Any book begins with letters. It doesn’t matter what action a person is going to take - to write a work or read it, he must be taught to read and write. One of the very first knowledge that systematically comes into human life is the ability to read. Along with the score, these are basic skills, which are the most powerful foundation for education.
History of the appearance of letters
In the modern sense, the word "alphabet" has several meanings. The very first thing is, in fact, there are letters, what is more often called the word "alphabet". This name is associated with the first Russian letters, by their name, which was used until the beginning of the twentieth century, that is, the alphabet is "az, buki". The letters themselves appeared a very long time ago, replaced the symbolic designations of words.
The first written designation of words was invented by the Phoenicians in the XV century BC. e. But their method consisted only of consonants, which made it difficult to understand, so the Greeks proposed their version, supplementing the consonants with vowels. Their alphabet is the basis for the emergence of alphabetic writing in Europe.
On May 24, in 863, in Bulgaria, thanks to the work of two learned monks, Cyril and Methodius, the Cyrillic alphabet appeared, which is now the basis of the Russian alphabet. In fairness, it is worth noting that, together with the Cyrillic alphabet, they proposed an alternative option - the glagolitic, but it did not take root and was forgotten over time. Since 1987, this date is the Day of Slavic writing and culture. This holiday is celebrated not only in Russia, but also in other Slavic states whose writing is based on the alphabet of two Bulgarian monks.
Where did the primer come from?
But the alphabet is not only letters, it is also a book for teaching literal knowledge and skill. Otherwise - a primer, in the past - an initial letter. The primer has a glorious history; it is one of the first printed books. Of course, in the language it was written by Old Slavonic and did not resemble modern books for literacy education. The first such alphabet for children was invented by the great Russian teacher K. Ushinsky. It was he who introduced the methodology that facilitates the child's learning of literacy, introducing the most frequently used syllables -au, -ao on the first pages. He called his ABC "Native Word". The next major reformer of the primer was Leo Tolstoy, calling it simply "ABC". Schools have long used this work of the great writer to teach children's literacy.
Elementary Reforms
After the introduction of the Cyrillic alphabet, a lot of time passed before one of the state minds decided to take up its transformation. And it was oh how necessary. The language itself has changed, become faster, more businesslike. Peter I, who sees literacy as of particular importance, resolutely approached the improvement of the alphabet. He introduced the civil alphabet instead of the church, simplifying the spelling of letters and removing some characters.
In the second half of the XVIII alphabet, the “th” and “e” were supplemented, until then they were not used.
The next major reform in the alphabet is 1918, it was carried out immediately after the October Revolution, which happened in 1917. Two letters that duplicated each other were removed from the spelling. Even a point was put forward on the undesirability of using the letter E, but still it was not brought out, trying to reduce its use to a minimum. That is, the letters, in fact, became 31, since the "y" and "e" were variants of "and" and "e". And in 1942, these letters were officially made part of the Russian alphabet, leading to the number 33.
ABC for children now
Everything is being transformed in the modern era, something is changing its purpose, but the role of the alphabet remains the same. She teaches to read. The age for which it is designed is changing, now you can find primers for 4-year-olds. For the smallest, most often they publish bright, colorful large books. But not only the traditional printed product today is content with the ABC. It can be studied with the help of special cartoons, and in the form of various games - computer games, for androids, etc. And not to mention the various magnets, posters, stickers, sounding toys. Such a variety of types of alphabet allows modern children to easily enter the magical world of knowledge.