Glagolitic script: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 03:42, 12 June 2003

The Glagolitic alphabet is an alphabet created by Saint Cyril in order to translate the Bible into the Slavonic language. It is also called Glagolitsa, Bukvitsa, Hieronymian, Illyrian, and Slovenish.

The Glagolitic alphabet was almost entirely replaced during the Middle Ages by its descendant, the Cyrillic alphabet. Nowadays, it's only used for Old Church Slavonic in the service-books of Dalmatian Roman Catholics of the Slavonic rite.

While based mainly on mediaeval Greek, there are some letters of uncertain or unknown origin. Even the tradition that the alphabet was designed by the Greek monks Saint Cyrcil and Saint Methodius is not universally accepted. A less common belief is that the Glagolitic was created by St. Jerome, hence the name Hieronymian.

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).

The name comes from the Slavonic glagol, meaning word (which was also the name for the letter "G"). Since glagolati also means to speak, the Glagolitsa are poetically referred to as "the marks that speak".

The following table lists each letter in order, giving a picture (round variant), its name, its approximate sound in SAMPA, the Greek letter that it was used to transliterate (if applicable), and the modern Cyrillic letter that it directly gave rise to (if any).

Name	Sound	Relation to Greek	Relation to modern Cyrillic
Az	/a/	Alpha	A
Buki	/b/		Be
Vedi	/v/	Beta	Ve
Glagol	/g/	Gamma	Ghe
Dobro	/d/	Delta	De
Jest	/E/	Epsilon	E
Zhivete	/Z/		Zhe
Dzelo	/dz/		Macedonian Dze
Zemlja	/z/	Zeta	Ze
Izhe	/i/	Eta	I
I	/i/	Iota	Ukrainian I
Dzherv	/dZ/		Serbian Ðerv
Kako	/k/	Kappa	Ka
Ljudi	/l/	Lambda	El
Mislete	/m/	Mu	Em
Nash	/n/	Nu	En
On	/O/	Omicron	O
Pokoj	/p/	Pi	Pe
Rtsi	/r/	Rho	Er
Slovo	/s/	Sigma	Es
Tverdo	/t/	Tau	Te
Uk	/u/	Omicron Upsilon	U
Fert	/f/	Phi	Ef
Kher	/x/	Chi	Ha
Oht	/o/	Omega	Only used to transcribe Greek
Tsi	/ts/		Tse
Cherv	/tS/		Che
Sha	/S/		Sha
Shta	/St/		Shcha
Jer	/w/, /@/		The hard sign
Jery	/1/		Jery
Jerj	/j/		The soft sign
Jat	/j{/		Removed from Bulgarian in 1945
?	/jO/		Obsolete
Ju	/ju/		Ju
Jus Malij	/E~/		Obsolete
Jus Malij Jotirovannij	/jE~/		Obsolete
Jus Bolshoj	/O~/		Obsolete
Jus Bolshoj Jotirovannij	/jO~/		Obsolete
Thita	/f/	Theta	Only used to transcribe Greek
Izhitsa	/v/, /i/	Upsilon	Removed from Russian in 1917

I'm not sure of the name of the letter between Jat and Ju.

Note that Jery is simply a ligature 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.

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 A less common belief is that the Glagolitic was created by [[St. Jerome]], hence the name ''Hieronymian''.
-The alphabet has two variants: round and [[square]]. The round variant is dominated by [[circle]]s and smooth curves, and the square variant features a lot of [[right angle]]s, and sometimes [[trapezoid]]. (See also: [http://kodeks.uni-bamberg.de/AKSL/Schrift/GlagolVergleichAlphabet.htm An image of both variants (incomplete)]). The images below are of the round variant.
+The alphabet has two variants: round and square.
+The round variant is dominated by [[circle]]s and smooth curves, and the square variant features a lot of [[right angle]]s, and sometimes [[trapezoid]]s.
+See [http://kodeks.uni-bamberg.de/AKSL/Schrift/GlagolVergleichAlphabet.htm an image of both variants (incomplete)].
 The name comes from the Slavonic ''glagol'', meaning ''word'' (which was also the name for the letter "G").
 Since ''glagolati'' also means ''to speak'', the Glagolitsa are poetically referred to as "the marks that speak".
-The following table lists each letter in order, giving a picture, its name, its approximate sound in [[SAMPA Chart|SAMPA]], the Greek letter that it was used to transliterate (if applicable), and the modern Cyrillic letter that it directly gave rise to (if any).
+The following table lists each letter in order, giving a picture (round variant), its name, its approximate sound in [[SAMPA Chart|SAMPA]], the Greek letter that it was used to transliterate (if applicable), and the modern Cyrillic letter that it directly gave rise to (if any).
 <table border="1">