Cyril, Methodius, and Cyrillic
The Glagolitic alphabet made written Old Church Slavonic possible for the Slavs of Great Moravia.
Cyril and Methodius are given credit for bringing written language to the Slavs of Eastern Europe.
It is widely accepted that two monks, Cyril and Methodius, traveling from Greece, brought written language to Eastern Europe by way of Christianity. However, the specifics of how this happened, or by whom the alphabet was originally created, are still at large.
What we do know is that Cyril and Methodius were given the mission in 862-63 to spread Christianity in an area known as Great Moravia. Rastislav, the prince of Great Moravia, was most interested in building political ties - and Byzantium was both a strong ally and willing to enhance their reach into Eastern Europe. This latter issue can also be illustrated by the adoption of Orthodoxy by Kievan Rus.
It is thought that, during their translation of the Bible into a language now known as Old Church Slavonic, the Glagolitic alphabet was developed as a precursor to Cyrillic - which, of course, is now used (after some modifications over the centuries) today. While Cyrillic may have been brought into existence by a later scholar (namely, Clement of Ohrid from Bulgaria), the Glagolitic and Cyrillic connection has ceased to be disputed among historians.
Because of Cyril's and Methodius's Byzantine Greek heritage, it's no wonder that there are similarities between the Glagolitic/Cyrillic alphabet and the Greek. Cyril and Methodius retained symbols for sounds that could stand in for those in the Slavic languages when they first began to translate manuscripts into Old Church Slavonic. In addition, when the Glagolitic alphabet was being modified in Bulgaria, the link with the Greek alphabet was strengthened due to the familiarity Bulgarians already had with Greek symbols and the ease of their use.
While educated Slavs sought to solidify the structure of a written language, Glagolitic and Cyrillic scripts were used during the same time frames. Historians have also discovered that certain regional usages made transcriptions of Old Church Slavonic distinct from one anther. For example, Bulgarian Old Church Slavonic texts differed from Kievan Old Church Slavonic texts when Western Slavic influences were substituted for Southern Slavic ones.
The modern Cyrillic alphabet is used in many languages in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, including some Turkish and Mongolian languages. The broad use of the Cyrillic alphabet means that it differs greatly from the Cyrillic of a millennia ago. But even Cyril and Methodius understood that peoples would adapt their written language in a way that reflected the spoken language most accurately.
