Early Cyrillic alphabet

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Early Cyrillic alphabet
Type	Alphabet
Spoken languages	Old Church Slavonic, Church Slavonic, old versions of many Slavic languages
Time period	from circa 940
Parent systems	Phoenician alphabet  → Greek alphabet   → Glagolitic alphabet    → Early Cyrillic alphabet
Sister systems	Latin alphabet Coptic alphabet Armenian
Unicode range	U+0400 to U+04FF U+0500 to U+052F U+2DE0 to U+2DFF U+A640 to U+A69F
ISO 15924	Cyrs
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The original Cyrillic alphabet was a writing system first used in the First Bulgarian Empire in the tenth century to write the Old Church Slavonic liturgical language.

When Christianity was made the official state religion in 864, Knyaz (Prince) Boris I commissioned the creation of the alphabet. Clement of Ohrid developed the alphabet and named it after his teacher, St. Cyril. Cyril was a missionary who, along with his brother, Methodius, is credited for inventing the Glagolitic alphabet, an earlier Slavic alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet is mostly based on the Greek and Hebrew alphabets, and is also influenced by Glagolitic.

Since its creation, the Cyrillic alphabet 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 alphabet are used to write languages throughout Eastern Europe and Asia.

Contents 1 The alphabet 1.1 Notes 2 Numerals, diacritics and punctuation 3 See also 4 References

[edit] The alphabet

Image	Unicode	Name (Cyrillic)	Name (translit.)	Name (IPA)	Trans.	IPA	Origin	Notes
	А а	азъ	azŭ	[aʒŭ]	a	[a]	Greek alpha Α, α
	Б б	боукы	buky	[buky], [bukŭi]	b	[b]	Greek beta Β, β;
	В в	вѣдѣ	vědě	[vædæ]	v	[v]	Greek beta Β, β
	Г г	глаголи	glagoli	[glagoli]	g	[g]	Greek gamma Γ, γ
	Д д	добро	dobro	[dobro]	d	[d]	Greek Delta Δ, δ
	Є є	єсть	estĭ	[ɛstĭ]	e	[ɛ]	Greek epsilon Ε, ε
	Ж ж	живѣтє	živěte	[ʒivætɛ]	ž, zh	[ʒ]	Glagolitic zhivete Ⰶ ?;
	Ѕ ѕ / Ꙃ ꙃ	ѕѣло	dzělo	[ʣælo]	dz	[dz]
	З з / Ꙁ ꙁ	земля	zemlja	[zemlja]	z	[z]	Greek zeta Ζ, ζ	See note 1
	И и	ижє	iže	[iʒɛ]	i	[i]	Greek eta Η, η
	І і / Ї ї	и/ижеи	i/ižei	[i, iʒɛі	i, I	[i]	Greek iota Ι, ι
	К к	како	kako	[kako]	k	[k]	Greek kappa Κ, κ
	Л л	людиѥ	ljudije	[ljudijɛ]	l	[l]	Greek lambda Λ, λ
	М м	мыслитє	myslite	[myslitɛ]/[mŭislitɛ]	m	[m]	Greek mu Μ, μ
	Н н	нашь	našĭ	[naʃĭ]	n	[n]	Greek nu Ν, ν
	О о	онъ	onŭ	[onŭ]	o	[o]	Greek omicron Ο, ο
	П п	покои	pokoi	[pokoj]	p	[p]	Greek pi Π, π
	Р р	рьци	rĭci	[rĭʦi]	r	[r]	Greek rho Ρ, ρ
	С с	слово	slovo	[slovo]	s	[s]	Greek lunate sigma Ϲ, ϲ
	Т т	тврьдо	tvrdo	[tvr̥do]	t	[t]	Greek tau Τ, τ
	Оу оу / Ꙋ ꙋ	оукъ	ukŭ	[ukŭ]	u	[u]	Greek omicron-upsilon ΟΥ, ου,	See note 2
	Ф ф	фрьтъ	frtŭ	[fr̤̥tŭ]	f	[f]	Greek phi Φ, φ
	Х х	хѣръ	xěrŭ	[xærŭ]	x	[x]	Greek chi Χ, χ
	Ѡ ѡ	отъ	otŭ	[otŭ]	ō, w	[oː]	Greek omega Ω, ω
	Ц ц	ци	ci	[ʦi]	c	[ʦ]	Glagolitic tsi Ⱌ ?, from Hebrew final tsadi ץ‎
	Ч ч	чрьвь	črvĭ	[ʧr̤̥vĭ]	č, ch	[ʧ]
	Ш ш	ша	ša	[ʃa]	š, sh	[ʃ]	Glagolitic sha Ⱎ, from Hebrew shin ש (possibly through Coptic shai Ϣ)
	Щ щ	шта	šta	[ʃta]	št, sht	[ʃt]	Ш-Т ligature, after Glagolitic shta Ⱋ
	Ъ ъ	ѥръ	jerŭ	[jɛrŭ]	ŭ, u:	[ŭ]
	Ꙑ ꙑ	ѥры	jery	[jɛry]	y	[y], or possibly [ŭi]	ЪI or ЪИ ligature
	Ь ь	ѥрь	jerĭ	[jɛrĭ]	ĭ, i:	[ĭ]
	Ѣ ѣ	ять	jatĭ	[jatĭ]	ě	[æ]
	Ю ю	ю	ju	[ju]	ju	[iu]	I-ОУ ligature, dropping У
	Ꙗ ꙗ	я	ja	[ja]	ja	[ia]	I-А ligature
	Ѧ ѧ	ѧсъ	ęsŭ	[ɛ̃sŭ]	ę, ẽ	[ɛ̃]		See note 3
	Ѩ ѩ	ѩсъ	jęsŭ	[jɛ̃sŭ]	ję, jẽ	[jɛ̃]	I-Ѧ ligature	See note 4
	Ѫ ѫ	ѫсъ	ǫsŭ	[ɔ̃sŭ]	ǫ, õ	[ɔ̃]		See note 5
	Ѭ ѭ	ѭсъ	jǫsŭ	[jɔ̃sŭ]	jǫ, jõ	[jɔ̃]	I-Ѫ ligature	See note 6
	Ѯ ѯ	кси	ksi	[ksi]	ks	[ks]	Greek xi Ξ, ξ
	Ѱ ѱ	пси	psi	[psi]	ps	[ps]	Greek psi Ψ, ψ
	Ѳ ѳ	фита	fita	[fita]	θ, th, T, F	[t]/[θ]/[f]	Greek theta Θ, θ
	Ѵ ѵ	ижица	ižica	[iʒiʦa]	ü	[ɪ], [y]	Greek upsilon Υ, υ
	Ѥ ѥ	ѥ	jeː	[jɛ]	je	[iɛ]	І-Є ligature
	Ћ ћ	гѥрв	gerv, gjerv	[ʤɛrv], [djɛrv]	đ, dj	[ʤ], [dj]	Serbian tshe Ћ, ћ	See note 7

