Short History of the Cyrillic Alphabet - 2

7/27/2019 Short History of the Cyrillic Alphabet - 2

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G. BULGARIAAfter Serbia, the civil script was accepted in Bulgaria as well inabout 1830, and it was called npoceemumerHo nucwo'instructivescript'. Printed books from Russia and Serbia came to that country,

spreading the Russian and Serbian influence. In this way, x begandesignating [a] instead of nasal o, and n designated soft ['a]instead of nasal e. In 1806, Sophronius of Vratsa published inChurch Slavonic (written in the old Cyrillic script) the first printedBulgarian book, called A Sunday Book. The f,rrst Bulgarian bookprinted in the civil script in 1821 (in Chisinau, Moldova), wasInstructions for the Duties of the Rural Institutions (in Bulgarianand Russian). Then, Arithmetics by Hristaki Pavlovich appeared in1833 in Belgrade. After 1850, the Civil script dominated rhe laicliterature, and later, even the religious, although in his memoirs,the great Bulgarian poet and writer, Ivan Yazov, wrote that hisfather had used the old 'church' letters in his commercial booklong after that time. At that period, Neofit Rilski and IvanMomchilov completed several grammar works.

4. THE MISSIONARYORTHODOX CHURCHPACIFIC REGION, ANDAND THE FURTHERALPHABETWORK OF THE RUSSIANIN SIBERIA, THE NORTHNORTH AMERICA (ALASKA),SPREAD OF THE CYRILLIC

In 1582, the Cossack ataman Yermak Timofeyevich conqueredthe capital of the Siberian Tatar Khanate, and thus began theSiberian conquest. It took a long time; for example, the Chukchipeople fought about 150 years against the Russian invasion butfinally surrendered (by the end ofthe 19th century the conquest of48


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The Russians sold Alaska to the Americans in 1867. Howevertheir culture, religion, and alphabet stayed there, among the nativepeoples (the Aleut, the Inuit or Eskimos, and the Tlingit), and evenwere better accepted than in Siberia where the influence of Islamand Buddhism was strong. In the Yupik Eskimo dialect, the wordfor a white person is still Kass'aq, a derivalive of Cossack.At the end of the lgth and at the beginning of the 20th century,religious Cyrillic books were published in Aleut, Yupik, and

Tlingit (first, in the old medieval script). Today, in Alaska, there isstill an Orthodox Church - All Saints of North America OrthodoxChurch. The native Cyrillic texts can be found in its website(http://www.asna.ca/alaskq). An example of the Cyrillic Tlingitalphabet can be found in the text Indication of the Pathway into theKingdom of Heaven (in Russian -Vrcasauie nymu 67a lf,apcmeieHe6ecuoe, in Tlingit-Cyrillic - Ka-earc-wiu e6-y-my-Llu-Hu-u dmeTurcu Au-rca-y xau-me), written by the priest John Veniaminov in1901.

5. REFORMS AND SPREAD OF THE CYRILLICALPHABET AFTER 1917A. RUSSIA

After Lenin came to power in Russia in 191'/, an orthographicreform discarded some letters (*, i) from the Russian Cyrillicalphabet, which was imposed on many European. Siberian andMiddle-Asian peoples that lived in the state. Some of them did nothave writing systems before (see further); others used theMongolian (the Buryats), the Arabic (the Tatars, the Avars, theKazakh), the Georgian (the Abkhaz, paft of the Ossetians) or theGreek scripts (the Alans or Ossetians, the Gagauz).

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;g {h $J*t }|"fit ,*&.g= *l#;lr *a *"*l-f S *,Krl 6p-n,r.lb-I,-,, *.*li .J.'"J,IJ., ,-/S= ds*rl ,gii *J* or"k ,;il,.J.rl v"i-",ts *dlr L$;r r,f*-!*cgJ!r* h}"r* "i **h --,p$pdW.-lI *"irE .rb,iJrr*b {ktu *Kgl {fu ,* *H.I-f r.,t-.'r-"r;' 'J*S r*.1-lg! t,J*# *f *rJt* CrLio *J36 o* o

. r**-$rl-.ii **;tIiypy,{gf Srr#s sfrH*mx* fjp n*nneu*n xic$ Srgx*r e$p,uiA dif flxsu knxucuaury fjfsil xelin knxyury. Ke*al-xla$en$lfirf4 k**armm s$nrfi q*a*-dep[nri. 0s"tr& k*rx kopkyff, "SFrsgrm r*lrtn 6!g1 6f,I*: reni4 karurw,guxxn r*prmd*mexlepfixl xe-fr* fiirc*o dygrn Uanrrnrutrr r.nf Sep[n, *pnyxru kwr$ns!" gmn kntnnxd,* *ks*r&sil&?$L

A Kazakh text in Arabic and Cyrillic scripts (Source:Wikipedia).

