| Cyrillic Belarusian: кірыліца, Bulgarian: кирилица [ˈkirilit͡sɐ], Macedonian: кирилица [kiˈrilit͡sa], Russian: кириллица [kʲɪˈrʲilʲɪtsə], Serbian: ћирилица, Ukrainian: кирилиця | |
|---|---|
 1850s Romanian text (Lord's Prayer), written with the Cyrillic script | |
| Script type | (impure) and Bicameral |
Time period | Earliest variants exist c. 893[1] – c. 940 |
| Languages | See Languages using Cyrillic |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Sister systems | |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Cyrl (220), Cyrillic Cyrs (Old Church Slavonic variant) |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Cyrillic |
| |
The Cyrillic script (/sɪˈrɪlɪk/) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia and is used as the national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic and Iranic-speaking countries in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Northern Asia.
In the 9th century AD the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon I the Great, following the cultural and political course of his father Boris I, commissioned a new script, the Early Cyrillic alphabet, to be made at the Preslav Literary School in the First Bulgarian Empire, which would replace the Glagolitic script, produced earlier by Saints Cyril and Methodius and the same disciples that created the new Slavic script in Bulgaria. The usage of the Cyrillic script in Bulgaria was made official in 893.[3][4][5] The new script became the basis of alphabets used in various languages, especially those of Orthodox Slavic origin, and non-Slavic languages influenced by Russian. For centuries Cyrillic was used by Catholic and Muslim Slavs too (see Bosnian Cyrillic). As of 2019[update], around 250 million people in Eurasia use it as the official alphabet for their national languages, with Russia accounting for about half of them.[6] With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union, following Latin and Greek.[7]
- ^ Auty, R. Handbook of Old Church Slavonic, Part II: Texts and Glossary. 1977.
- ^ Oldest alphabet found in Egypt. BBC. 1999-11-15. Retrieved 2015-01-14.
- ^ Dvornik, Francis (1956). The Slavs: Their Early History and Civilization. Boston: American Academy of Arts and Sciences. p. 179.
The Psalter and the Book of Prophets were adapted or "modernized" with special regard to their use in Bulgarian churches and it was in this school that the Glagolitic script was replaced by the so-called Cyrillic writing, which was more akin to the Greek uncial, simplified matters considerably and is still used by the Orthodox Slavs.
- ^ Curta, Florin (2006). Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250. Cambridge Medieval Textbooks. Cambridge University Press. pp. 221–222. ISBN 978-0-521-81539-0.
- ^ Hussey, J. M.; Louth, Andrew (2010). "The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire". Oxford History of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-19-161488-0.
- ^ List of countries by population
- ^ Orban, Leonard (24 May 2007). "Cyrillic, the third official alphabet of the EU, was created by a truly multilingual European" (PDF). European Union. Retrieved 3 August 2014.