Cyrillic Alphabet -- Did YOU Know?

The Cyrillic () script writing system is

an alphabet developed in the First Bulgarian Empire in 9th centuryPaul Cubberley (1996) "The Slavic Alphabets". In Daniels and Bright, eds. The Worlds Writing Systems. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507993-0., and used in the Slavic national languages of Belarusian, Bulgarian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, Macedonian, and Ukrainian, and in the non-Slavic languages of Moldovan, Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Tuvan, and Mongolian. It also was used in (past) languages of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Siberia.

The Cyrillic alphabet also is known as azbuka'', derived from the old names of the first two letters of most variant Cyrillic alphabets. Since the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official alphabet of the European Union, following the Latin and Greek alphabets.

Cyrillic is one of the two alphabets (together with Glagolitic) used in the Church Slavonic language, especially the Old Church Slavonic variant (see Early Cyrillic alphabet). Hence, expressions such as ?? is the tenth letter of the Cyrillic alphabet? typically denote that meaning; moreover, not every Cyrillic-based language uses every letter of the alphabet.

This is a list of languages that have been written in the Cyrillic alphabet at one time or another. See also early Cyrillic alphabet.

Category: Image - :Cyrillic alphabet distribution map.png|thumb|right|350px|Distribution of the Cyrillic alphabet worldwide. The dark green shows the countries that use Cyrillic as the one main script; the lighter green those that use Cyrillic alongside another official script.

The Belarusian language, or the BelarusanBelarusan English DictionaryEthnologue. Languages of the World. Belarusan (Category: :be-x-old - :??????????_????|?????????? ????, BGN/PCGN: byelaruskaya mova, Scientific: belaruskaja mova, ?ac.: bie?aruskaja mova) is the language of the Belarusian people and is spoken in Belarus and abroad, chiefly in Russia, Ukraine, and Poland.Also spoken in Azerbaijan, Canada, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, USA, Uzbekistan, per Ethnologue. Prior to Belarus gaining its independence from the Soviet Union in 1992, the language was called "Byelorussian" or "Belorussian" (in accordance with the ethnicity and country names: Byelorussians, Byelorussia, the latter being a transliteration from the Russian language). It belongs to the group of the East Slavic languages, and shares many grammatical and lexical features with other members of the group. Its predecessor was the Old Belarusian language.

According to the 1999 Belarus Census, the Belarusian language is declared as a "language spoken at home" by about 3,686,000 people (36.7% of the population)Of these, about 3,370,000 (41.3%) are Belarusians, and about 257,000 belong to other major nationalities (Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, Jews). as of 1999.Data from 1999 Belarusian general census In English. Upon the second Belarus census question related to language, about 6,984,000 (85.6%) of Belarusians declared it their "mother tongue". Other sources put down the "population of the language" as 6,715,000 in Belarus and 9,081,102 in all countries.(Johnstone and Mandryk 2001) as cited on Ethnologue.In Russia, the Belarusian language is declared as a "familiar language" by about 316,000 inhabitants, among them, about 248,000 Belarusians, which comprise about 30.7% of Belarusians living in Russia (data from 2002 Russian Census In Russian). In Ukraine, the Belarusian language is declared as a "native language" by about 55,000 Belarusians, which comprise about 19.7% of Belarusians living in Ukraine (data from 2001 Ukrainian census In Ukrainian). In Poland, the Belarusian language is declared as a "language spoken at home" by about 40,000 inhabitants (data from 2002 Polish general census Table 34 (in Polish)).

The Belarusian language is the official language of Belarus, along with Russian.Section One of the Constitution, Webportal of the President of the Republic of Belarus , Published 1994, amended in 1996. Retrieved June 7, 2007.

Bulgarian (????????? ????, ) is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.

Bulgarian demonstrates several linguistic innovations that set it apart from all other Slavic languages except the Macedonian language, such as the elimination of case declension, the development of a suffixed definite article (see Balkan linguistic union), the lack of a verb infinitive, and the retention and further development of the proto-Slavic verb system. Various verb forms exist to express unwitnessed, retold, and doubtful action. Estimates of the number of people around the world who speak Bulgarian fluently range from about 9 million to 12 million.