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Xlarrfiar


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-

hdicatiotr of the Paih$ray ilto the Kingdom of Heaver pilt lKA-BAX-II]M EB.Y.TY.U,T.}IH-I,I AIE THK,| AJ{ KA-Y XAJI-TEYKA3AHIE ITYTI4

BII)IIAPCTBIE HEEECHOEKA-BAK-rrIM EB-y-Ty-rI4-HlI-I4 AIETIdr.U AH-KA-Y XAH-TE

EECB,,qA IIPEOCB-'IIIEHHA|O I4HHOKEI{TUI

IrepeBe,4eHrrarrc. IqACTI, IIEPBA'

nElIrrEriHoE I{3AAHmCIIilXA

1901.

A Tlingit Orthodox text with explanation in Russian (Source:www.asna.ca).

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rapid decline in the number of speakers was caused by Sovietcollectivization, during which use of the language was prohibitedin schools in the 1930s.

B. UKRAINEUkraine enjoyed a brief period of independence from 1918 to

1919 (when an official Ukrainian orthography was accepted), thenit was taken over by the USSR and declared a Soviet Republic. In1925,the Ukrainian SSR created a Commission for the Regulationof Orthography. A standardized Ukrainian orthography andmethod for transliterating foreign words were established, acompromise between Galician and Soviet proposals, called theKharkiv Orthography, or Skrypnykivka, after Ukrainian Commissarof Education Mykola Skrypnyk. It was the first universally-adopted native Ukrainian orthography. However, in 1933, theorthographic reforms were abolished, decrees were passed to bringthe orthography steadily closer to Russian. An official orlhographywas published in Kiev in 1936, with revisions in 1945 and 1960.This orthography is sometimes called Postyshivka, after PavelPostyshev, Stalin's Russian official who oversaw the dismantlingof Ukrainization. In the meantime, the Skrypnykivka continued tobe used by Ukrainians in Galicia and the diaspora worldwide.During the period of Perestroika in the USSR, a new UkrainianOrthographic Commission was created in 1987. A revisedorthography was published in 1990. Ukraine declaredindependence in 1991.

There is a form of the Ukrainian language, called Rusyn, alsoknown in English as (Modern) Ruthenian. Some linguists treat it asa distinct language; others treat it as a dialect of Ukrainian. TheRusyn alphabet has several variants, used in Voivodina (in Serbia),Slovakia, Poland, and Ukraine. In Crimea and Bessarabia, several55


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Turkic peoples accepted the Cyrillic alphabet (the Tatars, theKaraims, the Gagauz, etc.).C. BELORUSSIADuring the early 20th century, many Belarusian publicationswere printed in both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. After theSoviet invasion of eastem Belorussia in 1919-1920, the Cyrillic

alphabet became the only alphabet used in official writings.Meanwhile, in western Belorusssia, the Latin and Cyrillicalphabets continued to coexist, though after 1943 the majority ofpublications were printed in the Cyrillic alphabet. BelorussianClassical Orthography or Tarashkievitsq is a variant of theorlhography of the Belorussian language, based on the literarynorm of the modern Belorusian language, the first normalization ofwhich was made by B. Tara5kievid in 1918, and was in official usein Belorussia until the Belorussian orthography reform of 1933,which brought the Belorussian language closer to Russian -Narkomovka.

Since 1933, Tarashkievica has been used only informally inBelorussia and by Belorussian diaspora abroad since the legitimacyof the reform of grammar in 1933 was adopted neither by certainpolitical groups in West Belorussia, nor by the emigrants, who leftthecountry after 1944. During the Perestroika period of the late1980s, the movement for the returrr of Tarashkievica in Belorussiawas initiated. Belorussia gained independence in 1991. In 2005,with the publishing of lhe Belorussian Classical Orthography, themodern normalization of Tarashkievica was made. This proposalwas adopted by some media, including the Belorussian Wikipedia.In fact, two Belorussian orthographies are used today.

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In the 1980s, attempts were made for standardizing the WestPolesian micro language - a transitional form between Belorussianand Ukrainian.D. MOLDOVA AND TRANSNISTRIA

The historical Romanian Cyrillic alphabet was used in Moldovauntil 1918. A version of theCyrillic alphabetwas used in theSoviet Republic of Moldova from 1924-32, and from 1940 until1989 (except 1941-44). The standard alphabet now is Latin.However, the Cyrillic alphabet is still used in Transnistria. Theofficial languages there are Russian, Ukrainian, and Moldavian(with Cyrillic alphabet).

