Early Cyrillic alphabet

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Early Cyrillic alphabet
Словѣньска азъбоукꙑ
Early Cyrillic alphabet.svg
Script type
Time period
From c.893 in Bulgaria [1]
DirectionVaries
Languages Old Church Slavonic, Church Slavonic, old versions of many Slavic languages
Related scripts
Parent systems
Egyptian hieroglyphs [2]
Child systems
Cyrillic script
Sister systems
Latin alphabet
Coptic alphabet
Armenian alphabet
ISO 15924
ISO 15924 Cyrs(221),Cyrillic (Old Church Slavonic variant)
Unicode
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.For the distinction between [ ], / / and  , see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
А А̀ А̂ А̄ Ӓ Б В Г
Ґ Д Ђ Ѓ Е Ѐ Е̄ Е̂
Ё Є Ж З З́ Ѕ И І
Ї Ѝ И̂ Ӣ Й Ј К
Л Љ М Н Њ О О̀ О̂
Ō Ӧ П Р Р̌ С С́ Т
Ћ Ќ У У̀ У̂ Ӯ Ў Ӱ
Ф Х Ц Ч Џ Ш Щ
Ъ Ъ̀ Ы Ь Ѣ Э Ю Ю̀
Я Я̀
Non-Slavic letters
Ӑ А̊ А̃ Ӓ̄ Ӕ Ә Ә́ Ә̃
Ӛ В̌ Ԝ Г̑ Г̇ Г̣ Г̌ Г̂
Г̆ Г̈ Ҕ Ғ Cyrillic capital letter Ghe with stroke and descender.svg Ӻ Ғ̌ Ӷ
Cyrillic capital letter Ghe with hook.svg Д́ Д̌ Д̈ Д̣ Д̆ Ӗ Е̃
Ё̄ Є̈ Ԑ Ԑ̈ Җ Ӝ Ӂ Ж̣
Ҙ Ӟ З̌ З̣ З̆ Ӡ И̃ Ӥ
Ҋ Қ Ӄ Ҡ Ҟ Ҝ К̣ Ԛ
Л́ Ӆ Ԯ Ԓ Л̈ Ӎ
Н́ Ӊ Ң Ԩ Ӈ Ҥ О̆ О̃
Ӧ̄ Ө Ө̄ Ө́ Ө̆ Ӫ Ԥ П̈
Ҏ С̌ Ҫ С̣ С̱ Т́ Т̈ Т̌
Т̇ Т̣ Ҭ Cyrillic capital letter Te Soft-sign.svg У̃ Ӳ У̊ Ӱ̄
Ұ Ү Ү́ Х̣ Х̱ Х̮ Х̑ Х̌
Ҳ Ӽ Ӿ Һ Һ̈ Ԧ Ц̌ Ц̈
Ҵ Ҷ Ҷ̣ Ӵ Ӌ Cyrillic capital letter Che with hook.svg Ҹ Ч̇
Ч̣ Ҽ Ҿ Ш̈ Ш̣ Ы̆ Ы̄
Ӹ Ҍ Ҩ Э̆ Э̄ Э̇ Ӭ
Ӭ́ Ӭ̄ Ю̆ Ю̈ Ю̄ Я̆ Я̄ Я̈
Ӏ ʼ ˮ
Archaic or unused letters
Cyrillic capital letter script A.svg А̨ Б̀ Б̣ Б̱ В̀ Г̀ Г̧
Г̄ Г̓ Г̆ Ҕ̀ Ҕ̆ Cyrillic capital letter split by middle ring Ghe.svg Ԁ Д̓
Д̀ Д̨ Cyrillic capital letter archaic Dje.svg Ԃ Е̇ Е̨
Ж̀ Ж̑ Cyrillic small letter Zhe with stroke.svg Cyrillic capital letter Je with inverted belt.svg Cyrillic small letter Dje with high right breve serif.svg Џ̆
Ꚅ̆ З̀ З̑ Ԅ Ԇ
Ԫ Cyrillic capital letter Shha with Cil top.svg Cyrillic capital letter Shha with high right breve serif.svg І̂ І̣ І̨
Cyrillic capital letter byelorussian-ukrainian I with curve at bottom.svg Ј̵ Ј̃ К̓ К̀ К̆ Ӄ̆
К̑ К̇ К̈ К̄ Ԟ К̂ Cyrillic capital letter Ka with loop.svg Cyrillic small letter ka with ascender.svg
Л̀ Ԡ Ԉ Л̑ Л̇ Ԕ Cyrillic small letter El with retroflex hook.svg
Cyrillic small letter El Er.svg Cyrillic small letter Te El with retroflex hook.svg М̀ М̃ Н̀ Н̄ Н̧
Н̃ Ԋ Ԣ Н̡ Ѻ
Cyrillic small letter O with notch at top.svg Cyrillic capital letter O with notch at bottom.svg Cyrillic capital letter O with left notch.svg П̓ П̀
П́ Ҧ П̧ П̑ Ҁ Ԛ̆ Cyrillic capital letter Shha with hook.svg Р́
Р̀ Р̃ Cyrillic small letter split at right Er.svg Ԗ С̀ С̈ Ԍ Ҫ̓
Cyrillic capital letter long Es.svg Т̓ Т̀ Ԏ Т̑ Т̧
Ꚍ̆ Cyrillic small letter Te El.svg Cyrillic small letter voiceless L.svg Cyrillic small letter voiceless L with comma above.svg ОУ Cyrillic capital letter script U.svg У̇
У̨ ꙋ́ Ф̑ Ф̓ Х́ Х̀ Х̆ Х̇
Х̧ Х̾ Х̓ Cyrillic capital letter bashkir Ha.svg һ̱ Ѡ Ѽ
Ѿ Ц̀ Ц́ Ц̓ Cyrillic capital letter Tse with long left leg.svg Ꚏ̆
Cyrillic capital letter Cil.svg Cyrillic capital letter Cil with bar.svg Ч́ Ч̀ Ч̆ Ч̑ Ч̓
Cyrillic capital letter Char.svg Cyrillic small letter Char with high right breve serif.svg Ԭ Ꚇ̆ Ҽ̆ Ш̀
Ш̆ Ш̑ Щ̆ Ꚗ̆ Cyrillic capital letter Che Sha.svg Ы̂
Ы̃ Cyrillic small letter Yeru with connecting stroke.svg Ѣ́ Ѣ̈ Ѣ̆ Э̨ Э̂
Ю̂ Cyrillic capital letter iotified monograph uk.svg Cyrillic capital letter iotified monograph uk with breve.svg Я̈ Я̂ Я̨
Ԙ Ѥ Ѧ Ѫ Ѩ
Ѭ Ѯ Ѱ Ѳ Ѵ Ѷ

