Bulgarian alphabet

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June 22, 2026

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The Bulgarian alphabet, more accurately known as the Cyrillic alphabet, was developed in the 9th-10th century CE for Slavic-speaking peoples of the Eastern Orthodox faith. It was an indirect result of the missionary work of Saints Cyril and Methodius, who aimed to spread Christianity among Slavic populations.12

Their disciples, after their mission in Moravia, went to the South Slavic regions, including what is now Bulgaria. There, they created a new script for Slavic languages based on capital Greek letters, with some additions to represent the richer sounds of Slavic languages. This script, confusingly named Cyrillic after St. Cyril, is now used for over 50 languages, including Bulgarian, Russian, and Ukrainian. The Bulgarian language itself is written in the Cyrillic alphabet.134

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Cyrillic alphabet
Cyrillic alphabets—Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Serbian—have been modified somewhat from the original, generally by the loss of some superfluous letters. Modern Russian has 32 letters (33, with inclusion of the soft sign—which is not, strictly speaking, a letter), Bulgarian 30, Serbian 30, and Ukrainian 32 (33). Modern Russian…
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Cyrillic alphabets—Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Serbian—have been modified somewhat from the original, generally by the loss of some superfluous letters. Modern Russian has 32 letters (33, with inclusion of the soft sign—which is not, strictly speaking, a letter), Bulgarian 30, Serbian 30, and Ukrainian 32 (33). Modern Russian…
Read More