E. THE CAUCASUSIn the 1Oth century, the Arabs called the Caucasus The mountainof the languages due to the numerous languages spoken there (insome cases, it is difficult to differentiate between a language and adialect). Some of the peoples in the region, such as the Avars, usedthe Arabic letters as early as the 11th century AD; others, such as

the Abkhaz, made attempts to write with Georgian letters.Excluding Georgian and Armenian, most languages in theCaucasus use or have used the Cyrillic alphabet in the 20th century.On the whole, many languages in the Soviet Union have changedtheir alphabets several times: Arabic ) Latin ) Cyrillic )LatinlArabic. For instance, until 1928, Kumyk also was writtenwith the Arabic alphabet. Between 1928 and 1938, it was writtenwith the Latin alphabet, and with the Cyrillic alphabet since then.The Ossetians (or Alans) have been using a standardized Cyrillicalphabet since 1844 (created by Andreas Sjdgren). However, a

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Cyrillic Cqtechism was printed in Ossetic much earlier - it 1798.In 1923-38 this Indo-Iranian people used the Latin script. Later,since 1938, the Northern Ossetians have been using the Cyrillic,and the South Ossetians used the Georgian script up to 1954, andthen changed to Cyrillic, too.Alongside with major languages, like Azeri, and to less extent,Chechen or Ossetic, there are languages spoken in only one village.For example, Archi is a Norlheast Caucasian language with about1000 speakers in the village of Archi in the Dagestan. Some of thelanguages even have no standard written form - the DagestanianAkhvakh. It is used mainly in homes, while Avar and Russian areused elsewhere. Since the 1940s a number of linguistics studies ofAkhvakh have been undeftaken, and a few texts in Akhvakh havebeen published including a collection of stories in 1949.In the 20thcentury, the Caucasian Ubykh language and the Indo-EuropeanKilit became extinct, the latter being similar to Talysh, which is

still spoken by a small population.Although the creation of Cyryllic based alphabets for the nativeCaucasian and Asian peoples was a great achievement for Russianlinguists, these alphabets are not quite successful, and in manycases the creators deliberately designated one sound by differentsigns in different variants of the same language (Kabardian andAdyghe, for instance).

F. SIBERIA

Almost all native languages in Siberia use the Cyrillic alphabetalthough for some of them it was invented.after the 1990s, andmost of them are close to extinction (excluding widespreadlanguages like Yakut or Even). Ket is the last surviving member of

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the Yenisei family of languages, and is spoken by about 550people along the Yenisei River and its tributaries in Central Siberia.Its Cyrillic-based system was developed in the 1980s by G. K.Vemer and G. H. Nikolayeva. Northem Yukaghir is spoken byabout 150 people, while Southem Yukaghir has fewer than 50speakers. The Yukaghir languages were first written in the 1970susing a spelling system using the Cyrillic alphabet devised byGavril Kurilov, a native speaker of Tundra Yukaghir. BothYukaghir languages have been taught to some extent in schoolssince the 1980s.

Itelmen is a Chukotko-Kamchatkan language with fewer than100 speakers in the Kamchatka Peninsula in Siberia. There is noAleut primer even now, the only Cyrillic book in Aleut, a schooldictionary, was published in the 1990s. In Outer Manchuria (theregion of the Amur river), there are several small peoples, like theOrok and the Orochi peoples (both less than 100 persons innumber), and several more. The Cyrillic alphabet first has beenused for descriptions of their languages, and later, in the period2008-2010, materials for learning these languages were published.One of the newest Cyrillic alphabets is the Negidal - its alphabetwas created in2009, and in the next year, a manual for the primaryschool grades was published.

A very interesting case is that of the Soyot people. Originallythey spoke a Uralic language. Then they were assimilated by theTurkic population of Siberia, and later - by the Buryats. For therevitalization of the Soyot language, in 2001, a Cyrillic script wasdesigned. Two years later, a Soyot-Buryat-Russian dictionaryappeared. In 2005, the Soyot language was introduced in theprimary school grades.

G. MIDDLE ASIA

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The region is inhabited by a number of peoples, some of themquite numerous, like the Uzbek or the Kazakh.In 1927, the Arabicscript was banned and the Latin alphabet was imposed for writingKazakh. The Latin alphabet was in turn replaced by the Cyrillicalphabet in 1940.Uyghur is another Turkic language, with about 10 millionspeakers mainly in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region ofChina, and also in Afghanistan. The Uyghur Cyrillic alphabet was

devised around 1937 in the Soviet Union, because they wanted analtemative to the Latin-derived alphabet they had devised someeleven years earlier, in 1926, as they feared a romanization of theUyghur language would strengthen the relationship of the Uyghursto Turkey. After the proclamation of the Communist People'sRepublic of China in 1949, Russian linguists began helpingthe Chinese with codifying the various minority languages ofChina and promoting Cyrillic-derived alphabets, and thus theUyghurs of China also came to use the Uyghur Siril Ydziqi. Asthe tensions between the Soviet Union and China grew stronger, in1959, the Chinese devised Uyghur Pinyin Yziqi for Uyghurs, andeventually restored the Arabic script to write Uyghur to the presentday. The Cyrillic script continued to be used in the Soviet Union,however, and is currently used in Kazakhstan.