The Bulgarian language is mutually intelligible with the Macedonian language.

Macedonian (, ) is the official language of Republic of Macedonia and is a part of the Eastern group of South Slavic languages. Macedonian was codified in 1944, based on the Prilep-Bitola dialect. It is closely related to and shares a high degree of mutual intelligibility with the Bulgarian language and to a certain extent with the Serbo-Croatian language.Language profile Macedonian, UCLA International Institute

Russian (, transliteration: , , meaning 'Russian tongue language') is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of three living members of the East Slavic languages, the others being Belarusian and Ukrainian (and possibly Rusyn, in Ukraine considered a dialect of Ukrainian and recognized in some countries).

Written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century onwards. Today, Russian is widely used outside Russia. Over a quarter of the world's scientific literature is published in Russian.Moscow State University, Russian Language Centre - Official website Russian is also a necessary accessory of world communications systems (broadcasts, air- and space communication, etc). Because of the status of the Soviet Union as a superpower, Russian had great political importance in the 20th century and was widely taught in primary and higher education as a foreign language in many countries all over the world. Hence, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels, which is somewhat similar to that of English. Stress, which is unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically though, according to the Russian Language Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an optional acute accent ('''') may, and sometimes should, be used to mark stress (such as to distinguish between otherwise identical words or to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names).

Rusyn (?????????? ????) is a language or a dialect of Ukrainian spoken by the Rusyns living in Central Europe. Opinions differ among linguists concerning whether Rusyn is a separate East Slavic language or a dialect of Ukrainian. The political implications of the dispute add to the controversy.

Carpatho-Rusyn is spoken in the Transcarpathian Region of Ukraine, in northeastern Slovakia, southeastern Poland (where it is often called ?emkowski 'Lemko', from their characteristic word lem/??? 'only'), or Lyshak and Hungary (where the people and language are called Ruten). The Pannonian Rusyn language used in Serbia is sometimes considered part of the Rusyn dialectic subgroup. In Ukraine, Rusyn is officially considered a dialect of Ukrainian, since it is very close to the Ukrainian Hutsul dialect. Ukraine does not officially recognise Rusyns as a separate ethnicity, despite the fact that some speakers prefer to consider themselves ethnically distinct from Ukrainians.

Attempts to standardize the dialects suffer because native speakers are divided among four separate countries. Efforts are hampered because some Rusyns living outside of the region do not speak the dialect fluently. In each of these countries different orthographies (in most cases using variants of the Cyrillic alphabet) and a grammatical standards exist, based on regional dialects. The cultural centres of Carpatho-Rusyns are located in Pre?ov in Slovakia, Uzhhorod and Mukacheve in Ukraine, Krynica and Legnica in Poland, Ruski Krstur in Vojvodina and Budapest in Hungary. Many active western Ukrainians including active Rusyns live in Canada, the USA and South America.

It is very difficult to count the number of fluent speakers of the Rusyn language, but their number is sometimes estimated at almost a million, most of them in Ukraine and Slovakia. Yugoslavia recognized Rusyn, more precisely Pannonian Rusyn, as an official language. In 1995, Rusyn was recognized as a minority language in Slovakia, enjoying the status of official language in municipalities where more than 20% of the inhabitants speak this Western Ukrainian dialect.

The Carpatho Rusyn language can be divided as follows:

Boiko, Hutsul and Dolinian are sometimes identified (and for the same speakers) as Ukrainian dialects since some of their speakers identified themselves Ukrainians.

Serbian (Serbian Cyrillic: , Serbian Latin: Srpski, ) is a South Slavic language, spoken chiefly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and in the Serbian diaspora. Standard Serbian is based on the Shtokavian dialect, like the modern Croatian and Bosnian, with which it is mutually intelligible, and was previously unified with under the standard known as Serbo-Croatian. It counts among the official languages of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and among recognized languages in Montenegro, Croatia, Romania, Republic of Macedonia and Hungary.

