Cyrillic and Glagolitic. Cyrillic letters. Cyrillic and Glagolitic - Slavic alphabet

The alphabet (Cyrillic and Glagolitic) is a collection in a definite order of all signs expressing individual sounds of the language. This system of written symbols has developed quite independently in the territory of the ancient peoples. The Slavic alphabet "Glagolitic", presumably, was created first. What is the mystery of the ancient collection of written signs? What was the Glagolitic and Cyrillic? What is the meaning of the main characters? About this further.

Secret of the system of written symbols

As you know, the Cyrillic alphabet and the Glagolitic alphabet are Slavic alphabets. The very name of the meeting was obtained from a combination of "az" and "beeches." These symbols denoted the first two letters "A" and "B". It should be noted quite an interesting historical fact. Ancient letters were scratched originally on the walls. That is, all symbols were represented in the form of graffiti. Approximately in the 9th century, the first symbols appeared on the walls of the churches of Pereslavl. Two centuries later the Cyrillic alphabet (pictures and interpretation of signs) was inscribed in the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev.

Russian Cyrillic alphabet

It should be said that this collection of ancient written symbols still well corresponds to the phonetic structure of the Russian language. This is primarily due to the fact that the sound composition of modern and ancient vocabulary had not so many differences, and all of them were not significant. In addition, should pay tribute to the originator of the system - Constantine. The author carefully took into account the phonemic (sound) composition of the old speech. In the Cyrillic alphabet, I only have capital letters. A variety of signs - upper and lowercase characters - were first introduced by Peter in 1710-m.

Main Signs

The Cyrillic alphabet "az" was the initial. She denoted the pronoun "I". But the root meaning of this symbol is the word "initially", "beginning" or "start." In some writings one can find "az", used in the meaning of "one" (as numerals). The letter of the Cyrillic alphabet "beeches" is the second sign of the symbol collection. Unlike the "az", it has no numerical value. "Buki" is "to be" or "to be." But, as a rule, this symbol was used in future times. For example, "boudi" - "let it be," and "forthcoming or future" - "bouduschy." Cyrillic alphabet "Vedi" is considered one of the most interesting of the entire collection. This symbol corresponds to the number 2. "Vedi" has several meanings - "own", "know" and "know."

The highest part of the system of written signs

It should be said that researchers, studying the outlines of symbols, came to the conclusion that they were fairly simple and understandable, which allowed them to be widely used in cursive writing. In addition, any Slav is quite easily, without special difficulties could depict them. Many philosophers, meanwhile, see in the numerical arrangement of symbols the principle of harmony and triad. It is the person who must achieve it, striving to know the truth, good and light.

The message of Constantine to the descendants

It should be said that the Cyrillic and Glagolitic were an invaluable creation. Constantine, along with his brother Methodius, not only structured the written signs, but created a unique collection of knowledge, calling for striving for knowledge, perfection, love and wisdom, avoiding enmity, anger, envy, leaving only light. At one time it was believed that the Cyrillic and Glagolitic were created almost simultaneously. However, this was not the case. According to a number of ancient sources, the Glagolitic became the first. It was this collection that was first used to translate church texts.

Glagolitic and Cyrillic. Comparison. Data

Cyrillic and Glagolitic were created at different times. This is indicated by several facts. Glagolitsa, along with the Greek alphabet, became the basis for the subsequent compilation of the Cyrillic alphabet. When studying the first collection of written signs, scientists note that the outline is more archaic (in particular, in the study of the "Kiev leaflets" of the 10th century). While the Cyrillic alphabet, as mentioned above, is phonetically more approximate to the modern language. The first entries in the form of graphic images of written characters are dated 893-th year and are approximated to the sound and lexical structure of the language of the southern ancient peoples. For a great antiquity the Glagolitsians are also indicated by palimpsests, which were manuscripts on parchment, where the old text was scraped and a new one was written on top. The Glagolitic was scratched everywhere in them, and then the Cyrillic alphabet was inscribed on top of it. None of the palimpsest was the opposite.

The attitude of the Catholic Church

There is information in the literature that the first collection of written symbols was compiled by Constantine the Philosopher in an ancient runic letter. There is an opinion that it could be used by Slavs in secular and sacred pagan purposes before Christianity was accepted. But nevertheless there is no evidence of this, as, indeed, the confirmation of the existence of runic writing. The Roman Catholic Church, which opposed the holding of services in the Slavic language for the Croats, characterized the Glagolitic as "Gothic writing". Some ministers openly opposed the new alphabet, saying that it was invented by the heretic Methodius, who "in that Slavonic language wrote a lot of false things against the Catholic faith."

Shape of symbols

The letters Glagolitic and Cyrillic were different from each other in their outline. In an earlier written system, the appearance of signs in some moments coincides with the hutsuri (a Georgian letter, created before the 9th century, on the basis, perhaps, of an Armenian one). The number of letters in both alphabet is the same - 38. Some characters, and the whole system of "dorisovyvaniya" small circles on the ends of the lines, in general, has a pronounced similarity with Jewish medieval cabalistic fonts and "runic" Icelandic secrecy. All these facts may not be accidental at all, since there is information that Konstantin the Philosopher read the ancient Hebrew texts in the original, that is, he was familiar with the Oriental script (this is stated in his "life"). The outline of almost all the letters of the Glagolitic, as a rule, is derived from the Greek cursive. For non-Greek symbols, the Jewish system is used. But meanwhile there are almost no symbols for exact and concrete explanations of the outlines of forms.

