Early Cyrillic alphabet Bulgarian Empire in order to write the Old Church Slavonic language. The modern Cyrillic script is still used primarily for some Slavic languages and for East European and Asian languages that were under Russian cultural influence during the 20th century. Among some of the traditionally culturally influential countries using it are Bulgaria, Serbia, Russia, Ukraine. The earliest form of manuscript Cyrillic, known as "ustav," was based on Greek uncial script, augmented by ligatures and by letters from the Glagolitic alphabet for consonants not found in Greek. The Glagolitic alphabet was created by the monk Saint Cyril, possibly with the aid
Glagolitic script 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 "sha" , "tsi" , and "cherv" were taken from the letters "shin" ש and "tsadi" צ of the Hebrew alphabet, and that Ⰶ "zhivete" derives from Coptic "janja" Ϫ. However, Cubberley (1996) suggests that if a single prototype were presumed, the most likely source would be Armenian. Other proposals include the Samaritan alphabet, which Cyril learned during his journey to the Khazars in Cherson. Glagolitic letters were also used as numbers, similarly to