Cyrillickirjaimet

Cyrillickirjaimet, or Cyrillic letters, refer to a family of writing systems used for many languages across Eastern Europe and Asia. The Cyrillic script originated in the 9th century during the First Bulgarian Empire, developed by the followers of Saints Cyril and Methodius to write Slavic languages. It was based on earlier Glagolitic traditions and evolved through centuries, spreading with Orthodox Christian missions and state administration. Over time, national traditions and reforms produced many distinct Cyrillic alphabets adapted to local phonology.

A defining feature of Cyrillic scripts is their shared heritage and their capacity to represent a wide range of consonant and vowel sounds found in Slavic and related languages. While there is a common core of letters, each language has its own variants and additional characters to reflect sounds unique to that language. For example, the Russian alphabet commonly used today contains 33 letters, including the soft sign and hard sign, while Ukrainian and Belarusian scripts include unique letters such as І, Є, Ґ or Ў. Serbian and Macedonian use Cyrillic alphabets with their own sets of additional characters, reflecting distinct phonologies.

Cyrillic letters are today used for many languages, notably Russian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Serbian, Macedonian, and Kazakh, as well as numerous minority languages in parts of the former Soviet Union and elsewhere. The script remains in regular and institutional use for education, government, media, and publishing in these languages. It also features in digital text encoding standards such as Unicode, enabling consistent rendering across platforms.

The Cyrillic script has undergone reforms and standardization over time, balancing historical heritage with modern needs. Its continued use highlights its role in cultural and linguistic identity across diverse communities.