Ukrainian alphabet The Ukrainian Alphabet is the set of letters used to write Ukrainian , the official language of Ukraine . It is one of the national variations of the Cyrillic writing system . In Ukrainian it is called Украї́нська абе́тка , Ukrajins′ka abetka ( from the initial letters a and be ) , алфаві́т , alfavit , or archaically азбу́ка , azbuka ( from the acrophonic early Cyrillic letter names az and buki ) . Ukrainian text is sometimes romanized : written in the Latin alphabet , for non-Cyrillic readers or transcription systems . See romanization of Ukrainian for details of specific romanization systems . There have also been several historical proposals for a native Latin alphabet for Ukrainian , but none has caught on . Alphabet The Ukrainian alphabet А а Б б В в Г г Ґ ґ Д д Е е Є є Ж ж З з И и І і Ї ї Й й К к Л л М м Н н О о П п Р р С с Т т У у Ф ф Х х Ц ц Ч ч Ш ш Щ щ Ю ю Я я Ь ь The alphabet comprises thirty-three letters , representing thirty-eight phonemes ( meaningful units of sound ) , and an additional sign—the apostrophe . Ukrainian orthography ( the rules of writing ) is based on the phonemic principle , with one letter generally corresponding to one phoneme . The orthography also has cases where the semantic , historical , and morphological principles are applied . Twenty-one letters represent consonants ( б , в , г , ґ , д , ж , з , к , л , м , н , п , р , с , т , ф , х , ц , ч , ш , щ ) , ten vowels ( а , е , є , и , і , ї , о , у , ю , я ) , and one a semivowel ( й , `` yot `` ) . The soft sign ь has no phonetic value , but indicates softening ( palatalization ) of a preceding consonant . Also , certain consonants are palatalized when followed by certain vowels . Any of д , з , л , н , с , т , ц , or дз is softened when followed by a `` soft '' vowel : є , і , ї , й , ю , я . See iotation . The apostrophe negates palatalization in places where it would be applied by normal orthographic rules . There are other exceptions to the phonemic principle in the alphabet . Some letters represent two phonemes : щ /ʃʧ/ , ї /ji/ , and є /je/ , ю /ju/ , я /ja/ when they do n't palatalize a preceding vowel . The digraphs дз and дж are used to represent single affricates /ʣ/ and /ʤ/ . Palatalization of consonants before е , у , а is indicated by writing the corresponding letter є , ю , я instead ( but palatalization before і is usually not indicated ) . Further information : Ukrainian phonology History Early Cyrillic alphabet The early Cyrillic alphabet was brought to Kievan Rus’ at the end of the first millennium , along with Christianity and the Old Church Slavonic language . The alphabet was adapted to the local spoken Old East Slavic language , leading to the development of indigenous East Slavic literary language alongside the liturgical use of Church Slavonic . The alphabet changed to keep pace with changes in language , as regional dialects developed into the modern Belarusian , Russian , and Ukrainian languages . Spoken Ukrainian has an unbroken history , but the literary language has suffered from two major historical fractures . Various reforms of the alphabet by scholars of Church Slavonic , Ruthenian , and Russian languages caused the written and spoken word to diverge by varying amounts . Etymological rules from Greek and South Slavic languages made the orthography imprecise and difficult to master . Meletiy Smotrytsky 's Slavonic Grammar of 1619 was influential , as were various Russian