Dungan is a variety of Chinese spoken in Kyrgyzstan,Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and written in Cyrillic letters. Thereare approximately 50 000 speakers. A Cyrillic alphabet for theDaur people in China was invented and used for two years: from1956 to 1958, when it was abandoned, like the Uyghur one.

In Pamir, there are a number of small peoples of Indo-Iranianorigin, too. Some of them still don't have writing systems despitethe attemps to introduce Latin or Cyrillic alphabet among them(Yazgulyam, for instance), among others (Shughni), there is alimited use of Cyrillic letters, and for othefs, translation of theGospel of Luke have been made both in Latin and Cyrillicalphabets * for Rusahni, Wakhi. More such translations could be


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Ivan Momchilov's Grammar from 1847 (Source: http://www.1ibsu.uni,sofl a.bg/s1avica./rarafontes. html).

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,OBEH ,.EAXTAfl E !- 6rgrme ruacmau8u 8u no*e-aa8am usgamAumo Ho nrp8uxy Hac qutaHcko-or]raapchu pe{-xuk,HageBaur cg cpgqarna c xeroga 6u paokpus iguH c8nm. npu.kaggx u pouaxmuqiH, ctolgx.-6aul crc c6or Oecea u u8r-mucm eguk, om koiimo Sesku aStnoiaxua u omHgcrl cbc cagccu no xnkon g|!xa: pona-tlu!!-Hu. ar.r^-npurmOr, ga&'u'fik."6ax-ulacmue,.,Pg,{xukum crgrp*a gyr.u. cbr-paHBXU 8 npukaaku u' ngclnr,cr6uparu ynopumo u c Aro6ogkrrr eguka.3. mrpro8clu loxm.lmu:AID .Hogemmcm6o Cnakmtp'f 0OO COOltR. y^. -Xtpnctu'1!.,mea.: 66 21 1 2

Yashar Malikov's Romani-Bulgarian dictionary.phrase Be happy ! in capital letters in Romani (Photo:

The back cover with theIvan Iliev).

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I. YUGOSLAVIA AND THE POST-YUGOSLAVIANSTATESIn 1918, the Serbo-Croat-Slovene Kingdom was created, and in1929, its name was changed to Yugoslavia. In 1954,linguists andscholars signed the Novi Sad Literary Agreement, which made theLatin and the Cyrillic scripts equally acceptable in the country.

However, only the Serbs used both alphabets in fact, while theCroats and the Bosnians preferred the Latin one. Albanians inYugoslavia who were educated in Serbian schools used Cyrillicletters to communicate in Albanian during lhe 20th century.However, this was restricted to vulgar usage only. Yugoslaviafinally fell apart in 2003, and several Slavic states replaced it:Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia,Macedonia. Nowadays, the Cyrillic alphabet is used in thefollowing of these countries: Macedonia, Serbia (alongside withthe Latin alphabet), Bosnia and Herzegovina (informally),Montenegro (alongside with the Latin alphabet).

The standard Macedonian orthography appeared in 1945 on thepages of New Macedonia newspaper. The modem Macedonianalphabet was created by Krum Toshev, Krume Kepeski, andBlazhe Koneski. It has 3l letters (unlike the Bulgarian, which has30), and mostly resembles the Serbian alphabet (typical for theMacedonian alphabet are the letters S, K, and f).The first Montenegrin Cyrillic alphabet appeared in 2009,designed by Milenko Perovich, Lyudmila Vasileva, and YosipSilich. With the two new letters, c and 3, added to it in 2011, itcontains totally 32 letters.6. THE WITHDRAWAL FROM THE CYRILLICALPHABET AT THE END OF THE 20th CENTURY

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this is not professional. Imagine what would happen, if a scientistfrom Bulgaria or Russia cited in the same way the titles he or shehas used. Then, instead of Jacobson, S. A Practical Grammar ofYupik..., for instance, there would be ,{trceilxndctn, C. T)npeKmuKbl zpeut tQ rcnuK ...Isn't it funny?7. TRADITIONS AND NEW INVENTIONS

