Cyril, Methodius, and Cyrillic

The Glagolitic alphabet made written Old Church Slavonic possible for the Slavs of Great Moravia.

Sep 10, 2006

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.

The copyright of the article Cyril, Methodius, and Cyrillic in E European History is owned by Kerry Kubilius. Permission to republish Cyril, Methodius, and Cyrillic in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Sep 20, 2006 3:36 AM

Amanda Kendle :

Hi Kerry,
Thanks, now I know who to thank for the confusing Cyrillic alphabet! I've traveled a lot throughout eastern Europe and before my first trip to Russia I sat down studiously to learn the alphabet - it helped a lot to recognise street names etc, but the similarities to our alphabet made it almost more confusing to learn ... Is it adapting to be more like our alphabet or changing in other ways??
cheers
Amanda

Oct 9, 2006 5:33 PM

Kerry Kubilius :

Well, I hope that Cyrillic doesn't change too much! While it can be confusing to English speakers, it's fairly straightforward in terms of pronunciation (unlike English). One of the most frustrating aspects to learning Russian (or any other language with a Cyrillic alphabet)is the "similar" letters that are actually quite different (Cyrillic P is the Russian equivalent of the "r" sound, etc.), and inversion between the two alphabets is almost inevitable. I think it's the languages that are changing rather than the alphabet - with the constant influx of foreign and technological terms, languages using the Cyrillic alphabet are having to adopt or adapt words to suit all the time.

Jul 9, 2007 7:39 PM

Steve Paulsson :

What is not so widely appreciated is that Cyril and Methodius also adopted two Hebrew letters - sh and ch, from the Hebrew shin and tsadi. The Great Moravian Empire, which included parts of the modern Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, did not retain its connection with Constantinople, but through Czech-German and Polish-German connections became part of Western Christianity and adopted the Latin alphabet. The divide between the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets is essentially the divide between Orthodox and Catholic Christianity (which had not yet split apart in the days of Cyril and Methodius) - the clearest example is Serbocroatian - one language, but written by the Catholic Croats using the Latin alphaber and by the Orthodox Serbs using Cyrillics. And boy do they hate each other.