alphabet reforms . Peter the Great 's Russian Civil Script of 1708 ( Grazhdanka ) eliminated some archaic letters , but reinforced an etymological basis for the alphabet , influencing Mykhaylo Maksymovych 's nineteenth-century Galician Maksymovychivka script for Ukrainian , and its descendent , the Pankevychivka , which was in use for the Boyko dialect in Transcarpathia until 1945 . Nineteenth-century reforms In reaction to the etymological alphabets , several reforms attempted to introduce a phonemic Ukrainian orthography during the nineteenth century , based on the example of Vuk Karadžić 's Serbian Cyrillic . These included Oleksiy Pavlovskiy 's Grammar , Panteleimon Kulish 's Kulishivka , the Drahomanivka promoted by Mykhailo Drahomanov , and Yevhen Zhelekhivsky 's Zhelekhivka . A Ukrainian cultural revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries stimulated literary and academic activity in both Dnieper Ukraine ( in the Russian Empire ) and western Ukraine ( Austrian-controlled Galicia ) . In Galicia , the Polish-dominated local government tried to introduce a Latin alphabet for Ukrainian , which backfired by prompting a heated `` War of the Alphabets '' , bringing the issue of orthography into the public eye . The Cyrillic alphabet was favoured , but conservative Ukrainian cultural factions ( the Old Ruthenians and Russophiles ) opposed publications which promoted a pure Ukrainian orthography . In Dnieper Ukraine , proposed reforms suffered from periodic bans of publication and performance in the Ukrainian language . One such decree was the notorious 1976 Ems Ukaz , which banned the Kulishivka and imposed a Russian orthography until 1905 ( called the Yaryzhka , after the letter yery ы ) . The Kulishivka was adopted by Ukrainian publications , only to be banned again from 1914 until after the February Revolution of 1917 . The Zhelekhivka became official in Galicia in 1893 , and was adopted by many eastern Ukrainian publications after the Revolution . The Ukrainian National Republic adopted an official Ukrainian orthography in 1919 , and Ukrainian publication increased , and then flourished under Skoropadsky 's Hetmanate . Under the Bolshevik government of Ukraine , Ukrainian orthographies were confirmed in 1920 and 1921 . Unified orthography In 1925 , the Ukrainian SSR created a Commission for the Regulation of Orthography . During the period of Ukrainization in Soviet Ukraine , the 1927 International Orthographic Conference was convened in Kharkiv , from May 26 to June 6 . At the conference a standardized Ukrainian orthography and method for transliterating foreign words were established , a compromise between Galician and Soviet proposals , called the Skrypnykivka , after Ukrainian Commissar of Education Mykola Skrypnyk . It was officially recognized by the Council of People 's Commissars in 1928 , and by the Lviv Schevchenko Scientific Society in 1929 , and adopted by the Ukrainian diaspora . The Skrypnykivka was the first universally-adopted native Ukrainian orthography . However , by 1930 Stalin 's government started to reverse the Ukrainization policy as part of an effort to centralize power in Moscow . In 1933 , the orthographic reforms were abolished , decrees were passed to bring the orthography steadily closer to Russian . His reforms discredited and labelled `` nationalist deviation '' , Skrypnkyk committed suicide . The Ukrainian letter ge ґ , and the phonetic combinations ль , льо , ля were eliminated , and Russian etymological forms were reintroduced ( for example , the use of -іа- in place of -ія- ) . An official orthography was published in Kyiv in 1936 , with revisions in 1945 and 1960 . In the meantime , the Skrypnykivka continued to be used by Ukrainians in Galicia and the worldwide diaspora . During the period of Perestroika in the USSR , a new Ukrainian Orthographic Commision was created in in 1987 . A revised orthography was published in 1990 , reintroducing the letter ge . Letter names and pronunciation Letters and symbols of the Ukrainian alphabet Capital Small Translit . Name Pronunciation Notes А а a а /a/ [ a ] Б б b бе /bɛ/ [ b ] В в v ве /ʋɛ/ [ β ] , [ w ] [ 1 ] Г г h ге /ɦɛ/ [ ɦ ] Ґ ґ g ґе /gɛ/ [ g ] [ 2 ] Д д d де /dɛ/ [ d ] , [ dʲ ] Е е e е /ɛ/ [ ɛ ] Є є je є /jɛ/ [ jɛ ] Ж ж ž же /ʒɛ/ [ ʒ ] З з z зе /zɛ/ [ z ] , [ zʲ ] И и y и /ɪ/ [ ɪ ] І і i і /i/ [ i ] Ї ї ji ї /ji/ [ ji ] Й й j йот /jɔt/ , й /ɪj/ [ j ] К к k ка /ka/ [ k ] Л л l ел /ɛl/ [ l ] , [ lʲ ] М м m ем /ɛm/ [ m ] Н н n ен /ɛn/ [ n ] , [ nʲ ] О о o о /ɔ/ [ ɔ ] П п p пе /pɛ/ [ p ] Р р r ер /ɛr/ [ r ] , [ rʲ ] С с s ес /ɛs/ [ s ] , [ sʲ ] Т т t те /tɛ/ [ t ] , [ tʲ ] У у u у /u/ [ u ] Ф ф f еф /ɛf/ [ f ] Х х x , ch ха /xa/ [ x ] Ц ц c це /ʦɛ/ [ ʦ ] , [ ʦʲ ] Ч ч č че /ʧɛ/ [ ʧ ] Ш ш š ша /ʃa/ [ ʃ ] Щ щ šč ща /ʃʧa/ [ ʃʧ ] Ю ю ju ю /ju/ [ ʲu ] , [ ju ] Я я ja я /ja/ [ ʲa ] , [ ja ] Ь ь ′ м’який знак /mjaˈkɪj znak/ [ ◌ʲ ] “soft sign” [ 3 ] ’ апостроф /aˈpɔstrɔf/ [ j ] “apostrophe” [ 4 ] Transliteration is according to the scholarly transliteration system used in linguistics . For other systems , see romanization of Ukrainian . Notes Ve ( в ) usually loses its frication when not followed by a vowel , and is pronounced as the approximant /w/ . Ge ( ґ ) was not officially used in Soviet Ukraine after 1933 ; missing from some computer character encodings and fonts . Soft sign ( ь ) : The soft sign is not considered a letter , but an orthographic symbol , modifying the preceding letter . It indicates the softening of a consonant , when the consonant is not followed by a softening vowel . The soft sign was moved to new position before letter ю by academician L. M. Ivanenko from Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics in the last year before Ukraine gained independence ( 1990-1991 ) , to solve problems with sorting of Russian , Ukrainian and Belarusian alphabets in MS-DOS . The apostrophe indicates that the consonant preceding a soft vowel is not palatalized , when it otherwise would be . Letter forms and typography As in other Cyrillic alphabets , hand-written or cursive letters vary somewhat in form from their block-letter , or typeset upright , counterparts , particularly the letters г , д , и , й , and т . Typographically , the small ( lower-case ) letters are very similar to small-caps versions of the capitals , although sophisticated faces may have a small-caps font which is different from the lower-case . A Cyrillic type face ( шрифт , šryft ) does n't technically have `` roman `` or `` italic `` fonts , since these terms stem from West European history . It has upright ( прямий , prjamyj ) and cursive ( курсивний , kursyvnyj later also called письмівка , pys'mivka ) . Quoted text is surrounded by un-spaced guillemets ( angle-quotes ) , or lower and upper quotation marks . Ukrainian quotation marks in Unicode and HTML entities standard alternative « цитата » „ цитата ‟ U+00AB U+00BB U+201E U+201F & # 