Alphabet (Cyrillic and Glagolitic) is a collection in a certain order of all signs expressing individual sounds of a language. This system of written symbols received a fairly independent development in the territory of the ancient peoples. The Slavic alphabet "Glagolitsa", presumably, was created first. What is the secret of the ancient collection of written characters? What were the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets? What is the meaning of the main symbols? More on that later.
The secret of the writing system
As you know, Cyrillic and Glagolitic are Slavic alphabets. The very name of the meeting was obtained from the combination of "az" and "beeches". These symbols denoted the first two letters "A" and "B". An interesting historical fact should be noted. Ancient letters were originally scratched on the walls. That is, all the symbols were presented in the form of graffiti. Around the 9th century, the first symbols appeared on the walls of the temples of Pereslavl. Two centuries later, the Cyrillic alphabet (pictures and interpretations of signs) was inscribed in the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv.
RussianCyrillic
It should be said that this collection of ancient written symbols still corresponds well to the phonetic structure of the Russian language. This is primarily due to the fact that the sound composition of modern and ancient vocabulary did not have many differences, and all of them were not significant. In addition, one should pay tribute to the compiler of the system - Konstantin. The author carefully took into account the phonemic (sound) composition of the old speech. The Cyrillic alphabet contains only capital letters. A variety of signs - uppercase and lowercase characters - were first introduced by Peter in 1710.
Basic characters
The Cyrillic letter "az" was the initial one. She denoted the pronoun "I". But the root meaning of this symbol is the word "originally", "beginning" or "begin". In some writings, one can find "az", used in the meaning of "one" (as a numeral). The Cyrillic letter "beeches" is the second sign of the collection of symbols. Unlike "az", it has no numerical value. "Buki" is "to be" or "will be". But, as a rule, this symbol was used in revolutions of the future tense. For example, "bodie" means "let it be", and "upcoming or future" means "future". The Cyrillic letter "vedi" is considered one of the most interesting of the entire collection. This symbol corresponds to the number 2. "Lead" has several meanings - "own", "know" and"to know".
The highest part of the system of written characters
It should be said that the researchers, studying the outlines of the symbols, came to the conclusion that they were quite simple and understandable, which allowed them to be widely used in cursive. In addition, any Slav quite easily, without much difficulty, could portray them. Many philosophers, meanwhile, see the principle of harmony and triad in the numerical arrangement of symbols. That is what a person should achieve, striving to know the truth, goodness and light.
Message of Constantine to posterity
It should be said that the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets were an invaluable creation. Constantine, together with his brother Methodius, not only structured written signs, but created a unique collection of knowledge that calls for striving for knowledge, improvement, love and wisdom, bypassing enmity, anger, envy, leaving only the bright in oneself. At one time it was believed that Cyrillic and Glagolitic were created almost simultaneously. However, this turned out not to be the case. According to a number of ancient sources, the Glagolitic alphabet became the first. It was this collection that was the first to be used in the translation of church texts.
Glagolitic and Cyrillic. Comparison. Facts
Cyrillic and Glagolitic were created at different times. Several facts point to this. The Glagolitic alphabet, along with the Greek alphabet, became the basis for later compiling the Cyrillic alphabet. When studying the first collection of written characters, scientists note that the style is more archaic (in particular, when studying"Kyiv leaflets" of the 10th century). While the Cyrillic alphabet, as mentioned above, is phonetically closer to the modern language. The first records in the form of a graphic representation of written symbols date back to 893 and are close to the sound and lexical structure of the language of the southern ancient peoples. The great antiquity of the Glagolitic alphabet is also indicated by palimpsests, which were manuscripts on parchment, where the old text was scraped off and a new one was written on top. Glagolitic was scraped off everywhere in them, and then Cyrillic was inscribed on top of it. Not a single palimpsest was the other way around.
Attitude of the Catholic Church
In the literature there is information that the first collection of written symbols was compiled by Constantine the Philosopher on one ancient runic letter. There is an opinion that it could be used by the Slavs for secular and sacred pagan purposes before Christianity was adopted. But however, there is no evidence of this, as, in fact, confirmation of the existence of runic writing. The Roman Catholic Church, which opposed the holding of services in the Slavic language for Croats, characterized the Glagolitic alphabet as a "Gothic script". Some ministers openly opposed the new alphabet, saying that it was invented by the heretic Methodius, who "wrote many false things against the Catholic religion in that Slavic language."
Symbol skins
The Glagolitic and Cyrillic letters differed from each other in style. In an earlier writing systemthe appearance of the signs in some moments coincides with the Khutsuri (Georgian writing, created before the 9th century, based, possibly, on the Armenian one). The number of letters in both alphabets is the same - 38. Some symbols separately and the whole system of "drawing" small circles at the ends of lines, as a whole, have a pronounced resemblance to medieval Jewish Kabbalistic fonts and "runic" Icelandic cryptography. All these facts may not be completely accidental, since there is evidence that Constantine the Philosopher read ancient Jewish texts in the original, that is, he was familiar with Eastern writings (this is mentioned in his "life"). The outline of almost all the letters of the Glagolitic, as a rule, is derived from Greek cursive. For non-Greek characters, the Hebrew system is used. But meanwhile, there are almost no exact and specific explanations for the shape of the forms for a single character.
