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The Glagolitic alphabet or '''Glagolitsa''' is the oldest known Slavic Alphabet . It was created by St Cyril (827-869 AD) and St Methodius (826-885 AD) in 855 or around 862 – 863 in order to translate the Bible and other texts into the Slavic Languages . The name comes from the Old Slavonic ''glagolə'', which means ''word'' (and is also the origin of the name for the letter "G"). Since ''glagolati'' also means ''to speak'', the Glagolitsa is poetically referred to as "the marks that speak". The original Glagolitic alphabet has 41 letters, but the number varies slightly in later versions. Twenty-four of the 41 original Glagolitic letters (see Great Moravian below) are probably derived from graphemes of the Medieval cursive Greek Small Alphabet , but have been given an ornamental design. It is presumed that the letters ''sha'', ''shta'' and ''tsi'' were derived from the Hebrew Alphabet (the letters Shin and Tsadi ) — the Phoneme s that these letters represent did not exist in Greek but do exist in Hebrew and are quite common in all Slavic languages. The remaining original characters are of unknown origin. Some of them are presumed to stem from the Hebrew and Samaritan scripts, which Cyril got to know during his journey to the Khazars in Cherson . The Croatian Glagolitic alphabet has a long and interesting history of more than a thousand years. The Croats using the Glagolitic alphabet were the only nation in Europe who was given a special permission by Pope Innocent IV (in 1248) to use their own language and this script in liturgy. More precisely, this permission had formally been given to the bishop Philip of Senj. Another theory (see Chernorizetz Hrabar ) asserts that the Glagolitic alphabet was based on ancient Slavic Rune s (''chərti i rezki'', i.e., lines and notches), which like the Germanic Rune s were only used in sacred texts of the pre-Christian Slavic Religion . HISTORY between 863 (when Cyril and Methodius arrived there) and 885 for government and religious documents and books, and at the Great Moravian Academy (Veľkomoravské učilište) founded by Cyril, where followers of Cyril and Methodius were educated (also by Methodius himself). In 886 , an East Frankish bishop of Nitra named Wiching banned the script and jailed 200 followers of Methodius (mostly students of the original academy). They were then dispersed or, according to some sources, sold as slaves. Three of them, however, reached Bulgaria and were commissioned by Boris I Of Bulgaria to teach and instruct the future clergy of the state into the Slavic Language s. After the adoption of Christianity in Bulgaria in 865 , religious ceremonies were conducted in Greek by clergy sent from the Byzantine Empire . Fearing growing Byzantine influence and weakening of the state, Boris viewed the introduction of the Slavic alphabet and language in church use as a way to preserve the independence of Bulgaria . As a result of Boris's measures, two academies in Ohrid and Preslav were founded. From there, the students traveled to various other places and spread the use of their alphabet. Some went to Croatia and Dalmatia , where the squared variant arose and where the Glagolitic remained in use for a long time. In 1248 , Pope Innocent IV gave the Croats the unique privilege of using their own language and this script in liturgy. Formally given to bishop Philip of Senj , the permission actually extended to all Croatian lands using the Glagolitic liturgy, mostly along the Adriatic coast. The Vatican had several Glagolitic Missal s published in Rome. It was eventually replaced with the Latin alphabet. Some of the students of the Ohrid academy went to Bohemia where the alphabet was used in the 10th and 11th century, along with other scripts. Glagolitic was also used in Russia, although rarely. At the end of the 9th Century , one of these students of Methodius who was settled in Preslav ( Bulgaria ) created the Cyrillic Alphabet , which almost entirely replaced the Glagolitic during the Middle Ages . The Cyrillic alphabet is derived from the Greek alphabet, with (at least 10) letters peculiar to Slavic languages being derived from the Glagolithic. Nowadays, Glagolitic is only used for Church Slavonic and, sometimes, vernacular in the service-books of the Catholic Eparchy Of Križevci in Croatia. NAMES The tradition that the alphabet was designed by Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius has not been universally accepted. A less common belief was that the Glagolitic was created by St. Jerome , hence the alphabet is sometimes named Hieronymian. It is also Acrophonically called '''azbuki''' from the names of its first two letters, on the same model as 'alpha' + 'beta'. (See '' Azbuka '' for the Cyrillic alphabet). The Slavs of Great Moravia (present-day Slovakia and Moravia ), Hungary , Slovenia and Slavonia were called ''Slověne'' at that time, which gives rise to the name '''Slovenish''' for the alphabet. Some other, more rare, names for this alphabet are '''Bukvitsa''' and '''Illyrian'''. The name "Glagolitic" is in Czech ''hlaholice'', in Slovak ''hlaholika'', in Polish ''głagolica'', in Russian , Macedonian and Bulgarian ''глаго́лица'' (transliterated ''glagolitsa''), in Croatian ''glagoljica'', in Ukrainian ''глаголиця'' (transliterated ''hlaholytsia''), in Belarusian ''глаголіца'' (transliterated ''hlaholitsa''), in Slovenian ''glagolica'',in Serbian ''глагољица/glagoljica'' etc. CHARACTERISTICS The alphabet has two variants: round and square. The round variant is dominated by circles and smooth curves, and the square variant features a lot of right angles, and sometimes trapezoids. See an image of both variants (incomplete) . Or for more details The square variant lends itself to a more abundant use of Ligature s than in the Latin or the Cyrillic script. The following table lists each letter in order, giving a picture (round variant), its name, its approximate sound in IPA , the presumed origin (if applicable), and the corresponding modern Cyrillic letter. The names ''Jer'' to ''Jus'' are sometimes written ''Yer'' to ''Yus''. There are several letters that have no modern counterpart, such as the Nasal Vowel s Jus . Note that Jery is simply a Digraph of Jer and I. The order of Izhe and I varies from source to source, as does the order of the various forms of Jus. UNICODE The Glagolitic alphabet was added to Unicode in version 4.1. The codepoint range is U+2C00 – U+2C5E. See also: IN POPULAR CULTURE In Western Europe, Glagolitic is one of the least known Eastern European alphabets. It also has a particularly exotic appearance to Western eyes, as (unlike Cyrillic or Greek) none of the letters bear any resemblance to Roman letters. It may be for this reason that Glagolitic was selected as the script used by an Extraterrestrial species in the 3-D IMAX movie, '' Alien Adventure ''. Not only did the aliens write in Glagolitic, but their leader was called "Cyrillus"! (However, the alien language was unrelated to Slavonic, as in fact they spoke the Walloon Language , a rare dialect from the production company's homeland, Belgium .) SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
LITERATURE
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