The Early Cyrillic alphabet, also called classical Cyrillic or paleo-Cyrillic, is an alphabetic writing system that was developed in Bulgaria in the Preslav Literary School during the late 9th century. The systematization of Cyrillic may have been undertaken at the Council of Preslav in 893. 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.
History
The Glagolitic script was created by the Byzantine monk Saint Cyril, possibly with the aid of his brother Saint Methodius, around 863. 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. 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.
The earliest form of manuscript Cyrillic is known as . The earliest Cyrillic texts are found in northeastern Bulgaria, in the vicinity of Preslav—the Krepcha inscription, dating back to 921, and a ceramic vase from Preslav, dating back to 931. Moreover, unlike the other literary centre in the First Bulgarian Empire, the Ohrid Literary School, which continued to use the Glagolitic script well into the 12th century, the School at Preslav was using Cyrillic in the early 900s. The systematization of Cyrillic may have been undertaken at the Council of Preslav in 893, when the Old Church Slavonic or Glagolitic Cyrillic liturgy was adopted by the First Bulgarian Empire.Auty, R. Handbook of Old Church Slavonic, Part II: Texts and Glossary. 1977.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.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, and the majority of uncial Cyrillic letters were identical to their Greek uncial counterparts.
The early 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. Particularly, this principle is violated by certain vowel letters, which represent plus the vowel if they are not preceded by a consonant. It is also violated by a significant failure to distinguish between /ji/ and /jĭ/ orthographically. 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.Cubberley 1994 Letters served as numerals as well as phonetic signs; the values of the numerals were directly borrowed from their Greek-letter analogues. Letters without Greek equivalents mostly had no numeral values, whereas one letter, koppa, had only a numeric value with no phonetic value. 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 (, or , ), in contrast to the prevailing church typeface, () 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 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.
Alphabet
Image Unicode Name(Cyrillic) Name(translit.) Name(IPA) Trans. IPA Numeric value Origin Meaning of name Notes А а azŭ a 1 Greek alpha Α I Б б buky b Greek beta in Thera form letters В в vědě v 2 Greek beta Β know Г г glagoli g 3 Greek gamma Γ speakWhen marked with a palatalization mark, this letter is pronounced ; this only occurs rarely, and only in borrowings. Д д dobro d 4 Greek delta Δ good Є є estŭ e 5 Greek epsilon Ε is Pronounced when not preceded by a consonant. Ж ж živěte ž, zh Glagolitic zhivete Ⰶ live Ѕ ѕ / Ꙃ ꙃ dzělo dz, ʒ, ẑ 6 Greek stigma Ϛ very The form ꙃ had the phonetic value and no numeral value, whereas the form ѕ was used only as a numeral and had no phonetic value. Since the 12th century, ѕ came to be used instead of ꙃ.Памятники Старославянскаго языка / Е. Ѳ. Карскій. — СПб. : Типографія Императорской Академіи наукъ, 1904. — Т. I, с. 14. — Репринт In many manuscripts з is used instead, suggesting lenition had taken place. З з / Ꙁ ꙁ zemlja z 7 Greek zeta Ζ earth The first form developed into the second. И и iže i 8 Greek eta Η which Pronounced or when not preceded by a consonant and not the particle ‹i› ("and"); the orthography does not distinguish between and . Speculatively, this letter might have originally been intended to represent and . І і / Ї ї i i, ı, ì 10 Greek iota Ι and Pronounced or when not preceded by a consonant and not the particle ‹i› ("and"); the orthography does not distinguish between and . Speculatively, this letter might have originally been intended to represent . К к kako k 20 Greek kappa Κ as When marked with a palatalization mark, this letter is pronounced ; this only occurs rarely, and only in borrowings. Л л ljudije l ; sometimes 30 Greek lambda Λ people When marked with a palatalization mark or followed by a palatalizing vowel (ю, ѭ, or ꙗ, and sometimes ѣ), this letter is pronounced ; some manuscripts do not mark palatalization, in which case it must be inferred from context. М м myslite m 40 Greek mu Μ think Н н našĭ n ; sometimes 50 Greek nu