[edit] Notes

South Slavic languages and dialects Western South Slavic Slovene Language Dialects Slovene dialects Central South Slavic diasystem Croatian language Dialects Kajkavian · Chakavian Western Shtokavian Burgenland · Molise Bosnian language Dialects Central Shtokavian Serbian language Dialects Eastern Shotkavian · Slavoserbian Romano-Serbian · Užice Differences between Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian Deprecated or non-ISO recognized languages Serbo-Croatian language Bunjevac language Montenegrin language Šokac language Eastern South Slavic Old Church Slavonic Church Slavonic Bulgarian · Macedonian Dialects Banat Bulgarian · Shopski Slavic dialects of Greece Dialects of Macedonian Transitional dialects Eastern-Central Torlak dialects · Našinski Western-Central Kajkavian Alphabets Modern Gaj’s Latin alphabet1 Serbian Cyrillic alphabet Macedonian Cyrillic Bulgarian Cyrillic Slovene alphabet Historical Bohoričica · Dajnčica · Metelčica Arebica · Bosnian Cyrillic Glagolitic · Early Cyrillic 1 Includes Banat Bulgarian alphabet which is based on it. v • d • e

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

[edit] Numerals, diacritics and punctuation

Each letter also had a numeric value, inherited from the corresponding Greek letter. A titlo over a sequence of letters indicated their use as a number. See Cyrillic numerals, Titlo.

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

а́  oksia (acute accent), indicating a stressed syllable (Unicode U+0341)

а̀  varia (grave accent), indicating stress on the last syllable (U+0340)

а҄  kamora, indicating palatalization (U+0484), similar to an inverted breve

а҅  dasy pneuma, rough breathing mark (U+0485)

а҆  zvatel'tse, or psilon pneuma, soft breathing mark (U+0486)

а҃  titlo, indicating abbreviations, or letters used as numerals (U+0483)

ӓ  trema, diaeresis (U+0308)

а҆́  Combined zvatel'tse and oksia is called iso.

а҆̀  Combined zvatel'tse and varia is called apostrof.

Punctuation marks:

·  ano teleia (U+0387), a middle dot used as a word separator

,  comma (U+002C)

.  full stop (U+002E)

։  Armenian full stop (U+0589), resembling a colon

჻  Georgian paragraph separator (U+10FB)

⁖  triangular colon (U+2056, added in Unicode 4.1)

⁘  diamond colon (U+2058, added in Unicode 4.1)

⁙  quintuple colon (U+2059, added in Unicode 4.1)

;  Greek question mark (U+037E), similar to a semicolon

!  exclamation mark (U+0021)

The Unicode Standard for text encoding version 5.1, released April 4, 2008, introduces extensive additions for representing the early Cyrillic alphabet.[1]

[edit] See also

• Bosnian Cyrillic
• Reforms of Russian orthography

[edit] References

• A Berdnikov and O Lapko, "Old Slavonic and Church Slavonic in TEX and Unicode", EuroTEX ’99 Proceedings, September 1999 (PDF)
• DJ Birnbaum, "Unicode for Slavic Medievalists", September 28, 2002 (PDF)
• M Everson and R Cleminson, "Final proposal for encoding the Glagolitic script in the UCS", Expert Contribution to the ISO N2610R, September 4, 2003 (PDF)
• V Lev, "The history of the Ukrainian script (paleography)", in Ukraine: a concise encyclopædia, volume 1. University of Toronto Press, 1963, 1970, 1982. ISBN 0-8020-3105-6
• V Simovyc and JB Rudnyckyj, "The history of Ukrainian orthography", in Ukraine: a concise encyclopædia, volume 1 (op cit).
• J Zamora, "Help me learn Church Slavonic", online
• Azbuka, Church Slavonic calligraphy and typography.
• Obshtezhitie.net, Cyrillic and Glagolitic manuscripts and early printed books.
• Peter T. Daniels and William Bright, eds. (1996). The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507993-0.
• Simon Franklin (2002). Writing, Society and Culture in Early Rus, c. 950-1300. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-052181381.