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The preaching of the Gospel to the Slavs in their native language began with the creation by St. Cyril of the first Slavic alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet. But Cyrillic is not the only ancient Slavic alphabet. On the origin of another alphabet, Glagolitic, disputes do not subside.
The spread of the gospel teaching among the Slavic peoples is associated with the names of two remarkable Greeks, the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, whose memory the Orthodox Church celebrates today. The creation of the first Slavic alphabet, "Cyrillic" is associated with the name of one of them - with St. Cyril, in the world Constantine. But there is another ancient Slavic alphabet - Glagolitic.
We were told about various hypotheses of its origin by Professor, Head of the Department of Philology of the Moscow Theological Academy, Doctor of Philology, Leading Researcher of the Department of Ancient Slavic Literature of the Institute of World Literature A.M. Gorky RAS, Vladimir Mikhailovich Kirillin.
“The debate about which alphabet is primary, Cyrillic or Glagolitic is almost 200 years old,” says Vladimir Mikhailovich. adversaries." There are four main hypotheses for the origin of these Slavic alphabets.
The first hypothesis suggests 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 not known when and by whom it was created. The Cyrillic alphabet, familiar to all of us, was created by St. Cyril, then Constantine the Philosopher, only in 863,” he said. “The second hypothesis claims that the Cyrillic alphabet is the oldest. It arose long before the start of the educational mission among the Slavs, as a script developing historically on the basis of the Greek alphabet, and in 863 St. Cyril already created the Glagolitic alphabet.The third hypothesis suggests that the Glagolitic alphabet is a secret script.Before the beginning of the Slavic mission, there was no alphabet, at least serviceable, among the Slavs In 863, Cyril, then 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, in the era of persecution of Slavic culture, worship and writing in Moravia , since the 90s of the IX 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 an encrypted reproduction of the Cyrillic alphabet. And, finally, the fourth hypothesis expresses the idea, which is directly opposite to the third hypothesis, that in 863 Cyril created the Glagolitic alphabet in Constantinople, and then, in the era of persecution, when the Slavic followers of the brothers were forced to scatter from Moravia and move to Bulgaria, it is not known exactly by whom, maybe their students created the Cyrillic alphabet, based on a more complex Glagolitic alphabet. That is, the Glagolitic alphabet was simplified and adapted to the usual graphics of the Greek alphabet.
The widespread use of the Cyrillic alphabet, according to Vladimir Mikhailovich, has the simplest explanation. The countries in which the Cyrillic alphabet was entrenched 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 became part of the Cyrillic alphabet. However, the Glagolitic alphabet has not disappeared. “It remained in use literally until the Second World War,” said Vladimir Mikhailovich. “Before the Second World War, in Italy, where the Croats lived, Croatian newspapers were published in the Glagolitic script. The Dolmatian Croats were the guardians of the Glagolitic tradition, apparently striving for cultural and national revival.”
The basis for the Glagolitic script is the subject of much scholarly controversy. “The origins of its writing are seen both in Syriac writing and Greek cursive writing. There are a lot of versions, but they are all hypothetical, since there is no exact analogue,” says Vladimir Mikhailovich. “It is still obvious that the Glagolitic font is of artificial origin. This is evidenced by the order of the letters in the alphabet. Letters meant numbers. In the Glagolitic, everything is strictly systematic: the first nine letters meant units, the next - tens, the next - hundreds.
So who invented the verb? Those scientists who speak of its primacy believe that it was invented by St. Cyril, a learned man, a 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 enlightenment of the Slavic peoples continued the brother of Cyril Methodius, who became the bishop of Moravia.
Despite scientific disputes over the time of origin of the two Slavic alphabets, it is important for us to understand and remember that thanks to the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, such books necessary for worship as the Gospel, the Apostle, the Psalter were translated into the Slavic language.
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Everyone knows how words are formed today: a ready-made word is taken, a ready-made suffix or prefix with a certain meaning is added to it - and we have something new: ecstasy - a basin that was in use. It is clear that the formation of words takes place on the basis of already developed concepts: ancient words “acquire” suffixes and prefixes, changing their meaning. But it is also clear that the very first words were formed differently.
Each letter carries a concept. For example, the letter "A" is associated with the beginning - the main, starting point of our physical and spiritual actions. The categories of energy correspond to the letters "E", "E", "I", and the first two have a shade of cosmic energy, and the letter "I" tends to more "earthly" forms of its manifestation. In the sounds and letters of the alphabet lies the original meaning of everything. And the very first words were formed in accordance with this original meaning.
