Cyrillic Alphabet

Cyrillic Alphabet — generally considered the second oldest Slavic alphabet. Its creator is unknown, but may have been Clement of Ohrid. The name Cyrillic was given as an attribute of respect in recognition of *Constantine the Philosopher/St. Cyril, who had earlier created the first Slavic (*Glagolitic) alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet was in the main based on the Greek alphabet and is first attested in the late ninth century in the *Bulgarian Khanate. Because of its simpler and more practical orthographic system it quickly replaced Glagolitic; between the tenth and twelfth centuries Cyrillic became the dominant script in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, and Kievan Rus’. Some authors have argued that Cyrillic was the first Slavic alphabet created by Sts. Constantine/Cyril and Methodius during their mission to the Slavs of central Europe, and that Glagolitic came into being only later among the Slavs of Dalmatia. The Cyrillic alphabet is used by those peoples who have maintained an Eastern-rite Christian tradition: Russian, Belarusans, Ukrainians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Romanians (until the mid-nineteenth century), and Moldovans.

The earliest written documents and texts among the Carpatho-Rusyns are in Cyrillic, and that with few exceptions (attempts to introduce the Roman/Latin alphabet according to either Hungarian, Czech/Slovak, or Polish orthography) it has remained predominant writing system used in Rusyn publications to the present. The Cyrillic alphabet has an older form still used in *Church Slavonic texts and known as the kyrylytsa. In the second half of the nineteenth century a graphically simpler form of the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced, known as the grazhdanka, or civil script. Since World War I the grazhdanka has become the dominant script in publications intended for Carpatho-Rusyns, with the exception of Church Slavonic texts. The grazhdanka has also been further simplified with the elimination, especially after the onset of Soviet rule, of several letters, in particular the iat (?) and hard sign (ъ). Regardless of script, the Cyrillic alphabet has for many become a symbol of Rusyn identity, and its use is considered an important defense against national assimilation.

Bibliography: Avhustyn Voloshyn, “Oborona kyrylyky,” Naukovyi zbirnyk Tovarystva ‘Prosvita’, XII (Uzhhorod, 1937), pp. 85-117; V.A. Istrin, 1100 let slavianskoi azbuki, 2nd rev. ed. (Moscow, 1988); Gorazd A. Timkovic, “Cyrilika je starsia ako glagolika,” Krasnobrodsky zbornik, III, 1-2 (Presov, 1998), pp. 5-208.

Paul Robert Magocsi

Ivan Pop

Entry courtesy of Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture.
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