It is difficult to say if some day the Cyrillic alphabet will betotally out of use. Nowadays, alongside with the use of the civilscript in everyday life, and the use of the Medieval Cyrillic scriptin the Orthodox typography, we can see how the latter evenpenetrates the internet. A special mixture of civil-script letters andmedieval letters can be seen in Wikipedia (http://cu.wikipedia.org).If you visit Wikipedia's main page, you will see the inscriptionIOEP'B TIPVITI/ Bb BIIKI4IIAII; 'Welcome to Wikipedia'.The Cyrillic letters are also used for writing the so-calledPadonkaffsky jargon (nadowrcaQ$crcuil or ott6aucrcuiresae or ilasotx nadourcaQf) a cant language developedby padonki ofRunet. It started as an Internet slang language. Thelanguage is based on phonetic spelling ofthe Russian language andsometimes transliteration of Ukrainian language, and oftenuses profanity. It combines complex orthography with creative useof idiomsand literary expression. It is often used to expressdisagreement, amusement, or to create political satire. A similarjargon existed among young people in Russia even in the 19thcentury. In one of his novels, Y. Tynyanov narrates about theyoung idle prince Obolenskiy, who wrote in such a manner:fapaeoit caced saeym eHn KHncb Cepzeil A6cmeucxoit n utman-pomMucmp eycapcKoao norKa cu)rcy uepm oduu 3Heem 3a tumo6ymmo 3a Kqpmelrc u pyJxemKy a araeueitwee rumo no6unrcouaudupa a HqucLnbHurcy dueusuu 6apouy 6yd6epey Hanucel

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aQu4uanauoe nucbJwo tamo oH xonyit t1apcxoil, cuden e Ceun1opeuycrce zod tlenoit, cKont2Ko npodepcrcam e emoti nue 6ox sHeem.Another experimental innovation is the creation of artificialSlavic and non-Slavic languages, in the way Esperanto was created(the Esperanto alphabet officially has only Latin version but, inSoviet times, it was even printed in Cyrillic letters, because it wasto hnd type-writers with Latin letters).(Cnoeancrlr or C:ronjancr


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Lingua Franca Nova (abbreviated LFN) lsan auxiliary constructed language created by C. George Boereeof Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania. Its vocabulary is basedon the Romance languages French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish,and Catalan. The grammar is highly reduced and similar to theRomance creoles. The language has phonemic spelling, using 22letters of either the Latin or Cyrillic scripts. Sample (the Lord'sprayer): Hoc lladpe, Ke ec eH cuero, caHme ec my HoMe, my peHua6a 6eHu, my 6otre oa ec Qada, eH mepo KoMo eH cuero...

II. NOTES ON CYRILLIC HAND-WRITTEN STYLESAND TYPOGRAPHY

1. HAND-WRITTEN CYRILLIC STYLESThere were four types of medieval hand-written Cyrillicscript: uncial, semi-uncial, quickscript, and ujaz (embroidery style),between which were transitional stages. These scripts could useeither only capital letters (majuscules), or only small letters(minuscules), besides the calligraphic letters (like the letter K inthe picture below). The oldest script was the uncial - a majusculescript, written entirely in capital letters, commonly used from the3rd to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes. The Slavicuncial derived from the Greek majuscule of the 9th century AD. Inthe 12th century popular uncial scripts appeared, and the majusculeItalic script was invented for writing notes, signatures, etc.The Slavic uncial script developed into another majusculescript - the semi-uncial, which later became the basis for thetypographical pre-civil Cyrillic script. For example, the DubrovnikCharter of the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan-Assen 'II (from 1230) was

written in semi-uncial. In the l5th century, it totally replaced theuncial.68


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Middle Bulgarian liturgical uncial script (with a calligraphic letter K, andembroidery style in the title) from the Middle Bulgarian Tsar lvan-Alexander's 4 Gospels (Source: lxypona 1981).

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A Middle Bulgarian semi-uncial script (Source: frouuen 1964).

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Russian Cyrillic quickscript (Source: Kapcr


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lli(rftJA{TR

Ukrainian Cyrillic quickscript: Bohdan Khmelnytsky's signature(Source: Wikipedia).

,/" ,6{ ,t'8 ,fi ,2f ,&," ,7'C*,3p ,//uHand-written forms of the Modern Russian Cyrillic letters (Source:Wikipedia).

*f#tn5bo /tec

2. TYPOGRAPHIC AND COMPUTER CYRILLICSTYLES

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Although Gutenberg (1394 -1468) had as model only hand-written scripts, his first typographic scripts looked different fromthe old hand-written letters. During the Renaissance period (thesecond half of the 15th century), attempts began to design scriptswith pair of compasses and a ru1er. Since then, a lot of scripts havebeen created, not only typographic, but also cartographic, placard,decorative, etc. One of the first typographs, who made newprinting scripts, in the 15u' century. were Aldus Manutius, ClaudeGaramond, etc. The hrst typographic Russian scripts resembled theold semi-uncial script, for example, Ivan Fyodorov's printed books(the script of Statute of Lithuania was a rare example of a Slavictypographic quickscript; besides, in Russia, some scientific bookswere printed in typographic uncial). The Russian semi-uncial wasused in religious and secular literature till 1708, when the civilscript was invented for the laic books, and the typographic semi-uncial was identified for the religious works only. In designing thecivil script, Peter I was helped by Ilya Kopievsky (or Kopievich).Between 1699-1700, he worked with the Dutch Yan Tessing inpublishing Slavic books, and in 1700, he opened his owntypography in Amsterdam.

