What else don't we know about the Glagolitic alphabet, one of the oldest surviving alphabets?

published on 5/16/25 12:52 PM

Photo: Facebook/ Glagolitica

A key to our heritage and national identity, the Glagolitic alphabet is an alphabet and a message to Europe, surrounded by many hypotheses. To mark the 1170th anniversary of its creation, we take a trip back to the 9th century, when the brothers Cyril and Methodius from Thessaloniki laid the foundations of the Slavic alphabet. Although the exact date is disputed and calculated according to different calendars, its significance is undeniable: the creation of the Glagolitic alphabet as the first graphic representation of the Slavic language is considered a phenomenal cultural breakthrough. In an interview with Radio Bulgaria, Prof. Dr. Elisaveta Musakova, an expert at the Manuscripts and Old Printed Books Department of the National Library, said:

Проф. д-р Елисавета Мусакова

"The creation of the Glagolitic script, which is still shrouded in mystery, was an extremely important event in European cultural history. It marked the emergence of a new alphabet to record the language of a people who, until then, had remained somewhat on the periphery of Europe. On one side were the Western states, and on the other – the great Byzantium, while the Slavs were somewhere in between these major powers. And suddenly, their voice was heard. According to the 'Life of St Cyril the Philosopher', their mission was officially sponsored by the Byzantine Empire. Cyril and Methodius were ultimately sent to the Moravian Prince Rostislav so that his people could hear the Holy Scriptures in their own language, rather than in Latin."

At the heart of the Glagolitic alphabet are three sacred symbols: a cross to represent Christianity, a triangle to represent the Holy Trinity, and a circle to represent the universe. Most importantly, however, this alphabet has its own unique visual identity, setting it apart from all other known scripts.

"This new script is based on so-called phonetic alphabets – i.e. each sound has a corresponding letter. Personally, I think these are the best alphabets – where there is a sound, there is a graphic symbol. What you write is what you say and hear, with very few exceptions. So, tSo, the Glagolitic alphabet was created based on these phonetic alphabets. But ultimately, it was modelled on the Greek alphabet, which was seen as highly authoritative, since Byzantium was the leading cultural power of the time," says Prof. Dr. Elisaveta Musakova.

The unique forms of Glagolitic letters remain the subject of scientific research, hypotheses and speculation. To date, no one has provided a definitive answer.

"A more interesting question is what the specific shapes of the letters are. Where do they come from? Why are they so different from Greek letters and any other alphabets created up to that point? Up to that point (the 9th century), there were many different alphabets. This is where the scientific debates and speculations begin, such as whether they were borrowed from Greek cursive script, Ethiopian script or Hebrew letters. Scholars have put forward a number of hypotheses on this since the 19th century. To this day, there is no consensus on which letter forms were actually borrowed from these foreign alphabets and which were invented by St Cyril or Constantine the Philosopher.

Following brutal persecution in Great Moravia, the disciples of St Cyril and St Methodius found refuge in Bulgaria, where they spread the new script. Unfortunately, none of the Glagolitic manuscripts that have survived are dated. We do not know which books were the first to be written in Glagolitic, nor can we say whether the surviving monuments were created in what are now Bulgarian or Macedonian territories or if they are later copies written in the Sinai Monastery of St Catherine," notes Prof. Dr. Musakova.

Edited by Desislava Semkovska

Published and translated by E. Radkova

Photos: archive, Facebook/ Glagolitica, BNR, Institute for the Bulgarian Language, Veneta Pavlova

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Signs from the past

What else don't we know about the Glagolitic alphabet, one of the oldest surviving alphabets?

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