by Juniper
Written language has historically been considered one of humanity’s greatest achievement: as the old Latin phrase goes, verba volant, scripta manent (spoken words fly away, written words remain) and while speech is fleeting, written communication provides a permanence. Writing has influenced almost every human activity from commerce to government, from religion to war. Once you have an oral language, what do you need to equip it with writing? Well, there are many ways in which a language may proceed, but a standardized set of basic written symbols or graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages is a very common strategy. I know, too long a sentence, but basically we are talking about alphabets.
Who is speaking, was born and raised in a country where the most common alphabet in the world is used: the Latin alphabet. In this system a sound corresponds to a grapheme. Compared to other forms of writing, it has always seemed to me that we took the short way round, and I honestly shiver when I imagine having to use other systems.
In fact, not all writing systems represent language this way: think of Japan where they have syllabaries, for example, or Old Egypt, where writing was based on a logographic systems (i.e. characters represent words, morphemes, or other semantic units).
Pure fear, but that of course has only to do with habit and forma mentis (or laziness, as you prefer!). How hard it must be to memorize kanji, glyphs, and so on! No, no, no, go talk with my associate if you really want to know!
Nevertheless, it was fun, when I faced the challenge of learning a new writing system: when you decide to study Russian indeed, the first obstacle is the alphabet, as you have to learn to read and write in Cyrillic. It is not as naughty and complex as Chinese writing, but it has a very interesting story. Well then, today I would like to tell you the story of how Cyrillic was born, completely out of the blue, thanks to the action of two young men.
The Cyrillic alphabet nowadays is one of the most widespread alphabets in the world. It is the 3rd official script of the European Union, following the Latin and Greek scripts, but it originated during the 10th century in what is now Bulgaria, and it was not invented by Cyrill; actually, he was dead when the alphabet was designed! On the other hand we owe him the first 100% original Slavonic alphabet, the Glagolitic one.
The what? Ok, first things first.
Cyril and Methodius
Once upon a time there were two brothers, Constantine (you know him with his monk name, Cyril) and Methodius. They were born in Thessalonica, in the Byzantine Empire, on the southern edge of the Slavic-speaking world, but in an area predominantly Slavic, and therefore grew up bilingual. Both embraced the clerical profession, and embarked together on arduous missions abroad. After proving themselves valid, they were sent from Byzantium, by the uncle of the emperor and by the patriarch of Constantinople, Photius, to Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic), a place where people used a Slavonic language, not identical with that, which the brothers knew, but comprehensible by them: Old Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic, the first literary languages of the Slavs.
The ruler of the country, Rotislav, asked for help as he wished for a Slavonic form of writing for Old Church Slavonic, but secretly his aim was to reduce the Franko-Bavarian missionaries’ influence in the area, who not only preached in Latin, but exercised a political action in the area. There, amidst great opposition by the powerful Franko-Bavarian clergy, which defended their prerogatives vigorously, and attacked the brothers for transgressing against the custom, they devised a brand new alphabet. It was named “Glagolitic” only in the 16th Century, from the Old Church Slavonic verb glagoljati, which has two meanings: to speak or to serve mass. There are about 43 theories about the inspirations and origins of the Glagolitic letters, but it looked more or less like this:
Now, Constantine and Methodius stayed in Moravia for only forty months, trying to teach the use of Glagolitic and to translate the Holy Text into Old Church Slavonic by writing it in Glagolitic. After that, they were forced to leave Moravia, because of the hostile attitude of the German clergy and of Rotislav indecisive posture: great debacle, one may say, but the story is not over yet!
Constantine and Methodius moved to Pannonia (today part of Hungary, Austria, and Croatia), where they were received far more cordially and accomplished much more in less time; then to Venice, where Constantine engaged in the disputation on the propriety of using the Slavonic language and a Slavonic writing in divine worship, which was the real matter back then, as, by tradition, only Hebrew, Greek and Latin where worthy! Then off to Rome, where they finally received the Pope’s blessing on the set of Slavic scriptures.
