Serbian Cyrillic Alphabet - History

History

See also: History of Serbia, Early Cyrillic, and List of medieval Serbian literature

The two Slavic scripts, Glagolitic and Cyrillic, in tradition, were invented by the Byzantine Christian missionairies and brothers Cyril and Methodius in the 860s, amid the christianization of the Slavs. Glagolitic appears to be older, predating the introduction of Christianity, only formalized by Cyril and expanded to cover non-Greek sounds. Cyrillic may have been a creation of Cyril's disciples, perhaps at the Preslav Literary School in the 890s.

The earliest form of Cyrillic was the ustav, based on Greek uncial script, augmented by ligatures and letters from the Glagolitic alphabet for consonants not found in Greek. There was no distinction of capital and lowercase letters. The literary Slavic language was based on the Old Slavic dialect of Thessaloniki.

Major medieval works written in various Cyrillic alphabets include:

• Karyes Typicon, 1199 typicon by Saint Sava
• Studenica Typikon, 1208 typicon by Saint Sava
• Bratko Menaion, 1234 menaion
• Dragolj Code, 1259 Illuminated manuscript
• Belgrade Prophetologion, 13th century lectionary
• Vukan Gospels, 13th century Illuminated manuscript
• St. Sava's Nomocanon, 13th century civil law and canon law by Saint Sava
• Hagiography, 13th century work by Saint Sava
• Dušan's Code, 1349 legal code by Emperor Dušan
• Nikola Gospels, 1350 work
• Radoslav Gospels, 1429 illuminated manuscript
• Oktoih, 1494 psalter