Matches and Differences

The Cyrillic alphabet and the Glagolitic in their most ancient versions are almost identical in composition. Only the shapes of the symbols are different. When re-printing the typographic method of verbal texts, the signs are replaced by Cyrillic. This is due primarily to the fact that today few people can recognize the older mark. But when you replace one alphabet with another one, the numerical values of the letters do not match. In a number of cases, this leads to misunderstandings. So, for example, in the Glagolitic the numbers correspond to the order of the letters themselves, and in Cyrillic the numbers are tied to those in the Greek alphabet.

Appointment of the ancient letter

As a rule, they speak of two types of Glagolitic writing. There is an older "round", also known as the "Bulgarian", and the later "angular" or "Croatian" (it is so named because it was used in the performance of worship services by Croatian Catholics until the middle of the 20th century). The number of characters in the last decreased gradually from 41 to 30 characters. In addition, there was (along with the charter book) an italic letter. The Glagolitic in Ancient Russia was practically not used - in some cases there are separate "inclusions" of Glagolitic text fragments in Cyrillic. The ancient letter was primarily intended for the transfer (transfer) of church meetings, and the surviving early Russian monuments of the household letter until the moment of adoption of Christianity (the oldest inscription is the inscription of the 1st half of the 10th century on a pot, found on the Gnezdovo Hill) are cyrillic .

Theoretical assumptions about the primacy of the creation of ancient writing

In support of the fact that the Cyrillic and Glagolitic were created at different times, several facts are said. In this case, the first was created on the basis of the second. The most ancient monument of the Slavic letter is made up of Glagolitic. Later finds contain more sophisticated texts. Cyrillic manuscripts, in addition, for a number of signs are written off from the Glagolitic. In the first grammar, spelling and syllables are presented in a more perfect form. When analyzing handwritten texts, one can see the direct dependence of the Cyrillic alphabet on the Glagolitic letter. Thus, the letters of the latter were replaced by Greek letters of similar sound . Chronological errors are observed when studying more modern texts. This is due to the fact that the Cyrillic and Glagolitic expected a different system of numerical correspondences. The numerical values of the first were oriented toward Greek writing.

Which system of written signs did Constantine make up?

According to some authors it was believed that the Philosopher first composed Glagolitic, and then, with the help of his brother Methodius, the Cyrillic alphabet. However, there is information refuting this. Constantine knew and was very fond of the Greek language. In addition, he was a missionary of the Orthodox Eastern Church. At that time, his task was to attract the Slavic people to the Greek church. In this regard, for him it was not meaningful to compose a written system that alienates the people, making it difficult for the people to understand and understand the Scriptures by those to whom the Greek language was already familiar. After the creation of a new, more sophisticated written system, it was difficult to imagine that an ancient archaic letter would become more popular. Cyrillic alphabet was more understandable, simple, beautiful and clear. It was convenient for most people. While the Glagolitic had a narrow focus and was intended to interpret sacred liturgical books. All this indicates that Constantine was engaged in the compilation of a system based on the Greek language. And later the Cyrillic alphabet, as a more convenient and simple system, replaced the Glagolitic alphabet.

The opinions of some researchers

Sreznevsky in 1848 wrote in his writings that, when evaluating the peculiarities of many Glagolik symbols, one can conclude: this letter is more archaic, and the Cyrillic alphabet is more perfect. The relationship of these systems can be traced in some form of letters, sound. But at the same time the Cyrillic alphabet became more simple and convenient. In 1766, Count Klement Grubisic published a book on the origin of the systems of written signs. In his work the author claims that the Glagolitic was created long before Christmas and therefore is a much older collection of signs than the Cyrillic alphabet. Around 1640, Rafail Lenakovich wrote a "dialogue", where he claims almost the same thing as Grubisich, but almost 125 years earlier. There are also statements of Chernoriz Khrabra (early 10th century). In his work On Inscriptions, he emphasizes that the Cyrillic alphabet and the Glagolitic have significant differences. In his texts, Chernoriz Hrabr testifies to the existing discontent with the system of written signs created by the brethren Constantine and Methodius. At the same time, the author quite clearly points out that it was Cyrillic, and not Glagolitic, speaking of the fact that the first was created before the second. Some of the researchers, evaluating the outlines of certain signs ("uh", for example), do other than the conclusions described above. So, according to some authors, first the Cyrillic alphabet was created, and only then the Glagolitic.

Conclusion

Despite the rather large number of controversial opinions about the appearance of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets, the importance of the written system of written signs is enormous. Thanks to the appearance of the collection of handwritten signs, people were able to read and write. In addition, the creation of the brothers Constantine and Methodius was an invaluable source of knowledge. Along with the alphabet, a literary language was formed. Many words and today are found in various related dialects - Russian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and other languages. Along with the new system of written symbols, the perception of the people of antiquity also changed - for the creation of the Slavic alphabet was closely connected with the adoption and dissemination of the Christian faith, the abandonment of ancient primitive cults.