The Early Cyrillic alphabet, also called classical Cyrillic or paleo-Cyrillic, is an alphabetic writing system that was developed in Medieval Bulgaria in the Preslav Literary School during the late 9th century. It is used to write the Church Slavonic language, and was historically used for its ancestor, Old Church Slavonic. It was also used for other languages, but between the 18th and 20th centuries was mostly replaced by the modern Cyrillic script, which is used for some Slavic languages (such as Russian), and for East European and Asian languages that have experienced a great amount of Russian cultural influence.

Contents

History

The earliest form of manuscript Cyrillic, known as ustav , was based on Greek uncial script, augmented by ligatures and by letters from the Glagolitic alphabet for consonants not found in Greek. [3]

The Glagolitic alphabet was created by the monk Saint Cyril, possibly with the aid of his brother Saint Methodius, around 863. [3] Most scholars agree that Cyrillic, on the other hand, was created by Cyril's students at the Preslav Literary School in the 890s as a more suitable script for church books, based on uncial Greek but retaining some Glagolitic letters for sounds not present in Greek. [4] [5] [6] [7] At the time, the Preslav Literary School was the most important early literary and cultural center of the First Bulgarian Empire and of all Slavs: [6]

Unlike the Churchmen in Ohrid, Preslav scholars were much more dependent upon Greek models and quickly abandoned the Glagolitic scripts in favor of an adaptation of the Greek uncial to the needs of Slavic, which is now known as the Cyrillic alphabet.