Coincidences and differences
Cyrillic and Glagolitic in their most ancient versions almost completely coincide in their composition. Only the forms of the characters are different. When reprinting Glagolitic texts in a typographical way, the signs are replaced by Cyrillic ones. This is primarily due to the fact that today few people can recognize a more ancient inscription. But when replacing one alphabet with another, the numerical values of the letters do not match. In some cases, this leads to misunderstandings. So, for example, in Glagolitic, numbers correspond to the order of the letters themselves, and in Cyrillic, numbers are tied to those inGreek alphabet.
The purpose of the ancient script
As a rule, they talk about two types of Glagolitic writing. A distinction is made between the more ancient "round", also known as "Bulgarian", and the later "angular" or "Croatian" (so named because it was used in worship by Croatian Catholics until the very middle of the 20th century). The number of characters in the latter was reduced gradually from 41 to 30 characters. In addition, there was (together with the statutory book) cursive writing. The Glagolitic alphabet was practically not used in Ancient Russia - in some cases there are separate "blotches" of Glagolitic text fragments in Cyrillic ones. The ancient letter was primarily intended for the transmission (translation) of church collections, and the surviving early Russian monuments of everyday writing until the adoption of Christianity (the oldest inscription is considered to be the inscription of the 1st half of the 10th century on a pot found on the Gnezdovo mound) are made in Cyrillic.
Theoretical assumptions about the primacy of the creation of ancient writing
Several facts speak in favor of the fact that Cyrillic and Glagolitic were created at different times. The first was created on the basis of the second. The oldest monument of Slavic writing is composed of the Glagolitic alphabet. Later finds contain more perfect texts. Cyrillic manuscripts, moreover, are written off from Glagolitic for a number of reasons. In the first, grammar, spelling and syllable are presented in a more perfect form. AtThe analysis of handwritten texts shows a direct dependence of the Cyrillic alphabet on the Glagolitic script. So, the letters of the latter were replaced by similar-sounding Greek letters. In the study of more modern texts, chronological errors are observed. This is due to the fact that the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets assumed a different system of numerical correspondences. The numerical values of the first were oriented towards Greek writing.
What system of written characters did Konstantin make?
According to a number of authors, it was believed that the Philosopher first compiled the Glagolitic alphabet, and then, with the help of his brother Methodius, the Cyrillic alphabet. However, there is information that refutes this. Konstantin knew and loved Greek very much. 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, it did not make sense for him to compile a writing system that alienates the peoples, making it difficult for those who already knew the Greek language to perceive and understand the Scriptures. After the creation of a new, more advanced writing system, it was hard to imagine that the ancient archaic writing would become more popular. The Cyrillic alphabet was more understandable, simple, beautiful and clear. It was comfortable for most people. While Glagolitic had a narrow focus and was intended for the interpretation of sacred liturgical books. All this indicates that Constantine was engaged in compiling a system based on the Greek language. And subsequently, the Cyrillic alphabet, as a more convenient and simple system, replacedGlagolitic.
Opinions of some researchers
Sreznevsky in 1848 wrote in his writings that, evaluating the features of many Glagolitic symbols, we can conclude: this letter is more archaic, and the Cyrillic alphabet is more perfect. The affinity of these systems can be traced in a certain style of letters, sound. But at the same time, the Cyrillic alphabet has become simpler and more convenient. In 1766, Count Klement Grubisich published a book on the origin of writing systems. In his work, the author claims that the Glagolitic alphabet was created long before Christmas and therefore is a much more ancient collection of characters than the Cyrillic alphabet. Around 1640, Rafail Lenakovich wrote a "dialogue", where he states almost the same as Grubisich, but almost 125 years earlier. There are also statements by Chernoriz the Brave (beginning of the 10th century). In his work "On Writings" he emphasizes that Cyrillic and Glagolitic have significant differences. In his texts, Chernoriz the Brave testifies to the existing dissatisfaction with the system of written signs created by the brothers Constantine and Methodius. At the same time, the author quite clearly indicates that it was Cyrillic, and not Glagolitic, saying that the first was created before the second. Some of the researchers, evaluating the inscriptions of some characters ("u", for example), draw conclusions other than those described above. So, according to some authors, the Cyrillic alphabet was first created, and only then the Glagolitic alphabet.
Conclusion
Despite the rather large numbercontroversial opinions about the appearance of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets, the significance of the compiled system of written characters is enormous. Thanks to the appearance of a 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. Together with the alphabet, a literary language was formed. Many words are still found today in various related dialects - Russian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and other languages. Along with the new system of written symbols, the perception of people of antiquity also changed - after all, the creation of the Slavic alphabet was closely connected with the adoption and spread of the Christian faith, the rejection of ancient primitive cults.
