Ukrainian Ґ

Ray Larabie

If you have fonts which already support Cyrillic, it doesn't take much effort to add Ґ and ґ to support Ukrainian as well. Most fonts which support Cyrillic don't include this character because it's not included in the 0400-045F Unicode range.

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ghe_with_upturn

Chris Lozos

I always add those and Bulgarian glyphs but now I am thinking of dropping the Russian only glyphs :-)

John Savard

Odd. In the typeface used on this site, the character shown does not look like the one I'm familiar with from Ukrainian texts. Where I have seen "ghe with upturn", it looks like "ghe" followed by a separate apostrophe/closing quote.

Incidentally, I thought that Bulgarian used all the glyphs that Russian did - and if it missed any, Serbian would have picked them up, so I didn't really think there were any Russian-only glyphs.

Chris Lozos

I didn't really think there were any Russian-only glyphs

That was a joke.

John Hudson

Odd. In the typeface used on this site, the character shown does not look like the one I'm familiar with from Ukrainian texts. Where I have seen "ghe with upturn", it looks like "ghe" followed by a separate apostrophe/closing quote.

The apostrophe sign is used in Ukrainian to mark an unpalatalised consonant in a situation that would otherwise be palatalised consonant. This is because Ukrainian orthography does not consistently mark palatalised consonants with ь but instead relies on context and phonetic rules in many cases, so ’ is used to mark exceptions to those rules (serving the same function as the Russian ъ).

This is different from the distinction between Г [ɦ] and Ґ [ɡ] in Ukrainian.

John Savard

I see not only that you are correct and I was mistaken, but that this letter has a complicated history. It was first used in the 16th century Peresopnytsia Gospel, and was codified as part of the Ukrainian alphabet in the 1928 Ukrainian orthography - only to be banned by Stalin in 1933. Only after the fall of the Soviet Union was it restored to the Ukrainian script as used domestically, in 1990, and then only for words of foreign origin, although it continued to be used in the diaspora.

However, before the Skripnykivka alphabet of 1928, one of the extant orthographies of Ukrainian had used this letter in a standardized way, the Zhelekhivka alphabet from 1886.

Cory Maylett

John Savard said:

I thought that Bulgarian used all the glyphs that Russian did - and if it missed any, Serbian would have picked them up, so I didn't really think there were any Russian-only glyphs.

How about ₽, the currency symbol for the Russian ruble? Do any other countries use this glyph? If I remember correctly, it was the winner of a Russian design poll a few years ago.

Vasil Stanev

Cory Maylett said:

John Savard said:

I thought that Bulgarian used all the glyphs that Russian did - and if it missed any, Serbian would have picked them up, so I didn't really think there were any Russian-only glyphs.

How about ₽, the currency symbol for the Russian ruble? Do any other countries use this glyph? If I remember correctly, it was the winner of a Russian design poll a few years ago.

и I would use the pound sign instead, because this is how much the paper rubles weigh that make up one dollar /jk
To answer your question, no, I haven't seen it being used, much like the rupee sign.

John Butler

Joke or no joke, this is not the first time in the past week I’ve seen type folks bring up removing Russian glyphs. Actual Russians are risking their lives protesting this war in the streets of St Petersburg, not trifling with glyphs in fonts thousands of miles away or changing their social media avatars to a Ukrainian flag or singing “Imagine” in unison. The tool Yuri Yarmola develops has been the foundation of hundreds of Western careers measurably cushier than his own. By all means, add missing Ukrainian glyphs, but don’t punish your everyday Russian users and think it achieves anything. If in doubt, write a check instead.

jeremy tribby

agreed, john. my heart breaks for people in ukraine and russia alike. sanctions - economic warfare - disproportionately punishes ordinary people who do not even share the politics of their leaders, and I am concerned about the hundreds of millions of people whose livelihoods are tied to the russian economy right now. this is never so simple and binary as supporting one side or the other, that is a fiction told by propagandists. but I will stop there as I think I am getting off-topic.

on the topic of ukranian glyphs — I have seen in the past a suggestion that modulating the dieresis in yi (Ї ї) — scaling down its width - is something that comes up in ukrainian, but I'm having trouble locating my source on that. does anyone know how ukranian readers prefer to see it?