The earliest Cyrillic texts are found in northeastern Bulgaria, in the vicinity of Preslav—the Krepcha inscription, dating back to 921, [8] and a ceramic vase from Preslav, dating back to 931. [6] Moreover, unlike the other literary centre in the First Bulgarian Empire, the Ohrid Literary School, which continued to use Glagolitic well into the 12th century, the School at Preslav was using Cyrillic in the early 900s. [9] The systematization of Cyrillic may have been undertaken at the Council of Preslav in 893, when the Old Church Slavonic liturgy was adopted by the First Bulgarian Empire. [1]

American scholar Horace Lunt has alternatively suggested that Cyrillics emerged in the border regions of Greek proselytization to the Slavs before it was codified and adapted by some systematizer among the Slavs. The oldest Cyrillic manuscripts look very similar to 9th and 10th century Greek uncial manuscripts, [3] and the majority of uncial Cyrillic letters were identical to their Greek uncial counterparts. [1]

The Cyrillic alphabet was very well suited for the writing of Old Church Slavic, generally following a principle of "one letter for one significant sound", with some arbitrary or phonotactically-based exceptions. [3] Particularly, this principle is violated by certain vowel letters, which represent [j] plus the vowel if they are not preceded by a consonant. [3] It is also violated by a significant failure to distinguish between /ji/ and /jĭ/ orthographically. [3] There was no distinction of capital and lowercase letters, though manuscript letters were rendered larger for emphasis, or in various decorative initial and nameplate forms. [4] Letters served as numerals as well as phonetic signs; the values of the numerals were directly borrowed from their Greek-letter analogues. [3] Letters without Greek equivalents mostly had no numeral values, whereas one letter, koppa, had only a numeric value with no phonetic value. [3]

Since its creation, the Cyrillic script has adapted to changes in spoken language and developed regional variations to suit the features of national languages. It has been the subject of academic reforms and political decrees. Variations of the Cyrillic script are used to write languages throughout Eastern Europe and Asia.

The form of the Russian alphabet underwent a change when Tsar Peter the Great introduced the civil script (Russian : гражданский шрифт, romanized: graždanskiy šrift, or гражданка, graždanka), in contrast to the prevailing church typeface, (Russian : церковнославя́нский шрифт, romanized: cerkovnoslavjanskiy šrift) in 1708. (The two forms are sometimes distinguished as paleo-Cyrillic and neo-Cyrillic.) Some letters and breathing marks which were used only for historical reasons were dropped. Medieval letterforms used in typesetting were harmonized with Latin typesetting practices, exchanging medieval forms for Baroque ones, and skipping the western European Renaissance developments. The reform subsequently influenced Cyrillic orthographies for most other languages. Today, the early orthography and typesetting standards remain in use only in Church Slavonic.

A comprehensive repertoire of early Cyrillic characters has been included in the Unicode standard since version 5.1, published April 4, 2008. These characters and their distinctive letterforms are represented in specialized computer fonts for Slavistics.

[11]

