Introduction

Cyrillic Slavic writing

In Rus', the Slavic alphabet, mainly in the form of the Cyrillic alphabet, appears shortly before the adoption of Christianity. The first records were related to the economic and, perhaps, foreign policy activities of the recently emerged large state. The first books contained a record of Christian liturgical texts.

The literary language of the Slavs has reached us, recorded in handwritten monuments in two alphabets - Glagolitic and Cyrillic. The word "glagolitic" can be translated by the word "little letter" and means the alphabet in general. The term "Cyrillic" may mean "the alphabet invented by Cyril", but the great antiquity of this term has not been proven. Manuscripts from the era of Constantine and Methodius have not reached us. The earliest Glagolitic text is the Kyiv leaves (X century), Cyrillic - an inscription in Preslav in 931.

In terms of letter composition, the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets are almost identical. The Cyrillic alphabet, according to manuscripts from the 11th century, had 43 letters. It was based on the Greek alphabet. For sounds that are the same in Slavic and Greek, Greek letters were used. For sounds unique to the Slavic language, 19 signs of a simple form, convenient for writing, were created, which corresponded to the general graphic style of the Cyrillic alphabet.

The Cyrillic alphabet took into account and correctly conveyed the phonetic composition of the Old Church Slavonic language. However, the Cyrillic alphabet had one major drawback: it included six Greek letters that were not needed to convey Slavic speech.

Cyrillic. Emergence and development

Cyrillic is one of the two ancient Slavic alphabets, which formed the basis of the Russian and some other Slavic alphabets.

Around 863, the brothers Constantine (Cyril) the Philosopher and Methodius from Soluni (Thessaloniki), by order of the Byzantine Emperor Michael III, streamlined the writing system for the Slavic language and used the new alphabet to translate Greek religious texts into the Slavic language. For a long time, the question remained debatable whether it was the Cyrillic alphabet (and in this case, Glagolitic is considered a secret script that appeared after the ban on the Cyrillic alphabet) or Glagolitic - alphabets that differ almost exclusively in style. Currently, the prevailing point of view in science is that the Glagolitic alphabet is primary, and the Cyrillic alphabet is secondary (in the Cyrillic alphabet, Glagolitic letters are replaced by well-known Greek ones). The Glagolitic alphabet was used by the Croats for a long time in a slightly modified form (until the 17th century).

The appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet, based on the Greek statutory (solemn) letter - uncial, is associated with the activities of the Bulgarian school of scribes (after Cyril and Methodius). In particular, in the life of St. Clement of Ohrid directly writes about his creation of Slavic writing after Cyril and Methodius. Thanks to the previous activities of the brothers, the alphabet became widespread in the South Slavic lands, which led in 885 to the prohibition of its use in church services by the Pope, who was struggling with the results of the mission of Constantine-Cyril and Methodius.

In Bulgaria, the holy king Boris converted to Christianity in 860. Bulgaria becomes the center of the spread of Slavic writing. Here the first Slavic book school was created - the Preslav Book School - the Cyril and Methodius originals of liturgical books (Gospel, Psalter, Apostle, church services) were copied, new Slavic translations from Greek were made, original works appeared in the Old Slavonic language ("On the writings of Chrnoritsa Brave").

The widespread spread of Slavic writing, its “golden age,” dates back to the reign of Tsar Simeon the Great (893-927), the son of Tsar Boris, in Bulgaria. Later, the Old Church Slavonic language penetrates Serbia, and at the end of the 10th century it becomes the language of the church in Kievan Rus.

The Old Church Slavonic language, being the language of the church in Rus', was influenced by the Old Russian language. It was the Old Slavonic language of the Russian edition, as it included elements of living East Slavic speech.

Initially, the Cyrillic alphabet was used by some of the southern Slavs, the eastern Slavs, and also the Romanians; Over time, their alphabets diverged somewhat from each other, although the style of letters and the principles of spelling remained (with the exception of the Western Serbian version, the so-called bosančica) generally the same.