John Hudson

on the topic of ukranian glyphs — I have seen in the past a suggestion that modulating the dieresis in yi (Ї ї) — scaling down its width - is something that comes up in ukrainian, but I'm having trouble locating my source on that. does anyone know how ukranian readers prefer to see it?

There are a few things to consider here. One is the simple case when ї is bracketed by letters that do not carry marks, or which are wide enough not to produce spacing issues. Second is the ї when preceded or followed by і. Third is double її. All three situations occur in Ukrainian words—indeed, її is a word in itself, the feminine pronoun her—, and the number of dots involved and their position relative to the letters and to each other needs to be managed. One way to do this is indeed to reduce the width of the two dots on ї, whether by default or contextually. This is design-specific and needs to take into account the weight of the typeface, how it is spaced, and the weight of the dots. Regardless of whether the size or distance between the dots is adjusted, kerning for ії, їі and її should be provided.

John Savard

John Butler said:

Actual Russians are risking their lives protesting this war in the streets of St Petersburg,

Yes, the Russian people are not the ones to blame for this war. However, the civilian population of a country often suffers when its leaders choose to engage in aggression, because we have limited means of responding to it. Although, of course, I wish to avoid commenting on politics here as far as possible.

Ray Larabie

If you're interested in supporting more Cyrillic-based languages and the full Cyrillic range from 0460-04FF seems too daunting or beyond your project's scope, it's not as hard as you think. If you want to cover historical characters, there's a lot to deal with but if you only add characters currently in use in most Cyrillic-based languages, you don't need much.



Consider that this is a typewriter font so don't use this as a guide for character design. The palochkas (04CF, 04C0) shouldn't normally be done this way. There are always more languages, but this is a way to quickly cover a bunch more.

Krista Radoeva

I can offer my Standard Cyrillic character set. It covers a lot of additional Cyrillic languages without going to full on Extended Cyrillic:

АБВГЃҐҒДЕЀЁЖЗИЙЍКЌЛМНОПРСТУЎФХҲЧЦШЩЏЬЫЪЉЊЅЄЭІЇЈЋЮЯЂҚҢҮҰҺӀӘӨ

абвгѓґғдеѐёжзийѝкќлмнопрстуўфхҳчцшщџьыъљњѕєэіїјћюяђқңүұһӏәө

+ Localised forms for Bulgarian, Serbian/Macedonian;

+ Currency symbols: Russian Ruble, Ukrainian Hryvnia, Kazakh Tenge;

In any case, I would encourage you to think about covering more, instead of excluding Russian.

Igor Freiberger

Compilation made by Kent Lew:

Slavic Languages

Russian

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г д е ё ж з и й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Belarusian

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З І Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ў Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г д е ё ж з і й к л м н о п р с т у ў ф х ц ч ш ы ь э ю я 

Ukrainian

А Б В Г Ґ Д Е Є Ж З И І Ї Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ь Ю Я 

а б в г ґ д е є ж з и і ї й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ь ю я 

Rusyn

А Б В Г Ґ Д Е Ё Є Ж З И І Ї Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Ю Я 

а б в г ґ д е ё є ж з и і ї й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь ю я 

Serbian

А Б В Г Д Ђ Е Ж З И Ј К Л Љ М Н Њ О П Р С Т Ћ У Ф Х Ц Ч Џ Ш 

а б в г д ђ е ж з и ј к л љ м н њ о п р с т ћ у ф х ц ч џ ш 

Bulgarian

А Б В Г Д Е Ж З И Ѝ Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ь Ю Я 

а б в г д е ж з и ѝ й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ь ю я  

Ѝ ѝ – for disambiguation of feminine possessive pronoun

Montenegrin

А Б В Г Д Ђ Е Ж З И Ј К Л Љ М Н Њ О П Р С Т Ћ У Ф Х Ц Ч Џ Ш ́ 

а б в г д ђ е ж з и ј к л љ м н њ о п р с т ћ у ф х ц ч џ ш 

Macedonian

А Б В Г Ѓ Д Е Ѐ Ж З Ѕ И Ѝ Ј К Л Љ М Н Њ О П Р С Т Ќ У Ф Х Ц Ч Џ Ш 

а б в г ѓ д е ѐ ж з ѕ и ѝ ј к л љ м н њ о п р с т ќ у ф х ц ч џ ш  

Ѐ Ѝ ѐ ѝ – for disambiguation 

Other Indo-European languages

Moldovan

А Б В Г Д Е Ж Ӂ З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г д е ж ӂ з и й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш ы ь э ю я 

