TheKomi language, aUralic language spoken in the north-eastern part ofEuropean Russia, has been written in several different alphabets. Currently, Komi writing uses letters from theCyrillic script. There have been five distinct stages in the history of Komi writing:

• 14th to 17th centuries —Anbur, the original graphic system;
• 18th century to 1918 — based on theearly Cyrillic alphabet;
• 1918 to 1932 and 1936 to 1938 —Vasily Molodtsov's alphabet based on the modified Cyrillic alphabet;
• 1932 to 1936 —Latinization of the alphabet;
• since 1938 — modern script based on the Cyrillic alphabet.

TheKomi-Zyryan andKomi-Permyak sub-languages have used the same writing throughout almost all of theirwritten history (except for the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries).

The first writing for the Komi language was compiled by themissionaryStefan of Perm around 1372–1375. This writing was created for the needs of theChristianization of the Komi Territory. It is believed that when choosing the type of letters Stefan of Perm was guided by both theGreek and Cyril alphabet, and the traditional Komi tribal characters —Pas (generic characters) [ru]. This writing was calledAn-Bur (by the name of the first two letters of the alphabet).^[1][2]

To this day, several icons with inscriptions in Anbur have survived (for example, theZyryansk Trinity [ru]), as well as a number of handwritten lines in books. The total volume of preserved coherent texts on the embankment is 236 words.^[3]

Starting from the 18th century, separate publications of Komi texts appear both in the Latin alphabet and in the Cyrillic alphabet. So, in the second edition ofNicolaes Witsen’s book “Noord en Oost Tartarye” (Northern and Eastern Tataria), published in 1705, a translation of the prayer “Our Father” into the Komi language, written in Latin, was published.^[4]

In 1787–1789, in the book ofPeter Simon Pallas “Comparative Dictionary of All Languages and Adverbs”, about 200 words were published in the Komi language in Cyrillic.^[5]

In 1808, students of the Vologda Theological Seminary Philip Kozlov compiled the first grammar of the Komi-Zyryan language. It used the alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet:А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Д д, Е е, Ж ж, З з, И и, І і, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, О о, Ӧ ӧ, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Ч ч,Ӵ ӵ, Ш ш, ъ, Ы ы, ь, Ю ю, Я я. Thisgrammar has not been published.^[6] In 1813, on the basis of this grammar, the teacher of the same seminary, A. F. Flerov, released the first printed Komi grammar - “Zyryan Grammar, Published from the Main Directorate of Schools”.^[7]

In the 1820s and 1950s, a whole series of Komi grammars and dictionaries were published that used various Komi language recording systems, both Cyrillic (P.I.Savvaitov,Anders Sjögren) and Latinized (Matthias Castrén).^[8]

In the second half of the 19th century, on the basis of previously created grammars, two main systems for recording the Komi language developed. So, in the works of G.S.Lytkin, in addition to standard Russian letters, the signsӧ,j, theligaturesԫ, ꚉ were used, and thesoftness of the consonants was indicated by adiacriticgrave sign. For a number of other authors, the softness of consonants was indicated by the addition of the signј.^[9]

In the last years of the 19th century, the active publication ofAlphabet book in the Komi-Zyryan and Komi-Permyak languages begins. These primers were compiled by different authors and they used different versions of the Komi Cyrillic alphabet.

The differences between the alphabets of the Komi primers of the 19th — early 20th centuries from the modern alphabet:

• Komi-Zyryan
  • Popov A. "The ABC for the Zyryansky youth, or the easiest way for the Zyryans to learn Russian literacy." St. Petersburg, 1865. There are no lettersЁ ё,Й й. There areԪ ԫ,Ꚉ ꚉ,Ч̇ ч̇,Ъі ъі,Ѣ ѣ,Јі јі,Јо јо,Јӧ јӧ,Јы јы,Ѳ ѳ,Ѵ ѵ.
  • "The alphabet for Zyryan-Izhem living in thePechersk district of theArkhangelsk Governorate." Arkhangelsk, 1895. The lettersѢ ѣ, Ѳ ѳ are present.
  • Lytkin G.S. "The Primer Zyryansk-Russian-Church Slavonic." SPb, 1900. There are no lettersЁ ё,И и,Ф ф,Х х,Ц ц,Щ щ,Ъ ъ,Ь ь,Э э,Ю ю,Я я. There areд̀,з̀,ј,л̀,н̀,с̀,т̀,ч̀.
• Komi-Permyak
  • "Выддемъ пермякъ понда" Perm, 1894. There is no letterӦ ӧ. There areѢ ѣ, Ѳ ѳ.
  • "ABC-book for (northeastern, Yinven) Permyaks" Kazan, 1897. There are no lettersІ і, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Щ щ. There areӁ ӂ,З̆ з̆,Ш̆ ш̆,Ы̆ ы̆.
  • "ABC-book for the Permyaks of the Ivensky region" Kazan, 1899. There are no lettersІ і, Ц ц, Щ щ. PresentӁ ӂ, З̆ з̆,йи,Ӵ ӵ,ъи, Ѳ ѳ.
  • "ABC-book for the (northeastern, Yinven) Permyaks" Kazan, 1900. There are no lettersІ і, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Щ щ. There areӁ ӂ, З̆ з̆, Ӵ ӵ, Ы̆ ы̆.
  • Popov E. “Выддемъ коми отиръ челядь понда” Kazan, 1904. There are no lettersӦ ӧ, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Щ щ. Presentд̅з̅,д̅ж̅,ч̅ш̅, Ѣ ѣ,Ӭ ӭ.
  • Moshegov Kondratiy Mikhailovich. “ABC-book for Permyaks children (in the Cherdyn dialect)”. Kazan, 1908. There are no lettersЪ ъ, Ь ь. There areӜ ӝ,Ӟ ӟ, Ӵ ӵ, Ѳ ѳ.

Due to the lack of a standard alphabet and the insignificance of editions in the Komi language (about 60-70 books andbrochures in Komi were published in 1813-1914), these alphabets did not receive significant distribution among the population.^[9]

TheMolodtsov alphabet (Komi:Молодцов анбур,Molodcov anbur) was based on the Cyrillic alphabet, but had a number of specific letters to indicate softconsonants andaffricates. It was used to write both the Komi-Zyrian and Komi-Permyak versions of the language, but active publishing of printed materials using the alphabet did not begin until 1921 due to the lack of necessary typefaces; until then, a modified Russian alphabet was used, compiled by A. A. Zember.^[9]

The letters particular to the Cyrillic Molodtsov alphabet were:ԀԂԄԆԈԊԌԎ (the hooks representpalatalization).

In addition, the letters Ф ф, Х х, and Ц ц might be used for words borrowed from Russian.

In 1918, the sphere of use of the Komi language expanded significantly; teaching was introduced in schools, and local newspapers began to publish separate articles in the language. Under these conditions, the need arose to create a permanent alphabet and develop spelling norms.^[9]

From May to June 1918, a meeting of teachers was held inUst-Sysolsk, at which teacherVasily Molodtsov [ru] acquainted the meeting participants with his draft alphabet for the Komi language, which was approved in August of the same year at a meeting of teachers inUst-Vym.^[10]

Despite the merits of this alphabet (strict phonemic, economical writing), it also had a number of drawbacks, mainly the complexity of the handwriting due to the special form of characters for soft consonants.^[11] It was abandoned and replaced by the Latin alphabet in 1931.^[12]

