Azbuka

Azbuka is a term used in many Slavic languages to refer to the alphabet of the Cyrillic script, and more generally to the set of letters used to write those languages. It is also used to denote an early educational book or primer for teaching literacy and the order of the letters.

Etymology: The word azbuka derives from the names of the first two letters of the old Slavic alphabets, azŭ (Аз) and bŭkŭ (Буки). From these initial letters, azbuka came to mean the entire alphabet. Variants appear in Russian (азбука), Ukrainian (азбука), Bulgarian (азбука), Serbian (азбука), and other languages.

History: The Slavic writing tradition began with the Glagolitic script, created in the 9th century by Saints Cyril and Methodius for Old Church Slavonic. Cyrillic developed in the First Bulgarian Empire in the 9th–10th centuries, drawing on Greek script with additional letters to represent Slavic sounds. Cyrillic spread through the eastern and southern Slavic world and became the standard for many languages, replacing or supplementing other scripts in various regions.

Modern usage: Today, azbuka denotes the Cyrillic alphabets used by languages such as Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian, and Macedonian, among others. The term also survives in the names of traditional primers used to teach the alphabet and reading skills in these languages.

In scholarly and educational contexts, azbuka is discussed as a key element of Slavic orthography, literacy history, and the evolution of writing systems in Eastern Europe.