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The sixth century AD saw the migration of The Slav people from old Poland. The
Slavs expanded westwards to the river Elbe and southwards to the Adriatic
sea where they gradually occupied much of the Balkans. By the tenth century,
three Slavonic language groups had emerged: Western, Southern and Eastern.
Eastern Slavonic gave rise to the modern languages known as Ukranian, Belorussian
and Russian. The Slavonic languages retained many features in common especially
in grammatical structure, therefore, the separate groups were able to use
one common written language. This language was known as Old Slavonic or
Old Church Slavonic (the language was used in its written form only). In
the ninth century, two missionaries - Constantine and Methodius - were required
to write down the scriptures in Old Church Slavonic and to preach Christianity
to the people of Moravia.
Before they set out for Moravia, Constantine invented
a Slavonic, now known as the Cyrillic alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet is
closely based on the Greek alphabet, with about a dozen additional letters
invented to represent Slavic sounds not found in Greek. In Russia, Cyrillic
was first written in the early Middle Ages in clear-cut, legible ustav (large
letters). Later a succession of cursive forms developed. In the early eighteenth
century, under Peter the Great, the forms of letters were simplified and
regularized, with some appropriate only to Greek being removed. Further
unnecessary letters were expunged in 1918, leaving the alphabet as it is
today.
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