700 BCE - 400 CE

Chapter 2
Classical Literacy

After the discovery of the writing the hieroglyphs were replaced by alphabets.
Around 700BCE one of the first alphabets (Phoenican) arrived to Greece and was not only adopted but also improved. They added tellers for vowels and this made the alphabet more easier to learn. At that time education started to flourish.

That was the begging of Classical Literacy.
Because at that time Greece was not one state but many separated city states
they begun to make different versions of the script.


Greek alphabet


























Around the the 600 BCE from the Greek alphabet appeared the Latin alphabet.
At 862CE Greek alphabet was used as a base for Cyrillic alphabet. Actually fist it was created Glagolitic (from "glagoli"- speak) alphabet by the two brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius.
Later in north Bulgaria Glagolitic alphabet was improved to Cyrillic and named after the one of the brothers.
The reason of creation was most likely political.
The new alphabet was a way to distinguish Slavic language from Greek and Roman influence.
First it was accepted by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church that become independent from Byzantines a century after the invention of the Glagolitic alphabet - 919.
With the spreading of Christianity and the need of adapted alphabet the other Slavic nations also accept it.















Glagolitic alphabet is used at IX, X, XI century. There are two versions: Bulgarian- more round and Croatia more angular.

XI century
Bashchan stone- one of the oldest text on Glagolitic alphabet.


Here is the result of my research for Cyrillic alphabet. You could see the development from Glagolitic to Cyrillic and then to mothern Bulgarian alphabet.