The composition of the original Cyrillic alphabet is unknown to us; The “classical” Old Church Slavonic Cyrillic alphabet of 43 letters probably partly contains later letters (ы, оу, iotized). The Cyrillic alphabet entirely includes the Greek alphabet (24 letters), but some purely Greek letters (xi, psi, fita, izhitsa) are not in their original place, but are moved to the end. To these were added 19 letters to represent sounds specific to the Slavic language and absent in Greek. Before the reform of Peter I, there were no lowercase letters in the Cyrillic alphabet; all text was written in capitals. Some letters of the Cyrillic alphabet, absent in the Greek alphabet, are close in outline to Glagolitic ones. Ts and Sh are externally similar to some letters of a number of alphabets of that time (Aramaic letter, Ethiopic letter, Coptic letter, Hebrew letter, Brahmi) and it is not possible to unambiguously establish the source of the borrowing. B is similar in outline to V, Shch to Sh. The principles of creating digraphs in the Cyrillic alphabet (И from ЪІ, УУ, iotized letters) generally follow the Glagolitic ones.

Cyrillic letters are used to write numbers exactly according to the Greek system. Instead of a pair of completely archaic signs - sampia stigma - which are not even included in the classical 24-letter Greek alphabet, other Slavic letters are adapted - C (900) and S (6); subsequently, the third such sign, koppa, originally used in the Cyrillic alphabet to denote 90, was replaced by the letter Ch. Some letters that are not in the Greek alphabet (for example, B, Zh) do not have a numerical value. This distinguishes the Cyrillic alphabet from the Glagolitic alphabet, where the numerical values ​​did not correspond to the Greek ones and these letters were not skipped.

The letters of the Cyrillic alphabet have their own names, based on various common Slavic names that begin with them, or directly taken from Greek (xi, psi); The etymology of some names is controversial. Judging by the ancient abecedarii, the letters of the Glagolitic alphabet were also called the same way. [Application]

In 1708--1711. Peter I undertook a reform of Russian writing, eliminating superscripts, abolishing several letters and legitimizing another (closer to the Latin fonts of that time) style of the remaining ones - the so-called civil font. Lowercase versions of each letter were introduced; before that, all letters of the alphabet were capitalized. Soon the Serbs switched to the civilian script (with appropriate changes), and later the Bulgarians; Romanians, in the 1860s, abandoned the Cyrillic alphabet in favor of Latin writing (interestingly, at one time they used a “transitional” alphabet, which was a mixture of Latin and Cyrillic letters). We still use a civil font with minimal changes in style (the largest is the replacement of the m-shaped letter “t” with its current form).

Over three centuries, the Russian alphabet has undergone a number of reforms. The number of letters generally decreased, with the exception of the letters “e” and “y” (used earlier, but legalized in the 18th century) and the only “author’s” letter - “e”, proposed by Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova. The last major reform of Russian writing was carried out in 1917-1918, as a result of which the modern Russian alphabet, consisting of 33 letters, appeared.

At the moment, the Cyrillic alphabet is used as the official alphabet in the following countries: Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, Montenegro, Abkhazia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Transnistria, Tajikistan, South Ossetia. The Cyrillic alphabet of non-Slavic languages ​​was replaced by the Latin alphabet in the 1990s, but is still used unofficially as a second alphabet in the following states: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.

Here's the version. Objections are accepted.

The full version of the infographic is below the cut, as well as the answer to the question posed in the title:

Here's a little more detail on the topic:

On May 24, Russia and a number of other countries celebrated the Day of Slavic Literature and Culture. Remembering the enlightenment brothers Cyril and Methodius, they often stated that it is thanks to them that we have the Cyrillic alphabet.

As a typical example, here is a quote from one newspaper article:

Equal to the Apostles Cyril and Methodius brought writing to the Slavic land and created the first Slavic alphabet (Cyrillic alphabet), which we use to this day.

By the way, on icons of Saints Cyril and Methodius they are always depicted with scrolls in their hands. On the scrolls are the well-known Cyrillic letters - az, beeches, vedi...