That is why the alphabet can be safely considered the first code, and applicable to any language - modern or ancient. Why does the word start with two "a"s? Do you feel something in common between the words layer, stroke, flatten, palm, plateau? Or, for example, remember the word yell, meaning to plow, cultivate the land. Among the Sumerians, Ur-Ru meant to plow; in Hebrew horeysh is a plowman, in Lithuanian and Latvian arti is to plow; in Latvian to plow is aro; in Old High German art - a plowed field, and in Hindi, harvaha - a plowman. Modern English Earth is related to Old Norse ertha, Old High German erda, modern German Erde; aro is Latin for plow, which is related to the English and French arable - arable. After all these examples, it is quite clear that Aryan means first of all a farmer, and not what we usually think.
We often cannot accurately determine the “fine” structure of the meanings of words - since we do not set such a task for ourselves - but we can always feel it. And - thanks to the creators of alphabets - to see on the letter. They managed to isolate the smallest particles of meaning - sounds from the flow of information that brings down reality on us and stop them, leave them on parchment, paper, metal or wood. Yes, it's about letters. The invention of the real alphabet can be considered the biggest cultural revolution in human history.
The ancients were much more aware of the importance of the alphabet than we are. They perceived it as something whole, as a model of the world, the macrocosm - that is why on vases, urns, medallions from ancient burials we find complete records of various alphabets that played the role of a propitiatory sacrifice. At the same time, naturally, if the alphabet as a whole was a model of the world, then its individual signs were considered as elements of the world.
We do not know the ancient "proper name" of the alphabet, perhaps it was tabooed. All alphabets are called by their first letters: Latin ABCD-arium (or abecedarium), Church Slavonic alphabet, Russian alphabet, Greek alphabet, German Abc.
Historians cannot give an exact answer to the question of when society became ready for the appearance of a real alphabet. Wars, fires, wrong dating and established stereotypes are too many obstacles to find out how everything really was. The art of writing is described in the Mahabharata, and, based on these data, it appeared long before the writing of the Sumerians and at least two thousand years before the Phoenician alphabet. There are more questions than answers in this area of knowledge. But for now we will not look into the depths of millennia - even with regard to the relatively young Cyrillic alphabet, there is a lot of obscurity.
History of Slavic writing.
Since the Slavs settled quite widely - from the Elbe to the Don, from the northern Dvina to the Peloponnese - it is not at all surprising that their groups of alphabets had many variants. But if you "look at the root", then these groups that succeeded each other can be distinguished three - runes, Glagolitic and Cyrillic.
Slavic runes.
At the end of the 17th century, about fifty figurines and ritual objects of ancient Slavic deities with runic inscriptions were found in the village of Prilwitz, among which the inscriptions Retra and Radegast were most often found. Scientists have come to the conclusion that the collection of these items belonged to the temple of Radegast from the city of Retra. The German Andreas Gottlieb Masch acquired this collection and in 1771 published a catalog of items with engravings in Germany. Shortly after publication, the collection disappeared. At the end of the 19th century, three stones (Mikorzhinsky stones) were found in the Poznań Voivodeship in Poland with inscriptions carved on them in the same alphabet as on Retrin objects.
Slavic runes in Scandinavian sources are called "Venda Runis" - "Vendian runes". We know practically nothing about them, except for the very fact of their existence. Runes were used for brief inscriptions on gravestones, boundary markers, weapons, jewelry, and coins. Cult figurines with runic inscriptions are scattered around the museums of different countries, and there they mostly remain undeciphered.
Runic writing was the first, preliminary stage in the development of writing, when there was no particular need for it: messengers were sent with news, they all lived together, knowledge was kept by the elders and priests, and songs and legends were passed from mouth to mouth. Runes were used for short messages: indicating the road, a border post, a sign of property, etc. The real writing among the Slavs appeared along with the Glagolitic alphabet.
Glagolitic and Cyrillic.
Regarding the invention of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets, scientists have an established opinion - something like this. The appearance of these alphabets is associated with the adoption of Christianity by the Slavs. The brothers Cyril (in the world - Constantine the Philosopher) and Methodius invented the Glagolitic alphabet on behalf of the Byzantine Empire on the basis of some rudiments of Slavic writing in order to translate liturgical books into this alphabet and pave the way for the adoption of Christianity by the Slavs. A little later, 20-30 years later, the Cyrillic alphabet was invented, which was more convenient than the Glagolitic, and therefore it rather quickly replaced the latter. Although the Cyrillic alphabet is named after the monastic name of Constantine the Philosopher, it was not invented by him himself, but, apparently, by one of his students. Thus, Slavic writing appeared no earlier than 863, and all written monuments dating back to the 860s were swept aside by science as false and impossible.
This statement in itself is surprising. Indeed, at the very least, it is strange to assume that a normal people did not have normal writing at a time when everyone around already had it. And the very formulation of the question of the "invention" of the alphabet at a certain point in time is extremely doubtful. The need for writing among the Slavs appeared centuries earlier. Knowing about the existence of runic, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and other writing, the Slavs probably either adapted other people's alphabets for their needs, or gradually developed their own. The Slavic pagan epic mentions that Svarog, the god of heaven, carved laws for people on a stone called Alatyr - that is, the population should already be able to read and, therefore, write. So what is the merit of Constantine the Philosopher?