The Cyrillic typography passed directly from the medievalstage to the late Baroque, without a Renaissance phase as inWestem Europe: New Roman cursive, also called minusculecursive or later Roman cursive, developed from old Roman cursive,and later evolved into the medieval script known as Carolingianminuscule, which was used in 9th century France and Germany inthe imperial chancery, and whose revival in the Renaissance (byPetrarca and other writers) forms the basis of the modern Latinlowercase letters, which Peter I the Great took as a model for thecivil script. However, the first models for Peter's civil scriptappeared even before him. With the purpose of stylization, originilscripts were created and used in Ukrainian engravings from the

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17th century and, later, in Petro Mohyla's books. Peter I the Greatonly legalized this practice. The westemized letter forms which hemandated to be used in the early 18th century, were largelyadopted in the other languages that use the script. Thus, unlike themajority of Modem Greek fonts modem Cyrillic fonts are muchthe same as modem Latin fonts of the same font family.

x&-x li{etst q,:r u tL$srTil S{tul oxgexxTe ;l31e 5c3 {-3 $-s-,

O rxrqu* f.-oarLnl Jrt'ri'lrr:t rl'r.'n" lll;i:'r-prrrl-i :. r r'! :. N *r'tr .; I "og.*f1. .jLtr li *r: n ;r; q rr ;r ;r r^.rJ ..

Carolingian minuscule (Source: fronven 1964).

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A title written in Russian calligraphic Viaz' script (Source: Wikipedia).

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The modem typographic cursive originated from the hand-written minuscule cursive. Since it was very typical for Italyduring the Renaissance, in France and England it was called italic(script), unlike the upright roman (script). The cursive variant ofthe typographic civil script has been used since 1734 (for the firsttime - in the newspaper Sankt Petersburg //ews). The form of thetypographic cursive first was similar to the hand-written cursivebut with time it changed under the influence of the roman script.

a9:.i!:, L'$.. I1. '

nUtlftIililF

fm $, ,t4nt i"l& jrF*t 4"t irld 1;{lr Inr rst, Jx n1,nl. lr{l lii;

Tessing's Cyrillic lbnt (Source: Wikipedia).

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a 0oage0 u6ufr'K&rslronpfilfsfurtlnubbrbotos

123+5b78|lGothic Style Cyrillic script (Source: Wikipedia).

f-Serbian & Macedoniancursive variant forms.Russian norms 0n the lefl.Serbian and Maaed0niannorms on the right.Note that only one va*ant,the lowe.case lbe/ occursin bolh r0man and italic styles.The other variarts occuronty in the italic style.

Russian and Serbian Macedonian Romanhttp :// j ankoj s.tripod.com).

and Italic letters (Source:

66TI,qgrIuTllt

6-6*t-,q-o-rI-n-T_

771 -

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Similarly to Latin fonts, italic and cursive types of manyCyrillic letters are very different from their upright roman types:a/a, 6l5,nle, rle, ald, ele, etc.In certain cases, the correspondencebetween uppercase and lowercase glyphs does not coincide inLatin and Cyrillic fonts: for example, italic Cyrillic m is thelowercase counterpart of Z not of M. In Serbian, as well as inMacedonian, some italic and cursive letters are different fromthose used in other languages.

Nowadays, the design of new Cyrillic scripts is going on. InRussia, several famous font designers, such as Vladimir Efimov,Artemiy Lebedev, Olga Florenskaya, Sergey Serov, and YuriGordon work in this field. Throughout the world, there arecompetitions on designing scripts. One of them, the Granshancompetition, was initiated by the Ministry of Culture of Armenia in2008 and received woldwide popularity. The Ministry of Cultureof the Republic of Armenia and the Typographic Society Munich(Typographische Gesellschaft Munchen) intended to enhance theimportance of other script systems, beginning with Armenian,Cyrillic and Greek. Later, Indic and Arabic text typeface categorieswere included in the competition. In addition, an internationaltriennial of stage poster was held in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 201 l.

Various Cyrillic scripts can be found on the internet - forexample, at http;//www.fontyukle.net/en/I,cyrillic or athttp://funts.ru/help/languagel (in the latter, they are arranged inalphabetical order according to the language). Typographic ChurchSlavonic fonts are available at http://irmologion.rufonts.html. Athttp : //graphics -video. ru/photoshopfonts ?page: l, fu.rny Cyrillicscripts, more Church Slavonic, and Eastern-style Cyrillic scriptscan be seen.

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A book on Bulgarian Cyrillic epigraphy (Photo: Ivan Iliev).

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T*paoi AARIOMAA Susumu ENDOFinland Japan

Stasys EIDRIGEVICIUSPoland

Posters .from the Intemational triennial of stage poster The LettersBulgaria with the Cyrillic letters V and @ (Photo: Ivan lliev).

Rerman KALARUSPolarcd

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Eastem-Style Russian Cyrillic Scripts (Source: http://graphics-video.ru).