Alphabet

Image Unicode Name
(Cyrillic)
Name
(translit.)
Translit. international system [3] [12] Translit. ALA-LC [13] IPANumeric valueOriginMeaning of nameNotes
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Azu.svg А а азъazŭaa[ɑː]1Greek alpha ΑI
Early Cyrillic letter Buky.svg Б б боукꙑbukybb[b]Greek beta in Thera form Greek Beta 10.svg letters
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Vedi.svg В в вѣдѣvěděvv[v]2Greek Beta Βknow
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Glagol.svg Г г глаголиglagoligg[ɡ] [3] 3Greek Gamma ΓspeakWhen marked with a palatalization mark, this letter is pronounced [ɟ]; this occurs only rarely, and only in borrowings. [3]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Dobro.svg Д д доброdobrodd[d̪]4Greek Delta Δgood
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Est.svg Є є єстъestŭee[ɛ̠]5Greek Epsilon Εis
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Zhivete.svg Ж ж живѣтєživětežzh[ʒ]Glagolitic Zhivetelive
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Zelo.svg Ѕ ѕ ѕѣлоdzělodz/ʒż[d̪z̪]6Greek Stigma ϚveryThe form had the phonetic value [dz] and no numeral value, whereas the form ѕ was used only as a numeral and had no phonetic value. [3] Since the 12th century, ѕ came to be used instead of . [14] [15] In many manuscripts з is used instead, suggesting lenition had taken place. [3]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Zemlia.svg З з зємл҄ꙗzemljazz[z̪]~[z]7Greek Zeta ΖearthThe first form developed into the second.
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Izhe.svg И и ижєižeiи=i, й=ĭ[iː]~[e]8Greek Eta Ηwhich
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Izhei.svg І і иiiī[i]~[j]10Greek Iota Ιand
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Kako.svg К к какоkakokk[k]20Greek Kappa ΚasWhen marked with a palatalization mark, this letter is pronounced [c]; this occurs only rarely, and only in borrowings. [3]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Ludi.svg Л л людиѥljudijell[l]; sometimes [ʎ] [3] 30Greek Lambda ΛpeopleWhen marked with a palatalization mark or followed by a palatalizing vowel (ю, ѭ, or , and sometimes ѣ), this letter is pronounced [ʎ]; some manuscripts do not mark palatalization, in which case it must be inferred from context. [3]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Myslete.svg М м мꙑслитєmyslitemm[m]40Greek Mu Μthink
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Nash.svg Н н нашьnašĭnn[n]; sometimes [ɲ] [3] 50Greek Nu ΝoursWhen marked with a palatalization mark or followed by a palatalizing vowel (ю, ѭ, or , and sometimes ѣ), this letter is pronounced [ɲ]; some manuscripts do not mark palatalization, in which case it must be inferred from context. [3]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Onu.svg О о онъonŭoo[o]70Greek Omicron Οhe/it
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Pokoi.svg П п покоиpokoipp[p]80Greek Pi Πpeace/calm
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Rtsi.svg Р р рьциrĭcirr[r]; sometimes [rʲ] [3] 100Greek Rho ΡsayWhen marked with a palatalization mark or followed by a palatalizing vowel (ю or ѭ), this letter is pronounced [rʲ]; some manuscripts do not mark palatalization, in which case it must be inferred from context. [3] This palatalization was lost rather early in South Slavic speech. [3]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Slovo.svg С с словоslovoss[s]200Greek lunate Sigma Ϲword/speech
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Tverdo.svg Т т тврьдоtvrĭdott[t]300Greek Tau Τhard/surely
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Uk.svg Оу оу оукъukŭuоу=u, ꙋ=ū[u]Greek Omicron-Upsilon ΟΥ / ꙊlearningThe first form developed into the second, a vertical ligature. A less common alternative form was a digraph with izhitsa: Оѵ оѵ.
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Fert.svg Ф ф фрьтъfrĭtŭff[f] or possibly [p] [3] 500Greek Phi ΦThis letter was not needed for Slavic but used to transcribe Greek Φ and Latin ph and f. [3] It was probably, but not certainly, pronounced as [f] rather than [p]; however, in some cases it has been found as a transcription of Greek π. [3]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Kher.svg Х х хѣръxěrŭch/xkh[x]600Greek Chi ΧWhen marked with a palatalization mark, this letter is pronounced [ç]; this occurs only rarely, and only in borrowings. [3]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Omega.svg Ѡ ѡ ѡтъotŭo/v ѡ=ō, ѿ=ō͡t[o]800Greek Omega ωfromThis letter was rarely used, mostly appearing in the interjection "oh", in the preposition ‹otŭ›, in Greek transcription, and as a decorative capital. [3]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Tsi.svg Ц ц циcict͡s[ts]900Glagolitic TsiSee also: Ꙡ ꙡ.