Back in 1924, Professor A.N. Gren proposed translating the Komi script on a Latinized basis. According to his design, the alphabet should include the following letters:A a, B b, D d, Dj dj, E e, G g, Zs zs, Dzs dzs, I i, J j, K k, L l, Lj lj, M m, N n, Nj nj, O o, Ö ö, P p, R r, S s, Sj sj, Sch sch, Cs cs, Csj csj, T t, Tj tj, U u, V v, Y y, Z z, Zj zj, Dz dz.^[14] At that time, few supported Gren, but at that time an active process of theLatinization of writing began in theUSSR, and soon this question was raised again. In 1929, at the Komi Linguistic Conference of Glavnauka, a resolution was adopted on the need to switch to the Latinized alphabet, using theexperience of Latinizing theTurkic scripts of the peoples of the USSR. In September 1930, the Bureau of the Komi Regional Committee of theAll-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Bolsheviks) formally decided to translate the Komi script into Latin. The alphabet itself was approved in November 1931, after which thetransfer of paperwork, education and publishing to a new script began. This process was generally completed in 1934.^[15][9]

The Latin Komi alphabet essentially became a transliteration of the youthful alphabet — it retained strictphonemicity, the designation of soft consonants by adding a “tai”l (descender) to the letter, and special signs foraffricates. Thus, both the advantages and disadvantages of the previous alphabet were preserved.^[15]

The change in the political situation in the USSR in the mid-1930s led to the abandonment of the Latinized Komi alphabet — the country began theprocess of cyrillization. Regarding the writing of Komi, this resulted in a rejection of the Latin alphabet in 1936. Instead, Molodtsov's alphabet was restored, but in 1938 it was replaced by a new version of the Cyrillic alphabet, much more similar to the Russian script.^[15]

For the Komi-Permyak language in May 1937, thedistrict alphabetical commission approved an alphabet authored by V. I. Yakimov containing all 33 letters of the Russian alphabet plus the additional lettersҖ җ, Ҙ ҙ, І і, Ӧ ӧ, Ӹ ӹ.^[16] Another 1937 proposal by A. N. Zubov was as follows:^[17]А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Д д, Е е, Ж ж, Ж̓ ж̓, З з, З̓ з̓, И и, 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, Ы ы, Э э, Ю ю, Я я, Ь ь, Ё ё.

In July 1937, the Yakimov alphabet was discussed at theLeningrad branch of theInstitute of Language and Writing [ru], where it underwent some changes —Ә ә, Җ җ, Ҙ ҙ, І і, Ӵ ӵ were added to the 33 letters of the Russian alphabet. However, a few days later the Central Institute of Language and Writing inMoscow recommended replacing the lettersҖ җ, Ҙ ҙ, Ӵ ӵ with thedigraphsдж, дз, тш respectively. In the final version of the alphabet, the signӘ ә was replaced byӦ ӧ and the alphabet was as follows:А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Д д, Е е, Ж ж, З з, И и, 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, Ъ ъ, Ы ы, Ь ь, Э э, Ю ю, Я я, Ё ё, І і, Ӧ ӧ.^[16]

The modern alphabet for the Komi-Zyryan and Komi-Permyak languages was introduced in 1938. It consists of 35 letters: 23 consonants and 12 vowels, containing all the letters of the post-reformRussian alphabet in order, in addition to the signsӦ ӧ andІ і. Threedigraphs,дж,дз andтш, are used to indicate affricates, but are rarely included as separate letters in the alphabet.

The letterІ і ("hardІ і") is used after the lettersд, з, л, н, с, т to denote their hardness (before "ordinary"И, they aresoft). The letterӦ ӧ denotes theclose-mid central unrounded vowel. The softness of the consonants is indicated by thesoft sign (Ь ь) following them.^[18][19]

(see below for IPA pronunciations)

TheKomi-Yazva language, long considered one of the dialects of the Komi-Permian language, received its original alphabet only in the early 2000s, when the first primer was published on it. The alphabet of this publication includes all the letters of the Russian alphabet plus the specific charactersӦ ӧ,Ө ө,Ӱ ӱ, as well as digraphsдж, дч, тш.^[20][21] A later Russian-Komi-Yazvin dictionary contains an alphabet that hasІ і in addition to the 33 Russian letters and the specific characters from the aforementioned primer. Moreover, affricates are indicated by combinations of lettersдз, дж, тш (but are not considered separate letters in this edition) and the letterч.^[22]

Publications in theIzhem dialect [ru] of the Komi language use standard Komi writing.^[23]