Iranian languages 

Kurdish

А Б В Г Д Е Ә Ж З И Й К Л М Н О Ö П Р С Т У Ф Х Һ Ч Ш Щ Ь Э Ԛ Ԝ 

а б в г д е ә ж з и й к л м н о ö п р с т у ф х һ ч ш щ ь э ԛ ԝ 

Ossetian

А Ӕ Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а ӕ б в г д е ё ж з и й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Tajik

А Б В Г Ғ Д Е Ё Ж З И Ӣ Й К Қ Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ӯ Ф Х Ҳ Ц Ч Ҷ Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г ғ д е ё ж з и ӣ й к қ л м н о п р с т у ӯ ф х ҳ ц ч ҷ ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я  

Ц Щ Ы Ь ц щ ы ь – loanwords only 

Uralic Languages 

Kildin Sami

А Ӓ Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й Ҋ Ј К Л Ӆ М Ӎ Н Ӊ Ӈ О П Р Ҏ С Т У Ф Х Һ Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Ҍ Э Ӭ Ю Я 

а ӓ б в г д е ё ж з и й ҋ ј к л ӆ м ӎ н ӊ ӈ о п р ҏ с т у ф х һ ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь ҍ э ӭ ю я  

Combining macron may be required 

Komi-Permyak

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И І Й К Л М Н О Ӧ П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г д е ё ж з и і й к л м н о ӧ п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Meadow Mari

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н Ҥ О Ӧ П Р С Т У Ӱ Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г д е ё ж з и й к л м н ҥ о ӧ п р с т у ӱ ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Hill Mari

А Ӓ Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н О Ӧ П Р С Т У Ӱ Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ӹ Ь Э Ю Я 

а ӓ б в г д е ё ж з и й к л м н о ӧ п р с т у ӱ ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ӹ ь э ю я 

Udmurt

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж Ӝ З Ӟ И Ӥ Й К Л М Н О Ӧ П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ӵ Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г д е ё ж ӝ з ӟ и ӥ й к л м н о ӧ п р с т у ф х ц ч ӵ ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Khanty

А Ӓ Ә Ӛ Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Ӄ Л М Н Ӈ О Ӧ Ө Ӫ П Р С Т У Ӱ Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а ӓ ә ӛ б в г д е ё ж з и й к ӄ л м н ӈ о ӧ ө ӫ п р с т у ӱ ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Nenets

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н Ӈ О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г д е ё ж з и й к л м н ӈ о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Caucasian Languages

Abkhaz

А Б В Г Ӷ Ҕ Д Е Ҽ Ҿ Ж З Ӡ И К Қ Ҟ Л М Н О Ҩ П Ҧ Р С Т Ҭ У Ф Х Ҳ Ц Ҵ Ч Ҷ Џ Ш Ы Ь 

а б в г ӷ ҕ д е ҽ ҿ ж з ӡ и к қ ҟ л м н о ҩ п ҧ р с т ҭ у ф х ҳ ц ҵ ч ҷ џ ш ы ь 

Kabardian

А Б В Г Д Е Ж З И Ӏ Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Ю Я 

а б в г д е ж з и ӏ й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь ю я 

Chechen

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Ӏ Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г д е ё ж з и ӏ й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш ъ ы ь э ю я 

Turkic Languages 

Azerbaijani

А Ә Б В Г Ғ Д Е Ж З И Й Ј К Ҝ Л М Н О Ө П Р С Т У Ү Ф Х Һ Ч Ҹ Ш Ы 

а ә б в г ғ д е ж з и й ј к ҝ л м н о ө п р с т у ү ф х һ ч ҹ ш ы 

Turkmen

А Ә Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж Җ З И Й К Л М Н Ң О Ө П Р С Т У Ү Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а ә б в г д е ё ж җ з и й к л м н ң о ө п р с т у ү ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Kazakh