Konstantin Filosov, aka Cyril, brother of Methodius.
Constantine the Philosopher was a man of an extraordinary mind, strong character and high education, and Constantinople, using these qualities of his, often entrusted him with various diplomatic tasks. During the years of Constantine's life, the situation in Byzantium cannot be called calm: not only did discontent rise within the country, it also experienced a significant threat from the growing power of the Slavic tribes. All together, this called into question the existence of the Byzantine Empire itself.
The only salvation for her could only be the conversion of these pagans to Christianity. Byzantium made several unsuccessful attempts, but the idea did not take hold of the masses. And then in Constantinople it was quite reasonably decided that it would be more successful to present Christianity to the Slavs in their native language. In 860, Constantine the Philosopher was sent to Chersonese to translate liturgical books - the Crimea at that time was a crossroads, where communication between Russia and the Byzantine Empire usually took place. Constantine was supposed to study the Slavic alphabet, translate Christian prayer books with its help, and generally prepare the ground for the Christianization of all of Rus'.
Constantine spent four years in the Crimea, and then was sent along with his brother Methodius to the Moravian ruler Rostislav, to whom, according to the annals, he brought prayer books written in Glagolitic. Perhaps, on this basis, it was concluded that the Glagolitic alphabet became the invention of Constantine on the coastal shores of Chersonese.
However, as the “Life of Constantine” testifies, in 858, while in Chersonese, he found the Gospel and the Psalter there, written in Russian letters, and also met a man who spoke Russian, was able to somehow explain himself to him, and then quite quickly learned to read and speak the language. Constantine learned to read so quickly that it seemed to his Greek companions that a great miracle had happened. In fact, even though the writing was alien, unfamiliar - judging by the fact that Konstantin still had to learn to read, the Old Russian language turned out to be quite close to the language of the Macedonian Slavs, which was Konstantin the Philosopher.
It turns out that more than a hundred years before the official baptism of Rus', the Slavs already had translations of church books into the Slavic language and their own developed writing system, different from Greek. What was this writing? And what does Konstantin have to do with it?
It must have been a verb. And certainly the letter at that time was already quite developed - in any case, not the beginnings. The assertion that Slavic writing appeared only together with Christianity is not true. The Chernorizet Khrabr (Bulgaria, late 9th century) writes in his “Tale of the Slavic Writings” that the Slavs have long read and written, using special “features and cuts” for this.
Konstantin did not get acquainted with the beginnings of Slavic writing, but with a developed letter - probably unsystematized, so he had not so much to invent a new alphabet, but to reform an existing one. What was this Slavic alphabet like?
Glagolitic.
There are also enough ambiguities in the history of the origin of the Glagolitic alphabet. As a Slavic alphabet, it appeared at least in the 4th century. The Glagolitic alphabet was born on the Balkan Peninsula, where it still exists in a dying form. The Glagolitic alphabet among the Western Slavs (Czechs, Poles, etc.) did not last long and was replaced by the Latin script, while the rest of the Slavs switched to the Cyrillic alphabet. But the Glagolitic alphabet was used until the beginning of the Second World War in some settlements in Italy, where newspapers were even printed in this font.
Its invention, or at least its introduction into use, is associated with Bishop Ulfila, a primate among the so-called small Goths who lived on the Balkan Peninsula. In fact, these were the Getae, who fell victim to consonance with the Goths, but "small ones" were added to their name to distinguish them. Thucydides also mentioned the Getae, and their history goes back to the Trojan War. The Getae in antiquity had a high culture - the Greeks themselves declared that the Getae were almost no different from the Greeks. It is very likely that the Slavs were hiding under the part of the Getae, and the sacred books of the Christians were translated by them long before Cyril.
It is not known whether Bishop Ulfilas invented the Glagolitic alphabet himself or improved the Getic runes in this way. But it can be argued that the Glagolitic alphabet is at least five centuries older than the Cyrillic alphabet. Knowing this, many historical documents can be overestimated, because they were dated based on the fact that the Glagolitic alphabet was created only in the 9th century, although the Slavs had their own written language by the end of the 4th century. There are few traces of it left, and this heritage is little studied and not appreciated, since it does not fit into the picture of the invention of Slavic writing by Cyril and Methodius.
What are the most characteristic features of this mysterious alphabet?
The Glagolitic alphabet lacks the Greek letters "xi" and "psi", which are found in the Cyrillic alphabet. The author of the Glagolitic alphabet was more independent of the Greek alphabet than Cyril, and decided that there was no point in introducing a third letter to combine sounds that already had their own designations. In the Glagolitic alphabet, there are two letters for hard and soft "g", which is more in line with the phonetics of Slavic speech. In the Glagolitic there are two different letters for the sounds "dz" and "z". In Cyrillic, initially there was only the letter "z", but later the Cyrillic alphabet was improved to the degree of the Glagolitic alphabet and the diphthong "dz" began to be transmitted by the crossed out letter "z".