The alphabet used to write Serbian is a variation on the Cyrillic alphabet, that was devised by Vuk Stefanovi? Karad?i?. The Serbian Latin alphabet is based on Ljudevit Gaj's reform.

Serbian is an example of synchronic digraphia. Both Latin and Cyrillic alphabets are widely used in Serbia in a large variety of contexts, and most people are literate in both scripts.

Serbian orthography is very consistent: it is an approximation of the principle "one letter per sound". This principle is represented by Johann Christoph Adelung's saying, "Write as you speak and read as it is written", the principle used by Vuk Karad?i? when reforming the Cyrillic orthography of Serbian in the 19th century.

Most of the European linguists from outside the Balkans still regard the Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin languages as just one language ? the Serbo-Croatian.[http://www.rferl.org/content/Serbian_Croatian_Bosnian_or_Montenegrin_Many_In_Balkans_Just_Call_It_Our_Language_/1497105.html Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Or Montenegrin? Or Just 'Our Language'?], Radio Free Europe, February 21, 2009

Ukrainian (in Ukrainian: ??????????? ?????, ukrayinska mova, ) is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses the Cyrillic alphabet.

The Ukrainian language traces its origins to the Old Slavic language of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus. In its earlier stages it was known as Ruthenian. Ukrainian is a lineal descendant of the colloquial language used in Kievan Rus (10th?13th century).Ukrainian language, Encyclopædia Britannica

The language has persisted despite several periods of bans, discouragement or both throughout centuries as it has always maintained a sufficient base among the people of Ukraine, its folklore songs, itinerant musicians, and prominent authors.

Old East Slavic was a language used in 10th-15th centuries by East Slavs in the Kievan Rus' and states which evolved after the collapse of the Kyivan Rus. Dialects of it were spoken, though not exclusively, roughly in the area today occupied by the European part of Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and several eastern voivodships of Poland.

As the language is part of the (pre-)national history of all East Slavs, in recent years it has been increasingly referred to as:

*Old Belarusian (Belarusian ??????????????? or ???????????????????? ????) instead of traditional supranational ???????????????? ???? or

*Old Russian (Russian ?????????????) or

*Old Ukrainian (Ukrainian ??????????????? or ???????????????? ????) (Old Ukrainian Language) or ?????????????? ???? (old Kievan Language) rather than ???????????? ???? (Old Ruthenian Language).

:Slav redirects here. For other meanings see Slav (disambiguation).

Category: File - :Slavic europe.svg|thumb|Countries with majority Slavic ethnicities and at least one Slavic national language

The Slavic Peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in eastern and Central Europe and Eastern Europe. From the early 6th century they spread from their original homeland in present-day Ukraine to inhabit most of the Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans.Geography and ethnic geography of the Balkans to 1500 Many settled later in SiberiaFiona Hill, Russia ? Coming In From the Cold?, The Globalist, 23 February 2004 and Central AsiaRobert Greenall, Russians left behind in Central Asia, BBC News, 23 November 2005. or emigrated to other parts of the world.Terry Kirby, 750,000 and rising: how Polish workers have built a home in Britain, The Independent, 11 February 2006.Poles in the United States, Catholic Encyclopedia Over half of Europe is, territorially speaking, inhabited by Slavic-speaking communities.Barford 2001: 1

Modern nations and ethnic groups called by the ethnonym "Slavs" are considerably genetically and culturally diverse and relations between them are varied, ranging from a sense of connection to feelings of mutual resentment.Bideleux 1998.

Slavic peoples are classified geographically and linguistically into West Slavic (including Czechs, Moravians, Poles, Slovaks and Sorbs), East Slavic (including Belarusians, Russians and Ukrainians)http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/548156/Slav, and South Slavic (including Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs and Slovenes). For a more comprehensive list, see the section below on ethnocultural subdivisions.

According to a 2007 genetic studyR?ba?a et al. 2007 based on Y-chromosome male haplogroups, Slavic men cluster into two main groups; one encompasses all Western-Slavic, Eastern-Slavic, and two Southern-Slavic male populations (western Croats, Slovenes), whilst the other group encompasses all remaining Southern Slavic men.