Here we are dealing with a long-standing and widespread misconception, says senior researcher at the Institute of Russian Language named after V.V. Vinogradova Irina Levontina: “Indeed, everyone knows that we owe our letter to Cyril and Methodius. However, as often happens, everything is not quite like that. Cyril and Methodius are wonderful monastic brothers. It is often written that they translated liturgical books from Greek into Church Slavonic. This is incorrect because there was nothing to translate into, they created this language. Sometimes they say that they translated into South Slavic dialects. That's funny. Try to come to some village where there is such a completely unwritten dialect, there is no television, and translating not even the Gospel, but a physics or history textbook into this dialect - nothing will work. They practically created this language. And what we call the Cyrillic alphabet was not invented by Kirill. Kirill came up with another alphabet, which was called “Glagolitic”. It was very interesting, unlike anything else: it consisted of circles, triangles, and crosses. Later, the Glagolitic alphabet was replaced by another letter: what we now call the Cyrillic alphabet - it was created on the basis of the Greek alphabet.”

“The debate about which alphabet is primary, Cyrillic or Glagolitic, is almost 200 years old. Currently, the opinions of historians boil down to the fact that the Glagolitic alphabet is primary, it was St. Cyril who created it. But there are many opponents to this point of view.” There are four main hypotheses about the origin of these Slavic alphabets.

The first hypothesis says that the Glagolitic alphabet is older than the Cyrillic alphabet, and arose even before Cyril and Methodius. “This is the oldest Slavic alphabet, it is unknown when and by whom it was created. The Cyrillic alphabet, familiar to us all, was created by Saint Cyril, then still Constantine the Philosopher, only in 863,” he said. – The second hypothesis states that the oldest is the Cyrillic alphabet. It arose long before the start of the educational mission among the Slavs, as a letter developing historically on the basis of the Greek alphabet, and in 863 Saint Cyril created the Glagolitic alphabet. The third hypothesis suggests that the Glagolitic alphabet is a secret script. Before the start of the Slavic mission, the Slavs did not have any alphabet, at least a working one. In 863, Cyril, then still Constantine, nicknamed the Philosopher, created the future Cyrillic alphabet in Constantinople, and went with his brother to preach the Gospel in the Slavic country of Moravia. Then, after the death of the brothers, during the era of persecution of Slavic culture, worship and writing in Moravia, from the 90s of the 9th century, under Pope Stephen V, the followers of Cyril and Methodius were forced to go underground, and for this purpose they came up with the Glagolitic alphabet, as encrypted reproduction of Cyrillic alphabet. And finally, the fourth hypothesis expresses the idea directly opposite to the third hypothesis that in 863 Cyril in Constantinople created the Glagolitic alphabet, and then, during the era of persecution, when the Slavic followers of the brothers were forced to flee from Moravia and move to Bulgaria, it is not known exactly by whom, Perhaps their students created the Cyrillic alphabet, based on the more complex Glagolitic alphabet. That is, the Glagolitic alphabet was simplified and adapted to the familiar graphics of the Greek alphabet.”

According to Vladimir Mikhailovich, the widespread use of the Cyrillic alphabet has the simplest explanation. The countries in which the Cyrillic alphabet was established were in the sphere of influence of Byzantium. And she used the Greek alphabet, with which the Cyrillic alphabet is seventy percent similar. All letters of the Greek alphabet are included in the Cyrillic alphabet. However, the Glagolitic alphabet did not disappear. “It remained in use literally until the Second World War,” said Vladimir Mikhailovich. – Before the Second World War, Croatian newspapers were published in Glagolitic in Italy, where Croats lived. The Dolmatian Croats were the guardians of the Glagolitic tradition, apparently striving for cultural and national revival.”

The basis for the Glagolitic script is a subject of great scientific debate. “The origins of its writing are seen in the Syriac script and Greek cursive. There are a lot of versions, but they are all hypothetical, since there is no exact analogue, says Vladimir Mikhailovich. “It’s still obvious that the Glagolitic font is of artificial origin. This is evidenced by the order of letters in the alphabet. The letters stood for numbers. In the Glagolitic alphabet everything is strictly systematic: the first nine letters meant units, the next - tens, the next - hundreds.

