kʲ

К lc к when followed by 0456.

Ґ lc ґ

В lc в Allophone sometimes found before back vowels.

Ф lc ф

fʲ

Ф lc ф Usually only when followed by і.

С lc с

Сʼ lc сʼ

sʲ

С lc с when followed by a softening vowel.

СЬ lc сь

З lc з

Зʼ lc зʼ

zʲ

З lc з when followed by a softening vowel.

ЗЬ lc зь

Ш lc ш

ʃʲ

Ш lc ш when followed by a softening vowel.

ШЬ lc шь

ʃt͡ʃ

Щ lc щ

ʃt͡ʃʲ

Щ lc щ when followed by a softening vowel.

Ж lc ж

Х lc х

xʲ

Х lc х when followed by і.

Г lc г

М lc м

mʲ

М lc м when followed by і.

Н lc н

Нʼ lc нʼ

nʲ

Н lc н when followed by a softening vowel.

НЬ lc нь

В lc в generally found before back vowels.

В lc в allophone occuring before front vowels.

Р lc р

Рʼ lc рʼ

rʲ

Р lc р when followed by a softening vowel.

РЬ lc рь

Л lc л

Лʼ lc лʼ

ɫʲ

Л lc л

ЛЬ lc ль

Й lc й

Glyph shaping & positioning

You can experiment with examples using the All Cyrillic character app and the Ukrainian character app.

Letterform slopes, weights, & italics

Cyrillic doesn't normally have any of the changeability of complex scripts. Characters are typically separate and self-contained. However, there can be a significant difference in shape between regular and italic/cursive font shapes for the same character.

вшим — Conservative transformations between regular and italic.

гдт — More radical transformations between regular and italic.

Note in particular the italic form of т in the figure just above, which looks similar to the italic form of м shown in the previous figure.

The shapes of the italic forms can also vary by language.w

The shape of the breve sign in Cyrillic is different from that used for Latin text.s A font such as Brill can detect the appropriate shape from the adjacent characters.

й ̆ й i ̆ i — 0306 between cyrillic and latin characters changes shape in the Brill font.

Case & transforms

Ukrainian is bicameral, and applications may need to enable transforms to allow the user to switch between cases.

phrase	, ; :
sentence	. ? !

	start	end
standard	(	)

	start	end
initial	«	»
nested	„	“

Line & paragraph layout

Line breaking & hyphenation

Spaces between words provide the primary line break opportunities.u

Line-edge rules

As in almost all writing systems, certain punctuation characters should not appear at the end or the start of a line. The Unicode line-break properties help applications decide whether a character should appear at the start or end of a line.

Show (default) line-breaking properties for characters in the modern Ukrainian orthography.

The following list gives examples of typical behaviours for some of the characters used in Ukrainian. Context may affect the behaviour of some of these and other characters.

Click/tap on the characters to show what they are.

« „ ( should not be the last character on a line.
» “ ) . , ; ! ? % should not begin a new line.

Text alignment & justification

Justification is done, principally, by adjusting the space between words.

Baselines, line height, etc.

Cyrillic uses the so-called 'alphabetic' baseline, which is the same as for Latin and many other scripts.

Cyrillic has little in the way of ascenders and descenders, and mostly the font metrics are the same as for ASCII text. One difference is the use of a couple of diacritics, which rise above the ASCII ascender height in capital letters..

To give an approximate idea, fig_baselines compares Latin and Cyrillic glyphs from Noto fonts.

HhqxюбдфйЮБДФЙ — Font metrics for Latin text compared with Cyrillic glyphs in the Noto Serif (top) and Noto Sans (bottom) fonts.

fig_baselines_other shows similar comparisons for the Doulos SIL and Helvetica fonts.

Counters, lists, etc.

You can experiment with counter styles using the Counter styles converter. Patterns for using these styles in CSS can be found in Ready-made Counter Styles, and we use the names of those patterns here to refer to the various styles.