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Cherv.svg Ч ч чрьвьčrĭvĭčch[tʃ]90Glagolitic ChervwormThis letter replaced koppa as the numeral for 90 after about 1300. [3]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Sha.svg Ш ш шаšašsh[ʃ]Glagolitic Sha
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Shta.svg Щ щ щаštaštsht[ʃt]Glagolitic ShtaThis letter varied in pronunciation from region to region; it may have originally represented the reflexes of [tʲ]. [3] It was sometimes replaced by the digraph шт. [3] Pronounced [ʃtʃ] in Old East Slavic. Later analyzed as a Ш-Т ligature by folk etymology, but neither the Cyrillic nor the Glagolitic glyph originated as such a ligature. [3]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Back-Yer.svg Ъ ъ ѥръjerŭъ/ŭ″, omit at end of a word[ŭ] or [ʊ] [3] Glagolitic Yer [1] After č, š, ž, c, dz, št, and žd, this letter was pronounced identically to ь instead of its normal pronunciation. [3]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Yery.svg Ꙑ ꙑ ѥрꙑjeryyы=ȳ, ꙑ=y,[ɯ] or [ɯji] or [ɯjĭ] [3] Ъ + І ligature.Ꙑ was the more common form; rarely, a third form, ы, appears. [3]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Yer.svg Ь ь ѥрьjerĭь/ĭ[ĭ] or [ɪ] [3] Glagolitic Yerj [1]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Yat.svg Ѣ ѣ ѣтьětĭěě[æ] [3] Glagolitic yat [1] In western South Slavic dialects of Old Church Slavonic, this letter had a more closed pronunciation, perhaps [ɛ] or [e]. [3] This letter was written only after a consonant; in all other positions, was used instead. [3] An exceptional document is Pages of Undolski, where ѣ is used instead of .
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Iotated-A.svg Ꙗ ꙗ jajai͡a[jæː]І-А ligatureThis letter was probably not present in the original Cyrillic alphabet. [1]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Iotated-E.svg Ѥ ѥ ѥjejei͡e[jɛ]І-Є ligatureThis letter was probably not present in the original Cyrillic alphabet. [1]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Yu.svg Ю ю юjujui͡u[ju]І-ОУ ligature, dropping УThere was no [jo] sound in early Slavic, so І-ОУ did not need to be distinguished from І-О. After č, š, ž, c, dz, št, and žd, this letter was pronounced [u], without iotation.
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Big-Yus.svg Ѫ ѫ ѫсъǫsŭǫǫ[ɔ̃]Glagolitic OnsCalled юсъ большой (big yus) in Russian.
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Iotated-Big-Yus.svg Ѭ ѭ ѭсъjǫsŭi͡ǫ[jɔ̃]І-Ѫ ligatureAfter č, š, ž, c, dz, št, and žd, this letter was pronounced [ɔ̃], without iotation. Called юсъ большой йотированный (iotated big yus) in Russian.
Early Cyrillic letter Yusu Maliy.svg Ѧ ѧ ѧсъęsŭęę[ɛ̃]900Glagolitic EnsPronounced [jɛ̃] when not preceded by a consonant. [3] Called юсъ малый (little yus) in Russian.
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Iotated-Lesser-Yus.svg Ѩ ѩ ѩсъjęsŭi͡ę[jɛ̃]І-Ѧ ligatureThis letter does not exist in the oldest (South Slavic) Cyrillic manuscripts, but only in East Slavic ones. [3] It was probably not present in the original Cyrillic alphabet. [1] Called юсъ малый йотированный (iotated little yus) in Russian.
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Ksi.svg Ѯ ѯ ѯиksiksk͡s[ks]60Greek Xi Ξ xi (letter name)These two letters were not needed for Slavic but were used to transcribe Greek and as numerals.
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Psi.svg Ѱ ѱ ѱиpsipsp͡s[ps]700Greek Psi Ψ psi (letter name)
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Fita.svg Ѳ ѳ ѳитаfitat/f/th[t], or [f], or possibly [θ]9Greek Theta Θ theta (letter name)This letter was not needed for Slavic but was used to transcribe Greek and as a numeral. It seems to have been generally pronounced [t], as the oldest texts sometimes replace instances of it with т. [3] Normal Old Church Slavonic pronunciation probably did not have a phone [θ]. [3]
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Izhitsa.svg Ѵ ѵ ижицаižicai,üѷ=ẏ, ѵ=v̇[i], [y], [v]400Greek Upsilon Υsmall yoke/IzheThis letter was used to transcribe Greek upsilon and as a numeral. It also formed part of the digraph оѵ.
Early-Cyrillic-letter-Koppa.svg Ҁ ҁ копаkopanone90Greek Koppa Ϙ koppa (letter name)This letter had no phonetic value, and was used only as a numeral. After about 1300, it was replaced as a numeral by črĭvĭ. [3]