So who invented the Glagolitic alphabet? That part of the scientists who talk about its primacy believe that it was invented by St. Cyril, a learned man, librarian at the Church of St. Sophia in Constantinople, and the Cyrillic alphabet was created later, and with its help, after the blessed death of St. Cyril, the work of enlightening the Slavic peoples continued by Cyril’s brother Methodius, who became Bishop of Moravia.

It is also interesting to compare the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabet by letter style. In both the first and second cases, the symbolism is very reminiscent of Greek, but the Glagolitic alphabet still has features characteristic only of the Slavic alphabet. Take, for example, the letter “az”. In the Glagolitic alphabet it resembles a cross, and in the Cyrillic alphabet it completely borrows the Greek letter. But this is not the most interesting thing in the Old Slavonic alphabet. After all, it is in the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabet that each letter represents a separate word, filled with the deep philosophical meaning that our ancestors put into it.

Although today letter-words have disappeared from our everyday life, they still continue to live in Russian proverbs and sayings. For example, the expression “start from the beginning” means nothing more than “start from the very beginning.” Although in fact the letter “az” means “I”.

>And here’s another interesting and, for example, hint The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -

If you ask foreigners what causes them the most difficulties when learning the Russian language, many will answer – the Cyrillic alphabet. And indeed, it is very different from the Latin alphabet familiar to many. Why did this happen, what is the history of the Cyrillic alphabet and the modern Russian alphabet - we will answer these questions in this article.

Many questions related to the emergence of the Cyrillic alphabet still remain open, and the scientific community cannot come to a consensus. Therefore, we will describe here the most common version among scientists.

In the second half of the 9th century, Byzantium (Eastern Roman Empire) included a fairly large number of Slavic population. This prompted Emperor Michael III to create a new alphabet for the Old Church Slavonic language in order to translate Greek religious texts into it. He entrusted this task to the brothers Cyril and Methodius. Subsequently, the new alphabet was named after one of them. But, most likely, Cyril initially invented the so-called Glagolitic alphabet - an alphabet that differed in the writing of letters from the Cyrillic alphabet, which was later invented by one of his students.

At the end of the 10th century, Cyrillic became the church language of Kievan Rus, began to spread throughout all Russian lands and became the main type of writing. At that time, the Cyrillic alphabet consisted of letters of the Greek alphabet and some additional ones, which were intended for Slavic sounds that were absent in the Greek language.

Since the appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet on Russian lands, it has not undergone any fundamental changes for quite a long time. The first major update of the alphabet took place at the beginning of the 18th century, when Peter I undertook a writing reform. The Emperor decides to get rid of some letters and introduces a new way of writing - the civil script. It is since then that lowercase variants of letters have appeared in the Russian language (previously, all text was written in capitals). The new spelling is intended for secular texts: textbooks, periodicals, military, educational and fiction. The use of the old version of the letter was limited to spiritual literature. It is still used in the church today.

The introduction of a civil font made it possible to bring the appearance of Russian books closer to European ones. This was able to facilitate the publication of new books on printing presses from Western Europe. The first book printed in civil type was a textbook on geometry, published in 1708.

Also, starting with the reforms of Peter I, Arabic numerals began to be used in Russia. Before this, letters from the Cyrillic alphabet were used instead.

The next major reform took place only at the beginning of the 20th century, in 1917-1918, although preparations for it began much earlier. After it, the Russian alphabet got rid of unnecessary letters and acquired its current form.

What other languages ​​use the Cyrillic alphabet?

In the 20th century, based on the Cyrillic alphabet, linguists created a written language for many small nations living on the territory of the USSR, so more than a dozen languages ​​use the Cyrillic alphabet. It is used as the official alphabet in many Slavic and non-Slavic countries. For example, in Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kazakhstan and some others.

If you have any questions while reading, ask them in the comments, we will be happy to answer!

