Serguei Mokhov scripsit:

> Well, one could argue then in Russian, which is Cyrrilic-based, half of it being
> derived from Greek, the other half is somewhat Latin.

In fact there does not seem to be any Latin influence in Cyrillic at all.
Where Cyrillic letters resemble Latin ones, it is due to the common
Greek origin. If we look at just the Russian alphabet, all the letters
up to and including X (except Zhe) are Greek in origin. Ve has the
form B because that was the sound of Greek beta at the time (and still);
Be was devised as a slight variant of it, in the same way that Latin G
was originally a slight variant I and En are glyphic variants of Greek
Eta and Nu.

As for the others, it is surely no coincidence that Sha looks like Hebrew
shin, and Yeru involves Greek Iota, as does Yu (it's a ligature of Iota-
Omicron, short for Iota-Omicron-Upsilon). Ya, finally, is a glyph variant
of the old Little Yus.

> I would vote against "Chykoffskee". Should I see
> that out of the context of this thread, I would have a not very easy
> time understanding this.

It isn't meant for russophones, but for anglophones who have an intuitive
grasp of the spelling conventions (imperfect, but existent) of English.
To anglophone ears, "i" and "ij" are essentially indistinguishable.

> I'm still learning. And I'm just a curious person :-)

So say we all.

--
John Cowan jcowan@... www.ccil.org/~cowan www.reutershealth.com
"If he has seen farther than others,
it is because he is standing on a stack of dwarves."
--Mike Champion, describing Tim Berners-Lee (adapted)