In addition to the basic letters, there were a number of scribal variations, combining ligatures, and regionalisms used, all of which varied over time.

Sometimes the Greek letters that were used in Cyrillic mainly for their numeric value are transcribed with the corresponding Greek letters for accuracy: ѳ = θ, ѯ = ξ, ѱ = ψ, ѵ = υ, and ѡ = ω. [12]

Numerals, diacritics and punctuation

Each letter had a numeric value also, inherited from the corresponding Greek letter. A titlo over a sequence of letters indicated their use as a number; usually this was accompanied by a dot on either side of the letter. [3] In numerals, the ones place was to the left of the tens place, the reverse of the order used in modern Arabic numerals. [3] Thousands are formed using a special symbol, ҂ (U+0482), which was attached to the lower left corner of the numeral. [3] Many fonts display this symbol incorrectly as being in line with the letters instead of subscripted below and to the left of them.

Titlos were also used to form abbreviations, especially of nomina sacra; this was done by writing the first and last letter of the abbreviated word along with the word's grammatical endings, then placing a titlo above it. [3] Later manuscripts made increasing use of a different style of abbreviation, in which some of the left-out letters were superscripted above the abbreviation and covered with a pokrytie diacritic. [3]

Several diacritics, adopted from Polytonic Greek orthography, were also used, but were seemingly redundant [3] (these may not appear correctly in all web browsers; they are supposed to be directly above the letter, not off to its upper right):

ӓ  trema , diaeresis (U+0308)
а̀ varia (grave accent), indicating stress on the last syllable (U+0300)
а́ oksia (acute accent), indicating a stressed syllable (Unicode U+0301)
а҃  titlo , indicating abbreviations, or letters used as numerals (U+0483)
а҄  kamora (circumflex accent), indicating palatalization [ citation needed ] (U+0484); in later Church Slavonic, it disambiguates plurals from homophonous singulars.
а҅ dasia or dasy pneuma , rough breathing mark (U+0485)
а҆ psili, zvatel'tse, or psilon pneuma , soft breathing mark (U+0486). Signals a word-initial vowel, at least in later Church Slavonic.
а҆̀  Combined zvatel'tse and varia is called apostrof.
а҆́  Combined zvatel'tse and oksia is called iso.
д꙽, д̾  Yerok  [ ru ] or payerok (U+A67D, U+033E), indicating an omitted 'jerŭ' (ъ) after a letter. [16]

Punctuation systems in early Cyrillic manuscripts were primitive: there was no space between words and no upper and lower case, and punctuation marks were used inconsistently in all manuscripts. [3]

·  ano teleia (U+0387), a middle dot used to separate phrases, words, or parts of words [3]
.  Full stop, used in the same way [3]
։  Armenian full stop (U+0589), resembling a colon, used in the same way [3]
  Georgian paragraph separator (U+10FB), used to mark off larger divisions
  triangular colon (U+2056, added in Unicode 4.1), used to mark off larger divisions
  diamond colon (U+2058, added in Unicode 4.1), used to mark off larger divisions
  quintuple colon (U+2059, added in Unicode 4.1), used to mark off larger divisions
;  Greek question mark (U+037E), similar to a semicolon

Some of these marks are also used in Glagolitic script.

