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[ARCHIVED] Russian: the Alphabet and the Keyboard

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justheaven

[ARCHIVED] Russian: the Alphabet and the Keyboard

Post by justheaven »

Original Post by: Shady_arc: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/11449014 | Archived original page: https://archive.ph/rma4X



Image Shady_arc: Hello! This is largely a copy of a post we made at our Incubator page. Still, the more people have this information, the better.

You can find exercises gradually teaching you the Russian letters HERE. (Archived link)

Here is a short page of exercises to teach you the alphabet (a video by ShadyArc is also available, though a bit fast-paced).

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You can also read about it at these two pages.

Depending on how the situation unfolds, you may or may not immediately see Russian letters in your lessons. Duolingo uses a Latin transliteration by default. If you cannot see Cyrillics but wish to, use the small button at the top to switch to Russian. It will read Aa or Яя.

Now, some tips on installing a Russian keyboard on your device:

Windows

Open the Control Panel, then go to Clock, Language, and Region. There, select Change keyboard or other input methods.

Click the Change keyboard button and add any languages your heart desires. You can have more than one keyboard layout for a language! To switch between languages, a keyboard shortcut is normally used (Shift+Alt by default, but you can change that). A phonetic keyboard can be found here. Windows 8 and higher have their own \"mnemonic\" layout (not without flaws, though)

Check the Microsoft site for a more thorough guide.

Mac

Open the Apple menu and click System Preferences. Select Keyboard and click the Input Sources button. You can add languages there. Mac has a phonetic one right there if you need it.

Also, check the option Show Input menu in menu bar. That is it. The default shortcut to switch languages is ⌘ + Space

Or, in more detail, HERE.

iPad

Go to your Settings and find the General tab. Select KeyboardKeyboards and click Add New Keyboard...

Android phone

Go to Settings and find the Controls tab. Select language and input. Click the settings icon next to the keyboard, then click select input languages

(here is a longer explanation)

Different Layouts

Now, let us discuss different keyboards that exist. Russians do not use special rocket-shaped keyboards to type. After all, a normal keyboard already has over 100 keys, why not just paint their letters there, right?

This is exactly what it looks IRL. A keyboard has Russian and Latin letters side by side. Russian users switch the language they use by pressing a keyboard shortcut (e.g.,Shift + Alt or ⌘ + Space)

There are two main layouts for a learner:

  • the standard (ЙЦУКЕН) is what Russians actually use. It makes sense if Russian is your love for life or if you have easy access to Russian keyboards (stickers?). Or maybe you live or plan to live in Russia, eh? For obvious reasons, it also makes total sense on a phone or a tablet. They have no physical keyboard anyway! Besides, they might turn out to be less customizable—but a standard keyboard is always there.

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  • a phonetic keyboard (say, ЯВЕРТЫ) which sort-of-matches Russian letters to Latin letters close in pronunciation (also maps extra keys somewhere). I think, these layouts are just fine if you are moderately interested in Russian but that's it. A phonetic keyboard has an obvious advantage if your physical keyboard does not have Russian letters.

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On a PC or a Mac a phonetic keyboard mapping is always a choice (Macs even have one in the basic package), and the switching between the languages is done by keyboard shortcuts (Shift+Alt / ⌘ + Space)

There are even tools to create your own layouts: for example, http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/.

You can also use Google Input Tools.

Now there is a chrome extension that changes the layouts automatically as your exercises require English or Russian input. Thanks to FelixAuer.

N🇧🇬 A2:es: C1:us:
"That youngster's naturalness is impressive."Duolingo

Albur_Godwin

Re: [ARCHIVED] Russian: the Alphabet and the Keyboard

Post by Albur_Godwin »

Hello,

I think it would be a nice addition to attach diagrams for handwriting.

I know I wanted to see those for some time now, and the new ‘Letters’ section from Duolingo does offer them, but as far as I know, you only stumble upon them in the course of the exercises, instead of having them easily accessible at any point in time for reference.
(I do not know if such a document is easy to find; I did not after a moderate search. So instead, I am in the process of getting screenshots from the ‘Letters’ section and saving my own file with them.)

DmGabin

Re: [ARCHIVED] Russian: the Alphabet and the Keyboard

Post by DmGabin »

As for Russian layouts, I’d mention the following options:

  1. Ilya Birman’s typographic layout. Essentially, a conventional ЙЦУКЕН layout extended with some old letters that are out of use after 1917, as well as some punctuation marks and symbols.
  2. Diktor. This layout is very different from ЙЦУКЕН and aims at less movement of fingers/hands over the keyboard. Sort of Dvorak for Russian.
Learn_Russian

Video of Russian Alphabet

Post by Learn_Russian »

I am a Russian language enthusiast. Here I explain the Russian Alfabet my way.


The idea is:

  • to present the letters in the order reasonable for English speakers;
  • to practice the letters reading the Russian words familiar to you;
  • to draw your attention to certain phonetic things but not drown you in too much information at once;
  • to only speak Russian in the process, that is to say, you have language immersion experience from the first moment. :) And it's my challenge to make everything understandable for someone with zero knowledge of Russian. There are written explanations in English, so the language immersion part is a bonus and is not obligatory.

#1 - А О Е У И К М Т С
#2 - П Р Н Х
#3 - Г Д Л Ф
#4 - Б В З
#5 - Й Ё Ю Я
#6 - Э Ы Ь Ъ
Coming soon: #7 Ж Ш Щ Ч Ц


Any feedback is very welcome.

Last edited by Learn_Russian on Sun May 29, 2022 5:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
LICA98
Finland

Re: [ARCHIVED] Russian: the Alphabet and the Keyboard

Post by LICA98 »

DmGabin wrote: Thu May 05, 2022 11:34 am

As for Russian layouts, I’d mention the following options:

  1. Ilya Birman’s typographic layout. Essentially, a conventional ЙЦУКЕН layout extended with some old letters that are out of use after 1917, as well as some punctuation marks and symbols.
  2. Diktor. This layout is very different from ЙЦУКЕН and aims at less movement of fingers/hands over the keyboard. Sort of Dvorak for Russian.

the first one is very good 👍🏽
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