Why now? Well, for political reasons, of course. The Patriarch Photius had just died, and Pope Hadrian III wished to preserve and extend Rome’s influence in Central Europe; better to have friends among the Slavs, even if, alas for him, the Great Schism was coming, but that is another story.
Anyway, in Rome Constantine took the monastic vows and assumed the name of Cyril (ta-daaa), but he died soon after, at the age of forty-two. He is still there, buried in the Church of St Clement.
Methodius went back to missionary activity in Central Europe, this time bearing with him an introductory letter from the Pope, legitimizing his mission! Obviously he was not well accepted by the Bavarians, and was even imprisoned for almost three years. After years of fights against the clergy that even had the support of a great army, which military put these area under Frankish influence, Methodius died, and with him the shield of his prestige in Rome. His mission was passed on to his disciples, who had to flee Moravia, but eventually managed to spread the Slavic tradition to Bulgaria, Bohemia, and from there…well…you only have to look at a map to countries in which the Latin alphabet is not used.
Let’s get back to alphabets then.
As we said, the brothers designed and translated some Scriptures in Glagolitic. This brand new writing system, unlike most of the newly devised alphabets that usually have traceable origins, yields some of his secrets still today! Indeed, we do not really know the source of inspiration for its letters. What is undeniable is the principle of geometric shapes and symmetry that dominated it: every letter can be reconducted to a circle, a triangle, and a cross, combined together, and every sign has a religious hidden meaning.
But if you go to a Slavic country, you won’t find street signs in Glagolitic: this alphabet was replaced little by little by other alphabets, first and foremost by the Cyrillic one.
The Cyrillic Alphabet
The so called Cyrillic alphabet (а misleading name) originated in the First Bulgarian Kingdom at the beginning of the 10th century, after the death of the two brothers. Who created it? Uncertain. Of course it came from the disciples of Cyril and Methodius, but as for the origin of the Glagolitic alphabet, there are many theories about the “father” of Cyrillic. It is a clear adaptation of the Greek writing system, which had been slightly modified or enriched to represent the peculiar and characteristic sounds of the Slavonic languages.
As we’ve already mentioned, it was all about politics: the Cyrillic alphabet was brewed up to spread the word of the Bible in the Old Slavonic language, but its aim was also to underline the distance between the new parish of the East (above all, after the Great Schism of 1054) and the Catholic parish in Europe, in which Latin was used by priests. In some Balkan states, for example, and then in Kievan Rus, Cyrillic helped to underline the difference between Orthodoxy and Catholicism.
The Cyrillic alphabet has undergone different simplifying processes during the centuries: under the reign of Peter the Great in 1708 first, and then in 1918, with the huge Bolshevik’s Orthographic Reform, and more recently in 1956, too. In the first case, there was the will to fuel trade with Europe, by redesigning the letters so as to be more similar to European ones, and be printed more easily.
In the second case, the aim was to fight illiteracy, the Church (as one shall never forget that the birth of Slavonic writing was double linked to religion, and religion was not on the party list during and after the 1917 Revolution), and finally to scream to the world that there was a new country now!
In 1956 it was simplified again: strictly speaking, it didn’t affect the Cyrillic type, it just solved some complicated orthographic cases and made it easier to learn, thus reaching the model we use today.
Nowadays, the Cyrillic alphabet is second only to Latin online (as English alone is the language of the 54% of all websites accessible worldwide) and Russians would rather give up Vodka than adopt the Latin script!!
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cyrillic-alphabet
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2492930
https://www.coe.int/en/web/cultural-routes/cyril-and-methodius-route
https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/glagolitic.htm
https://www.learncroatian.eu/blog/glagolitic-alphabet
https://www.britannica.com/topic/alphabet-writing/Cyrillic-and-Glagolitic-alphabets
https://www.iviaggidellocablu.it/a-proposito-dellalfabeto-cirillico/
