Cyrillic alphabetArticle Free Pass Cyrillic alphabet, writing
system developed in the 9th–10th century ad for Slavic-speaking
peoples of the Eastern Orthodox faith; it is the alphabet
currently used for Russian and other languages of the republics
that once formed the Soviet Union and for Bulgarian and Serbian.
Based on the medieval Greek uncial script, the Cyrillic alphabet
was probably invented by later followers of the 9th-century
“apostles to the Slavs,” St. Cyril (or Constantine), for whom it
was named, and St. Methodius. As the Slavic languages were
richer in sounds than Greek, 43 letters were originally provided
to represent them; the added letters were modifications or
combinations of Greek letters, or (in the case of the Cyrillic
letters for ts, sh, and ch) they were based on Hebrew. The
earliest literature written in Cyrillic was a translation of the
Bible and various church texts. The modern Cyrillic
alphabets—Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Serbian—have been
modified somewhat from the original,