Cyrillicbased

Cyrillicbased refers to writing systems that use the Cyrillic alphabet or its language-specific variants as their primary script. Originating in the 9th century in the First Bulgarian Empire, the Cyrillic script was developed for Slavic languages and later adapted for many non-Slavic languages across Eurasia. It remains one of the major writing systems in the region and has produced national alphabets with unique letters and diacritics.

The script arose from early Slavic literacy efforts associated with Cyril and Methodius, and it spread with Orthodox Christian mission work and state administration. It became standard in many East Slavic areas and evolved through regional reforms to suit local phonologies. In the 20th century, numerous countries standardized their Cyrillic alphabets and, in some cases, introduced reforms or parallel Latin scripts for official use or transition.

Today Cyrillic-based scripts are official in several countries and used by many languages, including major Slavic languages such as Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Belarusian, as well as Serbian and Macedonian. Non-Slavic languages that use Cyrillic variants include Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, and Mongolian, often with additional letters to represent sounds not found in Russian. In some regions, Cyrillic coexists with Latin scripts, and policy shifts toward one or the other have occurred, notably in Kazakhstan, where a transition toward Latin has been discussed and implemented in stages.

Character sets and orthographic conventions vary by language. Some Cyrillic-based systems maintain a close correspondence to Russian spelling, while others incorporate extensive adaptations to reflect unique phonologies. The script remains a key element of cultural and linguistic identity for many communities.