Komi alphabets^[24]

Anbur		Cyrillic of Castren- Savvaitov (19th c.)	Cyrillic of Sjögren (19th c.)	Molodtsov Cyrillic	Project of alphabet of the professor A. N. Gren	Latin 1930—1936	Modern Cyrillic (since 1938)	IPA
	𐍐	а	а	а	A a	a	а	[a]
	𐍑	б	б	б	B b	b	б	[b]
	𐍮	в	в	в	V v	v	в	[v]
	𐍒	г	г	г	G g	g	г	[g]
	𐍓	д	д	ԁ	D d	d	д	[d]
		дј	д̀	ԃ	Dj dj		д (palatal)	[ɟ]
	𐍖‎	дж	дж	җ	Dzs dzs	з	дж	[d͡ʒ]
	𐍘	дз	дз	ԇ	Dz dz	ӡ	дз	[d͡ʑ]
				је		je	е	[je]
				јо		jo	ё	[jo]
	𐍕	ж	ж	ж	Zs zs	ƶ	ж	[ʒ]
	𐍗	з	з	з	Z z	z	з	[z]
		зј	з̀	ԅ	Zj zj	ⱬ	з (palatal)	[ʑ]
	𐍙	і	і	і	I i	i	и, і	[i]
	𐍙	ј	ј	ј	J j	j	й	[j]
	𐍚	к	к	к	K k	k	к	[k]
	𐍛	л	л	л	L l	l	л	[ɫ]
		лј	л̀	ԉ	Lj lj		л (palatal)	[ʎ]
	𐍜	м	м	м	M m	m	м	[m]
	𐍝	н	н	н	N n	n	н	[n]
		нј	н̀	ԋ	Nj nj	ꞑ	н (palatal)	[ɲ]
	𐍩	о	о	о	O o	o	o	[o]
	𐍩	ӧ	ӧ	ӧ	Ö ö	ə	ӧ	[ɘ]
	𐍟	п	п	п	P p	p	п	[p]
	𐍠	р	р	р	R r	r	р	[r]
	𐍡	с	с	с	S s	s	с	[s]
		сј	с̀	ԍ	Sj sj		с (palatal)	[ɕ]
	𐍢	т	т	т	T t	t	т	[t]
		тј	т̀	ԏ	Tj tj		т (palatal)	[c]
	𐍣	у	у	у	U u	u	у	[u]
	𐍫				F f	f	ф	[f],[p]
	𐍬				H h	x	х	[x],[k]
					C c	c	ц	[t͡s],[t͡ɕ]
	𐍤	ч	ч	щ	Cs cs		тш	[t͡ʃ]
		чј	ч̀	ч	Csj csj		ч	[t͡ɕ]
	𐍥	ш	ш	ш	Sch sch	ꞩ	ш	[ʃ]
	𐍦						щ	[ɕː]
	𐍯						ъ	[◌.]
	𐍨	ы	ы	ы	Y y		ы	[ɨ]
	𐍰						ь	[◌ʲ]
,	𐍔, 𐍱	е	е	е	E e	e	э	[e]
	𐍳			ју		ju	ю	[ju]
,	𐍴‎, 𐍵			ја		ja	я	[ja]

• Г. В. Федюнева (1998).Коми язык. Энциклопедия (5000 экз ed.). М.: Изд-во ДиК.ISBN 5-7903-0045-6.
• Кастрен М. А. (1844) [Elementa grammatices Syrjaenae]."De Litteris".Основы зырянской грамматики.Helsingforsiae. pp. 1–15.
• Рогов Н. А. (1860)."Отделение Первое. О буквах".Опыт грамматики пермяцкаго языка. СПб. pp. 1–8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Eva Toulouze (2016).Vasili Lytkin and the latinisation of Komi. p. 12.

• Komi alphabet
• Latin alphabets

• CS1 maint: location missing publisher
• CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list
• CS1 Russian-language sources (ru)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Komi-language text
• Pages with Komi-Zyrian IPA