Used only in modern texts

,  comma (U+002C)
.  full stop (U+002E)
!  exclamation mark (U+0021)

Old Bulgarian examples

Medieval Greek Uncial manuscripts from which early Cyrillic letter forms take their shapes

Early Cyrillic manuscripts

See also

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Early Cyrillic at Wikimedia Commons

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Church Slavonic, also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic, New Church Slavic or just Slavonic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. The language appears also in the services of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese, and occasionally in the services of the Orthodox Church in America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Titlo</span> Early Cyrillic and Glagolitic diacritic

Titlo is an extended diacritic symbol initially used in early Cyrillic and Glagolitic manuscripts, e.g., in Old Church Slavonic and Old East Slavic languages. The word is a borrowing from the Greek τίτλος, "title" and is a cognate of the words tittle and tilde. The titlo still appears in inscriptions on modern icons and in service books printed in Church Slavonic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bulgarian alphabet</span> Writing system of the Bulgarian language

The Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet is used to write the Bulgarian language. The Cyrillic alphabet was originally developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 9th – 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">O (Cyrillic)</span> Cyrillic letter

O is a letter of the Cyrillic script.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ukrainian alphabet</span> Alphabet that uses letters from the Cyrillic script

The Ukrainian alphabet is the set of letters used to write Ukrainian, which is the official language of Ukraine. It is one of several national variations of the Cyrillic script. It comes from the Cyrillic script, which was devised in the 9th century for the first Slavic literary language, called Old Slavonic. In the 10th century, it became used in Kievan Rus' to write Old East Slavic, from which the Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn, and Ukrainian alphabets later evolved. The modern Ukrainian alphabet has 33 letters in total: 21 consonants, 1 semivowel, 10 vowels and 1 palatalization sign. Sometimes the apostrophe (') is also included, which has a phonetic meaning and is a mandatory sign in writing, but is not considered as a letter and is not included in the alphabet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Preslav Literary School</span> Literary school of the First Bulgarian Empire

The Preslav Literary School, also known as the '''Pliska Literary School''' or '''Pliska-Preslav Literary school''' was the first literary school in the medieval First Bulgarian Empire. It was established by Boris I in 886 in Bulgaria's capital, Pliska. In 893, Simeon I moved the seat of the school from the First Bulgarian capital Pliska to the new capital, Veliki Preslav. Preslav was captured and burnt by the Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimisces in 972 in the aftermath of Sviatoslav's invasion of Bulgaria.

Chernorizets Hrabar was a Bulgarian monk, scholar and writer who worked at the Preslav Literary School in the First Bulgarian Empire at the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th century. He is credited as the author of On the Letters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dze</span> Cyrillic letter

Dze is a letter of the Cyrillic script, used in the Macedonian alphabet to represent the voiced alveolar affricate, similar to the pronunciation of ⟨ds⟩ in "needs" or "kids" in English. It is derived from the letter dzelo or zelo of the Early Cyrillic alphabet, and it was used historically for all Slavic languages that use Cyrillic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Izhitsa</span> Cyrillic letter

Izhitsa is a letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet and several later alphabets, usually the last in the row. It originates from the Greek letter upsilon and was used in words and names derived from or via the Greek language, such as кѵрилъ or флаѵии. It represented the sounds or as normal letters и and в, respectively. The Glagolitic alphabet has a corresponding letter with the name izhitsa as well. Also, izhitsa in its standard form or, most often, in a tailed variant was part of a digraph оѵ/оу representing the sound. The digraph is known as Cyrillic "uk", and today's Cyrillic letter u originates from its simplified form.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iotated E</span> Cyrillic letter

Iotated E or Iotated Ukrainian Ye is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It is used in the Church Slavonic language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyrillic numerals</span> Numeral system derived from the Cyrillic script

Cyrillic numerals are a numeral system derived from the Cyrillic script, developed in the First Bulgarian Empire in the late 10th century. It was used in the First Bulgarian Empire and by South and East Slavic peoples. The system was used in Russia as late as the early 18th century, when Peter the Great replaced it with Arabic numerals as part of his civil script reform initiative. Cyrillic numbers played a role in Peter the Great's currency reform plans, too, with silver wire kopecks issued after 1696 and mechanically minted coins issued between 1700 and 1722 inscribed with the date using Cyrillic numerals. By 1725, Russian Imperial coins had transitioned to Arabic numerals. The Cyrillic numerals may still be found in books written in the Church Slavonic language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serbian Cyrillic alphabet</span> Official script of the Serbian language

The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet is a variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language, updated in 1818 by the Serbian philologist and linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two alphabets used to write modern standard Serbian, the other being Gaj's Latin alphabet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyrillic alphabets</span> Related alphabets based on Cyrillic scripts

