Home›Open Questions›Did the opaque Glagolitic letter names, fritu, heru, tsi and sha among them, ever carry a sense in Slavonic?Open QuestionsDid the opaque Glagolitic letter names, fritu, heru, tsi and sha among them, ever carry a sense in Slavonic?Citation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextDivinity Atlas. "Did the opaque Glagolitic letter names, fritu, heru, tsi and sha among them, ever carry a sense in Slavonic?." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/open-questions-index/did-the-opaque-glagolitic-letter-names-fritu-heru-tsi-and-sha-among-them-ever-carry-a-sense-in-slavonic.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextDivinity Atlas. (n.d.). Did the opaque Glagolitic letter names, fritu, heru, tsi and sha among them, ever carry a sense in Slavonic?. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/open-questions-index/did-the-opaque-glagolitic-letter-names-fritu-heru-tsi-and-sha-among-them-ever-carry-a-sense-in-slavonicCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{divinityatlas-did-the-opaque-glagolitic-letter-names-f, author = {Divinity Atlas}, title = {Did the opaque Glagolitic letter names, fritu, heru, tsi and sha among them, ever carry a sense in Slavonic?}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/open-questions-index/did-the-opaque-glagolitic-letter-names-fritu-heru-tsi-and-sha-among-them-ever-carry-a-sense-in-slavonic}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXOpen QuestionCross-Tradition ConnectionsSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)Open QuestionThe first twenty letter names of Glagolitic are ordinary Slavonic words and read together as connected sentences, from azu buky vede, I know letters, through ritsi slovo tvrido, say the word firmly. From fritu onwards the names stop meaning anything recoverable, and the reference literature records them as of uncertain or unknown origin without offering a reading. This is an absence rather than a disagreement: no camps hold rival etymologies for these names, and no investigation has settled whether they are corrupted Slavonic words, reflexes of Greek letter names, or labels that never carried a sense. The same gap stands over the corresponding Cyrillic names, which are the same names.What would resolve this A systematic etymological study of the full set of Slavic letter names, working from the earliest abecedaria and from the acrostic alphabet poems of the Old Church Slavonic tradition, which arrange the names in verse and may preserve senses the plain lists do not. A demonstration that the names never carried a sense would close the question as firmly as a set of etymologies would.OpenSlavic historical linguistics; Old Church Slavonic philologyPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.), The World's Writing SystemsCross-Tradition ConnectionsQuestion OnBig Yus Ⱘ, Alphabet Letters Open question What is not known, and what would settle it. OpenQuestion 43334 already asked whether the opaque tail of Glagolitic (and the identical Cyrillic) letter names ever carried a sense; this edge extends the existing question to this letter rather than inventing a second one.Fritu Ⱇ, Alphabet Letters Well-attested Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)tier 1Heru Ⱈ, Alphabet Letters Open question What is not known, and what would settle it. OpenQuestion 43334 already asked whether the opaque tail of Glagolitic (and the identical Cyrillic) letter names ever carried a sense; this edge extends the existing question to this letter rather than inventing a second one.Iotated Big Yus Ⱙ, Alphabet Letters Open question What is not known, and what would settle it. OpenQuestion 43334 already asked whether the opaque tail of Glagolitic (and the identical Cyrillic) letter names ever carried a sense; this edge extends the existing question to this letter rather than inventing a second one.Iotated Small Yus Ⱗ, Alphabet Letters Open question What is not known, and what would settle it. OpenQuestion 43334 already asked whether the opaque tail of Glagolitic (and the identical Cyrillic) letter names ever carried a sense; this edge extends the existing question to this letter rather than inventing a second one.Pe Ⱊ, Alphabet Letters Open question What is not known, and what would settle it. OpenQuestion 43334 already asked whether the opaque tail of Glagolitic (and the identical Cyrillic) letter names ever carried a sense; this edge extends the existing question to this letter rather than inventing a second one.Sha Ⱎ, Alphabet Letters Open question What is not known, and what would settle it. OpenQuestion 43334 already asked whether the opaque tail of Glagolitic (and the identical Cyrillic) letter names ever carried a sense; this edge extends the existing question to this letter rather than inventing a second one.Shta Ⱋ, Alphabet Letters Open question What is not known, and what would settle it. OpenQuestion 43334 already asked whether the opaque tail of Glagolitic (and the identical Cyrillic) letter names ever carried a sense; this edge extends the existing question to this letter rather than inventing a second one.Small Yus Ⱔ, Alphabet Letters Open question What is not known, and what would settle it. OpenQuestion 43334 already asked whether the opaque tail of Glagolitic (and the identical Cyrillic) letter names ever carried a sense; this edge extends the existing question to this letter rather than inventing a second one.Tsi Ⱌ, Alphabet Letters Open question What is not known, and what would settle it. OpenQuestion 43334 already asked whether the opaque tail of Glagolitic (and the identical Cyrillic) letter names ever carried a sense; this edge extends the existing question to this letter rather than inventing a second one.Yati Ⱑ, Alphabet Letters Open question What is not known, and what would settle it. OpenQuestion 43334 already asked whether the opaque tail of Glagolitic (and the identical Cyrillic) letter names ever carried a sense; this edge extends the existing question to this letter rather than inventing a second one.Yeri Ⱐ, Alphabet Letters Open question What is not known, and what would settle it. OpenQuestion 43334 already asked whether the opaque tail of Glagolitic (and the identical Cyrillic) letter names ever carried a sense; this edge extends the existing question to this letter rather than inventing a second one.Yeru Ⱏ, Alphabet Letters Open question What is not known, and what would settle it. OpenQuestion 43334 already asked whether the opaque tail of Glagolitic (and the identical Cyrillic) letter names ever carried a sense; this edge extends the existing question to this letter rather than inventing a second one.Yo Ⱖ, Alphabet Letters Open question What is not known, and what would settle it. OpenQuestion 43334 already asked whether the opaque tail of Glagolitic (and the identical Cyrillic) letter names ever carried a sense; this edge extends the existing question to this letter rather than inventing a second one.Yu Ⱓ, Alphabet Letters Open question What is not known, and what would settle it. OpenQuestion 43334 already asked whether the opaque tail of Glagolitic (and the identical Cyrillic) letter names ever carried a sense; this edge extends the existing question to this letter rather than inventing a second one.SourcesThe World's Writing Systemstier 1Peter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.), Oxford University Press, 1996View the SourceComments (0)No comments yet. 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