The modern Ukrainian orthography uses 4 alphabetic styles, besides the ASCII decimal numeric style.

Alphabetic

The lower-Ukrainian alphabetic style uses these letters.

а␣б␣в␣г␣д␣е␣є␣ж␣з␣и␣і␣к␣л␣м␣н␣о␣п␣р␣с␣т␣у␣ф␣х␣ц␣ч␣ш␣ю␣я

Examples:

а␣б␣в␣г␣і␣ф␣ад␣ао␣вю␣єш␣іч␣нц

The lower-Ukrainian-full alphabetic style uses these letters.

а␣б␣в␣г␣ґ␣д␣е␣є␣ж␣з␣и␣і␣ї␣й␣к␣л␣м␣н␣о␣п␣р␣с␣т␣у␣ф␣х␣ц␣ч␣ш␣щ␣ь␣ю␣я

Examples:

а␣б␣в␣г␣и␣с␣я␣аи␣ві␣ду␣зв␣їк

The upper-Ukrainian alphabetic style uses these letters.

А␣Б␣В␣Г␣Д␣Е␣Є␣Ж␣З␣И␣І␣К␣Л␣М␣Н␣О␣П␣Р␣С␣Т␣У␣Ф␣Х␣Ц␣Ч␣Ш␣Ю␣Я

Examples:

А␣Б␣В␣Г␣І␣Ф␣АД␣АО␣ВЮ␣ЄШ␣ІЧ␣НЦ

The upper-Ukrainian-full alphabetic style uses these letters.

А␣Б␣В␣Г␣Ґ␣Д␣Е␣Є␣Ж␣З␣И␣І␣Ї␣Й␣К␣Л␣М␣Н␣О␣П␣Р␣С␣Т␣У␣Ф␣Х␣Ц␣Ч␣Ш␣Щ␣Ь␣Ю␣Я

Examples:

А␣Б␣В␣Г␣И␣С␣Я␣АИ␣ВІ␣ДУ␣ЗВ␣ЇК

Prefixes and suffixes

The default list style uses a full stop + space as a suffix.

Examples:

а. б. в. г. ґ.

Separator for Ukrainian list counters.

Notes, footnotes, etc

See inlinenotes for purely inline annotations, such as ruby or warichu. This section is about annotation systems that separate the reference marks and the content of the notes.

	labial	alveolar	post- alveolar	palatal	velar	glottal
stops	p b	t d			k ɡ
palatalised	pʲ	tʲ dʲ
affricates		t͡s d͡z	t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
palatalised		t͡sʲ d͡zʲ	t͡ʃʲ d͡ʒʲ
fricatives	f	s z	ʃ ʒ		x ɣ	ɦ
palatalised		sʲ zʲ
nasals	m	n
palatalised	mʲ	nʲ
approximants	w~ʋ	l		j
palatalised		lʲ
trills/flaps		r
palatalised		rʲ

	гіркий
	(decomposed)

Ukrainian

Sample

Usage & history

Basic features

Character index

Letters

Consonants

Vowels

Other

Combining marks

Punctuation

ASCII

Other

To be investigated

Phonology

Vowel sounds

Consonant sounds

Tone

Structure

Alphabet

Vowels

Vowel summary table

Post-consonant vowels

Vowel letters

Vowel diacritics

Diphthongs

Standalone vowels

Vowel sounds to characters

Consonants

Consonant summary table

Consonant letters

Palatalisation

Finals

Consonant sounds to characters

Other features

Diacritics

Text direction

Numbers

Glyph shaping & positioning

Letterform slopes, weights, & italics

Case & transforms

Typographic units

Word boundaries

Graphemes

Grapheme clusters

Punctuation & inline features

Phrase & section boundaries

Bracketed text

Quotations

Line & paragraph layout

Line breaking & hyphenation

Line-edge rules

Text alignment & justification

Baselines, line height, etc.

Counters, lists, etc.

Alphabetic

Prefixes and suffixes

Page & book layout

References