Numerous Cyrillic alphabets are based on the Cyrillic script. The early Cyrillic alphabet was developed in the 9th century AD and replaced the earlier Glagolitic script developed by the Bulgarian theologians Cyril and Methodius. It is the basis of alphabets used in various languages, past and present, Slavic origin, and non-Slavic languages influenced by Russian. As of 2011, around 252 million people in Eurasia use it as the official alphabet for their national languages. About half of them are in Russia. Cyrillic is one of the most-used writing systems in the world. The creator is Saint Clement of Ohrid from the Preslav literary school in the First Bulgarian Empire.

As the 9th-century missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius undertook their mission to evangelize to the Slavs of Great Moravia, two writing systems were developed: Glagolitic and Cyrillic. Both scripts were based on the Greek alphabet and share commonalities, but the exact nature of relationship between the Glagolitic alphabet and the Early Cyrillic alphabet, their order of development, and influence on each other has been a matter of great study, controversy, and dispute in Slavic studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glagolitic numerals</span> Numeral system from the Glagolitic script

Glagolitic numerals are a numeral system derived from the Glagolitic script, generally agreed to have been created in the 9th century by Saint Cyril. They are similar to Cyrillic numerals, except that numeric values are assigned according to the native alphabetic order of the Glagolitic alphabet. Use of Glagolitic script and numerals declined through the Middle Ages and by the 17th century Glagolitic was used almost only in religious writings. It is unclear if the use of Glagolitic numerals persisted as long as the use of Glagolitic script.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Auty, R. Handbook of Old Church Slavonic, Part II: Texts and Glossary. 1977.
  2. Himelfarb, Elizabeth J. "First Alphabet Found in Egypt", Archaeology 53, Issue 1 (Jan./Feb. 2000): 21.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 Lunt, Horace Gray (2001). Old Church Slavonic Grammar. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN   3-11-016284-9.
  4. 1 2 Cubberley 1994
  5. Dvornik, Francis (1956). The Slavs: Their Early History and Civilization. Boston: American Academy of Arts and Sciences. p.  179. The Psalter and the Book of Prophets were adapted or „modernized" with special regard to their use in Bulgarian churches, and it was in this school that glagolitic writing was replaced by the so-called Cyrillic writing, which was more akin to the Greek uncial, simplified matters considerably and is still used by the Orthodox Slavs.
  6. 1 2 3 Curta, Florin (2006). Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 221–222. ISBN   978-0-521-81539-0.
  7. Hussey, J. M.; Louth, Andrew (2010). The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire. Oxford History of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press. p. 100. ISBN   978-0-19-161488-0.
  8. Провежда се международна конференция в гр. Опака за св. Антоний от Крепчанския манастир. Добротолюбие – Център за християнски, църковно-исторически и богословски изследвания, 15.10.2021.
  9. Steven Runciman, A history of the First Bulgarian Empire, Appendix IX – The Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets, (G. Bell & Sons, London 1930)
  10. Провежда се международна конференция в гр. Опака за св. Антоний от Крепчанския манастир. Добротолюбие – Център за християнски, църковно-исторически и богословски изследвания, 15.10.2021.
  11. Карадаков, Ангел. "Провежда се международна конференция в гр. Опака за св. Антоний от Крепчанския манастир". Добротолюбие (in Bulgarian). Retrieved April 9, 2022.
  12. 1 2 Matthews, W. K. (1952). "The Latinisation of Cyrillic Characters". The Slavonic and East European Review. 30 (75): 531–548. ISSN   0037-6795. JSTOR   4204350.
  13. "Church Slavic (ALA-LC Romanization Tables)" (PDF). The Library of Congress. 2011. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
  14. Памятники Старославянскаго языка / Е. Ѳ. Карскій. — СПб. : Типографія Императорской Академіи наукъ, 1904. — Т. I, с. 14. Репринт
  15. "Simonov" (PDF) (in Russian). Retrieved August 11, 2023.
  16. Berdnikov and Lapko 2003, p. 12

Sources