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lllpuprn fonro,SFYflfr :uiql:4rf#Sfi0ltgX0lri

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NNH T.ItrEYIIICitt11,,1'\, )'rr, r' rIr,'J .i),nl'r:6r(,,r^. \-U ' \tlliili'rtrll

ff.G"myreKmH/60 2o{t}t/1 cht lhrftwftxo,uy

m-bpct{5ilUltIJ E AI4^('14I0IftH/rd(MUl,4lqK,

I

FOa'nn 3Ei[R

H{aP no4 ne-ne4rrraIrsIsap

ffky6 l{o.nacAfrBbHXoylrjrclcn H

1(o,,rgye,\Tfdwcv,tWA g;*.tarna l)CDL,M nI u 'P/!,Lrgopu,trPuoH*

Bulgarian Cyrillic scripts (Source: I4oHuen 1964).

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The development of some Cyrillic computer typefaces fromLatin ones has also contributed to the visual Latinization ofCyrillic type. Modern Cyrillic fonts, as well as Latin ones, haveroman (upright type) and italic or cursive type.

frfigfr3ffi

Funny Russian scripts fbr children (Source: http://graphics-video.ru).

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A special system, called Unicode is used for facilitatingcomputer writing in Cyrillic (and other scripts, as well). It is acomputing industry standard for the consistent encoding,representation and handling of text, expressed in most of theworld's writing systems. Developed in conjunction with theUniversal Character Set standard, and published in book form asThe Unicode Standard, the latest version of Unicode consists of arepertoire ofmore than 110 000 characters covering 100 scripts.., l\To etAl xoTAUIe c'BTl4fl sie sceagzxnre,rm . *tuz . crrroge n HioNhX.u . gcKtsr AA H4NCTZ 4eff.s r9'tsx ,'tHn.l NA noAoBhe r Aocc^.t n0BeA.tNt.1Mh,

-i_14 LeMffi . l, BC'h .8)l{e B[,. c.tHfrr+]o c'8M NA f0A3nnqm dcen nAtsTH

noAABArAr.r c'tM c'NfiqjroMoy r x^'hsa Ba caN'tAs noc^oyuABaMoAtTBar NArtrrA r n0c7,Ar.1 cB06 sArBNhe NA C'tMNA CH BtsA,fACTh'B cH^orfi cTAro TB0r0 AXA I oyMNoxh iKHTA 4eMl] r Al.tBA--ceAhNAA. SAACAoBH AA BC'tMb OAotAqlACMl.l fABh TBoH i BCh AOBOAtsllMrnr+ r4szrraKoyeMi so *'trcoi.,rs A.bA't BAA4'B .3 T^, uo n,,'lqlh MHIoY H cnAca AUAMa NAluHMs r rcB'h :-

A computer text, written in one of the moderr Old Bulgarian fonts (Source:Touuena 2006).

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19 - Archi (apwammeu ulam);20 Assyrian Neo-Aramaic or Aisor (tuwaua d-amypaile or ruutaHaxama);2l - Avar (uaz[apyt aaql);22 - Azerba4ani or Azeri (asapdajrtau dwu);23 - Balkar - with 23b - Karachay (x'uapaua -uanK'bap mat or maynym*);24 Balochi (6anyuu or 6anovu);25 - Bashkir (6aumopm mete);26 - Budukh (6ydad ues);27 -Buryat (Sypaad xercn);28 - Chechen (uoxuu u nomm);29 - Chukchi (lutztopaeem4aeu iluryuttiu,l);30 -Chulym (tuynawrua or unc munu);31 - Chuvash (udeaut udnxu);32 -Dargwa (dapzau :'tes);33 - Daur (in Latin letters: Ddwddr Zu);34 - Dungan (^yt*y yau or ucrcynwoanu xya);35 - Enets (ouaii 6azaau);36 - Even (seedat mopeu ot opantmbt mopeu) with 36b - Evenki orEvenk (:esdoz myp5u);37 - Gagauz (zaeays dutu or eaeaysua);38 - Godoberi (etuddunlu,uu4t1u);39 - Hunzib (zuouxt'oc uattl);40 - Ingush (elatzlail nomm)l41 - Itelmen (trmeuuen);42 - Kalmyk with 42b Oirat (xanauz rcenulin Latin letters: Oyirad kelen);43 - Karaim (xz,apair mtmu);4 4 - Kar akalp ak Qjap a t9 a"t n a rc m tu u) ;45 - Karelian (rcapntau xuenu);46 -Kazakh (ryasatt mhi);47 -Ket (ocmuteauua ya);48 Khakas (xaxac mi:ti);49 - Khanty (in Latin letterc: xaumu acnu);50 - Khinalug (xaamtu utt4l);51 - Khwarshi (axutmxt'o);52 - Kilit (?);53 - Komi-Zyrian (xottu rore) with 53b - Komi-Permyak (nepeu xotrurcwe);54 - Koryak (uut,vwnz'utu or uae"uarcaa');