Every year on May 24, when the Day of Slavic Literature is celebrated, someone is sure to utter stupidity similar to what was heard on Tuesday in the Vesti program of Russian television:

“Today we honor the memory of Saints Methodius and Cyril, who more than 11 centuries ago created a new alphabet, our native Cyrillic alphabet, in which we still read and write.”

Well, the Slavic enlighteners Cyril and Methodius did not create the “native Cyrillic alphabet”! Through the efforts of the eldest of the brothers, the Glagolitic alphabet arose. The author of a large number of scientific works on the history of the Russian language talks about this alphabet, which has long since become dead. Victor Zhivov:

– The Glagolitic alphabet is not used now, but it served for many centuries and played a decisive role in the development of Slavic writing. Kirill's merit is that he invented a new alphabet for the Slavic language. The Cyrillic alphabet, which apparently arose later, was simply a translation of the Glagolitic alphabet into another script. But the very structure of the Slavic alphabet was created by Kirill.

- What does this mean - he isolated some pieces of words from oral speech, that is, sounds, phonemes, and reflected them in letters? Or something else?

– Generally speaking, the alphabet created by Kirill is phonological. It almost unambiguously corresponds to the composition of phonemes of the Slavic dialect on which the language used by Cyril and Methodius was based. This is the Old Church Slavonic language. It is based on the Macedonian dialect of the Slavic language.

– You said that the Glagolitic alphabet existed for several centuries. Specify what centuries these are?

– The Glagolitic alphabet was created by Kirill. Therefore, this happened in the middle of the 9th century. It was used by the Western Slavs - Czechs, Moravans, apparently in the 10th century and in the 11th century. It was used by the Croats from the 11th century onwards until at least the 17th century. She returned to Bohemia at some point in the 14th century. The Glagolitic alphabet was also known in Rus'. Monuments that have some kind of Glagolitic inscriptions made by Russians have survived to this day.

– But these are just inscriptions: in churches, on icons, on some objects, but not books at all.

- No, not books.

– And, as far as I remember, in Rus' the Glagolitic alphabet did not exist as long as in the countries you named.

- Yes, sure. In Rus' it was such an exotic thing. It was used for special purposes, for example, for secret writing.

– When did the Cyrillic alphabet appear?

- Yes. In Rus' there was already a Cyrillic alphabet. When Rus' received literacy along with baptism (this was the end of the 10th century, as we know), by that time the Cyrillic alphabet had already existed for 100 years.

– What do Glagolitic letters look like? We know well that the Cyrillic alphabet is very similar to the Greek alphabet. What was the basis for Glagolitic graphics?

- It's a difficult question. There, for some letters you can find analogues, say, in Greek cursive, in Greek minuscule. For some letters you can try to look for other analogues. But, generally speaking, this is an artificial creation. It's very noticeable. The first letter "Az" is a cross.

There are a number of symmetrical letters that form symmetrical shapes, such as "I" and "C". These are the letters that abbreviate the name Jesus.

– There are also intertwined circles and squares.

– Yes, but there are a lot of them, everywhere. Be that as it may, this is an artificial font, artificial graphics.

– When they say that the Cyrillic alphabet arose on the basis of the Glagolitic alphabet, how should this be understood?

– As you correctly noted, the forms of the Greek manusculum were mainly transferred to the Cyrillic alphabet. They are supplemented by a number of missing letters, because the Greeks did not have letters for such sounds as, for example, Ш or Ш. These letters were taken from the Glagolitic alphabet.

– So this is the spontaneous birth of writing?

– Spontaneous, spontaneous, but not quite. Because at first there was a natural development, and then on this basis an alphabet was created, supplemented by a number of letters that the Greeks did not have. Books began to be written using this alphabet. And this, without a doubt, is the birth of a new graphics system.

– And from Bulgaria this system already came to Ancient Rus' - along with church books?

– Yes, although Bulgaria was not the only source of church books for the Russians.

– I think it makes sense to clarify: the Russian alphabet is named Cyrillic in memory of Kirill, and not because he is its author.

