glagolitic vs cyrillic

(The western and eastern branches of Christianity were not yet separated at the time, as the Great Schism was still some centuries away, and the differences between western and eastern Christianity concerned spheres of power and various policies, especially language policies, but not theological/dogmatic issues.) The earlier, Greek-derived type of abbreviation writes the first and last letters of the stem plus the grammatical ending, and a line (or a ~) is placed over the word. [Thanks to Natalia Kondrashova for a helpful discussion of some of the topics discussed in this post. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. meaning-carrying sound) of OCS is represented by its own letter.

Examples of languages that have two or more distinct writing systems, used either simultaneously or in different historical periods, include Serbian (the Cyrillic and Roman alphabets), Turkish (Arabic-based script replaced in the early 1900s by the Roman alphabet), and Japanese (which uses Another important aspect of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets is that they are remarkably well-suited to the language(s) they were designed for. Typically, numerical (rather than phonetic) use of letters was indicated by placing a line over the letter(s) or by a dot on either side.Although the “one letter per one phoneme” principle in largely observed in both Slavic alphabets, some OCS spellings follow One last feature of the OCS writing to be noted is the use of graphic abbreviations (the words were pronounced in full). After the deaths of Cyril and Methodius, the Glagolitic alphabet ceased to be used in Moravia, but their students continued to propagate it in the First Bulgarian Empire, where it was subsequently also displaced by the Cyrillic alphabet developed at the Preslav Literary School. The theory rested on an assertion that the Latin alphabet corresponds to the Chalcidian variety of the western group of Greek scripts employed at Cumae in Campania, southern Italy.

Cyrillic became, with slight modification in each case, the national script of the Bulgarians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians. Where Greek lacked some requisite letters, new letters were introduced into the Cyrillic alphabet (the Glagolitic had corresponding characters as well). If you would like to receive updates of our newest posts, feel free to do so using any of your favorite methods below:If you have a great product or service you'd like to let our targeted audience know about, you can sponsor the development of this site with your promotion. The name “Glagolitic” derives from the OCS word “doubtless the “Slavic Apostles” made the letter-shapes different because they wanted to create a unique system for the new language which was to be used for the praise and glory of God. For instance, the most interesting feature in the inscription of the Praeneste Fibula is the device of combining the letters The name “Cyrillic” suggests that it was invented by St. Cyril, but most researchers now believe that Glagolitic was the alphabet devised by St. Cyril, perhaps with the help of his brother Methodius, for the purposes of The two alphabets are functionally equivalent, meaning that they have the same number of symbols designating the same sounds—yet visually, the two alphabets could not be more different. Glagolitic definition, noting or written in an alphabet, probably invented by St. Cyril in about a.d. 865, formerly used in writing Old Church Slavonic and other Slavic languages: almost completely replaced by Cyrillic starting about the 10th century.

The more arcane-looking Glagolitic alphabet fell out of use fairly quickly. This theory is unlikely; indeed, as already mentioned, the Etruscan alphabet was the link between the Greek and the Latin. This is in accordance with the Byzantine tradition allowing autonomy and equality for all of the languages of eastern Christianity, such as Georgian, Armenian, Syriac, and Coptic”.

Glagolitic is particularly striking to the eye (see image on the left).

It is thought that the Cyrillic “developed in the border zones where Greek teachers were proselytizing their pagan Slavic neighbors” (Lunt 2001: 14).

*There may have been a more practical aspect to the unique graphics of the Glagolitic letter-shapes: St. Cyril’s aim was to teach the Bible to the Slavs in their own language and to keep them away from the influence of the western Christian priests.

It should also be noted that the use of two different writing systems for the same language is not as uncommon as it may seem. The Greek values of the letters were by and large kept as they were pronounced at the time of Saints Cyril and Methodius (c. 825-885).