Ⰶ

Origins

The source of the other consonantal letters is unknown. If they were added by Cyril, it is likely that they were taken from an alphabet used for Christian scripture. It is frequently proposed that the letters shaⰞ, tsiⰜ, and chervⰝ were taken from the letters shin ש and tsadi צ of the Hebrew alphabet, and that Ⰶzhivete derives from CopticjanjaϪ. However, Cubberley suggests that if a single prototype were presumed, the most likely source would be Armenian. Several other scripts have been proposed as such single prototypes of the Glagolitic alphabet. A different set of hypotheses assumes that Cyril designed the letters from scratch on the basis of a common principle. Most notably, Georg Tschernochvostoff argued that all the Glagolitic letters were constructed from the Christian symbolscross, circle and triangle. A widely accepted example of deliberate construction are the symmetric letters iⰻ and slovoⱄ, which together form the abbreviation ⰻ︦ⱄ of the nomen sacrumⰻⱄⱆⱄⱏIsusъ ‘Jesus’, but a general design principle like in the Canadian syllabics could not be proven. A plausible hypothesis is that “Cyril freely invented the Glagolitic letters, sometimes being inspired by theological ideas […] and sometimes using associations with other scripts he knew”.