The Cyrillic alphabet, named after Saint Cyril, was developed from the Greek alphabet and is used for Slavic and some non-Slavic languages. It became the preferred method of writing for Slavic languages by the 12th century. The alphabet has undergone changes, including a Westernization by Tsar Peter the Great. The feast day of Saints Cyril and Methodius is celebrated in Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic countries, and some countries have national holidays in their honor. Some languages, such as Azerbaijani, Moldovan, and Uzbek, have switched from Cyrillic to Latin alphabets.
The Cyrillic alphabet is a family of alphabets used for a variety of Slavic and some non-Slavic languages, including almost all languages of the former Soviet Union. Cyrillic has been the third official alphabet of the European Union, after Latin and Greek, since 1 January 2007, when Bulgaria became a member. The Cyrillic alphabet takes its name from Saint Cyril, a 9th-century Greek missionary to the Slavic peoples, who helped develop the writing system.
The Cyrillic alphabet is based on the Greek alphabet, with additional letters added for non-Greek sounds. St. Cyril and his brother, St. Methodius, developed the first known Slavic alphabet, Glagolitic, in the 860s, and their students improved it, along with the saints’ first version of Cyrillic, over the following decades. By the 12th century, the Cyrillic alphabet had become the preferred method of writing for Slavic languages.
There have been many changes to the Cyrillic alphabet over the years. Tsar Peter the Great of Russia called for a Westernization of the alphabet as part of his master plan towards Westernization in the early 18th century. As a result, the Cyrillic alphabet became more similar to the Latin alphabet used for English and most other Western European languages. Russia’s political dominance in Eastern Europe has led other countries that use the Cyrillic alphabet to also adopt the Latinized version of the alphabet.
The Cyrillic alphabet and Slavic literacy are traditionally celebrated on the feast day of Saints Cyril and Methodius, May 11 in Eastern Orthodox countries and July 5 in Roman Catholic countries. Since at least 1851, the holiday has been known in some areas as the “Day of Bulgarian Writing”. National holidays in honor of the brothers and Slavic literacy and culture are celebrated in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Russia and Slovakia.
Some languages, including Azerbaijani, Moldovan, and Uzbek, were written in both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. Indeed, these three languages changed their official alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, although the Cyrillic alphabet is still in use in some areas.
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