А Ә Б В Г Ғ Д Е Ё Ж З И І Й К Қ Л М Н Ң О Ө П Р С Т У Ү Ұ Ф Х Һ Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а ә б в г ғ д е ё ж з и і й к қ л м н ң о ө п р с т у ү ұ ф х һ ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Kyrgyz

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н Ң О Ө П Р С Т У Ү Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г д е ё ж з и й к л м н ң о ө п р с т у ү ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я  

В Ф Ц Щ Ъ Ь в ф ц щ ъ ь – loanwords only

Karachay

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ў Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г д е ё ж з и й к л м н о п р с т у ў ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Bashkir

А Ә Б В Г Ғ Д Е Ё Ж З Ҙ И Й К Ҡ Л М Н Ң О Ө П Р С Ҫ Т У Ү Ф Х Һ Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а ә б в г ғ д е ё ж з ҙ и й к ҡ л м н ң о ө п р с ҫ т у ү ф х һ ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Tatar

А Ә Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж Җ З И Й К Л М Н Ң О Ө П Р С Т У Ү Ф Х Һ Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а ә б в г д е ё ж җ з и й к л м н ң о ө п р с т у ү ф х һ ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Altai

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й Ј К Л М Н Ҥ О Ӧ П Р С Т У Ӱ Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г д е ё ж з и й ј к л м н ҥ о ӧ п р с т у ӱ ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Khakass

А Б В Г Ғ Д Е Ё Ж З И І Й К Л М Н Ң О Ӧ П Р С Т У Ӱ Ф Х Ц Ч Ӌ Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г ғ д е ё ж з и і й к л м н ң о ӧ п р с т у ӱ ф х ц ч ӌ ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Sakha

А Б В Г Ҕ Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н Ҥ О Ө П Р С Т У Ү Ф Х Һ Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г ҕ д е ё ж з и й к л м н ҥ о ө п р с т у ү ф х һ ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Tuvin

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н Ң О Ө П Р С Т У Ү Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г д е ё ж з и й к л м н ң о ө п р с т у ү ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Uzbek

А Б В Г Ғ Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Қ Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ў Ф Х Ҳ Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г ғ д е ё ж з и й к қ л м н о п р с т у ў ф х ҳ ц ч ш щ ъ ь э ю я 

Uyghur

А Ә Б В Г Ғ Д Е Ж Җ З И Й К Қ Л М Н Ң О Ө П Р С Т У Ү Ф Х Һ Ч Ш Ю Я 

а ә б в г ғ д е ж җ з и й к қ л м н ң о ө п р с т у ү ф х һ ч ш ю я 

Chuvash

А Ӑ Б В Г Д Е Ё Ӗ Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Ҫ Т У Ӳ Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а ӑ б в г д е ё ӗ ж з и й к л м н о п р с ҫ т у ӳ ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Evenki

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н Ӈ О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г д е ё ж з и й к л м н ӈ о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Mongolian Languages

Buryat

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н О Ө П Р С Т У Ү Ф Х Һ Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г д е ё ж з и й к л м н о ө п р с т у ү ф х һ ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я  

К Ф Щ Ъ к ф щ ъ – loanwords only 

Khalkha

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н О Ө П Р С Т У Ү Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а б в г д е ё ж з и й к л м н о ө п р с т у ү ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Kalmyk

А Ә Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж Җ З И Й К Л М Н Ң О Ө П Р С Т У Ү Ф Х Һ Ц Ч Ш Щ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а ә б в г д е ё ж җ з и й к л м н ң о ө п р с т у ү ф х һ ц ч ш щ ы ь э ю я 

Sino-Tibetan Languages

Dungan

А Ә Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж Җ З И Й К Л М Н Ң О П Р С Т У Ў Ү Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я 

а ә б в г д е ё ж җ з и й к л м н ң о п р с т у ў ү ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я 

Andreas Stötzner

Igor Freiberger said:

Compilation made by Kent Lew

brilliant.