It turns out that if the original was written in the Glagolitic alphabet, and rewritten in Cyrillic, then the scribe, mechanically repeating the letters of the original, actually changed the date - often for decades. This explains some discrepancy in dates. The verb graphics are very intricate and evoke associations with Armenian or Georgian writing. According to the shape of the letters, two types of Glagolitic can be noted: round Bulgarian and Croatian (Illyrian, Dalmatian) - more angular.
As we can see, the Glagolitic alphabet differs significantly from the Greek script used in Byzantium. This is another argument against its invention by Constantine. Of course, it can be assumed that Konstantin created a new script from scratch, which was so radically different from what he was used to. But then the question needs to be answered: where did he get these styles, this design principle, because he had time to spare - Byzantium sent Constantine on a rather urgent mission.
It also raises doubts that the “Cyrillic script” was created later in Constantinople by one of the followers of Cyril, and it adapted the Greek alphabet to the needs of the Slavic languages. The Cyrillic alphabet was a very subtle adaptation - it generally retained the internal Glagolitic system, however, the Glagolitic letters were replaced by new Greek ones, and additional letters to denote special Slavic sounds were stylized as Greek. Thus, this letter was Greek in its graphics, and native Slavic in its phonetics. The unknown follower of Constantine must have been a solid scholar. It is hard to imagine that he kept silent about his role and allowed to call his offspring by someone else's name.
Moreover, when the Cyrillic alphabet, which belonged to some unknown creator, began to displace the Glagolitic, the students and admirers of Cyril and Methodius could not but react to this, because the transition from the Glagolitic to Cyrillic actually nullified all the work of the brothers. Imagine: translating liturgical books for years, using them for at least 20 years - and suddenly drop everything and start rewriting all the literature in Cyrillic? Such a revolution was to cause a struggle between the supporters of the innovation and its opponents. The transition to a new font was impossible without convening a special church council, without disputes, differences of opinion, but there is not a word about this in history. Not a single church book written using the Glagolitic alphabet has survived either.
From all this, the conclusion suggests itself that Constantine the Philosopher invented not the Glagolitic alphabet, but the Cyrillic alphabet. And most likely, he did not even invent, but reformed the already existing alphabet. Even before Cyril, the Slavs used both non-Greek and Greek alphabets. In the 18th century, the diploma of Pope Leo IV (847-855), written in Cyrillic, was in the hands of the Montenegrin house of princes Chernoevich. One of the reasons why the document was declared false was that Cyril should have invented the Cyrillic alphabet only in 863.
Another example is the image of Christ on a towel, the so-called image of Veronica, kept among other relics in the Vatican. It is generally accepted that it belongs to the first centuries of Christianity. On it, in addition to the letters IC (Jesus) XC (Christ), there is a clear inscription: “THE IMAGE OF SPDN ON UBRUS” (ubrus is a towel for the face).
The third example is the icon of the apostles Peter and Paul, recorded in the catalog of Giacomo Grimaldi in 1617 under number 52. By the nature of the painting, it belongs to the first centuries of our era. In the central part of the icon at the top is the image of the Savior with the Cyrillic inscription "ICXC". On the left is the image of St. Peter with the inscription: "STOY PETER". On the right is the image of St. Paul with the inscription: "STA PAVL".
The Slavs used Greek-type alphabets centuries before Cyril, so he took the already existing alphabet as a basis, supplemented it and created church literature on it. He could not put Glagolitic as a basis: it was unsuitable for quick writing because of its complexity, in addition, Ulfila, who was not particularly revered by the Orthodox Church, stood behind her. Finally, the Glagolitic alienated Byzantium with its Greek writing and the Slavs.
Rome treated the Glagolitic rather loyally. Since 1554, the French kings, assuming the throne, took the oath in the Reims Cathedral on the Gospel. The gospel consists of two parts: the first is written in Cyrillic and includes readings from the New Testament according to the Slavic rite; the second is written in Glagolitic and concludes readings from the New Testament according to the Catholic rite. On the Glagolitic text there is an inscription in French: “The Year of the Lord is 1395. This Gospel and epistle are written in the Slavic language. They should be sung throughout the year when the hierarchal service is performed. As for the other part of this book, it corresponds to the Russian rite. It was written by St. Prokop, abbot, and this Russian text was donated by the late Charles IV, Emperor of the Roman Empire, to perpetuate St. Jerome and St. Prokop. God, give them eternal rest. Amen". It should be noted that St. Prokop, abbot of the monastery in Sazava (died February 25, 1053), served the liturgy according to the Roman Catholic rite, but in Old Church Slavonic. According to tradition, the first king to swear an oath on this gospel was Philip I, son of Henry and Anna, daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, who were married in 1048. The gospel may have belonged to Anna, and her son took oath on it out of respect for his mother. In any case, Cyrillic and Glagolitic for many centuries coexisted peacefully in the Roman Catholic Church, in contrast to the Orthodox, where Glagolitic was deliberately avoided, although both alphabets were used in parallel in everyday life.
