Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script (/sɪˈrɪlɪk/ sih-RIL-ik), Slavonic script or simply Slavic script is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, North Asia, and East Asia, and used by many other minority languages.
| Cyrillic script | |
|---|---|
1850s Romanian text (Lord's Prayer), written with the Cyrillic script | |
| Script type | |
Time period | Earliest variants exist c. 893 – c. 940 |
| Direction | Left-to-right |
| Official script | 8 sovereign states Co-official script in: 5 sovereign states and 1* disputed territory |
| Languages | See Languages using Cyrillic |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Egyptian hieroglyphs
|
Child systems | Old Permic script |
Sister systems | |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Cyrl (220), Cyrillic Cyrs (Old Church Slavonic variant) |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Cyrillic |
| |
Names: Belarusian: кірыліца, Bulgarian: кирилица [ˈkirilit͡sɐ], Macedonian: кирилица [kiˈrilit͡sa], Russian: кириллица [kʲɪˈrʲilʲɪtsə], Serbian: ћирилица, Ukrainian: кирилиця | |
As of 2019, around 250 million people in Eurasia use Cyrillic as the official script for their national languages, with Russia accounting for about half of them. With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union, following the Latin and Greek alphabets.
The Early Cyrillic alphabet was developed during the 9th century AD at the Preslav Literary School in the First Bulgarian Empire during the reign of Tsar Simeon I the Great, probably by the disciples of the two Byzantine brothers Cyril and Methodius, who had previously created the Glagolitic script. Among them were Clement of Ohrid, Naum of Preslav, Angelar, Sava and other scholars. The script is named in honor of Saint Cyril.