John Hudson

And for those wanting to get funky:

Old Cyrillic

А Б В Г Д Є Ж Ѕ Ꙃ З Ꙁ И І Ї Ꙉ К Л М Н О П Р С Т Оу Ꙋ Ф Х Ѡ Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Ѣ Ꙗ Ѥ Ю Ѫ Ѭ Ѧ Ѩ Ѯ Ѱ Ѳ Ѵ Ҁ

а б в г д є ж ѕ ꙃ з ꙁ и і ї ꙉ к л м н о п р с т оу ꙋ ф х ѡ ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь ѣ ꙗ ѥ ю ѫ ѭ ѧ ѩ ѯ ѱ ѳ ѵ ҁ

Ѕ/Ꙃ, З/Ꙁ and Оу/Ꙋ are different forms for the same letter. Ҁ had only numeric value.

jeremy tribby

thanks for sharing those john. knowing where to draw the line between historical and simply uncommon (orthographies of small populations) has been a challenge as I work on my first big cyrillic project - and even more challenging is "historical but shows up now and then" vs. "historical that you will never really see unless you're digging around in unicode." for example I've seen a number of fonts with the big yus, but not all of its other forms — maybe just because it's fun to draw? google's glyphsets are helpful in calling out "historical" separately which is a bit different than adobe cyrillic 3, but I don't really know what their methodology was for arriving at those particular sets. 

krista, I was going to call out your and maria's cyrillicsly workshops as a great way to learn (and an overall excellent experience). I'm finally getting close to finishing that font after going off the deep end with extended cyrillic afterwards

John Hudson

For most projects, when it comes to historical characters I draw the line at 

Ѣ Ѳ Ѵ
ѣ ѳ ѵ

These were part of the standard Russian alphabet up to 1918 in Russia, and continued thereafter in use by some emigré communities, so may reasonably occur in relatively modern Russian documents or literary works.

A similar argument can be made for including the ‘big yus’

Ѫ
ѫ

on the basis that it remained part of the Bulgarian alphabet until 1945. [In Russian, the big yus was replaced by Я in the Petrine reform of the early 18th Century.]

The biggest factor in deciding whether to support additional historical characters is whether you want your font to be usable for Old Slavonic language texts. Today, this means primarily Eastern Orthodox ecclesiastical publishing, and this implies not only support of additional characters and some moderately complex mark positioning, but also specific styles of script. The Petrine reform split the Cyrillic script into two streams—religious and secular—each with its own typographic traditions and particular styles of type.

Secular scholarship may involve study of Old Slavonic and early vernacular texts in the Old Cyrillic orthography, in which case there is a use for typefaces in the post-Petrine typographic style but supporting the additional Old Cyrillic letters, so that words or whole texts can be transcribed in the same style of type as commentary, notes, etc.. This is the Brill set (which does not include Ꙃ ꙃ Ꙉ ꙉ as Brill had not specified them for their publication needs):

Because such fonts are not expected to be used for Old Slavonic language publishing per se, full support for the systems of accentuation, historical number forms, etc. may not be included. I expect the market for such fonts is pretty limited.

Florian Pircher

I am often surprised by the broad glyph coverage that (Mac) system display fonts offer. Among the handful of fonts containing “Ꙃ ꙃ Ꙉ ꙉ” are Bradley Hand, Copperplate, and Snell Roundhand. The other ones being DIN Condensed, Iowan Old Style, and Didot Bold (but not Regular and Italic!?).

John Hudson

OS providers often spec character coverage for system fonts by full Unicode block. It means some very rare characters get included, but it is convenient for the OS developers as it means they don’t really need to think about the character coverage in terms of language use, historical vs modern, religious vs secular, etc..

John Savard

Of course, if one is going to support Old Slavonic, the question of supporting the Glagolitic script arises.

Vasily Draigo

I am from Ukraine, Kharkiv. I am a native Ukrainian speaker. My city is currently under bombardment (the historical center of Kharkov has already suffered greatly) and at the moment I can not give a detailed answer on the Ukrainian language in the font. It’s not at all difficult to add Ukrainian glyphs that are not in Russian. The main thing is not to forget about OpenType features for Ukrainian glyphs. 
I recommend that everyone look at the Cyrillic reviews from the Google Fonts collection from type.today:
Cyrillic on Google Fonts: Neo-Grotesques (type.today)
Cyrillic on Google Fonts: Humanist Sans (type.today)
Cyrillic on Google Fonts: Geometric Sans (type.today)
Cyrillic on Google Fonts: Old-Style Serifs (type.today)
Cyrillic on Google Fonts: transitional serifs (type.today)

P.S: Almost all my acquaintances and friends are from Russia, yes, there are those who support this war, but this is a minority, there are such people in any country.