The Glagolitic is much older than the Cyrillic and phonetically more perfect. Along with the Glagolitic alphabet, the Slavs also used the Greek-style alphabets, and it only fell to Cyril to finalize what was in common use, but had no rules and a canon. Thus, both Glagolitic and Cyrillic are composed specifically for the Slavic language. Cyrillic is graphically a variant of Greek writing (it was often called "Greek writing"), and in its sound structure it is an imitation of the Glagolitic alphabet. The Glagolitic alphabet is rather a product of the West - it developed there, there it became more and more fixed, and there it still exists.
). The name goes back to the name of Cyril (before becoming a monk - Constantine), an outstanding educator and preacher of Christianity among the Slavs. The question of the time of the creation of the Cyrillic alphabet and its chronological relationship with the Glagolitic alphabet cannot be considered finally resolved. Some researchers suggest that the Cyrillic alphabet was created by Cyril and his brother Methodius (“the first Slavic teachers”) in the 9th century, earlier than the Glagolitic alphabet. However, most experts believe that the Cyrillic alphabet is younger than the Glagolitic and that the first Slavic alphabet, which was created by Cyril and Methodius in 863 (or 855), was the Glagolitic. The creation of the Cyrillic alphabet dates back to the era of the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon (893-927), it was probably compiled by the students and followers of Cyril and Methodius (Clement of Ohrid?) on the basis of the Greek (Byzantine) solemn uncial writing. The letter composition of the ancient Cyrillic alphabet generally corresponded to the ancient Bulgarian speech.
To convey the ancient Bulgarian sounds, the uncial writing was supplemented with a number of letters (for example, zh, sh, ъ, ь, Ѫ, Ѧ, etc.). The graphic appearance of Slavic letters is stylized according to the Byzantine model. The Cyrillic alphabet included "extra" uncial letters (doublet: i - i, o - ѡ, letters found only in borrowed words: f, ѳ, etc.). In Cyrillic, according to the rules of uncial writing, superscripts were used: aspirations, stress, abbreviations of words with titles and extended letters. Aspiration signs (from the 11th to the 18th centuries) changed functionally and graphically. Cyrillic letters were used in a numerical value (see table), in this case, a title sign was placed above the letter, and two or one dots were placed on its sides.
Written monuments from the era of the creation of the Cyrillic alphabet have not been preserved. The composition of the letters of the original Cyrillic alphabet is also not entirely clear; perhaps some of them appeared later (for example, the letters of iotized vowels). The Cyrillic alphabet was used among the southern, eastern and, obviously, for some time among the western Slavs, in Rus' it was introduced in the 10-11 centuries. in connection with Christianization. The Cyrillic alphabet among the Eastern and Southern Slavs has a long tradition, which is attested by numerous written monuments. The oldest of them date back to the 10th-11th centuries. Accurately dated are ancient Bulgarian inscriptions on stone slabs of the 10th century: Dobrudzhanskaya (943) and Tsar Samuil (993). Handwritten books or their fragments, written on parchment, have been preserved since the 11th century. The time and place of creation of the oldest of them is determined by paleographic and linguistic signs. 11th c. or possibly the end of the 10th century. "Savin's book" (a collection of gospel readings - aprakos) dates back to the 11th century. include the Suprasl Manuscript, the Eninsky Apostle, and others. The earliest dated and localized East Slavic manuscript is the Ostromir Gospel (aprakos, 1056-57). East Slavic manuscripts have been preserved in greater numbers than South Slavic ones. The oldest business documents on parchment date back to the 12th century, the Old Russian charter of Prince Mstislav (c. 1130), the charter of the Bosnian ban Kulin (1189). Serbian handwritten books have been preserved since the end of the 12th century: Miroslav's Gospel (aprakos, 1180-90), Vukanov's Gospel (aprakos, c. 1200). Dated Bulgarian manuscripts date back to the 13th century: the Bologna Psalter (1230-42), the Tarnovo Gospel (Tetr, 1273).
Cyrillic 11th-14th centuries was characterized by a special type of writing - a charter with geometric shapes in the lettering. From the end of the 13th century among the southern Slavs and from the middle of the 14th century. among the Eastern Slavs, the Cyrillic letters lose their strict geometric appearance, variants of the outline of one letter appear, the number of abbreviated words increases, this type of writing is called semi-ustav. From the end of the 14th century the charter and semi-charter are replaced by cursive writing.