- Yes, sure. And, by the way, Cyrillic is not an old name. True, there is a mention somewhere (we won’t go into details in which of the monuments) - “Cyrillic alphabet”. But there, by “Cyrillic” we mean Glagolitic! The Cyrillic alphabet in the current meaning of the word appears only in the 19th century.

– So it’s quite late by language standards?

– Yes, it is later and it is, so to speak, learned. In the 19th century there was increased interest in Slavic antiquities. Of course, for the Slavic national movement, Cyril and Methodius were extremely important figures.

Glagolitic and Cyrillic- ancient Slavic alphabet. The origin of the Glagolitic alphabet remains a matter of debate. Attempts to bring the Glagolitic alphabet closer to Greek cursive (minuscule writing), Hebrew, Coptic and other writing systems did not yield results. Glagolitic, like the Armenian and Georgian script, is an alphabet that is not based on any known writing system.

The Cyrillic alphabet is based on the Byzantine charter letter. To convey sounds that were absent in the Greek language, letters borrowed from other sources were used

The Cyrillic alphabet is used by those of the Slavic peoples who professed Orthodoxy. Writing based on the Cyrillic alphabet is used by Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Serbs, Bulgarians, and Macedonians. In the 19th–20th centuries. missionaries and linguists based on the Cyrillic alphabet created writing systems for the peoples living on the territory of Russia.

The Old Church Slavonic language, being the language of the church in Rus', was influenced by the Old Russian language. It was the Old Slavonic language of the Russian edition, as it included elements of living East Slavic speech. Thus, the Russian alphabet originated from the Old Russian Cyrillic alphabet, which was borrowed from the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet and became widespread in Kievan Rus after the adoption of Christianity (988).

At that time, it apparently had 43 letters. Later, 4 new letters were added, and 14 old ones were excluded at different times as unnecessary, since the corresponding sounds disappeared. The first to disappear was the iotized yus, then the large yus, which returned in the 15th century, but disappeared again at the beginning of the 17th century, and the iotized E; the remaining letters, sometimes slightly changing their meaning and form, have survived to this day as part of the alphabet of the Church Slavonic language, which for a long time was mistakenly considered identical with the Russian alphabet. Spelling reforms of the second half of the 17th century (related to the correction of books under Patriarch Nikon) fixed the following set of letters: A, B, C, D, D, E (with a spelling different variant Є, which was sometimes considered a separate letter and placed in the alphabet in place of the current E, that is, after) , Ж, Ѕ, З, И (with an orthographically different variant И for the sound [j], which was not considered a separate letter), І, К, Л, М, Н, О (in two orthographically different styles : narrow and wide), P, R, S, T, U (in two orthographically different styles: F, X, (in two orthographically different styles: narrow and wide, as well as as part of a ligature from, usually considered a separate letter), Ts, Ch, Sh, Shch, Ъ, И, ь, У, Я (in two styles: IA, which were sometimes considered different letters, sometimes not). Sometimes the alphabet (Russian Alphabet) also included a large yus and the so-called ik , although they had no sound meaning and were not used in any word.

The Russian alphabet (Russian alphabet) remained in this form until the reforms of Peter I in 1708. (and Church Slavonic is still the same today), when superscripts were eliminated (which incidentally abolished the letter Y) and many doublet letters and letters used to write numbers were abolished (which became irrelevant after the transition to Arabic numerals)

Subsequently, some abolished letters of the Russian alphabet were restored and abolished again. By 1917, the Russian alphabet came in a 35-letter (officially; in fact there were 37 letters) composition: A, B, C, D, D, E, (Ё was not considered a separate letter), Zh, Z, I, (Ё was not considered a separate letter not counted) І, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, F, X, C, Ch, Sh, Shch, b, S, b, E, Yu, Z. (The last letter of the Russian alphabet was formally listed in the Russian alphabet, but de facto its use came to almost nothing, and it was found in only a few words).

The last major reform of the Russian alphabet was carried out in 1917 - 1918. as a result, the current Russian alphabet appeared, consisting of 33 letters. This Russian alphabet also became the written basis for most languages ​​of the USSR, for which writing was absent before the 20th century or was replaced during the years of Soviet power.