What is this book for?
It is a way of learning to read Cyrillic.
How does it work?
Using an English text, Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, letters of the Latin alphabet are gradually replaced by their Cyrillic equivalent.
The text begins like this:
Tо Shеrlоck Hоlmеs shе is аlwаys thе wоmаn. I hаvе sеldоm hеаrd him mеntiоn hеr undеr аny оthеr nаmе. In his еyеs shе еclipsеs аnd prеdоminаtеs thе whоlе оf hеr sеx. It wаs nоt thаt hе fеlt аny еmоtiоn аkin tо lоvе fоr Irеnе Аdlеr.
And gradually….
Ат тhrее о’clоcк prеcisеly I wаs ат Бакеr Sтrеет, бuт Hоlмеs hад nот yет rетurnед. Тhе lаnдlадy infоrмед ме тhат hе hад lеfт тhе hоusе шоrтly аfтеr еighт о’clоcк in тhе моrning. I sат доwn беsiде тhе firе, hоwеvеr, wiтh тhе inтеnтiоn оf аwаiтing hiм, hоwеvеr lоng hе мighт бе. I wаs
….the letters….
Wе wеrе sеатед ат бrеакfаsт оне моrнiнg, мy wifе анд I, wхен тхе маiд бrоugхт iн а теlеgrам. Iт wаs frом Шеrlоcк Хоlмеs анд rан iн тхis wаy
….of the Latin alphabet….
I хад cаllед упон мы фriенд Шеrlоcк Хоlмеs упон тхе sеcонд моrнiнg афтеr Чrisтмаs, вiтх тхе iнтентiон оф вiшiнg хiм тхе cомпliментs оф тхе sеаsон.
….are replaced by their Cyrillic equivalents…
Тхе Lорд Ст. Сiмон маррiаге, анд iтс цурiоус термiнатiон, хаве lонг цеасед то бе а субйецт оф iнтерест iн тхосе ехаlтед цiрцlес iн вхiч тхе унфортунате брiдегроом мовес.
…so that eventually the text looks like this:
Мр. Руцастле сурвивед, бут вас алваыс а брокен ман, кепт аливе солелы тхроугх тхе царе оф хис девотед вифе.
You are still reading in English but with Cyrillic characters.
Buy The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, A Gradual Introduction to Russian Cyrillic Script
Why is this helpful?
Learning is easier if you separate the things that are causing you difficulty. So learning Cyrillic is rendered more difficult if you are also trying to learn to understand Russian at the same time. This takes Russian out of the equation, letting you concentrate on understanding Cyrillic by itself.
The aim is to leave you at a similar stage as when you start to learn a language that uses the Latin alphabet, like Spanish.
I’d like a fuller explanation
Consider the following Spanish phrase:
El veloz murciélago hindú comía feliz cardillo y kiwi. La cigüeña tocaba el saxofón detrás del palenque de paja [The quick Hindu bat happily eats golden thistle and kiwi, the stork played the saxophone behind the straw arena]. It contains all 27 letters of the Spanish alphabet and all diacritics (accents or other signs that change the sound of a letter). It encompasses a large number of idiomatic sounds in a small space. Yet, it is possible to make stab at reading it if you are familiar with the Latin script. Try it! The result won’t please a native speaker or a teacher of Spanish – for example you might sound the ‘h’ in ‘hindu’, where in fact it should be silent, double l’s make a sound like a ‘y’ whilst the ‘j’ is more like the ‘ch’ in a Scottish ‘loch’. However there is enough familiar information here for you to achieve a close approximation.
Now consider this Russian phrase: Любя, съешь щипцы, — вздохнёт мэр, — кайф жгуч! [The mayor will sigh, ‘Eat the pliers with love; pleasure burns!’]. This uses all the letters of the Russian Alphabet. If you’ve already studied Russian script you will probably be able to read it slowly. If you have not, really you have no chance at all. Whilst some Russian letters are similar to Latin equivalents – e, o and a, for example – there is too much unfamiliar information here for that to be helpful. And let’s not forget that some Russian letters look like Latin ones but make totally different sounds.
The aim is to learn to read Cyrillic by gradually substituting the Latin letters with their Cyrillic equivalent. When you then start to learn Russian itself, you will already have a working knowledge of the script, just as you do when learning a language like Spanish.
Buy The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, A Gradual Introduction to Russian Cyrillic Script
FAQs
Does it contain all of the stories from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes?
Yes, every one. This is the full list:
A Scandal in Bohemia
The Adventure of the Red-Headed League
A Case of Identity
The Boscombe Valley Mystery
The Five Orange Pips
The Man with the Twisted Lip
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
The Adventure of the Speckled Band
The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb
The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor
The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet
The Adventure of the Copper Beeches
How do I know that it is worth buying?
You can download a free sample and decide. If you are in any way unhappy with your purchase please let me know and I will happily provide a refund.
What formats can I download the book in?
The book is available in pdf, Kindle (mobi) and ePub formats. It works on all major E-readers and on iPad, iPhone and Android.
Why can’t I download this on Amazon?
Unfortunately Amazon will not accept an ebook that contains a mixture of Cyrillic and Latin letters.
Once I have downloaded my file, how do I get it on my Kindle, iPad, iPhone etc.
Please visit the support page.
Free Sample
Click on version you would like to download:
About this book
I started to learn Russian with the Pimsleur audio course five years ago. I had, for some time, been an enthusiastic language learner and I was delighted to find that I didn’t find it much more difficult than Spanish or French. I soon, however, encountered a problem. In Spanish and French I had needed to study the grammar of the language in order to move towards mastery. This meant working with the written language. How many of us, whilst learning a language, spend much of our time buried in books of verbs and pronouns? Also, reading reinforced my understanding of the languages and helped build my vocabulary. Pimsleur includes an excellent introduction to reading Russian. It enabled me haltingly to read Cyrillic but simply didn’t give me the fluency to prevent reading becoming a grinding chore. I soon gave up.
The problem as I saw it was two-fold. On the one hand, as beginner I had to learn the Russian alphabet by equating it to a language I didn’t understand. On the other, even after following this laborious process, I still couldn’t read Cyrillic words with any fluency because I was battling with both deciphering the sounds and also understanding the new language at the same time. I needed a way of improving my Cyrillic symbol recognition before I could go on to actually reading a language written in it.
The solution to this conundrum is simple. Learning is quicker when you concentrate on one element of difficulty at a time. What if it were possible to use the symbols, but remove the difficulty of understanding the language? The Cyrillic alphabet, in most cases, has close approximations to sounds in English. All one would need to do would be, through the course of an English text, gradually to replace individual Latin characters for their equivalent in Cyrillic. You would still be reading in English, but with a different script. You would absorb the shapes and their sounds slowly by approximating them to your own language.
That is what this book does. Using one of the best-loved stories of all time, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Latin letters are gradually substituted for their Russian Cyrillic equivalents. By the end of the book none of the letters used is Latin: everything is Cyrillic. The words you read, however, are still English. Since the stories by Conan Doyle are so gripping, learning involves the simple pleasure of reading a brilliant book.
About the authors
Most of the hard work here was done by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He needs little introduction.
Christian Morris is a composer, arranger and writer on contemporary music who also has a love of travel and a passion for learning languages. He has had music performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBCNOW brass and the Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra and has several times featured on BBC radio and television. His study of the sketch material of Henri Dutilleux’s Symphony No. 2, written with Mexican colleague Mauricio Beltrán was published in 2013 by Tempo music journal. His personal website can be found at www.christianmorris.net.
Buy The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, A Gradual Introduction to Russian Cyrillic Script