In the writing of the Eastern and Southern Slavs, the shape of the Cyrillic letters changed, the composition of the letters and their sound meaning changed. Changes were caused by linguistic processes in the living Slavic languages. So, in the ancient Russian manuscripts of the 12th century. the letters of ioted yus and big yusa are going out of use, in place of which they write “Ꙗ”, Ѧ or “yu”, “ou” respectively; the letter yusa small gradually acquires the meaning ['a] with the preceding softness or combinations ja. Manuscripts of the 13th century it is possible to skip the letters ъ, ь, the mutual exchange of the letters ъ - o and ь - e is reflected. In some manuscripts, starting from the 12th century, the letter Ѣ is written in place of the letter “e” (southwestern, or Galician-Volyn sources), in a number of ancient Russian manuscripts there is a mutual exchange of letters ts - h (Novgorod manuscripts from the 11th century), exchanges s - sh, z - zh (Pskov). In the 14-15 centuries. Manuscripts appear (Middle Russian), where the exchange of letters ѣ - e and ѣ - etc. is possible.
In Bulgarian manuscripts from the 12th-13th centuries. the mutual exchange of yuses, large and small, is common, iotized yuses are becoming obsolete; it is possible to change letters Ѣ - Ꙗ, ъ - ь. One-Er sources appear: either “b” or “b” is used. Mutual exchange of letters "b" and yus is possible. The letter Ѫ existed in the Bulgarian alphabet until 1945. Letters of iotized vowels in position after vowels (moa, dobraa) are gradually falling out of use, the letters y - and are often mixed.
In Serbian manuscripts, at an early stage, the letters of nasal vowels are lost, the letter "ъ" falls out of use, and the letter "ь" is often doubled. From the 14th century it is possible to change the letters b - b with the letter "a". In the 14th-17th centuries. Cyrillic and Slavic spelling were used by the population of modern Romania. On the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet, the modern Bulgarian and Serbian alphabets, the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian alphabets have historically developed, and through the Russian alphabet, the alphabets of other peoples of the USSR.
Cyrillic alphabet of the era of the oldest Slavic manuscripts (late 10th - 11th centuries) inscription
letters |
letter name |
Sound
meaning
letters |
Digital
meaning |
|
inscription
letters |
letter name |
Sound
meaning
letters |
Digital
meaning |
|---|
|
|
az |
[A] |
1
|
|
dick |
[X] |
600
|
|
|
bows |
[b] |
|
|
ot (omega)* |
[O] |
800
|
|
|
see |
[V] |
2
|
|
qi |
[q'] |
900
|
|
|
verbs |
[G] |
3
|
|
worm or worm |
[h'] |
90
|
|
|
good |
[e] |
4
|
|
sha |
[w'] |
|
|
|
eat or eat** |
[e] |
5
|
|
staff** | [sh’͡t’], [sh’h’] |
|
|
|
live |
[and'] |
|
|
|
|
S - green * |
[d’͡z’] |
S=6 |
|
er |
[b] |
|
|
|
earthꙗ |
[h] |
7
|
|
years |
[s] |
|
|
|
izhei** |
[And] |
8
|
|
er |
[b] |
|
|
|
below* |
[And] |
10
|
|
ꙗт |
[æ], [ê]
|
|
|
|
kako |
[To] |
20
|
|
|
['y], |
|
|
|
people |
[l] |
30
|
|
and iotated* |
['a], |
|
|
|
think |
[m] |
40
|
|
e iotated* |
['e], |
|
|
|
ours** |
[n] |
50
|
|
yus small* |
initially
[ę]
|
900
|
|
|
he |
[O] |
70
|
|
yus small
iotated* |
initially
[ę],
|
|
|
|
chambers |
[P] |
80
|
|
jus big* |
initially
[ǫ]
|
|
|
|
rci |
[R] |
100
|
|
yus big
iotated* |
initially
[’ǫ],
|
|
|
|
word |
[With] |
200
|
|
xi* |
[ks] |
60
|
|
|
hard and hard |
[T] |
300
|
|
psi* |
[ps] |
700
|
|
|
ouk** |
[y] |
400
|
|
Vita* |
[f] |
9
|
|
|
firt or frt |
[f] |
500
|
|
izhitsa* |
[and], [in] |
400
|
- Lavrov P. A., Palaeographic review of Cyrillic writing, P., 1914;
- Lowcott Ch., Development of writing, trans. from Czech, M., 1950;
- Istrin V. A., 1100 years of the Slavic alphabet, M., 1963 (lit.);
- Shchepkin V. N., Russian paleography, 2nd ed., M., 1967;
- Karsky E. F., Slavic Kirillov paleography, 2nd ed., M., 1979;
- The legend of the beginning of Slavic writing. [Commented edition of the text of ancient sources. Introductory article, translation and comments by B. N. Flori], M., 1981;
- Bernstein S. B., Konstantin the Philosopher and Methodius, M., 1984;
- English Petar, History of Serbian Cyrillic, Beograd, 1971;
- Bogdan Damian P., Paleografia româno-slavă, Buc., 1978.