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55 - Kubachi (zlyzz6yzau);56 - Kumyk (xtyuyxt mur);57 - Kurdish (xopdu or xypuaudcru or copauu);58 - Kyrgyz (rcotpeurc mwtu);59 - Ladino or Judaeo-Spanish or Sephardic (taduuo);60 - Lak (tarcxy uas);6l - Lezgi (neszu ulan);62 - Lingua Franca Nova (nuueea $pauxa uoea);63 Lithuanian (nilemyen ru,t6a);64 - Mansi (uauucu or MoaHbcb: in Latin letters: maan's'i latyng);65 - Mari Westem or Hill with 65b - Mari Eastern or Medow (rcatpamxapur itr"in,t taiIonutx aaptii tiur:nre);66 - Meskhetian Turkish (ayatcxa mj)pxvcicu);67 - Mongolian or Khalkha Mongolian (uouzot xet);68 - Mordvin: Erzya with 68b Moksha (epsnnu rcetul"uorcuteuu xata);69 Nanai (uauail)i70 Negidal (ueeuda);71 - Nenets (ueuet4n' eada and netuay eama);72 -Nganasan(un');73 -Nivkh (tuexzy du(t or uuueeyzyn);74 Nogai (uozaii muwl;75 - Oroch (opouu);76 - Orok (vimuma);77 - Ossetic or Ossetian (upou eesaz or duzopon reesaz);78 - Romani (pouanu uruu6);79 Romanian with 79b Moldovan or Moldavian (in Latin lelters: limba

r omiind Ituu 6a u ot d o aeuac xe);80 - Rushani (in Latin letlers: Rihun ziv);81 -Rutu1 (uuala6uu.rdu vlet or uwxla6anrc);82 - Sami: Kildin Sami with 82b Ter Sami (xu:rtm cdau rc ttlcaytxlt r. r)'.83 - Selkup (tuotayytvtatm amd ot uyx4bt"tb WMum ambt or clcc! yyttum

ambt or wdw yytvtatm ambt or ryil yyuutm amat);84 - Shor (utop mu:tu);85 - Shughni (xyzuu - ?, in Latin letters: xtrynun ziv);86 - Slovio;87 - Soyot (coiiatm mur or myt ha mam);88 - Tabassaran (ma6acapau ulcut);89 - Tajik (sa56uu moHuKil or Qopctiu mo1uxfr);

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90 - Talysh (monanua sorcou);9l Tat(syyu mamu or 3yyH napcu);92 - Tatar: Kazan Tatar with 92b Kreshen Tatar (.tatarga or mamapmerc); wtth 92c - Crimean Tatar (rtatputNmamap mu,u.t), wilh 92d -Krymchak (xtpuruuax mutnuur) and 92e Urum $pytt mwnu); with 92f -Astrakhan Tatar; with 92g - Alabugat Tatar, 92h - Tobol Tatar(ce6epmamap men or ce6ep men), and 92i - Baraba T atar (ce6epmamap merlor ce6ep men):93 - Tlingit (in Latin letters: Lingit);94 - Tsakhur (qlalxua uuz);95 - Tsez Qles .veq);96 -Turkmen (mlpxrreu duru);97 - Tuvan ( marea don S.98 - Tofalar or Tofa (mot'@a dw);99 - Ubykh (neara1ta):100 Udi $,,dun uys);101 - Udihe or Udekhe or Udege (opouu - ?);102 Udmurt S,Duypm w,m);103 - Ulch (?);104 - Uyghur Qthaypua or yit"yp mu"tu):105 - Uzbek (ts6ex mwu);106 - Veps (in Latin letterc: vepscin kel);107 - Votic (in Latin leIlers: vad'd'aa ceeli);108 - Wakhi (xux sux);109 Yaghnobi (neno5fi sueox);I l0 - Yakut or Saka or Aka (caxa m atta) with I 1 0b - Dolgan (dyn5au 1;I I I - Siberian Yupik or Yuit Q,,u,asuz,uum and Hbt6yK,az,Mum) with 1 1 lb- Alaskan Yupik (in Latin letters: Yugtun), and 111c - Kodiak Yupik (inLatin letters: Alutiiq);ll2 Yulraghir: Norlhem and Southem (eadyu aplylodyu acrc1,y:).

Below: A teacher and activist from Bulgaria (Svetla Ilieva) introduces theBulgarian alphabet to Korean pupils in 2007-2008, as member of IINESCO'sCross-Cultural Awareness Programme. In the background - the Bulgariannational flag, the Bulgarian letters and their Korean counterpafts: Al | , Bl a,Hl :, Ol I @hoto: Ivan Iliev).

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Documents

Short History of the Cyrillic Alphabet - 2