Ukrainian alphabet

Written by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

July 14, 2026

Quick Summary

The Ukrainian alphabet is a form of the Cyrillic alphabet, which was developed in the 9th-10th century CE for Slavic-speaking peoples. It is based on Greek letters with some additions. Modern Ukrainian uses 32 letters, with some variations from the original script. Ukrainian is an East Slavic language spoken in Ukraine and by Ukrainian communities worldwide. It is closely related to Russian and Belarusian, though it has distinct characteristics that emerged after the 13th century. While Russian was historically dominant in public life, Ukrainian was reaffirmed as the country's official language in 1989.123

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

5 Britannica Sources

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.

Cyrillic alphabet
modern Cyrillic alphabets—Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Serbian—have been modified somewhat from the original, generally by the loss of some superfluous letters. Modern Russian has 32 letters (33, with inclusion of the soft sign—which is not, strictly speaking, a letter), Bulgarian 30, Serbian 30, and Ukrainian 32 (33). Modern…
Read More
modern Cyrillic alphabets—Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Serbian—have been modified somewhat from the original, generally by the loss of some superfluous letters. Modern Russian has 32 letters (33, with inclusion of the soft sign—which is not, strictly speaking, a letter), Bulgarian 30, Serbian 30, and Ukrainian 32 (33). Modern…
Read More