Cyrillic- a term that has several meanings:
Old Slavonic alphabet (Old Bulgarian alphabet): the same as the Cyrillic (or Cyrillic) alphabet: one of two (along with the Glagolitic) ancient alphabets for the Old Slavonic language;
Cyrillic alphabets: a writing system and an alphabet for some other language based on this Old Slavonic Cyrillic alphabet (they talk about Russian, Serbian, etc. Cyrillic; it is incorrect to call the “Cyrillic alphabet” the formal union of several or all national Cyrillic alphabets);
Statutory or semi-statutory font: the font in which church (Orthodox) books are traditionally printed (in this sense, Cyrillic is opposed to the civil, or Peter's, font).
Belarusian language (Belarusian alphabet)
Bulgarian language (Bulgarian alphabet)
Macedonian language (Macedonian alphabet)
Rusyn language/dialect (Rusyn alphabet)
Russian language (Russian alphabet)
Serbian language (Serbian Cyrillic alphabet)
Ukrainian language (Ukrainian alphabet)
Montenegrin language (Montenegrin alphabet),
as well as most of the non-Slavic languages of the peoples of the USSR, some of which previously had other writing systems (on a Latin, Arabic or other basis) and were translated into Cyrillic in the late 1930s. See the list of languages with Cyrillic-based alphabets for details. Read more → Wikipedia.
Is it true that the alphabet used in about 50 countries is called Cyrillic, and it is believed that it was introduced and invented by the Bulgarians (or Slavs) missionaries and Saints Cyril and Methodius.
The Bulgarian linguist Ivan Iliev wrote a research paper "A Brief History of the Cyrillic Alphabet" (Ivan G. Iliev / Ivan G. Iliev), where he notes that Cyril is believed to be the author of the Glagolitic alphabet used for writing in those days (the Slavic alphabet proper), and which was very unlike the Greek alphabet (and others). The Cyrillic alphabet was created in order to add letters to record the sounds of the Slavic speech that were not available in the Greek alphabet, so in general it was some kind of modification of the Greek alphabet with the addition of the Glagolitic or Latin alphabet. It is named after Cyril because of his merits.
Cyrillic as it has been since ancient times.
The numbers opposite the letters are the numbers that denoted the account, so the letters also had a digital value (except for the names-words).
Another feature of the early alphabet is the absence of uppercase and lowercase letters.
What we call Cyrillic now is a distant image of the original Cyrillic, which was simplified (reformed) several times, the last after the 1917 revolution.
The alphabet of Peter 1, or civil script, was introduced in 1708 as a counterbalance to the church Cyrillic alphabet (or alphabet) in order to simplify.
In 1707, Anton Demey, a word-writer who arrived from Holland, brought with him "newly invented Russian letters of the 8th alphabet with punches, matrices and forms, and two camps on the go with all sorts of controls." The font introduced by Peter the Great differed from the Slavic one in that letters (similar to Greek) are completely excluded from it and forces and titles are thrown back. The rest of the letters received the outline that they have now, with the following exceptions: the letter d at first resembled the Latin g, while the capital retained its former form; instead, z and Slatin s were introduced; instead of i, ib d - one letter I without any sign at the top; m, n - like Latin m, n; the letters c, f, b and b, as well as p, sh and s, had some differences in outline from the current ones. Three books were printed in this font in 1708 in Moscow: "Geometry of Slavic land surveying and given by new typographic embossing", "Applications of how complements are written" and "A book on the methods of creating free water flow of rivers." But, probably, experience convinced that this typeface was not entirely convenient, and therefore in "The Victorious Fortress to the happy congratulations of the glorious victory over Azov - to the happy entry into Moscow" (op. by engineer Borgsdorf), printed in the same 1708, made there are already concessions reminiscent of the old alphabet: in the book there are Slavic over ï there are dots everywhere - the mark, which was preserved in our press almost until the beginning of this century, was then introduced over the words of power (emphasis). Further changes followed in 1709. E and I appeared, restored; And it was used in three cases: in a combination of two and (ïi), at the beginning of Russian words and at the end of words. Then z (earth) began to be used in all cases, instead of the canceled s (green); e received a modern style; b, c, f, t, p received outlines more suitable for the current .
In Kievan Rus, the use of the Cyrillic alphabet has been noted since the beginning of the 10th century, and it is believed that it appeared there with church Bulgarian books - there was no printing business in Rus' at that time. Church Slavonic is considered the closest to the Bulgarian language, and had a serious influence on the formation of the Russian language (although Bulgaria and Muscovy were far from each other).
Ivan Fedorov Muscovite - the first Russian printer, publisher of the first accurately dated printed book "Apostle" in the Russian kingdom (1564). However, for church books (and such books were mostly published), Church Slavonic (almost Bulgarian) was still used for several centuries.