Vasily Draigo

Very good idea from type.today: type.today says no to war

Krista Radoeva

jeremy tribby said:

krista, I was going to call out your and maria's cyrillicsly workshops as a great way to learn (and an overall excellent experience). I'm finally getting close to finishing that font after going off the deep end with extended cyrillic afterwards

Thanks Jeremy, I am looking forward to seeing it! 
Yes, at the workshops we cover all the languages that are included in the character set I posted, localised forms and Extended Cyrillic.

We are however hesitating if we should continue the workshops in the current situation.

John Savard

While there are no Russian-only letters, one other country is under sanctions for supporting the war against the Ukraine: Belarus. So, curious to see if there were any Belarusian-only letters, I looked up information about the alphabet of Belarusian. And I learned that its history was similar to that of Ukrainian: Russia imposed orthographical changes to make the language more like Russian, in its particular case using the excuse of removing Polish influences.

Also, I read that the Ukrainian G-letter which is the topic of this thread was added, in 2005, not to the alphabet of the Belarusian language proper, but to the alphabet of the "Classical" form of its writing - and that the grammar of Belarusian in which this form of the language was originally outlined, the Latin alphabet, including the Polish Ł, was used! (To avoid excessive length, I omit a wealth of detail.)

So offering good historical support to the Belarusian language looks like the best way to strike a blow against the current pro-Russian regime, rather than removing support!

Oh, and I have just learned something else.

In old specimen books, I sometimes had seen type for a language called "Ruthenian". As it looked like it was type for the Ukrainian script, I had assumed it was an old name for that langugage. But I have learned that the matter is more complicated. Instead, Ruthenian was essentially an imaginary language that Europeans spoke of, with the Belarusian language its North Ruthenian dialect, and the Ukrainian language as its South Ruthenian dialect!

André G. Isaak

Vasily Draigo said:

I am from Ukraine, Kharkiv. I am a native Ukrainian speaker. My city is currently under bombardment (the historical center of Kharkov has already suffered greatly)

Please stay safe. I wish you and your family all the best.

John Hudson

Ruthenian was essentially an imaginary language that Europeans spoke of, with the Belarusian language its North Ruthenian dialect, and the Ukrainian language as its South Ruthenian dialect!

Not really an imaginary language. Ruthenian, from the Latin Rutheni was the name given by some other Europeans to the East Slavs, their culture, and language. One still occasionally encounters Eastern Catholics who refer to themselves as Ruthenians.

andi aw. masry

@Ray Larabie and all fellow typopiles, thank you very much for bringing up this topic. This prompted more cyrillic experts to explain some of my curiosities over the years.

As a non-native speaker of a language with cyrillic characters, here I can only learn and will learn more.

@Krista Radoeva can you be more specific about the feature locl you mean? (is it like for example i to i.dot on TRK and scedilla to scommaccent on ROM) like this:

One thing (I don't know if it's still on topic) I have also noticed is that the appearance of the cursive writing on certain glyphs has a completely different appearance as in these images.

and

So far I've handled it by renaming glyphs such as tecyr to tecyr.srb and then replacing it in one of the stylistic feature sets (SS01-SS20). Although this step is working fine in fontlab, but I don't know if this step is correct or not.

Please enlighten. Thank you in advance. 

Best regards

John Hudson

So far I've handled it by renaming glyphs such as tecyr to tecyr.srb and then replacing it in one of the stylistic feature sets (SS01-SS20). Although this step is working fine in fontlab, but I don't know if this step is correct or not.

Providing stylistic set support can be useful as a backup, but you should also associate the substitutions with the localised forms <locl> feature for the appropriate langsys tag in your GSUB code. That will make it possible for the Serbian, Bulgarian, etc. forms to be automatically used in some software when the language of a document is set. The sample code image that you posted shows how to do that.

John Savard

Incidentally, in researching the language of Belarus, I did find that it had one letter which was unique to it, the letter Ў which stands for W. But I also learned that in Belarus, unlike Ukraine, the local language is in desuetude; people who live in the big cities usually use Russian in daily life, and thus even forget how to speak their own language from disuse.