Home›Open Questions›Did the Cyrillic letters for the sounds Greek lacked come from Glagolitic, from a Semitic script, or from neither?Open QuestionsDid the Cyrillic letters for the sounds Greek lacked come from Glagolitic, from a Semitic script, or from neither?Citation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextDivinity Atlas. "Did the Cyrillic letters for the sounds Greek lacked come from Glagolitic, from a Semitic script, or from neither?." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/open-questions-index/did-the-cyrillic-letters-for-the-sounds-greek-lacked-come-from-glagolitic-from-a-semitic-script-or-from-neither.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextDivinity Atlas. (n.d.). Did the Cyrillic letters for the sounds Greek lacked come from Glagolitic, from a Semitic script, or from neither?. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/open-questions-index/did-the-cyrillic-letters-for-the-sounds-greek-lacked-come-from-glagolitic-from-a-semitic-script-or-from-neitherCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{divinityatlas-did-the-cyrillic-letters-for-the-sounds, author = {Divinity Atlas}, title = {Did the Cyrillic letters for the sounds Greek lacked come from Glagolitic, from a Semitic script, or from neither?}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/open-questions-index/did-the-cyrillic-letters-for-the-sounds-greek-lacked-come-from-glagolitic-from-a-semitic-script-or-from-neither}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXOpen QuestionCross-Tradition ConnectionsSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)Open QuestionRoughly a dozen Early Cyrillic letters have no Greek model. The majority reading derives them from Glagolitic, which is older and already fitted to Slavonic. A second reading compares sha, tsy and zhivete with Hebrew or Samaritan letters, an argument made since the nineteenth century. A third holds that shapes this simple cannot support either claim. No exemplar of either alphabet survives from the ninth century, when the choices were made, so every argument runs on shape comparison against later manuscripts.What would resolve this A dated exemplar of either alphabet from the period of composition, or a decisive argument from the internal structure of the two letter sets rather than from resemblance between individual shapes. Failing either, a rigorous statistical treatment of shape similarity that establishes what level of resemblance would count as evidence at all.OpenSlavic palaeography, with Semitic epigraphy for the comparative claimsFrancis Dvornik, Byzantine Missions Among the Slavs: SS. Constantine-Cyril and MethodiusCross-Tradition ConnectionsQuestion OnSha Ш, Alphabet Letters Well-attested Source Byzantine Missions Among the Slavs: SS. Constantine-Cyril and MethodiusFrancis Dvorniktier 1SourcesByzantine Missions Among the Slavs: SS. Constantine-Cyril and Methodiustier 1Francis Dvornik, Rutgers University Press, 1970View the SourceComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year