Origin and History of Cyrillic Script:
– Script conceived and popularized by Slavic followers of Cyril and Methodius
– Named after Saint Cyril
– Cyrillic script created during First Bulgarian Empire
– Derived from Greek uncial script, with additions from Glagolitic alphabet
– Formalized by Saints Cyril and Methodius and disciples
– Spread to other Slavic peoples and later adapted for non-Slavic languages like Mongolian
– First recorded use in the 9th century
– Developed in First Bulgarian Empire under Tsar Simeon the Great
Spread and Usage of Cyrillic Script:
– Around 250 million people in Eurasia use Cyrillic as official script
– Russia accounts for about half of users
– Became third official script of European Union in 2007
– Cyrillic spread among Slavic and non-Slavic languages
– Used by Orthodox Church-dominated Eastern Europe
– Used in various languages like Russian, Bulgarian, and Serbian
– Officially supported in Russia
– Widely spread in Uzbekistan
– Co-official with Mongolian script
Influences, Variants, and Legacy of Cyrillic Script:
– Used for Church Slavonic language
– Dominated Glagolitic in 12th century
– Basis of alphabets in Orthodox Church-dominated Eastern Europe
– Early Cyrillic inscriptions found in Preslav and surrounding areas
– Literature in Old Church Slavonic spread north from Bulgaria
– Cyrillic influenced by Tarnovo Literary School in 14th and 15th centuries
– Cyrillic script widely adopted and used beyond Slavic languages
– Part of cultural and historical identity for many nations
– Plays a role in diplomatic literacy in Southeastern Europe
– Used in Orthodox religious texts
Development and Evolution of Cyrillic Script:
– Peter the Great reformed the Cyrillic script in 1708–10, introducing the Civil script
– Modern Cyrillic types are similar to Latin types due to adoption of western design principles
– Cyrillic letter forms transitioned from medieval to late Baroque directly
– Various rules and standards for Cyrillic script
– Multiple octet coded character set for compatibility
– Romanization systems for transliteration
– Standardization efforts for languages like Komi
– Impact of market forces on language standardization
Typography and Letterforms in Cyrillic Script:
– Cyrillic lowercase letters are essentially small capitals, with exceptions
– Cyrillic lowercase forms are not as differentiated as in Latin typography
– Italic and cursive forms of Cyrillic letters differ from upright roman types
– Cyrillic typefaces include roman and italic forms
– Accessing variant forms through OpenType Layout (OTL) features
– Some Cyrillic fonts evolved from Latin fonts, contributing to a visual Latinization
– Cyrillic lowercase letters have alternate variants in cursive
– Different systems for Cyrillic-to-Latin transliteration
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The Cyrillic script (/sɪˈrɪlɪk/ sih-RIL-ik), Slavonic script or simply Slavic script is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, North Asia, and East Asia, and used by many other minority languages.
Cyrillic script | |
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Script type | |
Time period | Earliest variants exist c. 893 – c. 940 |
Direction | Left-to-right |
Official script | 7 sovereign states Co-official script in: 6 sovereign states and 2* disputed territories |
Languages | See Languages using Cyrillic |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Egyptian hieroglyphs
|
Child systems | Old Permic script |
Sister systems | |
ISO 15924 | |
ISO 15924 | Cyrl(220), Cyrillic Cyrs (Old Church Slavonic variant) |
Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Cyrillic |
| |
Names: Belarusian: кірыліца, Bulgarian: кирилица [ˈkirilit͡sɐ], Macedonian: кирилица [kiˈrilit͡sa], Russian: кириллица [kʲɪˈrʲilʲɪtsə], Serbian: ћирилица, Ukrainian: кирилиця [keˈrɪɫet͡sʲɐ] | |
As of 2019[update], around 250 million people in Eurasia use Cyrillic as the official script for their national languages, with Russia accounting for about half of them. With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union, following the Latin and Greek alphabets.
The Early Cyrillic alphabet was developed during the 9th century AD at the Preslav Literary School in the First Bulgarian Empire during the reign of Tsar Simeon I the Great, probably by the disciples of the two Byzantine brothers Cyril and Methodius, who had previously created the Glagolitic script. Among them were Clement of Ohrid, Naum of Preslav, Angelar, Sava and other scholars. The script is named in honor of Saint Cyril.