Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script, sometimes called the Slavonic script or Slavic script, is a native Slavic alphabet. It is now used to write Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Rusyn, Bulgarian, Macedonian and for most South Slavic languages. It was developed in the Bulgarian empire during the reign of Tsar Simeon I. The Soviet Union made many non-Slavic languages in the Caucasus, Siberia, Central Asia and in northern Russia to be written in Cyrillic.
History
Old Church Slavonic was the original language of the Slavic people, and it was used for Russian Orthodox Church. In the 9th century, two monks, St. Cyril and St. Methodius, were missionaries in Eastern Europe. When they preached to the Slavic peoples, they invented the Glagolitic alphabet, an early form of Cyrillic.
During the 18th century, Nikolay Karamzin added E, I and Io.
In 1708, Peter the Great added lowercase forms to the letters.
After the October Revolution, the Communist Party changed the Cyrillic alphabet for the Russian language so it would be easier for Soviet citizens to learn how to read and write. The letters I/i, E/e, F/f, Y/y were all removed from Russian.
In 1991, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan decided to drop the Cyrillic script and to adopt the Latin script.
Related pages
Roman alphabet
References
9th-century works