Glagolitic Alphabet: The First Slavic Script, Letter by Letter

The Glagolitic alphabet is the first script made for a Slavic language. Saint Cyril created it around 862 to 863, before he and his brother Methodius left Constantinople for Great Moravia. Bulgarians call it глаголица (glagolitsa), from the Old Slavic word glagolъ, “word.”

The name hints at how it felt to its first readers: letters that speak. Below you can see what the letters look like, how they map to the Cyrillic you read today, and how the script survived long after Bulgaria moved on.

Who created the Glagolitic alphabet, and why

In 862, Prince Rastislav of Great Moravia asked the Byzantine emperor for teachers who could preach in the Slavic language. The emperor chose two brothers from Thessaloniki, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who knew the Slavic speech spoken around their city.

Slavic had sounds that Greek letters could not write, such as [ʃ], [ʒ] and [tʃ]. So Cyril designed a new alphabet rather than adapting Greek. With it, the brothers began translating the Gospels and church services into the language now called Old Church Slavonic, starting in 863.

A Bulgarian monk known as Chernorizets Hrabar later wrote a defense of Slavic letters called On the Letters. He credits Constantine (Cyril) with creating 38 letters. Today about 41 Glagolitic letters are known, but the size of the original alphabet is uncertain.

What Glagolitic letters look like

Glagolitic looks nothing like Greek or Latin. Its letters are built from loops, circles, crosses and triangles. Compare ⰀⰁⰂⰃⰄ with the Cyrillic АБВГД that descend from the same alphabet order.

Glagolitic	Unicode name	Cyrillic	Old name meaning
Ⰰ	Azu	А	“I”
Ⰱ	Buky	Б	“letters”
Ⰲ	Vede	В	“know”
Ⰳ	Glagoli	Г	“speak”
Ⰴ	Dobro	Д	“good”
Ⰶ	Zhivete	Ж	“live”
Ⱌ	Tsi	Ц	–
Ⱍ	Chrivi	Ч	“worm”
Ⱎ	Sha	Ш	–
Ⱋ	Shta	Щ	–
Ⱏ	Yeru	Ъ	yer

The “Unicode name” column shows the standard character name. Old letter names were real words, and the first letters spell out a phrase often read as “I know letters.” The meanings above are traditional glosses, not exact translations.

Where did the shapes come from? Scholars disagree. One view links about 24 letters to medieval Greek cursive. Some letters, such as sha and tsi, may come from Hebrew. Others may be Cyril’s own inventions, built around Christian symbols like the cross and circle. No single theory explains every letter.

Round and angular Glagolitic

The oldest form is called round Glagolitic. It appears in early manuscripts tied to the Ohrid tradition, such as the Codex Zographensis and the Codex Marianus. The Kiev Missal, dated to the 10th century, is sometimes considered the oldest surviving Old Church Slavonic manuscript.

A later form, angular Glagolitic, developed in Croatia. It has squarer letters and fewer of them, because the Croatian recension did not need every original sound. Croatian clergy kept using Glagolitic for Church Slavonic for centuries, and in some places it survived into the 20th century.

From Glagolitic to Cyrillic in Bulgaria

After Methodius died in 885, his disciples were expelled from Moravia and moved to Bulgaria under Prince Boris I. Two schools grew from that move, and they treated Glagolitic differently.

• Ohrid: Clement of Ohrid and his students kept writing in Glagolitic, and the Ohrid tradition used it into the 12th century.
• Preslav: scholars in the capital moved quickly to a new script based on Greek capital letters. This became the Cyrillic alphabet.

Cyrillic took over several Glagolitic letters for sounds Greek lacked. Ш, Ц, Ч, Щ, Ж, Ъ and Ь all have Glagolitic models, which is why some modern Bulgarian letters still recall Cyril’s original designs. For the full story of the changeover, see Bulgarian alphabet history.

The Glagolitic alphabet in Unicode

You can type Glagolitic on modern devices if you have a font that supports it. According to the Unicode Glagolitic chart, the main block runs from U+2C00 to U+2C5F. It begins with U+2C00 GLAGOLITIC CAPITAL LETTER AZU (Ⰰ), and the small letters start at U+2C30 (ⰰ).

The block was added in Unicode 4.1 in March 2005. A Glagolitic Supplement block (U+1E000 to U+1E02F), added in Unicode 9.0 in 2016, holds combining letters used in manuscripts. The newest additions, U+2C2F and U+2C5F (caudate chrivi), are a variant of chrivi used as an “et cetera” sign.

Why the Glagolitic alphabet matters today

Glagolitic is not used for any living language. Yet it is the starting point of Slavic literacy, and it shaped the Cyrillic letters millions of people use. In Croatia it is a strong cultural symbol. In Bulgaria it is remembered each year on 24 May, the day that honors Cyril, Methodius and Slavic letters.

Common mistakes about Glagolitic

• Calling it Cyrillic. Cyril created Glagolitic. Cyrillic came later and was named after him.
• Assuming a fixed number of letters. Medieval sources and modern lists give different counts, from 36 to about 41.
• Treating it as purely Croatian. Angular Glagolitic is Croatian, but the script began with a Byzantine mission and was also used in early Bulgaria, Macedonia and Bohemia.
• Reading Glagolitic letters as numbers the Greek way. Glagolitic had its own number values, which do not match Cyrillic or Greek.

To see how the modern Bulgarian alphabet grew from these beginnings, start with our page on Bulgarian letters.

Frequently asked questions

Who created the Glagolitic alphabet?

Saint Cyril, born Constantine in Thessaloniki, created it around 862 to 863 for the mission to Great Moravia that he led with his brother Methodius.

Is the Glagolitic alphabet older than Cyrillic?

Yes. Glagolitic came first. Cyrillic was developed in the First Bulgarian Empire a few decades later, around the end of the 9th century.

How many letters are in the Glagolitic alphabet?

About 41 letters are known today. Chernorizets Hrabar wrote that Constantine created 38, and the original count is uncertain.

Is Glagolitic still used anywhere?

Not for any living language. Croatian clergy used it for Church Slavonic for centuries, in some places into the 20th century, and it remains a cultural symbol in Croatia.

Can I type the Glagolitic alphabet?

Yes. Glagolitic is in Unicode (U+2C00 to U+2C5F). You need a font such as Noto Sans Glagolitic to display it.

Sources

• Unicode: Glagolitic code chart (U+2C00-U+2C5F)
• Wikipedia: Glagolitic script
• Wikipedia: Chernorizets Hrabar
• Wikipedia: Early Cyrillic alphabet

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