Ν ours When marked with a palatalization mark or followed by a palatalizing vowel (ю, ѭ, or ꙗ, and sometimes ѣ), this letter is pronounced ; some manuscripts do not mark palatalization, in which case it must be inferred from context. О о onŭ o 70 Greek omicron Ο he/it П п pokoi p 80 Greek pi Π peace/calm Р р rĭci r ; sometimes 100 Greek rho Ρ say When marked with a palatalization mark or followed by a palatalizing vowel (ю or ѭ), this letter is pronounced ; some manuscripts do not mark palatalization, in which case it must be inferred from context. This palatalization was lost rather early in South Slavic speech. С с slovo s 200 Greek lunate sigma Ϲ word/speech Т т tvrĭdo t 300 Greek tau Τ hard/surely Оу оу / Ꙋ ꙋ ukŭ u 400 Greek omicron-upsilon ΟΥ / Ꙋ learning The first form developed into the second, a vertical ligature. A less common alternative form was a digraph with izhitsa: Оѵ оѵ. Ф ф frĭtŭ f or possibly 500 Greek phi Φ This letter was not needed for Slavic but used to transcribe Greek Φ and Latin ph and f. It was probably, but not certainly, pronounced as rather than ; however, in some cases it has been found as a transcription of Greek π. Х х xěrŭ kh, x, h 600 Greek chi Χ When marked with a palatalization mark, this letter is pronounced ; this only occurs rarely, and only in borrowings. Ѡ ѡ otŭ ō, w, o, ô 800 Greek omega ω from This letter was rarely used, mostly appearing in the interjection "oh", in the preposition ‹otŭ›, in Greek transcription, and as a decorative capital. Ц ц ci c 900 Glagolitic tsi Ⱌ Ч ч črĭvĭ č, ch 90 Glagolitic cherv Ⱍ worm This letter replaced koppa as the numeral for 90 after about 1300. Ш ш ša š, sh Glagolitic sha Ⱎ Щ щ šta št, sht Glagolitic shta Ⱋ This letter varied in pronunciation from region to region; it may have originally represented the reflexes of . It was sometimes replaced by the digraph шт. Pronounced 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. Ъ ъ jerŭ ŭ, ъ or Glagolitic yer Ⱏ After č, š, ž, c, dz, št, and žd, this letter was pronounced identically to ь instead of its normal pronunciation. Ꙑ ꙑ / Ъи ъи jery y or or Ъ + І or Ъ + И ligature. Ꙑ was the more common form; rarely, a third form, ы, appears. Ь ь jerĭ ĭ, ь or Glagolitic yerj Ⱐ Ѣ ѣ ětĭ ě Glagolitic yat Ⱑ In western South Slavic dialects of Old Church Slavonic, this letter had a more closed pronunciation, perhaps or . This letter was only written after a consonant; in all other positions, ꙗ was used instead. Ꙗ ꙗ ja ja І-А ligature This letter was probably not present in the original Cyrillic alphabet. Evolved into Я. Ѥ ѥ je je І-Є ligature This letter was probably not present in the original Cyrillic alphabet. Evolved into E. Ю ю ju ju І-ОУ ligature, dropping У There was no 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 , without iotation. Ѫ ѫ ǫsŭ ǫ, õ Glagolitic ons Ⱘ Called юсъ большой (big yus) in Russian. Ѭ ѭ jǫsŭ jǫ, jõ І-Ѫ ligature After č, š, ž, c, dz, št, and žd, this letter was pronounced , without iotation. Called юсъ большой йотированный (iotated big yus) in Russian. Ѧ ѧ ęsŭ ę, ẽ 900 Glagolitic ens Ⱔ Pronounced when not preceded by a consonant. Called юсъ малый (little yus) in Russian. Ѩ ѩ jęsŭ ję, jẽ І-Ѧ ligature This letter does not exist in the oldest (South Slavic) Cyrillic manuscripts, but only in East Slavic ones. It was probably not present in the original Cyrillic alphabet. Called юсъ малый йотированный (iotated little yus) in Russian. Ѯ ѯ ksi ks 60 Greek xi Ξ These two letters were not needed for Slavic but were used to transcribe Greek and as numerals. Ѱ ѱ psi ps 700 Greek psi Ψ Ѳ ѳ fita θ, th, T, F , or possibly 9 Greek theta Θ This letter was not needed for Slavic but was used to transcribe Greek and as a numeral. It seems to have been generally pronounced , as the oldest texts sometimes replace instances of it with т. Normal Old Church Slavonic pronunciation probably did not have a phone . Ѵ ѵ ižica ü, v, ỳ , , 400 Greek upsilon Υ small yoke This letter was used to transcribe Greek upsilon and as a numeral. It also formed part of the digraph оѵ. Ҁ ҁ kopa q no sound value 90 Greek koppa Ϙ This letter had no phonetic value, and was only used as a numeral. After about 1300, it was replaced as a numeral by črĭvĭ.
In addition to the basic letters, there were a number of scribal variations, combining ligatures, and regionalisms used (for example, the additional letter ꙉ, which was used officially by the Serbians), all of which varied over time.