So

[maderr]

There's a lot of foreign languages at this place. But one set intrigued me.

Three know Russian, Two know Serbian, and two know Cyrillic Script. I didn't know Serbs had a sep lang, which just displays my ignorance. But it's the Cyrillic Script that confuses me. I thought Cyrillic was what the Russians (and related) used.

Would Rykaine or Thornsilver care to cure my ignorance?

Comments

[thornsilver]

As far as I know, Serbia is close enough to Slavic countries to be using Cyrillics. However, I am chronically geographically impared... Hmm... Let me google.

[thornsilver]

http://www.serbia-info.com/news/culture/index.html

Appearently Serbians are Slavs, which makes their use of Cyrillics not so unusual. If I am not mistaken, they are also Orthodox Christian, which would tie with that.

[maderr.livejournal.com]

So they all use Cyrillics...is it simply different spoken languages then?

If you ever get tired of my asinine questions, feel free to let me know. And thanks for always humoring me.

[thornsilver]

Simply put, not so much. Poland, for instance uses Latin alphabet.

Mostly, since education was greatly depended upon religious instiutions, Orthodox countries use Cyrillics (that was the alphabet used to write down Bible in Old Slavic), while Catholic countries use Latin, which was the language of that Church and education.

[maderr.livejournal.com]

I see. Cool. I'll have to check out that link once I get home. Thankee.

[rykaine.livejournal.com]

It's really sad I read that observation and thought, well, what alphabet did you think they used?

I forget that just because I know these things, does not mean it is universal knowledge.

First off, it's not a display of ignorance. Just bear in mind that Ukrainian is not Russian, and Russian is not Serbian, and so on and so fourth. The common assumption is that they're all the same, but asside from dialectical, there often a number of lexiconal (vocabulary) differences that separate them and give them their own "national identity", so to speak.

What you should remember is a lot of those regions make up what was ages upon ages ago identified as Rus'--as named by the Vikings I beleeve...

Anyway, courtesy of the Greeks--St. Cyril and Methodeous especially--letters were borrowed from the Greek alphabet to help formulate the "gutteral sounds" of the people's of Rus' into a written, uniform language. It was through religion--the Orthodox Church, as that's what Greeks were at the time--that the alphabet was taught and spread. Hence why Russia--and a fair other Slav nations are Orthodox--and why they all mostly use the Cyrillic alphabet.

Although, the alphabet taught by Cyril and Methodeous is called Old Church Slavonic, and is not so much today accept in slavic Orthodox ceremonies--so far as I've been lead to understand.

The one used today is minus several letters dropped from the initial alphabets and stylistic changes in the design of the letters. And, as pointed out, some nations turned to using the Latin alphabet.

But I think I may have broached your particular question several paragraphs ago.

Shutting up now.

[maderr.livejournal.com]

Bwahahahaha. You rock. So what's with the Cyrillic Script thing?

[rykaine.livejournal.com]

You rock.

Dude... that was a fucking lecture. How does that rock?

So what's with the Cyrillic Script thing?

That they can identify and read the letters? Not sure, but that's how it sounds to me. [shrug]

[maderr.livejournal.com]

It was an interesting lesson. Learning new stuff is always cool, and I think Cyrillic is cool.