171 ; & # 187 ; & # 8222 ; & # 8223 ; Reference : Bringhurst , Robert ( 2002 ) . The Elements of Typographic Style ( version 2.5 ) , pp. 262–264 . Vancouver , Hartley & Marks . ISBN 0-88179-133-4 . Encoding Ukrainian There are various character encodings for representing Ukrainian with computers . ISO 8859-5 ISO 8859-5 encoding is missing the letter ґ . KOI8-U KOI8-U stands for Код обміну інформації 8 бітний — український , `` Code for information interchange 8 bit — Ukrainian '' , analogous to `` ASCII `` . KOI8-U is a Ukrainianized version of KOI8-R , which is suitable for Russian only . Unicode Ukrainian falls within the Cyrillic ( U+0400 to U+04FF ) and Cyrillic Supplementary ( U+0500 to U+052F ) blocks of Unicode . The characters in the range U+0400–U+045F are basically the characters from ISO 8859-5 moved upward by 864 positions . In the following table , Ukrainian letters have titles indicating their Unicode information and HTML entity . In a visual browser you can hold the mouse pointer over the letter to see this information . Ukrainian letters in the Unicode Cyrillic block 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 0400 Ѐ Ё Ђ Ѓ Є Ѕ І Ї Ј Љ Њ Ћ Ќ Ѝ Ў Џ 0410 А Б В Г Д Е Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П 0420 Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 0430 а б в г д е ж з и й к л м н о п 0440 р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 0450 ѐ ё ђ ѓ є ѕ і ї ј љ њ ћ ќ ѝ ў џ 0460 Ѡ ѡ Ѣ ѣ Ѥ ѥ Ѧ ѧ Ѩ ѩ Ѫ ѫ Ѭ ѭ Ѯ ѯ 0470 Ѱ ѱ Ѳ ѳ Ѵ ѵ Ѷ ѷ Ѹ ѹ Ѻ ѻ Ѽ ѽ Ѿ ѿ 0480 Ҁ ҁ ҂ ҃ ҄ ҅ ҆ ҇ ҈ ҉ Ҋ ҋ Ҍ ҍ Ҏ ҏ 0490 Ґ ґ Ғ ғ Ҕ ҕ Җ җ Ҙ ҙ Қ қ Ҝ ҝ Ҟ ҟ 04A0 Ҡ ҡ Ң ң Ҥ ҥ Ҧ ҧ Ҩ ҩ Ҫ ҫ Ҭ ҭ Ү ү 04B0 Ұ ұ Ҳ ҳ Ҵ ҵ Ҷ ҷ Ҹ ҹ Һ һ Ҽ ҽ Ҿ ҿ 04C0 Ӏ Ӂ ӂ Ӄ ӄ Ӆ ӆ Ӈ ӈ Ӊ ӊ Ӌ ӌ Ӎ ӎ ӏ 04D0 Ӑ ӑ Ӓ ӓ Ӕ ӕ Ӗ ӗ Ә ә Ӛ ӛ Ӝ ӝ Ӟ ӟ 04E0 Ӡ ӡ Ӣ ӣ Ӥ ӥ Ӧ ӧ Ө ө Ӫ ӫ Ӭ ӭ Ӯ ӯ 04F0 Ӱ ӱ Ӳ ӳ Ӵ ӵ Ӷ ӷ Ӹ ӹ Ӻ ӻ Ӽ ӽ Ӿ ӿ 0500 Ԁ ԁ Ԃ ԃ Ԅ ԅ Ԇ ԇ Ԉ ԉ Ԋ ԋ Ԍ ԍ Ԏ ԏ 0510 Ԑ ԑ Ԓ ԓ Ԕ ԕ Ԗ ԗ Ԙ ԙ Ԛ ԛ Ԝ ԝ Ԟ ԟ 0520 Ԡ ԡ Ԣ ԣ Ԥ ԥ Ԧ ԧ Ԩ ԩ Ԫ ԫ Ԭ ԭ Ԯ ԯ References Daniels , Peter T. and William Bright , eds. ( 1996 ) . The World 's Writing Systems , pp 700 , 702 . Oxford University Press . ISBN 0-19-507-993-0 . Kubijovyč , Volodymyr ed. ( 1963 ) . `` Ukrainian Writing and Orthography '' in Ukraine : A Concise Encyclopædia , vol 1 , pp 511–520 . Toronto : University of Toronto Press . ISBN 0-8020-3105-6 . See also Glagolitic alphabet ( Глаголиця , Hlaholycja in Ukrainian ) External links The Cyrillic Charset Soup —Roman Czyborra 's site contains an exha ustive history of Cyrillic character set encoding schemes ( site currently unavailable— archived copy at archive.org ) . Ukrainian language in the International Phonetic Alphabet ( PDF , in Ukrainian ) Проєкт нового “Українського правопису” —proposal for a new Ukrainian orthography ( in Ukrainian ) Orthography at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine Categories : Ukrainian language | Cyrillic alphabet In other languages : Deutsch | Français | Magyar | Latviešu | Português | Русский | Українська /ʃʧ/ /ʣ/ and /ʤ/ Ukrainian phonology /a/ [ a ] /bɛ/ [ b ] /ʋɛ/ [ β ] [ w ] /ɦɛ/ [ ɦ ] /gɛ/ [ g ] /dɛ/ [ d ] [ dʲ ] /ɛ/ [ ɛ ] /jɛ/ [ jɛ ] /ʒɛ/ [ ʒ ] /zɛ/ [ z ] [ zʲ ] /ɪ/ [ ɪ ] /i/ [ i ] /ji/ [ ji ] /jɔt/ /ɪj/ [ j ] /ka/ [ k ] /ɛl/ [ l ] [ lʲ ] /ɛm/ [ m ] /ɛn/ [ n ] [ nʲ ] /ɔ/ [ ɔ ] /pɛ/ [ p ] /ɛr/ [ r ] [ rʲ ] /ɛs/ [ s ] [ sʲ ] /tɛ/ [ t ] [ tʲ ] /u/ [ u ] /ɛf/ [ f ] /xa/ [ x ] /ʦɛ/ [ ʦ ] [ ʦʲ ] /ʧɛ/ [ ʧ ] /ʃa/ [ ʃ ] /ʃʧa/ [ ʃʧ ] /ju/ [ ʲu ] [ ju ] /ja/ [ ʲa ] [ ja ] /mjaˈkɪj znak/ [ ◌ʲ ] /aˈpɔstrɔf/ [ j ] ‟ 