Returning to Cyril and his older brother Methodius, most of the famous historians of the Byzantine era assume that they were Greeks from Thessalonica, although the Bulgarians continue to believe that they were Bulgarians or South Slavs (Macedonians). Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki) was a Greek-Macedonian city within the Byzantine Empire. However, try to figure out the ethnic origin there, in fact, since there was a pretty decent Slavic migration to Thessaloniki from the 6-7th century (the city was noble at that time).
Introduction
cyrillic slavic script
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 newly emerged large state. The first books contained a record of Christian liturgical texts.
The literary language of the Slavs has come down to us, recorded in handwritten monuments in two alphabets - Glagolitic and Cyrillic. The word "Glagolitic" can be translated by the word "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 of the era of Constantine and Methodius have not reached us. The earliest Glagolitic text is the Kyiv leaflets (X century), the Cyrillic one is an inscription in Preslav in 931.
Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets almost coincide in terms of alphabetic composition. Cyrillic, according to manuscripts of 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 inherent only in the Slavic language, 19 characters of a simple form, convenient for writing, were created, which corresponded to the general graphic style of the Cyrillic alphabet.
Cyrillic 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. Appearance 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 Thessalonica (Thessaloniki), on the orders of the Byzantine emperor Michael III, streamlined the script for the Slavic language and used the new alphabet to translate Greek religious texts into Slavic. For a long time, the question remained debatable whether it was Cyrillic (and in this case, the Glagolitic is considered a cryptographic script that appeared after the prohibition of the Cyrillic alphabet) or the Glagolitic alphabet is an alphabet that differs almost exclusively in style. At present, the point of view prevails in science, according to which the Glagolitic alphabet is primary, and the Cyrillic alphabet is secondary (in Cyrillic, the 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 is directly written about the creation of Slavic writing by him 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 the church service by the pope, who fought against the results of the mission of Constantine-Cyril and Methodius.
In Bulgaria, the holy Tsar Boris in 860 converted to Christianity. Bulgaria becomes the center for the dissemination of Slavic writing. Here the first Slavic book school is being created - the Preslav Book School - the Cyrillic and Methodius originals of liturgical books (the Gospel, the Psalter, the Apostle, church services) are being copied, new Slavic translations from the Greek language are being made, original works in the Old Slavonic language (“On the writings of Chrnorizets Brave").
The widespread use of Slavic writing, its "golden age", dates back to the reign of Tsar Simeon the Great in Bulgaria (893-927), son of Tsar Boris. Later, the Old Church Slavonic language penetrated into Serbia, and at the end of the 10th century it became 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 part of the southern Slavs, eastern Slavs, and also Romanians; over time, their alphabets diverged somewhat from each other, although the lettering and spelling principles remained (with the exception of the West Serbian variant, the so-called bosančica) as a whole.
The composition of the original Cyrillic alphabet is unknown to us; The "classic" Old Slavonic Cyrillic of 43 letters probably contains partly later letters (ы, у, 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. 19 letters were added to them to designate 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, the entire text was written in capitals. Some letters of the Cyrillic alphabet, which are absent in the Greek alphabet, are close to Glagolitic in outline. Ts and Sh are outwardly similar to some letters of a number of alphabets of that time (Aramaic letter, Ethiopian letter, Coptic letter, Hebrew letter, Brahmi) and it is not possible to unequivocally establish the source of borrowing. B is similar in outline to C, U with Sh. The principles of creating digraphs in Cyrillic (Y from ЪІ, OY, 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 - the sampii stigma - which are not even included in the classical 24-letter Greek alphabet, other Slavic letters are adapted - Ts (900) and S (6); subsequently, the third such sign, koppa, originally used in Cyrillic to denote 90, was replaced by the letter Ch. Some letters that are absent 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.
Cyrillic letters have their own names, according to various common Slavic names that begin with them, or directly taken from Greek (xi, psi); the etymology of a number of names is disputed. Also, judging by the ancient abetsedaria, the letters of the Glagolitic were also called. [Application]
In 1708--1711. Peter I undertook a reform of Russian writing, eliminating superscripts, abolishing several letters and legitimizing another (closer to the Latin scripts of that time) style of the remaining ones - the so-called civil script. Lowercase variants of each letter were introduced, before that all letters of the alphabet were capitalized. Soon the Serbs switched to the civil type (with appropriate changes), and later the Bulgarians; the Romanians, in the 1860s, abandoned the Cyrillic alphabet in favor of the Latin script (interestingly, at one time they used a “transitional” alphabet, which was a mixture of Latin and Cyrillic letters). Civil type with minimal changes in styles (the largest is the replacement of the m-shaped letter "t" with its current form) we use to this day.
For 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 appeared, consisting of 33 letters.
Currently, 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.
